yuniedo

@@Bestwithage you're exactly a week after me! Planning, what planning??? LOL I've been so busy with work and our engagement ceremony (an elaborate traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony) that I haven't done anything for the wedding. I've both my dress, but need to lose weight soon so I can fit into to (against everyone's advice, I bought it for my ideal weight!). Cecilia is really hard to get a hold of, just keep emailing. That's what I do. She eventually responds after a week or so. Every bride here, on the Cancun FB page, and my own friend who got married at Maroma last year, will assure you that most of the details is confirma s when you arrive and for some magical reason, they pull it off. And yes, a few of our guests wants to stay off resort. I'm was really bothered by that, but eventually decided that I can't tell people how to spend their money. But then what's upsetting now is that 80% of your guests have to stay T Secrets. And we're right around 80% (we have 6 friends already wanting to stay off the resort with 40 total guests). Let me know if you have any other questions or if you want to brain storm decor ideas. Lord knows I need to start. Also, if you want to reuse some of my decor (I plan to bring things like chargers, candles, sashes etc). We can split cost and I'll have already hauled it down there. You can choose to bring it back or just toss (it'll still be cheaper to toss compared to renting!). -Yune

Did any Maroma bride do the Ultimate package and would you be willing to share the ceremony video that was included? I'm debating on whether to use this, in addition, to the videographer or negotiate for a credit. Thank you so much!

Fellow Maroma Brides, I just wanted to pass along some info I received today from Cecilia. The external vendor fee is only $100 (just like the external guest fee). I've had a lot of trouble trying to reach Planner 1 (the preferred vendor) and with help from other brides on here, I know they are a lot more expensive then other vendors in the area. I've gotten some quotes from some other party rental companies and so far, it appears that they are much cheaper (even with the external vendor fee) than Planner 1. Just wanted to share since I felt like Planner 1 was the only option (either by rule or by external fee being too high), but that is NOT the case. -Yune @@FutureMrsReed good luck on the wedding dress hunt! I just started last weekend and I feel so lost. I like so many! I want to wear them all!!! Also, since your wedding is right after mine. I was wondering if you had planned on bringing any decor? If it works out that we can use some of the same things (linens or candle holders/lanterns or whatever), I can sell them to you, I'll bring it down to the resort and then can leave it with Cecilia for you. Then you can trash afterwards or bring it back to resell again. Let me know if you're interested. There's another bride from DRC who may be interested, but i would rather leave the stuff at Maroma instead of lugging to another resort.

@@FutureMrsReed That was our thinking too, a lot of our guests would have had to travel anyways. I'm from SoCal and the fiance is from DC, we could meet in the middle in the Midwest or we could meet in the middle in Mexico! I have not worked out my photo situation yet! That's what I'm working on right now. My problem is that I'm not really a pictures person (I don't take any, keep any or display any). While I would like to have a few nice photos, I won't be keeping an album to share with others. However, I would really like a short video that captures the essence of the whole day (I would personally like to see a 5-10 minute video rather than look through an album). Having both would really be expensive so I'm thinking of getting video for the whole day and only having photo there for maybe 2 hours to do a few shots by ourselves, the ceremony, and a few shots with family/friends afterwards. We went to a friend's wedding at Maroma in 2014 and she used Del Sol and were very happy. I've also been in contact with Juan Navarro (a preferred vendor) and I really like his work. And I know the resident photographers (Adventure Photos) sometimes get a a lot of flack for not being very good, but I met with them when we were there earlier this year and were able to look through a lot of their work. I think they're very good! They're still on my list. What about you?

@@FutureMrsReed We had the same problem with some people, a few even took it upon themselves to send us suggestions for cheaper places to hold our wedding. I gagged when I saw the places (and a lot of the cheaper places were not all inclusive so once you factor in everything, it wasn't that much cheaper). Can you go to Mexico for $1000? Absolutely. But the experience is going to be way different than if you spent $2000. Not to say that cheaper places aren't nice and wouldn't work for other people who have different priorities or constraints. But we personally didn't want to ask people to come all the way Mexico to stay at places we didn't personally think was worth it. And we also didn't want to hold our wedding at places we didn't love. To compromise, we told those who were on the fence about Secrets Maroma that they are welcomed to stay elsewhere and join us only for the wedding day. However, we knew there would be a few people who would legitimately have financial problems (vs those who simply didn't want to spend the money to come to our wedding in Mexico because they didn't like Mexico, but had no problem going to a destination wedding in Italy because they like Italy), e.g. our younger siblings who are still in college/grad school with no extra income. For those people, we asked them to save whatever they could (they had a year notice), and we would make up whatever they couldn't. Just for your reference, our wedding is a week before yours on 5/14/16 (do you need a planning buddy!?), most people are paying $1800 for flights (from the East Coast) and 5 nights stay. -Yune

Hey everyone, I've had to take a little break from planning because of work, but I'm back! So we're sure now we want to do our reception on the beach instead of by the gazebo because we want to do one long dinner table for all 40 guests. I had a question regarding lighting for past beach brides, how much did you use? I'm envisioning 4 chandeliers and A LOT of candles in the center of the table, running the entire length of the table. Do you think it will be enough light once the sun goes down? Secondly, for those who used the spa for hair and makeup, were you happy? Thanks everyone!

