Resort:  Aventura is just beautiful.  You will be so happy you picked this place.  Everything from the inside out looks stunning, clean and well kept.  The lobby area was grand with comfy chairs, natural light, a bar, a few shops and several desks for guest services, public relations and activity planners.  Our room was great.  It was on the third floor with a view of the ocean and the Spa Terrace (where we had our Welcome Dinner).  We walked in to roses on the bed spelling out I LOVE YOU, roses all over and in a warm water filled bath, fruit and wine sitting on the table and a bouquet of red roses and white lilies.  It was beautiful.  We thought that was just Aventura welcoming us but we later found out that a friend of ours had ordered it and there was supposed to be a note but we never got it.  Either way it was so romantic and beautiful. 

Spa: I got to use the spa briefly but it was still a great experience.  The whole place looks nice, smells good and always has a calming and relaxing sound to it.  The people performing all the services are always smiling and friendly and do an excellent job.  I did the Relax Package with the 25 min body scrub, 80min aromotherapeutic massage and a 25 min facial (but I nixed the facial since I’ve never had one and didn’t want to risk it and got a longer massage).  The hydrotherapy rooms were great as well.  I didn’t get to spend much time in there but most of our guests did and absolutely loved it.  Showers, steam rooms, foot spa, two warm spas and one cold spa, lounge chairs and refreshing drinks.  It was a great way to relax!! 

Restaurants: Delicious!!  We ended up eating at the buffets during the day and then had buffet style dinner 3 out of the 5 nights.  First night for dinner we went to the Asian place Mo Mo Ha Nana with 12 people.  Big mistake.  We were there for 2.5 hours and were very unhappy with the service…but I guess that’s what happens when you have a huge group.  All I had was veggie sushi rolls so I can’t say much about the food.  Others said it was ok.  David and I did eat at Mo Mo Ha Nana at Moon Palace on our honeymoon and it was delicious.  Second night was the buffet out on the beach and the fire dancer performance next to the Coba gazebo.  The entire group went over there for dinner.  The youngins had to leave early to attend the Bachelor/Bachelorette parties but the other guests stayed and watched the fire dancers and said they were great.  We saw them at Sun Palace on our honeymoon and were very impressed.  Third night was the Welcome Dinner at the Spa Terrace and we had the BBQ Buffet.  Everyone loved it.  Fourth night was the wedding and we had the Yucatan buffet.  All our guests loved it as well.  Last night at Aventura we ate at La Hacienda.  We were supposed to have our honeymoon dinner but we had half our guests there with us and we all enjoyed the food.  The other half went to Mundaca steakhouse and said it was delicious as well.

Entertainment/Activities:  There is tons of stuff to do here but I didn’t do much.  I will just vouch for what I did, what I saw or what other guests did.  We did a kayak race with other couples which was fun, most guests went snorkeling, passed the rock climbing wall several times but never saw anyone on it, there were pool tables, ping pong in and out of the pool, card games (poker or something) in the pool on a floating table, I saw water aerobics and stretching in the pool, sand volley ball, pool volleyball, water polo, guessing games and I believe there is 8am yoga in the yoga hut.  I used the gym 2 times while I was there.  Nice equipments and a great view.   Nightly entertainment was pretty good.  We saw fire dancers, brazilian capoeira performers and rode a mechanical bull.  Not sure what else was going on since we were busy a few of the nights. 

Welcome Dinner:  We chose the Spa Terrace as our location for our welcome dinner.  Easy for everyone to get to and felt very private.  We had a bar, the buffet and 3 round tables setup.  We chose the BBQ buffet because it seemed like everyone would enjoy it and they sure did.  We thanked everyone for coming, did a brief introduction for everyone and gave the presents to our parents.

