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Jenniebey's Playa Fiesta (PV) Review 11/06/09 - LONG

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By jenniebey
in Destination Wedding Reviews

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jenniebey

jenniebey

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I can’t say enough good things about Playa Fiesta Beachclub…so I’ll just tell you everything about my wedding week there and you’ll get the gist.

 

HOTEL, Playa Fiesta: A++

 

We arrived at Playa Fiesta exhausted and ready for vacation after a red eye flight and having our 7 bags rifled through during customs at the airport. Located just south of downtown, it was great to drive through town and see PV again before arriving at our beautiful hotel. We had let them know ahead of time when we would be arriving so they were expecting us and showed us up to our room and brought all of our bags up within 5 minutes.

 

Waiting in our room was a beautiful tropical bouquet of flowers and a cold bottle of champagne. Yes! We popped the cork and toasted to the fact that we were finally there…ready to get married. Lindsay (co-owner of the hotel) came by our room within minutes to welcome us to Playa Fiesta and confirm our wrap up meeting for the following morning.

 

She also (knowing we were from also from San Francisco) invited us to go watch the 49er’s game with Adam (co-owner and her husband) in town. DH was thrilled so off we went to a sports bar. Adam is such a great guy. We hung out, had a couple drinks and during half time went over our room assignments. Because it was such a slow week there (due to the economy and the unfortunate swine flu) there were no outside guests! So we had the place to ourselves and they let us have all the best rooms. Although I have to say…our first 2 days at PF, there was another wedding group there so we were given a basic standard room. It was still a beautiful room.

 

Monday was all business. We met with Lindsay, for our wrap meeting, had our cake tasting and then I had my hair and make-up trial. We then had dinner in town with friends and generally got ready for everyone’s arrival on Tuesday.

 

Most of our guests all arrived on Tuesday. After their long flights, everyone was greeted at the front desk with a cold Corona and escorted down to the pool area where everyone was congregating. Everyone was given their assigned room and not one word of complaints for those who were given a standard room over an ocean view or suite. Honestly…every room is beautiful and each summer they renovate some portion of the hotel (including the rooms). And…that’s all we heard from our guests.

 

We all spent the afternoon drinking, swimming, laying in the sun and enjoying Playa Fiesta. Originally we had planned to head into town with whoever felt like joining for dinner, but everyone agreed they were having too much fun so we ordered tacos for everyone there and continued to hang out by the pool area.

 

Wednesday was the first full day we had everyone here. I had scheduled a zip line trip for those who were willing, however this was canceled last minute (see below under activities). The rest of us just laid out by the pool all day and enjoyed the ambiance. We had a few stragglers arrive this day, so that is why we had scheduled our welcome dinner for this evening at Playa Fiesta. We had a Mexican BBQ (so yummy!) and a Fried Mexican Ice Cream stand for everyone.

 

Thursday was the big day for events at our hotel. We woke up, enjoyed breakfast and the wedding party had our wedding rehearsal at 11AM (which only took 20 minutes). It was Spa Day at Playa Fiesta, and our guests enjoyed massages from 10AM to 4PM. I upgraded to an hour massage and it was amazing. I think everyone should be able to have a massage above the ocean listening to the waves. Then we had a Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament scheduled for 1:00 PM, a Banana Boat excursion at 3:00PM, then dinner at 7:00PM followed by Karaoke at 8PM. Everyone had a blast and for almost everyone retired fairly early in anticipation of the big wedding day…Friday.

 

Friday…Wedding Day! This day a lot of our guests decided to head into town so things were pretty quiet at the hotel. I just relaxed down by the pool until around Noon when I headed up to start getting ready. I had my hair and make-up done in my room with my BMs. And then once my photographer arrived, I put on the dress and headed down to the suite in which I was hiding in until it was time to walk down the aisle. Everything seemed to flow so well, and I know there was a lot going on behind the scenes with the hotel staff to make this day perfect for us. Around 4:45PM I headed down the aisle with my Dad to be get married!

 

I have to say everything was perfect! All the details I’d been stressing over seemed to come together and I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to get married. After the ceremony which was about 15 minutes, we headed back into the suite for a quick toast and then out front for pictures. We then proceeded with a yummy 3-course dinner and then partied with our guests until about midnight when we headed up to our room. It really was the wedding I had been dreaming of. My only complaint was that the day went by so fast…I wanted it to last longer!

 

Saturday…The day after. I was prepared to be a bit depressed because it was over…so sad. However, we woke up and headed downstairs around 11AM for brunch with our guests. The food was amazing and everyone was just glowing with happiness after such an amazing week. Most of our guests either decided to just lounge at the pool all day or head into town. We decided to go into town with DH’s family to do a little shopping. We then spent the afternoon sunning and then headed down the road to El Set with 30 of our guests for dinner. (Yes…we all sat at one huge table. It was awesome).

 

Sunday…Time for everyone to go home. This was my saddest day because I hated to see everyone go. But at the same time it was amazing to hear everyone say how much fun they had and how much they loved Playa Fiesta. We packed up our stuff and headed to Nuevo Vallarta for our mini-moon. But not before we had one last drink with Adam, the hotel’s owner and said good bye to the amazing staff. We can’t wait to go back for our anniversary trip!

