Chill Bride

We tipped the coordinator about 20% of her fee and the servers is 15%. Probably should have tipped the DJ some too but was too out of it when he left.

Matt, Thanks for posting this. I completely agree with you about all the undiscovered places in Tulum. It really is a very magical place!! Brides who like embracing a secluded, pristine, less commercial hotel venue, I would definitely check all the amazing eco-hotels in Tulum. I finally did my review of La Luna on here and other brides who are interested should also check out the many wedding reviews on Trip advisor of La Luna as well as other eco-resorts in Tulum (La Zebra, Nueva Vida de Ramiro, Rancho San Eric, etc...). But my first choice for a wedding will always be La Luna because of what a great experience it was to take over the whole place for a few days with all my loved ones, getting married on the magical beach, and the absolutely wonderful staff they have there. Natalie

We did it through email but we had our designer make a jpeg which we sent out. She is a friend and is just starting her business but I am sure you can find a designer to do one for you or better yet if you are creative, make it yourself.

I know it's been almost a year since your wedding, but I did very much enjoy this review. I have been to Negril (non-AI) and know Negril Escape is very popular with Negril frequenters. I did my wedding somewhere small and off the beaten path too. Looks like yours turned out perfect and you will have memories with the most amazing sunset in the background for a lifetime.

I am having a very hard time finding a good traditional version of hava nagila that has singing (non-instrumental) to download. Does anyone with experience with this have any suggestions? Â Thanks in advace!

Hey alissrose, Â I just saw this. I can't answer many of your questions but I can a few. Â I am not getting married at Ana y Jose but from what I have heard, Jackie handles everything and if you use vendors outside of what she recommends you pay a fee. But I have also heard that the people she recommends are good. This is all hearsay. Â Some of my guests are staying at Ana y Jose in the off season (Sept) and the cheapest room is $250/night. I think the range is $250-375. I have not stayed at Los Lirios, but have read really bad reviews on trip advisor of that hotel. Cabanas Tulum is adding a/c currently if you only want hotels with a/c. In March, you should be fine without though. I was there in Feb and it was even a little chilly at times. Myself and all my guests are staying at at a place with no A/c in 2 weeks and I will let you know how that goes. There is lots of hotel help on trip advisor. Â Hope this helps!

Huge thanks for sharing...I love it!

I don't know what the capacity is at your site, but from experience I can tell you that people indicate they are coming but don't count them in until they have booked a flight or hotel. Based on people who said they were coming, I was expecting 65 guests. We are actually having 48. Good luck with finding something that works!

I recommend you do some research into diamonds. Diamond Prices: Diamond Jewelry Facts, Diamond Tools and Consumer Reports Forum is a great place to learn and post this same question to the experts there. Just fyi...the clarity (SI1, VS, etc...) does not affect whether the diamond is sparkly. Cut is the most important thing in a diamond to me so yes I would trade up after researching what makes a great cut diamond.

Congratulations!!! I am glad you found somewhere you liked. Your wedding should be beautiful there. Finding a venue is the hardest part.

Matt, That is super great news!!! It was nice chatting with you and thanks for contacting me to let me know. I have had my morning coffee now so I am a little more awake and have already been telling everyone how I am sooooooooooooo excited to have you as the photog. I was seriously sad I couldn't book you guys, but now I am uber happy. Like I said, if my pics are half as good as Christine's I will be sooooooo happy! Your work is seriously out of this world so I feel very very lucky.

Hi I have a question for Christine or Matt.... I have Vincent booked for our wedding at small place in Tulum similiar to La Zebra. We hired him for 6 hours. Is that enough? I guess my question is how long did you have the Matt and Sol, Christine? They seemed to have captured the whole thing and all of your special events. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on how long to book them. Your wedding photos are so beautiful...if mine turn out half as nice, I will be a very happy camper!

Wow...your pics almost made me cry...I love all of them, especially the fire dancing ones. Those are so unique. What an absolutely beautiful wedding and del sol did a great job.

