Pros: beautiful, amazing beach, friendly staff, helpful & responsive staff, lots to do, big resort, delicious wedding cake, great drinks, lots of bars, 24 hour room service, coordinators very willing to help, cute gifts for the bride

Cons: main pool sometimes too crowded, a lot of kids, activities take over pool, no free wifi (available wifi is limited), resort is spread out- Riviera suites a bit far from the beach, cart transportation to and from riviera/ beach section stops running at 11pm, restaurants reservations fill up quickly, bedding could be better!

# of Wedding guests- 30

Hotel:

Check-in- you check in to the main reception area located in the riviera section and it is beautiful! You are welcomed with a refreshing fruit drink ..not too many people checking in when we checked in so we did not have a long wait. Our room was ready, I had 30 guests attending my wedding. Since I knew that all but one of my guests were staying at the beach section I had requested that all of my guests be placed in the same beach section area (we had booked a select room ocean front room). All my guests wanted to be near everything (beach, main pool, activities, restaurants and us!). However when we checked in decided to inquire about their rooms to see if we were all placed around the same area. Unfortunately all of my guests were moved to the Riviera Section without me or any of them being notified. This made my check-in quite frustrating because I knew that most of my guests would be checking in within the next two days and I had to get this sorted. I was told that nothing could be done. Thankfully, Maria the coordinator assisted me with moving everyone back over to the beach section that was supposed to be there after our meeting the next day. However… I think this delayed everyone’s check-in as I heard every one of my guests had a very long check-in process- up to hours.. I felt really bad for them!

Rooms-B we booked a select club oceanfront room because I was told that they could not guarantee we could be upgraded to a oceanfront room (upgrades are available on some of the wedding packages). I had also put in a request for a higher up floor to have a better view of the ocean. We were given a room in the 2^nd floor (there are 3 floors I believe). The room was clean, nice, updated (select rooms look like the Riviera rooms), more modern looking than some of the beach section rooms, with flat screen tv and a few complimentary bottles of alcohol :) - wine, vodka, rum, and tequila!  Beds and pillows were comfortable but no nice and comfy comforters… they use a very hard, rough blanket or cover (not sure what to call it), when I saw one of the room service staff I asked her if she had a blanket or comforter she said she would bring a comforter and bought back a torn up, old blanket.. disappointed in this area! We had other problems with the room, our first evening we realized that the air conditioning was not cool enough and not working. The hotel and reception was very responsive when we called them. They had someone over right away. The problem was that they insisted on having the AC fixed instead of just switching our room. So after wasting several hours waiting while the “ac was being fixed” (that could not be fixed), many calls to the reception, and practically begging the maintenance person to convince reception to change our room we finally got them to give us a different room. They were quick and responsive with sending someone over to help us change rooms but unfortunately gave us an oceanfront room on the far corner of the 1^st floor, the oceanview was partially covered by something…not even sure what it was. Only good thing about that room is the convenience of walking in and out of your room on a hot day in between your beach and pool time. Another problem we had with our room was that on the evening of our “welcome get together”, as I was getting ready, I plugged in my own hair dryer and the power in our room went out!  This evening they were a bit slow in getting someone out to help. After several calls to reception and while we were at our “welcome get together” they fixed the problem. Room was fine when we returned but I did not plug in my hair blower again! :)

Restaurants-B main buffet..was okay, lots of variety.. really liked the breakfast there I just wish there was some AC in the buffet as it can get really hot during the day/ early evening. Loved going to the buffet near the pool/beach during the day for lunch. Lunch was delicious and the fries, guacamole and burgers were just right! A la carte restaurants- we went to the Mexican restaurant several evenings because you do not need a reservation to have dinner. Food was good and tequila was nonstop!!  The staff was really friendly there. Only thing is we had a large party—on some nights (our wedding party)- they refused to accommodate us by putting tables together. But it was okay we made the best of it.  Brazillian restaurant was okay. Some of the meats were tasty, dessert there was delicious and the caipirinhas were perfect! Italian buffet was good, lots of variety. Desserts here were just ok. It was very difficult trying to get reservations for the other restaurants….they were all booked.

