mlynnea

So, I finally got my review written. I have a feeling it’s going to be quite detailed and long. I’m going to try to divide it into sections so if you only want/need to read about something specific, you might be able to find it in here. Just for reference, I was there with a total of 13 people, including me and the groom. Our wedding date was Feb 26, 2010, and we were there from Feb 21-March 5 (12 days). Flight and Customs: My husband and I traveled from Minneapolis to Cancun on American Airlines. I carried my dress on to the plane as well as a normal carry-on piece of luggage and had no issues with that at all and no extra charges. Each time I got onto the plane (we switched planes both directions), the flight attendants offered for me to put my dress in the 1st class closet. The woman that sold me my dress recommended that I call the airline prior to flying, just to clear with them that it was okay to bring my dress on the flight. She said if someone says “No†to keep calling until you get a “yesâ€. I only had to call once and they were very agreeable about me bringing my dress along. Once you arrive in Cancun, you will be ushered through Customs and will have to show them the paperwork you completed (most likely provided to you during your flight). They will stamp one of the forms and return the bottom/stamped half to you. I believe it is called a Tourist Card. Make sure you hang onto it. When you check-in on your way to fly home, you must have this with you, or you will be fined. Shuttle to Resort: My brother had been there the year before me, and told me that we should just take a Taxi, but after reading on various blogs about transportation from the Cancun airport, I decided to take a shuttle. We setup a shuttle with Cancunshuttle.com online. They had a deal that allowed us a private SUV for $60. (We had 4 people in our car, as my parents flew with us). Most private transportation is not worth the money unless you have at least 4 people with you. Even if you have 2 people, the price will still be $60-80. If there are just 2 of you, I would recommend a group shuttle, or if you want to spring for it, you can pay for a taxi. After you walk through the “time share†area, where there are tons of people trying to scam you into their time-share presentations (warning, they all wear matching white polo’s and khaki pants, and will ask you where you are going…keep walking. Say “no thank youâ€.) All taxis and shuttle services are OUTSIDE. If you have a shuttle, there will be a lot of companies holding their signs up. To find Cancun Shuttle, we had to walk past the main group of people holding signs in order to find them. If you want to hop in a taxi, those are also located outside. We had a couple friends take taxis and the price ranged from $50 – 70. Try and bargain! They tend to rip you off, especially because the cost to take a taxi from the resort back to the airport was only $30!! There were about 3 other groups in front of us, waiting for a car from Cancun Shuttle, so the four of us had to wait about 15 minutes before it was our turn. I’ve never been to Cancun before, so I don’t know if this is the best way to get to your resort, or if there are better options out there. Arrival: Upon arrival to the resort, we were greeted by the friendly secrets staff saying “Welcome Homeâ€. Included in our wedding package was “one room upgrade within our category – depending upon availabilityâ€. We mentioned this when talking to the man checking us in, and he offered us two options. One was a room four buildings back from the beach, on the fourth floor. The other was a room 1 building back from the beach, in a preferred club building on the second floor. I was aware that the ceremony site was closer to the preferred club near bldg 27, so I took the offered room in bldg 26. If I wasn’t getting married there, I probably would now pick the 4th floor room as it would’ve had an ocean view. Even though we were closer to the beach location-wise, our second floor room didn’t offer much of an ocean view. Wedding Coordinator and First Meeting: We arrived in our room and on the table near the door was a letter from Cecilia (I had also received an email earlier as well). It was a congratulatory letter, as well as welcoming us to Secrets. In the letter she told us that we would be meeting her on Tuesday morning at 10am (we arrived on a Sunday), and following our meeting would be our blood test (we had a legal ceremony). We met Cecilia in the lobby bar, and she showed up about 10 minutes late (which I was honestly expecting as I know everything moves a bit slower in Mexico). She had a folder containing all of the notes from our previous conversations, and we walked through the items that had not yet been finalized. I also provided her with a schedule I had put together for the day of when I wanted the different events to occur, and specific tasks that I wanted to make sure were taken care of. We confirmed the bouquet for me, my maid of honor, best man and grooms boutonnieres. She also described the centerpieces. For the centerpieces, I really had no idea what to do, so she smartly suggested that they just match them to my bridal bouquet, which worked out fabulously! (I would suggest bringing copies of emails and any documentation you may have received from Cecilia just in case there are any questions or discrepancies on how much things cost. It seemed that over the course of my 9 months of planning, she would name different prices for things and would contradict previous price quotes). After the brief meeting in the lobby, she gave us a tour of the different ceremony and reception locations. I knew I wanted to have my ceremony on the beach, but wasn’t sure about the Reception and cocktail hour. She told me that she just needed to know 2 days prior to the day of the ceremony for staffing purposes. So I called her the morning the day before our ceremony and told her what we decided. (Cocktails on the beach, dinner in the marble room next to the Ballroom). Legalities – Our blood test was scheduled for 11am. We were told they would meet us in our room. They finally showed up at 1145, which was quite annoying as it was beautiful outside, and we were antsy to get on the beach! The process was really quick (about 5 minutes) and everything was sanitary and clean. The hiccup with the whole process was that they asked us for $200 when they were done. I was not expecting to have to pay cash directly to the doctors, as I assumed this would all be including in the package cost (since it was listed in the contract). So, I had to take the cash from our vacation fun money (for excursions, tipping, etc.). There was actually a positive spin to it because the contract stated $300, and we only had to pay them $200. So just keep this in mind if you’re doing a legal ceremony, and bring extra cash (us dollars). When it came to paying the full contract, Cecilia had this charge listed on the contract, but I told her we paid the doctors directly, and she took care of it. I was provided with a receipt from the doctors in case there was any question of payment, but Cecilia didn’t ask for it. In addition to the blood test, in order to have a legal ceremony, you must also have 4 witnesses. If your witnesses will not be there 4 days prior to the ceremony, you should send copies of their passports via email to Cecilia ahead of time. (I did this a week before we left for Mexico, and that was just fine). Once they arrive, Cecilia will also need copies of their Tourist Cards. Make sure you get these to her as soon as you can once your witnesses have arrived. I received a message that our Best Man hadn’t given his to Cecilia the day of our wedding, so was scrambling to get a hold of him while I was getting my hair done. Not fun to deal with the day of! cont...

