Hacienda Tres Rios Brides Post Here!

[Eadon216]

It is a little confusing because there is no set package. And yeah, I find Allibe a little confusing too. I'll try my best to break it down for you.

 

You pay for everything separately basically. Minister, flowers, cake, $20 per person for the dinner, if you have a DJ/band/mariachi/iPod (DJ/band/mariachi you'll have to find on your own but she will recommend someone), the archway they use if you want it, and lighting if you need it are all items you pay for. Linens are something you can pay for but only if you want to upgrade from the basic white.  

 

You book the photographer, videographer (if you want one), and hair/makeup on your own. Allibe can recommend someone to you, but in my experience it's better to investigate on your own. I found better people with better prices on my own. The only exception was hair/makeup and that's only because I have no choice. Everyone else is booked on my wedding day. Although time will tell on the photographer/videographer aspect. Maybe they'll suck and I should have gone with who she suggested  

 

Now this is just my experience, but I had to do the majority of the planning myself. I wouldn't call Allibe a "wedding planner" so much as a "coordinator." She'll be there the day of to make sure it goes according to plan. And she gave me recommendations and she took care of the flowers, cake, and menu. But that's been about it. If you are very worried about costs like I am try to be very clear with her otherwise you will want to tear your hair out. 

 

HOWEVER!!! Hacienda Tres Rios is goooooorgeous. And they are so hospitable. That's why we chose them. We stayed there in November 2009 and it's where we got engaged. They'll treat you very nicely when you stay there. Your guests will love it and feel very pampered. There's no real night life and it's very quiet so it feels pretty relaxing if that's the type of vacation you're after. 

 

I hope that helps!

[damitAPRILurCOOL]

The wedding package you purchased when you reserved your wedding date includes:

• The minister/officiant (you do not pay extra for this)
• The chair setup at the ceremony
• Toast after your ceremony
• Ceremony music played from CD
• Day of coordinator (Allibe) who is there all day coordinating the events

 

Everything extra is what you will pay extra for:

• Flowers (bridal bouquet, groom bout, other bouquets/bouts, centerpieces, ceremony decor, reception decor, etc)
• Cake
• $20/person for a cocktail hour and dinner.  Cocktail hour includes sparkling wine and appetizers while dinner is a 3 course meal (which is an amazing price if you have compared pricing at other resorts).  This also includes table and chair setup with white linens.
• Ceremony gazebo/chuppa
• Ceremony aisle runner
• Ceremony chair upgrades (to tiffany chairs)
• Other ceremony decor
• Live music
• Reception linen upgrades
• Reception lighting (if you don't have it in a location that has it's own lighting)
• DJ
• Photographer
• Videographer
• Hair and makeup

 

From what I understand, Allibe can book everything for you if you don't have any problems with who she books or the pricing.

 

Originally Posted by Eadon216 

It is a little confusing because there is no set package. And yeah, I find Allibe a little confusing too. I'll try my best to break it down for you.

 

You pay for everything separately basically. Minister, flowers, cake, $20 per person for the dinner, if you have a DJ/band/mariachi/iPod (DJ/band/mariachi you'll have to find on your own but she will recommend someone), the archway they use if you want it, and lighting if you need it are all items you pay for. Linens are something you can pay for but only if you want to upgrade from the basic white.  

 

You book the photographer, videographer (if you want one), and hair/makeup on your own. Allibe can recommend someone to you, but in my experience it's better to investigate on your own. I found better people with better prices on my own. The only exception was hair/makeup and that's only because I have no choice. Everyone else is booked on my wedding day. Although time will tell on the photographer/videographer aspect. Maybe they'll suck and I should have gone with who she suggested  

 

Now this is just my experience, but I had to do the majority of the planning myself. I wouldn't call Allibe a "wedding planner" so much as a "coordinator." She'll be there the day of to make sure it goes according to plan. And she gave me recommendations and she took care of the flowers, cake, and menu. But that's been about it. If you are very worried about costs like I am try to be very clear with her otherwise you will want to tear your hair out. 

