Madbride2009

Quote: Originally Posted by lalanyc Madbride - I'm confused about your post. I thought you canceled your wedding at Ceiba? Did you also cancel your contract w/ Euforia? Well... the fact is I never signed a contract with Euforia. We were still hashing out the details when I decided to call off the wedding. We had given them one deposit. When I canceled Hector told me that he could only give me 400 dollars back of the 1500 I gave as a deposit. When I pointed out that he didn't have a signed contract yet, hadn't purchased a single bloom, and the rental items were things he had in-house already, his response to me was that he had already given Andrea her commission. Well, he didn't know that ever since my site visit Andrea and I had become friends. She let me know that she hadn't gotten a penny of my money and recommended that I file a grievance with Mexico's version of the BBB. I did. Really, all I wanted was an explanation of how he could justify keeping all of my money. That's it. If it was justified I would have chalked it up to lesson learned. I won't go into some of the things Andrea told me about how his company has treated other brides because that's unsubstantiated. But let me tell you, I got off easier than some. Hector also threatened me with his "family of lawyers" and to this day I haven't received a dime from him and he won't respond to any of my emails and he has not shown up to three of the court hearings claiming that he hasn't gotten notification of them. A bunch of bullcrap if you ask me. His attitude was extremely unprofessional. I realized that I would be out of pocket some money but to this extent seems like bad business to me. I'm now paying my parents back $7000 for a wedding I didn't get to have. They are furious with how Ceiba treated them. It got down to name calling in the end. But it's over now. We can all move on. All I've ever said on this site is for brides to read their contracts closely and ask questions (even unpleasant ones like "What if?") That way they can gain insight on who they're working with and what their policies are. And I've told my story honestly and openly. It's insult to injury during such a sad time in my life to have to deal with unsavory business people as well. I wish you much luck with everything.

Quote: Originally Posted by ask9999 While Ceiba managed to mess up and ruin everything they touched at my wedding, the vendors I used there were great. I used Eufloria for flowers and some other decorations adn was really h appy with them. Very easy to work with and know the property well. I also worked with them to find flowers/decorations that fit into my budget. If I had to do it again, I would use Eufloria (just not get married at Ceiba) I hate to give you a contradicting story but Eufloria (specifically owner HECTOR SUAREZ) treated me horribly and I wouldn't use that florist if it were the last on earth! His staff was wonderful, especially Andrea Garcia, who has since left Eufloria and started her own wedding consulting business (which should give you some indication of how this man does business--BADLY-- she was the BEST) SHE IS WONDERFUL and I recommend her HIGHLY. I won't go into the horrible details of my wedding fiasco but I will say with conviction that HECTOR was a shady, under-handed businessman and I would have a lawyer read everything he sends you before signing. If you are interested in contacting someone who will be honest, fair and kind to you then private message me and I'll give you Andrea's contact information. She is a true insider and I can't tell you enough how great she is! I wish you more luck than I had

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Adcock Wow, I wouldn't expect anybody actually criminally doing wrong intentionally here. With the turnover of staff in any business, expect bumps in the road. This hotel is highly respected within the industry and they are in the business to PLEASE their customers, hospitality is the root of their success. sounds like something I'd read on tripadvisor that is pretty unprecedented, without statistics and lacking individual characteristics to back up points. Perhaps a few details? We vote Ceiba del mar (NOT PAID TO SAY THIS EITHER). Seriously folks, its one of our top fav places to shoot at! I totally agree that Ceiba is a beautiful place. Breathtaking really. And if you are aware of the fine print when you book your wedding there... by all means have the wedding of your life! The turnover in staff is the brightest news we've had in this craziness. The new rooms manager has been wonderful in trying to figure things out. Which seems to be that the resort owes us some money... I had to cancel my wedding. Embarrassing enough, right? I did so months in advance. Then I had to explain that my friends and family were financially responsible for half of their ENTIRE STAY. Because of the poorly explained and written cancellation policy... I had to be embarrassed over and over again trying to explain to my guests why they had to pay thousands of dollars for nothing! Then after that was pretty much settled...let's just say that my family was taken advantage of by Denise and the old accounting staff. They used an unauthorized credit card of ours (the one my parents used to reserve their personal room) to try to draw blood from a stone when some of my guests refused to pay. They contested it with the cc company and won. Then four months later... they tried to post the charges again without informing us. They contested again and won AGAIN. We never gave a "master credit card". My guests had no idea about the cancellation policy. The posted cancellation policy on the web site states something entirely different than the group cancellation policy. When I asked Denise about that policy she neglected to point out that the group cancellation policy trumped the individual cancellation policy which I though was kind of shady. Now just to be clear... I'm not saying I wasn't at fault. And I'm not saying that the resort was entitled to nothing... but fair is fair. They kept over $5000 of our deposit and came back for more! The way they handled our situation was anything but hospitable. And I'm being nice. Ask my father, who's had to deal with the countless phone calls and emails, and he'll be a bit more colorful in his description of Ceiba del Mar's customer service.