Quote: Originally Posted by mellyrobert has anyone talked live with cecilia? I have signed and faxed over our contract but now I am wondering about all the specifics. how is everyone determining what your reception table decor will look like? has anyone asked about upgrades like the flowers? are the only flowers available the ones that she sent in the package? mellyrobert, I didn't talk to Cecilia at all on the phone. All of my communication was via email before I arrived. We got there on a Sunday, and our ceremony wasn't until Friday, so there was ample time to make decisions. Cecilia has package options for flowers, boutonnieres, corsages, bridesmaid, etc. Just ask her to email those to you, and you can customize beyond that. I took pieces from a couple different bridal bouquets in her photos to come up with mine, and there was no extra charge. They also have an "upgraded" bouquet option, but the flowers included in the package are gorgeous so that wasn't necessary for me. I picked the flowers about a month before the ceremony and waited until I arrived to pick the locations for my cocktail hour and Reception, so don't worry about it if you have last minute things to do when you arrive. There are basic white linens and chair covers included in the packages. Beyond that, you'd have to pay extra, or bring your own. Cecilia can provide you with pictures of their basic reception table setup, or you can email me and I can send what I have to you ([email protected]). ~Lynnea

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodimichelle Hello My fiance and I are staying at Secrets Maroma for our Honeymoon. Does anyone know if they do private dinners on the beach and if so how can I arrange this? Jodi - You can setup a private dinner with the front desk, or your concierge once you arrive at the resort. They set them up on the beach and I also saw some by the pool.

Just an add-in to the review about the photography....I'm assuming this person booked their photographer through Secrets, because I had a similar situation with the photography included in my wedding package. I had the Ultimate Wedding Package and included was a photographer from Juan Navarro's company. It was for 1.5 hours. Same as this TripAdvisor review, we got 50 photos provided to us in an album (photographer picked the 50 photos to print)...he gave us the album to look through, and then showed us the remaining 200 photos he had on another DVD, selling for an additional $250 over our Ultimate Wedding package price. I also felt scammed because he purposely left out photos of the Cake Cutting and the Father Daughter dance, and I promise you there were plenty of not-so-good photos in the 50 that he could have easily traded for the more important events. So they definitly scam you into buying the DVD negatives. Luckily we had hired another photographer that we hired on our own (cecilia dumas) that captured the majority of our event, and Alex from Juan Navarro was only there from cocktail hour -reception. ~ More to come in my full review to be posted soon. Just wanted to add my two cents.

