mexiwedding

@@Maurindy2016 I hope you have an amazing wedding!!! And that Barbara is a thousands times better than Yanin! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back. Make sure to have Barbara walk you through a rain backup plan so that you and your guests aren't just waiting in the lobby for 2 hours! Good luck good luck it will be GREAT!!

Hi Brides! I just got back from my wedding and am pasting my trip advisor review below. Hate to be the bearer of bad news and wish each of you the best of luck!! I was told that Yanin my wedding planner was actually fired for ruining not just my wedding but several others last week. __________________MY REVIEW____________________ https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1229340-d6966139-r381511916-Finest_Playa_Mujeres-Playa_Mujeres_Yucatan_Peninsula.html ***DO NOT GET MARRIED HERE!!!!!!*** I got married here on Sunday June 5 and ours was the ONLY wedding that day so there really is no reason for it to have been such a disaster. We brought in 96 guests and everyone stayed for 4 - 9 nights so they definitely made a ton of money off of our guests stay, our welcome party, and our wedding day - so to be treated the way we were is absolutely appalling. This resort is clearly too new and incompetent to host weddings. WEDDING PLANNER - Yanin Arteaga - We planned our wedding in 9 months and originally had Luzdary as our planner. We were able to meet her in person when we came for a site visit over labor day and she was very warm, friendly, and seemed excited to help us pan our big day. A couple months later, we were transferred to Yanin Arteaga and things were terrible from then on - Yanin would take at least 2 weeks to reply to our emails, and she never once answered each question in our email (even though we numbered them and made them as clear as possible!) - She never explained to us when she needed our menu selections, decor etc...so we missed several deadlines just waiting on responses from her - There is a spreadsheet of costs that she asked us to fill out and update throughout the planning process, and each time she emailed us back with her feedback, it would be a blank spreadsheet so we had to keep reconciling and filling it out to find the changes that she made - We had many guests that needed specialty meals (vegetarian, gluten-free, kosher, kids meals etc...) and Yanin never told us how to specify which guest needed which meal so we ended up just buying stickers to put on their seating cards - When the day came, NOBODY GOT THE CORRECT MEAL! - We did not hear from Yanin for an entire month before our wedding and we still had 12 outstanding questions! My anxiety was so high during the whole planning process! - One of our family members was supposed to get an upgraded room and the resort gave the upgrade to the wrong guest. They never tried to fix the situation or apologize for their mistake. The resort was only at 70% capacity so they had plenty of rooms they could have upgraded the correct guest to but refused. MEETING OUR WEDDING PLANNER - We had a meeting scheduled months in advance to meet Yanin for the first time face-to-face on June 2 to go over all questions and details. She emailed us June 1 saying she needed to move the meeting an hour earlier to 9am instead of 10am. No big deal, at this point we were just anxious to meet her and finally hear from her. - She showed up to the meeting at 9:40am. No apology for being late. No apology for ignoring us for a month. No "congratulations!” Nothing. All she cared about was us paying our final balance. - I printed and emailed her a detailed timeline of how I wanted the entire wedding day to be (she had this months in advance too) and she assured us that everything would be taken care of. She kept telling us not to worry. - I asked her if I needed to stay back to help clean up our decorations after the reception to make sure we got all of them back and she assured us that SHE would take care of the clean up and would put all of our decorations into the suitcase that we gave her and deliver it to our room the next day. This never happened – not only did she not stay back to gather all of our décor, but she then lost all of our decorations AND lost our suitcase! For 3 days after our wedding she kept telling us the suitcase was on its way to our room…then she finally admitted she lost it the day before we checked out. To rectify the situation, she tried to give us an old ratty SMALL suitcase that belonged to another wedding couple. RIDICULOUS! Again – no apology from her. - Yanin misquoted me on my bridal bouquet and told me the cost would be $215. When we arrived for our meeting she then told us it would actually be $350!!! And that it was too late to do anything about it. I already thought $215 was too much to be spending! At this point with her bad attitude, we just decided to let it go and pay the $350 - We finalized all decoration details, our welcome party, and she assured us she would be there with us at the welcome party as well as all day on the wedding day. We left the meeting feeling a little less anxious and stayed positive that everything we were told would actually happen...silly us to have trusted our planner and the resort. Please see below: PRIVATE WELCOME PARTY – not private at all!!! - This was supposed to be on a private area on the beach but it rained - we of course do not blame the resort for this, however, their lack of communication and back up plan completely ruined this for us! - Yanin was supposed to meet all 96 of us at the lobby bar and she of course was late. She finally showed up after the Groom had to contact reception and get other staff to hunt her down. - We were taken to the Lizo Mexican restaurant for the open bar and appetizers but we had no idea whether the Private Fire Show that we spent $1200 on would still be happening. Again - Yanin disappeared. It is ridiculous that she did not have an assistant or anyone to stay behind with guests to keep us informed of the plan. - The groom gave a welcome toast thanking all of our guests for being here for us and we left out the announcement about the fire show bc we were clueless on where Yanin was so then our guests started leaving the party... - The groom FINALLY found Yanin (again he was running all over the resort trying to hunt her down when he should have been enjoying our