Alisa's Wedding Review

[Alisarosenbaum]

Hi Everyone! We just returned from 10 days in Cabo and I know its sounds cliche, but our wedding was for sure the best week of my life Thanks to all of you, we were able to plan our absolute dream wedding. Everything went perfectly, and the whole night our friends were telling us it was the best wedding they had ever been to. Nothing beats spending 4 days in Cabo with your 50 closest friends. So here is my review:

 

Thursday night: Family dinner at Mi Casa- B

 

We took 18 family members to Mi Casa the night they arrived in Cabo. Mi Casa is great if you want something casual. The reason I gave it a B rather than an A because of little things, such as I had emailed to confirm about 5 times, yet they still did not have enough chairs, the service was really slow, etc. Nothing that bothered me for a casual family dinner, but might have bothered me if we had all 55 people. The food was good though and the atmosphere was fun.

 

Hotel: The Hilton and Mara Perez- A++++

 

I can not say enough good things about the Hilton and Mara. The hotel itself is amazingly beautiful. Our guests could not stop commenting how great the rooms were and everyone was really impressed. Even though we only had 55 people, I felt like the hotel was really catering to us. We were able to save about 15 chairs every morning, which was perfect for our group because we spent the whole time in the pool. The hotel was really relaxed about our group, not really saying much when we brought down music to the pool, coolers with beers, etc. The Hilton is just such a classy hotel.

 

Mara is amazing. She made me feel comfortable and at ease, and she did an amazing job of showing me how important our wedding was to her. Everything went perfectly, and I had a ton of requests. I would seriously pick the Hilton based on Mara alone.

 

Friday night- Beach bonfire- the Hilton A-

 

We had a welcome beach bonfire for all of our guests on Friday night. I had ordered light food and a minimum bar, and literally, it was so much food and drinks, I was surprised how low the price was. It was seriously dinner for $22/person. We did a ceviche station and a burrito station, and it looked so awesome. We also did unlimited beer and margs, which kept costs down but everyone loved because they were on the beach. We got the bonfire, which I am glad we did because it was perfect for roasting smores. We also decided last minute on a trio, which totally set the atmosphere and was worth it. They were great, but I do not know the name. Anyone using Maye can ask her. The only negative was that the space was large. If I was doing it again, I would ask Mara to make the space smaller.

 

Saturday night- La Panga- A

 

We love La Panga. It is seriously one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever seen, and the food is top notch. They were easy to work with and worked within our budget. It was so nice, it could have been an actual wedding party!! We used the entire garden, which provided a great private space for slideshow, speeches, cocktail, etc.

 

After La Panga, we had planned for Steve and I to say good-bye and not see each other again. My girl friends and I went back to my balcony to drink champagne. 20 minutes later, Steve arrived with a trio, all the guys, and bottles of tequila and champagne. I have never been so surprised in my whole life, and our best friends spent the night taking tequila shots and dancing. It was probably my best memory of the whole wedding. So if any guys are reading this....do this!!

 

Hair and Make-up: Suzzanne Morel- A

This is hard, because I hate "bridal hair" and a ton of make-up. However, Paulina from suzzane morel was prompt and easy to work with, so I would recommend her. I would skip the hair trial though..it was really expensive and I think I could have just done it the day of.

 

Cake- Jen Hatton- A

 

We chose a 4 tier cake with two types: Vanilla cake with key lime French creme and dark chocolate with nutella French creme. The cake was awesome, but everyone was dancing the whole time so no one really ate it! So Steve and I spent 3 days on out honeymoon sitting in bed eating cake and drinking champagne

 

Maye Cortinas- A++++

 

I could not have done this all without Maye. She did everything for me: bought maracas, arranged bus transportation, organized champagne toast, did everything day of behind the scenes, etc. I had nothing to worry about, and for me, $675 was worth every penny!

 

DJ Ricardo- A+

 

We loved our DJ. He met with us the day before to see what we liked. He sort of stuck with our playlist, but we didnt care because he kept almost every single person dancing all night. We played a ton of hip-hop, and I have never seen so many people dancing at a wedding!

 

Sergio Reyes- A

 

Sergio (photographer) was easy to work with and significantly less expensive than some of the other photographers in Cabo. We will see when we get our pictures!

 

Flower Cart- A

 

We changed florists because I wanted bright orange roses, and only the Flower Cart could get them. The Flower Cart is expensive, but I felt it was worth it. I loved my bouquet so much I ended up not tossing it!

 

So there is my review. As you can see...a ton of A's There are two things I would have done differently. I had arranged for a churros and hot chocolate buffet at the end of the night of the wedding. I paid alot for it, and no one ate it at all. Everyone was more focused on getting more drinks before the bar closed! Also, we had spent alot on the cocktail party. We had a full mariachi band, but because our cocktail site was next to our reception site, people were scattered and sat in their seats during the cocktail party. I would have chosen a different site for the cocktail that was further from the reception site.

 

We spent the last 3 nights by ourselves at the One and Only Palmilla. This might have been the most romantic hotel I have ever been to and perfect for a honeymoon!

 

If anyone can tell me how to upload pics I will!

[Wisco4]

Thanks for that awesome review! Although, we aren't getting married at the Hilton there was a lot of helpful information in there that we can use.

 

Can't wait to see your pictures!

[aimee]

Great review. Thanks for sharing!

 

Congratulations!!!

[twixygrl]

Congrats Alisa! Your review was wonderful and extremely helpful. I am so glad you had such a wonderful wedding experience!

 

I am leaving for my site visit to the Hilton in less than two weeks. I am using Maye as my coordinatator and will be meeting with Mara as well. There is nothing better than hearing that I have made some good choices and that I will not be disappointed! What a relief for me!

 

I had no idea the Hilton could host a beach bonfire! I will def ask about this when I am there as it sounds wonderful!

 

Thanks so much again for the helpful review. Looking forward to seeing your pictures when you get them back!

[deleted]

Great review! I am so happy it was perfect. Good luck with the post-wedding blues

[Golden]

Alisa great review!!! I was waiting for your review all week. With your review I can not wait unitl July for my wedding. Thanks for telling me aboout BDW!!

[Jackie]

Great review, thanks for sharring

[JPMO]

Congrats on a great wedding! I can't wait to see pics. Sounds like the service was great which really makes a huge difference.

[Alyssa]

sounds great!!! that advice will be so useful for so many of the girls

 

as for pics - you can use photobucket.com and then copy the IMG codes into the thread OR upload your pics to Shutterfly and post the URL here!

[MrsV-to-be]

Congratulations!! It sounds like you had an amazing time!! I loved what your husband did the night before - too cute!