Quote: Originally Posted by groom'smom Mlynnea, hope to see your review pop up soon. Will you be posting pictures of the day over in the review section? Can't get enough of looking at everyone's shots. I'll post my review in the Review section, but I'll make sure to add a link on this thread so everyone knows it's out there. I'll make sure to add pics too. pryncesslinda: Glad you found the site ;-).

Quote: Originally Posted by saza175 mlynnea--i see your profile pic.... looks beautifull!!!!!! congrats! i wanna see more pics lol! Saza, I've been procrastinating on my review. I'll try to get it done soon and share more pics. Thanks, Lynnea

Quote: Originally Posted by groom'smom Any suggestions for rehearsal dinner? Seems awful to have to pay per person for dinner for guests since they have already paid for all inclusive meals. Anyone doing anything creative to have welcome time for guests, but not pay for meals that have already been paid for? Any suggestions for rehearsal dinner? Seems awful to have to pay per person for dinner for guests since they have already paid for all inclusive meals. Anyone doing anything creative to have welcome time for guests, but not pay for meals that have already been paid for? I tried to work with Cecilia before we left to reserve something in one of the restaurants for our group. (We had 13 people total). She said that she couldn't make reservations for us in a restaurant, which was quite frustrating. However, I had a friend who went there just before we left for our wedding, and they said that the teppenyaki restaurant, Himitsu, has a large teppenyaki table that fits 14 people, and that CAN be reserved. I thought that sounded like fun, so I set that up for our "Welcome/Rehearsal" dinner and Cecilia took care of the reservation for me. I did go to the concierge desk after we arrived to make sure she actually made the reservation. I think another option would be to have them setup tables in the World Cafe, which is the Buffet restaurant. You'll need to make sure that it's open on the day that you want to host the dinner, because there is one restaurant that is closed each night. But that would probably work best for larger groups, and it shouldn't cost you anything extra.

Quote: Originally Posted by groom'smom Does anyone have suggestions for which building to request for our rooms? The wedding will take place on the beach so wouldn't it be a good idea to request a building that is close to the area where the wedding will happen? Don't want a building that has "noise" issues (near club areas with loud music a constant problem) Anyone with ideas? Groom's mom, I had heard on this forum where the location of the beach ceremony took place (South side of the property), so when we arrived I requested a room on that side of the resort. With the free upgrade within your category included in the wedding package, they upgraded us to Preferred Club in building 26. Building 27 is the closest to the beach and houses all of the honeymoon suites, so we were one building behind that. It worked out great, and there is a "secret" path that runs next to building 27, so all of the hotel guests don't see the bride waiting for the ceremony to start. I would stick with anything on the South side of the resort and you'll be good to go.

Quote: Originally Posted by mellyrobert mlynea thanks for the info! very helpful. we are having the wedding at 4pm at the gazebo and then the reception at the gazebo terrace. they said that they need an hour in between to set up. do you think that the beach is a good location for the cocktail hour eventhough it was windy? mellyrobert, You kinda have to take a chance with the weather....but that's the case for anything you do outdoors. We were there for 12 days, and our wedding day was definitly the most windy day of the trip. I think I would take the chance on the weather and keep it on the beach. It was quite windy for us, but it didn't spoil anyone's fun. Everyone was still having a great time, and even though it was windy, it wasn't cold.