Quote: Originally Posted by ask9999 I got married here in February and would not recommend it to anyone. It is a beautiful resort, but looks can be deceiving. I totally agree! I am in the process of legal negotiations with Ceiba... girls...WATCH OUT FOR THE FINE PRINT... With Denise leaving (she was handling my wedding) the new rooms manager is looking into possible criminal activity with how they handled the cancellation of my wedding! BEWARE... BEWARE... BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kristine624 hi everyone! i am considering this hotel for my destination wedding - looks fantastic! if you have been married here, can you please share whether or not it was easy communicating with Denise? I emailed her over 24 hours ago for information and have not heard back. Also, what room rate discounts are they willing to give to guests? thanks! I've posted some information in earlier posts in this thread so look through those first. If you need additional information let me know. Denise is very nice but I will warn you... I had to cancel my wedding a month out and Ceiba took us to the cleaners with our deposits and room rates. SO... pay close attention to the contracts you are signing! They are vague and misleading. The individual cancellation policy and the group cancellation policy are not the same! My guests were responsible for 50% of their ENTIRE STAY even though I canceled over a month out. This was a costly and embarrassing oversight on my part. The hotel's management (not Denise really) were VERY cutthroat... otherwise, it's a great place. Try and go for a site visit if you can. It's really worth it. Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by ilovemypitbull Has anyone heard from someone who has actually gotten married here? I searched but couldn't find anything ... my apologies if I inadvertently missed a thread containing some kind of first-hand account. It looks like a really good option for us since we're not into huge resorts and are looking for something more secluded and private. Anyone? Thanks! - Jen Nope but trust me, it's fantastic! Hopefully I will be the first bride to share my story! The resort is perfection... private, secluded and totally customizable! Denise and staff will help you plan your dream wedding. They are also super fast at replying to emails which can be a pain in Mexico! Let me know if you want particulars.

Quote: Originally Posted by nga_lin My guest number may be close to yours if not less. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your wedding proposal! I may not be able to even do a site visit due to my budget. So I really do appreciate your feedback on this. My pleasure Nga! I have TONS of pictures so if you want to see those send me a private message with your email address and I can forward them to you. I can't say enough about the place... if you can swing it, a site visit is highly recommended. Basically it goes like this: You pay 50% of the rack room rate up front for the night and then it's credited to your wedding costs if you decide to book. Taxes aren't included, just the base rate. And if you do decide to book, you are automatically upgraded to the penthouse (breathtaking) for your entire stay. For every night you have 15 rooms booked at the hotel along with your room, your room is free. So that saves you money right there! I'm praying that I have the 15 but since my wedding will be a week long, not everyone will be able to stay the entire week so I'm budgeting having to pay for our entire stay just to be safe... Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Shay2679 If you go with Mishka, are you going to have them shipped to your resort in the Riviera? Has she quoted you shipping costs? I'm getting married at the Royal in Playa del Carmen, and am in love with her designs, but am worried about the cost of shipping... Also, do you know how long custom orders usually take? I'm having mine shipped to Puerto Morales... she quoted this: When you tell me how many you need we'll go and check to see how much it will cost to ship - I do know that it has cost us $60 to ship 50 maracas to Cancun and $65 to ship 29 maracas to Cabo (just to give you a point of reference). Normally people order one per person - I think 2 maracas is super fun - especially if we did complimentary designs. But most orders we receive are one per - I don't think it's unusual - they are fairly big maracas . Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by nga_lin Hi! My name is Johanna. I'm also looking forward to book my wedding in Ceiba del mar for next year on the month of april. I have been getting some info through my travel agent from Destinationweddings.com. I love everything about it. The size of the hotel, the proximity of it to the main town, the spa, the beach! I've ask about their packages. They seem to have reasonable prices. Though a lot more than what I expected. The good thing about this resort though is that they can customize according to our needs. I'm going to try to post some of those price list the WC sent me. I ask my immediate family what they think about it, so far the only negative response was that the room rates are little pricey. I have booked my November 6th wedding there... and I've already been on a site visit. The place is spectacular and although the prices for the rooms are high, it's still pretty reasonable for an all-inclusive luxury resort. The spa is top notch and the food was really good. Denise is letting me basically design my own menu due to the size of my group (40ish). The location is breathtaking. I will lose some people due to the price but there are plenty of simple hotels in Puerto Morales where your guests can stay (40-100$ a night) and then they can come to Cieba for your wedding. The cost of a day pass is $20 per person per day. All Inclusive is $105 per person per day... so that might be an option. The town is literally a 15 minute walk via the BEACH! The woman doing my flowers and everything else not food/drink related is fabulous... I can't remember if I've given this thread her info but here it is again: Andrea Garcia Wedding Planner Tels. 52 (99 8495507 52 (99 8495737 Mobile 52 (991834873 [email protected] Euforia Eventos y Arte Floral I'm attaching my proposal for you as an example... let me know if I can help in any way! Madelyn west wedding proposal.pdf

