omg! I have so many questions for you!

I am having my wedding at PBSB next October, 2013, (just put down my deposit), and decided on the hotel for many of the same reasons as you. We are also doing our ceremony in the chapel and reception at the Sky pool, as well as booking Violeta for the ceremony and possible DJ Mijarles for the reception!

My questions are: what Mariachi company did you use? approximately how much did they cost? how many hours did you book the Dj? you said the chapel was beautifully decorated; was that included or did you pay additional? how was the food?

thanks so much, any additional information is much appreciated!

Hi Mandykat,

I will be happy to answer any questions you have. I was a little disappointed that no one else had reviewed this resort here when I was looking around. Anyway, for the Mariachi band, I just told Laura I wanted one and she hired them for me. I had them for 1 hour (cocktail hour) after the ceremony. They we're amazing. Everyone was so surprised when they came out. Like I said before, there were 8 of them. I believe they cost around $860 or so for the hour.

The dj you get for the entire reception. I don't think it was per hour. I can't remember how much exactly he cost. I think it was around $1200 for the entire reception.

I had the fire package, and in that the chapel decorations are included. The food was also good. You will get to choose the food for both the cocktail hour and reception dinner. I chose the steak for dinner. It was really good.

One last thing, get the lantern lights (round ones). They make the sky pool look so nice. I added them last minute. It totally made the place look better.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Iva

Iva,

thanks so much for being so helpful! I do have a couple more questions:

- did you get your hair/makeup done at salon or did they come to your room? did they also do your bridesmaids hair?

-did you do your legal ceremony there as well? we are getting married in the chapel but they wont do legal ceremonies there so we were going to hold it in courtyard just prior to symbolic ceremony

- did you get a dance floor for the reception? I know the sky pool area is pretty big but was wondering if I should do that.

- for the extra decorations (i.e. lanterns and or dance floor) did you use the Vanessa Cota with ses cabo?

- did you use an additional wedding coordinator or only Laura Ortiz?

thanks so much!

Hi,

I had my hair done at the salon. They can do bridesmaids hair as well but that you'll have to pay for. I brought her a picture of how I wanted my hair done and she did an awesome job.

I did not do the legal ceremony. I decided to take care of that later on in the US.

I did not get a dance floor. They looked too small for the number of guests that we have. And the dancing was fine without one. You can get one if you like, but I don't think you need it.

For the extra decorations, Laura sent me an email with all those things. I'm not sure who she used or where she got them.

For the wedding coordinator, I only used Laura. I thought about hiring one here, but honestly they were so overpriced even for a destination wedding. I knew what I wanted and decided to just go with Laura and get her to take care of everything. That's all she does there and she's been doing it for 10 years, so don't worry too much.

Also I gave my deposit in March 2012 and the wedding was in October, so you're way ahead already ????.

Glad I can help. Enjoy the planning and let me know if you have more questions.

Iva

Hello Iva,

I am an undecided bride to be and my fiance is making it worst. "IF" we decide to have a destination wedding it will be at either Sunset or Pacifica. We stayed at the Pacifica in 2010 and loved it. Do you mind sharing any pictures of your beautiful day to give me a better idea visually?

Thanks so much

Thank you SO much for your review! I have done extensive research and have found very few reviews on the PBSB.

My daughter is planning a wedding there next year, around the same time of year as yours, so your review is very helpful. When we toured the resort and met Laura we were very impressed. As you say very classy, One question that have been worrying me is the lighting at the sky pool. Laura mentioned possibly contracting with an outside lighting source. Is it too dark at the sky pool to go without additional lighting? Did you do that or was the lighting at the sky pool enough? When you mentioned lanterns......does that mean lanterns that the resort provided or did someone else bring those in? How many did you have? Do you know the cost?

My other concern is the flowers. Did you have the resort provide the table centerpieces? They seemed VERY pricy when Laura quoted the price to me. I LOVE the idea of a violin soloist. How much did she charge? I think that the violinist must have been LOVELY!

Thank you for the tip of bringing a photo for the salon hair stylist. It is nice to know that you liked the salon.

I am having a horrible time getting Laura to respond to my e-mails. I want to place a deposit and firm up our date, but I cannot get her to respond......any tips???