welcome party) We were told the fire show would now be in the Theater so we had to guide our own guests to the Theater to start the show. This consisted of us calling/texting and running around trying to get our guests who went back to their rooms already to come back out (what a mess!!!) - None of the staff moved our open bar drinks OR the food we paid for our guests to continue to enjoy - Yanin was nowhere to be found and there were no signs showing that this event was private so MANY other resort guests came in and enjoyed the fire show that we paid for. Random guests were sitting throughout in between our guests, in laws, family members etc… SPA SERVICES - I made a hair and makeup trial appointment for the day before the wedding and was promised that the same woman doing my trial would also do my wedding day services. I show up to find out the main lady who does bridal hair/makeup was not working that day so they gave me someone new named Lucy. I asked Lucy if she knew how to contour my face and she said yes…but then she proceeded to add dark brown makeup down the center of my nose and connecting my mouth with triangles. My girlfriend had to tell her that she was doing it wrong and that she was supposed to HIGHLIGHT those areas, NOT make them darker. Lucy then asked my friend to google how to contour to show her a picture of how to do it. At that point, my face makeup had already been wiped off by Lucy 3 times as she attempted to put makeup on me so I just told her I would do it myself. I immediately cancelled my wedding day Makeup appointment and had to do it myself with my friend. - Bridal Hair: My hair was ok. I ended up keeping it down with loose beach curls so it is hard to mess that up. I do think they did not spray it very well bc my hair was completely straight after an hour but I think I mostly blame humidity for that - Bridesmaid Hair: I treated my bridesmaids to up-dos on the wedding day and even though we showed the spa the same picture of how we wanted it, each girls hair came out in different beehives and a few of them fell shortly after so we had to fix them for each other with our own bobby pins. - After spending $1,000 on everyone’s appointments at the spa on the wedding day, we expected a LOT better RESORT VIDEO/PHOTOGRAPHY - Our wedding package included 24 digital photos and a video of our wedding ceremony. Even though we hired outside photographers and videographers, we figured we would at least use the free services that came with our package and we heard that another bride was able to use it for the welcome party but when we asked they said we had to use it on the wedding day. The resort is not willing to do brides ANY favors…despite spending $20k on a wedding! - We just got home from Mexico and were excited to watch our ceremony video only to realize they gave us the WRONG WEDDING!! So…if any bride out there got my video by mistake, please message me and we can trade. Thank GOODNESS we hired our own videographer. WEDDING DAY LOGISTICS – Yanin was nowhere to be found!!! - The groom had to run around all day starting at 10am to find out the rain plan since it was obvious that a storm was coming yet we weren’t told anything by Yanin - Groom again had to go to reception and ask other staff members to find our wedding planner - Our first look was scheduled for 3PM and our bouquets were supposed to be delivered to our room by Noon. Well when 3:30PM hit and we still DID NOT HAVE ANY BOUQUETS, my sister-in-law had to go hunt down the planner. My cousin-in-law even helped us track her down and told us he saw the planner pushing a cart of our bouquets and DROPPED THEM ON THE FLOOR. They arrived wilted and crushed. - Our Ceremony was scheduled for 5:30PM at the outdoor Stone Gazebo and we finally heard from Yanin at 4PM that the ceremony would still be held at the Gazebo - It started pouring rain at 4:30PM so that was a bad call on the wedding planners part CEREMONY - Again, we do not blame the resort for the pouring rain, but they knew all day that it would rain so it is unacceptable that our Ceremony was delayed 2 hours! Especially bc all that they had to move from the Stone Gazebo were the chairs, lanterns and stones. It’s not like we had TONS of decorations set up since we planned to use the beach scenery - All 96 of us were left stranded at the lobby bar for 2 hours with Yanin nowhere in sight. We had no idea if the wedding was completely cancelled or not. Finally at 7:15, a staff member told a few of our guests to move to the ballroom, which required a short walk outside – they did not have enough umbrellas!! - When the ceremony was finally starting we learned that there were not enough chairs for our guests, even though we prepaid $7 per chair PLUS an extra $2 moving fee per chair - The AC was also not on and it was VERY HOT AND HUMID inside - The ceiling was also leaking water on our guests that were seated - Yanin also forgot to reserve the front row for the Groom’s parents - Yanin forgot the aisle runner and stone decorations - Yanin forgot to move our floral centerpieces into the ballroom with high tables for decoration – we basically got stuffed into a hideous dark, hot, humid room with a beautiful “exit” sign above our heads that made it into every picture. Where were the curtains on the walls that we ordered?!?! COCKTAIL HOUR - The cocktail hour also did not have any AC after we reminded them the day before and several guests walked back to the hotel to ask them to turn the AC on - Yanin forgot to set up our polaroid guestbook and I had to hunt her down and ask her to set it up 30 minutes into our cocktail hour - The musical trio band that we hired never showed up to the cocktail hour and Yanin had no updates for us. She didn’t even play any other background music for us or help rectify the situation - All of our appetizers were ice cold, stale and hard…it was clear that despite everything starting 2 hours late, the kitchen never REMADE fresh food for our guests. This means the food was cooked at 5:30 and just sat outside until our cocktail hour started at 8PM. - Yanin promised that she would make an announcement a few minutes before cocktail hour ended so that I could get a group picture of all of our guests – she of course FORGOT to do this even after I reminded her the day before - The bathroom facilities had 3 inches of water flooded so