Hi Everyone,

Here is a recap and review of my wedding at Las Caletas which took place on May 8 - enjoy!

I had planned my wedding for a very long time (2 year engagement), so most of my planning had been done with the former coordinator, Kelley Kahrhoff. She was truly amazing - we formed an incredible bond/friendship over our year plus of communications, so I was truly devastated when she left. She is the kind of coordinator who really cares about YOUR day - not just the general weddings at Caletas and works to make everything special and unique. She has since gone off to start her own endeavour, check it out if you are looking for something that is more custom than typical resort stuff - http://youniquevallartaweddings.com/

Anyway, Dennise Betancourt was my coordinator and although we didn’t work together for long, she did a fantastic job and kept all of my details in order. I was very impressed because she basically took over my file just a few months before the day, so there was lots of things to keep track of and manage!

The day before the wedding we met to go over the flow of events and I gave Dennise a ton of stuff - guest book, starfish for our chairs and centerpieces, shells that I hand painted with our colours...and just told her to make them look nice. And they did an AMAZING job!

Day of the wedding, I went out with my bridesmaids early and had a lovely morning. We arrived to champagne and fruit and just spent the morning chilling in the casita - we tried out the tub and the hammock and I even had a little snooze in the bed. We had lunch brought up for us and ate and straight after that the hair and makeup fellow arrived. I think he was a bit later than he really should have been because we ended up running really tight for photos ahead of the ceremony, but it was all good. I was very calm and just letting the events flow.

The set up for the ceremony was amazing and completely perfect. Dennise did an amazing job with the colors (teal, champagne and white flowers) and it all looked stunning - simple elegance. The ceremony went really well, but the one “snag” for me was that I didn’t get my moment with my girls before the ceremony as I waited on top of the stairs to hide while they walked down and out. My dress was also snagged (I had beading and crystals) and without the pre-aisle check from the maids, it got missed, so it’s in all of my pictures...but nothing you can do about that one after the fact.

We got the parrot ring bearer, and that was a highlight for a lot of people - I totally recommend it!

The ceremony was quick, and Chuy did a great job. We then quickly tried to get photos on the beach, but the lighting provided some challenges for our photographer - the ceremony wasn’t really at sunset in May, so it was a bit glaring with lots of shadows, so we had to get a bit creative.

Dinner was amazing and the table set up was incredible. Props to Dennise and the team on that one - it was so fantastic. All of our events flowed really well -  my MC said Dennise was totally on top of it all and would prompt her when it was time to announce the next thing. Dennise also took care of getting people up to the buffet in an orderly and quick fashion and there were even two buffets to make it go quickly!

We had one very special requirement in that we ordered a keyboard to be brought out to Caletas so we could play a duet with my husband on the piano and myself on saxophone. It turned out really well, but was very dark by that point so lighting was tough and we had no music stand...but my husband’s cousin sat with the music for us and Dennise shone a light on it and it was great problem solving! I’m still amazed they were able to get a keyboard out there, as I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who has ever requested something like this before. Excellent work guys!

It was quickly time for the cake which was really beautiful - all white with teal ribbon and tasted delicious and then our slideshow down on the beach. The slideshow was our second little snag for the evening - I had laboriously cut songs and inserted them into powerpoint for certain slides...and somehow that got lost in translation with Dennise and the DJ ended up just playing the first song all the way through and then half our slideshow had no music at all. This was probably the most sad thing for me...I had put so much work into it and every wedding I’ve gone to, I always really enjoy and remember the slideshow and the music makes so much of a difference! So, if you are doing the slideshow, make sure you cut the songs into one file and provide it to the DJ ahead of time. :)

After that was our dance and we had provided the DJ with our song - a shortened version of Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” and it was perfect...it all went off without a hitch! We went right into the dance at that point and the DJ was bang-on with all my songs (all my songs for the ceremony, night, etc - so perfect - I was amazed they got every single one!!) - I only provided a few to give the “tone” of what I wanted and he was fantastic at filling it with great music. We had so many compliments on the music - job well done!

We did the fire dancers at around 10:30 - AMAZING. I almost didn’t do it, but decided to after reading all the reviews on here. So worth it...it was so entertaining. One of the servers (forget his name, but the main guy) came up to me before and took my drink order to make sure I had a drink in hand while they were doing their thing. It was so fantastic. Everyone was so entertained and thrilled!

We also did the s’more station - FANTASTIC. We got lots of compliments from people on this, and we had two little guys at our wedding who loved it. I highly recommend this as well - especially if you are having children around!

The end of the night came SUPER fast and it was time to get on the boat. I was the last one to leave Caletas and the staff was unreal - they had found a few pairs of sunglasses and my husband’s suit jacket that had been left behind. The boat ride back was amazing - again, they got all my songs spot-on and we had a blast. It was so sad to get off the boat...even though it was 12:30, literally no one was ready for the party to end! They did another sweep of the boat and found my mother-in-law’s seat cushion - these guys missed nothing!

The bus ride back was great and uneventful - we had two buses. They even stopped for us at a liquor store so we could continue the party once we got back to the resort. People were having such a good time, no one was ready for it to be over! We partied until four a.m. once we got back to the Dreams!!!

We had our own photographer (friend) so I can’t comment on that...but we did get the video, but I haven’t heard back from them on that yet. I sent an email and no response...and it’s been 3 weeks. So a bit tardy on that end. I am so anxious to see it and relive everything!!

All in all, the wedding at Caletas was UNREAL. Almost everyone said it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to. The location is just unbelievable and Dennise and her team made sure every detail was professional and perfect. Just two tiny little snags for us...and if those two things were the worst things that went wrong, I’d say we did pretty fantastic!!

A big thank you to everyone at Vallarta Adventures for making our special day spectacular and memorable. It went so fast, but I savoured every moment and detail. :)