Any non-resort and non-beach locations?! Help!

Ugh, my fiance and I are getting frustrated with our search. We've read through all the forums and contacted a number of wedding planners. We want to get married somewhere in Riviera Maya but don't want to do the resort thing. Ideally, we do not want the ceremony on the beach. We've been looking into renting a villa (or several for us and our guests) where we can stay and have the ceremony/reception, but that search hasn't been working out so well. 

So, we're hoping to find a non-resort venue that can host our ceremony & reception. The only place we've found so far is the beach club in playa. The wedding planners seem to be hesitant to help unless we pay them first. But if we can't find an ideal location in riviera maya, we might have to reconsider that location altogether.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know. A garden or grassy hilltop would be ideal, with the reception under a palapa. That might be asking too much. We're open to anywhere south of cancun (aiming for a spring wedding with about 50 guests). Thank you so much!

Joe & Dana

There are a couple places in Puerto Adventuras I think you 2 might like. I believe its about 45 minutes south of Cancun. The first place is called Casa Selva Luna. It's actually an estate you can rental, there is a garden area, a large pool and a small palapa. I believe you use it for a wedding you can either rent out the whole place to stay at (6 bedrooms, max 14 people, $1200.00/night) or you can just rent it for the event. For an event they give you the master room and the common areas. Here is a link to it: Casa Selva Luna Vacation Rental Puerto Aventuras Mexico

The second place is Taninah Private Jungle Retreat. It's not far from the beach. They have a large garden w/ waterfalls, a palapa by the pool, cool water caves (great idea for pictures)! Here is the website to that: Taninah Vacation Rentals Puerto Aventuras Mexico

Here is a wedding that was held there (look through more pictures): Bride Review Puerto Aventuras Mexico Vacation Rental Listings From Puerto Rentals

If you're interested in either of these. Email Gina Vallarino, she is the wedding coordinator there. Her email is [email protected]

Hope these help! Good Luck!

Here are some more photos of Taninah Jungle Retreat:

Wellcome to Taninah (slow version)

I know you are asking about a non-beach location and although this may exist, I'd like to suggest a spot that we chose for our wedding day.

Here is the link to Sol's blog showcasing our vendors and the ceremony site in Playa del Secreto. Check this place out. You will likely need to hire a wedding coordinator to help you set up all the logistical challenges of making a place like this fit your wedding dreams. The beautiful thing about it was that it started as a complete blank canvas. We had TOTAL freedom here

Sol Tamargo Photography

The property has a palm grove just off the ocean. Out of all the places I've seen in the Riviera Maya out of hundreds of weddings, nowhere had the feeling and setup that Secret Jewel had for us.... We had 58 guests.

Any idea of what your overall budget is for your wedding? Ballpark? I believe this is an important consideration here because this kind of gig is a create from scratch and parts of that approach can tug on the wallet. But totally manageable!

For other suggestions, Xcaret. Check out this wedding we shot this spring. del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism

The grounds are amazing and you are on a hilltop chapel that is completely open air. The reception is in this MAJOR huge cenote cave that has air conditioning.... I could write about it for hours, just mind blowing. Check it out as a possible non-beach option

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

matt

Wow, that xcaret setting is pretty nice. We're looking into that. Otherwise, I'm surprised that there aren't more options. I guess the resorts bought up all the nice spots along the coast. For a non-resort wedding, I guess we'll have to piece something together ourselves.

Does anyone know if there are pretty gardens that might be available for the ceremony? We'd prefer grass over sand for that portion of the day. Thanks for the recommendations.

check out Taninah in my previous post. They have a LARGE garden area.

I am in the same boat as you. I'm getting married in RM on June 19th, 2009, and don't want to go to a resort. We're staying at Las Villas Akumal, where each 1, 2 or 3 bedroom villa has a full kitchen and numerous bathrooms, but you don't have to rent the whole place out. People can't make reservations for however many days they want. I also don't want my ceremony in the sand, so my current two options I'm looking at are either to put up platforms or wooden slats on the beach, covered with nice straw mats, or to have it on the lawn in fron of the villas.

It's hard to find a place that meets what we are looking for, I've been looking for months. Good luck!

Are you stuck on Riviera Maya? We're having our ceremony and reception in a villa-type location, on the grass, not on the sand, but it's in Cabo. Let me know if you want more info on it.

Hi Shabado,

I know exactly what you're going through. I just had my wedding in Tulum last week. I interviewed 7 coordinators, ended up hiring and then firing one and ended up just doing it all myself. The varying travel time is also a challenge. By the time I finished though, I had it all figured out - a little too late of course.

Anyhow, I ended up at Mil Amores in Tulum.

MIL AMORES TULUM

It's two mansions that have been renovated into a hotel. The staff and management is super accomodating and will probably allow you to put a temporary hold on the entire hotel for 15 days and then your guests can finalize their own room.

Here are pics from my wedding. As you can see, it's an amazing venue. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Dreamtime Images Blog Archive Tulum, Mexico Wedding Photography: Malisa and Todd