Off resort wedding help please!

cole379 · March 29, 2011

Hello everyone,

We are in the very early stages of planning and trying to pick a resort. We have narrowed it down a bit and one of the most popular choices with our family is the Iberostar (because people can choose which resort to stay at-all price points). The only thing is, we want a beach wedding and the Iberostar is SUPER expensive to have it on the beach. We would have between 30-45 guests. So we were looking at the idea of having the wedding off the resort. Besides Xel-ha (which I also heard is very expensive), does anyone know of other places you can get married off resort that are safe?

Thanks!

lalanyc · March 30, 2011

hmmm, that's too bad!! One of the benefits of going w/ a bigger resort is having the wedding coordinators (and their group of selected vendors) at your disposal. If you go offsite, you may need to need to hire an independent coordinator and/or find your own vendors.

Here are some suggestions though:

http://www.xcaretweddings.com/ (pricey)

http://www.blueparrot.com/weddings-events/ (not very private beach)

http://www.playasecreto.com/weddings.html (not sure how their coordinating services are but possibly good option)

Finally, I met w/ this coordinator and she seemed to have a lot of experience coordinating weddings in Akumal and Puerto Aventuras (in private haciendas). http://www.puertoaventurasmexico.com/weddings.htm

Aside from these options, though, I would encourage you to keep looking at resorts!! It seems like a lot of extra work to try to coordinate a wedding separate from your resort :/

mandys · March 30, 2011

I really think you should try to choose a resort that is going to take care of everything for you. There are sooo many resorts out there with great wedding packages. I think you might have a lot of headaches trying to organize a wedding offsite. Destination weddings are supposed to be a breeze! But if you want the extra work then go for it. Goodluck

cole379 · March 30, 2011

Thanks for the replies! I totally agree that a wedding off site would be much more of a hassle. The only good thing is that I am actually I work as an Event Coordinator so I am used to planning events! But I agree that a resort would be MUCH easier. We are just getting frustrated trying to pick something that works for everyone (and us!) but that has a wedding package that fits our needs.

X-Chan · March 30, 2011

I'm doing an off-resort wedding in Cuba but we're going to be there for a month prior to the wedding just to organize and make sure everything goes properly. If I was going down for a week I'd definitely just want someone else to do everything like the other ladies said!