Hi! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to your post! I haven't been checking the site beacuse I thought I'd be alerted to all new messages via email (I wasn't). Anyway, let me see if I can answer some of your questions. I'd also be happy to speak to you on the phone, which might be a better way to communicate about this and will gladly show you photos. Is there a way for us to arrange to communicate backchannel without my posting my contact info to the world? I'm not the savviest when it comes to sites like this.
Ak'iin is an absoloutely amazing place to have your wedding. Their website used to be in English too -- not sure why it's only in Spanish now. The owner and manager of Ak'iin were my wedding coordinators. Sometimes they take "Tulum time" to respond to messages, but they are excellent and very professional planners. Can't hurt to send them a follow-up email if you still haven't heard back from them.
I chose Ak'iin over La Zebra for several reasons, including date availability, price, responsiveness of wedding coordinators, and tastiness of food, but truthfully, both places are gorgeous and are used to having weddings, so I don't think you can go wrong. I must say I was very glad that I decided to have my wedding at Ak'iin and my welcome reception the night before at La Zebra. That was the perfect combo in my and my 50 guests' estimation -- all of whom said ours was the best wedding they'd ever been to! At our welcome reception, our event planner at La Zebra (Marion from Tulum Events/Caribe Events -- she's a delight) arranged for our guests to have salsa lessons. This was the wisest $150 we spent that week! The teachers were amazing and fun and the experience was the perfect ice-breaker. I couldn't recommend it more highly.
The beach party the day after the wedding at Om Tulum was the perfect way to gather together again, lounge on the beach beds, eat some yummy pizzas and snacks, have some drinks (we paid for the food but did a cash bar), and "partique" the night before. Om Tulum may do smaller weddings, but their dining area can't accommodate a large group.
Keep in mind that having your wedding in Tulum will likely turn out to be a lot more expensive than you thought it would be (that was certainly the case for me). When you have your wedding in a big resort, there are tons of discounts built in to the package deals they offer, but when you have your wedding in a place like Tulum it's like having an "a la carte wedding." You pay for each and every aspect seperately, which adds up. On the other hand, there are few more beautiful places on earth than Tulum. We couldn't have had a more magical, special wedding.
Congratulations, happy planning, and let me know how else I might be helpful to you!