kate0614

Hi Brownsugarbride, I looked everywhere, but I can't find the card Camilo gave me. See if your wedding coordinator has his info, if not I can see if Angelina has it.

Pablo, the chef at Las Ranitas, did our cakes. I only tasted the Tres Leches, which was amazing, but I heard the other cakes were outstanding as well.

Brownsugarbride -- we had three cakes and the churro cart, they were all devoured. Also, some people really love cake and will not want just churros, but it's up to you, obviously. When I am at a wedding I always look forward to the cake, regardless of what other desserts are on offer.

PickyBride2013 -- all I can tell you is that the churros were so epic, a friend was actually talking about them last week ... 6 months after the wedding. I, however, never even spoke to the vendor -- it was Angelina's idea and she booked him. Angie is a genius! Whoever your coordinator is, tell her you must have that cart! If it helps at all to identify the right cart (besides that the guy's name is Miguel), guests were laughing about the fact that the cart for some reason had a picture of sponge bob square pants on it. Maybe all the churros carts in Tulum do? Lol. I don't know. Luckily I never had to think about all these details. Good luck!

No problem! Here is a close-up my friend took of me walking down the aisle -- I think you can see that I did a smokey eye, light blush and nude lips. It looked a little bit bolder in person, but still very natural. I had my lashes done in NYC before I left, so I didn't wear any mascara (good thing, because I cried a lot!). There are good ones of my mom in my del Sol photos, but I don't have my USB with the web JPEGs on me right now. Will try to remember to post later. Kate

Update: I posted reviews of DJ Doremixx and Maya Floral in the vendor reviews section. A couple of our other vendors are not listed, but deserve to be shouted out. So here goes... Wedding Invitations We used The Aerialist Press, and we could not have been more impressed. Our invitations were top-quality, gorgeous, and Alexandra was able to customize them to exactly what we wanted without charging us the higher "couture" price. Our invitations were as beautiful as samples we ordered from places that charge double the price, and with the added bonus that the design was personal to us. I loved them so much I still think about them and smile! We customized them a bit further ourselves by lining the envelopes with black and white photos of Tulum. It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it. So many people said that when they opened the envelope, they thought "Ah, paradise!" -- which was exactly what we wanted. Thank you Alexandra! Welcome Bags We ordered samples from a bunch of places, but we found the best combination of quality and price at 4imprint. We designed a logo and they executed it perfectly, the bags came out really beautiful and our guests loved them! We filled them with welcome letters, information on local restaurants and attractions, and shawls for the ladies. We got the shawls at WholesaleScarvesUSA.com, which has amazing deals on pashminas. They were a big hit, we saw guests wearing them everywhere. Rehearsal Dinner We hosted our rehearsal dinner at Hartwood, and I have to say I'm pretty sure it had to be the best rehearsal dinner in history, IMHO. Food and cocktails were out-of-this-world, atmosphere and service perfect, and very affordable! I still dream of the slow-cooked pork. Flamenco Guitarist Angelina gave us a couple options for flamenco guitarists, but Camilo Nu impressed us the most, and I am so glad we picked him. He was amazing! He set the mood so perfectly for our cocktail party -- he is really, super talented. Also, when it started to rain he had no problem relocating and moving all his equipment indoors, and when our friends surprised us with a bunch of speeches (which we didn't plan on), he was apparently super helpful, running out to his van to get a wireless mic and setting it up for our friends. Just a great guy and a great musician. Trio Originally we planned on a solo violinist, and Angelina found us Albino Garcia, who seemed good from his YouTube videos. When we gained a bit more flexibility in our budget, we requested a trio, and Albino was able to find a cello and percussionist to join him. We didn't give them an easy task, as we asked them to learn Irish music for the seating and my wedding march, and they even had to adapt the wedding march from the bag pipes. I was nervous to see how it would come out, but I was blown away by their performance. It was just exactly perfect, how I dreamed it would be. As I heard my wedding march start to play and as I was walking down the aisle, I literally thought "Yes! This is it! This is what I dreamed of!" I really can't describe the feeling, but I don't think anything could match it. Now that I know how it made me feel, I think it would have been worth any price. I am so happy it worked out that we decided to expand to the trio, and that Albino was able to adapt the songs so well. My only complaint is that the cello player was 30 minutes late -- all the guests were assembled and the whole wedding was literally waiting for him. Luckily Las Ranitas made sure everyone was comfortable and had drinks, etc., so it wasn't a disaster. But Albino, if you are reading this, I will never, never forget how you made my walk down the aisle so beautiful. Thank you. Singer As a fun twist, my husband surprised me by having a singer come out and serenade me as part of his vow. I was so surprised, I had no idea what was going on at first, but she was awesome! She had an amazing voice and performed the song beautifully. Her name is Maricruz Emilia, Angelina found her. Hair & Makeup This was one area where I had complete sticker shock -- there is some kind of crazy market for makeup artists in the Riviera Maya, and they are more expensive than in New York or D.C., where most of my friends have been married. I paid double what my matron of honor paid a few months earlier at her wedding in D.C., and her people were really good! But it is what it is, and you and your wedding party need to look your best, so what can you do? I used Nora Grey on Angelina's recommendation, and she and her team were really great. She came to do a trial with me a few days before the wedding, and she was really tuned in to the look I wanted (natural). Also, I swear my mother has never looked better, and it was worth the price just to see her looking so good and feeling so good about herself. So thank you, Nora. Churro Cart Amazing! So fun and best churros ever. Angelina set it up, the guy's name is Miguel. Very highly recommended! I think that's everyone, but please let me know if anyone has questions! Consensus among our friends is that our wedding was the most fun, more than one couple has said they liked our wedding better than their own. We have to agree -- we wish we could do it all over again!