 

HOWEVER!!! Hacienda Tres Rios is goooooorgeous. And they are so hospitable. That's why we chose them. We stayed there in November 2009 and it's where we got engaged. They'll treat you very nicely when you stay there. Your guests will love it and feel very pampered. There's no real night life and it's very quiet so it feels pretty relaxing if that's the type of vacation you're after. 

 

I hope that helps!

 

[WingsofInnocence]

Hello Everyone.. Sorry I was MIA.

I got married at HTR in January. The resort is absolutely beautiful.

I do not have a whole lot to add to everything. But I will say this. Allibe was absolutely amazing! Mind you, she told me I was an easy bride. But she did everything in her power to make our wedding happen outside (it rained the day of the wedding).

Since it rained the day of the wedding, and was planning on having our supper on the beach, we had to move it to the alernative (a ballroom),

In the end everything worked out, even with the rain.

I had hired my own photographer (Claudia Rodriguez) who was amazing.

Allibe set up my flowers. I could not believe what I got for the price! I still do not know how she did that!

She also had someone from the resort play music on the computer (dj) for our supper and we had so much fun!

Lighting was expensive, I ended up having to pay the lighting fee anyways, as they lit up the ballroom with different colors, etc.

umm.. I can not think of anything else.

But seriously girls, don't stress about anything. Allibe made everything happen and she was a VERY nice lady.

 

Good luck to you all!

[becks1581]

Thanks for your review Wings,

 

It sounds like your wedding was beautiful!  Out of curiosity...what were the ceremony options in case of rain?  I know that we could move the reception to the ballroom but Allibe never really told me what we would do if it was raining too hard to have the ceremony outside.

 

These are the things I'm starting to worry about now that I leave in just over a week!!

[BrookeL]

Hello all,

We just got married at H3R on April 2nd and it was an absolute dream.  Allibe and Luis were unbelievably helpful and totally on top of everything.  Like the rest of you brides, I had my concerns about how things would turn out since I felt that I had so little control over things being so far away. I can assure you all that you are in good hands with Luis and Allibe.  We flew to the resort in December and basically did all of our planning that weekend.  Allibe and Luis kept diligent notes and everything that we had discussed came to fruition.  We had 150 guests fly in  and not one guest had a negative thing to say about the hotel or any of the staff.  In fact, the hotel went above and beyond for all of our guests and they were blown away with just how accommodating the staff was (most of our guests are New Yorkers and can sometimes be difficult to please.)  My crew tends to be foodies and the food was consistently amazing every single night.  Oscar the chef is completely accessible and couldn't be nicer.  The kitchen will basically make anything you want and everything tastes fresh and delicious.  In reading some of the posts, I see that many of you brides are worried about using vendors through the hotel and I totally get it but I can assure you that they have impeccable taste and will totally work with you.  If you don't like the first florist that they suggest, they'll find you someone else that you like.  The reason that they prefer for you to use someone that they know is because they can then assure that the quality will be good and that you don't get taken advantage of.  What I would recommend is that you go through bridal magazines and bring pictures of things that you like.  That really helped the vendors and they were able to give us exactly what we wanted.

 

Here are the vendors that we used:

Photography/videographer:  We used Aki Demi as our photographer and I would highly recommend her.  She is extremely talented, has a great relationship with the hotel and is just a pleasure to work with.  Her prices were amazing too.  The hotel recommended a videographer (Claudia and Christian) who were completely discreet and didn't follow us around all night which was very important to me. There's nothing worse than a bright light shining in your face all night when you're trying to have a good time.

 

Hair/make up:  We used Fernando and his group whom were recommended by Allibe.  I can't tell you enough how gorgeous my bridal party looked. They were not overly done up and looked perfect.  They were all really happy with the results which I know from experience is not always the case.   

