Long, but HONEST, review: I am so happy to have chosen to utilize Hola Weddings to support me in…read moreplanning my Mexico destination wedding!!!
I had been working with an independent "destination wedding planner" (based in the US) who struggled to provide me with resort options and answers to many of my questions. I was doing a lot of the extra work myself, and I was googling a lot of questions (because after all - starting out on a destination wedding planning process can be REALLY confusing).
I stumbled upon the Hola Weddings website and was using their "Resorts and Venues" tool to filter by many locations, types of resorts, price ranges, and wedding styles. It made my life super easy, as well as reading their "About Us" section made me feel that they were competent to work with.
After scheduling a consultation, I was put to ease. I worked with Miriam for months to find the PERFECT venue. She was so sweet and helpful, and helped me find the exact style, location, and type of resort I was envisioning - also at a reasonable room rate.
Something that I also LOVED was on their blog, they have multiple posts on top rated resorts, things to consider, and VIDEOS of the different locations. This was a game changer and really helped seal the deal for me when picking my resort.
After booking with my resort (Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres...amazing), I was assigned Leticia (Lety) as my group manager - another super sweet, friendly, and helpful resource. She was the go-to person for any questions my guests had about their travel, room types, payments, etc - this was so so so nice. I just gave my guests her info and told them to reach out :) (brides, you don't want to have to worry about these questions!)
If at any time Lety was out of office, my emails were responded to by another team member, to keep things moving. I appreciated feeling like I was ALWAYS been cared for, no matter who it was on their team!
They are experts in their field, and their local relationships go a long way in helping to get you rates and RESPONSES back from the hotels (which can often be quite the challenge - especially when just starting out your search for a resort). Also, they know the areas and frequently do site visits - so they take videos and pictures of your resorts (or others) if you have questions about anything or want to see anything specific.
We scheduled a catamaran excursion to Isla Mujeres through Hola's recommendations and had a wonderful trip! Additionally, Hola Weddings provided us, and our guests, private round trip airport transportation through their vendor Lomas Travel, and it was a wonderful experience. My husband and I's flight actually got quite delayed, but we never had any issues with our transportation being available after our late arrival. They also had the cutest arrival signs that all of our guests loved taking pictures with!
I believe their team is compensated based on the number of referrals that they make and bookings with the hotels/excursions/vendors. Meaning - you don't pay Hola Weddings a dime (or at least none that I remember).
They have "cash back refunds" and "referral bonuses", as well as special ammenities and gifts they provide you, if you book a certain number of rooms.
It was actually super fun to have a nice little credit come back into my bank account AFTER the wedding (while all of the money that was going out of it at that time...IYKYK).
I highly recommend their team to anyone. Actually, I did that already to one of my friends (not anticipating anything in return) and when they worked through HOLA, I got a random "referral credit" - it felt like another wedding gift!
Overall, their team is wonderful, super hospitable, highly organized, has a great and very informative website, and helped make my life 100x easier!!
Thank you Hola Weddings Team!! (Especially Lety & Miriam )