Anniversary Archives - Weddings in Playa

What happens after the princess marries her prince?

A few success stories after we say good bye…. Happy Val DAY!

Today is February 14th, Saint Valentine.

I am in love with love, not for nothing i do this job.

It is so amazing to get to meet our clients before they get married and start their life together, but what happens after it?

I often remind to my brides that if they put the same effort in the marriage as in the wedding… it will go always incredibly well! Something must stick, because on 600 couples only 5 divorced, so we must bring some luck… or they are quite amazing themselves…

The fact that we say good bye at the beginning of the adventure is not a motive to let years go by without any news. We keep in touch with our ex clients, send them love and also see some of them in Playa, like Erica in this photo!!

We often hear from them, some come to Playa and remarry after 5 or 10 years… we meet the children and i cannot wait to see what else they are going to experience.

Not all have kids, some party like rockstars, like Maryann and Cesar, below, that got married with me in Tulum over 10 years ago….

We love all of their choices, because life is made of real people and real adventure. Here 3 of my fav, Jaimie and Denee, married at Grand Coral 11 years ago.

All of our clients are dear to our hearts, yet time goes by and some of them we never see.

Yet we have fond memories of all of them and wish them a life that is amazing, long and full of love .

Hello everyone and welcome to our new blog!

This is Maria, we have reached this year 18 years of Life at weddingsinplaya.com. Finally we can vote ( or drink)!

Many clients ask us: what is your story?

how did you become wedding planners?

how did you land here in Playa del Carmen?

Today we will unveil the story of us, Erica and Maria.

We were born in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, a region of great wines (Picolit, among all) and intense wind (bora winds can arrive to 160Km/h in winter through the Julian Alps).

I am the third of three and Erica is only child, but she grew up with her 3 cousins just next to her.

Here is me at one, in the middle, with my two Brothers. They are honorary bros. to Erica as well!

Growing up in a little village, even if Leonardo Da Vinci created the project, is boring ( I tried running away at 2 years old but I was found on the road, happily walking, by a neighbour). Erica, born 6 years later, was facing the same challenges.

Finally one day in 1990, one cold day in October, we met. It was Fun at first sight! We recognised a kindred spirit in one another and we decided to have a good time, whenever we could.

It was a great friendship and we planned a lot of trips and adventures together…. one summer we left with our motorbikes for Rimini, in the Italian Riviera, on board of our Vespa and Ciao, for a long haul of 390 Km… Needless to say it was a cool adventure and a fond memory!

Over the years we lived in different countries: Erica left for Shangai and I went to Australia. After 16 months around the world, after many countries and many beers, at the beginning of 1996, i first saw Playa Del Carmen: it was a simple paradise: 5th Ave. stopped at 8th street and Constituyentes was jungle! Can you believe it?

I fell in love!

This was Playa in 1996. All green…. Porto Real Hotel had not been built and neither the others. I found a job at Viva Maya and met the future husband i did not know I was going to marry.

Destiny is grand and after a year in Playa I went to live in Texas, happy new mother of a baby girl, born in 1998, Skylar. Erica came to visit me and my husband, Sharky, in Houston and assisted to the birth. Happy times! And life flies: we move back to Playa in 1999. Immediately Erica and I got together, just to find out that she was pregnant with Maia, who was born in the year 2000, another incredibly happy event! Here they are, all grown!

But back to business: in 2001, Erica was working at the famous Yaxche’ Mayan Restaurant and was getting a few inquires from American couples to organise a wedding in Mexico. I owned the Coffee Press, a cafe’ for expats that used to wake up at 7a or return from the beach at that time after the party….

One day we were chit chatting and she blurted out: What do you think, Maria, do you want to enter into business and do weddings together?

I said YES I do ( right in theme… ahaha), and that was 18 years ago.

There was only another wedding planner in town, Brenda, an American restaurant owner that organised weddings at her restaurant.

The first year we planned 3 weddings, asking very little money and making a lot of mistakes.

We knew a Mayan shaman and started organising Mayan weddings first at Yaxche’ and then in many other locations.

Then we started getting an education from the best, going to courses and meetings in Usa, like Weddings MBA and courses with Alan Berg.

Once we were on our 3rd years, we were making some sense. On our 10th year, about 30 more wedding planners started to work in town, now we have celebrated over 500 weddings! What i love about wedding planning is that for 1 year, you are the confidential sister of the couple. Then after the wedding has ended, you go back to being nobody: it’s healthy for the ego!

Life has been a wonderful gift, i still meet a lot of ex clients that 15 yrs later come to Playa with their kids and stop by to say hi: we love to see how our clients have kept the promise of Love of their wedding day and transformed into a lovely family!