I chose the Azul Sensatori for our beach wedding because I had heard amazing things about the resort. Our first time visiting the resort was our wedding week.

Miami Wedding Coordinator

I had Grace, and she was fine. Nothing amazing, and nothing terrible. I knew that it was going to be slow responces to my emails initially, and that near the end she would answer them quicker, just as the other ladies on BDW described. I didn't use her much to be honest, as I trusted the ladies on BDW more than her, so I only really used her at the end to make sure my detail sheet was accurate (which it wasn't, and I had to get her to change it numerous times....I saved myself $250 by checking it over and number crunching myself). In the end, I had to email her about 5 times asking for the up to date sheet only 2 days before the wedding...she kept saying she was waiting for the accountants to tell her my final payment went through, and I was getting really annoyed because I just wanted to cross it off my list. In the end, I said as much to her, and she quickly sent it to me.

TA

I used my weddings away and they were amazing. Karen Lantigua really knows her stuff!!! I initially was with weddings by oceans, and felt like another number, and they were not up to par on getting back to me in a timely fashion! I didn't think it would get any better once I signed on with them and my guests had to start dealing with them, so I changed TA's. I am very thankful I did, and would recommend Karen over and over.

Cancun arrival

We had no issues arriving in Cancun. Karen had setup a private transfer for our group, so we passed the timeshare/other transportation area and people, and went directly outside looking for the "Sousa Wedding" sign...they were easy to find, they counted numbers so we didn't have to, and off we went in about 5 min. after getting outside, heading to the resort.

Resort arrival

We arrived at the resort at 11am, so we knew that most of the rooms would not be ready as of yet, and had made sure to email our guests before departure, with info. on what to pack on carry-on etc. We were quickly greeted with a cold cloth and a glass of champagne, it was a very nice welcome. They had a room just for our crew, with food all set-up and our sunwing rep to do a little spiel about the resort, its ammenities and excursions available throughout the week.

They had everyone in the room checking in, and the wedding coordinator Lorena met with us alone just outside the room to setup our meeting with them the following day. I also had her book us into Le Chique at this time.

I was planning on giving out my welcome bags at 3pm back in this room, as Grace said that everyone would have to come back to this room to check in at 3pm, but there were some rooms ready at 11am, so not everyone was returning to check in. I decided to wait until the welcome party on the second night to hand them out.

They gave us all a beeper to hang on to, and when our room was ready, the beeper would go off. We had two large carry-ons, and other guests did too, so we situated ourselves at the skydeck to have a few cocktails while we waited. By the time 3:30pm rolled around and my parents and Chris and I were one of the last people left without a room, I was getting upset....so I went to the front desk and asked if my room was ready. They called the on-site wedding coordinator and she came out and 2 min. later our rooms were ready. :)

The rooms

They upgraded us to a swimup suite (I am not sure if the resort did this, or my TA). We really like that the room was close to the adult pool, and generally in the middle of the resort, so we were close to the main building and central to all guests. The swimup was smaller than most rooms (most had a couch, ours didn't). The decor in the rooms are beautiful, very crisp and modern looking. All my guests were very impressed with the decor, and kept saying "when you pick a resort, you pick a resort". They all loved having a jacuzzi tub in their rooms as well.

We had no issues with our rooms, but some guests experienced having two doubles instead of a king, or vice versa....so they had to do some room changing. A few had some issues with air conditioning as well, but called it in and had someone fix it quickly. We were also spread all over the resort, and I thought we were going to be in the same section, but it wasn't a big deal. One of my bridesmaids is from Germany, and she booked with a TA there, and she was in the premium section. We decided to all get ready in her room as mine was too small for us. Her room was much larger then mine. They had a bottle of sparkling wine and roses waiting in our room for us upon our arrival as well.

Entertainment

The mojito lounge was where the party was at each night.  We always danced it up there, but never bothered with the nightly "shows"...they were pretty terrible.  I have been to many resorts that put on a great show...singing/dancing etc.  These shows were terribly cheesy.  