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you guys know that I finally posted our review of Las Ranitas! Please let me know if anyone has questions! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/las-ranitas-eco-boutique-hotel/reviews/7243

Update: I heard from Ivan! Apparently my emails went astray, but we are back on track.

Has anyone seen or heard from DJ Doremixx lately? We hired him months ago, but he has not responded to my last 3-4 emails (sent in December and January), and I am starting to freak out since my wedding is in two weeks.

Hi Kathie, I posted above about why we took Akiin out of the running, but it's obviously a personal choice. In terms of wedding coordinators, we have really loved Angelina at Las Ranitas so far. We will post a full review after our wedding next month, but so far she has worked really hard to make our vision come true and address all our concerns along the way. She even went and took pictures of the diaper selection at the grocery store so my sister-in-law could plan what to pack for my niece and nephew! She is the best. Sometimes it does take her a few days or up to a week to respond to an email when she is busy, though. I think that is rather typical for Mexico, and Angelina has been the most responsive person we have worked with.

Hi Charm, As I mentioned over PM, we did buyout the entire hotel for 3 nights, but in our case it was at the lower, pre-renovation rates. We are also getting a permit to extend the reception until 2 AM. Good luck! Kate

Eek, I meant 5 digits! LOL, things get expensive, but I would shoot myself if I were spending $100,000 on brunch. :-P Sorry to scare you.

Welcome and congratulations! You should definitely have your wedding in Mexico if that is your dream (it was for my fiance and I). But I would warn you not to do it if your goal is simply to save money. My fiance and I have found everything to be just as expensive and for some items even more expensive than home, and we live in Manhattan. As a point of reference, our total budget for the wedding weekend is now three times what my family paid for my brother's wedding at our country club on Chicago's North Shore (where I grew up). And that was a nice wedding. Granted, we are doing it a la carte in Tulum, so it may be that you can save money by doing it at a resort closer to Cancun -- I'm not sure. But think about factors like, for instance, you will most likely want to throw a welcome gathering before the wedding and a day-after brunch, but instead of these events being for the wedding party and a few out of town guests, as they would be at home, they are for your entire guest list (because everyone is from out of town). Whereas my parents threw my brother a lovely rehearsal dinner and Sunday brunch at our home for not a ton of money (just whatever they spent on food and servers), we don't have that option, so we are now spending 6 digits just on a rehearsal dinner for the wedding party, a simple cocktail party for the rest of our guests, and brunch. It really took me by surprise. Anyway, we don't mind because this is really what we want and we think our wedding will be amazing -- nothing like New York or Chicago -- but in your case I would seriously price compare (taking into account ALL expenses associated with a destination wedding) before you decide against doing it in FL. Just a thought!

Essandpea, this may sound crazy, but I am honestly getting so excited for your wedding! I can't wait to hear how it works hosting 150 people at Las Ranitas. I'm sure you will be running off to your honeymoon and will never want to come back to this site again, but if at all possible do come back and post and let us know how everything works out. I would love to find out how you did your table and dance floor set-up, and especially how you work it out with the bars. Bar lines are my worst wedding nightmare! (That and bad food.) Also, let us know what the new palapa is like and if you think it's a good alternative to the main restaurant. Good luck on your big day and at all your surrounding events, I hope everything goes great!!! Kate

Sorry Jello, we're getting married February 16. Thanks for offering to coordinate, though, great idea!