Pricing: I was there for my wedding on February 26th. My parents stayed from Feb 21-Feb 28th, and the cost was $1650 per person, which included airfare from Minneapolis. $5000 per couple seems outrageous to me. I did notice that when we were booking the prices if we were to book directly through the secrets website were twice as much as the prices on Orbitz and Expedia. We didn't use a TA, and booked through Orbitz as that was the cheapest site at the time. We booked in July for our February wedding. For those of you planning way ahead of time, I'm not sure how that works. Timeline: For those wondering about the timeline for the wedding day. You can set it up to be whatever you want. If you want a break between the wedding and the cocktail hour for pictures, no worries. They're flexible. You'll have a meeting with Cecilia either the day after you arrive at the resort, or a few days before the ceremony to go over things like that. I provided her with a schedule that I put together and it was accomodated beautifully. So here's what I did 1:45pm Cecilia Dumas (outside photographer) arrives for pictures of bride getting ready. 2:30pm Photos of the Bride, Groom, Best Man and Maid of Honor on beach at abandoned Hacienda down the beach. 3:30pm Groom returns to ceremony site to greet guests (we did the ceremony on the beach). Bride returns to room to "freshen up". 4:00pm Ceremony starts (lasted about 30 minutes. We brought our own music on an Ipod and added a sand ceremony and a reading). Sunset was at 5:30pm on Feb 26th. 4:30pm Group photos with family and guests (30 min) 5:00pm Bride and Groom photos around the resort (I had a 60 minute window between the end of the ceremony and the cocktail hour because I didn't want to have to miss the Caribbean Trio. We only needed 30 minutes for group photos and since the lighting was so good, the photographer wanted to take pics around the resort. Our guests went to the bar until cocktail hour started at 5:30pm). 5:30pm Cocktail Hour starts (We had this on the beach. It was quite windy, so they were unable to light the tiki torches, but had votives on the table, and other lighting available). 6:30pm Reception starts - we walked up to the main building and had our reception in the marble room next to the ballroom - not actually in the ballroom ( we had 13 people total). Cecilia Dumas left during the cocktail hour, and we had the package photographer arrive at 6pm. We did the first dances and cake cutting before dinner service so that he would capture those moments on film. FYI - the package photog is only there for 1.5 hours. We had Cecilia Dumas for 4 hours. The timing for us with the sunset ceremony an 1.5 hours before the actual sunset worked out perfectly. The lighting was amazing when we started the group photos at 5pm.

Swim out pools are not heated. If you want one of those, I would suggest getting a room on the North side of the property (bldgs 15-1. Those will have South facing pools, and will be warmed by the sun all day long. The swim-out rooms on the South side of the property (22-27) are mostly North facing, and will be shaded and the water will be much cooler. Saza: "hey girls, for those who have had a wedding there.....if i chose the secrets ultimate package will they let me substitutue more meals for a sit down reception instead of a cocktail hour? also can we choose something from the regular menu in any of the restaurants for a cheaper price instead of the silver menu?" As jaccat15 stated, Cecilia is pretty open to adjustments and substitutions. I would definitly send her an email and ask her if she would allow the substitution of the extra meals instead of having a cocktail hour. As far as choosing something from the restaurant menu instead of from the reception menu, I'm not sure. We ordered everything off of the reception menu and it was all fabulous! Can't hurt to ask her though..

Hi Ladies...I'm baaack! Everything was sooo amazing!! There was only one minor issue with the flowers, but it wasn't anything to ruin my day. I'll work on getting a review together ASAP. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything went. MassageGirl: "I'm using the phto/video from the resort. Who do you guys reccomend? And we would love an english speaker minister for our ceremony..any suggestions?" I used the photographer and the videographer included in the "Ultimate" package. The videographer is from www.cancunweddingvideo.com. Our videographer's name was Jerry. We didn't talk to him much, but the video we received is BEAUTIFUL! The quality is amazing, and he captured everything wonderfully. We also hired an outside photographer to use for pre-wedding and ceremony shots (Cecilia Dumas), and there was an added benefit that the videographer had worked with Cecilia Dumas before. We had the package photographer show up after our package with Cecilia Dumas was over, which was during the Cocktail hour following the ceremony. His name was Alex. I'll tell you that I wasn't too impressed with his skills, especially when comparing his photos to those Cecilia took...no contest. If photography is really important to you, I would hire an outside photographer. We had Alex for cocktail hour, first dances and cake cutting and I'm glad we hired someone else for the more important pics. He wasn't horrible, it just seemed like any of my guests could've taken the same pics. As for the minister, we didn't request anyone in particular but we had a woman who did speak English. She had quite a strong accent, but it worked out okay. She showed up right when the ceremony was scheduled to start, and disappeared immediately after. We didn't even have a chance to thank her. Cecilia did mention that the judge doesn't "have to" speak English, but I'm sure you could ask her to make sure that whoever you get speaks English. They basically just read off of a script. (More to come in my review.) If anyone has any questions, let me know. ~Lynnea

I'm including Insulated personalized mugs in our Welcome Bags. Last time we were at an all-inclusive, it was really nice to have an insulated mug to keep those slushy drinks cold. I'm hoping my guests will appreciate them too. I'm also including sunscreen, bug spray, some snacks, a schedule of events, aloe, and some snacks. Leave tomorrow at 7am! Talk to you ladies when I return!