WC Meeting

Now, I have to be honest here. I expected them to bend over backwards for me, and really work hard to make us feel special, and while they were super nice, I felt more like it was routine, and we were all going through the motions. I also felt ripped off! :(

We walked into their office with our bag of goodies, and all my notes etc.

There were 2 coordinators (ivan and another girl, can't remember her name, but they were great) then there was the manager...who I was not fond of. Lorena was in the room, but sat behind the desk as we all met at the round table. Other people floated in and out of this meeting (spa manager mitzi, and an event staff person dealing with food). The spa rep gave me a confirmation on all our appts. and the food rep ran over all menu selections/numbers at this time. The coordinators were great keeping track of kids (who eat for free at private events) it was great, as I felt very scattered and like I had too many paper notes/lists etc. and found it hard to stay organized throughout the meeting. There was a time when the manager (I think her name was raquelle?) was running through decor, and I had the white sheers, and she said I only paid for one, but I was told the price I paid was for two....she was fighting pretty hard about me paying another $100, and the other coordinators were arguing with her in spanish telling her she was wrong...she caved, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. Raquelle also tried to convince me the lighting at Zavaz Plaza wasn't enough between our lanterns and their spot lighting, and I should have the candycane wrapping of xmas lights on the posts (I asked how much, she said $450)....I know of other brides paying much less than this.

We went through all my items I brought and I handed them a list with pics of what to set up/how. They were very appreciative of this,a nd I am glad I did as one of the coordinators english wasn't the greatest and she was the one taking the notes (she was also the best out of them all).

Raquelle had me pay $250 for set up. I have to say, I was quite upset and this is where I felt ripped off. I am not the type of person to say anything, and I wish I did, after being on BDW, I know that was a lot for setup, especially when some don't pay anything.

Welcome party/Smors bonfire

Our second night, we had a semi-private dinner at spoons (free up to 40 guests for getting married there).

The dinner was held at Spoon restaurant. They offered guests a choice (you decide at the dinner) between the steak or chicken, and they served us a beautiful ceaser salad, a leek and potato soup, our entree, and then a cheesecake. The food was delicious, and the girls all were fine with the portion sizes. The guys, however, were still hungry, so the amazing wait staff would ask them what they wanted and would go and get it from the buffet. The guys were super happy with this, and all left happy. I announced to get comfy and meet us on the beach for the smors bonfire. It was an amazing night, weather was perfect, and they did an amazing job of having everything set up for us. I had pashmina's and glowsticks and they were setup on the table with my sounddock. I can't say how the smors were as I didn't have a chance to try any, but its not your typical smors. They have a table with dips in margarita glasses, and bowls of melted chocolate. You don't really make smors over thefire. They had chairs all around a bonfire, but most of my guests gathered around the private beach bar :)

We danced until about 10 after 10pm (was to end at 10pm) and the wedding coordinators were there all night. THey all stood together and I really felt like they were making sure all was good. They did come over to me a number of times though, and say they needed me to get everyone moving somewhere else, so I had to go around telling everyone to head to the mojito bar. I wish they would have handled that part, I didn't want to be the one "working", just felt like it was something they could have done.

Food-Restaurants

I found the food to be awesome. We went to spoon almost every day for breakfast and lunches as they were fast. The food was always good, athough the lunch time selection was very similar day to day ( as was breakfast).

I went to Zavaz for breakfast with the girls on the wedding day, and it was excellent. I never got to go for their caribbean dinner, which I was upset I missed, but we were there for a hurricane, so they borded up a ton of the resort, including the two water-front restaurants (mexican/caribbean). I never got to eat the mexican, but I heard that they had a great tex-mex lunch.

We went to the italian more than we wanted to (because of thehurricane....we had 2.5 days with only spoon and Sienna (italian) open. The food there was unreal, and a favorite among my guests. (they loved the lasagna). The guys liked that you could order as much as you wanted off the menus (all restaurants).Chris and I were the ony ones that got into Le Chique, as we asked Lorena to book us upon our arrival. Other guests went later in the afternoon to book on the day we arrived adn there was no space. We felt bad that no one else got to get in. We decided to do the wine paring, and it was amazing!!!!!! The food is like nothing you have ever had, and is all based on molecular dining, and we could appreciate it, being foodies, so we were happy. I would suggest booking this asap if you wish to enjoy this type of dining experience.

