We had our wedding weekend at Las Ranitas in February 2013, and the whole experience was really unforgettable.  Our biggest thanks goes to Angelina, the wedding coordinator, who is absolutely fantastic.  She was the real reason we picked Las Ranitas, as we were very torn between that, Ana y Jose, and Cabanas Tulum.  But we knew when we met Angelina that she was the one we would feel most comfortable working with over the next year, and we were right.  Angelina worked so hard to tailor-make the wedding of our dreams, AND bring everything within our budget.  We are forever grateful to her.

 

Next we have to really thank the amazing staff, who worked their butts off all weekend to make each event a smashing success.  Special thanks to Pablo, the chef, for his amazing food (definitely the best you will ever eat at a wedding!) and Onyl, the food and beverage coordinator, who made our welcome cocktail party, wedding, after party, and Sunday brunch come off seamlessly.  Big thanks also to Antonio, Arsenio, Carlos, Wilberth, Manuel, Alejandra, Jonathan, and all the other servers and bartenders who worked non-stop to make all our 97 guests happy.  These guys were tireless, seriously.  Our main hope was to never see a guest with an empty drink, and they really delivered!  They were carrying around big trays of cocktails, beers, shots, and tacos until past 3AM on our wedding night, and then were up again at the crack of dawn to prepare the space for our beautiful and elegant Sunday brunch.  I can only imagine how hard it must have been, but their work paid off as every event was incredible.  Thanks also to Jerome for managing the reservations for so many guests.  Although at couple of times he gave me a scare with his apparent absent-mindedness and what seemed like disorganization, in the end all our guests were well served and got rooms that suited their needs, and we are very thankful to him for sticking with us through a few room shuffles.

 

Here is a run-down of the events we hosted at Las Ranitas (all for 97+ guests!):

• Friday night welcome cocktail party:  So much fun!  It started out around the pool, and the atmosphere was so cool and relaxed, with great cocktails (mojitos, watermelon tejitos, margaritas, pina coladas, etc.) and food circulating the whole time, just like we asked.  I had said beforehand that the #1 thing I hate to see at a wedding is a line at the bar, and they made sure that never happened.  We had a flamenco guitarist, Camilo Nu, playing seriously awesome flamenco guitar (separate review for him to follow), and the staff decorated the whole pool area with strings of little twinkle lights, which we didn't even ask for but was so great!  I was delighted when I walked in, it felt so magical and was such a great surprise.  Mother nature decided to disrupt the party halfway through with a rain shower, but Angelina and the staff didn't miss a beat.  Everyone was ushered to the palapa restaurant, Camilo re-setup his equipment there, and the party just marched right along.  The staff weren't phased at all, they were awesome, which made it feel like just a blip, rather than some sort of emergency.  The night finished off great.
• Wedding ceremony on the beach:  Angelina arranged the florist, who was great (Marvin at Maya Floral -- will do separate review for him as well), an absolutely amazing trio led by violinist Albino Garcia (whose playing of my Irish wedding march was so beautiful it is one of my most special memories of my life), a singer that my husband surprised me with as part of his vow, and a mariachi band.  Everything was beautiful.  A couple small glitches: I accidentally walked down the aisle without my bouquet (yes, I am that forgetful) and no one noticed until it was too late, and the recessional didn't go quite as planned.  The mariachis were supposed to start playing right after we kissed, but they didn't, so we sort of awkwardly started walking down the aisle and I was looking around confused until finally when we were halfway down, they started playing.  Also, there were supposed to be rose petals for the guests to throw, but for some reason they all got scattered before the ceremony.  So there are a lot of pictures when we are walking down the aisle where I have this confused "WTF?" look on my face.  LOL.  Would have been nice to have everything go as planned, but not a big deal.
• Cocktail hour around the pool:  Booze was flowing, great food circulating, and the mariachis playing -- all great!  We only attended for a few minutes, because we were doing pictures on the beach.  The one disappointment of the cocktail hour was that the menu wasn't exactly what we ordered.  When we did our site visit we tasted these amazing crab cakes with red pepper dipping sauce, and I loved them so much I literally thought about them for the next 11 months.  As soon as the ceremony was over and we were getting ready to take pictures, someone said, "Can I get you a drink?" and I said, "No thanks, but you can get me a crab cake!" .... No luck.  There were no crab cakes.  Instead, they for some reason served a sort of crab salad on crackers.  Huh?  Why?  I was pretty disappointed, but everything else was great so I just shrugged it off and moved on.
• Dinner in the palapa restaurant:  Amazing!  The place looked gorgeous, decorated with candles, mood lighting, and long strips of white fabric to block the wind, which they created at our request.  I was taken aback when we walked in, it was all even more beautiful than I dreamed it would be.  We did long tables of 18 and 14, which I loved.  We decided to serve the food family style, since we wanted it to feel more like a family meal, and I think it worked out well.  The ceviche was really outstanding, as was the watermelon salad.  I thought the portions on the chicken with mole were a little skimpy, but it was still yummy, and the conchinita pibil was really delicious and very generously portioned.  The chiles rellenos were also a hit.  It was definitely the best food I've ever tasted at a wedding, and tons of my guests told me the same.  The only thing that was off was that they were supposed to serve sopes as well, but I don't think they did -- I never saw any, anyway.  But it didn't really matter, there was plenty of food and everything tasted great.  For desert we had three different cakes, and I heard they were all super delicious.  I only tasted the tres leches, but OMG, it was amazing!  Real, authentic tres leches cake, light and creamy and boozy, not like the fake, sugar-bomb cakes you find in a lot of places.  It was exactly what we wanted.  Thanks Pablo!  During desert we also had a cigar roller, which was really cool.
• Dance party and after party (tornaboda):  We actually danced before, during, and after dinner, which was really fun.  The dance party was supposed to end at 11:30, at which point we were going to retire to the beach to roast marshmallows over the bonfire, but at 11:30 I was definitely not ready to stop dancing.  No problemo, I paid the DJ to keep playing for another hour, then another hour after that, then another hour after that -- we finally wound down at 2:30 AM.  The Las Ranitas staff didn't miss a beat -- they just kept the booze flowing and the party rocking and just rolled with it as I kept extending the party.  They served a round of tacos at midnight and again at about 2:30, and they were really fantastic -- really great drunk food, everyone was to happy to see them.  We also had a churro cart which was a huge hit with the guests -- I think they might have been the best churros I've ever had! After the dance party finally ended, those still standing gathered around the bonfire with tacos, roasted marshmallows, and beers.  People were still going at 3:30 AM, but I was beat so my husband and I went back to our room at that point.
• Sunday brunch:  All I can say is this was the most elegant day-after brunch I have been to, and I gave them zero direction whatsoever, so Angelina, Pablo, and Onyl get all the credit for creating a beautiful event.  All I told them was the food I wanted served -- nothing else.  My mother asked me the day before if it was going to be a buffet, and I said, "I have no idea.  I guess?"  As it turned out, they did the entrees to order (guests could choose from scrambled eggs, huevos rancheros, and chilaquiles), and brought beautiful fruit, yogurt, and granola platters to the tables for everyone to share while the individual orders were being fired.  The food was outstanding, the service was great, and everything looked beautiful.

 

Overall, I could not have been happier with our choice of venue.  I don't think you will find a more beautiful venue, better food, or a harder working staff anywhere.  A+++++++++++!