I am sure your wedding was beautiful. Even though the resort has one of the most expensive wedding packages (spoken from the brides parents view) It would is an amazing place for a wedding. I too would LOVE to see your photos.

Thank you SO much for your review! I have done extensive research and have found very few reviews on the PBSB.

My daughter is planning a wedding there next year, around the same time of year as yours, so your review is very helpful. When we toured the resort and met Laura we were very impressed. As you say very classy, One question that have been worrying me is the lighting at the sky pool. Laura mentioned possibly contracting with an outside lighting source. Is it too dark at the sky pool to go without additional lighting? Did you do that or was the lighting at the sky pool enough? When you mentioned lanterns......does that mean lanterns that the resort provided or did someone else bring those in? How many did you have? Do you know the cost?

My other concern is the flowers. Did you have the resort provide the table centerpieces? They seemed VERY pricy when Laura quoted the price to me. I LOVE the idea of a violin soloist. How much did she charge? I think that the violinist must have been LOVELY!

Thank you for the tip of bringing a photo for the salon hair stylist. It is nice to know that you liked the salon.

I am having a horrible time getting Laura to respond to my e-mails. I want to place a deposit and firm up our date, but I cannot get her to respond......any tips???

I am sure your wedding was beautiful. Even though the resort has one of the most expensive wedding packages (spoken from the brides parents view) It would is an amazing place for a wedding. I too would LOVE to see your photos.

Hi BrideFfrenchie,

Send me your email and I'll send you some pics. I'm not sure how to post them here directly. You can't beat the Sunset skypool location. Pacifica is nice too, but Sunset is much better. Plus, pacifica was a little too quiet for my taste. Anyway, I'll try to figure out if I can post some pics here..if not msg me your email.

Tallyho,

Lighting will be fine if you get the lanterns which are extra. They are totally worth it. With them and the lighting that's already there, it will be perfect. Nothing to worry about. I got the lanterns that the resort provided. I believe they were $120 / line. I think I asked her for two lines, but I don't know how many she actually put because it looked like there were way more. Laura can tell you how many you will need. Yes, the resort provided center pieces for the 6 tables that we had. They were $200 each. Looked very nice. I didn't know we needed those until a couple of days before the wedding. Even without them, the tables look fine. The violin soloist was included in the Fire package. She was so awesome. I think I asked her to play only 1 song from her list. All the other songs I chose were not on her list, but she was still able to play them. Laura is a little slow on replying.. but once the date gets closer and you need to pick all your stuff, she's right on top of it. She can also make last minute adjustments for you as well, LIke the lanterns I chose to take only a month or so before the wedding. Feel free to ask me anything... I'll be quicker to reply, just was busy at work the last couple of weeks. Yes, I agree that the wedding package is a little pricey especially when you decide to add on some things, like photographer, DJ, etc. I also had double the amount of guests that the package included which were also extra. However, here you are guaranteed to have a private wedding and I guarantee your daughter will love it... We also had people jump into the pool, including myself and my husband....it was so much fun. People are still talking about it.

I added a couple of photo's to my original post. Let me know if you guys want to see anything in particular.

You have been unbelievably helpful and gracious!! Thank you! Your pictures beautiful. What a stunning wedding you had. Amazing location and ambiance, I can just imagine us there! The photo of the lanterns is worth a thousand words. Beautiful. We will by all means order lanterns. You looked like you had a dream wedding and I am happy for you. I can see why people will talk about your wedding for a long time......

You have been helpful about Laura.....I will try to be patient.

Thank you again for your review. You have no idea how helpful you have been!

BTW here is my email [email protected] if you have any other photos you would like to forward....we are also thinking of booking Gilda as our photographer......

My email address is [email protected] and if you don't mind putting Pacifico Sunset Pics in the subject. Thank you so much if you don't mind sending any other photos you may have. My fiance and I are still undecided. Can you bring your own decorations ie., laterns and center pieces? Did you have a video made as well?

I set a date! Finally August 2014..

I'm wondering how much everyone ended up spending with all your personal add-ons, and for how many people. Just so I can get an idea of final cost versus package price advertised. Thank you !! -C