Secrets Maroma Brides

So..I'm getting married at Secrets on 2.26.10...I'm doing a beach ceremony and a bit confused by the pictures I have received from Cecilia about the ceremony site. It looks like there are two different size structures on the beach...one is massive and heavy looking, and there is another one much smaller. Both are the same style of a rectangular pergola structure. Are there really two different structures? I'm wondering because we want to bring decorations down to Mexico, and I need to know which one I'll be decorating. Can anyone that has been married there before help?

 

Thanks!!!

I am having a July 2010 wedding at EDM (just waiting on the date to come back as ok.) There are a few things I am thinking about if anyone has any feedback!

 

1. I see a few reviews that say it's very windy on the beach so the reception is by the pool or somewhere else...is this usually the case?

 

2. Has anyone has the beach lounge furniture brought into the EDM by an outside vendor? I liked it on other reviews for various hotels but haven't seen any here yet.

 

3. I know some brides have been annoyed with the wedding coordinator at the resort so I am curious if basically everything can be done in the days when you first get there? I know most brides on other posts say they stressed over emailing the coordinator and then everything was done when they got there.

 

4. For those who have been there, we will have at least 50 people at our wedding. Where do you think the best place to have the reception is?

 

Thanks ladies!!!

Yes, there are 2 structures to choose from. I got married using the smaller one. At first I liked the heavier looking one better, but I don't think I liked the location as much. I'm trying to think back and remember why...The smaller one is all the way at the end of the beach and bit more private I think. Maybe it had to do with the walkway also...like where I was going to be walking in from. I wish I could remember exactly, sorry.

Hey there!

Okay, so the "smaller" wooden structure is the gazebo they set up on the beach for specially for weddings (when we got married there, it was not a permanent structure...something they put up just for weddings, though this may have changed since then...)... It is located closer to the water and away from the sun-bathing chairs and palapas on the beach... so it's more "private"...

The other, bigger structure is actually the massage "hut"/gazebo... where they give massages on the beach. This one is closer to the resort than the water and right in the middle of all the sunbathing chairs and palapas.

I went through our Mexico pictures and found some that show both:



The above picture was taken from our room's balcony... The big structure in the foreground to the left is the massage hut...if you look past that towards the water on the right, you'll see the smaller wedding gazebo decorated with white tulle.



This is a "ground-level" view... the bigger massge hut in the foreground, and just behind it, the wedding gazebo...

Hope these pics are big enough to show this... let me know if you want them resized bigger:-)

We got married using the wedding gazebo...it's just more private...you probably don't want sunbathers gaping in the background of your pictures:-)

Hope this helps?:-)

Ummm...I'm confused:-)
Did you mean to write EDM...or did you mean SMB (Secrets Maroma Beach)? Maybe you posted in the wrong thread by accident...?

Sorry! I meant SMB....Edm was the other resort I was picking from and I must have had it on my mind. )

I am looking to book Cecelia for my pictures but had a thought about the resort photographer that is included in the package....do you think the resort photographer would do TTD pictures the next day instead of using his time at the wedding?

Hi Mandiland!

 

Haha, no worries, I was just confused as to whether you had the right thread or not:-)

I'l try to answer your questions below...

 

1. I see a few reviews that say it's very windy on the beach so the reception is by the pool or somewhere else...is this usually the case?

 

I'm not sure about different times times of the year, but we got married in December (almost a YEAR ago! yikes, seems like not that long ago!)...and you bet it was windy on the beach at nights! Not EVERY night, but I'd say the majority...

It was fine for our ceremony and even for most of our cocktail hour (both were on the beach), but towards the end of the cocktail hour it was really getting windy...

I was REALLY glad we chose to have the reception poolside, as the trees etc kind of create a barrier and it's not nearly as windy...in fact, it wasn't really windy at all during our reception...

 

Of course, maybe other brides who got married there different times of the year can chime in with their own experiences...?

 

2. Has anyone has the beach lounge furniture brought into the EDM by an outside vendor? I liked it on other reviews for various hotels but haven't seen any here yet.

 

I did not have lounge furniture brought in...

BUT, I'm not sure, but I think that Kits55 did!

Of course, she lives in South Africa now, so she's not on here as much, but I'll e-mail her and ask her:-)

 

There's also a long thread about this in the RM Vendors section of the forum where I think some girls have recommended different companies...

Here's a link to that thread:

 

Lounge Furniture in the RM

 

3. I know some brides have been annoyed with the wedding coordinator at the resort so I am curious if basically everything can be done in the days when you first get there? I know most brides on other posts say they stressed over emailing the coordinator and then everything was done when they got there.

 

I'm not sure but I think Cecilia (SMB's wedding coordinator) now has an assistant...which hopefully means brides get faster replies to e-mails and better service/communication when down there...

 

I think you will probably need to e-mail her about a certain things beforehand...basically whatever's REALLY important to you that you need to get settled...menu items, etc...I would just keep e-mailing her until you get an answer:-)

 

Things like flowers etc can be picked out once you get there...

Although, I will say that if a nice cake is important to you (it wasn't to us), then you should consider an outside vendor... our cake was kind of gross and kind of lame/cheesey looking:-) So you may want to sort that one beforehand IF it's important to you...

 

4. For those who have been there, we will have at least 50 people at our wedding. Where do you think the best place to have the reception is?

 

If you want an outdoor reception, I think poolside (where we had ours) is the best option... you have it near the gazebo and the pool and it looks really beautiful at night!

 

If the weather's bad, or you want indoors, you can maybe ask about using one of the two restaurants that are right beside the pool and kind of like open-air palapas...sorry, I can't remember their names! One's the seafood restaurant, and one's the steak restaurant...

Or, they have a ballroom (though not sure why anyone would go to Mexico and have their reception in a ballroom:-)) inside or you could probably use the World Cafe...but I would think you'd only use those options if the weather was bad:-)

 

Good luck:-)

The resort photographer is Juan Navarro... though you may not get him, but one of his associates...
Maybe try googling him and just e-mailing him directly through his website to ask?

Thanks so much Semistar! I really appreciate all of your information! I read all of your reviews on here when I picked my resort and it was very helpful!

 

I'm not sure if Cecelia has an assistant or not but she is pretty good at getting back to us and our wedding planner. My wedding planner is working with her for other weddings at the resort so they keep in pretty good contact. I found the wedding planner at DestinationWeddings.com and I adore her. I would def. suggest to new brides on here to look them up and use them!

 

We are having our wedding in July so it is going to be realllllly hot! I am also worried about mosquitos. We are having the wedding in an air conditioned chapel at the Marina. When you see that chapel at the El Dorado Maroma it is actually at the marina so people from other resorts can have their wedding there, you go through Lomas Travel.

 

I wonder how windy it is there in July.... I do like the pool side reception, it looks very pretty!