Overview-

I’ll start at the end then jump to the beginning. Our wedding was beautiful and went smoothly (even though the weather didn’t completely cooperate). This was mostly due to the care and professionalism of our wedding coordinator, Vanessa. I have to admit I didn’t have a lot of confidence in Vanessa at first. She was not the most proactive person during the time leading up to the wedding and upon meeting her she was very soft spoken. That said, Vanessa did a fantastic job! She was great at communicating with me during the days leading up to the wedding and the day of, and it was obvious she cared about pleasing us. Even though there were other weddings going on while we were there (2 others the same day) I never once felt like “just another bride”. We purchased the Ultimate Wedding Package. I priced everything out separately and quickly saw that it was a good value. Being the skeptic that I am, I was then concerned that the quality wouldn’t be great and prepared myself for disappointment. I was completely surprised by the quality of everything provided by the resort. The flowers were beautiful, the photographers were great (see more below) the cake was delicious. I didn’t want the corsages that came with the wedding package so the day of the wedding Vanessa took some ribbon I had and made a great little bouquet for my 2 year old daughter to carry. (We didn’t want to buy a bouquet for her because I wasn’t sure if it would get carried or tossed aside!)

Photographer- I found it odd that I couldn't find any reviews on the resort photographer (Tropical Studio) so at the last minute I decided to hire an outside photographer. (We went with HDC. Couldn’t have been happier. (You can see my review at http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/reviews/r/4361-hdc-photo-huellas-del-caribe/) As part of the ultimate wedding package, photography services during the ceremony were included. Therefore during the ceremony both HDC and the resort photographers were taking pictures. I’m so so happy that we hired HDC and highly recommend them, but for anyone who’s looking for a review on Tropical studio, they did a great job as well. The service that we got from HDC was much more personalized but we were not disappointed with the quality of the pictures taken by the resort photographer.

Video- There was also a video of the ceremony included in the package. This is not something that we would have spent money on, but in hindsight, it’s totally something I recommend to anyone who’s on the fence. The video was super well done, the audio was clear, and we were super impressed with its overall quality. The only bummer was that the mic wasn’t working for the first couple minutes so the opening prayer and the first reading were cut out of the video, understandably, because there was no sound.

DJ- We hired the DJ through the resort as well (another thing I couldn’t find a review on- so strange). This was another last minute decision (originally we were planning on using playlists on our iphone) and we were so incredibly glad we did. I’m 100% sure the party wouldn’t have been the same without it. From a technical standpoint the DJ wasn’t the greatest- his transitions were quite choppy and he played very few of the songs we requested. (We were told that if we gave a list of songs they would download them to play. (If you’re really attached to your songs, taking a CD would be a good idea.) That said, the DJ did keep things lively and played a great mix of fun, classic American wedding songs and fun, classic Argentine wedding songs. I married an Argentine and half our guests came from Argentina so it was important that both countries be represented and the DJ did an excellent job of making sure that happened. He did a great job of mixing it up and people from both countries got to rock out to songs from both places.

Spa- Rosa did my hair and makeup the day of the wedding and a trial two days before. She was excellent! I took pictures of what I wanted but asked for her advice since she's done hair for hundreds of beach weddings. I wanted something that looked pretty natural but would hold in the wind. The hairstyle I wanted wouldn't have worked well with my hair type (I don't have super thick hair and knew ahead of time that what I wanted might not be possible.) She did a variation, combining a couple of my pictures and it looked great. It rained toward the end of group pictures and was a little windy. I don't know what is in that hairspray of hers but my hair held perfectly. She told me that some brides want to use their own hairspray- Don't! They do hair and makeup for beach weddings so their products are chosen of such events. She also did a great job with my makeup. I didn't bring my own and just crossed my fingers that the quality was good. As with everything else the resort did for the wedding, it was. The makeup also held up perfectly in the rain. Magic. One thing I would have liked to know ahead of time (I didn't find out until the day of) is that the spa has a bridal suite where you can get ready. Your wedding party can join you and you can stay there right up until the wedding. The room was very nice and would make for great getting ready pictures. The only downfall to the spa was that it was quite cold.

Date of wedding: Feb 22, 2014 / Number of guests: 30

I tried to include everything that I would have wanted to know, but if you have more detailed questions please feel free to message me.