Real Client Hotel Xcaret Wedding Review

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico canoe, wedding

DN Zerimar

**COMPREHENSIVE WEDDING REVIEW**

Budget: 30k (happy to share pricing and budgeting tips)

Wedding Date: 5/1/26

Guest count: 50 (w/us)

Welcome party venue: Playon Espiral

Ceremony venue: Caleta Fuego

Reception & cocktail: Cuevas Kayak

Florals/Decor: Luis Salas- The Floral Experience

Furniture rental: Eventik

DJ/music: Unoaudiovisuals

Saxophone: Ariel Mezzapesa

Violinist: Victor Corona

Photography: The Open Lens

Content creation: Motiv

Hair/Makeup: MUA- Ale Lammas & hair- Laura Somada

Wedding planner: Fer Castillo & Gaby Choel

Hotel Coord: Alberto López

Travel agency: Yellow Umbrella Events (YUE)

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico wedding
Open Lens Photography

Overall we had a blast and our guests enjoyed the entire experience. We loved our planning team and vendors. Everyone was very chill, helpful, and funny. They made the entire experience an enjoyable process especially on the wedding day when I was a bit anxious. I’m the type of person that worries more about my guests’ experience so they were quick to resolve any issues that came up. Any one of these vendors would be amazing to have on your side.

Tips for your guest:

– the resort is massive now and can be difficult to get around. I had a few older folks but they did not have issues. Most of us stayed at phase 1 pools/ restaurants since it was away from the child activities. Post rehearsal I had to walk from playon espiral to monarca and I was very hot and annoyed lol.

– If you want to maximize your experience it takes a bit of planning. Most of my guests weren’t excited about having to reserve restaurants or parks but coming from NYC I’m accustomed to always needing a resy. I definitely had to help my guest a lot with this and even made a video to simplify it further. YUE does a great job at relaying info but my guest did not like to read emails lol.

– The non reservation stuff to do at the resort can be enough and enjoyable. I had lots of guests that just ate at buffets and utilized the rivers/pools.

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico wedding
Open Lens Photography

tips for Brides

– if you want to just pull up and not really stress about anything you will probably need a wedding planner additional than the hotel Coord.

– I rarely communicate with the Coord. But there were definitely a few times things were forgotten.

– The site visit for food tasting is not needed. We went just to make it a bday trip but honestly it just wasted a lot of my vacation time and we could achieve it all on zoom and the food is pretty straightforward. If you go off on everyone else’s reviews you can gather what the best options are. But if you haven’t been to the resort at all in May, it would be great for you to see everything.

– Also I was not impressed with the hotel photographer, she showed an hour late to the rehearsal and caused us to be late for our welcome party. I was also not impressed with her shots. Since this was the free 2hr session included in the package I wasn’t too worried about it though. Also I’m not big on pictures.

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico wedding
Open Lens Photography

Things I would Do The Same

-keep all my vendors. All my guests raved about our photographer. Leo and his team have great energy. And our planners made this all happen! They really executed everything so well.

-use YUE for a room block! They are the best and answer every question.

-book the junior suite, it has two toilets and that should be enough to convince you.

-stay in fuego. Armin was our favorite butler.

-keep the sites I use for the wedding.

-do the Canoe entrance, although it was very windy and i almost fell over because my veil kept slapping me in the face. There is really no possibility of you falling in the water, the canoe is pretty wide. When I fell a bit I would just catch myself and it was worth it when I turned the corner and all my guests were surprised.-customized my own stuff: luggage tags, scarves, hats, and stationery was all made by me.

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico wedding

Things i would change:

-ship some stuff to Mexico. I made clay name plates and they were too fragile and difficult to fly with.

-tape my veil to the back of my dress.

-not get masseter Botox 3 weeks before the wedding

-not respond to texts from guests leading up to the wedding that way i wouldn’t be as annoyed.

Open Lens Photography Hotel Xcaret Mexico wedding
Open Lens Photography

Schedule:

Weds: arrived before guests (this was nice)

Thursday: guest arrived. Rehearsal and welcome party.

Friday: wedding day

Saturday: pool in the morning and xplor fuego at night.

Sunday: check out for most guests.

Monday: check out for us and our immediate family.