 

FOOD: A

 

One of the reasons we chose Playa Fiesta was for their food. I can’t think of anything worse than going on vacation and being disappointed by the food. Every day the food was just amazing. I loved how you could order eggs any style in the mornings and everything I hate was fantastic. (I recommend the Tacos for Two and the Chicken Panini). The food for the wedding day was perfect. Bite sized appetizers and then 3 amazing courses.

SERVICE, Playa Fiesta Staff: A+

 

I wanted to call this out because the fantastic service at the hotel really made this week great instead of just good for our guests. They were treated like celebrities and better yet, the staff really took the time to get to know everyone’s names, favorite drinks and made us feel like they were part of our group. I’d like to call out Aldo, Charlie, Pina and Ramon as being my favorite bartenders and waiters. The front desk staff helped with any questions our guests had. The day our guests arrived, we were supposed to put the welcome bags in everyone’s rooms. But Lindsay and Adam arranged to have their staff do it for us so we could stay down by the pool and enjoy ourselves.

 

WEDDING COORDINATOR(S), Lindsay Burgess and Blaire Osborne A++

 

I could not have pulled off such an amazing wedding without the help of Lindsay and Blaire, her assistant. First off…how cool to be able to plan your whole wedding by email? I started working with Lindsay in February on the details and was pretty much finished by June. I would send pictures of the flowers, cake, décor I wanted and she was so fast to answer any questions. The only days that it would take a little longer to get a response were the wedding days when she was working. Which actually comforted me because I loved the fact that on wedding day…she only focuses on that bride and groom. Lindsay was able to take my vision and really make it beautiful. Her fee was $1200 for everything and it was worth much more than that! She and Blaire worked so hard to make everything go smoothly. Plus, they are both so sweet and such a pleasure to work with.

 

PHOTOGRAPHER, Michele Turner: A

 

Michele is an amazing photographer from Maine who does a lot of the weddings at Playa Fiesta. I absolutely fell in love with her style and couldn’t wait to have her shoot our wedding. She is so easy to work with and incredibly efficient. It was hot and everyone wanted to just to get to party! She got through all the posed shots very quickly and then moved into candid mode which turned out great. We had a sneak peak 3 days after our wedding and our slideshow and gallery in less than a month. I highly recommend Michele to anyone who wants a good mix of photojournalistic and posed photography.

 

Here’s a link to my slideshow: Jennie and Reggie

 

MINISTER, Barry Rimmerman: A

 

I felt I should do a review of Barry because I had to choose between him and another minster and I wasn’t really sure who to pick. Barry was an awesome minister! We met with him 2 days before the ceremony so he could get to know us a little bit and to go over ceremony details. We had written our own vows but Barry recommended that we say those to each other in private and go with his vows because I hate public speaking and get too nervous to speak. It was a great plan! His vows were beautiful and so unique. As if that wasn’t enough, Barry donates 100% of his fee to a local charity for children.

 

HAIR/MAKE-UP, Christy: A

 

Christy did an amazing job on both hair and make-up. She doesn’t speak a lot of English, so they recommend that you bring pictures of the styles you want. I presented her with two challenges, a picture of my hairstyle with only a profile view and false eyelashes. She conquered both with little effort. She added a little twist thing to my chignon and my eyelashes didn’t fall off all night. Also, it was HOT after the ceremony and I was sweating like crazy (not to mention the crying during the ceremony). My make-up looked amazing all night and was worth the money to have it professionally done.

 

FLOWERS: A+

 

Playa Fiesta uses the same vendor for every wedding and I don’t know who it is, but they do an amazing job. I sent pictures down of the bouquets I wanted and centerpieces. They were able to make some interpretations on some of the designs I liked to make them suit our wedding. The cala lily centerpieces turned out amazing and the each table looked exactly how I envisioned it. Worth every penny!

 

MUSIC, Aldo: A

 

Not only does is Aldo an amazing bartender, he rocks the music scene at Playa Fiesta as well. He hosted our Karaoke night and DJ’d the wedding. By the time we went over our music selection with him for the wedding reception, I had total faith in him. I simply gave him our first dances, my definitely-not choices (Macarena, electric slide and YMCA), and let the rest happen. He did a great job and our guests were able to request music that night which they loved.

 

ACTIVITIES: B

We didn’t plan much because we wanted our guests to be able to spend their time how they wanted. But we did have a Zip Line Tour planned which ended up being canceled because even though the PF staff scheduled this for us and took care of negotiating the rate, the bus to pick them up was an hour and a half late and then the bus driver tried to charge everyone extra. So everyone decided not to participate. However, the PF Staff (who were furious) called the company and negotiated a better rate for a following day saying this had NEVER happened to them before.

 

We also had a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament hosted by Adam Burgess, which was a blast. We bought tequila bottles for the top two winners which everyone loved. Karaoke was amazing and I was shocked by how many people got up to sing. It was a hit!

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