 

Wedding officiant:  We got married in NY prior to the wedding so our ceremony in Mexico was purely symbolic.  We used Petra Maurus who was wonderful and customized our ceremony to fit out needs. She was great and very reasonably priced.

 

Since we had such a large group, we decided to have a few celebrations.  Here's the breakdown:

1.  Thursday Night: Tequila party/welcome reception
-this was a causal event held on the "playita" which is the small beach near the pizza grill.  We just did some pass around appetizers and desserts but the guests were instructed to eat dinner in advance of the party.  We had some mariachi for about an hour which was a really fun way to welcome everyone to Mexico.  We just used an Ipod for music and the hotel provided some cool lighting. 

2.  Friday night: Rehearsal Dinner
-This was held by the family pool.  We had a cigar roller who was a big hit and a live band who played a mix of latin music.  It was an absolute blast and was spectacular. We wanted to do a Mexican style BBQ so we had barbeque's set up with fresh fish, steak, chicken and shrimp and people could make tacos or whatever.  It was an amazing night and people had a blast.

 

3. Saturday Ceremony

-We had the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception all on the beach.  We had fireworks, mariachi to close the night, late night snacks and used Jaimme, the hotel DJ.  The music was great. My husband and I are real music fans so we put together a list of songs to play and songs not to play. The DJ stuck with our list for the most part and it was sensational.

 

I really can't say enough great things about H3R and the staff that work there. Everything about the wedding went so smoothly and I'd be happy to talk to any of you brides if you have any other questions so just shoot me an email.

 

Brooke

[becks1581]

Thank you Brooke!  Your wedding sounded amazing!  I think that I saw your mom's review on TripAdvisor and I was so happy to see the great review and hear that all of you guests loved the resort.

 

I am getting married at HTR on May 7...right around the corner!  We are doing a beach BBQ on Thurs night and having the wedding on Saturday. 

 

I have a quick question for you...Did the resort charge you the $20 per person private event fee for the cocktail reception?  On Friday night we were planning to make a dinner reservation with our family and bridal party (20 people) but Allibe just told me that the resort will only make a reservation for 10 so I'm brainstorming the options for that evening!

 

Thanks and I'd LOVE to see any pics that you have.  I'll PM you my email address.

 

 

[Samantha88k]

Thanks Brooke!! Sounds like you had a great time!!

 

Becks your wedding is coming up quick, how soon are you leaving?? Can you do 2 10-person reservations for the dinner? I am thinking of doing the same thing without having to pay the extra $20/person.

[becks1581]

10-days until the wedding day and 5-days until we leave!!!  We are leaving Monday morning.  Allibe has helped me to set up vendor meetings all day Tuesday so hopefully once Wed rolls around and the guests start to arrive we'll be ready to relax and have a good time!  I finally feel like everything is pretty much in place.  I'm picking up my dress today and meeting with the photographers that are coming with us to Mexico...just to go over scheduling, etc.

 

For the dinners, both Ana and Brooke have told me that they had absolutely no problem setting up large party dinners.  I just don't think that Allibe is able to bend any of the rules.  I plan to talk to Luis and the restaurant manager when I arrive to set everything up.  I'll definitely let you know how that goes but I'm thinking (hoping) that it won't be a problem.  (And I DEF don't want to shell out another $400 for a dinner at an all-inclusive!!)

[Samantha88k]

Sounds exciting!!!! I'm sure everything will be great and I can't wait to hear about it when you return!!

[Eadon216]

I'm hoping they bend the rules for me regarding dinner too. I mean there's only 14 of us total. That's 4 more than they usually allow for dinner reservations. I mean I'd make a reservation for 10 and then have another reservation for 4 and ask to sit near one another

 

I have kind of an awkward question to ask. Did anyway tip their vendors (photographer, videographer, hairdresser)? If so, how much? I'm not sure what the rule is.