Secrets Maroma Brides

[newloves1975]

Hey Guys! I finally got settled into our new place after the wedding and I was able to post these pics as well!  I wanted to show anyone who is using Juan Navarro or his team how great they are!  We actually had Alex and Tony and we were very impressed with how wonderful they came out   I was reading a couple of pages back and saw some people wondering about using dinner at one of the restaurants as their reception.  We did the same thing and it was great, except for we did not care for the Italian restaurant.  We had our ceremony at the gazebo and it was beautiful!  We were on a budget so we opted not to do the cocktail hour, and honestly I feel like we made the right decision.  We were still taking pictures after everyone in the ceremony and other guests had finished their pictures with us, so they all went up to the lobby and mingled and had drinks from the bar and there was plenty of seating and a nice ambiance!  After dinner we still had too much time until the nightclub opened, and even though it was not in my plan everyone went to the Rock of Ages show until it opened.  It was nice!  I did change out of my wedding dress and into a short cocktail dress to dance because my dress was going to get so dirty!  It already had dirt on the bottom of it from the sand on the beach.  Trust me, you don't want to dance on your dress unless you don't care about that.  All in all, the wedding turned out wonderful.  There were just a few small things that did not go as planned, but I guess that is what you need to expect on a destination wedding.

First of all your pictures are beautiful! I'm using Juan and I can not wait!! I had asked about having the reception dinner at one of the restaurants. Can you tell me how many guests you had and if there was a charge to have the dinner at the restaurant? I asked Cecilia and she said basically there is no charge since it is a small group (under 10). But she did say that dinner would be at 6:30 if it was at the restaurant. Which I guess will allow some extra time for pictures. We are also considering going to the club for dancing after dinner. It is not a budget issue anymore, now it's a very small guest list and I just don't see the point in having a private reception.

[bpokatie]

Hi Newloves1975! I was married at SMB on May 12, 2012. We also only had around 10 people attend our wedding. We ended up having a reception at El Patio. We took up the back part of the restaurant. There wasn't a charge for it. We all had a great time. We even cut our wedding cake there after dinner. Cecilia was my wedding coordinator and she showed us our options we had for a reception. It was between El Patio, and Portofino.

 

We also went to the club after dinner, and there were only a few other people at the club. So if felt like our own wedding reception. It was a blast!

For those of you that are worried about the response about waiting to plan all the details until you get to the resort, don't be worried. I was just like you, and worried constantly about it. We literally didn't plan all the details until the morning before out wedding. Everything turned out perfect! I wouldn't change anything. I brought with me a picture of the flowers I wanted, and they matched them perfectly. I actually think they turned out better than I wanted.

 

I don't come on this blog to much anymore, so if any of you have questions please message me. I would be happy to help!

[msop04]

Originally Posted by KCDawn 

 

Ok I need some help with flowers...

 

Valeria is our wedding coordinator.  We have been emailing back and forth for about the past month starting to figure out some of the details and get some questions answered.  I asked her about the flowers.  Told her we were looking to do centerpieces (we'll probably have 5 tables) and some flowers for the ceremony location.  I asked her if I go through her or deal directly with the florist if I had specific ideas for what I wanted.  She told me to send her pictures and she would get me quotes.  So I sent her some pictures of bouquets and centerpieces to give her an idea of what I liked.  I heard from her about a week and a half later and besides giving me the prices for flowers on the aisle chairs and aisle petals (which are listed in the wedding guide) all she said was "No problem!" and "further details can be discussed at our meeting in the resort".   Really??  I guess I was hoping to get that part done before I got to Mexico.  What are the rest of you doing?  Did you or are you picking flowers before hand or when you get there? 

 

My wedding isn't until March 2013, but I am dealing directly with Maya Floral for anything and everything flowers.  I found it was just too difficult to try to go through the coordinator, who then has to talk to the florist, who may or may not understand what I wanted or may be lost in translation to begin with...  

