11/11/11 Wedding

Kristibear · October 18, 2010

Hi!!!! I am still trying to figure out this website. I am getting married on 11/11/11 and I am so confused on where to have this event. My fiance' and I are in our early 30's and we are fun loving free spirits. We are planning on having 50 people attend who are all about fun. We got engaged in Mexico in June and absolutely loved the scenery. We stayed at the Barcelo in Los Cabos. It was absolutely gorgeous and we considered it for our wedding, but we felt like it was too far from civilization. Does anyone know of any resorts on the beach that is also close to shopping/nightlife. We were considering The Royal Playa Del Carmen, but we just had friends come back from their with negative feedback. Any help is appreciated.

Le Reve Hotel & Spa · October 18, 2010

Hola,

Welcome to the forum and above all, congratulations for your engagement!

Have you thought of the Riviera Maya? One of the best things about Riviera Maya is the fact that you can get everything you dream, and it goes from the simplest things, up to the most elaborated... I am certain that you would love it.

To check out various resorts, a good place to go is the hotel review section on tripadvisor.com and the venue reviews here. TA will not offer many wedding reviews, but the list is probably more extensive and you can come back here to learn more about wedding experiences. I would suggest using both resources.

Your wedding is going to be full of magic and this website will help you a lot!

We wish you the best.

Happy planning.

82turtles · October 18, 2010

Congrats!

You didn't mention where you were thinking..Mexico for sure or are other islands being considered? Definitely want Los Cabos or different Mexican cities okay? There are lots of places on the hotel zone right in Cancun that are super close to the shopping and nightlife you wanted. I'm surprised on the negative feedback from The Royal. I have a co-worker who is getting married there next April. Would you mind PM'ing me the feedback? Perhaps it's something I could share with her to help her trip go better.

Word of warning though -- with a special date such as that, I would try to decide and book the wedding asap. I'm planning on a wedding that same weekend (don't really care about the date), and all the places that have gotten back to me with actual availability are booked for that day, and have been for quite some time.

Good luck!!

tgallo · October 19, 2010

Hey there!

Welcome and Congrats!

The forum has tons of threads that you can read from people who have decided or are still deciding where they want to have their wedding! Browse around and ask tons of questions!

Happy reading!

mrsgreene2011 · October 19, 2010

Congrats! That is my wedding day also

lisa203 · October 19, 2010

Congratulations and welcome! You got some great advice from 82turtles---I'm sure that date will be in high demand. I recommend you use this forum and tripadvisor to help you in choosing a location. I found reading reviews to be the most helpful when it was time for me to pick a location. Good luck with your planning!

clgriffi7 · October 19, 2010

I tried to reserve my wedding for 11.11.11 back in early August and both of the resorts I was looking at were already booked with 2 weddings each for that day. If you are set on that date, you may have to select a resort based on availability instead of your top choice. Or you might get lucky if you are looking at a resort that has more than one wedding per day - you may have to decide if you are willing to get married at a less desirable time to keep the date. (At the Dreams resorts the 2nd choice time of day was 1:00pm - which would not have been an option for me as I wanted a evening reception on the beach.)

I ended up choosing Cancun for my wedding because I didn't want my guests to be stuck in a bus/van to and from the airport for too long. The compromise is losing some of the culture of the destination.

JanineA · October 19, 2010

Congrats and welcome to the forum. I am sure some of the brides marrying in Mexico will be able to give you tons of suggestions on good resorts. Good luck and happy planning!

82turtles · October 19, 2010

That's a really tough question to answer.. I would say it all depends on a lot of different factors! Location, reception, catering, entertainment, guest count, etc, etc, etc.

Maybe you should put together a rough estimate of what a wedding at home would be based on where you live (since that varies so much across the country), and then do the same for a wedding in Mexico.

I had initially thought that a Mexico wedding would be SUPER cheap, almost free! And then I started doing research.. you *can* probably keep it pretty reasonable, but you can definitely spend a lot of money. It all depends on what you would want out of a wedding and what's important to you. For example, live music during the ceremony, private reception, beach dinner, cocktail hour, DJ, lights, lounge chair area, fireworks, fire dancers, flowers, centerpieces, number of guests over the included amount in their packages (extra $ per person), the list goes on and on, and the total goes up and up! You can make it as extravagant as you want, and they are more than willing to cater to your desires down there.

Where I live (midwest), it's pretty easy to do an affordable wedding at home compared to some brides' budgets that I've seen for New York or California. However, I decided long ago that doesn't really fit me, and all I've really ever wanted was to be somewhere beachy and warm! So even though the total cost will be more for me to do it abroad, I've come to terms with that and am happy with the decision of a destination wedding.

Southern Cali may be pretty pricey for a wedding at home, so it's possible that there could be some cost savings. Good luck!

Originally Posted by kr103185

I'm really trying to secure that date myself, but the problem is I haven't decided if I want the wedding abroad or near home (southern California)....are the cost saving really significant if I decide for a wedding in Mexico? I'm highly considering it