@@MissFrench thanks for the tip! I contacted her and am waiting for her to come back from a trip to discuss details. She has amazing prices! Are you using her for anything?

@@KayRae thank you so much for all of your assistance! @@MissFrench do you mind if I contacted you for some questions, especially about Mayan Florals?

@@KayRae of course I looked at your videos and pictures Gorgeous! My email is Yune.T.Do@@gmail.com. Im particularly interested in Tiffany chairs, long rectangular tables, more elaborate flowers, candles and candle holders, either string lights or strong lanterns - I believe all things you incorporated! Out of curiosity, did you compare prices between planner 1 and Mayan florals (a preferred vendor I believe)? Are the rectangular tables your used (ones not needing linens) more expensive than the ones needing linens? Did you get the colored LED lights through the DJ or planner1? As for your videographer, how many hours of coverage did you get and how much did the device cost - if you don't mind me asking. Your video was amazing and I would be so happy if we can get it, assuming its within budget. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all these questions!

@@KayRae Thank you for that insight! I did get to watch two weddings while I was down there and they were absolutely gorgeous. The staff did try to focus their attention on the area behind the wedding gazebo, clearing it of the seaweed so the pictures would look a little better. Again, I know Mother Nature will do what she likes, but I appreciated the staff's efforts. Im still waiting for Cecilia to email me the prices for all decor upgrades. But if anyone still has a recent copy on hand and would be willing to share, I would be really grateful! Also, I know the pool gazebo is the most popular spot to have the reception. But I was wondering what people's opinion are about doing the reception on the beach? We are going to do a bonfire and lounge with cigars and finger dessert on the beach, in place of dancing. Would it make more sense to do dinner where we'll be hanging out afterwards (and people can transition when they want) rather than dinner by the pool gazebo and then having everyone move at the same time down to the beach to hang out? The one benefit to doing dinner at the gazebo would be that we can do our first dance (only dance during the night) without having to pay for a dance floor no one would use during lounge time. Thanks everyone!

@@KayRae thanks for the response! I just met with Cecilia today and she confirmed that we can use both live and LED candles! We put down our deposits and have actually even ironed out a lot of the details for our wedding next year! For all the brides from 2015, and specifically brides recently, did you have a problem with the seaweed? I was at Maroma last year in April and the beach was spotless with no seaweed. But there is so much seaweed now! There are mounds and mounds and the hotel has a tractor and a couple of people out there all day trying to clean it up. But it's so sad watching them because what they manage to clean up would be replaced by more seaweed washing up. I know there's no way to predict Mother Nature, seaweed is kind of like rain. But it makes me so sad thinking that the pristine beach which Maroma is known to be could be a seaweed infested ocean. It doesn't make a very nice backdrop, especially because we want to do our ceremony and reception on the beach I did some research and it seems like this year has been really bad for the whole region. I'm just so worried it will be a problem again next year? I talked to the staff here and they were saying it's been an unusual problem since January, but it comes and goes every few weeks (there will be a few weeks of no seaweed and then a few weeks of endless seaweed). So there's just no predicting. Does anyone know why there is so much season this year (hurricanes/weather/ocean current)?

@@KayRae @@MissFrench Thanks so much ladies, I've reached out to different TAs and its been really helpful! Does anyone know if Maroma allows regular candles or do they require LED candles? It looks like I'll be a Maroma bride on May 14, 2016!

Maroma brides, which travel agent did you use and were you able to get good rates through them? There is a slight chance that I may not have any kids attend the wedding at Dreams Riviera Cancun and would like to move it to Secrets Maroma, if that will be the case - I love the resort, have been three times, once for a wedding, it's such a dream! But my agent is saying that it would be at least $1400 per person for three nights (based on double occupancy), more as we go up the room category. This doesn't seem to make sense since I just went on Maroma's website and it's currently on $1225 per person for the same three nights/based on double occupancy. Also, I'm going to Maroma again next week to do my site visit at Dreams and only spent $1000 per person for three nights. I am looking to get married end of February/beginning of March and am looking for rooms where check in in is Fri and check out is Mon. Can anyone weigh in on what rates they were able to get and what TAs they used? Thanks!

@@smileitseb I'll keep my fingers crossed for sunshine on your wedding day! Plus, my experience with Mexico has been that it rains for a little bit and tend to pass quickly. General question for everyone, did you use a TA or did you do your room blocks/airfare through the resort? And if you used a TA, would you rec them? I'd appreciate any recs since I've never used one before. Thanks!

@@jenna85 did you use a TA or did you do your room block through DRC? And did you get any promotions, i.e. free/upgraded rooms or a cocktail welcome party? I'm really worried about the resort being sold out, I guess I need to move on this! @@BeachBride2016 if you have any questions you want answers to, I'd be happy to ask them on my visit (if you haven't already found them on this website).