When my husband and I were engaged we knew that we wanted to have a destination wedding. Privacy was something that was of major importance to us so we knew that we could not have a “resort” style wedding. We decided to go with Las Caletas after reading the discussions and reviews posted on this website. Our wedding took place on December 30,2011 and it was absolutely amazing. Many of our family members and friends exclaimed that our wedding was the most beautiful wedding they had ever been to!

Setting: The setting itself is outstandingly beautiful. My best friend, mom, and I headed over to LC early in the morning to spend the day relaxing on the beach and in the private bridal suite. Once we arrived we headed up to the bridal suite and relaxed and went for a quick swim. Dennise (our wedding planner) was very helpful. She carried my dress for me and helped us get settled. The lunch served at LC was delicious. There were quite a few people who were touring LC that day so we found it too busy at the beach for our liking. We decided to head up to the bridal suite and relax until it was time to start getting ready. The only thing that I surprised me about Las Caletas is that it is a lot smaller than I had expected. The beach is quite small and can get crowded if you plan on swimming or relaxing during the day.

The bridal suite is absolutely amazing. There was champagne and fruit waiting for us when we arrived. There is a bed and lots of seating space in the suite and there is also big bathroom with a shower. My favorite aspect of the suite was the “back yard”. There was a hammock and a jacuzzi tub which we took full advantage of during our stay. One thing to note is that if you would like to shower before getting ready there may not be hot water. All three of us showered and there was no hot water for any of our showers. No one seemed to mind though as we were all in awe of beauty of the suite.

All of the tourists leave Las Caletas around 4pm and the wedding area becomes private. I did not look at the ceremony site before walking down the aisle with my Dad, but we were blown away by the beauty of it. When it becomes dark, the main form of light at Las Caletas is candles. It looks outstandingly beautiful and makes for unique photographs. I would recommend brining a small flashlight for those who are making speeches or toasts at your wedding. It was very hard for these people to see what they had written as there are hardly any lights at Las Caletas once the sun goes down. We decided to stay at Las Caletas for the extra hour and it was definitely worth it. The time passed so quickly and everyone was sad when it was time to leave. The party continued on the boat ride home and the crew put on dance music and everyone had a great time!

Hair and Makeup: We had a stylist who works for the salon called Joel in Puerto Vallarta. I cannot remember his name, but he did a great job. I had some photos of the hairstyle that I wanted and he was able to mimic them perfectly. He used airbrush foundation which made our skin look flawless. Overall, we were very satisfied with his services.

Officiant: Chuy was our wedding officiant. We had no idea what to expect from him but he did a very good job. He emailed us about a month before our wedding and asked us a few questions about what we wanted for the ceremony. Chuy came by in the afternoon to talk with me and the ladies and he asked us if we had any questions or concerns. He took the time to go over some details with us which made me feel a lot less nervous about the ceremony. My husband expressed that Chuy also visited with the guys while they were getting ready.

Wedding Planner: Kelley did all of the initial planning for us but was gone by the time our wedding took place. Thus, Dennise was our planner the day of our wedding and we had communicated for about one month prior to our wedding date. I was pretty stressed when Kelley explained that she was leaving but I tried my best to have a positive attitude when dealing with Dennise. Everything went pretty well but I did get worried when communication through email was not done in a timely manner. I found that if I titled the email “need response ASAP” I would get one, but if I didn't, I would have to wait about a week for a response (which is pretty stressful when your wedding is in 10 days). After spending a day at Las Caletas, I now fully understand why some of her email responses took awhile. Dennise is at Las Caletas from mid morning until the wedding is completed and she organizes the flowers, special details, and sets up the ceremony site, etc during her day. She does all this and is expected to send out emails in a timely manner.

Overall Dennise did a pretty good job at organizing our wedding. If there is something that is specifically important to you, I would make sure to go over it with Dennise when you meet her in person (prior to your wedding). I had told Kelley that I did not want one specific type of flower and they somehow ended up in the bridesmaid bouquets. I am a fairly laid back person, so I didn't mind,or say anything, and it helped a lot that my maid of honor remarked on how beautiful her bouquet looked. Another thing that my husband and I wish was organized a bit better was the chairs for our ceremony. For some reason, there was not enough chairs set our for all of our guests and chairs that did not match our decorated ones were put out. This ruined a lot of our ceremony pictures that were taken that had the chairs in them. This was a minor detail that no one else seemed to notice, but when we got our professional photos back we were disappointed and do not want to share these ones with others.

Food and Beverages: The food for our wedding was delicious! We were a bit put off when we heard that we would be having a buffet but once we tasted the food we were extremely satisfied. A lot of our guests commented on it being the best food they had eaten all week. My husband is a vegetarian and there were a lot of options available to him. Dennise even brought him special potatoes that were made without meat. We decided not to have a wedding cake and were not totally confident in this decision. The desserts ended up being sufficient and no one noticed we did not have a wedding cake. The alcoholic beverages at Las Caletas are all made with premium alcohol. The tequila was one our our favorites and many people in our group made positive comments about it. You cannot get blended drinks at Las Caletas but no one seemed to mind.

Photography: We had amazing photographers! Our photographers were Eva and Pierre from PhotoShoots Vallarta and we would highly recommend them. For more information, please visit my review that I have posted on them.

Overall our day exceeded our expectations. We could not believe how amazing everything turned out. Our group was extremely amazed as well and to this day we still hear comments about how great it all was. We are extremely happy with our decision to have had our wedding here.