My Puerto Vallarta Wedding Experience

[california10]

I agree, this is helpful and I appreciate you taking the time. It's so difficult figuring out all the logistics!

 

Did you do a pre-trip site visit? In terms of guests paying for each room, how did it work with reserving a room before the wedding at the villa and payment? Did all guests individually pay you and was the room reservation all on a first come first serve basis? Also, how far in advance did you book the villa, it sounds very affordable! 

 

Thank you!

[springwater]

We didn't do a visit prior to the wedding. We were in Puerto Vallarta for the first time ever just 2 days before our wedding But I saw some pictures of a couple of weddings done at Celeste so I was ok to take the chance. My husband and I actually paid for both villas on our own, as a gift to our family and wedding party. We reserved the villas back in September, paying a 50% deposit, and we had to pay the remaining 50% two months before the trip. So, as I said, we paid for them so we didn't have to collect money from people (except for the daily meals, which we did have everyone chip in on), but we did have to collect for the airline tickets. I got a group rate from the airline. This isn't exactly a discount, all it is is a way to lock in a rate at a certain date, then you have until 1 month before the trip to pay the balance. In my case, I had been watching ticket prices and they were consistenly in the 700+ range. Then right around Christmas I saw they dropped to 580, but not everyone had that money just laying around to get their ticket, especially since it was Christmas. So I had I everyone pay a $100 deposit to lock in the 580, and they had until 30 days before the trip to pay the balance. I had to pay the airline 1 payment, so I had people send me money through Paypal and I used it to pay the airline. I guess you can do something similar for the villa payments. And we just let everyone pick their own rooms, it was pretty much first come first serve. And since everyone was on the same flight and took the same shuttle to the villa, it was a mad house! People just left their luggage outside and ran in to pick rooms

[california10]

I bet, those villas look amazing! Did they require you to book a certain Villa (Azul) in order for the site fee waived at Villa Celeste? It looks like they have a number of villas, which all look so nice! 

[springwater]

I'm not sure what their policy is on the site fee. We knew we needed both villas anyway, so we tried to negotiate before booking and that was one of the things that we negotiated. There were also two other villas right near Celeste (vs. Azul, which was a short cab ride away), but they were a little more expensive. But if you have people paying for their own rooms maybe it won't be so bad, but we were really price sensitive since we were paying for the whole thing ourselves.

[california10]

Oh ok, thanks!

[csho]

Wow! I wish I had of  thought to do something like this! I didn't even think it would be very affordable. Looked amazing!!

[JennaLea]

Springwater, 

 

Again, thank you so so much for taking the time to post. I am going to PV july 16th for a few days to pretty much ALL my planning - we'll be seeing like 15 villas I swear! I may have a few more questions after going there, before we do our final bookings, if you don't mind! I appreciate any help I can get. 

 

Jenna

[dreamweddings]

Originally Posted by california10 

 

Thanks for all the useful info! That really is a good deal. How many guests did you have in total? I was look at 50-60 people so we would need to find multiple places for them to stay. I was also looking at Dazzling Details for planning but and they are out of my budget. How much was it go through vallarta weddings? Thanks! 

 

Kerry

@springwater thank you so much for such a helpful information especially for brides who are choosing to go with a Villa wedding options.  

 

We are wedding planners in the Riviera Maya, and had number of weddings at various villas we are happy to recommend. Also just to help you a little bit California 10 , we recently had a group of 90 guests who all stayed at private villas, we shuttle everyone from the airport to the villas, had a welcome BBQ dinner, plus bachelor/bachelarette and rehearsal dinner and the big wedding with fire shows and fireworks and a big bonfire.

 

I would love to share pictures as soon as I receive them from the photographer.. it is all possible when you have the right team to assist you in planning for your big day.

 

Feel free to ask us for more information and we will be happy to help. Or you can email us on [email protected]

 

Happy Planning 

Joyce!

[EVKnowsitall]

Absolutely beautiful and unique. I wish I had explored more options like this when we were planning our wedding. I love your set up- so rustic and understated elegance. 

[springwater]

Thanks everyone! Glad I could help.