Simistar's Secrets Maroma Wedding Review, Dec. 7/08

Sorry for the duplicate posts. I'm new to this forum and apparently need to read the directions! LOL......I thought I was responding to you guys individually! I guess everyone sees my messages. So thanks to everyone for the help!

Yes -- that's the room! It's kind of got a red colour-scheme...
Our group did actually use that room one night... My DH's cousin and her hubby were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary so we had a dinner/party in there for them...
It was really nice -- and the servers were very accommodating, in terms of keeping the drinks
coming:-)

They want to charge you $20/pp for the Portofino terrace??
That seems a bit ridiculous since you can eat there for free any night... But I guess having the terrace sectioned off and private service is what you'd be paying for...
If it's in your budget, it does sound nice...
But honestly, I think you'd be just as happy at the World Cafe for free:-)
It's not outside, but it's still nice...

Let me know if there's anything esle I can help with!

Simistar,

 

This isn't a question about Secrets but I was wondering what your thoughts were about having the "symbolic" ceremony...I really don't want to have to have my documents translated etc etc so in seeing that you got "legally" married here, I was wondering how you arrived at that decision? And you kept it a secret..even better! lol...I am really contemplating this idea and not telling anyone either:)

 

Oh and thanks for the detailed review..I love reading reviews to figure out where I want to go! I still have no idea....

Hey Flasong!

Yeah -- I think you'll find a LOT of girls on here actually got married at home first and then had a "symbolic" ceremony in Mexico...
There are just a lot of rules for Mexico (have to arrive a certain number of business days beforehand, blood samples, document translation etc)...
For us, we REALLY wanted our time there to be a VACATION! So we didn't want to spend time doing stuff like getting blood tests, or having documents translated... which is all time AWAY from the sun and the pool:-)
Neither my DH nor I see a lot of our family members very often, as many of them live across North America... So we wanted to spend that time with them, NOT taking care of the legalities!

So, once we decided to get legally get married at home first, we also decided to keep it a secret since we didn't want our guests/family/friends to feel ripped off going all the way to Mexico to just see a symbolic ceremony, if you KWIM :-)
So, we told two friends, who were our witnesses at the legal ceremony, and that's IT!
The four of us went out for a nice dinner after:-)

It was kind of funny during our trip b/c one of my DH's relatives kept trying to pry the info out of some of our close friends in the days leading up to our wedding.. she kept asking if were already married, but our friends didn't cave !:-)
And aside from that one cousin, I don't think anyone else suspected:-)

I think it all depends on what you and your FI want...
For some girls, they prefer to have everything legally done in Mexico...
But for us, it just wasn't worth all the extra steps...

As for deciding where to go... that was probably one of the most difficult parts, lol!:-)
But honestly, this forum will give you some GREAT ideas, suggestions and information on different resorts!
I wish I had found this site way before I did! So at least you're off to a good start:-)

Please let me know if there's anything else I can help with:-)

I think that is a good idea..Love your review..

Simistar,

 

Thanks for the info...it was very helpful. I think it's funny that the fam was trying to get your friends to cave..and yes I know what you mean about you not wanting your fam to feel "ripped" off. I don't get to see my extended family that often either so I want to be able to spend lots of time with them too..now if I could only decide where I want it to be..I can't even decide on a destination let alone a hotel lol

Awww...shucks, thanks! :-)

Oh GAWD, I know! That was probably the hardest part!:-)
What we did was, decide on certain things we knew we wanted or that were important to us and narrow the list of possible destinations down from there...then narrow down the resort.
For example, we knew we wanted a really nice beach...white sand with blue, blue water :-)
We also knew we wanted to get married in December and we wanted a place that was pretty much guaranteed sunshine, no rain...

So, we originally were considering places like Turks & Caicos and St. Lucia... but then when we looked into how long it took to fly there from the West Coast, and the expense...we decided on the Mayan Riviera... a much more budget-friendly option for our guests.

So, once we narrowed that decision down, we gave a list of our "must-haves" (nice beach, adults only, smaller hotel, etc) to our travel agent who came up with a list of resorts and we went from there:-)

I know it's a pain, but you'll be happy you did all the research you did to find the perfect place:-)

I swear I feel like my head is going to explode sometimes hehe. Did you use a local travel agent or one from here? I think I just need to contact a travel agent to ease my mind...and thanks again for all of your insight into everything!

Definitely get hooked up with a travel agent! I think that will really help lower the anxiety level:-)
We used an agent that came recommended from some family friends -- who was basically across the continent from us!
(We're in Vancouver, Canada and she's based in Georgia...)

I don't think you HAVE to use someone local...though that may be your preference...
Frankly, I think even if we had used someone local, I still would have done pretty much everything over the phone and/e-mail, just b/c of my schedule.
We had guests coming from all over the United States, Canada and the UK, so it didn't really matter where our agent was, lol:-)

Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend the agent we used. (But this wasn't b/c she wasn't local...it was b/c she wasn't very good....)
But I would think any of the agents that are part of this forum would be a good bet! You definitely want someone who has experience with destination weddings and large group bookings, and I think they all do. (No matter who you end up going with, make sure they have experience with this stuff! And planning Aunt Gertie's family vacation doesn't count:-))

Good luck:-)

You mentioned you had to smuggle your starfish in to Mexico? What was this about? I am bringing some shells with me to use for the rehearsal dinner and just noticed this. Thanks for the warning!