Pools-A we stayed in the beach section because was wanted to be closer to activities and the beach.  The main pool was nice and clean. Always a lot of guests here and lots of kids. We kind of wish it was a bit quieter at times but its okay.. we knew it was a family resort. It was fun hanging out here with our friends after a long day at the beach. We heard the pools in the Riviera section were just as nice and much more quiet and relaxing.

Activities- A++ lots to do in this resort, there is always something going on and a lot of daily activities in the main pool, Sandos staff is always performing or walking around making sure you are having a good time.  Beautiful spa and spa pool, awesome tennis courts that are usually available, nice gym. Always a show in the main plaza in the evening and in the theatre. The Disco had a great DJ and our group had a great night at the disco . The Bambola Bar by the main plaza is a great place, friendly bartenders, great drinks, great music and performers and a great meeting place for you and your party to start off the night. We held out welcome get together here and it was perfect! You will not feel a need to leave the resort!

Beach- A++ absolutely my favorite part of the resort! The beach is beautiful! This was one of the main reasons why I picked this resort. Beach is very important to me. White sands, lots of beach chairs, very comfy select club chairs, clean clear blue waters, no seaweed or rocks whatsoever. Long stretch of white sands and very important- Sandos is the last resort on the beach so you have a huge stretch of empty beach to the left… perfect for wedding pictures! Our photographer pointed that out to me and he was SO right! PERFECT J you will be very pleased.

Local Area-A++ situated within a condo/private home residential area, very nice and felt very safe, perfect distance from la quinta.. only a $5-7 dollar cab ride from town (I forgot exactly how much it was).

Wedding:

Hotel Coordinator-A Maria was very responsive throughout the whole wedding process. Emails were sometimes short and sweet but always responsive within a short period of time. Communication was good and when she was not available she had her assistant respond to questions. We met with her on the 2^nd day there. She was very sweet, hard working, understanding and really willing to help and try to accommodate us any way possible. We told her about the slight troubles we had with the resort upon arrival and she was quick to help and make calls to assist in any way possible. I relayed all of my details to her (and I had a lot!) She was able to remember about 99% of our details! Which is awesome. She really made me feel like things were under control . There is no formal wedding rehearsal but we made up our own the afternoon before the big day. It was a great help and I highly recommend it for anyone with a wedding party and certain songs to play during the ceremony. Maria really made us feel at ease. I was finally able to take a breath after our last meeting with her before the wedding. Her assistant Lupita was just as great. She was sooo very sweet and really hard working as well.  During the wedding Maria and Lupita were also great, they were able to set almost everything up just the way I wanted it….they placed everything where I wanted it to be…making sure everything went smoothly. She was very present during the ceremony and the beach reception. I only wish she had been present during the dinner (Italian buffet) but I think it was difficult for her to be since she was helping set up and make sure things were going as planned for the beach reception party following the dinner. We felt a little confused and lost as to cutting of the cake, speeches, etc during the dinner since she was not there. So highly recommend to plan that ahead of time  (I guess we shouldve!). Overall , she was really sweet and I am still amazed how she was able to get almost everything just right!

Time/schedule – our ceremony was set to begin at 5pm. I did not want it to be so early because of the hot sun and temperatures during the day and also did not want the beach to be too packed! I am glad I chose that time- sun was out but not too strong, there were still other guests on the beach at that time but definitely not as many as during the day.  We were very lucky because it rained at that same time for the two days prior to the wedding (those late afternoon passing thunderstorms)- but on the day of the wedding there was no rain!  The bridesmaids and I ended up running late because of make-up….and the ceremony did not start until almost 5:30pm.  Being that we had the cocktail/dj beach party to beginning after the dinner.. we felt really rushed since beach is only available until 10pm. I would really recommend taking a lot of factors into consideration the last thing you wanna feel is rushed during your wedding day.

