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Read the press release on Ceiba's Facebook page - it says their concept is changing. If you go on Desire's website, there is a press release indicating they are taking over Ceiba in March 2012. This is heartbreaking! We were married there in April 2011, and it was amazing. I am so saddened by this news! Good luck to you ladies! Check out Le Reve, Beloved (formerly La Amada), and the Azul properties as alternatives.

Ahhhh!!!! I too am sooooo sad!!!!!!!!! My husband and I were talking about our 1 year anniversary coming up this April - I guess we will not be celebrating at Ceiba! Ladies with weddings scheduled - I am so sorry for you. I cannot imagine the stress this places on you at this time! I agree with Lalanyc's list - La Amada is now called Beloved or something like that, but I think everyone still has to wear clothes! It is now all inclusive (used to be optional) - the rooms are incredible and the facilities, pool, restaurants, beach are good. Le Reve is amazing if your group is not too big or if you don't mind if some guests stay elsewhere. I had a friend get married at one of the Azul properties, and she was very happy with it - I believe Azul Sensatori. Good luck ladies!

Our wedding at Ceiba was incredible and I am soooo happy we decided on there. Do not be nervous about the vendors. We did not use an event planner and everything turned out perfectly! (You can use an event planner as well - I know some brides on here have used them. Get referrals. It is not necessary though. I did it on my own and it was very easy.) Ceiba will give you a list of vendors that they recommend (and who are familiar w/the resort). You do have to do some leg work as far as contacting and working with the vendors, but it is all by email and quite simple. (It sometimes took a few days for certain vendors to get back to me, but they all did follow-up and were very, very professional.) We used Ivan Gomez from DJ Doremixx, Gabi from Planner1Events (for flowers/decorations), Pam from Beautyweddings (to perform the ceremony), a mariachi that Ceiba recommended, and Javiar Rojas for music during the ceremony. We flew in our own photographer -- Brooke Boling (she was GREAT!). I communicated with them all by email, and we contracted over email. I wired deposits to them, and everything went smoothly. These are vendors that are professionals and have been doing this for a while. I would recommend each and every one of them 100 times over! They really made our wedding special. There is a ton of info on here about vendors, so you can always do a little research on whomever you are considering. As far as the day of (or days leading up), Ceiba and/or the vendors take care of setting everything up for you. Ceiba set-up our cocktail hour, and it looked great! Ceiba set-up our rehearsal dinner, and it looked incredible! (We had Gabi from Planner1 set up some Mexican flags as well.) On the day of the wedding, the only thing I had to think of was getting ready. I had given Paola the place cards, guest book, table cards, etc. that I brought, and she took care of everything! I was in the midst of getting my hair curled when two ladies who work with Gabi at Planner1 showed up with my flowers - right on time! Everything just fell into place with very little effort on my end. Also, the vendors I used were very helpful in working within my budget and giving me alternative ideas that were more affordable. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or want to see some pictures!

Hi! I am helping my friend with her wedding plans for April 2012. We are looking for a location to hold her rehearsal dinner - something on/near the water or pool side. There will be about 70 people. Any recommendations? Thanks!

Hi! I will send you a PM with my personal email so it is easier for you to communicate with me. CONGRATS on Ceiba! You and your fiance (and your family and friends) will have the time of your lives! We used Ivan Gomez from DJ Doremixx and we LOVED him! (I am VERY delayed in posting reviews on here (our wedding was in April), but he will receive a glowing one!) He was easy to communicate with by email (a little delayed in responding compared to what us NY'ers are used to, but nothing concerning and he always answered my questions). He played our song list as well as other songs in line with what we like. He was set-up and ready to go on time. We had 60+ guests, and there were very few songs where more than 5 people or so were sitting - everyone danced the whole night! And, he has GREAT props! We were thrilled with his services. We did not rent a dance floor. With the number of guests we had (64 including us), there was plenty of room on the terrace for tables and dancing. Plus, we did not want a lighted dance floor. If you do, or if you will have a lot more guests, you may want to consider it. I am happy we did not rent one. For lighting and Flowers we used Gabi at Planner1Events (again, I am delayed in writing a review, but she was FABULOUS)!! We had her hang Chinese lanterns (and we loved the look of it), but she has numerous lighting options. If you email her, she will send you a full list of services, set-up, flowers, bamboo arch/gazebo, maracas (which I put the place cards on), etc. with pricing. I described what I was looking for, and she sent various pictures of options that were in line with what I wanted. She is readily available by email, and very helpful. My flowers looked exactly like I pictured/ordered - they were beautiful!! Here is a link to a slide w/pictures, http://harris.brookeboling.com/ and try this link for all the pictures so you can really see the set-up, etc. http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=1035226 Paola and/or Diana can give you the contact info for the mariachi they recommend (I have it in my email somewhere, but could not locate it quickly). They were fantastic! We had them play at the rehearsal dinner. For the ceremony, we had Javier Rojas play his guitar http://www.javierrojas.com.mx/en/bio.html He was excellent. Pam from beautyweddings.com offciated our ceremony - she was great and had half our guests in tears! http://www.beautyweddings.com/ For photographer, we flew in Brooke Boling. http://brookeboling.com/ She is photographer out of Nashville (and one of my sister's good friends). We loved that her pictures were creative and unique. The cost of her flight, hotel, and fees was comparable to some of the more highly recommended Mexican photographers. Check out her blog (link is on her website) - she shoots in many different states/locations. Try this link for all of our pictures: http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=1035226 Hair and make-up - I had my mom and sister do it (they are stylists). So I cannot help you there! Remember - it is windy and humid, so unless it is all pinned up/back, it makes photographs more difficult. (I kept it half up/down, and it was a bit of a struggle.) The food was delicious (we are total foodies as well!). We did not do a tasting before, but we had eaten in both restaurants when we did our site visit and felt confident in the food. For passed apps, we had Vol au vent Mushroom, Panko Japanese style breaded crab with sweet chile, and grouper ceviche with green mango, shallot, and piquin chili . Delicious. . Delicious! For dinner we had green salad w/goat cheese, tortilla soup w/garnishes, and choice of Grilled Grouper with almond rice and asparagus julian OR Angus beef steak with mushroom sauce, potato au gratin and vegetables sautéed in garlic. We did not do a dessert and just went with the cake - vanilla w/dulce de leche filling. VERY good as well. I really do not have any complaints - everything went smoothly and all of our guests had the best time. As for prices, I was quoted everything a year ago when we were planning, so I would assume that the prices have gone up a little. I hope this answers your questions - sorry for the lengthy reply! -DJ who did you use and how much? Did you like them? We are looking for someone to really get and keep the party going! -Lighting for reception area, what did you pick and how much did it cost? Did you rent a dance floor? If so were you glad you did? -Mariachi? Photographer? recommendation, cost? Hair and makeup? Did you like whoever it was? How much was it? Was the trial included. And most importantly food recommendations. My fiancee and I are total foodies. I think you said you did a tasting. Are there any dishes you'd recommend getting/not getting, good appetizers/bad appetizers? Did you have their cake? We didn't do a tasting when we were there. Thanks so much! I am starting from square one right now If anyone else has any tips that would be awesome too! Tiffany