Wedding:  Well it rained Thurs and absolutely poured on Sat but Friday was beautiful, warm, slightly windy and absolutely gorgeous.  We got so lucky.  I think I would have had a meltdown if it was raining like it was.  Cristina was an amazing WC.  I can't say enough good things about her.  She did a fantastic job of setting everything up and making it all work.  The carriage picked me up close to the room we were getting ready in and we had to wait a while (in the shade) while the bridal party did their performance.  They danced down the aisle to Don’t Wanna Go Home by Jason Derulo and did an excellent job.  The carriage dropped me and my mom off at the top of the stairs, we walked down the path (yes there were people laying out right there next to the gazebo :( oh well) and then my dad walked me down the aisle.  The minister did an ok job.  He started off with saying something about the Mayans and David and I looked at each other and thought this guy might be at the wrong ceremony LOL.  Then he began reading my ceremony script that I put together but had a very hard accent so it was hard to understand at times.  So hard that David messed up repeating the vows because it was hard to understand what he was saying.  We had David's sister read the sand ceremony script and she did a fantastic job.  We poured the sand in one at a time so it was layered.  It was slightly windy so sand went all over but it still came out gorgeous.  And then we KISSED!!  We rushed to take group photos since the sun was already setting and getting dark fast.  We headed off to take our individual photos and before we knew it the reception was starting.  We hired La Luna to capture our special day and they did an amazing job (slideshow to follow in the future).  The reception was at Solarium Mundaca and we had 26 people total.  The table was setup in a “T” shape as I requested with my sashes on the chairs, table runners and napkins on the tables and my centerpieces glowing bright.  We had a friend be in charge of our iPad to play the specific playlists we created.  We entered to Champagne Showers by LMFAO, had our first dance to For You by Kenny Latimore, had my father daughter dance to A Song For My Daughter by Ray Allaire (perfect lyrics), David danced with his mom to A Song For Mama by Boyz To Men and then I danced with my mom to Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion.  With the dances out of the way we sat down to eat the delicious food which was the Yucatan buffet.  Then we had the speeches by the MOH and BM and one by my long time crazy friend which was funny and cute.  We cut the cake and then an employee did the mayan liquor flame thing on top of it.  The cake was 3 layers – top strawberry (didn’t get to try it), middle marble (just ok) and bottom was cheesecake (absolutely delicious).  Then we threw the bouquet and tossed the garter and got this all done within the first 2 hours so our photogs could capture those moments.  After that it was just time to dance.  We were able to get everyone up to dance for 2 full songs (We Are Family and the Cupid Shuffle).  That was so awesome!!  Then half were dancing, half were sitting and talking and before we knew it, it was already 10.  Some of us headed to the disco but stopped in the lobby to ride the bull....yup a mechanical bull was just chilling in the lobby.  All the guys rode it.  So much fun and we got great pics.  When it was all over we went back to the room, took showers, ordered room service and asked for 2 slices of our cake.  Well they brought the whole damn thing to us LOL.  It was so good....I hated having to leave it behind.  The whole day was wonderful and it flew by in a blink of an eye just like everyone said it would.  All the hard work and hours spent on DIY projects, OOT bags, continually searching online for the best deals, making the daily trips to Michael’s with a 40% off coupon and all the little details just came together that week and especially  that day and it was all worth it.  15 months of planning is now over for me.  What a relief!!  Well not so much, now I have to plan a whole other wedding just about.  My AHR is 2/11/12 and is a full on formal reception on a yacht in Newport Beach.  Woohoo!!

Side note:  Video - it was good but not great.  We are glad we got it so we could have those memories but his editing SUCKED!!  He missed a part of the dancing and decided to add in a repeat part of video that did not go at all.  So bad.  Also it sounds like the minister reads the ceremony in a sound proof backroom and then they add it in and then they add in our voices when needed and it is so obvious because of the background noise.  That bothered me too.  But oh well - at least we got it on video.

As mentioned before you cannot go wrong with Aventura.  It is absolutely beautiful.  I will be honest and say that I do have my concerns about it being changed to Hard Rock.  I see it losing a lot of its charm.  But the physical location is beautiful and there are so many private, relaxing areas to just hang out at and relax.  I don’t think its natural beauty can be changed too much.  Good Luck to all you future Aventura brides.

Update 12/28/11: Just received the slideshow from La Luna.  The photos are beautiful and Melissa and Jonathan were such a pleasure to work with.

http://lalunaphotographers.com/blog/galleries/melissa/weddings/taryn-david