Ceiba del Mar: Hotel in general: A+

Ceiba del Mar more than exceeded my expectations from the moment I arrived there for our site visit. I have traveled a LOT (over 30 countries), and I had very high and specific standards for the resort that I was going to ask all of my friends and family to take a vacation to. To say I stressed about the decision is a huge understatement. Choosing the resort was the absolute most stressful part of wedding planning for me, and I spent months and months researching them before making my decision. I ended up choosing CdM due to their extremely high ratings and good reviews on TripAdvisor (it’s never let me down before!), the small, boutique feel of the resort while still offering all-inclusive (we knew we wanted all-inclusive so that everyone would be on the resort every evening, but we didn’t want a 500 room hotel where we’d never see anyone), and, most importantly, due to the ability to personalize my wedding. With Ceiba del Mar, we were able to choose every single one of our vendors, and we knew that because of it, our wedding would be completely different from any other wedding held there. This option isn’t for everyone, some people would go crazy having to do all the vendor bookings, negotiating, and legwork.  But it was worth it to us to have that truly unique wedding, and not just be “Wedding Package A” (and thank god my mom stepped up and helped us out a LOT!!).

Upon arrival at CdM, you are greeted with awesome welcome drinks (Kir Royales) and a cool towel. The rooms were beyond incredible. Our first time staying there, my mom and I went for a site visit and we stayed in the cheapest room (Deluxe Room) to see the room that most of our guests would get. It was gorgeous! Every room has an ocean view, hammock, sitting area, and all organic and natural products in the bathroom (including the BEST smelling shampoo ever!). For our wedding, my parents were upgraded to a Masters Suite (which I thought was such a great touch of CdM, upgrading my parents and my husband’s parents. They all REALLY appreciated it!) and my husband and I were upgraded to the Penthouse. I didn’t take pictures of rooms, but they can all be seen online: www.ceibadelmar.com Here is part of our room, when we returned to it after the wedding:

Oh, and every single room gets a welcome tequila! It was very popular with our guests, and we have plenty of pics of people shooting the worm haha.

The actual resort is just plain stunning. Walking around there it is so serene and quiet, and the entire setting is so natural. You really don’t feel like you’re at a resort, you feel like you are in a little village. This is exactly what we wanted! There aren’t massive groups everywhere, there are no areas where you’re just walking through huge expanses of buildings, and you get to know all of the employees by name. Huge shout out to the PHENOMENAL pool bartender – Jesus – who served our crazy crowd all day every day and was the best mixer in Mexico!!

Anyone who has looked at Ceiba del Mar knows they have a gorgeous pier that is the best spot for taking pictures (or having a wedding, if you don’t mind the wind!). Our favorite pics of the wedding were on this pier, but it was also a very popular place for jumping off of during the day! A bunch of the guys, husband included, also took a dive trip, booked through the resort that left directly from the pier. Super convenient.

There are only 2 restaurants at the resort, which was the only less than positive things I read about the resort prior to going. While it does start to get old eating at the same two restaurants for an entire week, I have been to big all-inclusive resorts that have 6-10 restaurants, and they are all sub-par. My husband and I are foodies, and good food was very important to us. The food served at Ceiba del Mar was all incredible food. And some of the dishes were so incredible, that I didn’t even want to try other things because I wanted to eat as much of them as I could! Try their shrimp fajitas at lunch and the shrimp ceviche Acapulco style if you ever go there. I think everyone in our group ate at least one ceviche per day, it was that good. We did quickly learn that going to lunch/dinner in big groups (one night we had 20 of us sit down together for dinner!) was a bit of a headache. At dinner we didn’t mind waiting a little longer to get everything, but we started to try to split up more for lunch, as no one wanted to spend 2 hours of sun time sitting in the restaurant. Also, the pool bar has it’s own menu that is all fantastic food! Their fried calamari is one of the best calamari dishes I’ve ever had. The perk is you don’t waste any time sitting in the restaurant, they’ll bring it right to you:)

Wedding Coordinator: Paola: A+

Paola was a dream to work with. One of the things that really sold us on Ceiba was the communication. They are one of the only resorts that we corresponded with that always responded to us within a day! I never waited more than a day for a response from Paola or Diana (sales), which is practically unheard of in Mexico. We even had some resorts respond to us 2-3 weeks after we contacted them! This was unacceptable for me, as no bride should have to have that added stress to their planning. Paola and Diana were always responsive, had great recommendations, planned out all of our meetings with vendors during our site visit, made sure that everything ran smoothly on the big day, and were just plain fantastic. We never could’ve done it all without Paola’s help, organization, and skills. She is the absolute best wedding coordinator!

Wedding Ceremony: “Sushi Terrace”: A+

Paola told us we were the first people to have our wedding on this terrace, and that was a huge shock to us as we can’t imagine a more perfect place for a wedding! Although, the beach is probably the preferred location for most destination brides, so it makes sense that most of the weddings are there:)  However, I love heels and I’m about 8 inches shorter than my husband, so I knew that a wedding in the sand was a no go for me from the very beginning. Finding a resort with a nice wedding site off the sand, where it wasn’t in the middle of the pool deck and surrounded by other guests, was MUCH harder than you’d expect. It was a huge deal breaker for me with a lot of resorts, their lack of options for non-beach weddings. The site at Ceiba was the absolute most gorgeous site I’ve seen, and it was the dream location for us. A large terrace that could fit all 70 of our guests, gorgeous views looking out over the ocean, and no big, awkward structures (or sunbathing guests!) to block it.

