Opice34's Cancun Wedding Review

[Opice34]

We're back and MARRIED! Woo hoo! I haven't even posted my planning thread yet, but I figured the review was more important, so I'll get to that first!

 

Details:

 

Wedding Date: November 15, 2008

90 adults, 5 kids, 2 babies

 

Location: Hilton Cancun

Hilton Hotel in Cancun ? Meetings in Cancun ? Cancun, Mexico

 

Ceremony Location: Hilton Miramar Garden

Cocktail Hour Location: Hilton Caribe Terrace

Reception Location: Hilton Miramar Ballroom

 

Welcome Dinner Location: Hacienda Sisal Mexican Grill

 

Wedding Photographer: Elizabeth Medina

Elizabeth Medina Photography, Mexico Destination Wedding Photographer, Wedding Photojournalism throughout the Riviera Maya, Yucatan and Mexico

 

Wedding Videographer: Hector from FuneverPhotos

[email protected]

 

DJ: Carlos from DJ Mannia

MANNIA - Audio, Video e Iluminación Profesional

[email protected]

 

Alcohol - La Europea

LA EUROPEA

 

The Hilton

 

We worked with Fernanda Parra, the wedding coordinator at the Hilton, to plan the event and she is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! When planning a wedding from afar, you really have to have so much trust in the coordinator you are working with, and Fernanda is just so wonderful. She has excellent taste and she made everything look perfect! I told her one time how I wanted things and she remembered and made things prettier than I could have imagined! She even thought of things I had forgotten! She really is wonderful and you will be in safe hands with her. I spent the entire day before the wedding lounging in the pool and that is largely because Fernanda is so wonderful and I knew she had taken care of everything. She coordinated the flowers, the bus transporting folks to the welcome dinner, the chair bows, and communicated with the DJ to confirm the timing of everything. I'm sure she did a bunch of stuff I don't even know about, too! Everything ran so smoothly because of her!! I really can't express how great she is.

 

The Hilton Cancun is a wonderful hotel. We heard lots of comments from our guests indicating that they would be back to visit there! One of my favorite things is that the pool is very large, so you are always able to find a lounge chair and the pool never feels crowded. We have been to several resorts where you have to get up at 8am to snag a lounge chair just so you'll have one for the day and this is never the case at the Hilton! There is plenty of room! And the swim up bar is great!

 

We were also surprised with treats every day. Either a bottle of wine, or some interesting desserts, or towels shaped like smooching swans...every day there was a new treat that the cleaning service left in our room. Just a nice small touch to make us feel special!

 

We also left welcome bags for folks at the check-in desk and they had no problem picking them up! It was great!

 

There was some construction going on at the Hilton and we were a bit dissappointed, but they really did a wonderful job of concealing the work and making the hotel look wonderful. I hardly noticed it at all!

 

The Spa at the Hilton is also nice and there are several restaurants for guests to enjoy.

 

Most of all, they really know how to throw an event. They are pros! There were signs in the lobby directing our guests where to go, the service was EXCEPTIONAL, and everything was perfect. My dad is a stickler for good dinner service and he was incredibly impressed with the waitstaff. I never ran out of water, the food was EXCELLENT, and everything was perfect. We served the Filet Mignon, Chicken Florentine, and Chilean SeaBass and received loads of compliments on the food. I have lots of picky eaters in my group, too, so this was quite a compliment!!! Really - things could not have gone better!! The lighting and the set-up of the ballroom was also perfect!! Everything was great!!

Hacienda Sisal

 

Also - FANTASTIC!! We had a welcome dinner here for about 100 guests. Again, the service and the food were perfect. We held the event in the patio room with a buffet style set-up. We also showed a slideshow of childhood photos here and this room has a perfect set-up for that. There is a screen already built in and the speakers are built into the room as well. It looked great! We served a buffet with chicken and beef fajitas and tacos, chicken flautas (yummmm!), stuffed peppers, rice, beans, salad bar, guacamole, pico, salsa, and a dessert bar. Everyone loved the food! I honestly didn't eat much because I was a bundle of nerves, but I LOVE their chicken flautas!! They are so great! Yum yum!! We had an open bar serving beer and margaritas. The waiters greeted each guest with a "Welcome Margarita" which went over very well! They also had a microphone quickly ready for some impromptu toasts that occurred! Again - the service was fantastic, the food was great, and everything went better than I could have hoped!

 

FuneverPhotos

 

I'm also very impressed with their service! I just wanted a simple video of our ceremony and I was in a bind and was able to book Hector from Funever Photos at the last minute. And I'm glad I found him because we had a groomsmen faint and they announced us as Mr. & Mrs. {My Maiden Name}, so the video is quite comical! (The groomsmen who fainted does so quite a bit, even at his own wedding, so we were taking bets as to how long he'd last. What's even funnier to me is that one other groomsmen is a doctor and there were two more doctors in the audience and none of them moved. We all knew it was coming and we knew he'd be up soon! But he does get very embarrassed about it.) But the video is perfect - it's exactly what I wanted and they delivered it to us 2 days after the wedding! We were able to watch it on our honeymoon which was such a fantastic treat! Hector did a great job and I'm so glad I found them!