 

I simply asked Cecilia to give me a direct email to each vendor, and she sent me all the information.  I have been emailing Carlos with Maya Floral, and he has been EXTREMELY helpful!  I sent him almost twenty photos showing what I liked, our wedding colors, and even my dress! (some pics for inspiration, some I wanted him to replicate).  Within 3 days, he sent me a ton of ideas of arrangements/bouquets/etc they had done that were very similar.  

 

I know that a lot of the floral is included in the Ultimate Package, so I'm hoping what I've chosen will be okay and I won't have any additional charges.  I feel more "in control" by dealing directly with Maya Floral.  I guess I'm just type A like that!  LOL  If you are interested in doing the same, I'd be happy to send you his contact info!  

[msop04]

Does anyone know the dimensions of the new beach ceremony structure??  I may be ordering a curtain of sorts to hang in the middle section and would need to know how tall and wide it is...

 

Also, if anyone has done something similar or knows where I might find photos of such decor, please post!!  

 

Thanks ladies!!

[KCDawn]

Originally Posted by msop04 

 

 

My wedding isn't until March 2013, but I am dealing directly with Maya Floral for anything and everything flowers.  I found it was just too difficult to try to go through the coordinator, who then has to talk to the florist, who may or may not understand what I wanted or may be lost in translation to begin with...  

 

I simply asked Cecilia to give me a direct email to each vendor, and she sent me all the information.  I have been emailing Carlos with Maya Floral, and he has been EXTREMELY helpful!  I sent him almost twenty photos showing what I liked, our wedding colors, and even my dress! (some pics for inspiration, some I wanted him to replicate).  Within 3 days, he sent me a ton of ideas of arrangements/bouquets/etc they had done that were very similar.  

 

I know that a lot of the floral is included in the Ultimate Package, so I'm hoping what I've chosen will be okay and I won't have any additional charges.  I feel more "in control" by dealing directly with Maya Floral.  I guess I'm just type A like that!  LOL  If you are interested in doing the same, I'd be happy to send you his contact info!  

Thank you!  I would feel better dealing with them directly.  I guess I was just afraid to step on her toes.  I'd like to get as much done ahead of time as possible.  I also want to know what kind of extra cost I'm looking at.  If the centerpieces are going too much I may need to compromise and bring something with me or come up with an alternative with the florist.  Could you send me his info?  Thanks again!

[KCDawn]

Originally Posted by amberh1884 

 

Hey Guys! I finally got settled into our new place after the wedding and I was able to post these pics as well!  I wanted to show anyone who is using Juan Navarro or his team how great they are!  We actually had Alex and Tony and we were very impressed with how wonderful they came out   I was reading a couple of pages back and saw some people wondering about using dinner at one of the restaurants as their reception.  We did the same thing and it was great, except for we did not care for the Italian restaurant.  We had our ceremony at the gazebo and it was beautiful!  We were on a budget so we opted not to do the cocktail hour, and honestly I feel like we made the right decision.  We were still taking pictures after everyone in the ceremony and other guests had finished their pictures with us, so they all went up to the lobby and mingled and had drinks from the bar and there was plenty of seating and a nice ambiance!  After dinner we still had too much time until the nightclub opened, and even though it was not in my plan everyone went to the Rock of Ages show until it opened.  It was nice!  I did change out of my wedding dress and into a short cocktail dress to dance because my dress was going to get so dirty!  It already had dirt on the bottom of it from the sand on the beach.  Trust me, you don't want to dance on your dress unless you don't care about that.  All in all, the wedding turned out wonderful.  There were just a few small things that did not go as planned, but I guess that is what you need to expect on a destination wedding.

 

 

 

 

Amber, you pictures are gorgeous!  We're using Juan too.  Seeing your pictures just gets me more excited!  Thanks for sharing!

[kristinalilly]

Gorgeous photos Amber and check out those tans!

