Fiesta Americana Condesa Wedding Review 05/10/08

Our wedding day was perfect but there were a few things that went off WITH a hitch.

 

The Hotel – A+

The hotel itself is gorgeous and we loved the layout and architecture of the place. The honeymoon suite was fabulous. It is a larger hotel but seems very small which was perfect for our group of 70. The hotel was at half capacity when we were there so it really seemed like the place was all ours. The pools and beach were amazing!!

 

The rest of the story about the hotel – mixed reviews

The WC Mariana Leon is extremely friendly, sweet and responds to whatever you want right away. She is a really great girl but she is new to wedding planning so she lacks a lot of experience. This didn’t really affect us from a planning perspective. We just relied on her recommendation for some vendors and ended up getting screwed.

 

The florist (Marvin of Maya Disenos Florales) - F

He didn’t arrive at the church to decorate until after the guests were there for about 10 minutes. He blamed the WC saying she told him the wedding was at 4pm. He showed up at 3:30pm which is what time the ceremony was supposed to begin. Then he didn’t even bring half the flowers that we paid for. But the flowers that we did receive were gorgeous. This is still unacceptable. FI was pissed.

 

The Ballroom – Whatever is less than an F

We specifically requested an inside ballroom (Peninsula Ballroom) because we were worried about guests being hot and uncomfortable. After the sand ceremony was over, we were told by our WC that we needed to wait 20 minutes before going into the ballroom because it wasn’t ready yet. Well, they knew the schedule and we were right on schedule despite the church ceremony starting 25 minutes late. The room should have been ready. But by the time we got into the room, we noticed right away that the AC was not working properly. We complained right away and then they finally sent someone to look at it but to no avail. The reception started at 7:30pm and by about 12:30am they finally brought some fans. It would have been nice if they brought them sooner. Everyone was sweating but we still had a fabulous time. The kicker is that the WC told us that 3 weeks prior to our wedding, another couple who had their reception in the same room complained about the AC. Apparently they didn’t feel it necessary to fix it before ours.

 

Getting nickel and dimed – F

A couple days before the wedding, we sat down with the WC and she told us that if we wanted to keep the party going after the 5 hours that were included in our package that it would cost $100 per hour for the DJ and $35 per waiter per hour. About 40 minutes prior to “closing time†we requested that the DJ and wait staff stay for another hour. As the WC had already left, they tried to charge us $650 for the hour. We have no idea how they came up with that number. After we asked to speak to a supervisor, we ended up settling on $250 which is still higher than what was quoted. We shouldn’t have had to deal with all that.

They also nickel and dimed us on feeding the photographers. They said they didn’t have enough food and that they could order room service but that we would have to pay extra for it. There were 6 people who we had already paid for but weren’t able to make it to the wedding at the last minute so this should have not been a problem at all. But again we had to worry about it when we should have been enjoying our food and dancing.

My mother-in-law also caught the wait staff serving themselves our wedding cake instead of serving the guests. She told me this after the fact but she was wondering why half the guests weren’t served cake so she followed one of the guys into the back to ask and that is when she saw them eating our cake. That would have been fine if all the guests were served and we didn’t want to save any and we told them they could have it but that certainly wasn’t the case.

One positive thing I can say is that the food was absolutely delicious. We had no problems whatsoever with the food. It wasn’t just what was served at the reception but we ate at all the restaurants (including room service) and everything was amazing. I couldn’t get enough of the shrimp tacos. Que rico!!

 

The Photographer – A++

Martha Roque Photographer Martha Roque Cancun México was our photographer and she was phenomenal. I wrote another review about her in another thread that contained some of the pictures.

 

The Musicians for the Church Ceremony – A

Adagio Cancun .:Adagio Cancún:. were great. They were easy to work with via email and responded right away but the most amazing part is that they learned a song in less than 2 weeks that we wanted played. There is a song that is very sentimental to my husband (it feels weird to say that) and reminds him of his grandfather (who he is extremely close to) who recently passed away. At first they said that they didn’t have enough time to learn it and rehearse it but after I told them how much it meant to us, they said no problem and did it. When we heard them play it we both cried. Apparently the lady that sang it didn’t know any English and learned the song just for us. She did a beautiful job!

 

Transportation Company – B+

Jorge of Incentives Fly and Travel iFlyt :: Destination Management Company was very accommodating and worked with us to provide transportation for our guests between the church and the hotel. He also provided a car for us. The AC worked great in all vehicles and that was most important!!! Jorge was great about finding vehicles that were clean and neat and he passed with flying colors.

 

DJ – A++

The DJ (I can’t remember his name) www.presentationservices.com.mx was amazing. All the guests kept commenting on how awesome the music was. We did give them a song list including a do not play list but he was very professional and played all the best music. We had a 70/30 mix of Latin and American music. It was perfect!!!

 

The Cake – A+

We didn’t want a wedding cake but our parents surprised us with one. They bought 3 tres leches cakes from Costco and put them on different sized tiers and decorated it with some flowers. It was a nice surprise and the cake was so delicious. It was a heck of a lot cheaper than the $9 per slice cake the hotel was going to serve and probably wouldn’t have been that good. If you are trying to save a little money this could be the way to go.

 

Sunset Cruise – A+

On Friday night before the wedding we chartered a private sunset dinner cruise for all the guests. It was through Aquaworld on the Cancun Queen Aquaworld Cancun's Sightseeing & Attractions , Cancun, Cancun Diving, Diving in Cancun, Cancun Tours, Cancun Fishing,Swim with Dolphins Cancun, Cancun Jungle tour, Cancun Snorkeling,

It was a perfect evening and everyone had a fabulous time. There was open bar, dinner (which was really good), dancing, live band, DJ, games and prizes plus fantastic views. If you are looking for something to do for your guests, I would highly recommend this. We had an absolute blast and it really didn’t cost that much money!!

 

Ok. I think I covered everything but if I think of something else or anyone has any questions, please let me know!

What a great review!!

Thank you so much for the review!!

 

anna

That's rotten that they ate your cake! I'm glad it turned out okay, though.

My mouth literally dropped when I read that they were eating your cake.. ahhh! But you still had a good time right? That's what's important!

Great review! I know what you mean about being nickel and dimed. That almost happened to us but luckily we had to pay for the wedding and reception ahead of time so we were able to negotiate the terms and refuse some excessive fees and so we weren't surprised with anything after the fact.

 

It sounds fabulous though, even with the few hiccups that the resort caused.

Thanks for the review..I am having the reception here so hopefully this review will me get everything cleared up in advance- thank you soo much for feedback! Did your DJ also MC (announce bridal party, first dance, etc.)?

And I will def. not be going with Marvin for flowers (I think he was one of the people she recommended to me too). I will search forum but if anyone has anyone off hand they recommend for flowers/decorations it'd be great!

He did MC too but he only announced us and when we walked in we went straight to the dance floor for our first dance. Then we started the reception.

I have to say that Marvin's flowers were gorgeous but you just have to be clear and double and triple check the time if you go with him. And make sure you talk directly with him and he understands the time. It was a shame because I loved loved loved my flowers. He was just late in decorating the church.

Hey ladies i am really considering having my big day here i found your review to be really helpful. Do you know if there was a nearby church there? The cake options that will be the way for me, was it nearby? So did ur parents buy the tiers or did the hotel let you borrow it?