Food (semi private dinner at Italian buffet)- very nice restaurant, there is AC- yay, pretty, green walls, make sure you are aware of that when deciding on wedding colors and flowers, we decided to just focus on the pink  instead of the pink and tiffany blue for the dinner since the color scheme is brown and green inside the restaurant and it worked! (see pics). staff was extremely friendly, as I mentioned before I wish Maria had been there but I am pretty sure she wasn’t because she was helping set up for our beach party. Food was good a lot of variety, pizza, pasta dishes. Only wine, champagne and soft drinks available. Our guests thought the food was delicious. Buffet style, Only complain- I wish they would serve the bride and the groom at least but its okay.. ..we got up with our guests to get some food.

Cake- we chose the new option (no extra charge)- fondant cake (two tier), Maria allowed us to choose two different flavors for the cake. We chose strawberry & crème and chocolate crème for the cake.  Not only was the cake perfect, fondant and pretty it was DELICIOUS…I only wish I was able to take some home because it was so good. Maria recommended the fondant and the flavors and she was right! We paid a little extra (I think it was $25 or 30) for the natural flowers. I really wanted the flower all one color….not sure why they were two different pinks….but oh well! Make sure to relay this if you are having the flowers put on the cake. We purchased the monogram cake toppers back home…. for a really affordable price! I purchased the “small letters” instead of standard size because I knew the cake would not be too big. Cake was a perfect size for our wedding party there was PLENTY leftover! Thanks Maria for helping up decide on the cake!

Flowers- We ordered our bouquets and boutonnières  from Maria (her outside vendor)(bride bouquet and groom boutonnières included in the package). They were perfect!!! Perfect colors and no problems.  Only wish the roses had bloomed a bit before..maybe placed in water longer prior to the actual wedding.. but its okay.. colors were perfect! Maria also made sure everything I had given her to placed in the bouquets were there. It was perfect! I recommend you to be VERY clear with the colors, brings lots of pictures of what colors you want your flowers. I had a little trouble trying to get what I wanted across. But thankfully it came out perfect.  I was a little disappointed how the price of the flower bouquets increased at least 2x over the course of the planning. Maria said she had no control over that since it was the outside vendor. We ordered our centerpieces and some flowers for two memorial chairs during the ceremony from Planner1 (outside vendor I found). The reason being that the centerpieces through planner1 were still less $$ then getting them through Maria. I was pleased with them! Overall pleased.

Dj/music (wedding)- my biggest regret and disappointment. Music was fine in the ceremony.... all songs we asked for were played. Maria gave us the option of giving them an ipod or cd’s.  we provided the CD with the songs.  I asked for some songs to be played prior to the ceremony while our guests waited and the music was not played. We booked the DJ for our cocktail/dance party through the resort. Maria said I could bring my own CD’s or give him our music. We had everything set, both a list of music we wanted and music on CD’s and ipod. I was not sure how he was going to have music we wanted being that we had no communication with him at all… not even before the wedding while we were there. But I gave the Maria the CDs. The DJ literally played the music straight from the CD’s. I did not know he would. I can go on and on about that. Feel free to ask me any questions about it. If you are doing a private reception I would highly recommend either booking a private DJ or seeing about hiring one of the DJ’s from the disco. I wish I knew his name but one of the disco Djs were really good!

Ceremony location- beach was beautiful!!!!!! There is lots of space for beautiful photos to the right.  Beach chairs are very very close to the ceremony location and they say there is not much they can do about removing most of them. There is a guard to stand by to ensure no one really walks near the ceremony when its going on but there were a lot of onlookers. The backup location in case it rains during the beach ceremony or reception is very very nice! After Maria showed us the “back up plan” I felt SO much better! It’s a nice indoor large hut on the beach with large glass windows looking onto the beach. Very nice! Beach was beautiful and do not regret that location one bit!

Minister- very sweet and friendly. She added some of her own touches to the ceremony..which I kind of wish she hadn’t but it was fine! Make sure you talk to Maria about exactly what you want. Giving her the printed out things we wanted really helped.