Hacienda Tres Rios Brides Post Here!

[damitAPRILurCOOL]

**I just wanted to post a disclaimer.. LOL.  When I said my MOH got burned from the lantern ceremony we had, it was a small burn on her arm.  She didn't get totally burned all over!  I felt like I should clarify because I re-read what I wrote and it could be taken that way.  Oops!

[Samantha88k]

Thank you soo much! I'm a visual person and now I feel so much better about food presentation and the overall look. Also, your pictures are gorgeous!! Makes me soo excited for our wedding!
 

Originally Posted by damitAPRILurCOOL 

Dessert Course:

Coffee Creme Brulee and Strawberry Compote (the size of this at the wedding was NOT this big, it was tiny.  also, it didn't have the hard sugar top that typical creme brulee has, but it was still sooo yummy), Flan with Kiwi, and Red Wine Canoles

 

Our cake tasting:

 

The 2 chocolate cupcakes were supposed to be a caramel cupcake with a salted caramel buttercream frosting.  It was just a chocolate cupcake with vanilla ice cream on top, so totally not what we wanted, BUT it was still really good.  They do a really great chocolate cake (not too rich, just right sweetness).  As good as it was, we decided against it because chocolate isn't always liked by people.  The 2 pieces on the right were tres leches cake with strawberry filling and buttercream frosting.  The 2 pieces on the left were pecan praline cake with cream cheese frosting.  The piece on the top is red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

 

And about the lanterns, we ended up just buying them from ebay and bringing them with us.  The hotel was charging us like $10/lantern which was crazy expensive because we bought them for less than $2/lantern on ebay.

 

[Samantha88k]

April, now I came up with a few other questions! Did you arrange any excursions for your guests? Also, did you do a "group" breakfast the following morning? I think this is my last one...did you or any of your guests staying at H3R make the trip into Playa? If so, how did it go? Was it easy transport, etc.?

[damitAPRILurCOOL]

Hi Samantha!  You can keep asking questions, I am more than happy to help!   There were a lot of different excursions taken by my group!

 

We set up a group trip to Chichen Itza on Wednesday with some guests who were already there.  This was set up through the hotel's travel agency (his name is Juan and he is SOOOO helpful!).  He gave us a good deal because it's typically $90/person with everything included (roundtrip transportation, english speaking guide, a late lunch), but since we had 9 people going, he lowered the price to $70/person.

 

We also set up smaller scuba diving trips through him.

 

On Thursday, a big group of other guests went to do a mini-submarine tour (called snuba) on Cozumel.  My sister-in-law organized this excursion with a company she researched herself and everything was organized before everyone arrived.  They just had to get to Cozumel which meant they had to take a taxi to Playa ($20/one way), then the ferry to Cozumel (I don't know the cost).

 

That same night, we had a welcome cocktail hour set up with the resort (Allibe and Luis helped with this) because we received a complimentary "event" as part of our contract.  We opted to not have a formal rehearsal dinner because of the different times everyone was arriving to the resort and we didn't want to force anyone to have to go to all of our wedding events vs just being able to enjoy the different amenities of the resort (we had some guests only stay for 3 days).

 

Our wedding was on Friday.  We didn't have a "group" breakfast the next morning (or any part of the weekend actually), BUT there are really only 2 places open for breakfast: the buffet and Hacienda Grill so everyone basically saw each other if they opted to leave their room for breakfast.  The hotel is nice in that it's small enough that we all ALWAYS ran into someone.  Also on Saturday, another big group of guests went on a Tulum and Coba tour while another big group went ziplining and ATVing.  These two tours were done through VI Travel which is the transportation company we used to get from the airport to the resort (set up through my travel agent).  These two tours included roundtrip transportation.

 

My hubs, a friend, and I went into Playa to go Scuba diving one day.  The taxi cost ~$20/one way.  Very easy to get a taxi - the bellboy just call them in, so it only takes 2minutes for them to drive up the LOOOOONG driveway onto the resort.  Sometimes the taxi driver sucks though - they will charge a little more than $20 or a little less.  Just depends on how much they feel that they can rip you off!   We had a group of our family go into Playa to shop one day.  Relatively same price with the taxi.  They felt safe when they were there, but it's REALLY touristy so very expensive.  FYI - Somewhere I read that the hotel offers shuttles into Playa for free, but when I asked Concierge about this, it was only free for timeshare owners.

 

PS.  In my opinion, the Tulum and Coba tour is SOOO much more beautiful than the Chichen Itza tour.  Tulum is by the water, so it's gorgeous (from what I saw in the pictures).  Coba is cool because you actually get to climb the pyramids still!!  Chichen Itza is kind of a pain because of how long it took to get to the ruins.  We left at 7am and didn't get back until 8pm - 3 hrs one way, 3 hrs back just driving!

 

Originally Posted by Samantha88k 

April, now I came up with a few other questions! Did you arrange any excursions for your guests? Also, did you do a "group" breakfast the following morning? I think this is my last one...did you or any of your guests staying at H3R make the trip into Playa? If so, how did it go? Was it easy transport, etc.?

 

[damitAPRILurCOOL]

OH!  One more thing!  We did do "group" dinners a few nights (basically, just whoever wanted to eat and was ready at the time - we would all go to the restaurants together).  Most of the time, it took FOREVER!  They lasted almost 2-3 hours each time especially at the Mexican restaurant.  They were just really understaffed there and it would just get so packed with other guests!  I don't know if it makes a difference if you reserve a big group because the one night we had 13 people that we didn't reserve for took as long as another night we had 10 people that we did reserve for.