 

 

DJ MANNIA

 

BEST. DJ. EVER. Seriously. My wedding was the best night of my life and a big part of that is because Carlos kept great music playing all night long! People never sat down!! We were all on the dancefloor ALL NIGHT!! He is fantastic!! We got so many compliments on him, people are still talking about what a great DJ he was, and our friends have even named our wedding "Best Dance Wedding Ever"!

 

He is very professional, always on time, his set-up is great, his song transitions are seamless, he made the announcements perfectly, he played all the songs we wanted and none of the ones we didn't....I really can't say enough! I am so grateful for what a good job he did! My reception would not have been the same without him!! He is WONDERFUL and I highly recommend him!!

 

Elizabeth Medina

 

Of course, I haven't seen the pictures yet, (we just got back!), but I have loved working with Elizabeth and I'm sure the pictures will be wonderful! She has been so easy to work with from the very beginning and even from our first email, I have just very much enjoyed working with her! She has been so easy to communicate with and she is always so, so helpful! She is a very nice, caring person and it was nice to have the addition of such a positive personality on such a wonderful day!

 

I am not the best subject for photos - I can be a bit awkward and I'm not good at posing - but Elizabeth handled everything so well and was just so wonderful while we were taking the pictures! I was so smiley and giggly that I could hardly take any serious-faced shots! I also didn't even notice her at all during the ceremony, and I think that's great! She was very surreptitious! She is a wonderful person and worked very hard to capture our event! We had quite a rambunctious reception - we did the Horah and we're not even Jewish! - So I'm sure we had her running around! Such fun! I can't wait to see the pictures! I will post some when I get them!

 

La Europea

 

Again - highly recommend! We used them for alcohol for our cocktail hour and reception, and not only did we save a ton of money, but their service is great! We ordered the alcohol we wanted, Fernanda (at the Hilton) coordinated the delivery of the alcohol the day before as well as the pick-up of the remaining alcohol for us the day after the wedding. Fernanda even counted all of the leftover bottles for us! We originally purchased all of the alcohol on our credit card and we went into the store the day after and had them refund the amount on our card and the refund appeared before we even got home! I have seen some reviews where some people had trouble getting their refunds, so I recommend popping in there in person after the event and having them refund it directly on your credit card. It worked perfectly!!

 

 

************************************************** ******

Overall, having a destination wedding was such a wonderful decision. While we were packing to go, I was incredibly stressed and I was thinking "why didn't we just elope?!", but honestly, it was the best night of my life and I wouldn't change a thing. It was absolutely fantastic. Everyone was in such a great mood and it contributed to an incredibly fun reception. We had lots of different groups of friends who came together and seemed to form one big group and everyone got along perfectly. (I think a few days lounging at the pool beforehand assisted with the intermingling!)

 

The only, small thing I would change is that I would have spent more time primping before the reception. The humidity and wind during the ceremony destroyed my hair, but I was in such a good mood and just so excited that all I wanted to do was go visit with people. I didn't spend the proper amount of time fixing my hair, and I looked a bit disheveled! But I still had a blast, so I don't care!

 

I also didn't change out of my gown all night and with all of the dancing I, along with everyone else, was a hot, sweaty mess by the end of the evening. Not exactly what I expected to look like at my wedding reception! I'm glad I didn't change out of my dress, I love it and you only have one night to wear it, but I now fully understand why some people change clothes! I would have been much more comfortable, and 'dance-able', in something else! But still - no regrets!!!

 

Good luck to everyone who is still planning and I hope everything goes smoothly!!!!

 

Hugs!

[Opice34]

Here's a non-pro pic!

 

[dcheung1111]

Thanks for sharing your review! I also booked Elizabeth for my wedding next November. She is definitely so nice.. and I can't wait to meet her. Hopefully you'll post your pictures once you get them!! )

[KLC77]

Great review. And, that's a fabulous non-pro pic! More more... lol

[Jessica&Adam]

Wonderful review, thank you SOOO much, Opice! It's so awesome to hear that everything went so smoothly! From the one picture, I can tell...you look stunning!! I cannot wait to see EM's photos of your wedding.

 

Congrats again, I'm so happy for you and your hubby!

[ErikDaGenErik]

wow i cannot wait to see the elizabeth medina pics! thanks for your input regarding the reception dress! =)

[Jen_S]

Congrats! Cant wait to see your pro picts since your non pro pict is great!

[*Nadine*]

So happy to hear your wedding was incredible!!

Is your dress Mathew Christopher?! I think I am looking at the same one and I love it.. hope you can post more pics soon!!

[Opice34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdnvb9 So happy to hear your wedding was incredible!! Is your dress Mathew Christopher?! I think I am looking at the same one and I love it.. hope you can post more pics soon!!

Yes! It's the Matthew Christopher Moet gown. LOVED IT!! Best decision I made about the whole wedding! Are you deciding between that one and another one?

I'll try to find a full length shot...

[Opice34]

Here's a full length non-pro pic!