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!
