Hair & makeup: Styling Trio ($980 for 4 women including bride)

 

Florals: Corazón ($750 for upgraded bridal bouquet, grooms boutonnière, wooden gazebo with 2 arrangements on it, & floral arrangement on table)

 

Photography: KayleyElkPhoto (brought with us, no vendor fee due to being included in guest count)

 

Just had our wedding at Xcaret Arte last month and wanted to share our experience and recommendations. First off, read the heck out of the Yellow Umbrella Events website before you do anything. It’s A LOT of info and I wish I would have done a better job of reading over stuff, knowing what questions to ask, & understanding the costs of things. Secondly, if I was going to have a regular wedding here (anything larger than 15 person Encanto package) I would absolutely without a doubt do an on site visit beforehand with a wedding planner. There’s so many moving parts & details. I can see where the language barrier & being in a different country trying to communicate could be difficult. (That’s why using YUE is a MUST) With my type A personality, I would have not been okay without seeing everything in person & planning there beforehand for a larger wedding.

For the Encanto package– you can have no more than 15 people including the bride & groom. No room block is required. You can only have your ceremony Monday-Thursday and it has to be at noon (biggest bummer because it is HOT). We were originally going to have the ceremony at Mirador Artistas but there was a chance of rain so they reserved Ecumenical Chapel just in case. The day before the wedding we met with the planner & looked at the venues. After realizing truly how hot it would be & a chance of rain, I opted for Ecumenical Chapel and have zero regrets. Mirador Artistas is beautiful but not doable unless able to have a 6/7pm ceremony due to the heat in my opinion. Also my photographer said for the time of day the photos would look better in the chapel. Our Encanto contract included ironing/steaming up to 2 pieces so we were able to send the tux & bridal dress the day before to get the wrinkles out which was nice. We also received 2 Xcaret robes with our name embroidered on them. You get to have breakfast in your room the day after the ceremony and your coordinator will send you the menu before you travel to pick from.

Communication with Yellow Umbrella Events & Xcaret:

Best advice I can give is have patience. YUE is faster at getting back to you. Xcaret, not so much, just depends. I got passed around to a lot of people at Xcaret which can become confusing. It was nice to be able to ask Yellow Umbrella Events questions when I couldn’t get a response from Xcaret. I wasn’t always sure who to email with certain questions though. I thought my wedding planner was Jimena Zurita who I had been in contact with in the months leading up to the wedding but less than a month out I got passed to Wendy & had no idea she would be my main point of contact going forward. It seems like little things can get lost in the mix as well. They never sent me the chosen violinists repertoire so I had to remember to ask for that.

 

Unfortunately I don’t think you can use them anymore due to vendor changes with the resort which is a bummer because they were AWESOME. Always replied via email in a reasonable amount of time. Ray (hairstylist) & Ale (makeup artist) did such a good job. They were professional, showed up on time, worked efficiently, & made us all look & feel beautiful. I was truly impressed & in love with my hair & makeup.

 

Corazón Florals:

I reached out to them & Event Design for a quote and chose Corazón due to a better price & I preferred the arch Corazón had. They were sometimes slow getting back to you via email. 2 days before my wedding I received an email from them saying my blue flowers were delivered damaged and they couldn’t use them. They also weren’t able to get anymore due to Mother’s Day. They ended up painting some of the flowers blue (I did not receive any kind of refund for the damaged flowers) & it worked out (thankfully) but I couldn’t imagine paying thousands of dollars for florals and have this happen. Overall I was happy with the minimal florals I bought (my bouquet was beautiful!) & they were delivered on time to my room the morning of the wedding. Recommendation-ask your wedding coordinator to bring some of the arrangements to your room after the wedding so you can enjoy them the rest of your stay. (See photo below for quote)

 

Wedding cake:

I wanted a very small wedding cake for us to have at dinner the day of the ceremony. I paid $210 for the most simple 1 tier round vanilla cake. It tasted TERRIBLE (not just to me, everyone that ate it as well) & was still partially frozen when we ate it that night. Really wish I wouldn’t have wasted the money. (See photo below)

 

A little about the resort experience –

This was a nightmare. They escorted 12 of us to the private check-in at the Artistas building. 2 people working at the desk. Took about 45 minutes-1 hour for us to all get checked in. No one even knew we were there for our wedding at the check-in desk. They tried to put us in a room with 2 beds, not a single king like I requested when booking. (They are really really bad about this, it’s all based on availability when you arrive). Luckily someone else in our group had the same room as us (ocean front swim up in Artistas, about $8,500 for 7 nights!!!) and offered us theirs with the single king bed. Our room was also the only one in our group that wasn’t ready yet. Recommendation: go to the desk the night before you leave to do your check out.

Night before wedding group dinner:

The night before the wedding I did a group dinner at Arenal. I let my coordinator know & she told me that restaurant didn’t take reservations but she would inform them the date, time, & amount of people. We showed up to the restaurant and they were very confused. I explained to them that my wedding coordinator informed me they were aware we would be there, obviously they were not. They kinda acted like they didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to seat us. It was a bit of a cluster. Keep in mind there was hardly anyone at the restaurant at this time. We waited around for about 10-15 minutes or so for them to figure out what they were gonna do & got seated. They were actually able to sit all 14 of us at 1 table which was a pleasant surprise.

Day of wedding dinner:

We ate at Tah-xido and it was SO GOOD. They sat us promptly at 2 different tables near each other. Service & food was great, we ate here again during our stay. The reservations here go quick so plan in advance (30 days out).

Overall, we had a good experience. I truly believe the wedding photos & food at this resort are unmatched to anywhere else. I think the biggest takeaways are to read everything YUE has to offer on their website & ask alllll the questions before you sign a contract. If you are on a budget, talk with YUE & ask if what you want is do-able. You will most likely want more or to add upgrades to what’s included in the actual wedding package you bought (I didn’t understand this when it came to the florals). Also don’t expect to be treated any differently or get any extra perks at the resort just because you’re getting married & spending lots of money. I do not believe I could have accomplished everything I did without Yellow Umbrella Events help-thank you guys so much, especially Cheryl. If you have any questions please feel free to message me! I hope this helps people interested in the Encanto package!