Quote: Originally Posted by AKH2011 Hopefully you ladies are still checking this post! I'm looking into several places in the Tulum area for my winter 2011 wedding...Al Cielo, Ana Y Jose, Akiin, Beach Club, etc. Chill Bride - did you ever hear back from Akiin? Lisa K - I am sure your wedding was beautiful so any words of wisdom you can share after the fact would be great. Given that these places are a la carte weddings and that I am expecting a larger group of guests (70 or so), does anyone have a sense of relative pricing amongst those venues for the given things (like food, open bar, etc.)? Did any of you do site visits beforehand - and if you did - did you have a WC show you around the different venues or did you just coordinate on your own? I am trying to decide if its best to engage a wc at this point, but then I'm worried that I'll fall in love with one of the above places and that they will require me to use their wc services. And then I will be out the money for hiring an outside wc. Would love to hear anyone's guidance! Just saw this two months later. My experience is that you don't have to lock down a coordinator if you do site visits. Gwen from mytulumwedding.com is our coordinator and she spent a good 4-5 hours with us looking at locations and helping us before we ever signed a contract with her (no strings attached). Also, most places don't have one coordinator like they do at resorts. They will mostly work with you or whichever coordinator you choose. We decided on the coordinator after we returned from our scouting trip and she will work at any venue we like basically.

Thanks for the advice. Can't wait to hear about your wedding. We are using the salsa teacher from La Zebra....I don't know his name...maybe Rommel. Everyone who has had a salsa teacher has loved it, so I am excited. I have no rhythm though.

This is really delayed but I realized may be a good resource for Tulum non-resort brides who are looking for a venue. My fiance and I went on a scouting trip in Feb 2010 and looked at A LOT of the hotels in the area for our wedding. Here is my biased summary in order of what we saw: Akiin Beach Club - I think its Sandra that is the coordinator there. This is just a beach club, no hotel so guests would stay at nearby hotels and there are many w/n walking distance. The pics of the weddings that Sandra showed me while there weren't really my style. I want something more natural not the usual fuchsia chair sashes and starfishes. They seem to nickel and dime you for every chair sash and how you want the beach beds decorated. They have done a ton of weddings there though and Sandra is very detailed with the information and pictures she sends you and seemed like a sweet lady. Cabanas La Luna- We stayed here and are getting married here. They are actually the only place we liked that does not charge a site fee. I have actually been online stalking weddings here since way before we got engaged. We really wanted somewhere unique and that a lot of our guests can stay together and take over the whole place. Their prices for food and alcohol are the most reasonable I have seen, they will bend the rules if you ask them to, and all the staff are so nice and accommodating and quick to respond. I will let you all know how the wedding goes when we get back. La Zebra-Nice place with large (for Tulum area) oceanfront restaurant and rustic chic cabanas (very similar to La Luna). There is a $1500 site fee for use of the restaurant. Your reception would not be private unless you have enough guests to occupy the entire restaurant which I think is around 80-100. They have a side little palapa that is perfect for a small party of 15-20 guests or less. Food is the normal ~$60+service/person. They don't do open bar, you pay per drink. The drinks there are pretty damn amazing though. This place has a very chic vibe and I have seen pics of some really good weddings here. Look at mytulumwedding.com for lots of pics of weddings at La Zebra. Suenos Tulum - I thought this would be the spot for us. The rooms are really nice and modern (door on bathroom) and can accommodate up to 24. In the end though the site fee of $1250 and costs of the rooms were just too much for us when there were better options available. The rooms here in the low season are at least $50 more per night than most hotels in Tulum and really aren't that special or different. We didn't want that for our guests. There is a large palapa in the back that is perfect for a reception that can seat up to 50. The owner, Elizabeth, is very insistent that the number of guests cannot exceed 50. The onsite restaurant is small and for guests only so if you have a group over 30, you will have to get a caterer. Las Ranitas - Rooms are not the typical Tulum cabanas. They are more concrete Puerta Vallarta style and the decor in the restaurant is similar. It is you know the bright yellow, red, blue Mexican style. Food here was horrible. There is a pool and tennis court onsite and many rooms if you have a bigger party. Rancho San Eric/Hechizo - This is the place for someone who wants a very private wedding. The beach in front is beautiful and very private because it is right before Sian Kaan. The food there sounds AMAZING! I haven't sampled because apparently they are closed on Mondays the one day we wanted to go. I would definitely get married here if food was my number one priority. They gave us their menus and they are cheaper than just about everyone for 5 star quality food. They don't mark it up for weddings like everyone else. Having a full blown reception here would be hard. They told me they usually recommend that the dancing part is off the premises. They have had a small DJ for the first dance and all the typical wedding songs for families to dance to but if you want you a big party, this is not the place. I think their reception guest capacity is 40-50. Also the places to rent at Rancho San Eric for your guests to stay are all 2-10 person houses and Casa de Las Olas is right next door too. We toured some of them and they are really nice...each is beachfront and has a kitchenette. They are more apts than hotel rooms. Casa Chic is so cool. It is very modern and has a full kitchen with wine cooler, full fridge, washer and dryer, and really nice rooms. I would love to stay there with a large group. Milamores - There have been a lot of happy brides get married here...destination scout, sycamore tree, boven, etc...This place is 2 large very chic mansions formally owned by Pablo Escobar. The rooms are around $250/night which is too much for me to ask my guests to pay. In the end this place is more of a romantic get really away from it all place and not the typical fun cabana place we were looking for. Contact destinationscout because I think she is the wedding coordinator there. We also briefly looked at Shambala Petit (zen yoga style place), Casa Violeta, Retiro Maya (very rustic), Playa Azul (small beach, party type atmosphere) and Puerta de Cielo. Casa Violeta has only 6 rooms but supposedly really good food. We are going to check it out when we are there for the wedding. We didn't see Ana y Jose because it seemed too wedding factory to me and also a place that nickels and dimes a lot. There are so many more hotels in the area that do weddings that we didn’t look at. They include Nueva Vida de Ramiro, Mayan spa, Mezzanine, Cabanas Copal….basically any hotel you like in Tulum. Obviously this is my opinion of these hotels based on what we want. Our priorities were somewhere that worked with us, where our guests could all stay affordably, kind of central for people to walk for drinks and food, off the beaten path, good food and lots of dancing.

