Akumal Bride

Glad I could help. One more quick thought if you do end up taking your group to Tulum. There are a ton of fun beach restaurants on the road just south of the ruins, which would be a nice way to cap off your visit. La Zebra and Zamas are two of my favorites, but the beach is literally lined with them, and it's an absolutely stunning beach.

We used the wedding as an opportunity to have a frank discussion about our finances and draw up a spending budget, which I'm embarrassed to say we hadn't done despite living together for years. We took a hard look at our spending habits and set monthly allowances for things like food, housing and entertainment. Getting a solid handle on what we were actually spending was a great wake up call and helped us to recognize where we were spending too much. Now, we each make monthly automatic deposits into our wedding account, and we got that big pre-marriage money talk that everyone recommends out of the way. We also started saving very early in the process, which paying off. Good luck!

A villa is a great idea. We considered that before opting instead to take over a small condo building in Akumal. I would recommend getting familiar with some of the towns in the area to get a sense of what fills your needs, then start looking at specific properties after that. On my list would be Puerto Morelas, Akumal, Soliman Bay and Tulum. Playa del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras are also good options.

Hi there. I don't have any helpful suggestions for where to go to arrange your trip (sorry.) But I do have a suggestion about choosing your destination. I haven't been to Chichen Itza myself (plan to go after the wedding) but I have been to the ruins at Coba and Tulum and know lots of people who have done the trip to Chichen. I think if my guests were staying in the Riviera Maya, I'd opt for either Tulum or Coba only because it's about a three hour trip to Chichen Itza each way (depending on where your resort is). That means you spend a huge amount of time on a bus, and by the time you get there, it's already crowded with all the other tour buses (plus you don't get to stay for the nighttime laser show because you have to get back to your hotel). It just seems like a very intensive, all-day excursion for your guests. I like Tulum because the ruins are on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and there is a gorgeous beach below that you can hang out on. Plus it's doesn't take as long to get there. The downside is that the ruins are less impressive than Coba, and much less impressive than Chichen Itza. But the ambiance of the place is amazing. Coba takes a bit longer to get to than Tulum, but the really cool thing is that the ruins are fairly intact, and there is even one temple that you can climb up. There's not beach, of course, so that's a tradeoff. The grounds at Coba are also quite large compared to Tulum. To me, the benefit of the closer places is that if you go early, you can beat the crowds. Depending on the time of year, it can be way too many people for my taste. Just my two cents.

Hi, I'm not a golfer myself but this site has a helpful overview of area courses If you are staying in PDC, the Playacar course is probably closest. I know people who have played the new course at Gran Bahia Principe and really liked it, but that's a bit further south. I'd recommend an early tee time. It can get pretty hot and humid when you leave the immediate beach area.

If it were me, I'd stick with the dress I had and try to stop watching those wedding TV shows and looking in bridal stores (which seem designed to separate us from our sanity). I don't buy the "there's only one perfect dress out there for you" line. Plus, trying to find something new with five months to go and convincing the original store to take your other dress back sounds like too much stress. In the end, it's just a dress. Your commitment to your fiancee is what matters most...Just my two cents.

Yep, you can rent the restaurant out without renting all the rooms. The catch is that you end up paying a higher site fee than you would if you take all the rooms up. (there's really only four or six rooms) The cost of the site fee depends on how many people you have coming, but you can contact the owner, Andres, at [email protected] and get better info. The web site can be a little confusing. I have no idea how much weddings at the AIs run so I don't have anything to compare it to. I don't think Al Cielo is on the the cheapest end of things (most of their menu options are $70 a person), but the place is stunning and I've heard the food is excellent. I'll be down there next week to taste it myself but I have no worries on that front.

You might want to check out Al Cielo, which is a small hotel with a beachfront restaurant about 15 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen. We are doing a similar thing, staying in condos in Akumal but having the ceremony and reception at Al Cielo. There are a number of places you could check out in Tulum, like Akiin, Ana y Jose, La Zebra and El Pez. I would just mention that Tulum is a bit of a haul from PDC if you do end up staying there. It takes about an hour to drive between the two.

Hey Leia, welcome to the forum. I'm also a New York bride getting married in the Mayan Riviera. I love the villa idea (we're doing a similar thing, but taking over a couple of condo buildings) and wanted to suggest a place to check out in Akumal, which is a gorgeous village south of Playa del Carmen. There is an amazing lagoon (it's called Yal Ku) in Akumal that is lined with great villas for rent. I've seen a few ladies here who have been married at one in particular called Casa Romero, but the houses are all close by and different sizes. I'd search Casa Romero here for better info. There are some photos at this site as well: http://www.locogringo.com/akumal/casaromero.html?name=Casa%20Romero We seriously considered doing this, but ultimately opted for something else. Puerto Morelos, Tulum or Soliman Bay might be some other good places to look for a villa. I plead ignorance about Costa Rica, thought it sounds wonderful.

Great color scheme! (I'm partial, we're using the same one) It's so fun and tropical.

Well, the location for our ceremony and reception has only four rooms (we're talking really boutique!) So, no, they don't have enough rooms for our quests, hence we'll be staying in several condo buildings nearby. We have the option to rent out the four rooms for the weekend so that the location is completely private, but at this point we aren't too worried about a handful of others being around. The place is on a really secluded stretch of beach, which has helped tamp down my fears of having a bunch of looky loos in their speedos gawking at the ceremony. I'm not overly concerned about wedding details, but that is the stuff of my nightmares...

Cool. I'm surprised more people here aren't getting married that day, since it's during Memorial Day weekend. I thought it would be a popular choice. But condos are totally the way to go for us. We love the flexibility they offer and we have so much more control over where our guests stay, rather than being spread around a big resort.

Hi all, you can add another one to the list. We are getting married at Al Cielo, a small boutique hotel just south of Playa del Carmen on May 26, 2012. We decided against the all inclusive resort thing, and our group is staying in condos in nearby Akumal ("place of the turtles" in Mayan, hence the logo...) Akumal is one of our absolute favorite vacation spots, so we're so excited to go there with friends and family. Save the date postcards went out in June and we're working on the invitations. Hoping to get those out next month.