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Aventura Spa Palace Wedding Review


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Hi ladies

 

My husband and I were just married at ASP on June 4th. We had an amazing time! All of our guests were so pleased with the resort and no on can wait to go back for another trip.

 

Our wedding was with the Ruby package. My bouquet was beautiful. I told them I didn't want any roses, but any other red flower would do, and I asked for lilies to be added in it. It was more than I could ask for...no roses and a gorgeous assortment of tropical flowers.

 

The flowers that were included in the ceremony were okay. The flower vases they display next to the chairs is exactly what you see in the photos. But, the flowers they place on the "judges table" is nothing like what you see on the palace website. Basically they were 3 or 4 carnation like flowers in a vase. It looked bare and minimal. On the website it shows a lovely bouquet of roses, but don't expect that.

 

I asked to have the red carpet laid out for the ceremony and it didn't happen. I was a little disappointed in that. I couldn't change it because I didn't know it wasn't there until I was walking down the aisle. My advice? Have a close friend check out your ceremony decor and make sure everything you wanted is there!

 

The fireworks were great. I liked the addition of that! The carriage was also a huge hit. There was not a dry eye in sight when I got off of the carriage and started walking down the aisle. I highly recommend the carriage. We got married in the white gazebo on the end of the resort, so it was able to drive right up to the gazebo.

 

I got my hair done at the resort. I think my hairdressers name was Claudia, she did a good job. I wanted my hair half up and half down. It was windy and during the ceremony and while we were doing the photos I was paranoid that my hair was all over my face or flying wildly behind me. If I had to do it over again I would probably do an up do. But, from the photos I've seen so far my hair isn't nearly as wild as it felt during the time. Also, the curls were killed by the humidity...only the loose ones that hung down my neck.

 

They whisked us off immediately after the ceremony for our photos literally after they just handed us all a glass of champagne. I thought that was tacky. Not much time for a toast. So, he had us all gather for a group photo with glasses in our hands! I made him re-do a bunch of family photos without the champagne glasses. We were also squinting a lot because the sun was right in our eyes...I also had him re-do some in the shade where we weren't squinting. I haven't seen the professional pics yet; they are in the mail.

 

FYI: We walked over rocks for the photos...so just keep that in mind. I wish I would have brought my fancy flip flops so I wasn't precariously walking over the rocks with my heels. My husband accidentally stepped on my train too, so I fell gently with all the arms that jumped out to grab me! Also, I had no time to re-apply any make-up or lipstick before the pics--I had no idea what happened to my purse. Again, if I did it over I would have stopped everything to find my lipstick. I just felt so rushed throughout all the photos.

 

My cake was great! We opted to have a 3 tier cake instead of the cupcakes. They made it exactly the way I wanted it. One minor thing though. I asked to have fresh flowers that matched my bouquet to be on the cake and there were none. We tried to get it remedied before they brought it out, but I don't think there was anything they could do at that point. The wedding office closes at 5pm or something...so basically there is no way to get a hold of anyone after your wedding. Yazmin stayed during the ceremony, but after that she was gone. It still looked good, but that was important to me. It tasted great though!

 

We provided our own music for the ceremony and it seemed that there player was a little out of sync. Our "song" sounded a little marbled and slower than usual. Again, a minor detail, but a little annoying. Also, we asked them to keep playing down the list of songs while we signed our papers, but they kept playing the same song over and over. Again, I was disappointed.

 

Our Judge was awesome! We weren't expecting much from the judge, but he gave a beautiful speech. It wasn't "religious", (at least I don't remember it being that way). He quoted a couple of Mexican poets/philosophers, and gave a lovely speech relating to the quotes he gave. It was very nice and perfect. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

 

For the most part we felt that we got our money's worth out of the package. However, because of what was not there (as I have mentioned all earlier), that made us feel a bit unhappy with it. Many of the reviews I've read no one seemed to experience any of that. Not sure if I should recommend the packages or not...I guess I wouldn't buy it again and would do everything a la carte. But, I did enjoy the carriage and fireworks, and that is something I would not have gotten if we wouldn't have done the package. There lies the conundrum. Looking at the whole wedding retrospectively all the "extras" really were not all that important and I realized I would have been just as happy without all of it. Important people in our lives were there, we were there together and I had a beautiful dress!

