Overall - Highly Recommend this resort - loved everything out it.  Our guests had the time of their lives and we want nothing more then to go back ASAP :)

Arrival:

We traveled with a group of 45 people from mostly the Northeast and it was great to escape the cold.  Once we arrived on site you were greeted with champagne & a nice hot towel.

Because we were getting married there we were taken to Preferred Club ( private bar/check-in/computer access) very nice!

Once we checked in we were taken to our room which overlooked the ocean and this room was AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!! We had champagne waiting for us and could relax in the jacuzzi in the room or on the balcony. You can also take advantage of a fantastic room service menu & they will deliver food/drinks to your room and if you're feeling extra lazy you can have them delver everything to you in the "secret door" which is a small space that room service can access to leave food which you can open at your leisure.

Week:

We had guests arriving each day leading up to Sat ( day of the wedding) and there was plenty for everyone to do ( which was great considering we had people of different ages, singles and couples, etc).  There are plenty of chairs at the pools or beach so you never had to worry about getting outside first thing in the morning.  We mostly hung out at the pool bar ( which is incredible esp because that pool is constantly heated) and you can get whatever your heart desires.  Also - throughout the day the staff will walk around with apps ( in the event you don't want to go to any of the great restaurants).  They will bring sushi, spring rolls, chicken fingers, etc and everyone raved about this.  The staff is always available for drink service and you don't ever have to go looking for them.

Restaurants:

All amazing.. we went to the Japanese steakhouse for Hibachi one night with 14 people which was fun but overall we weren't too impressed with the chefs there ( esp because we go to these places a lot back home and have had fantastic service here).  The french restaurant has an amazing veal chop, everything at the Italian spot is great and the breakfast Buffet is out of this world ( they make everything to order, freshly squeezed juices, A++ on this)

Bars:

Always staffed - great service.

Sports Bar - Filipe worked here after 4 each night and was our BFF the whole trip he was great to all of us and made us laugh ( as well as made whatever drink/shot you wanted) the whole week.

Wedding Planning:

This was very concerning because we had chosen this resort 1 year prior to the wedding date and had a very hard time getting rates from the parent company, we almost switched hotels due to it but thankfully we did not.  Cecilia's communication was very difficult for me as I strive to be organized and I would email her and not hear back or I would make changes and they would not be reflected.  Overall, I think its the culture there to do things somewhat slower so please don't be afraid if you are not hearing from her - I would just suggest to keep all of your plans in a spreadsheet or word doc so as it gets closer you can send her 1 last overview so she has everything.

We did meet with Cecilia the Wed before the wedding.  She was very sweet and easy to deal with however she did not update any of our changes throughout the last month so it was almost like starting over.  I put together an overview in a small binder of everything for her because I was fearful she wasn't paying attention throughout the planning. 

OOT Bags:

I put together out of town bags for our guests ( I was told we would have to pay to have these delivered but I did not see a charge for this) but for some reason not all were delivered to our guests and some on certain days.  I would suggest either giving them out yourself if the group is small or maybe at a welcome party because I have read others say the same.

On the day of I did have to call her because she wasn't very proactive but as the ceremony approached she helped us coordinate.  They also DO NOT do rehearsals which was somewhat frustrating as I would have liked for everyone to have known what they were doing but everything went perfectly.  She also does not stay after the reception has started.

Beach Bonfire:

Because we did not have a rehearsal we wanted to do something for the whole group before the wedding so we had a Beach Bonfire.  If you can have this I would highly recommend it.  We went with the Caribbean menu ( it was a buffet) which was on the beach along with tables/chairs and we rented a sound system and made a play list before we left of "summer fun" type music.  We had a private bar on the beach and chairs around the bonfire.  We had such a great time here everyone really enjoyed it.

