Photos: www.robinroemer.com/abby-and-lani-wedding-giveaway

My now-wife and I had the most amazing wedding at Aventura Spa / Cove Palace. We stayed on the Spa side, as did about half of our guests, but all of our events were on the Cove side to accomodate the 3 children who were attending. The entire staff were accepting of our non-traditional marriage, fairly easy to work with, and what they delivered was pretty exceptional. We highly recommend this option for a budget-friendly wedding that still gives you luxury.

Edith was my wedding coordinator, and she was phenomenal. Truly. Available to me 24/7, responding to all my questions and concerns, and present for 100% of my wedding events to ensure they all ran smoothly.

RESORT CONDITION / ROOMS

The resort was in MUCH better condition than many other reviews have stated. Everything was clean, beautiful, and in fantastic condition. Our room was stunning, many of our guests recieved complimentary upgrades, and the pools and restaurants were stunning. It was paradise.

We had a small issue with the front desk regarding the rooms for our guests. They had spread them over the entire 2 resorts, which I was furious about, as I had specifically requested that everyone be close by. Due to a convention, and the bed requests of each guest, we were able to work together and really prioritize who it was important to have together, and they made it work for us both. Rather than go in with an all-or-nothing attitude, I told them who it was important to put together: My mother (who was travelling alone) needed to be with her friends. Same floor, next door. Period. My fiancee's family also needed to be close to each other. And we did our best to group our friends close by as well. They stayed with me for hours and made it work. I am so grateful for that. You really can't go in expecting them to get EVERY request done perfectly, but they can certainly work with you as best they can and reach a solution that works. All of my guests were really happy with their rooms. Phew.

RESTAURANTS

The restaurants were much better than typical all-inclusive fare. A lot of the buffet fare was not typical American fare, especially the breakfasts, but it was made up for in the fantastic food at the snack bar that you could nosh on through the day and wonderful dinners at the Asian restaurant, La Hacienda, La Trattoria, etc. The juice bar on the spa side was AWESOME as well as the martini bar. Big winners in my book. The food is definitely better on the Spa side, so that could be a point of improvement for htem.

They were still transitioning to Hard Rock Hotel while I was there, but the transition was not evident. No construction or confusion with signage, however they were trying to add more music to the spa side, which was, to me, a little distracting. They need someone to assist them with the taste level there. But if it wasn't your cup of tea, you could just go to a different pool. I mean, there are 11!

RESORT CREDIT

We were there for 8 days and 7 nights. We had $1500 in resort credit. Each of us had 3 massages, Lani had a facial and we swam with dolphins. We would have done even more but time constraints with the wedding kept us there. Great service. Get to the spa early for the hydrotherapy room!

We also spent our own money going to on an Aventuras Mayas Snorkel Extreme day- we swam with sea turtles in Akumal, snorkeled through an underground cenote, rappeled, and did ziplining through the trees. A WONDERFUL day and more than worth the money!

THURSDAY- THE GUESTS BEGIN TO ARRIVE

I had 75 room nights (your life will be easier with 75 nights. Truly.), so we began with a welcome pool party on the Cove side on Thursday, October 18th with cocktails and hors d'oevres. We had the Mexican hors d'oevres, and those were actually the WORST of the whole trip. They all got better as the days went by, thankfully. We brought our own BOSE speaker (highly recommended) and iPod, and that was plenty loud for all of our events.

That night, we were supposed to have a reservation for dinner at Mundaca, but they had reserved it for a conference, so Edith was very apologetic and asked if she could have us go to La Hacienda and give us a delicious meal there. I understood and wasn't upset. She made sure we were taken care of with a delicious 5 course dinner. They catered to our every need, especially very specific dietary needs of my mother-in-law and father-in-law (no alcohol, no gluten/meat/dairy). Absolutely delicious and lovely.

FRIDAY- REHEARSAL DINNER

We spent Friday by the pool. Some of our guests went to Playa del Carmen, or on excursions. I took my best girlfriends to the hot tub, lunch, and then met up with more of our guests, and my family, on the Cove side in the afternoon.

That night was the rehearsal dinner. We began with cocktails on the Pandero Terrace at 6PM. Gorgeous spot to watch the sunset. Again, full cocktail hour and Asian hors d'oevres, which were DELICIOUS. I could eaten those all day. Really, really, amazing.

Dinner on Friday was held at 8PM (we sent everyone off from 7-8PM so they could change out of day clothes and get cute for dinner) at the Mundaca Inlet. It was beautiful. We did the International Buffet, which was delicious. Lots of healthy options, great fish, really really good. It was wonderful to be right at the ocean.

SATURDAY- THE WEDDING

Saturday began with breakfast at El Greco with my family, and then a massage, before prep began.

We had asked Edith to set up two hospitality suites for us, but she couldn't guarantee it until after noon on Saturday, and by then that was too late for us, so we separated to two of our friends rooms that were close by (for the photographer's sake) and got ready.

Our ceremony was held at 4PM in the Coba Gazebo. A friend from a hotel in NY sent us flowers for our decor, which was a huge surprise, so any flowers you see in the photos are not from Aventura- they were a gift. The ceremony was amazing. Edith was lovely, they had champagne and Sprite in champagne glasses for us upon being married, didn't rush us to our cocktail hour, and really let us enjoy everything.

We had our cocktail hour on one side of the Cove Terrace, and our reception dinner on the other side, which was really ideal. I couldn't have imagined it any other way. I can't remember the hors d'oevres we had, but they were American-style food, which they did well.

Our reception dinner was the Yucatan buffet, which was delicious. Our wedding cake wasn't anything special, but we didn't really care about it, so it didn't matter to us. According to our guests, it was really good! Again, Edith was there the whole time to make sure we all had full glasses and a fantastic time. The BOSE Speaker worked amazing for all of our events- for dancing as well as just hanging out!

Overall, we had a wonderful, beautiful, wedding, and cannot wait to go back.

Things to note:

- Get your information as soon as you arrive. It will feel annoying, but do it. Go to the activities desk and find out about your resort credit. Plan your days. Make your special dinner plans, and spa reservations ASAP. And tell your guests to do the same.

- It was really hard to communicate with anyone regarding our room nights, etc, before we arrived. It's hard to get people to respond to emails or call you back. It's just a different style of living, but they were all lovely once I got a hold of everyone.

- We are having trouble getting our 7 nights back. I know no other brides have had this issue, so I am being patient and will update you ASAP.

- Give your guests a map. Encourage them to take a tour of the grounds. Have everyone with iPhones download HeyTell before they arrive- its a walkie talkie device that runs on wifi (which the entire resort has). It will be the easiest way, besides having a constantly updated Facebook message, which we did as well, to contact people at the resort.

Any other questions, feel free to message me!