Well, it was absolutely amazing and Mayte is my new best friend. We only had our reception there, we were married at the Melia. I walked down to the restaurant with ncake to check it out prior to both of our reception dates and we met Mayte. I went back the next day with my bridesmaids to bring Mayte some of the stuff I brought for her to decorate with and that’s when I went over how I wanted the seating to be set up, etc. I had pre-ordered flowers through Mayte (ask her permission first, then if she has time she’ll need at least 3 days prior to your wedding to order them as they are shipped from outside the Bavaro area for much much cheaper). Mayte picked up my cake from the Melia the day of from the Agora grill, which was approved by the Melia and set up with them so nobody would give Mayte any hassle. She then decorated my cake with flowers once she had it back at the restaurant.
Dinner was amazing, we went with the least expensive dinner option and everyone LOVED the food. The starters (salads and inferno chorizo) were amazing as well, passed around as share plates among table members. Our guests partied harder than I ever imagined, the staff loved them! hahaha. I’m pretty sure our guests got the bartenders loaded which made things even more wild. I already posted above about the DJ experience, so I’ll leave it at that All in all, everything was amazing. We wish it wasn’t windy, having the canopy up while it was light out would’ve provided an amazing ocean backdrop, but it was glorious no matter what. Once it was dark and the bazillion candles were lit, the canopy created a beautiful glow and our guests were smitten by the ambience it created. We had our dance floor set up in the area of the restaurant closest to where the canopy ties down, and our head table was against the wall facing the canopy side right by where you walk in the main entrance (where there’s 2 round windows in the rock wall). I thought that spot would work best because if the canopy was UP and it was a little windy, the wind wouldn’t be blowing from behind us, blowing our hair into our faces… haha. I left all the decor I brought along there with Mayte to use for future occasions, they’re mostly just small tinted tealight holders (which I had to her alternate around the tables, filling some of them with sand, some with coffee beans, some with the clear brown glass beads I brought, some with rocks — and all with a candle on top). I chose the colours of the linens, chair bows, napkins, and where I wanted to see things set up and Mayte did the rest. She’s amazing at what she does, I completely put my trust in her and I’d never even seen her work. I had a good gut feeling about her, and my intuition proved me right. My picture files from my photographer are HUGE and I have to email them one by one, but if anyone wants to see any of them, please email me: carlymclaughlin@shaw.ca We didn’t pay to reserve the whole restaurant privately, Mayte just reserved the whole bottom floor for us. A few couples snuck upstairs to have a bite to eat, but no one even noticed they were there. Perhaps ask Mayte to rope-off the stairs that bring you right into the middle of the restaurant from the beach instructing guests to go around and use the front door (so they’re not trapesing right into your reception…). If they use the front door, the stairs leading upstairs are actually on the outside of the building! It’s perfect. We arrived by buses that we rented out through Mayte and her wonderful connections. They were $5 per person round trip and well worth it for us to pay for so that our guests knew they were being transported safely from point a to b, and vice versa. They picked us up from the front lobby of the Melia and drove us right to the front door of the Jellyfish. Your driver will ask you what time they should return at… we said 11:30-midnight, they arrived at 11 and were anxious to get us going so that kinda killed my buzz at the end of the night. Mayte kept saying "Stay longer, they will wait, I’ll tell them to relax!" but I felt bad for the drivers so we just had a final cocktail and off we went. We continued the party at the Melia, so it was all good! So yeah, whatever time you want your reception to end, be sure the buses know not to arrive earlier and expect you to leave when THEY are ready
Am I forgetting anything?? I could go on forever and ever about how amazing it was, I wish we’d gotten married there too and just told the Melia to shove it.