My Costa Rica wedding vendor review

amcarter · April 23, 2010

I am back from my wedding-moon in Costa Rica and have a lot to say!

I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have experienced such a beautiful wedding. It was more than I could have asked for.

Wedding Planner: Aimee Monihan of Tropical Occasions was instrumental in helping me for almost 10 months plan my wedding. I am a person that had a million ideas that I wanted to incorporate and she was helpful in helping me narrow down my options. She made suggestions to help keep in budget and she didn't say no too many times; when she did, she offered an alternate option.

In December we found out some unfortunate news about our original wedding location and she helped us locate a new location quickly and move all of our guests to the new location. I am truly thankful for this.

When I arrived in Costa Rica, we had a welcome letter from her at the front desk. She told us to settle in and call us on her cell phone so she can show us the wedding area. Afterwards, Aimee and Anahi of Tropical Occasions accompanied us and the photographer as we scouted Costa Rica for the day after shoot.

Aimee and Anahi were both flexible. They knew that the photos were very important to us and with the photographers help, pin pointed the perfect spot on the beach for the ceremony. They surprised us with an ice cream bike at the wedding that arrived at the reception. They served ice cream to all the guests. Too cute!

The day after, they both accompanied us on our 5 hour photo shoot. They had ice cold towels and helped with make up and hair throughout the day to insure our photo shoot was more than spectacular. Iâ€™m glad we made the decision early on to hire a wedding planner. I am not sure what we would have done without them.

Here's a link about our day after shoot from the Tropical Occasions blog Behind the Scenes... Creative Photo shoot with the amazing Jose Villa - Tropical Occasions

Wedding location In December we found out some unfortunate news about our original wedding location in Costa Rica. Everything happens for a reason. Our wedding planner recommended a new location - Reserva Conchal. :. Reserva Conchal .: This resort is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels. The photos in the website look EXACTLY like this in person. I am a professional trainer in customer service and I have to say this resort exceeded my expectations. Not only were the rooms very clean, the staff was extremely helpful, nice and attentive. All of my guests that stayed at the resort said the same thing. The condos were spacious and adorable. The beach club was beautiful and the food was affordable. I felt like I was a guests in someone's home even though this resort sits on several acres. They were flexible with my wedding menu and everyone loved the food options at the wedding. They even made coconuts for us to sip on the beach after the ceremony at milk and cookies at the reception. Both were not on the menu.

The welcome/rehearsal dinner My wedding planner highly recommended Mar y Sol restaurant. OMG - the food at this restaurant by far was some of the best I've ever had. Chef/owner Jean Luc Taulere called me several times to plan the menu and everything was delicious! He had several recommendations and was more than accommodating. The restaurant is also beautiful as it sits at the top of the hill over looking the ocean. We were there for sunset and this restaurant has the perfect backdrop.

The DJ My husband was in charge of the music but our DJ was awesome. My husband gave him a list of about 30 songs to play at the wedding. All of them were played and the DJ kept everyone on their feet and incorporated his own tunes that fit the genre of music my husband provided. He had all kinds of music to play for our international guest lists. At one point, we all got in a line and hopped around the reception floor to "Feeling Hot Hot Hot!"

Airport transports J&C Tours J and C Tours Costa Rica This company had the best published rate and was nice enough to put together separate invoices for all of my guests and a spread sheet with all the names for each flight. Everyone was extremely pleased with their services.

Guitarist Lyle played the guitar. Another person that my wedding planner searched for. My husband loves John Mayer and I had a list of his favorite John Mayer songs. This was a surprise at the ceremony. The guitarist didn't know how to play the songs but he learned them just for the ceremony and it was a nice surprise.

Make up artist Sorry - I don't have his name but he was awesome. I didn't have a picture of my make up and didn't bring any with me. This man did a fantastic job. Not sure what kind of make up he used but he used some kind of special mineral make up. With all my tears and sweat during the wedding, you would think the make up would have come off. It stayed. I wiped my face the cloth didn't have any make up on it. It was perfect!

Cake I had a very moist cake with raspberry and lemon filling. Everyone loved the cake. Two thumbs up.

Florist Poor thing. I've changed my mind so many times about my flowers. She was flexible and I loved every single one of my arrangements and she did a gorgeous bouquet for the day after.

Photographer www.josevilla.com Jose Villa assisted by Joel Serrato. These guys were fun and I cannot wait to see my photos. They took a few shots with their iPhones and if the pics look that amazing on the iPhone the real things are going to be stunning. My husband is a professional wedding photographer and this was his only request for the wedding. In fact, we selected our date based on Jose's availability. This was a biggest expense but you can't cut corners when it comes to permanent memories. Jose and Joel thank you for being professional and creative at our wedding and for our day after session. Our day after session started with a boudoir session right on the beach. We did request a boudoir shoot but Jose suggest that we put the bed right on the sand in front of the ocean. WE then traveled through the coast to several different small towns for an awesome day of photos.

I will have to get the names of the cake and DJ vendors. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I will be happy to answer them.