ohiobride15's aventura spa palace review

[ohiobride15]

Ok here is my review. I am so sorry it took so long to get it up here. I have been so busy and I have been trying to make sure I had all the pictures I needed for the review. I want to thank everyone on here. I got so many ideas from you guys.

 

Ill go day by day to help out those getting married there so they see how the days flow.

 

Day one (tuesday):

The cancun airport was nice. Everything went smooth. The lines werent very long and customs went nicely. Transportation was set up before hand with Ellite tours through the hotel. We had our confirmation with us to show the bus drivers but they did not have our reservation. They quickley resolved the mix up and put us on one of the busses. We got luckey because everyone on the bus went to our hotel so we didnt have to make any stops. The ride took about 1 hour. The bus was well air conditioned and comfortable.

 

Upon arrival to the hotel we were greated with champangne and a flower. Everyone was very helpful. We got our room assignment and noticed that it was not the king we asked for. They said that the rooms go by a first come first serve basis. So when you request a room that doesnt mean that is what you will get. We went to our room then they called us to tell us they found us a King sized bed in a different room. We decided to stay in our room because we had a great ocean view and that room did not. The rooms are nice. They are alittle smaller than I thought but big enough. We were the only ones in our group that had a view of the ocean (other than the ones in the presidential suite). Everything was clean and the cleaning service is amazing. They would clean our room a couple times a day. Dont leave any food or drinks our. We left a pop can open one day and came back a couple hours later and there were little tiny bugs all over it.

 

The rest of that day was spent looking around the resort and finding locations we liked for our reception (we had a private reception). We ate at Mundaca resturant. We loved it. All of our food was great. Order the steaks level under what you want. I.E. if you want med order med rare. Other than that the steaks were great. This goes for all of the resturants.

 

We spent the rest of the night putting together our OOT bags. We paid $3 a room for the staff to put the bags in the room before our guests got there.

 

girls bags consisted of:

playing cards

cooler

towel

soap

tums

suduko book

welcome book

hand sanitizer

sunblock

tissues

 

boys bags where the same substituting the soap for axe deoterant

 

 

day two (wednesday):

We met with our wedding coordinator and went over everything for the wedding and the reception. Yazmin was our coordinator and was amazing. She did everything we asked and more. We got our blood test during this meeting. We both work in a hospital and were really worried about the cleanliness of this part but everything was professional and sterile. After the meeting we walked the grounds with Yazmin to find the perfect location for the reception.

 

Our guests arrived that day and we met for cocktails at the North lobby bar. After we met we went to eat dinner at LA TRATTORIA. Dinner was amazing and they were so helpful. You cant make reservations but we called and asked and they were so helpful. They told us to give them an hour and they would make it work. There were 21 of us so it was very nice of them. This resturant was my favorite. They are strick on thier dress code so no shorts. We gave our wedding party and parents thier gifts during dinner. Our fathers got money clips with thier names on them and a gift card for gold the next day. Our moms got gift cards to the spa for the next day and compacts with thier initials on them. My bridesmaid got gift cards to the spa a neckalace from K jewlerys and my maid of honor got a compact as well. Our groomsmen got gift cards for golf and fossil watches. His bestman also recieved a flask that said bestman on it. Our parents also got pictures that we made them and gave them to them in the states.

Where we had drinks:

 

this one was for my parents. There is a picture of us together. A picture of my parents and me on graduation. A picture when I was younger and a thank you note for everything. They loved them.

 

After dinner we went to the south lobby bar with those who where not too tired from the trip. The south lobby bar was our favorite. The bartender was great and entertaining.

 

 

day three (thursday):

The guys woke up early to go golfing at El Camleon Mayakoba. Of course no one took pictures so I dont have any to show you. My husbands camera was broke from the night before and no one else had a camera on them. But they had a great time and everyone loved the course.

[ohiobride15]

The girls met for breakfast at El Greco. They have a great breakfast buffet.

This a picture from breakfast.

