Mexico Destination Wedding Details
Wedding Date: February, 17th, 2024
All-Inclusive Wedding Resort: Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya
Wedding Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico
Wedding Venues: 1) Beach, 2) Desires Terrace & 3) Lagoon Pool Terrace
Wedding Photographer: Adventure Photos
Destination Wedding Travel Agent: EverAfter Travel
Secrets Akumal Wedding Resort Highlights
Adults-only, all-inclusive resort (featured on the Bachelor in 2024)
Beachfront property on a long stretch of powdery white-sand beach
Akumal, meaning the "place of turtles" in Maya, is home to one of the largest green sea turtle populations in Mexico; guests can snorkel with the turtles offshore
AAA Five Diamond award-winning resort
Located less than 20 minutes from the historical Tulum ruins
Located about an hour and 15 minutes south of the Cancun International Airport (CUN) or about an hour north of the Tulum International Airport (TQO)
Nine dining options with Italian to French to sushi and more
Seven bars/lounges including a swim-up bar, sports bar and music lounge
Three main pools with an expansive infinity pool, social pool, and relaxing pool
Daily activities and entertainment including live shows and theme nights
Secrets Akumal Wedding Review With Alyssa & Christian
Why did you decide to have a destination wedding?
We wanted to have a smaller more intimate wedding with our closer loved ones and we also wanted to watch our budget for our wedding as well.
What were your biggest concerns about planning a destination wedding? What were you struggling with the most before reaching out to EverAfter Travel?
Our biggest concern was how to make it easy for our guests to book their trip and travel to the destination. We had several guests that this was their first time traveling outside the US. Prior to working with EverAfter Travel, we were really struggling with what resort to have our wedding at. We knew we wanted to go to Mexico but there are so many options, it was hard to know where to start.
What were your "must haves" for your destination wedding? What were the deciding factors for choosing your resort?
Our must haves for our wedding was that the resort had to have great food options and have a variety of activities for our guests to make this their own vacation and spend it how they wanted to. These key must haves for us ultimately played into us deciding on the resort as they had amazing food and a plethora of activities to chose from. It was also nice that there was so many pool/ beach options as well, there was the quiet pool, "party" pool and the beach was absolutely gorgeous. This gave great variety for you to decide how you wanted to spend your day.
Tell me about your wedding e.g. events, venues, special touches, etc.
We invited all guests to our wedding as if we were having a local wedding at home, so in total we invited 150 guests and we had a turnout of 32 guests.
For wedding events, we had a rehearsal dinner, welcome party and then our ceremony/cocktail hour and reception. The rehearsal dinner was included in our wedding package, but this only included 10 people so we just turned this into a family dinner on a Thursday night before our wedding on Saturday. Had this not been included in our package, we would have skipped this.
We decided to host a Welcome Party for all of our guests on Friday night and this was perfect! We had this in a private garden and had burgers, hot dogs and s'mores for dinner. This garden was absolutely gorgeous with the lights and tiki torches. We didn't add decor outside of the lights and then we also opted into a sound system and created our own playlist for this event. All of our guests loved this event and it was a great way for everyone to meet each other.
For the actual day of the wedding, we had a mariachi trio included in our wedding package for cocktail hour and we loved this. If this was not included in our package, we would have added this regardless. We also had fire dancers at our reception and they were amazing! This was definitely an added cost but it was so worth it for us and something special our guests all enjoyed.
We also did wedding favors for our guests, these were Talavera shot glasses that the wedding team at the resort ordered for us and they had our initials and wedding date on them. We used this to make our seating chart and had little flags with everyone's name and table numbers on them and they turned out very cute! Lastly, we extended our reception by an hour and this was well worth it.
Overall the total cost of our wedding celebration was about $20,000. This included the cost of the welcome party as well.
Was there anything you splurged on for your destination wedding and if so, did you feel like it was worth it?
The fire dancers during the reception was a splurge but this was worth every single penny! At the end of the show, the fire dancers were spinning LED lights that showed our names on them. It was very cool!
Was there anything you tried to save on for your destination wedding and if so, did you feel like it was worth it?
Flowers were one thing that we cut down the cost on. Originally our quote came back with $3500 for flowers but we were able to get this down to $1500. We were glad we did this because the resort is so green and lush by itself that we didn't feel the need to add a ton more flowers.
We had also asked the resort to provide a quote for welcome bags so we didn't need to bring all this with us while traveling and the quote came back very high at $1800. We were able to make our own welcome bags for $350 and brought them with. We didn't have any regrets about this either.
What were your favorite parts about your destination wedding?
Can we say the entire thing? It was honestly the best week ever and was so nice to have so much time with all of our guests every day. Everything from our welcome party to the actual wedding day was beautiful and stress free. We could really tell that the entire staff wanted to make everything perfect for us.
Is there anything you would change about your destination wedding?
Nope - absolutely nothing! Everything was so smooth and stress free!
What were the most helpful online websites/social media groups/content creators/YouTube links that helped you during the planning process?
The Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya Weddings Facebook group was most helpful.
Shout out to any wedding vendors you loved e.g. photography, DJ, makeup, etc.
We used the photographer and videographer through the resort and they were awesome. We found a a lot of reviews from people who were not impressed with them but we felt like they were great and love all the photos we have received back so far. We also had originally paid to do a trash the dress at a cenote photo session but we cancelled on this session last minute. We didn't expect them to refund for us for this, but they gave a full refund without us even asking. It was so nice of them.
Our DJ through the resort was AMAZING too! We had only emailed them once or twice and then we met them once before the wedding and they couldn't have been better! They kept everyone on the dance floor the entire night just like we had asked.
What advice do you have for other couples planning a destination wedding?
If you are thinking about having a destination wedding, just do it because you won't regret it! And remember that the resort has a dedicated team just for wedding planning, they are experts with lots of experience so trust them and there isn't a need to stress about anything.
What kind of feedback did you hear from your guests? This could be about the resort, the wedding, and/or EverAfter Travel.
Our guests were VERY impressed with our resort choice with many of them saying this is the nicest place they have ever been too. The food was absolutely phenomenal. The staff in general was great but on the day of our welcome party and wedding, the staff working these events were on it. You could have been half way done with your drink and another was already showing up for you.
As for EverAfter Travel - all of our guests have said wonderful things! They appreciated how easy it was to work with Jodi, how quickly she responded and how informative she was. They said this was one of the easiest trips they had planned.
Why did you choose to work with EverAfter Travel for your destination wedding?
After talking to Jodi, we knew we were in the right hands. We could tell she really cared about us and making the best decision for our wedding.
How did working with EverAfter Travel make planning your Secrets Akumal wedding easier/better/less stressful? Would you recommend EverAfter Travel to other couples planning a destination wedding?
Working with EverAfter Travel made planning our destination wedding a million times easier! It was nice to have one point of contact for our guests to ask all their questions to and get assistance with booking. We would highly recommend EverAfter Travel to other couples for their destination wedding.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you so much to EverAfter Travel and Jodi, we could not have had such a perfect wedding without you!
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