Secrets Maroma Brides

[K3nelson]

ohh..one more question, what did you do for centerpieces?  Do you have a picture?  After all of the comments about the wind, I have been investigating the battery operated candles. =) Thinking of doing a glass vase with sand, shells, and a candle...but would LOVE recommendations from others...not sure how I'm going to get everything down to Mexico. Eeeks!

[kristinalilly]

Originally Posted by K3nelson 

 

Congratulations, Kristinallily!

Your wedding dress is beautiful!  Thank you for the tip on the salon.  Did you get your hair done there?...love it! 

Was wonder if you could share where you got the chair sashes and the star fish...really cute!!  I'm debating between the chair covers and non chair covers...really like what you did.  Congratulations again and thank you for sharing your experience! - Karin

 

Hi K3nelson,

I did get my hair and make-up done there and was a bit nervous about it. She was great though and they had all MAC make-up so it's pretty legit.

The chair sashes I got from weddinglinensdirect.com and the starfish were from qualityshells.com. Both of the orders came super quickly and as advertised.

I'm sure some nights are windier than others, but we had no problems with our candles and we had a lot of them on each table. We found some beachy lanterns and put sand and seashells in them with a tall candle. We also bought mini lanterns with tea  lights in them online and had them stamped with the "Secrets Maroma Beach" and the date. We had a bunch on each table and let people take them home. We only had 3 tables so it came out to ~75$ for all three. We wanted to keep it kinda simple & beachy.

Here's what they looked like.

 

[brideRN]

ceremony setup - 3 centerpieces (we moved them to reception for later)

 

 

 

Juan was AMAZING!! could not ask for a better photographer!!!

 

 

 

 

they printed these menus for us (no charge)

 

we did gazebo cocktail hour and dinner.. perfect!!

 

 

tables

 

we got moved inside the seaside restaurant d/t rain..

 

set up was still beautiful - they moved fast and everything was perfect..

 

 

The day we got there, we met with Cecilia and she showed us everything and we went over last minute details - she is a miracle worker - she is absolutely amazing!! I did a trial hair and makeup at the spa with Blanca - she is AMAZING!!! she did exactly what I wanted but even better than i imagined (bring pictures of what you want and she will do exactly that).. on the wedding day I had my hair/makeup appt at 130... ceremony started at 430.. everything was perfect. Cecilia does everything and it is all perfect!!! We had an Ipod w/ speakers for the ceremony and cocktail hour - it was perfect. We were set up for reception at gazebo terrace but got moved inside d/t rain... so we ate dinner inside and did our first dances and then moved outside for DJ... DJ was amazing! So much fun!! 

 

If you have any specific questions just ask!!!

If you want to see more pics send me a private message : )

 

best of luck ladies - seriously dont worry about a thing - this resort is absolutely perfect and Cecilia is the best!!! 

I am SO happy with everything!!

[brideRN]

 

ceremony setup

 

 

they had these menus printed for us (no charge)

 

dinner got moved inside b/c of rain (set up was still beautiful)

 

outside setup 

 

reception

 

ceremony

 

[newloves1975]

I'm back! To all of you ladies who's wedding is coming up I am sooooo jealous of you, I didn't want to leave! I can't wait to go back to celebrate our first anniversary!!

 

Sorry if this is long.

 

I haven't been on a real vacation at an all inclusive resort in 8 years, so I really don't have much I can compare this to.

First of all.....The resort is beautiful! Beach, pool, restaurants, rooms, you name it, they were all gorgeous! 

 

Wedding info:

Including me and my husband there were 9 of us 

We had the ULTIMATE PACKAGE

Wedding 4pm- GAZEBO

Cocktail hour 5:30-6:30-BEACH

Reception 6:30-GAZEBO

Photographer-JUAN NAVARRO I chose photo package 6 (the one that includes all of the negatives) and I added an hour, so I had him and his assistant Daniel for 4 hours total.

I brought my own chair bows & menus.

I brought maracas as favors and had them placed with the menus at dinner.

 

I had a meeting with Cecilia 2 days before the wedding and we finalized everything. I mean she went over EVERYTHING! I showed her a picture of what I wanted my bouquet to look like and she nailed it!!! It was EXACTLY what I wanted! 

 

We had our wedding in the gazebo.  The beach set up is very nice and much more secluded, I almost changed my location to the beach but it was a red flag day and the wind was terrible. The wedding was at 4pm, I did my own makeup and my sister (who is a professional stylist) did my hair.  Juan Navarro and his assistant came to my room at 3pm to take the getting ready pictures.  Cecilia stopped in to give my the flowers and came back around 3:50 to take me down to the gazebo for the wedding. I did wear a veil for the ceremony and it was ok, it blew around a bit but nothing crazy.  I rented the sound system for the ceremony only and had my songs on my iPhone.  The timing for the music was flawless. I wrote out my whole ceremony and the officiant read it exactly as I wrote it. There were people at the pool during the wedding but everyone was quiet and respectful.  Actually a lot of people watched and cheered once the ceremony was over. The only thing that I would suggest is ask Cecilia where to go after you are married and walk back down the isle.  It was a little bit awkward, we just kept walking, then turned around and went back for champagne.  Right after the ceremony we did family pictures, then Juan took us on the beach for our pictures.  We did not go to the mansion.  I asked Juan about it and he pretty much said the last time he was there they wanted to kill him!

