Hi all,

Just back from our wedding in Playacar. I've included below a bit of info for all future PP brides but feel free to email me directly through BDW if you want any more details:

Quick stats:

Size - 78 guests 

Events: two dinners before wedding, wedding, brunch after wedding

Venues: Cielo Lounge, Luna Lounge, Beach for ceremony, Riviera Ballroom, Italian Restaurant

Coordinator: Yazmin (and Dulce at the beginning)

Wedding Coordinator: Ours was Yazmin and she was fantastic. She was very organized and was able to really quickly find solutions to any glitches. Ex. It rained for one of our pre-wedding events we were hosting outside and Yazmin quickly organized the banquet staff and moved it to the ballroom and looked great. She had everything well under control and never said no to any requests.

Photos: We decided to go for the resort photographer to save some money as we had over spent everywhere else. This is my only regret. Although the photographer was really nice, he didn't seem to know what he was doing. We haven't received the pics yet so fingers crossed.

DJ: We went through the hotel and were great. Four guys came with tons of equipment including lights and did a great job. We gave the a few songs we really wanted but other than that, they picked the song list.

Ceremony: We had ours on the beach and was stunning! We used the huppa from the hotel which was beautiful and had the ocean as the background. I walked down barefoot as did my two bridesmaids but did order petate mats for the walk down and had rose petals cover it (my flower girls held parasols). We held ours in the north side so had more privacy. TIP: Try to get a ground level governor's suite so you can walk from the room into the ceremony.

Flowers: Went with an external company as Zuniga's flowers were super expensive. Got mine for about a third of the price. Didn't turn out exactly as I had asked but still looked great (although they delivered an hour late...yikes!)

Cocktail Hour: They do a great job hear with an outdoor cocktail reception before dinner. Lots of great appies and two bars were set up with music playing in the background. Guests sat in their outdoor lounged chairs and was a great follow up to the ceremony.

Wedding Reception: It was held at the Riviera Ballroom. The space needs some renos (carpet is really worn and one of the wall curtains was missing and you enter through the gift shop). However, gives you more privacy than outdoors and you can have a much later end time. 

Other receptions: Because we had more than the minimum 75, we held 3 other events so ended up using most of the venues. Cielo lounge for the cocktail hour and the Italian restaurant for brunch were the best ones.

Decorations: I brought most of my decorations from home and bought most of them at Luna Bazaar (great prices and really nice stuff). For tables I used mercury glass candle holders and instead of table numbers I created my own numbered guest books (one per table). For party favours which doubled as seating cards I made bottles filled with sand from Playa and from a beach a block down from where I live back home. Kids got a little box filled with candy and toys.

Spa: This was the only area where I experienced problems (and major ones). Their booking system is not very organized. If you book by email before you leave then you have to deal with their central booking people. The staff on-site don't have access to the bookings. They screwed up some of my friends bookings and also had a really hard time getting decent hours from mine and my bridesmaids bookings despite try to book with weeks in advance. It was a mess! Also learned that the fine print reads that any changes/cancellations must be made 7 days before the date of service. Let your guests know so they don't end up having to pay for a service they decide to cancel when they arrive.

The hotel is nice although a bit worn (needs a bit of a reno and new furniture) but overall was really nice. We picked it for its size, beach and location near 5th which was great for our guests. Service is fantastic throughout and our guests were treated extremely well. They loved the resort credits! We organized a golf game which also went really well.

happy wedding planning!