 

Originally Posted by Samantha88k 

April, now I came up with a few other questions! Did you arrange any excursions for your guests? Also, did you do a "group" breakfast the following morning? I think this is my last one...did you or any of your guests staying at H3R make the trip into Playa? If so, how did it go? Was it easy transport, etc.?

 

[Samantha88k]

Thank you soo much! My parents are timeshare owners and we booked our guests through the timeshare company so I'm hoping all of them will be able to take advantage of the transportation to Playa if they'd like. I have been there many times before but I'm hoping to sneak a quick trip to purchase some maracas to use at the reception!! Great idea about the "group" dinner, seems like that would reduce the stress of trying to coordinate everyone! Set a time and let them know where we will be!

 

Did you set up the tours when you arrived or prior to going? And if so do you have special contact info for Juan? I have spoken a few times with Allibe about wanting to arrange golf outings and she keeps mentioning that the concierge will contact me but I haven't heard anything form him yet.
 

Originally Posted by damitAPRILurCOOL 

Hi Samantha!  You can keep asking questions, I am more than happy to help!   There were a lot of different excursions taken by my group!

 

We set up a group trip to Chichen Itza on Wednesday with some guests who were already there.  This was set up through the hotel's travel agency (his name is Juan and he is SOOOO helpful!).  He gave us a good deal because it's typically $90/person with everything included (roundtrip transportation, english speaking guide, a late lunch), but since we had 9 people going, he lowered the price to $70/person.

 

We also set up smaller scuba diving trips through him.

 

On Thursday, a big group of other guests went to do a mini-submarine tour (called snuba) on Cozumel.  My sister-in-law organized this excursion with a company she researched herself and everything was organized before everyone arrived.  They just had to get to Cozumel which meant they had to take a taxi to Playa ($20/one way), then the ferry to Cozumel (I don't know the cost).

 

That same night, we had a welcome cocktail hour set up with the resort (Allibe and Luis helped with this) because we received a complimentary "event" as part of our contract.  We opted to not have a formal rehearsal dinner because of the different times everyone was arriving to the resort and we didn't want to force anyone to have to go to all of our wedding events vs just being able to enjoy the different amenities of the resort (we had some guests only stay for 3 days).

 

Our wedding was on Friday.  We didn't have a "group" breakfast the next morning (or any part of the weekend actually), BUT there are really only 2 places open for breakfast: the buffet and Hacienda Grill so everyone basically saw each other if they opted to leave their room for breakfast.  The hotel is nice in that it's small enough that we all ALWAYS ran into someone.  Also on Saturday, another big group of guests went on a Tulum and Coba tour while another big group went ziplining and ATVing.  These two tours were done through VI Travel which is the transportation company we used to get from the airport to the resort (set up through my travel agent).  These two tours included roundtrip transportation.

 

My hubs, a friend, and I went into Playa to go Scuba diving one day.  The taxi cost ~$20/one way.  Very easy to get a taxi - the bellboy just call them in, so it only takes 2minutes for them to drive up the LOOOOONG driveway onto the resort.  Sometimes the taxi driver sucks though - they will charge a little more than $20 or a little less.  Just depends on how much they feel that they can rip you off!   We had a group of our family go into Playa to shop one day.  Relatively same price with the taxi.  They felt safe when they were there, but it's REALLY touristy so very expensive.  FYI - Somewhere I read that the hotel offers shuttles into Playa for free, but when I asked Concierge about this, it was only free for timeshare owners.

 

PS.  In my opinion, the Tulum and Coba tour is SOOO much more beautiful than the Chichen Itza tour.  Tulum is by the water, so it's gorgeous (from what I saw in the pictures).  Coba is cool because you actually get to climb the pyramids still!!  Chichen Itza is kind of a pain because of how long it took to get to the ruins.  We left at 7am and didn't get back until 8pm - 3 hrs one way, 3 hrs back just driving!

 

 

 

[JenG05]

Thanks for the detailed review April.  It was very helpful. Your pictures look fantastic.  You look beautiful and it looks like everyone had a great time. The pictures of the food are great.  I am very impressed with the presentation.   

[Riss520]

April your pictures are beautiful!! I'm sorry there were so many problems the day of your wedding, but everyone looks like they had a great time. I was wondering where you ordered your lanterns from? 

 

 

[Samantha88k]

Are any of you ladies writing or bringing your own ceremony scripts?

[damitAPRILurCOOL]

I didn't really set up the tours before arriving, but I did tell people who I knew would be at the resort at the time that we were planning on going on our tour.  I only contacted Juan at the travel agency on the resort to get pricing and details.  His contact info is: [email protected].

 

I'm not sure about who sets up the golf outtings, but you can shoot Juan an email and I'm positive that if he doesn't book those, he can at least tell you who to contact.  When I was setting things up before our arrival, I was told to contact concierge also (Allibe told me to contact them), but I didn't find them helpful AT ALL.  Even at the resort, they were all very rude!   Hopefully they help you though!

 

Originally Posted by Samantha88k 

Thank you soo much! My parents are timeshare owners and we booked our guests through the timeshare company so I'm hoping all of them will be able to take advantage of the transportation to Playa if they'd like. I have been there many times before but I'm hoping to sneak a quick trip to purchase some maracas to use at the reception!! Great idea about the "group" dinner, seems like that would reduce the stress of trying to coordinate everyone! Set a time and let them know where we will be!

 

Did you set up the tours when you arrived or prior to going? And if so do you have special contact info for Juan? I have spoken a few times with Allibe about wanting to arrange golf outings and she keeps mentioning that the concierge will contact me but I haven't heard anything form him yet.