Has anyone out there been married at Esencia?

diddles 13 · June 3, 2013

In case other brides are interested in getting married at Esencia, I thought it might be helpful to post a followup. I was just married 3 weeks ago and we had a wonderful time. Everything was so beautiful and our guests really enjoyed themselves. It was a dream. A few things to know about this hotel that might be useful for you to know:

Everything at Esencia is really expensive. You are going to pay top dollar to have your wedding here and a lot of your budget is going to go towards your alcohol. Their vendors are absolutely ridiculously over priced compared to regular vendors. To give you an example, we got a quote from Euphoria, their flower vendor, for 17,000 dollars. We got a similar one for the exact same thing and then some for 1,200. Another for 1,500. I think the people who get married here must throw money at everything because I don't understand how people pay these prices. Even the photographers charge double. Del Sol starts at 8,000 for one photographer for 4 hours. We flew one in from Mexico City who was AMAZING for the entire weekend and paid 2,500. Things can add up quickly if you don't watch out. Our wedding was for 90 people so we had to pay attention to cost. We bought out the hotel for three nights. It was a dream to have the hotel filled only with our friends and family. We had such a great time. The staff is very attentive and friendly and the food was delicious. The staff were so nice to our guests, everyone felt really special.

Our wedding day itself could have gone over better over all but I think this was mostly due to the wedding coordinator assigned by the hotel. She isn't very organized, did everything at the last minute, and has very little attention to detail. I found this very irritating. She is friendly when she wants to be but at the end of the day, not great. I had to spend my reception time re-doing the seating arrangements because she paid no attention to having the tables/ table numbers be set properly. She made no effort to direct people to the reception area and allowed them into the dining space. I spent a lot of money to decorate and put music in the grass area yet no one was there because no one directed them. She also forgot our dinner menus entirely. No one knew what they were eating. Our vegetarians were served chicken based soups (I know this because the groom was a veggie and I knew what he was supposed to be eating), and the bar ran out of alcohol before the night was over. The hotel itself was accommodating in several ways, as they allowed to bring our own cake, and extend our party until late. The chef was very attentive, and the food was great. It was really the planning and organization that is troublesome for such a high-end place. I should not have had to worry about anything but instead, I could not relax because if I didn't pay attention to the very simple details, it was simply not going to get done.

Prior to the wedding, we did not receive a full schedule until we were already in Mexico and I had to go over it thousands of times because there was little attention to detail on the coordinator's part. I was expected to know when the vendors would be coming to set-up. There were incorrect room assignments which I was blamed for. The names and room number list for guests were mis-spelled and had guests from other weddings listed. This was the card that everyone got in their rooms so that they can call other rooms. It's very important because rooms are not numbered at Esencia. One of our guests fell and a doctor had to be called. We were charged the medical bills instead of the guest.

All in all, I have to say that I loved getting married here. It was magical and I loved the staff and everything about the location. It's beautiful and one of a kind. If you are having a big wedding, I suggest you spend the money and have someone help you OR demand that the hotel step up their game and hire help for the day. This coordinator doesn't have enough experience to handle large events. You should be ok doing a smaller wedding here though.

mrspfafftobe · June 4, 2013

Hi diddles - thanks for sharing this very valuable information. Esencia was our #1 choice for our wedding last year, but they wanted about a $25,000 deposit to save our date, which we just couldn't do. We were saving money and getting money from our parents month-to-month, and just didn't have the cash to pay that lump sum understanding we had other vendors and services we had to pay for up front too. I don't know if this is still their policy, but they wanted us to pay for 50% of ALL of the guest rooms for the 3-day buy out, then as our guests book they would transfer the room deposit to our wedding/reception fund. We ended up having out wedding at Le Reve and although it wasn't cheap either, it was much more economical and everything was just perfect - truly a dream. Best of all they let you work with whatever vendors you want. If Esencia is too pricey for anyone considering it, I'd encourage you to look at Le Reve.

On another note, I cannot believe del Sol is that expensive now. We paid a lot less than that for 6 hours with a principal photographer (Matt) not even a year ago. We did get a discount through the Le Reve/del Sol/BDW promotion, but still... wow.

We are actually going to Esencia to celebrate our first anniversary next week, so we will still get the Esencia experience even though we didn't host our wedding there.

Originally Posted by diddles 13

In case other brides are interested in getting married at Esencia, I thought it might be helpful to post a followup. I was just married 3 weeks ago and we had a wonderful time. Everything was so beautiful and our guests really enjoyed themselves. It was a dream. A few things to know about this hotel that might be useful for you to know:

Everything at Esencia is really expensive. You are going to pay top dollar to have your wedding here and a lot of your budget is going to go towards your alcohol. Their vendors are absolutely ridiculously over priced compared to regular vendors. To give you an example, we got a quote from Euphoria, their flower vendor, for 17,000 dollars. We got a similar one for the exact same thing and then some for 1,200. Another for 1,500. I think the people who get married here must throw money at everything because I don't understand how people pay these prices. Even the photographers charge double. Del Sol starts at 8,000 for one photographer for 4 hours. We flew one in from Mexico City who was AMAZING for the entire weekend and paid 2,500. Things can add up quickly if you don't watch out. Our wedding was for 90 people so we had to pay attention to cost. We bought out the hotel for three nights. It was a dream to have the hotel filled only with our friends and family. We had such a great time. The staff is very attentive and friendly and the food was delicious. The staff were so nice to our guests, everyone felt really special.

Our wedding day itself could have gone over better over all but I think this was mostly due to the wedding coordinator assigned by the hotel. She isn't very organized, did everything at the last minute, and has very little attention to detail. I found this very irritating. She is friendly when she wants to be but at the end of the day, not great. I had to spend my reception time re-doing the seating arrangements because she paid no attention to having the tables/ table numbers be set properly. She made no effort to direct people to the reception area and allowed them into the dining space. I spent a lot of money to decorate and put music in the grass area yet no one was there because no one directed them. She also forgot our dinner menus entirely. No one knew what they were eating. Our vegetarians were served chicken based soups (I know this because the groom was a veggie and I knew what he was supposed to be eating), and the bar ran out of alcohol before the night was over. The hotel itself was accommodating in several ways, as they allowed to bring our own cake, and extend our party until late. The chef was very attentive, and the food was great. It was really the planning and organization that is troublesome for such a high-end place. I should not have had to worry about anything but instead, I could not relax because if I didn't pay attention to the very simple details, it was simply not going to get done.

Prior to the wedding, we did not receive a full schedule until we were already in Mexico and I had to go over it thousands of times because there was little attention to detail on the coordinator's part. I was expected to know when the vendors would be coming to set-up. There were incorrect room assignments which I was blamed for. The names and room number list for guests were mis-spelled and had guests from other weddings listed. This was the card that everyone got in their rooms so that they can call other rooms. It's very important because rooms are not numbered at Esencia. One of our guests fell and a doctor had to be called. We were charged the medical bills instead of the guest.

All in all, I have to say that I loved getting married here. It was magical and I loved the staff and everything about the location. It's beautiful and one of a kind. If you are having a big wedding, I suggest you spend the money and have someone help you OR demand that the hotel step up their game and hire help for the day. This coordinator doesn't have enough experience to handle large events. You should be ok doing a smaller wedding here though.