Quote: Originally Posted by sdtooley Yes she did send me pricing. Here is what she sent to me: "Maracas start at $3.50 usd each for a simple design, two-tone maraca. An example of that would be Lacy Romance or White Flowers in my blog. It's $.50 for each additional color and $.25 for line of text (i.e. $.25 for date, $.25 for location, $.25 for names)." Thanks! She emailed me as well with some other information that I thought I would share for the other girls interested, as well as a direct contact for her, [email protected]: Hello Madelyn! Congratulations and thank you for emailing! Maracas start at $3.50 usd each for a simple design, two-tone maraca. An example of that would be Lacy Romance or White Flowers in my blog. It's $.50 for each additional color and $.25 for line of text (i.e. $.25 for date, $.25 for location, $.25 for names). So, the maraca you are asking about (the burned image) is a medium-design - the small is $4.00 usd per maraca and the large is $5.50 usd per maraca. With the names, date and place - we can't burn those on the small maracas - there isn't enough room - but the larger maraca would be $6.25 usd. You could do tags (instead of having the names burned on) and tags cost $.35 per tag. Fans start at $4.50 usd for a simple design, two-tone fan. The fan example we have on the internet is actually a $5.75 design. You can either tell me what your theme is OR you can send me your invites, STDS, website, what have you and tell me a little bit about your decor and I can recommend a few ideas. We need about a month to fulfill the order - although we can do rush orders. We do ship to Puerto Morales, but I'm not sure how much it would be - we would need to check. We also do shake me tags (for the maracas), name tags, place cards, escort cards and menus :). Any other questions or comments, please let me know!! warmest regards, mishka

Quote: Originally Posted by sdtooley I am in the process now of having my invitations designed and then I am going to have Mishka handpait mine for me! I am sooo excited about them. I would really reccommend her because she gets back to you so quickly and it looks like she does a wonderful job! Did she give you a price yet?

This link is wonderful! Maracas, maracas, maracas! I just hope that they are relatively inexpensive! Thank you so much for linking me to Mishka and I will post any news that I get on pricing etc. I've forwarded this link to my WC in Mexico to deal directly with her! Thanks again!

Hey girls! I just wanted you to know that I've had my eye on the Skindinavia makeup primer on skinstore.com for months now. Over Christmas I walked into an Ulta cosmetics store for the first time and right in front of me on their sale table was the finishing spray, the shine reducing cleanser, and the T-zone primer... all for 10 BUCKS! That's over $80 of products... so check out your local Ulta!

I hope I attached these correctly! Here's a list of services for the Resort and the Spa list.... Sooooooo nice! Food and Beverage 2009.doc Spa_Treatment_Menu_2008_English.pdf

There is also a WC at the Resort itself. Her contact info is: Denise Courtney Wedding Coordinator & Groups Manager Ceiba del Mar Spa Resort Phone. 52 998 872 80 60 Fax. 52 998 872 80 61 The Ceiba del Mar Spa Resort - A Riviera Maya Luxury Hotel I will try and upload the stuff I have gotten so far onto this thread but I'm a little technically challenged. Did you get my email yesterday?