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Azul Sensatori - Magda and Neil's wedding

Magda&Neil

By Magda&Neil
in Destination Wedding Reviews

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Magda&Neil

Magda&Neil

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I’m on my way home from my wedding which was held Dec 22 at Azul Sensatori and I wanted to give you the story on my experience which overall was amazing. I want to start out by saying that I was a frequent reader of the forum and trip advisor which led me to feeling some apprehension regarding water, the beach, service when I arrived at the resort but these feelings soon subsided upon arrival. Also, I had the unique experience of arriving at a time where the resort was less than 25% capacity and departing when it was nearly full so I got to see the full transformation of Sensatori from limited services to full service. We had in total 41 guests plus ourselves.

 

First day

 

We arrived and were greeted with champagne and by our wedding coordinator Carolina who had set up our first meeting for the following day. One surprise we had was not fully understanding that our witnesses were supposed to have arrived on the Wednesday before our wedding on Monday. Unfortunately they were coming on Thursday as this information was not properly communicated to me by Fabio (who essentially disappeared a couple of weeks prior to my departure date due to his accident). Anyway, this was a surprise to us, but ultimately we were allowed to bring our witnesses to meet on Thursday with the Lomas rep, Gilberto.

 

The Meeting

 

During our Wednesday meeting we went through and confirmed all of the final details with Carolina and Gilberto . We thought our original judge was an English speaker, but it turned out that she would speak Spanish with translation by Gilberto. One thing that we did which ultimately turned out to be helpful is had our full wedding script ready with order of procession, music cues, readings and vows in one document. During the ceremony we later saw they had made copies for the DJ and judge and Gilberto was reading verbatim directly from the same doc. Carolina was nice and very business-like. Inquiring about special add-ons in general we first got the answer of no, but then ultimately they seemed to come through with almost everything. We did the silver wedding package in the beach gazebo with a private reception on the Plaza. During the meeting we also booked the reservation for 40 at Spoon, romantic dinner, honeymoon breakfast, couples massage lesson, hair and salon appointments. Overall this all went smoothly, but again some confusion as we thought that we had booked the family and friends group planner which would deliver our OOT bags to the rooms, but this ended up being additional charge. We didn’t get sold many new add-ons, but as our parents weren’t with us this day, I think we were harder to sell to than they would have been. We did end up purchasing extra chairs (originally we though most would stand) and the English translated documents.

 

Dinner at Spoon

 

Ok, fast forward to our “rehearsal dinner†at Spoon on Saturday night (turns out they don’t do rehearsals here as part of the wedding plan). The restaurant itself was nice, however a bit open with an echo so I wouldn’t recommend doing speeches or toasts here. Also it is the kid’s restaurant, so there were certainly a good amount of distractions. The fixed menu we got was delicious, but service a bit slow. This was actually the first night Spoon was open for dinner so that probably slowed things down a bit. I’m sure they will have it down to a science by the time you do your weddings. There was also a magician there who was a huge hit. My dad and family surprised us with a slide show in the meeting room (this could have been done in the plaza, but the wind was a bit strong that night). Heads up this was not cheap – we booked the projector last minute and they charged $450. If you negotiate this in advance I’m sure you will get a better rate.

 

Tours, etc.

 

We had a few events planned for the group including a van to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins and beach (cost $25 pp in a private van). Hint if you do this – bring your swimsuit! The beach was breathtaking and we all wanted to jump in. The vans were booked through the hotel on short notice and showed a bit late. Turns out the short drive to Tulum of 80 km took nearly 2 hours one way. Bring snacks!! We came back by 3 and were famished and a bit grumpy.

On Sunday we did sailing and snorkeling through Cancun Catamarans which I booked in advance through Rob. This trip was fantastic!! I strongly recommend you consider this as the sailing was breathtaking and the snorkeling was also a blast. We drank and danced on the boat and the crew was hilarious. Hint –they want tips (as does nearly everyone). You should bring extra dollars.

 

Wedding!

 

I had the spa bridal suite reserved, although we ended up with my bridesmaids and flower girls taking up the entire beauty salon as we were the only wedding that day. All I can say is Wow! The hair and makeup were fantastic and far exceeded my expectations. We ate lunch in the salon and drank champagne. The bouquets were brought in and were absolutely gorgeous – I did red and pink roses and Mexican cala lilies and the bridesmaids had pink roses. My first glimpse of the decorations was during the ceremony, we did the exotic gazebo with tropical flowers and it was awesome. The only thing is they forgot to put the bows on the chairs, but ultimately this didn’t matter too much. Oh, if you want petals for the flower girls make sure to order these extra – the petals in the package were for wedding runner decorations, not flower girls. Ceremony timing and everything were flawless. They have this down perfectly.

Photos for me were done by Luis who I thought was Caribe photo, but he didn’t identify himself as affiliated with anything but Karisma. Luis did an amazing job and I’m extremely satisfied with the pics which I will post later. The best part is he brought us prints and a CD on the 24th prior to us leaving.

The private event on the plaza was beautifully set up – we did the BBQ Deluxe buffet. The only issue was strong gusty wind and that the lighting was a bit dim so it was hard to see our food and it got cold fast. Hopefully you will have more cooperative weather. The sound system was fantastic and we played our music straight off a laptop with a friend acting as DJ. The cake was beautiful – we ordered a three tiered with layers that were vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. The cake was for 40, but could have fed 60 or more. The pieces were big and we ended up wasting almost an entire tier. Ugh. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fondant icing, but it looked nice. If I was going for only flavor I would have done cream cheese icing, but time enough for that later. While the openness and wind were bad for dinner, by the time we were dancing it ended up being perfect and cool and champagne magically appeared even though we didn’t pay for it.

 

Romantic Dinner/Honeymoon breakfast

 

Our weather was bad for the romantic dinner on the beach so we did it in Zavaz. The meal was spectacular with huge lobster tails and the chef came to talk to us a few times. They really went all out for this. The honeymoon breakfast was fine, but I almost would have rather eaten in the restaurant as it was the same food only colder.

 

Couples Massage Lesson

 

Ladies beware. Only one person gets to be the massage recipient and the other has to do all the hard work (in this case me). I kept waiting for my turn which never happened.

 

The Resort

 

Our first impression of the resort was great – the lobby was beautiful and all the amazing pictures you have seen did not do it justice. I’m a serious foodie and every restaurant was phenomenal. Le Chique was a bit adventuresome for some of our guests but I thought it was really cool. The pool butlers were quite nice and added an unexpected touch. As the week continued, new features were added including lunch brought to us by the pools in mini-coolers and taco stand in the afternoon. The pool beds and chairs were extremely comfy for naps. Surprisingly the nightly free show was quite spectacular. We went to it almost every night.

 

The downsides

 

The beach was not really for swimming, but still beautiful for walks. The rooms were very nice but we had a few small issues. The first day hot water didn’t seem to come, but it was fixed fairly promptly. Towards the end of our stay, the A/C seemed to wane. They came to fix it once, but it still didn’t work. Not a huge deal as it was not too hot, and it seemed none of our guests had this issue. No problems with toilets, but we did see quite a few employees carrying plungers around. Yes, the water smalls of sulfur, but I grew up with hard well water and it didn’t bother me too much.

Two of us had cash stolen from our rooms so definitely use the safes. The security team was good, but you should really use the safe for all valuables.

 

In the end my new husband and I were extremely happy with our experience – so no need to fret. Everything will be amazing for you too.

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