Love the pictures!!! So beautiful!!! Congrats again!

You are going to LOVE Arlenis! Lots of luck and happy planning. If you have an vendor questions once you start that part of the planning, please don't hesitate to ask!

Love the pictures!!!! You looked beautiful! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had the same experience with communicating with Le Reve and La Amada when we were looking into options this time last year. Le Reve (and the WC Arlenis if she is still there) goes above and beyond in working with you. La Amada was not nearly as good about communicating, but when we did a site visit they were very hospitable. For a 10 person wedding group, Le Reve would be PERFECT! And, since you are booking early enough, you could likely secure the less expensive rooms for your guests - making it more comparable to La Amada. We LOVED Le Reve, but needed a slightly larger resort for our wedding. It is definitely on our list of resorts to return to, though. The staff was incredible, the food delicious, and the ambiance perfect! Plus, if you book there, you get to work with Arlenis!!! Happy Planning!!!

Excellent! Good luck! We did not use any WC or TA for our wedding. We negotiated directly with Diana and Paola, and with our vendors. They were all great and exceeded our expectations. AND, we are all on here to help as well!

BEAUTIFUL pictures!!!!!! (I am glad you finally got them and they turned out great!) It looks like everything was perfect!! Congrats again! Don't you miss Ceiba?!? I cannot wait to go back!

This is definitely the way to go. We offered both the AI and European rates and left it up to our guests to decide what they wanted to do. For alcohol for the wedding, since most of our guests were not AI, we provided the alcohol. We paid a corkage fee to Ceiba (very reasonable), and then got our own alcohol from La Europea in Cancun. Diana helped us with the process, and La Europea was almost exact with how much of each type of alcohol we had to buy (wine, champagne, hard liquor, beer, etc). And we were able to return all unopened bottles. It was actually very inexpensive! We did more limited bars for the cocktail hour and for the rehearsal dinner, which also kep the rates lower.

Hi Brenners! I have not seen/heard anything re: AI or not. However, the majority of our guests did not do AI and we did not have anyone complain/comment about pricing. A number of our guests did excursions during the day and/or ventured into Puerto Morelos to have lunch or dinner at some of the restaurants there - so AI was not necessarily what they wanted. Just something for your guests to keep in mind if they are going to venture off the property.

Congrats! Ceiba is so incredible! I did not have any issues w/my contract or negotiations with Ceiba - they were wonderful to work with. I would just make sure you have the specifics in there that you want/need. Ceiba was very flexible, though, and will work with you throughout the whole process. our wedding was the beginning of April and the weather was perfect. Great sun/temps for the beach and pool during the day, and still cool enough at night to be comfortable dancing. Good Luck!

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy everything went well!!! Ceiba is really an incredible place to be married! We used Planner1 and Javier as well - loved them both! We used DJ Dorremix who was great as well. I look forward to seeing your pictures from Ceiba! Also, be forewarned - you will likely have serious Ceiba withdrawal. I keep looking at pictures wishing we were back there, and my wedding was over a month ago! Have a great honeymoon in Fiji! (We are taking a belated honeymoon in August to Huahine, Moorea, and Bora Bora.) Congrats again!!