They also gave my husband a room this night so we didn't stay together the night before ( had to ask Cecilia when we arrived for this)

Wedding Day:

We started off in the spa to get nails done ( I had not been to the spa before the wedding day and my friends raved about it) however my experience was not great.  I had booked a mani/pedi and when we went to check in I asked if I could have a french polish in which they told me they did not have time to do that type of polish and that I was out of luck.  My friends tried to change their appts to accommodate this ( they then told us it was too late and they were too booked up).  The reception was extremely rude and the woman who did my nails was less then thrilled.  After a number of requests we were able to get me a french mani ( no pedi) and it costs $10 more just to have that polish.

After that we went and got ready at my sisters suits ( room 2731 - if you can get this room OMG it was amazing, it was a larger room with small kitchen, huge balcony and 100% overlooked the beach).  We had our hair and makeup done by The Makeup Pros ( I will write a review on them below - AWESOME Job) and started to get ready. 

Each Villa has its own private concierge and my sisters sent up multiple bottles of champagne and food for us as we got ready

After hair/makeup our photographer ( Samuel Luna) came and started taking pics in the room and we moved our way through the resort to take bridal party pics.  After that we had 30 min before the ceremony he went to take pics of the groomsmen.

Ceremony:

We had our ceremony at the Gazebo and they did a wonderful job ( we used the florist that the resort recommended however I sent him pics of the bridal/bridal party pics that I preferred which cost a little bit extra but well worth it).

We had a violinist - incredible job.

Officiant - she was fantastic and everyone loved the job she did.

Cocktail Hr:

Our ceremony ended at 4:40 and we didn't start the cocktail hr until 530 because we wanted time to take pics with our wedding party and not keep everyone away from the cocktail hr.

We held our cocktail hr on the beach with a Caribbean trio ( so much fun) and this lasted an hr.  We did not have a bar on the beach this time but we did have cocktail tables and chairs.  There is also an area that is flat that people could stand on if they so chose)

Reception:

Originally we chose to have it at the ocean terrace but it conflicted with a resort event so at the last minute it was changed to be next to the Gazebo and it really came out very nice.  The floral arrangements I had not seen and liked ( didn't love) but at that point everyone had a few cocktails and was just enjoying themselves.  We worked with the DJ that the resort recommended and everyone loved him ( he couldn't pr ounce our new name and needed direction in terms of when to introduce people and have speeches) we also made a play list on our Ipod of songs we didn't think he would have that we wanted played ( I sent him a long list before we flew to Mexico of songs we def wanted) but overall he was fun.

We ordered Maracas from Mishka Designs with shake me at the kiss tags to leave on all the tables ( which Cecilia did for us) and I also had place cards and table cards that I left for her at our original meeting ( I requested the place cards be alphabetical which she did not do so one of my sisters fixed that before the guests came down)

Wedding Food:

INCREDIBLE!!! Originally because of the size of the group we were told we would have a buffet but turns out it was served.  We had the surf & turf and it was out of this world!

Post Wedding:

Most of the party changed and we went to our usual sports bar spot and from there went to Desire's ( we visited desires almost every night).  It was very very fun

MISC:

Flowers - had to stay on top of this to ensure they were putting together what I liked ( I constantly sent pics of what I liked and asked they send me pics of what they would be so I could change if necessary)

Music:

Sound System - well worth it we had a huge dance party on the beach at the bonfire

Violinist/Caribbean Trio - Really made the wedding they were fantastic

DJ - made us laugh and played the songs we requested

Makeup artist:

I had read a lot of reviews about the spa and decided to hire an outside resource ( Fernando is the cutest, I loved him and he had as much makeup as a MAC store).  I did have to pay an outside vendor fee for him ( but he brought 3 people which I wasn't aware of and we were not charged for that).

Photographer:

Same thing- I had read very mixed reviews about the hotel photographer and had seen some of Samuel's work and really liked it.  I am waiting to see my professional pics so I'm unsure how to review this but when he was with us he was great to deal with.

SPA:

Nail Debacle - not very happy about but overall the spa is gorgeous and my husband and I had a couples massage on Sunday and it was the best thing ever!!!! We had a few other couples with us that did the same and they all loved it!

Overall:

I would go back again for a vacation and we really hope that someone we know has a wedding there!

See some pics below: