A Tale of Two Venues

If you have been reading my blog for long you know that we LOVE the Riviera Maya for its rustic meets chic feel.  So when it came to picking out our venues we wanted to make sure they reflected that feeling.

Most destination weddings in the Riviera Maya happen at a all-inclusive resort so both the ceremony and reception happen on property.  While being in an all inclusive gets you a great discounted price on dinner for the reception (yes you still have to pay), you do have to put up with other guests crowding around and watching your ceremony.  You won't have much privacy.

Del Sol Photography

Since we knew we wanted the ceremony to be private, we decided to start looking at options off the resort.  With the beaches in the Riviera Maya being public, there are not a lot of non-resort locations that you can be sure will be private.  The best bets are to rent out one of the beach clubs or to find a small boutique hotel to hold the ceremony at.  We looked into the Ana & Jose Beach Club, La Zebra Beach Club and Akiin Tulum.  While they were all very beautiful we fell head over heels for the rustic-chic feel of Al Cielo Hotel:

 tripadvisor.com

This small boutique hotel has only nine rooms which allows them to easily section off the hotel from our ceremony.  Al Cielo is not only beautiful and rustic, it is also far away from the major hotel chains.  This means that along the coast line on both sides of the hotel lays beautiful, lush, undisturbed jungle which we can be married in front of.

trulyweddingfavors.com

I know what your thinking: "wait a second, your post title says you have two venues".  While we would have loved to have everything in one location, the cost of Al Ceilo caused us to look elsewhere for the reception.  This is where the Grand Palladium (the resort we are staying at) comes back into the picture.  They had four course meal offerings far superior to Al Ceilo and because everyone is already staying at the resort the price per plate (including open bar) was 1/2 of what Al Cielo was asking plus no rental fee for a private terrace!

So here is where we will hold the reception; La Laguna at the Grand Palladium:

Del Sol Photography

The terrace faces out over the lagoon and ocean.  We will be starting dinner around sunset so our reception will look very similar to this photo.  I was a little worried having never seen it in person but after talking to a few VERY happy brides who held their reception there we are confident that it will be amazing.

Has anyone else thought about heading off property for your ceremony?