Riu Santa Fe

[kalahreynolds]

Hello Ladies! 

 

I am planning a wedding at the Riu Santa Fe in Cabo March 11, 2016 and want to hear all of your thoughts and information!  

 

Did you or are you:

 

Bringing your own photographer

Having a beach ceremony

Private reception

Using their hairdressers

 

Are there any add-on's I should know about? We are going through a travel agent but I want to hear from you all! 

 

Thanks in advance and please throw any information my way that you can!

[Victoriabride]

Hello! I am a Riu Santa Fe bride too! We are getting married on Feb. 1, 2016. We are flying our own photographer down and having our ceremony on the beach. My bridesmaids and I are getting our hair and makeup done by Suzanne morel (they have a great reputation in Cabo!). 

 

As for the reception, we have not decided yet.. I'm confused about what to do as we want private but I don't want to pay an arm and a leg! We were interested in the English patio for a private reception by they require you to pay 13$ per person for open bar, at least 36$  a person for dinner, and 600$ to rent out the space. That just seems a bit much when we can get it for free at the Steakhouse (which I hear is a quite private anyways and has a great view and atmosphere). The only thing with the steakhouse is they do not allow dancing or microphones for speeches so we would have to move the reception elsewhere after dinner. An option is to rent out the disco, but I am not really interested in that either as I hear it smells like puke and booze!

 

I would love to hear your ideas too!

[kalahreynolds]

@@Victoriabride I will probably just do our reception at the steakhouse so that we don't have to pay an arm and a leg for food, etc. Also, we are actually having a reception back home in STL 3 weeks after our ceremony so I don't know that we will do speeches in Mexico or not...haven't decided! I am doing a beach ceremony though and am excited to email the wedding coordinator at the resort to see what options I have there. Are you doing videography too? I looked into flying our photographer down and its totally doable but videography is SO expensive and its the one thing I really want for the ceremony!

[Mrsdelagarza01]

Hi @@kalahreynolds ! I am getting married at Santa Fe 10/17/15. I have all the same questions you do....I am having a beach wedding and I THINK I am going to have dinner at teh steak house - its free! I have 41 guests I just dont want to pay for per plate charge and open bar. I am leaning towards reserving the tequila bar for reception...how is your planning coming?

 

Did you chose a photographer...I am opting to go with the hotel one, but not sure.

[kalahreynolds]

Hey @@Mrsdelagarza01 ! Congratulations! I am also leaning towards having dinner at the steak house because I've seen a couple reviews that said it was really good and I don't want to have to pay any extra. So far we have 20 guests that have booked but over half of our wedding party still needs to book so my guess is that we will be right around 40-50 too. I haven't looked at reserving the tequila bar for the reception--how much extra does that cost? My planning is going...we are also have a reception back home so that's where a majority of our money is going to be spent. 

 

I just booked Gonzalo Verdeja for photography and videography. His website is http://www.gvphotographer.com/. I love his photography style and that is the one thing I didn't want to go cheap on because your photos are the only thing you will have forever...you know? He did give me a really good deal though-- 2 photographers for the day of the wedding and a Videographer for $4000 total which includes 6 hours of photography and videography, all rights to the photos which he will put in an online album for us to download, a coffee book table and then a 5-7 minute video from the day. How much is the hotel photographer? I haven't seen anything from them yet...

 

Did you email them or did they contact you? And how far out did they contact you? Are you doing any extras?