We had our wedding on January 23, 2016 with a total of 58 people in our party. We booked our stay through Vacations for Less with Teresa Stauring. Our TA is absolutely wonderful and definitely helpful with all the booking needs we had. We stayed for 7 nights while some guests stayed between 4-7 nights. Everybody loved the resort and definitely had a wonderful time.

The front desk staff were absolutely wonderful. I would definitely like to mention Maria from the frontdesk with all her assistance. We originally booked 3 nights in an ocean view, 2 nights master suite (getting ready room for the bridal party) and 2 nights back to the ocean view premium delux. We were able to upgrade our entire stay in the master suite preferred club which definitely made it more convenient for us. It prevented us from switching back and forth with rooms. Maria tried her very best to accommodate our needs and assisted us in getting a best deal possible.

Olga from the housekeeping department kept our room nice and neat the whole time. We see her everyday and she never fails to greet us and inquire whether we would want some cleaning in our room. The person refilling and keeping our fridge stock is not always keeping our mini bar stocked. I asked room service if they can bring us some orange juice since me and my now husband are both sick at the time, they said they can only deliver the juice if we order food so sometimes we are forced to just order something to get some orange juice and water. The room service food is a hit or miss sometimes. There are times that the hot food is cold and cold food is warm, like salads would be soggy. But it's a good go to food whenever we are hungry and we're too tired to get dressed and walk to a restaurant.

The preferred club service is nice. I do love the little appetizers and snacks they have available there. We didn't really use this service very much as to most of our needs were taken care of by the main frontdesk.

The best restaurant is the Italian. Everything else such as the French, Japanese, Oceana, and Seaside are really good as well. These restaurants makes it seem like I am not in an all inclusive resort with the service and the quality of food. Their portions are perfect enough to start with an appetizer, get an entree, and still be able to try some dessert. There's only quite a handful of dessert I liked from all the restaurant. Try to avoid peak times because they can go on an hour waits especially if you have a big party. My least favorite restaurant is the world cafe buffet. I often find their food not so appetizing and somewhat makes this place really an all inclusive resort. Although, the wait staff there is always very nice. A few of the waitstaff in the oceana and seaside grill could be a little rude but then again I kinda get it when our party gets a little too drunk and needy.

The pool and waitstaff by the pool are always nice and friendly. The resort is very well maintained and is always nice and clean.

Going into our wedding day. I had an outside vendor Styling Trio do our hair and makeup. They are amazing! I honestly love everything about them. I do wish that they can become one of their preferred vendor because out of all the services we received, I think they were the best in fulfilling everything they promised. I've never had my hair and makeup done and have it nailed in one application. I'm very picky and particular with how I want my hair and makeup and looking at the photos from the DRC spa, I did find their service overpriced and I don't find their quality that great. I do think some of their makeup are done too much and looks cakey. We also hired an outside photographer, Sarani photography. We used adventure photos for a family photoshoot since I had a photo package included with the ultimate wedding package I have. I believe his name was Arturo, he was nice but it felt like we were rushed when we did our photoshoot at the beach the day before the wedding. The photos turned out nice though but it didn't look or feel as fun as how we had it a year ago in Cabo during my sister's wedding.

Our wedding coordinator Maira Gomez is amazing. She came to my room with the bridal bouquet and they were beautiful. I wanted a more brighter blue but I'm still happy with how it turned out. I highly suggest getting the master suite for a big bridal party. There's was 8 of us total getting our hair and makeup done and our room was perfect. We were a little late in starting the ceremony. We were trying to take some more getting ready photos and we did kinda loss track of time.

The ceremony. The gazebo was absolutely beautiful. The minister did a great job the ceremony. The floral arch was beautiful and how the blue mason jars and the coral flowers pop the colors of the gazebo. The only thing I was disappointed was the rose petal aisle. I specifically asked Maira to make sure that I have a very full rose petal aisle. But it didn't look as full as I wanted it. I wanted more petals like you can't see the floor but petals but that didn't happen. The rose petal rain was a joke. I wish I just asked for our guests to throw the petals as we were walking out rather than the machine they were using for the rose petal rain. It wasn't blowing as many petals as I envisioned it. So our exit didn't look as exciting as I wanted it.

The cocktail hour had the mariachi band that played for 45 minutes. The food from the cocktail hour were all delicious. I asked for some papel picado to go brighten the cocktail hour location and had the Mexican theme in it but the wind blew them away and they had to take them down. After the mariachi band played, this caused confusion to my guests and thought that the cocktail hour has ended. So they all were trying to go to the reception but it wasn't ready and even the reception itself was also delayed due to finishing touches they had to do.

The reception was held in the ballroom and it was supposed to start at 7PM. We didn't get started till almost 7:20PM and it also caused for some of my bridal party to disappear because they were misinformed that the reception won't be ready till 8PM. I wish they could be coordinated the transition from the cocktail hour to the reception better. I wish someone was coordinating during the cocktail hour assisting our guests to stay there until the ballroom hall was ready.
The design was so very beautiful. Maira did an outstanding job with executing what I wanted for the reception. We had a beautiful sweetheart table and the tables and chairs and center pieces came together beautifully. The only thing is that we had asked for a couple of confetti shoots, and it seems like we only had one during the end of our first dance. It would've been nice if we had the 2 shots we paid for one during the middle of our dance and one at the end. DJ Mauricio played some of our song selection but he played his song selections over what we wanted. We understand that there's not enough time to play all the songs we wanted, but we'd rather hear the songs we selected than Ke$ha, or Taylor Swift or some other random dance song we didn't want. We had the Caribbean buffet with the salad menu from the BBQ buffet. We were very disappointed with the quality of our food and the taste. The food looked soggy and not very appetizing. The fried chicken looked like a tiny chicken with one bone, kinda hard to explain, and the salad were all wet looking. We wish we actually stocked to the plated menu perhaps the quality and looks would be better. Our wedding cake didn't look as nice as how I wanted it. From what I understand, I asked for a 3-tiered cake with flowers and blue ribbons that I provided. There wasn't enough flowers in it. The taste of the cake was very dry. The fondant cake was so hard it took us awhile to cut through the cake. We honestly didn't even eat the cake because it didn't taste very good. It's a little disappointing when I paid extra amount for a better looking and hoping for a better tasting cake. We had the photo booth. It pretty much looked like they took over the entrance table and set up a camera and props. A lot of our guests wasn't able to take photos and their complaint is that they get photo bombers behind them since its so out in the open. Since we started our reception late, they did let us stay a little longer during our reception. Altogether we still had a great time during the reception.

Our room during the wedding night were cleaned with a sash at the door that says "honeymoon". They had a bottle of champagne and fruit tray waiting for us, rose petals and bubble bath in the tub, and our bed made with some fresh robes waiting. It was very neat but we were so exhausted that we didn't even drink the champagne or use the tub.

The following day, the wedding department left our luggage with all the stuff we brought for the wedding in it. They gave us a survey to fill our and few other instructions but we were so busy I didn't even get to read the paper till we got back from our vacation.

I would rate our whole experience 4/5. Not everything was perfect but it still turned out beautifully. I couldn't thank Maira Gomez enough for making all of this happen. The wedding staff and her worked as a team and helped out our dream wedding together. There were a few things that were out of her control such as being too windy, or what the DJ would play during our wedding, or how our cake would taste and look. We're still beyond grateful for all the work she did for us. Do we truly feel that we got what we paid for, not so much. We are just glad we are able to have our family and friends, enjoy the event and each other's company. Even though it wasn't a perfect wedding day, we are still glad that we got a beautiful wedding.