The room service was awesome too. Some of my guests said they ordered and it never came, but we never had an issue, and enjoyed it on many of our nights.

WE also had the room service breakfast the day after we were married. WE appreciated being able to have a table setup in our room with all sorts of awesome breakfast foods/drinks.

We had the dinner on the beach the night before our wedding, and I am glad we did. The food was great, and it was so nice to hear the water lapping up on the beach while we enjoyed a rare private moment just us two. Chris ordered a bottle of prosecco, and they just let us settle up before we checked out.

Finally, our wedding day dinner. This one is hard to judge, as I was too busy paying attention to speeches etc. and so I thought this meal could have been tastier. We had the pick and choose menu, and first was a chile pablano soup (super spicy...but tasty), then risotto....it was under done, so the rice was hard, then the chicken and salmon or steak ....all said the steak (filet mignon) was great...but didn't care for the salmon). The dessert was not good (creme brulee with passion fruit coulis...it was a creamy jello with mousse on top), so I was a little disappointed that the only time I was let down by the food was on my wedding day(for a meal we paid extra for). I asked to have a glass of sparkling wine at each place setting, adn they were slow to get these out, but didn't charge me extra for this, not sure if it was extra, but know some other brides were quoted extra for sparkling wine.The wedding cake was fine...I knew not to expect much here, so only ordered a small one for us to cut, we ordered the hazelnut flavor, it was fine.

Wedding Day

Us girls went to the spa for 10am, where the girls got hair done, as I got my mani/pedi done. My nails looked awesome, but the manicurist was very very slow, and put me behind by an hour. I had Edgar doing my hair, and I took inspiration pics with me, along with clip in extensions, and he went to work . I found that the spa staff don't speak english as well as the front desk or WC's, so it was hard to explain things, and we had to have Mitzi come and translate, whch wasn't a big deal. We used the bridal suite to do our makeup, but I wish we would have moved to my bridesmiads room, as we couldn't have food in there, and I had a "get ready" play list ready to go...it would have been much more fun with our music etc. All the girls loved their hair, as did I. The spa was great.

We got back to the room with an hour to get dressed etc. About 30 min. before the ceremony was to begin, I was getting calls from the guys wondering where the bouts were, so I had to make a few calls, adn they were brought shortly after. I had a bad feeling, and called the guys room15min. before the ceremony, and the WC's had not picked up the IPOD yet with our seating music etc. so I know they didn 't use our music for anything but the girls walk and mine. It was fine, one of those things I figured may happen.

They came for what I thought was to pick me up to head down to the ceremony, but it was to let me know there was a 30% chance of rain, and I was so frazzled at this point, that I called Chris and he said that means 70% chance it won't. I signed away, thinking it was just to go ahead with the ceremony on the beach, but it was for the dinner as well, and unfortunately we ended up eating in the rain :(

The wedding coordinators/photographer/dj kept coming up behind me and trying to get me to make decisions through the diner/speeches adn I truly didn't appreciate it. I just wanted to enjoy the speeches, but the WC's were hovering over me, and I didn't like it. I told them we wanted to move the dancing/cake cutting inside, and tey were great, moving all me decor inside, and it only took them about 15min. I wish we could have continued outside, but I didn't want to chance anymore rain.

We went inside, and danced until 11pm.

WE then moved the party to the mojito lounge where a live band was playing. I don't know what time they finished, but my brothers paid them to continue the party...adn when they just couldn't play anymore, they let us use their equpment, adn we plugged in our IPOD and continued the party. (until the wee hours of the morn) :)

The resort was awesome and I would recommend them to any bride getting married. I am glad I brought down most of my own decor, as the costs of lomas weddings decor was outrageous, and I don't think they support us brides using ourside vendors but they do know how to put on a good wedding.

I used DJ Doremixx and Ivan Luckie for photography. If you want a review on either, please PM me.

:)