Erin's Valentin Imperial Maya Review

[usrerd]

My husband and I got married at the Valentin on March 3, 2010. The wedding was perfect and wonderful. I'll try to share everything I can for those planning a wedding there in the future. I know I found everyones reviews extremely helpful during planning.

 

Wedding Coordinator: Boo! I had Lupita (aka Guadalupe). She was very hard to get a hold of and it always took a follow up email to hear from her. She was also not very friendly. The other wedding coordinator, on the other hand, (Ariadna) is lovely and people rave about her. I came to the Valentin a couple months before the wedding and of course Lupita was not there (even though we had an appt). Ariadna was more than happy to show us around and tell us everything we needed to know about the resort. She was very helpful and very enthusiastic. She passed on a lot of information that I KNOW Lupita would have never even shared with us. I actually asked if I could change wedding coordinators and switch to her but she said it was not possible. We set up an appt with Lupita before we arrived. Since we had a civil ceremony we needed blood tests. It was at this meeting that a man came to take our blood (no gloves and not very sanitary by the way). After we gave our blood, Lupita went through the items that are included with the package we chose (Unforgettable). She did not offer anything more than that. I walked away from that meeting thinking of a million things she didn't ask and I forgot to ask her. Make a list so you don't miss anything.

 

Special Dinners:

Ariadna had told us that we could reserve a private room at the French restaurant if we wanted to-you just had to purchase one bottle of wine. We chose to have the parents dinner (it fits a max of 10 people). I booked this through Lupita because Ariadna said I had to. It seemed as though Lupita would not have offered me this because she said she had to check with Ariadna about it. The food at the French rest. is really good. The service is really slow. We also had a hard time finding any wine we wanted because they did not have many of the wines listed on the sheet. I have a feeling that I really would not have needed to purchase a bottle in the end, but we had a resort credit to cover it anyway, so I found one.

 

I also worked with Ariadna to set up a "rehearsal dinner" at the Lobster Pot. We needed seating for 17, and they were able to make me a reservation right away when the restuarnat opened. They ended up putting us at 2 tables, but it was still nice to have everyone there together even though it wasn't private. WE did this the night before the wedding and mades sure everyone knew where they were supposed to be the next day.

 

Flowers/Cake:

I brought pictures with me of what I wanted these to look like. They did an AWESOME job! The flowers and cake were beautiful and looked very close to the pictures I provided.

 

Hair:

I got may hair and make-up done and my 4 bridesmaids also got their hair done. We had 2 woman working on us. The spa was very quick to get back to me via email when setting up the appts. They did an excellent job on my hair and make-up. They were very meticulous. The only problem was that I was supposed to pay for the bridesmaids (which I thought I had made very clear) and they ALL had charges on their bills that they had to dispute.

 

Photographer:

Blue Lens Photography was included with my package. I had Dennis (the photographer) come to the spa first and then to my room where the bridesmaids and I were, followed by the wedding and then the cocktail hour. Dennis did a GREAT job. I loved the pictures and have had many compliments on them. My package was supposed to include 36 printed pictures, but I ended up just asking to get a discount on ALL the digital prints so I could print my own. They put together a DVD of all the pictures that was very nice as well. We got the DVD of 704 pictures and the DVD for $400.

 

Wedding:

We had the ceremony on the beach and it was beautiful! I did not like the ceremony that I was given ahead of time (it was super short) so I rewrote it and emailed Lupita to make sure I was able to make the changes. She told me that I could make the changes and the only limitation she gave me was that it could not be longer than 25 minutes. I sent her the final ceremony ahead of time which she said she would pass on to the judge. During the ceremony, the judge commented to me that she was sorry she was slipping on some of the words but that day was the first time she had seen the ceremony. Ugh! She was a little hard to understand and it was hard for her to hold the microphone and the papers down to read it. Oh well...it was still a beautiful ceremony and she was very nice.

I brought chair bows and programs - Lupita handed out the programs to all the guests.

 

Cocktails/appetizer (included in our package):

We chose the mexican appetizers at the Gazebo. This was LOVELY! The food was delicious and they had a full bar set up. They also had a speaker system set up and I could just plug in my iPod with music. We took many pictures with the photographer here before we headed back to the beach for more photos.

