Hi Yari,
Thanks for posting your review of LC. My wedding was a few days after yours and overall my experience was very positive, but I did encounter some of the same things you did--mainly some disorganization, no announcements, and some very long lulls before the toasts and the cake cutting when we couldn't find Nicole.
I was definitely disappointed that our first dance and the cake cutting wasn't announced. Granted, we did get married in the middle of a tropical storm and I know Nicole had a lot going on at the moment, but I was still bummed about the little things. Like you, we put a lot of time and effort into the details.
I do give Nicole a lot of credit for being flexible. Nicole did a great job keeping me up to date on the weather by sending the latest radar maps. Because of the storm we had to move the wedding from an evening to an afternoon time frame. We had to pick a different area of the beach because the storm surge had washed up too much sand on the main beach. She also offered up her boss's villa as an alternative location if the seas got too rough for the boat.
We ended up having the ceremony on a skinny beach off to the right side (if you're looking out at the ocean). I had about 33 people and it worked well. It started pouring as soon as the ceremony finished and by then everyone thankfully was under cover and enjoying cocktails. Whew! The rain continued though the night and we ended up just moving tables to the side rather than setting up the dance floor on the beach (bummer).
It was a bit crowded and looked disorganized, but there wasn't a lot that could be done. At that point, water was gushing down the side of the mountain behind the buffet and carving out a giant trench in the beach as it drained into the ocean.
If I had one regret, it was that we didn't dance on the beach under the stars.
We decided to have the fire dancers perform at the end of the evening followed by the last dance. We all stayed under cover and watched the fire dancers below on the beach. I have no idea how the fire stayed lit in the rain! It worked well though, sort of a grand finale before the last dance.
Many of my guests also got seasick, even when given dramamine.
You bring up a good point about the cake. We often wondered what happened to the rest of our cake! We would have liked to take some of it back to the hotel with us.
I will say too, that all in all, it was a magical night. Yes, things went wrong and yes, I really wish it hadn't rained, but it was memorable, romantic and fun. The storm added some extra drama to the natural beauty of Las Caletas. I definitely recommend it and almost all of my guests said it was the best wedding they had ever been to.