 

From what I heard the cocktail hour and food was great even though it was very windy.  My mom complained that there wasn't anywhere to sit on the beach though.  We were supposed to have the Mexican Trio for cocktail hour but they got stuck in traffic and were late.  They showed up for the last 10 min of the cocktail hour and the first part of the reception.  I was bummed that I would miss them so it was a blessing in disguise that they were late. When we came back from our pictures we did our first dances to the Mexican Trio music.  This was not how I planned it but it all worked out great.  The pictures Juan took with the trio in the background were beyond amazing!!!

 

I was lucky that when I had my meeting with Cecilia they were setting up a wedding reception that I got to go check out.  She said 11 people max can sit at a round table, the wedding I saw was set up for 8 and it looked just right, any more than 8 would be too much.  I decided to go with 1 rectangular table set up in the middle of the gazebo, instead of 2 rounds, or 1 very crowded round.  I got lights for under the table (love). Since the wedding was so small we did not have a separate bar set up just for us.  They used the pool bar I think and the service was fast. 

 

The food at the resort was good. The food at the wedding was GREAT!! We had the hearts of palm salad, tomato basil soup, and the surf and turf.  All 3 were so good! They raved about how good everything was especially the tomato soup.

 

I took the advise of another bride here and bought a big jambox speaker and brought it down with me.  It worked out absolutely great! The speaker works by Bluetooth and I had the music on my phone so I controlled it from my seat.  I played Jazz during dinner then had a playlist for the reception.  Since there was only a few of us we danced outside of the gazebo.  After a few shots of tequila who really cares! My mom ended up jumping in the pool in her dress.  We had the tres leche cake and it was pretty tasty, very plain looking, but I was fine with it. The reception was over around 9 or 9:30 we cut it short.....everyone was totally exhausted!

 

I also did a TTD with Juan a few days after the wedding.  I had a blast and can't wait to see the pictures! This was one of the main reasons I chose a destination wedding.  I just couldn't wait to jump in the water in my dress!

 

This is my advise. 

Find out where you go or where you should stop when walking back down the isle with your new husband.

If you are not using the makeup/hair style at the spa make sure someone is VERY specific on what you can use it for at the spa.  We had 2 problems with the spa messing up on appointments and both times they tried to tell us they said something they didn't.  I was very irritated, it was like they were trying to get me to upgrade and spend more money at the spa.  If you make an appointment make sure they confirm the service with you and write it down! Now....the massage at the spa was awesome, but the fact that they messed up with our appointments TWICE and tried to give us a cheaper service than the one we booked left a very sour taste in my mouth.

But most of all......just relax!!! Everything will work out fine, I can't believe how much I stressed over all the little things.  

 

Now for the resort......

All of the food was good, the french restaurant was my favorite, we ate there twice.  The worst in my option was the Mexican restaurant. The maids did a good job cleaning the room but there were several times they forgot to stock our fridge and coffee.  They also left us without any glasses one day.  I stayed in building 15 and the concierge Fabiola was wonderful!

 

I went to a few nightly shows and was impressed by everyone!  I saw Elvis, Rock of Ages & a fire show.  My FAVORITE thing they did was have a stargazing party on the beach with a bonfire.  I'm not sure how often they do this because I'm sure it depends on the weather.  They set out beach chairs and had a live acoustic band playing, we just laid there and watched the stars listening to music, it was so romantic.

 

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[K3nelson]

Kristinalilly- thank you so much for the info on your decor! Really appreciate it!

[K3nelson]

Newloves1975- Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your review! Absolutely gorgeous pictures! I'm still about 7 months out! Reading all of these posts is making me so excited!! Thanks for the review of Juan, I was a bit nervous about going with the resort's recommend photographer, but everyone has given him raving reviews...good to know! Congrats again!

[brideRN]

hi ladies! they wouldnt let me post my review here for some reason - so it is posted under the resort reviews here

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/secrets-maroma-beach-resort

 

ENJOY!! : )

[newloves1975]

hi ladies! they wouldnt let me post my review here for some reason - so it is posted under the resort reviews here http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/secrets-maroma-beach-resort ENJOY!! : )

Great review! I'm surprised that you didn't have a bar set up. I didn't either but I thought it was because there were only 9 of us.

[un4gitabl]

Thank you so much KCDawn for this overview!!!  Congratulations on what sounds like a beautiful wedding!!  I am just starting the planning process with SMB and so far this forum looks like a HUGE help!!!!    I had not even considered not having a DJ.  It sounds like you had a bigger group and it worked!  I'm so happy to hear that is an expense that I may be able to save money on!  This whole planning is a bit overwhelming at times!!