 

Has anyone else sorted out their food yet? We're doing the Secrets of Love package and have the Silver menu included, but we're upgrading to the gold/platinum. I was under the impression that in that case they provide you with that menu and guests can choose off of it at the reception. However, Valeria told me that you have to pick one item from each category (apps, salad, main, dessert) and everyone has to have that if you want a plated service. Your other option is to choose 2 items from each category, but it must be as a buffet... I'm super bummed about this as everyone has such different tastes/sensitivities so we'll have to give people an option, but I really wanted a plated service with a menu rather than a buffet. 

 

Thoughts, advice?

[KCDawn]

Originally Posted by kristinalilly 

 

Gorgeous photos Amber and check out those tans!

 

Has anyone else sorted out their food yet? We're doing the Secrets of Love package and have the Silver menu included, but we're upgrading to the gold/platinum. I was under the impression that in that case they provide you with that menu and guests can choose off of it at the reception. However, Valeria told me that you have to pick one item from each category (apps, salad, main, dessert) and everyone has to have that if you want a plated service. Your other option is to choose 2 items from each category, but it must be as a buffet... I'm super bummed about this as everyone has such different tastes/sensitivities so we'll have to give people an option, but I really wanted a plated service with a menu rather than a buffet. 

 

Thoughts, advice?

I'm in the middle of that now.  We're doing the Ultimate Package so we have the Gold menu.  When I first asked Valeria about the food options, she said we could give people a choice for the entree but if we did so we'd have to give her the numbers about a week or so ahead of time and have a way to indicate to the staff who gets which choice.  In that email and a second one after she definitely pushed more for the buffet if you want more than one entree, but since she gave me the opening I took it.  I emailed her back with our choices for everything (one choice each for Appetizer, Salad, Soup and Desert and two choices for the entree) and told her I wanted the plated meal with two entree options.  I also told her I would do different colors for the seating cards so they could tell who ordered what.  Obviously that's more work for them but we're bringing about 40 people and I'm not going to make them all eat the same entree.  I haven't gotten her response back yet, so we'll see what she says.

[kristinalilly]

Originally Posted by KCDawn 

 

I'm in the middle of that now.  We're doing the Ultimate Package so we have the Gold menu.  When I first asked Valeria about the food options, she said we could give people a choice for the entree but if we did so we'd have to give her the numbers about a week or so ahead of time and have a way to indicate to the staff who gets which choice.  In that email and a second one after she definitely pushed more for the buffet if you want more than one entree, but since she gave me the opening I took it.  I emailed her back with our choices for everything (one choice each for Appetizer, Salad, Soup and Desert and two choices for the entree) and told her I wanted the plated meal with two entree options.  I also told her I would do different colors for the seating cards so they could tell who ordered what.  Obviously that's more work for them but we're bringing about 40 people and I'm not going to make them all eat the same entree.  I haven't gotten her response back yet, so we'll see what she says.

 

Hmm.... interesting. I've been back and forth with her a couple times on this.

I'm just going to go ahead and get the numbers, suggest the place cards to indicate who's getting what and go with it. We're only having 20 people, but I just don't see the reasoning behind not letting people just order. I would rather just get to the reception, choose off of a menu and just wait for them to cook it like in a restaurant...

It's kind of been the first stumbling block for us. We definitely need to give people a choice.

[KCDawn]

Originally Posted by kristinalilly 

 

 

Hmm.... interesting. I've been back and forth with her a couple times on this.

I'm just going to go ahead and get the numbers, suggest the place cards to indicate who's getting what and go with it. We're only having 20 people, but I just don't see the reasoning behind not letting people just order. I would rather just get to the reception, choose off of a menu and just wait for them to cook it like in a restaurant...

It's kind of been the first stumbling block for us. We definitely need to give people a choice.

Well I don't think you're going to be able to do the menu style unless your group is small to enough to just do dinner in one of the restaurants.  I think getting an option ahead of time for the entree is the best you'll be able to do with the formal reception.  That's typical for a banquet or wedding reception because it gets you the quickest service.  Otherwise your dinner will take up the entire reception.  She did tell me people wouldn't be able to change their choice at the reception or we would be charged.  I think that is what people are used to when it comes to weddings so I don't think it will be a problem.