none of our guests could use the restrooms during the ceremony, cocktail AND reception. RECEPTION - Reception timeline was not followed at all. I had to keep reminding the DJ and staff of our timeline. At one point I went to find Yanin to ask her to bring out the wedding cake and I found her dancing behind the DJ booth while wearing the glow sticks that I BROUGHT FOR OUR GUESTS! Glad she was having a good time instead of facilitating the reception…ridiculous. - They finally brought the cake out and Jon and I did the cake cutting pictures, but then they NEVER SERVED CAKE, COFFEE OR TEA! It wasn’t until Midnight that I noticed the cake was still sitting in the front of the room uncut!! I found out later that our guests just assumed it was a fake cake since nobody served it. I was so upset that we paid for cake for 100 people and nobody got a slice! So I asked them to deliver the cake to our room and I planned to hand it out to our guests the next morning. They assured us they would deliver the cake…IT NEVER CAME. They also lost our cake topper that we customized from home. - Specialty meals: None of our guests got the correct specialty meal (vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free, kids meal) We saw one guest who was supposed to have a vegetarian meal and all she was served was Mashed potatoes and 3 slivers of vegetables. The staff basically removed the steak and scallops from the main meal and served the remaining sides as “vegetarian meal”!!! - Yanin forgot to bring out the photo props that we brought for the polaroid guestbook - Yanin forgot the balloons that we ordered for the DJ to pass our during the dancing part of the reception - The entrance to the reception was leaking water onto guests from the ceiling WEDDING NIGHT/SPECIAL SERVICES - Yanin forgot to inform reception to put a “Just Married” sign outside of our door the morning after our wedding like we saw other guests have on their doors. Our groomsman, my husband and myself had to ask reception on 3 different occasions and we finally got our sign 3 days later - Yanin forgot to order our romantic turndown service on the wedding night and instead we came back to a filthy room without anything special. We were treated like regular guests for our entire stay – she never made us feel special or excited about our wedding day. She should NOT be in the wedding planning business MEDICAL EMERGENCY - Due to the lack of Air Conditioning for all of our wedding events, this led to our uncle collapsing in the middle of our reception and having to be carried out by our groomsmen and wedding guests. Yanin and Medical assistance was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! Our guests had to rush through 3 inches of the flooded bathroom to get wet towels to try to bring our uncle back to consciousness – it was such a scary time!!! In the moment we all thought he had a stroke. - Yanin finally showed up and we were yelling to her to get help…and she just froze and stood there. Did not make a single move. So our groomsman had to run all the way across the street to the main lobby and frantically yell for an ambulance. So much time had passed before my uncle got any medical assistance. I absolutely blame the resort for not only CAUSING my uncle to faint but for their lack of response in making his condition worse. OUTSIDE GUESTS - We had 3 guests staying at another resort that would be attending our wedding, and we prepaid the $150 cost per person, yet when the guests arrived on the wedding day, the resort tried to charge them $150 per person! Thankfully our guest called my father-in-law and he was able to set them straight – otherwise they would have been paid twice and we would have never known! - Beware – this is a money hungry resort and they have no problem double charging guests!!! AFTER WEDDING MEETINGS - After our wedding disaster, we scheduled a meeting with Yanin’s boss – Barbara. Barbara was kind and was the first apology we heard after everything so that was a nice change of pace. She did not try to deny all of the things that went wrong, however the only compensation she offered us was….wait for it…..”2 free night stay during our NEXT VISIT” W.T.F. That doesn’t even cover the wedding cake that we never received!!! Not to mention the $1000 we spent on wilted bouquets, or chairs that were never delivered, or the fire show that was NOT PRIVATE. We told her that wasn’t enough so she said she would call corporate and for us to come back 4 hours later. When we came back, her answer was the same – all they can offer is 2 free nights the next time we come back. - Barbara also informed us that Yanin was fired and that we would never have to communicate with her again. - So…naturally my husband and I caused a scene and told her we would never come back and announced that nobody should get married here! Thankfully we did this because several other brides approached us throughout the day letting us know that their weddings were also ruined that weekend. One bride had Yanin and another had Viviana. So I can only assume all of their wedding planners are awful and make promises they can’t keep. - Then to add salt to our wound, they lost all of our wedding decorations including the expensive suitcase that they were stored in!!! As compensation, they tried to give us a small old suitcase….I can only assume that this was a suitcase from another couple that they previously lost. - We were disgusted that after all that went wrong on our wedding day, not a single staff member called us the next day to apologize, check in or at the very least see how our uncle was recovering. - Wedding Cake was never delivered to our room so we literally just paid for something that never saw the light of day. MY ADVICE For those brides who have upcoming weddings already scheduled, my best advice is the following: 1. Do NOT pay for all fees up front. Try to reserve some of the funds until they prove that your wedding will be a success. 2. DO NOT give them your wedding decorations. Had I known they would lose mine, I would have asked a family member to help with decorations on the day of. 3. Assign someone from your wedding party to hunt down your planner on the wedding day so that the bride and groom can focus on getting themselves ready and to relieve stress bc I guarantee you that your planner will not be available to you.