I just posted a full scouting trip report for those of you looking for venues in Tulum.

Is he the teacher at La Zebra? How do you contact him? HOW WAS YOUR WEDDING!?!! I remember you are one of the few non-resort Tulum brides (like myself) on here. You gotta spill. Also I have a question for you about Milamores. We toured there for our wedding but decided on a different place, but want honeymoon for 3 nights there. What are the best rooms you would suggest for a lot of privacy and romance? I know #1 is the honeymoon suite but it may be too big for 2 and also maybe too expensive. Is there a bar at the bigger villa (no me olivedes?) for us to get drinks at when we are lounging on the beach or do we have to go to the main villa? I think that will help us decide because I am gonna want some drinks and not have to walk far. Thanks in advance...can't wait to hear about your wedding!

I haven't been....there are obviously a ton of great reviews on trip advisor. I read one where it was a wedding group. I want to stay there for our honeymoon in Sept and will write a review on trip advisor when I get back.

Thanks for this post...it was wonderful. I hope your wedding tomorrow is perfect and beautiful!!!

Check out Tulum Wedding by Destination Weddings Tulum and Tulum Weddings - Offering full destination wedding planning service in Tulum for lots of pics for weddings at La Zebra. Gwen and Marion who run destination weddings tulum are both French so you will have an easy time communicating with them. $800 sounds pretty reasonable for coordination. It may be $600-$700 for your smaller party though. I looked into La Zebra when I was choosing a wedding location and I think their site fee is $1500 but we have a lot more guests than you so it might be less for less people. If you talk to Gwen, she will let you know which places have site fees and what is best for your size wedding.

I am doing a non resort wedding in Tulum in September. So far I love it. I have no idea how the resort wedding is done as it is not something I looked into. I think it is pretty smooth, but we do have a coordinator who is great. There are only a few big items really: Venue, food, music, photog, and flowers. The coordinator ties all those things together and I am very much looking forward to my non resort wedding. Are there specific questions you have?

My WC is recommending him for our wedding in Tulum. Wanted to see if anyone had any experience with him. Thanks!

So I guess a good amount has happened in a month. We have a date, a coordinator, photographers, sent out save the dates Sunday and already have 5 RSVPs, and are finalizing details with the place. Oh I also ordered my dress and it will be here 6/21. I am excited. It feels like it is official now and this is really going to happen

Why would it be wrong that there are naked people in front of the minister. It is birthday suit god gave them. I never heard that nakedness was a sin and these days there are ministers for every type of belief system you can imagine. I am sure they gave the guy a heads up and I am sure he is familiar with Hedonism if he didn't. The resort may have their own minister that presides over all the weddings there. Also, when did you get to judge what people have or do at their wedding is right or wrong?? I didn't see your friends post on how you didn't have naked people at the wedding and how uptight your wedding was and ask if that was wrong.