Hey Jello, do you know if El Camello can fit a large group? Granted we have more guests than mksymes -- we're expecting 150 -- but we were told that there wasn't any place in town big enough to fit all our guests, even for a cocktail party. That's one of the reasons we decided to do everything at Las Ranitas. Las Ranitas actually has two large palapas now, and I think each can fit up to about 200 people. When we visited they only had the main palapa, but since then they have built another one on a different part of the property, over what used to be the tennis court, I believe. Totally agree that cooking for a large group is always hit or miss, which is why we tried our best to pick dishes that we thought were delicious and hard to over-cook (e.g., conchinita pibil, chiles rellenos). I hope the dinner is as good as what we tasted, but I'm trying to temper my expecations. As to vendors, we picked Del Sol for photography and DJ Doremixx for our DJ, because of the great reviews, but other than that we are letting Angelina pick all the vendors (flowers, cake, mariachi, violinist, etc.). I trust her and I'd rather not think about it. She picked Marvin from Maya Floral for our florist, haven't heard about the others. Good luck everyone! Kate

All I know about Akiin is that they were impossible to get in contact with for the longest time, then they were going to charge us $100 for a tasting and THEY SET THE MENU rather than asking us what we wanted to taste, and their chef is from Alux Caverna Restaurant in Playa del Carmen, which gets absolutely terrible reviews online. We canceled our tasting there and took it out of the running, so it's possible we would have felt differently had we met with them in person.

Essandpea, so glad to head you are also having a big wedding at Las Ranitas! Let me know how you end up arranging the tables & dance floor -- I think with all the different levels/terraces in the restaurant, there are a lot of options for fitting everyone comfortably. And I can't wait to hear how the chef does with a group of that size -- our tasting was SO good, we really hope the food on the night of the wedding measures up. Also, where are you doing your cocktail hour? We are planning to do it around the pool, but I am worried about there being enough space, and also wonder if there is space to set up more than one bar. I hate long lines for drinks. Good luck planning everyone, and congratulations again, PamelaVan! Kate

Congrats PamelaVan! We are getting married at Las Ranitas in February 2013, and would love any tips you could share as well! We love Angelina -- she was really the strongest argument for going with Las Ranitas. We let her know all the details we wanted, but we are trusting her to select the florist, hair/makeup assistance, soloist, mariachi, etc. We picked our own photographer (del Sol) and DJ (Doremixx). One thing I would love is recommendations for a place to host a welcome cocktail party the night before the wedding. Our issue is that we are expecting 160 guests, so it's hard to find a venue that can accommodate such a large group. Please let me know if you have ideas! Kate

We just booked at Las Ranitas! They have good room options for families and rooms at a variety of price points. I just posted about my recent site visit here.

So, we were in Tulum at the end of March for our site visits, and we are really glad we did them because we basically did a complete 180 from where we were prior to visiting. Prior to visiting, Ana y Jose Beach Club and Akiin Beach Club were at the top of my list, because I liked the idea of hosting the wedding somewhere that did not require booking out a hotel. I thought it would be better just to let everyone stay where they want and not have to stress about filling rooms. After visiting Tulum, I completely changed my mind about that. Even though I had been there a couple times before, I forgot how DARK it is at night. You can't see two feet in front of you. Plus everyone will be drunk and want to just flop into their beds. So I realized that actually, a hotel would be better (in my mind), because then at least a large chunk of guests will not have to do anything but wander back to their rooms after the party. For those who can't stay in the hotel we are hiring a shuttle and of course there are cabs, but we think those options sub-optimal. If you have already booked at Ana y Jose Beach Club, I wouldn't worry about it at all -- there are tons of hotel rooms nearby and getting around is not a big deal. We just realized that for us, the ideal would be to have the party on the hotel property. Thus, Cabanas Tulum, Las Ranitas, and Any y Jose Hotel became our top contenders. They all had a lot of pros. We thought the room options were better at Cabanas Tulum and Ana y Jose, but we liked the reception setting better at Las Ranitas. I thought the food was the best at Las Ranitas, although my fiance thought the food at El Bistro (Cabanas Tulum) was better. We cancelled our tasting at Ana y Jose because we had already seen the properties (both the beach club and hotel) and we didn't think the decision was going to come down to food, so I can't speak to the food there. A friend who ate at the hotel in January said the western-style food was bad, though, so I would stick to a Mexican menu. (We wouldn't want anything but Mexican at our wedding, anyway.) One thing we preferred about Las Ranitas over the other properties was their terraced restaurant, which we think is really beautiful. The biggest thing that sold it for us, though, was the connection we felt with the wedding coordinator at Las Ranitas, Angelina. I just felt that she really understood us, she was easygoing, friendly, and a good listener. She clearly was all about making our vision a reality, rather than imposing her preferences on us. I connected with her so much that I felt that even if we did not hold the wedding at Las Ranitas, she would be the one I would want for my wedding coordinator. It was really important to me that the person I would be working with for almost a year be someone I really liked and trusted, and I felt that Angelina could not be a better fit. After that it was just a matter of getting to a budget we could afford. At first Las Ranitas seemed a little overpriced to us, based on the other proposals we got, but they were very willing to negotiate, so eventually we got everything within our budget. They were also willing to accommodate all our special requests and details that are important to us. At this point I am so happy with our choice that I can't really imagine doing it anywhere else. Now we just have to wait until February!

I just tried it again and I didn't get a bounce-back this time, so hopefully it went through. Thanks so much for your help! Kate

Strange, I just tried emailing that address and my email got returned as undeliverable. Not sure what is going on...