@@Maurindy2016 Thanks for the info!!! Sadly we already made our seating cards all in the same color but maybe i can buy stickers. She told us we could only make one entree option for our guests but that we could have vegetarian/gluten/pescatarian. Do you know what the specialty meals include? If it isn't too much trouble can you please send me her email about seating cards? kim.angel.le@@gmail.com For my program I included Officiant, reader, wedding party, schedule, a note honoring our deceased family members, and a brief thank you message. I can upload a photo once they arrive if that helps! My aunt is officiating for us but I think it is ok for you to leave your officiant out if you are using the resorts? For the ballroom seating layout we drew up a mockup and sent it to her but have not heard anything back! We need 10 tables so we are doing 5 round table and 5 long rectangle tables and just alternating between each throughout the ballroom. I like your idea of making really long rectangle tables though - how many people are you fitting at these? Yanin is letting me squeeze 11 people at one of my rectangle ones but the rest only have 10 at each. @@lizzjameson your makeup looks amazing! i love the eyeliner too! good idea about pictures....now I need to scour for some too LOL good tip abouot the english. my fiance's mom is bolivian so maybe I will ask her to accompany me to help communicate? or is that overkill bridezilla-ish??

@@Maurindy2016 I feel like I am very close to done. A huge bummer is not having heard from Yanin in 3 weeks now since I have open questions! Out of my 95 guests - 6 need either vegetarian or gluten free meals. I have already printed out our seating cards since I never heard back from Yanin on how I would indicate which guest needed a special meal. Does anyone know how it is done?? I am hoping Yanin can give us a sticker to put on their seating card or something? I did programs using vista print and welcome bags. I included personalized sunglasses, hangover kit (bandaids, tylenol, tums), aloe vera, mexican candy, wedding schedule, mini beach balls Has anyone used their makeup services? I am so nervous that they won't know how to do asian makeup - sometimes i end up looking like a clown I set up a trial so fingers crossed! I have been having flashback issues with my current foundation so need to find one that doesn't make me look like a ghost when flash is used.

