Hotel Marina El Cid BRIDES

[ecl]

Hey All! just got back from our amazing week at the Marina el Cid and our wedding was everything I could have hoped for and more!  it was a perfect day and everyone had so much fun!  I would highly recommend the Marina el Cid for a DW.  Let me know if you have any questions about the resort or wedding... 

Edited May 1, 2015 by ecl

[CBO2015]

Hi there! 

 

I'm doing a wedding at Marina El Cid next February and have a few questions for you all! 

 

Did you and your guests book your rooms through the resort? Did you do a room block and is there a discount for that? We're trying to make the vacation as affordable as possible for our guests and the prices just jumped up by a few hundred dollars. 

 

Also, did anyone do a garden reception? I saw in another comment that someone had heard there were a lot of bugs in the garden. That's something I'd like to be prepared for! 

 

Oh, and are the ball lights in the above post from the resort or did you bring them yourself? Love them! 

 

Thanks much,

Cassie

[ecl]

Hi there! 

 

I'm doing a wedding at Marina El Cid next February and have a few questions for you all! 

 

Did you and your guests book your rooms through the resort? Did you do a room block and is there a discount for that? We're trying to make the vacation as affordable as possible for our guests and the prices just jumped up by a few hundred dollars. 

 

Also, did anyone do a garden reception? I saw in another comment that someone had heard there were a lot of bugs in the garden. That's something I'd like to be prepared for! 

 

Oh, and are the ball lights in the above post from the resort or did you bring them yourself? Love them! 

 

Thanks much,

Cassie

 

Hi Cassie,

 

We booked the majority of our rooms through a destination travel agent group booking;  we had about 4 rooms book on their own, but it was still through some type of package and not directly with the hotel.

 

We got the chinese lanterns in the above pic as an extra through the DJ (we just went with the resort recommended DJ and they were awesome!).  We got 2 strands of them and they really made the ambiance of the evening so great!  The wedding coordinator can give you the price for them if you ask.

 

Good luck with you planning!

[CBO2015]

 

Hi BDW members...I recently booked our wedding for Marina El Cid for May 2015, and wanted to see if you have any experience/recommendations with the resort....

 

1) How is the salon on site for wedding day makeup & hair? 

 

2) Do you have any menu suggestions? 

 

3) Did you have a symbolic wedding? How was your experience?

 

4) Would you do anything differently?

 

5) I am having our reception in the garden, but read there were a lot of bugs...Did anyone have a bad experience with this? We want to do beach, but they close at 9pm in May due to the turtle mating season. Is there another place on the resort we could continue the party. I heard the Marina restaurant is open late?

 

6) What was your schedule like for the ceremony & reception. I hired a DJ and we plan to have dancing, but then I am torn b/c of the time the beach closes. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone :-D

 

Hi there! I'm planning to have my reception in the garden as well - did you have bug problems?

[Sne]

I just had my wedding there a few weeks ago. Deyanira was the best. I did work with the other coordinators as well but highly recommend Deyaniya as she is more experienced and I felt was better able to answer my questions.

 

We oped for a symbolic ceremony. The minister was really nice. I don't recommend having the ceremony earlier than 4:30pm just because its so hot and only part of the jetty is covered so the guests are sitting in the direct sun. Everyone was burning up but Deyanira did a great job by informing people to wait until the ceremony was going to start. Thinking back, 6pm might have been better, b/c it cools down. The ceremony is less than 30 mins....If you have the ceremony earlier, I also recommend paper fans or hats for the guests.

We ended up having the reception on the beach, not the garden as originally thought. I spoke with the DJ we hired and he said there are mosquitos in the garden even though they spray the grass. I didn't want to any chances. Also, the beach reception is the way to go as long as you have the reception over by 11pm. Since we had ceremony at 4:30pm, took pictures, we started the reception at 6pm and it lasted until 10pm. You could have the ceremony at 6pm, and then do the reception at 7pm if you are looking for timelines. I think this is the perfect timing, and if you want to party more, La Marina restaurant turns into a Disco at 11pm and it is open until 1am.

 

The food was pretty good. I recommend opting for the seafood. Anytime we dined at the restaurants, the seafood was also the best tasting food. We opted for the beef and chicken for the reception. Some guests said the beef was overcooked and the chicken was too sweet.

 

I think the resort was great, except there were a few hiccups. I feel like since I worked with 3 different coordinators, I had to make sure I had everything in writing and it was very clear.

 

Salon Avoid the salon at all costs!!!! The salon manager is the worst!!! It was almost impossible to get the lady, I think her name was Maria to respond for appointments. They sent me salon prices lists, and then a few weeks before the wedding, the salon manager increased the prices to almost double. It was ridiculous. Then after talking to the WC, we comprised and got the salon to come down 15%....but then the morning of my wedding, the salon manager decided that she wanted to charge 16% tax, and it had to be paid in cash. She was obviously pocketing the money and then yelled at ME on my wedding day after I told her that wasn't the price we agreed on. I was extremely calm and just trying to talk to her and she told me to go talk to the wedding coordinator. It made me extremely mad b/c I thought about hiring outside professionals to do my hair/makeup, but the resort was going to charge a $300 vendor fee, so I opted to use the hotel salon. After this debacle, it would have been in my best interest to have hired an outside professional that knew what they were doing. None of the salon workers knew how to do makeup or hair. I broke down and started crying! After 3 attempts, the hairdresser finally did what I asked. It was extremely hard to communicate b/c they don't speak English. Luckily my sister came and was able to speak to them since she knows some Spanish. For makeup, they didn't have anything I could use, and I ended up giving my makeup to use. Luckily, I brought it and had good makeup (MAC, Smashbox, etc). I had to tell the beautician step by step how to do my makeup. After 10 mins, I said forget it, and told them I wanted my money back. Luckily, my friend is good with makeup I am decent, so between the two of us, we ended up doing it ourselves. Also, my hairstyle fell apart an hour later and I ended up redoing it myself. It was extremely stressful. None of my bridesmaids liked their hair either. The salon is very limited and really can't do a good job. So if you are looking for a nice hair/makeup artist, I highly recommend looking to bring someone that knows hair/makeup to the resort, and paying the $300 fee or getting them to bring that price down.