 

 

Reception:

WE had our reception at the Mexican restuarant on the patio. It was beautiful. They moved the chair bows from the ceremony here. I also brought candles and menus which were all placed when we arrived. The food was delicious here as well. I was able to change around the menus they provided. We had a salad with a vinigrette, asparagus cream soup (yum!) and the surf and turf. All was very good. We also had the chocolate bisquit dessert which was dry, but we had the cake as well so I didn't care. They did take their time between courses but it was kind of nice to mingle at that time. The one disappointing thing was that Ariadna had told me that they would have the speaker system available for us at the dinner so we could do dancing here. Lupita told me it was not possible because those speakers were needed by the entertainment people. Whatever. Bring an iPod speaker if you are interested in this. We tried to improvise with the iPod docs from our room but the sound was horrible. We ended up moving the party to the Plaza after dinner and had a great time. They have live music followed by DJ every night so we had our own little reception there!

 

Other stuff....

We had fruit/champaign delivered to our room twice so I'm not sure if that was a mistake or not. I called room service after I had gotten my hair done and ordered 5 champaign glasses and champaign for the bridesmaid and they brought it quickly (along with 2 bottles of champaign) at no extra charge! We were offered champaign breakfast in bed the day after the wedding. They call you when you ask them to and you can place your order. All of it was very timely and they offered us A LOT more than what was on the actual room service menu. It was very nice.

 

We stopped in to talk to Lupita and get our chair bows, candles and marriage certificates. First of all she didn't have the chair bows or candles and had to "find them". We ended up getting everything back but it was kind of a pain. She handed us our marriage certificate and I asked if about the Apostille that I heard we needed. She told us to send one of the certificates to the Mexican Consulate in teh US because it was really expensive and would take a long time to get back if she did it. I sort of wish she would have just done it because I'm having a heck of a time figuring out what if anything I need to do to get an Apostille. The social security office did not need it, but I would feel better having one. No one will get back to us from the Mexican Consulate in Chicago. Annoying.

 

A late checkout was part of our package and we needed it. We let Lupita know during our meeting and she said she would take care of it, but when I checked back no one had. In the end I talked to 3 diff people and we ended up getting locked out of our room that last day because your key stops working at the normal checkout time. Sure wish someone would have told us this. We hadn't packed yet and needed to get in ASAP! I called someone to come let us in but found a worker to let us in before they got there. Then I called to get a car to pick us up to check out. It took about 3 calls and they were 20 minutes late. I was not happy because I knew we had charges on our bill to discuss and our transfer company ended up having to wait for us to finish.

 

I think that is it... Let me know if you have questions. I would be happy to answer any you have!

Erin

[lalanyc]

Thanks for sharing. I'm so sorry to hear about your issues w/ your WC though!!!! If I were in your shoes, I would definitely put in a call or email to management to let them know!

 

Whatever the case, congratulations!

[shamrock78]

I got married there on Feb 26 2010 and had Ariadna as my wc. I agree she is the best!!

[hoyt75]

Oh my gosh you're making me so nervous! We're getting married here on Easter weekend and the communication is non existant! I was hoping that it would at least improve when we get there, but now I'm not so certain. Did you bring a lot of decorations with you? We're bringing chair shashes, fabric for the chuppah, and place cards. Did you have to pay for the sound system for the ceremony?

[DiamondGirl]

Congrats on becoming a Mrs!! So sorry to hear about the issues with your WC. I agree, you should definitely write a letter/email to management and make them aware of your situation. This would definitely help all future brides to come. Again congrats and let's see some pics!!

 

-Sheila

[ahollo02]

Thank you so much for the review! I am getting married there next year and cant wait!!! But I have Ariadna so I hope all goes well!

[valentinbride]

Thanks for the review! Getting married there in May and I've been working with Ariadna. She is so awesome! YOu are definitely not the first bride to have mixed feelings about Lupita. But overall your wedding went well and that's all that matters! Congrats

[Dayla911]

Erin, Do you have any pictures that you can post?

[cb280182]

great detailed review. im sure it will be a big help to the other brides.

[kate&devon]

Great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!1