@@lizzjameson YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!! Thank you so much for sharing your pics. Congratulations!!!!!!! Man I haven't heard from Yanin for 3 weeks now!! It is so frustrating but you helped calm me so hopefully when I get there on June 1 she is more responsive and organized. My ceremony starts at 5:30pm...I hope it doesn't get dark too quickly!! Did you bring your own music for the ceremony? If so does Yanin help play the songs for us? Can't wait to see more pics when you have time!!!! Congrats again!!!!!! My wedding is in 18 days!! Eeeek!!!!

@@robynm10 Awesome! Thanks for the info. I am getting married June 5, 2016 - SO CLOSE!!!

@@robynm10 Wow a new platform?!?!! That's so awesome- do you happen to have any pictures? Is the view as nice as the view from Sky Bar? Thanks so much for the information! When is your big day??

@@lizzjameson You are AWESOME!!!! Thank you Which photo app did you decide on? We are using Wedpics and added our password to our programs so hopefully guests will participate. What is your notarized letter for? (sorry if I am being nosy - just want to make sure it isn't something I have forgotten to do) Soooo excited for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

@@lizzjameson This is helpful! Thank you for sharing this. Would love to hear of any final to dos you have so I don't forget anything!!!

@@emmycita I also failed at being able to transfer our included photo services t the night before. They will NOT budge And we are spending over 25K! They aren't willing to offer any discount on anything. Luzdary my original WC told me that the beach party is directly in front of Las Dunas. Maybe since your wedding is Monday they will change the White party to Sunday that week? Can you please tell me a little bit about your Beach Bonfire? What does it include? Smores?? How many people? What was the cost? I am considering doing this instead of the Mayan Fire show in case the beach is already doing a Mayan show for their beach party. @@lizzjameson Unfortunately they wont let us make any reservations big or small until we check in. They advise to meet with the concierge as soon as we arrive to set up any reservations we need. It's really annoying they won't even let us make reservations beforehand so we can tell our guests Does anyone know what restaurants are open each night? It seems like not all of them are open everyday - Do they at least keep a good variety of them open every night? I know my guests are all excited for the food Myself included.

@@Maurindy2016 Hi there! Yanin told me Thursday was Bollywood and that Monday was the White Party. My wedding is on Sunday June 5 so hopefully I am not making my guests miss the White party Yanin made it seem like they only have special beach parties on Thursdays and Mondays. I believe there is a show each night though.

Does anyone know what time the resort Beach Party begins on Thursdays? I would like to add it to our schedule print out in the Welcome bags Though I wonder if it is overkill to add this event to our schedule on top of the Welcome Party and wedding festivities. I don't want guests to feel forced into going to the resort party. Any thoughts on this?

@@lizzjameson Thanks so much for sharing your details! I love the charger and note Your wedding menu looks gorgeous too - I think I am going to be cheap and not print the menu out Congratulations!! I hope the weather cooperates - you are smart for getting married in Spring - I hope it isn't too hot and humid. I am sure I will be melting at mine in June.

@@lizzjameson Best wishes to you and can't wait to hear all about it and see your gorgeous pics!!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!

@@lizzjameson No I did not but great suggestions - will ask her now! Hmm I don't know what other options we have if they are already offering that show...something that would accommodate 90+ guests.... Yanin also just told me that the resort changed their schedule and is having a Bollywood Party on Thursdays and a White Party on Mondays - FYI. Back when we visited them in September, we were told that they alternate between a White Party or Pirate Party every Thursday. I've heard they are strict with Men's dress code at the resort restaurants and my older relatives are wondering what they should wear. Does anyone know what Men should wear? Are sneakers? Jeans? Polos allowed?