Boo, Did you get any help on this yet? This is the account name that was written on my contract: Name of Account: Hoteles Del Caribe Holdings Inc. My mom sent our deposit there back in July 2009.We mailed a check to a bank in Houston,TX and the check was made out to the account above. Let me know if you want more info. ~Lynnea

I agree with the other ladies about Cecilia's response times. She typically takes about 48 hours to respond to most emails, so hang in there. I'll be leaving this Sunday, and our ceremony is on Friday Feb 26th. I'll be sure to post my review and some photos when I get back. If any of you ladies that have been through this before have any last minute advice or reminders for me, please let me know! Thanks for everyone that has helped me through this forum!

Got my bridal clutch here. It's ivory raw silk with a large peony. I'm wearing a flower in my hair, so it's going to work perfectly. Prices averaged around $50 which I thought was decent. She shipped super fast too!! Handmade Bridal Bags and Purses Evening Bags by keepbags on Etsy

About the $150 dollar day pass.... I asked Cecilia last year, around Aug 09, what it would cost to bring in an outside photographer and she said the fee was $90. I would assume that's the cost of a day pass. However, when I confirmed with her last week that we were using an outside photographer, she said that it was $100 fee for a pass. I plan on bringing printouts of all email communications between Cecilia and I to our wedding in a few weeks, just because she doesn't seem to stay concrete on her price quotes. So, in my opinion $150 seems steep. But no matter what happens. Hang onto your email correspondance so that you have proof of prices she quotes you. Good Luck. I'm not sure how I would handle your situation....

P.S. In the first pic, I think they normally tie the cocktail tables with white ribbon, so I think this must've been someone's cocktail reception since the tie-downs are either brown or black.

Okay...a second try with the pics from Cecilia: Beach Cocktail Hour setup (I dont believe the tiki torches are included in any packages): Beach Ceremony Canopy Setup: Gazebo Ceremony setup: Reception Table setup: This is apparently the basic setup for each of these. No extras were added. The ceremony chairs do come with white covers, but no chair bows. You'd have to bring your own. And from what Simistar says, sounds like two sets of chair bows would be needed, cause they apparently won't move them.

Thanks simistar. I haven't tried the photobucket.com solution. I'll give that a try..I just went to the Advanced reply page and tried to use the paperclip attachment function, which obviuosly didn't work for me at all. Laura - I would love to know if your flowers were included in your package or not. I have to pick my flowers soon, and whatever you had in your photos wasn't on the powerpoint of flower options that Cecilia sent me. I loved them! Was there a hint of blue from hydrangea in there?

Hi Ladies...So I tried to upload pics to this site, but kept getting an error that my computer couldn't find a server. Frustrating! I have pics that Cecilia sent me of what the cocktail hour looks like when setup on the beach, reception table, and gazebo ceremony setup, and beach ceremony setup. Shoot me an email if you'd like to see 'em. ([email protected])

Thanks for the advice ladies! I'll probably just have some of my friends help set up the "perimeter" for me a bit before the ceremony, and Cecilia can find out later. It's better to apologize than ask permission sometimes, right? lol I told my FI about what you guys posted about your experiences and he said he'd have some of his friends stand "guard", but I don't want them to have to deal with that during the ceremony. So we'll do what we can and go with the flow. Thanks again for everyone getting back to my questions so quickly, you guys are great! I'll be sure to return the favor for future SMB brides after I've gone through it all...

So after all your comments about all the people around in their not so flattering attire, I'm thinking about maybe bringing some kind of stakes and tie some ribbon to them....making an implied "fence" around the ceremony area..? Do you think that would be too much? If Cecilia would let me do it, it might help make it more obvious that people need to not pass the ribbon. Obviously they could just walk around it if they were really nosy, but it might at least send the beach go-ers the message that it's a "private" space. Thoughts?

Thanks ladies for the feedback on the pergola's for the beach ceremony. Looks like it'd probably be best to use the smaller one, and ask that some chairs be moved away prior to the ceremony. I'm assuming we'll have some spectators, which will be unavoidable, but I'm sure people will be respectful.

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!!!