We got married October 20, 2012 at Secrets Maroma Beach. Everything was wonderful!!

We had the ceremony on the beach and cocktail hour and the reception at the gazebo. We had 35 guests.

We met with Cecilia the day we arrived and went over last minute details. She is beyond amazing! She really is organized and does a beautiful job with everything.

On the day of the wedding, I had my hair and makeup done at the spa. I did a trial a few days before with Blanca and she is amazing so I was pretty relaxed about it on the wedding day. Just bring a picture of what you want and she does exactly that. She used all MAC products for makeup – very nice! My 6 bridesmaids all had their hair done as well and everyone looked great. Cecilia popped in while I was getting my hair done to show me all the flowers… they were beyond beautiful!! Only downside to getting ready in the spa is they didn’t allow any food or drinks!!

Then I went back to my room to get the dress on and we ordered room service and mimosas. We were in building 27, which is right on the beach and closest to the ceremony site. Our photographer was Juan Navarro and he was incredible! He started pictures in my room with the bridesmaids and myself. Cecilia was there and got everyone ready and lined up on the side of our building – she took care of everything!! Before I knew it, all my bridesmaids were out of the room and Cecilia popped her head in and told me it was my turn. We had speakers down on the beach playing our music from an ipod and they did it perfectly.

Tip if you do ceremony on the beach – don’t wear flip flops. I kicked off my shoes right when I got on the sand.. my dress was heavy and with the shoes I thought I was gonna trip. If I could do it all over again I would have bridesmaids and groomsmen go barefoot as well b/c they said they has a hard time in flip flops.

The ceremony was decorated beautifully! We had 3 flower pieces and then they just used basic décor. Cecilia gave the officiant the wording for the ceremony and she read it perfectly. I found out later that the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the aisle and then after the got to the front didn’t know where to stand (in front or behind the wood poles from the canopy). So tell the wedding party they stand in front so they know what they are doing haha. There were quite a few people on the beach in lounge chairs watching the whole thing – they were very respectful and cheered us on at the end which was really fun!!  Cecilia placed our fans and bubbles on the seats before the ceremony and everything was perfect.

After the ceremony Juan took lots of pictures and we walked down the beach a bit. We arrived back to cocktail hour at the gazebo and the food was great – we upgraded to the platinum menu for this. The dinner tables were all set up and it looked beautiful!!! Then Cecilia came up to us with some bad news… Rain was coming and we had to move the reception and dinner into the restaurant that was right there. They moved everything very quickly and it was perfect. Cecilia said they closed the restaurant for the evening just incase we needed to do this. We had a DJ and he was super fun – he did our introductions and we did our first dances before dinner. For dinner we did Caesar salad, lobster bisque, surf and turf, crème brulee, and tres leches cake. All were fabulous!!

Toward the end of dinner, the rain had stopped so the DJ moved back out to the Gazebo and we finished dinner and were able to move back outside. It was flawless – people were actually happy to eat inside b/c it was so windy out. They made it look beautiful!!

One major problem I had with the reception was that we did not have our own bar set up!!! I was shocked!! We had servers running to the gazebo from the bar at the pool and all night people were complaining b/c they took forever to get drinks!! This was very disappointing b/c we were all ready to party!! We danced the night away and the DJ was amazing!!! I changed into a shorter dress for the dancing b/c I was super hot. At the end of the night my husband and I jumped into the pool… it was super fun!! The waiters cheered us on and brought us towels!

We went back to our room and changed and then like 20 of us went to Desires for more dancing!

Overall, I was very impressed with Cecilia and the staff!! I really had NOTHING to worry about the entire day and they did everything perfectly! All of our guests raved about the wedding and said it was the most beautiful wedding they have ever seen – everyone was so impressed by this place!!!

they printed these menus (free).. table was beautiful

this was the inside setup looked like - still beautiful!!

they provided this for the sand ceremony.

Send me a PM if you have any other questions or want to see more pictures!! : )