Lala's Ceiba del Mar Wedding Week

[tappleton]

Hey lala,

These pics are awesome. Where did you have your dance floor?  It's hard to tell in the pictures. And also, did you just buy regular christmas lights and have them string them? how long of strings/what kind did you use? It looks so perfectly done! 

[tappleton]

One more question. Who did you use for fire dancers? Was it affordable? At what point in your reception did they come out?

[MKA611]

Thanks Lala!

 

I appreciate your detailed reply!  I'm in love with the Tequila Donkey.

 

We are actually in the middle of booking everything now with Ceiba for our wedding in the spring of 2012!  Very excited. 

 

I am surprised about the fact you didnt have to pay a set up fee unless you brought in your own tables and chairs.  In their banquet menu they say $13/pp, but maybe since you had a lot of people they waived it?

 

Lastly, did you have an after party after the wedding?  Since it will probably end at 11pm and although most guests will be tired i was just wondering if you did anything for the people more our age?

 

Thanks again!  Your posts have extremely helpful!

[lalanyc]

 

 

Originally Posted by tappleton 

 

Hey lala,

These pics are awesome. Where did you have your dance floor?  It's hard to tell in the pictures. And also, did you just buy regular christmas lights and have them string them? how long of strings/what kind did you use? It looks so perfectly done! 

 

Hi tappleton - the dance floor was set up over the sand right off of the paved terrace.  If you note on my review though, the dance floor was unnecessary since there was plenty of extra space on the terrace for dancing (which was a good thing since the floor BROKE shortly after the guests rushed it!).  If your wedding is on the terrace, I would recommend putting that $$ toward decorations, UNLESS you really want a lighted dance floor.  That way you dont have large empty areas remaining on the terrace.

 

These are the string lights we used: http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/36766/HLS-346166.html

 

I actually purchased the lights and some very nice relatives split the boxes among their suitcases. My florist wanted to charge an exorbitant amount to rent and arrange them so I decided to bring them myself!  I donated them afterwards to my parents who happen to have a huge yard.  Ceiba strung them for only $100.  

 

I think Ceiba used 40 of the boxes (24 feet per box), if that!  I bought way too many.  

 

 

Originally Posted by tappleton 

 

One more question. Who did you use for fire dancers? Was it affordable? At what point in your reception did they come out?

 

A friend of a friend was able to get us 2 fire dancers for $200 for 15 minutes.  We had a taco bar around midnight and the dancers came out right before then, around 11:40 PM.  I think one of the planning companies should be able to match that price for you if you're interested in a shorter show.  Honestly, once ppl are buzzed, they dont have long attention spans and they also dont care of there is 1 or 10 dancers - they're just pumped that there is fire!  So I wouldnt recommend spending much more than that.  People still talk about the fire dancers and ours werent even that great!! haha.  

 

[lalanyc]

Hi MKA - 

 

 

Me too - I still can't believe we passed up the opportunity to have a Tequila Donkey!! 

 

Congratulations on booking w/ Ceiba!!  You and your guests will have an unforgettable experience!!

 

Ahh, I think I misunderstood your earlier comment.  Yes, we did pay the $13/pp for the linens, etc. (the linens in the pics are from the basic selection offered with that price).  When it came to additional decorations though, aside from the string lights and the pieces handled by the florist, Ceiba did the rest at no additional charge.

 

Technically, we didn't have an after party since our wedding lasted until almost 4 AM though there were only about 15 very very drunk people left by then!!!  Many older people started heading to bed around 11 PM and a big wave left after the taco bar around 12:30 AM.  

 

That said, I think your after party options will depend on how strict Ceiba wants to be and the type of crowd you expect.  

• If you are big party people but Ceiba has a strict cutoff, then you can take the party indoors into one of the restaurants.  You could either continue dancing or set up a karaoke bar. 
• If you want low key drinks and/or want to limit spending, you could head to the front bar and just pay the bartender to stay extra hours (I think they are $20/hr).  They could continue to use remaining liquor from the reception.
• If Ceiba is more lax but you dont want to dance, you could offer light food options and a bonfire with an I-pod/speaker set up.  I would recommend tacos de trompo al pastor.  You can arrange it so that Ceiba only charges you for what people eat:

 

 

Hope that helps!  

 

Originally Posted by MKA611 

Thanks Lala!

 

I appreciate your detailed reply!  I'm in love with the Tequila Donkey.

 

We are actually in the middle of booking everything now with Ceiba for our wedding in the spring of 2012!  Very excited. 

 

I am surprised about the fact you didnt have to pay a set up fee unless you brought in your own tables and chairs.  In their banquet menu they say $13/pp, but maybe since you had a lot of people they waived it?

 

Lastly, did you have an after party after the wedding?  Since it will probably end at 11pm and although most guests will be tired i was just wondering if you did anything for the people more our age?

 

Thanks again!  Your posts have extremely helpful!

 

[lalanyc]

Hi Ana,

I just realized you asked for more pics of the CEREMONY not the reception!!  Oops.  Here are pics taken during the ceremony (Catholic church of Puerto Morelos):

 

 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnaS 

Hi Lala,

 

I love your review. Very helpful while planning a wedding even if I am at a different resort.

 

I wanted to ask you a few questions about the wedding ceremony:

• How did you decorate the place? (do you have pictures to share?)
• What did you do about music during ceremony?
• Any other pictures from the ceremony would be very helpul for me to be able to imagine the wedding day

 

Thanks so much,

Ana

 

[lalanyc]

Also, in terms of decor - we kept it very simple.  We had a few white flower arrangements for each side of the altar, plus the altar table itself.  We also had a few short baby's breath baskets for each side of the aisle.  I could have probably used more of those (think I only had 6 but could have easily used 12); that said, I believe they had to be moved while the guests came in b/c they were being knocked over (?).  Dont know the full details except that they were moved around at the last minute.  Perhaps they could have been smaller or maybe we would have been better off hanging flowers from every other pew.  

 

Finally, the Father offered to put out some carpeting along the aisle (he had red plus another color) but we declined. 

 

Originally Posted by AnaS 

Hi Lala,

 

I love your review. Very helpful while planning a wedding even if I am at a different resort.

 

I wanted to ask you a few questions about the wedding ceremony:

• How did you decorate the place? (do you have pictures to share?)
• What did you do about music during ceremony?
• Any other pictures from the ceremony would be very helpul for me to be able to imagine the wedding day

 

Thanks so much,

Ana

 

[tappleton]

Thanks so much Lala, 

this is awesome and so helpful! My wedding is there in April so I"m starting to plan all the details.  I can't believe your party went till 4am! So, we are also planning on paying the corking fee and bringing our own liquor. The corking fee was for 4 hours if I remember, so how did you work that? Did you pay two corking fees for 8 hours or just pay a little more per extra hour?  A late night taco bar is such a good idea. Was it affordable? How many people were at your wedding?  One last dance floor question, so after the rented dance floor broke, did you use that upper level area a step above the tables with the fountain for the dance floor or was there enough room to have it on the same terrace as the tables? Thanks again so much!

 

-tiffany

[AnaS]

Thanks so much for posting these pictures. I love how it turned out! I hope I will be able to do the same for my wedding I will be getting married at the same church next year in June.

[780chick]

Did you order the liquor online or did you go to the store directly? It seems their webpage is all in Spanish. How much was it for the bus rental for the wedding day? We are looking to charter a bus to/from a catamaran cruise for a our guests (70-80 people)