Anniversary

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!

Photo courtesy of A. E.

So, this is our Story,

we have been so lucky to arrive in  Playa at a time when there  was so much opportunity, so little people, so much  to live. We know that.

We can only  say:

Gracias, Playa. Gracias to all of our  clients, past and future, that love us, support us and  believe in us. We give  the best to all of  you!