@@SusanMarie813 The resort photographer is telling us that we can ONLY use the included package for the wedding day As for seating - so you had no say on making sure your family sat closer to you guys? @@Maurindy2016 Since my wedding is on the larger side, we are just going to book a Mayan Fire Show the day before the wedding and give a welcome toast to our guests.

@@lizzjameson Whoa thanks for the tip - they didn't give me deadlines for anything!! LOL I will get working on my selections this week then! If you find a map, can you please let me know?? I would love to include it in our welcome bags as well. Did they send you a seating chart template to fill out with the layout of your reception? Or do we have to draw this up for them? I can't wait to see pictures of all of your weddings!!!!! <3

@@lizzjameson I agree! So hard to decide and I haven't even made decisions yet. Please share what you decide as well

We are only doing a Symbolic Ceremony at the resort and plan to get married officially in Virginia right before. I am not sure if we need to bring any additional paperwork with us to Mexico since it is just symbolic.

@@emmycita I love your schedule of a Champagne Toast and group photo. Did you have to pay extra for a champagne toast or is that included with our package? I really don't want to miss my cocktail hour so want to get pictures done beforehand as well. Where ais your ceremony being help? Are you just going to have the Officiant announce for everyone to stay at the venue for pictures or will you be meeting your guests somewhere else? (i.e. the beach) We have the most expensive package (I think it is Gold??). We had asked them to sen us a picture of what was included with the Stone Gazebo decor and their photo included seashells so I followed up to ask what other options we had. Maybe you can try asking the same? Don't let them charge you extra for it! I also agree with @@SusanMarie813 and plan to argue if they do not let us use our 24 photos for something other than the wedding day. We are hoping to use ours for our Welcome Fire Show the night before.

@@SusanMarie813 Great idea. I will look for that posting on this thread. Did you just take a taxi to go pick them up? I recall you saying your coordinator may have helped with that. Were you able to negotiate prices or any extras? Since we are bringing them so much business I am trying to negotiate prices or extra services but it is not as effective to negotiate over email. They don't seem open to setting up time to talk on the phone. Did you all basically just plan via email too?

@@Maurindy2016 I am getting married at the Stone Gazebo! Yanin just confirmed that the decorations that are included are rose pedals, seashells/starfish OR candles (I opted for candles), a brown-ish aisle runner. I don't plan on adding anything extra since the area and view are just so gorgeous! They said that if you do center pieces for your reception, that they can bring a couple of those centerpieces for you to use during your ceremony as well. I really want to do a sparkler exit as well but not sure if it is still possible since we have moved our reception into the ballroom. They actually told me the cost was $160 for 30 sparklers, though after seeing that you were only quoted $60 maybe they did a typo to me??? I thought $160 was insane!!!

@@lizzjameson That centerpiece is gorgeous! I am so bummed that Cala Lilies aren't available from May - Sept. I have been struggling with which center pieces to choose as well since I will be needing 10+ tables in their ballroom.

Luzdary told me that Sky Bar would not need extra lighting either. What kind of exit are you guys planning to do from the Sky deck? If I keep Sky deck as my reception venue, the only decoration I was going to add was a chandelier above the sweetheart table. The view is so gorgeous up there that I think you could get away with minimal decoration to cut down on costs. My main worry is if we move it to a ballroom that I will prob need to spend more on decor... My wedding colors are Mint and Peach. My BMs are wearing mint dresses and I am really hoping to do peach flowers for my bouquets but the picture quality in the flower brochures are really bad so I can't tell if they will come out more pink or orange. I am interested to know what yall did/are doing for Ceremony music. ipod? dc? etc... And how many songs do we need? I am so clueless...

@@lizzjameson WOW your welcome bags are GORGEOUS and such creative items inside!!!!! Handwritten notes too!?!? So thoughtful! Are you gong to be delivering them yourselves or are you paying the $4 fee? How has Yanin been? I LOVED Luzdary and just "met" yanin through email yesterday. @SusanMarie813 - Great idea to use the package for trash the dress!!! I love that idea - did you do your Trash the dress the morning after your wedding?