Posted by
I was on vacation last week with my family and a couple friends, and I'd told myself firmly that I would NOT work. Being self-employed is awesome, but it's not so good for the work/life balance, and I desperately needed some time away from the internets. So, there I was in Tulum, about an hour and a half south of Cancun on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. I left my laptop at home. My cell was turned off. I was not working.
…And yet I couldn't stop thinking about weddings.
Specifically, I couldn't stop thinking about having a wedding at Sueños Tulum, the little eco-hotel where we were staying. I mean, yes: honeymooning there would be amazing. In fact, our upstairs neighbors were a tattooed couple from Brooklyn who'd just gotten married, and they appeared to be completely blissed out.
But oh man. Imagine getting married here:
Owned and operated by a Mexican artist couple, the hotel is small (12 rooms) and completely off the grid — all power is supplied by solar panels. They have a kitchen on-site, are right on the most gorgeous beach, and the grounds feature all these amazing little spaces to dissolve into…
Adrienne & Dennis' week-long non-resort wedding in Mexico
This bride proposed to her groom in their favorite hotel courtyard in Playa del Carmen, and one year later they were married in that same... Read more
I kept walking around, envisioning all these little corners filled with my friends and family drinking margaritas and laughing. And I realized that what I was envisioning was… a destination wedding.
A destination wedding where everyone does yoga in the mornings in the palapa!
A destination wedding where your guests spend their days on this beach with sand so white and fine that someone compared it to confectioner's sugar…
A destination wedding where you stay in a master suite that looks like this…
…where your view is this…
PEOPLE! Seriously. My wedding was awesome, and the location was gorgeous and I have never EVER had venue envy or even thought about what it might have been like to have a destination wedding… but Suenos Tulum totally changed that for me.
Elizabeth and Jorge help Sueños brides coordinate by getting them in touch with a local Tulum wedding planner who organizes the whole shebang: catering, musicians, local eco-conscious flowers, etc. They've done several offbeat weddings in the past, including a pair of San Francisco twins who got married at the same time, and some rockstars from New York. The general range for weddings at the resort are in the $2000-$5000 range, plus accommodations. Since the hotel is small, it's ideal for couples who are thinking of having around 20 guests who want to stay up all night celebrating on the sand.
Oh, and did I mention that Sueños is within biking distance from the cliff-side Tulum ruins? And that I fell in love with Elizabeth & Jorge's mexican hairless dog? And that even when hungover, sunrises there are epic?
Anyway, I'll spare you all my gushing (the New York Times says it better than I could anyway), but seriously: if you're thinking of a destination wedding or honeymoon with an eco-conscious angle, Sueños Tulum is for you. Tell 'em Ariel sentcha … and if any of you decide to get married there this fall, fully expect me to crash your wedding.
Not even kidding.