After breakfast all girls went to the spa for different treatments. I highly recommened the spa. If you go to the spa make sure you go early enough to enjoy everything that is special to the spa. We had a little mix up with our giftcards so we were rushed into our treatments that day. Everything ended up ok. I got a mud wrap done. I loved it. The spa is ranked in the world and as soon as you get there you know why. After the spa I got my manicure and pedicure that were included in our wedding package.

 

After the spa we met up with the guys and everyone hung out by the pool. The North pool is more laid back and chilled. The south pool is more activities and music. They both have swim up bars and poolside food. The south pool has activities like water polo, water and sand volleyball, water and land ping pong, water aerobics, and mexican displays. The pool crew was amazing and got everyone into the activities. If you dont want to though they dont push it.

 

That night we went into Playa del Carmen for our rehersal dinner. The taxies take about 15 mins to get to the center of town. Playa del Carmen was great. We went to a resturant called Playasia. Below is a picture of the resturant. After dinner about 8 of us went to the Blue Parrot for a fire show. We got VIP seating for the show because they were owned by the same people as the resturant. Here is a link to the hotel and resturant.

..:: Blue Parrot - Welcome ::..

 

 

day four (friday) (WEDDING DAY):

I slept in my sisters room the night before the wedding. Shawn slept in our room. We went to the north pool in the morning and Shawn was at the south pool for the morning. While we were sitting by the pool we were watching them set up for our reception. It was a beautiful day but it was incredibly windy. I was so worried about the wind because the reception location was not surrounded by anything. I thought the wind would ruin it. I called Yazmin and she assured me that the wind would die down by the time of the reception so I said ok and left it as it was. We went and got our hair and make up done around 1 for a 4 o'clock ceremony. We had a lot of fun they had champange for us. Take pictures of what you want because there is a strong language barrier everywhere you go. My flowers where orange cali lillies. I loved them. Mine were wrapped in white ribbon and the girls ribbon matched thier dresses.

 

my hair

my dress

 

I got ready in my parents room. Shawn got ready in one of the presidential suits. One of his groomsmen stayed in the presidential.

[ohiobride15]

Here is what my parents wore and what his parents wore and our bridesmaids and groomsmen.

 

We hired an outside photographer. Octavio Montes is from Riviera Maya. He was amazing. He showed up early to take pictures. We had him from 3 to 9 and he showed up around 2. He took all the pictures we wanted and worked great with us. He took over 400 pictures and printed out 150 for us and sent us the cd of all the pictures for any other prints we want.

This is his website.

Cancun Wedding Photographer Riviera Maya

Here is a link to our professional pictures/

Documento sin título

 

Everyone including the bridesmaids went to the gazebo at 3:15 to have a quick run through. We used the coba gazebo (the south gazebo). We chose it because we like the location the best. The north gazebo is beautiful too but we just decided on the south one. There is also a fence that runs along the north gazebo that we were worried about being in the picutres.

Here is a picture of the north gazebo first and the south gazebo second.

 

My dad and I rode over in the horse carriage. That was fun we were completely on the other side of the resort so the ride took about 10 min. Everyone was watching us go by and taking pictures of us.

 

The ceremony was set up perfectly. We decided to stay with the red carpet. We were going to go with out it but we changed our minds last min. Im gald we stayed with it. The chairs were set up with blue ties that I brought from home and orange roses. Each chair had a program on it and the girls chairs had fans on them. The fans had an attachment about the meaning of stars that I found on here but I forget who it was from.

[ohiobride15]

I dont have a picture of the programs right now they are on my moms camera. I will post them later. I had them done from dear emma stationary on esty. She did an amazing job. She did the programs, the menus, the placecards, the fan attachments, and the guestbook sign. She was great to work with and her work was beautiful. I will get you pictures.

 

The mexican band played while my bridesmaids walked down the aisle. The just played romantic music. It was very pretty. Everyone loved them. I walked down to Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole's version of Somewhere over the rainbow. We used an ipod hook up for that.