 

Overall we had a beautiful wedding. It was definitely an experience of a life time and one all of our guests thoroughly enjoyed. The beach was beautiful, there was no rain, the sun was out, and we were happy. :)

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Thanks for the review! It really puts things into perspective. You really dont think about the little things going wrong and usually thats were the problems lay. Im happy you had an overall great experience! Do you have any pictures to show us? Where did you have your reception? Did you do cocktail hour? Did you use the resort photog? Sorry so many questions at once.

 

Thanks! :)

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Hi Amy, congratulations! My daughter was married at Aventura Spa on May 20th. We had the Sapphire Package and everything was wonderful. Hair and makeup done at the salon there and it was soooo beautiful. Lasted well all day! We added a harpest for the ceremony and he was fantastic. We added extra flower arrangements at the gazebos entarance and they were beautiful and huge. We had the horsedrawn carriage after the ceremony, instead of before, so my daughter and her husband could ride in it and get photos. The fireworks were a hit and made for beautiful photos. We had David Pena, a resort photographer, for the photos and he was amazing. We paid extra for the cd of all of the photos taken that day. We had a one hour cocktail/hors d'ourves and paid extra for a sound system so we could dance. They did a rhuma for their first dance and it was wonderful! we also paid for 1 extra hour of DVD for the reception--well worth it! Dinner at ElGreco - filet and shrimp - delicious! (The extra flower arrangements we had at gazebo entrance were brought to restaurant table for decoration while we ate and then taken to our Presidential Suite entry room table. They lasted the full 2 weeks we were there.) 3 tier white fondant cake with blue scrolls, vanilla cake with fruit filling. We did have fresh flowers that matched bouquet on cake (blue irises, blue hydrangeas, ivory roses). Everything went as planned and could not have been better!

We received the photos, cd and dvd before we left for home. Here are a few of her photos I put on shutterfly:

Shutterfly | View share

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Originally Posted by angelov321 View Post
Thanks for the review! It really puts things into perspective. You really dont think about the little things going wrong and usually thats were the problems lay. Im happy you had an overall great experience! Do you have any pictures to show us? Where did you have your reception? Did you do cocktail hour? Did you use the resort photog? Sorry so many questions at once.

Thanks! :)
They are sending us our photos and CD in the mail; we weren't there long enough after the wedding to get it before we left. We didn't have an official reception. Yazmin said we would have to pay for space if we wanted them to set something up. So, instead we borrowed an ipod dock from one of our friends and took over a little space in the lobby/lounge area in ASP. It was good enough for us. Unfortunately, we booked our trip through a TA, so we were not eligible for any "free" extras. We tried to get a cocktail hour, but they wouldn't budge. We did use the resort photographer and I'm anxious to see them!
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Hi Amy! Congratulations on your wedding..thank you so much for the review..its so helpful to read suggestions/advice from other brides...Im getting married at ASP this November, I decided to not go with a package and just add what specifically i want..so im definitely going to go with the horse and carriage...a question..i read that the gazebo on the north side that you got married in, isnt as nice bc the view of the water isnt as good and the fence that lines it is not attractive...did you feel that way or were you happy with that gazebo? thanks for the advice of having someone check over the decorations to make sure it looks the way you want it to...

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Originally Posted by nicdeb928 View Post
Hi Amy! Congratulations on your wedding..thank you so much for the review..its so helpful to read suggestions/advice from other brides...Im getting married at ASP this November, I decided to not go with a package and just add what specifically i want..so im definitely going to go with the horse and carriage...a question..i read that the gazebo on the north side that you got married in, isnt as nice bc the view of the water isnt as good and the fence that lines it is not attractive...did you feel that way or were you happy with that gazebo? thanks for the advice of having someone check over the decorations to make sure it looks the way you want it to...
We thought the gazebo was gorgeous. We walked around and looked at all the other ones, and by far that was our favorite. The other thing we liked about it is that it seemed a little more secluded. We had no on-lookers watching our wedding, so it made our ceremony feel more exclusive. Whereas, all the other gazebos are centrally located and I'm sure you'll have random people watching. Also, the carriage can drive right up to the gazebo and you'll have a grand entrance!

In all of the photos I've seen so far the fence isn't in any of them and it wasn't that noticeable in any case. It's white and blends in with the gazebo. No worries, I didn't see any trash cans, I looked! The photographer had us go behind the gazebo over on the rocks for many of the pics and he caught some beautiful shots with the waves crashing in on the rocks. Some of our guests snapped photos while he was taking shots...so that is all I have to go on right now till we get our professional pics.

Also, my husband and I were discussing again the flowers on the judges table and indeed they were fake also. The package states that they are real, but they are not.
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