Site Visit Review: Sirenas La Salina - Varadero, Cuba

[Yammiegirl]

You will be getting there 2 days after we leave. I am getting excited already, can't imagine when we are only a week away!!

[Amarillis]

bumping up for new Cuban brides!!!

[DWbride09]

hey do any of guys have pics you can post or email me at [email protected]?

[itsfinallyhere]

Thank-you girls you are the best. You have put my mind at ease we will be booking this week. Please send me any pictures you have. I would love to see, maybe help get more wonderful ideas!

[bluenuit]

You can email me and I'll give you my name to add me to facebook. Thats where all my pix are.

 

Or, I'll try to figure out how to upload them here.....lol

 

We didnt use the professional photographer, eacj of our guests had a camera, and they took amazing photos. And I love seeing their perspective on the whole day.

 

one thing I would recommend, is booking a private tour to Havana! If your group is at least 12 people, they will give you your own bus, and your own tour guide! Its well worth it! just let him know you are most interested in shopping!! lol HUGE market in Havana!!

 

but then again.....theres a HUGE market in Varadero too! lol DH and I took scooters to the market, and ate at a really cute restaurant across the street, and you park your scooters across the street too.

 

Or you can take the crazy double decker bus, but we found it super awesoem to go out and explore just the 2 of us on the scooters. We also stopped along the way at the bat caves!! SCARY!!! lol

 

I did the jeep tour with my girl friends and it was well worth it! I had onyl driven standard a couple times and we stalled alot, but the tour guys just laughed! lol we had a great time, and swimming in the cave was amazing, and the snorkling was really great too!

 

oh, and as far as snorkling at SLS, its not the greatest right along the beach, so take a KAT out to the middle of the ocean, I think it costs like 15 bucks....super fun!

 

The wedding itself was really beautiful. We chose to get married at the gazebo. We visited it every day b4 the wedding and after. lol just the 2 of us.

 

We could actually see it from our hotel room. So it was pretty cool, getting ready in our room, and going out on the balcony to watch DH waiting for me.

 

Bring a cd of the music you want to play as you are wlaking down the isle, we chose Metalica "Nothing Else Matters". haha we came across it the night b4 on our mixed cd, now I cry whenever I hear it. lol

 

And also the songs you want for the first dance, and all the other "traditional" wedding stuff.

 

After the wedding, we took photos, I love my photos, we actually made a book from blurb.com after, and we used that as our guest book for our at home reception. I left some pages blank at the end for signatures, kinda like a year book.

 

And blurb.com sent me a congradulations letter with the book, I found that to be really cute. I guess they looked at my pictures while they were printing it. lol funny!

 

The dinner was really funny! it was in the steak house!! lol so there were pictures of cows all over. but the lighting in there gave our photos a kinda 50's feel to them, so it worked out. We had fun. And the cake was TOO BIG! lol

 

If I could decide over again, I would chose the Cuban restaurant to have our wedding dinner in. Its more open to the outside, and there is a band playing music, the food in each restaurant is great.

 

In 2 weeks, DH and I are going to Dom Rep.....I hope we have a great time like we did at SLS!

 

I never get tired of talking about my wedding, so if you have any more questions, let me know!!

[Yammiegirl]

You can check my pictures out from our wedding at SLS on January 12, 2009. We didn't have a professional photographer as it ended up that 5 days before he couldn't make my wedding and the other girl he was photographing so I ended up with the resort photographer and lots of our guests. It was a great resort and I would definately go back again but would like to be closer towards the middle of the resort rather than at the far end....

 

My website is: MXGirl's photos- powered by SmugMug --- click on "Our Cuban Wedding" to check them out.

[DWbride09]

I love your pics Nat. Your bouquet is just gorgeous!!!!

 

PS is that you on the bike?

[itsfinallyhere]

Does anyone know if there is a problem to bring your own photographer to this resort? Do they have to be an "uncle"? Can anyone tell me?

[Yammiegirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWbride09 I love your pics Nat. Your bouquet is just gorgeous!!!! PS is that you on the bike?

Yup... that is me on the bike, I started racing about 3 years ago.
The bouquet was gorgeous and lasted forever. We stayed for another 10 days after the ceremony and the flowers started to die about 2 days before we left. They made the room smell absolutely wonderful! The bridesmaid's bouquets were pretty much the same except they didn't have the calla lillies sticking up and had more white in them than pink so they didn't blend into their dresses. I was really impressed with them!

[AlexsBride]

Thanks for all this info on SLS. We just got back some quotes from our TA and SLS was right in our budget and the "kids" rate is for up to age 14 which is nice because the two oldest kids in our group will be 13 and 14, so only have to pay for airfare and they get the free stay. I am going to search around on here for more wedding reviews on here but so far I have heard great things.