The officiant who performed the ceramony was great. He spoke good enough english so that everyone could hear him and understand him. I added two readings in the ceremony that my sister and brother read. We also read our own vowels. You are allowed to add anything you want as long as you have someone to read them. He wont. The ceremony was beautiful. We did the sand ceremony. I made one myself from vases I bought at Micheals. The sand was from Micheals too. Make sure if you are traveling with sand that it is still in the wrapper. They told me that I would not have been able to take them on the plane if they were opened. Just a little F.Y.I. Below is a picture of our sand ceremony set. I put our ribons around it and hot glued a little starfish.

 

thats the best picture I have of it right now. I will get a better one from my mom.

 

After the ceremony the mexican band will play a song out side of the gazebo while everyone drinks champange.

this was the military that walked right by our reception (kind of a long story):

 

We took pictures after the ceremony. There was a resort photographer that was part of our package. His photos were ok. They werent anything great. Im glad we hired an outside photographer. They also had a video as part of the package. The video is really nice. They added the music that we suggested. If I figure out how to upload the video I will put it on you-tube. Its nice because you can hear the whole ceremony.

 

 

After pictures we went to our private reception. Our coordinator did a great job with this. The location we picked was right on the ocean. We lined the whole thing with tiki tourches to make a big circle. Our main table was set up down the middle with dancing room on both sides of the table. There was a very large fully stocked bar on the one side. At the back there was the buffet line. We chose the carribean buffet with a couple little modifications. They were really good about making it perfect. The food was absolutley amazing. Everyone raved that it was some of the best food they had ever had. I agreeded with everyone. We brought our own music via an I touch. They had a dj that worked the machine. My brother was our mc because mc's cost a lot of money. He did a great job and kept everyone entertained the whole night. During dinner we had a play list that just played through that played slower songs and songs everyone knew

[ohiobride15]

our table set up:

After dinner we cut the cake. The cake was amazing. I had sent her a picture of the cake I wanted and they made it exactly right. The bottom layer was chocolate, the middle layer was cheesecake, and the top was vanilla. I only tired the chocolate but everyone who tried to other flavors loved them too. Our cake table was set up next to our guestbook table. I had everyone sign postcards that I had bought while I was down there. I put them in a photo album that you can see the front and back of the postcards.

 

 

After the cake we did the dances with my dad and his mom and our first dance. We then did the garter toss and bouquet toss. Then we danced the rest of the night. Our reception was from 6-10 but we stayed till about 10:30 becuase no one said anything. The staff was amazing. They seemed to have fun as well. Everything about the reception and the wedding was amazing. We went to the disco after the wedding were we continued to dance till about 1 or 2 Im not really sure.

 

 

Here is the reception location before:

 

 

and after ( the recepation is up above us):

 

 

 

We stayed a week after the wedding. We actually had reservations to move to Sun Palace for the week but we loved it so much there we decided to stay there. For our honeymoon package we got a bottle of champange and t-shirts that say honeymooners on them. We also a reservation with a special menu at the mexican resturant(Shawns favorite). Make sure you ask for the mayan coffee for desert here. We went on the paradise snorkeling tour the day after the wedding with those guests who werent too hung over. That was a lot of fun I highly suggest it. The rest of the days were spent by the pool mostly. We went to playa del carmen a couple times. I loved it there. There are nightly activites at the hotel that are fun. Some of them are shows or casino nights. They are all entertaining.

[ohiobride15]

I hope my review helped some people. Please pm me if you have any more questions. Im sure I left some things out. I also have more pictures of the grounds so if you want those let me know.

[TATrisha]

Wow, that was an awesome review and everything looked so great! Congratulations!

[DRB]

Great review! It looks like you had a beautiful wedding! I am curious about the Mexican military though....lol

[Sapphire723]

You look cute as a button in that picture with your parents. So cute! Great review... although, I'm curious about the Mexican Military story too! Dish!

[kellywinter1]

Thanks for the review! It sounds like you guys had a great time! Your wedding set up was beautiful and I am totally impressed by the cake! I am glad you mentioned the whole blood test because I was a little worried by it as well, but it seems like from what you said it was nothing to worry over. I am even more excited now for my wedding! 3 more weeks left!!!!

 

Oh and yes please share the military story. I would like to know what I am getting myself into!!!!!!