 

After everything, I think the salon was just a small hiccup, and it ended up working out. No one could tell I did my own makeup...everyone had a great time and that's what is most important.

 

The DJ, Photographer, and Cinematography were all outside of the hotel's recommendation. I found them myself and they were TERRIFIC!!!

 

DJ - I used DJ Movil Cancun. He is very professional and set up was beautiful. We opted for the LED Dance floor and everyone loved it. His selection of music was great, and the guests raved about it. We did give him a music list of liked songs, and he did a great job incorporating them. We hired him for 4 hours and it worked out perfectly. I liked the fact he played music during dinner. It was 
 

Photographer - Oscar Castro. I found him through some destination wedding website. He is absolutely AMAZING!!! He is great photographer. I highly recommend him, and looking him up on facebook or his website oscarcastrofotografia.com.mx. He is extremely professional and takes amazing pictures! We hired him for our engagement photos, wedding photos, and the day after photo (trash the dress) photos. Reasonably priced and he has won multiple photography awards from MyWed and other websites. 

 

Videographer - BUP photography. They are amazing as well. They were extremely professional and went above and beyond to give us the best experience. I can't speak highly enough of them. 

 

Flowers - I used the resort's vendor for flowers. They were BEAUTIFUL. I couldn't ask for more beautiful bouquet. You can tell your WC exactly what you want. They give you pictures of some options, but you can still customize colors, etc. 

 

Party Favors   - I bought colored maracas from Amols (online distributor) and then decorated them myself. I bought Sharpie Paint Markers and drew designs on them. Everyone loved them! They were a huge hit! They are lightweight, so between my husband and myself, we were able to just put them in our check in luggage. There are also other companies in Mexico that will design and ship your maracas directly to the hotel/resort, but this is much pricier. 

 

Booking  All my guests reserved their hotel/airfare through travel websites such as Expedia or Orbitz. It worked out perfectly.

 

Transportation   - I highly recommend letting your guests know they should hire transportartion from the airport to the hotel and then back to the airport. Our guests used CanadaTransfers.com and USA Transfers. The airports have a lot of timeshare people that will try to get you to go with them...Avoid those people, they are a waste of your time. read this. 
 

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to message me!

 

Edited May 29, 2015 by Sne

[Sne]

Hey everyone!! I'm tagging into this to try and get the most information I can. Ive been working with my TA for over a month now and I finally decided I was going to lock in a location until some of my guest stated they didn't believe the location I wanted would accommodate their budget for traveling. Sharing this info. with my TA he suggested El Cid. and Ive been able to go over some TripAdvisor  reviews and some images but very very little on information for weddings. Even on here... I don't know if i should take that as a good thing or a bad thing?? I was able to hear about a tour one of the current brides did and she loved the place. Anyone have any further info on the actual weddings at this location ? 

 

I

Is the resort very small when you constantly feel like your on top of each other ?

 

I didn't notice any issues with it being too small. The resort is actually very large. They have a main pool, a jacuzzi and an infinity pool. All three are located on different areas of the resort so it was nice.

 

Food choices good? Any extras charged for wines, steak and lobsters ?

 

The food was ok. The seafood was good. The a la carte restaurants were hit or miss. They do have wine options for an extra cost. 

 

ceremony locations?

 

Jetty is beautiful. Only covered partially, so bride and groom are covered, but not the guests. 

 

Rain back up locations?

 

Not sure. I think they do have a banquet hall. 

 

How is the Jetty Set up ? it seems very narrow from the images with guest on each side.. any limitations on # of people for it?

 

It is slightly narrow. They set up 4 seats per row, divided in the center, so 2 seats on each side. 

 

Any idea of outside vendor fees? for dj, photographer

 

Original vendor fee i $300 but you can try to negotiate these prices. If they are guests of the hotel, there are no vendor fees. 

 

Cost for private events -- Could a welcome dinner or cocktail party be organized and held here?

 

We did a welcome dinner at La Marina, which is slightly off the resort. It was for about 25 people. They just combined the round tables into one long row. No extra cost, but we did tip the servers generously. I think the cost of hosting a cocktail party or tequilla tasting is $25/person. You should double check. 

 

The reception venue locations?

 

Beach or Garden. Beach setup is beautiful!

 

Rain back up location ?

 

Not sure, might be the banquet hall. 

 

Any honey moon extras? - Breakfast in bed following wedding day? Turn down service? Romantic dinners on the beach ?

 

Not sure. We got the basic room but they upgraded our room for free, so we got a huge suite. They came in and decorated the room, had champaign ready, and the hot tubs filled with roses. 

Edited May 29, 2015 by Sne