Wedding Reception: Yaxche Terrace: A+

I loved how this reception area was set away from the resort on it’s own little area. It was perfect for our late night party (we paid extra to have the party go till midnight!) and our crazy group.

The food served was all awesome. We had a mixed greens salad with peppers, goat cheese, and candied pecans for an appetizer. For the entrée our guests had a choice of 3: steak in a garlic sauce with potatoes in a sour cream sauce (most popular one!), sea bass with a red pepper sauce and potatoes (what I had because it was my favorite at the tasting, but it was the only one that I wasn’t really impressed with at the actual wedding), and chicken stuffed with cheese and spinach, in a white wine sauce (my personal favorite!).  Dessert was a peach tart that was amaaaaaaaazing. I could’ve eaten ten of them. We also had our cake made at the resort, it was red velvet. It was very good, and they did a gorgeous job of decorating it. However we also ordered a groom’s cake from an outside vendor (will get the name from my mom, it was her surprise for my husband. He’s a helicopter pilot and it’s in the shape of his helicopter!) and that cake was one of the best cakes I have ever eaten. We all enjoyed it the day after the wedding!

How amazing are these glow margarita glasses??? They are from Omniglow (http://www.omniglow.com/og/), as are all the glow necklaces and hearts you may see in reception pictures. I think they’re the perfect addition to a wedding held outside at night, and they were a big hit with all our guests. I’m obsessed with how awesome these glasses look in all the pictures! I fully intend on buying more for parties in the future:) The best part is that Omniglow has a facility IN Mexico, so we didn’t have to carry any of this with us!! They just arrived at our resort and were waiting for us, no issues with carrying them or with customs.

Rehearsal Dinner: Alux Restaurant: A

http://aluxlounge.net/  I’m hesitant to write too much about this because I simply was an attendee. I had no part in any of the planning process, my mother-in-law did it ALL. The only thing I even knew until the day of the rehearsal was where it was being held at, and that Jose Berdasco (below) was coordinating it. But I can say that it was the most incredible and unique experience and our guests were SO impressed by it! It’s a giant cave (we had some claustrophobic guests, and there was a separate, more wide open entrance they could enter through), and they performed an entire Mayan dance show then gave my husband and I a Mayan blessing (which Jose translated for us). It was decorated by Eventos Euforia (Mayalen), who also did our wedding and is AMAZING. The food was okay, but not incredible. However, as our coordinator put it to us, you don’t go to Aluxes for the food, you go for the experience! And wow, is it a cool place. Here are some pictures to show just how unique it is. It’s definitely a venue that our guests will never forget! My MIL did hire buses to take people there from CdM. It’s in downtown Playa del Carmen, so many of the guests stayed out and partied afterwards, and she provided a late bus back to the resort for the partiers.

Vendors: A++++

Mexico Venue Finders/Jose Berdasco (Tours/Rehearsal Dinner/Transportation): http://www.mexicovenuefinders.com/  This man did it ALL! He was like a fairy godfather sent to make our wedding week events go perfectly. He provided transportation for most of our guests to/from the airport. They booked privately through him, he was there waiting with a sign, had great deals, and is so much fun to hang out with! He booked a private Chichen Itza tour for us, getting us the best deal by far for 9 of us to go in private transportation and at our own pace. I wouldn't recommend doing Chichen Itza any other way than through Jose! He planned out our day and we had the best experience of anyone else who went there. Seriously, look at these pictures - there is not another person in site! He got us there before any of the tour buses, and we had the entire site practically to

ourselves.

Then we went to the cenote from there, and also arrived before the buses, and had another quieter experience. Lastly, he recommended the adorable town of Valladolid and an awesome restaurant El Meson del Marques (http://www.mesondelmarques.com/index.html) for lunch, that ended up being incredible! It was the best way to do the trip, and everyone on our tour thanked me profusely for putting it all together. But I had to give 100% of the credit to Jose for planning it all.  He also arranged for other guests of ours to go on a group tour to Chichen Itza and also one to Tulum, and they were very happy with it. He arranged our guy trip for the day of the wedding (ATV/snorkeling tour). And most importantly, he coordinated the entire rehearsal dinner, held at Alux Restaurant! Jose is the man. Book him for all your tour, transportation, venue, etc needs and I promise you, you'll be happy:)

Arpason (ceremony music): There music was absolutely gorgeous, and they were right on cue for everything. They can play anything you request. I strongly recommend them for your ceremony (cocktail hour would be awesome with them too!) music. http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=132683971565

Mariachi (cocktail hour): We hired the mariachi band that Paola recommended to us, and unfortunately and I don’t know the name of the band. Maybe someone else on here knows the band that CdM uses?? Our guests absolutely LOVED them and my only regret is that I missed most of their time playing due to newlywed pictures (though I don’t regret having those incredible pics!). Anyways, the mariachi band was incredible, here is a picture.

For reviews of my other vendors, please see their individual reviews that I wrote. I would not change a single vendor for my wedding. I give ALL of them 5 stars, they really were the cream of the crop in Mexico!

Photographer: Moments That Matter: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/moments-that-matter-photography/reviews/4664

DJ: DJ Doremixx: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/dj-s-doremixx/reviews/4666

Hair/Makeup: MVP Hair and Makeup Artistry: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/mvp-hair-and-makeup-artistry/reviews/4764

Eventos Euforia: Review To Come! But absolutely phenomenal, as you’ve seen in our pictures. I’ll add a link to the review once it’s up.