As a child my family took a vacation to Ixtapa. Over the course of the week my family fell in love with Zihuatanejo. We spent many days on Playa la Ropa and a beautiful restaurant named La Perla. 10 years later, my boyfriend (now husband) and I returned to Zihuatanejo and fell in love again with the magic of La Ropa.
We were looking for a small, simple and very elegant wedding that would be fun for all and very low stress on the two of us. We wanted to make it unique, unlike any other wedding any of our family and friends had attended. We wanted to have special touches that would be memorable to everyone that attended. But we didn’t want to break the bank or make it really stressful to get set up and running – especially since we were doing it remote!
Francisco and Angie shared some options with us, exchanging multiple emails with pictures, ideas etc. We had a trip planned to Zihuatanejo about 6 months before our wedding (mainly to relax and hang out) but met with Francisco a few times while we were there. He showed us a number of options, took us to the florist, recommended a few places for the rehearsal dinner and other entertainment. He even took us to a few places to check out some interesting souvenirs/wedding party gifts. He introduced us to Artequila that makes custom labels and ages Tequila for your liking. We chose to give everyone that attended the wedding one of these custom bottles. We would have never even thought of this idea (or many others) without Francisco and it turned out to be the perfect gift for our families and friends who made the trip for our wedding. We were thrilled with the time and interest that Francisco & Angie dedicated to our special day before hand.
We ultimately decided on the following for our wedding and included all 38 of our friends and families in all of these activities:
1. Lodging for the week: Casa Don Francisco – after considering a number of different locations to have as our base camp for the week, we took a walk from la Perla up to Casa Don Francisco and were absolutely blown away. We ended up renting all eight of the rooms for the duration of our wedding. The pictures don’t do it justice – it is amazing. It was so great to have our friends stay there and have a central place for others to come that were staying elsewhere. The rooms were amazing (many with private pools) and the main pool was great. Breakfast every morning was wonderful and the service second to none. They were more than happy to get us anything we needed no matter what we requested.
2. Rehearsal Dinner: Lanai at Casa Don Francisco, food and drink catered by La Perla. The rehearsal dinner was perfect, right at sunset overlooking the beach. Again the service and food were amazing. We had extra tequila aged for the rehearsal dinner and had a bartender mixing drinks for all our guests. Couldn’t have picked a better spot for the rehearsal dinner. As the sun started to set the photographers got some amazing pictures.
3. Wedding & Reception: On the beach in front of La Perla. WOW! We showed up for the ceremony and were blown away. There was a beautiful archway covered in flowers right down at the water’s edge with white chairs and tons or rose pedals in the walk way. They had raked and smoothed out the sand, it looked perfect. Francisco was there throughout the entire ceremony and reception reminding us we might want to do the cake or toasts or have the first dance. Everything was organized perfectly; anything we could have possibly wanted or needed was there before we even realized we would need it. It truly made it relaxing and fun for us and our guests. Based on Francisco’s recommendation we hired a photographer Edson Hernandez for both the rehearsal dinner and ceremony. The pictures they were able to capture are absolutely amazing.
We cannot say enough about how helpful Francisco and his team were. We were so pleased with all their help beforehand in planning everything, but were absolutely blown away with the service and small touches we found when we arrived in Mexico all the way up to the time we left to head home. They were constantly checking on us asking if we needed help with anything or if there was anything else they could get for us. Even during the ceremony and reception Francisco was still adding small touches that he knew we would like or need that we had not discussed. They delivered on every promise that they made and then some.
We ended up having the most amazing destination wedding we ever could have hoped for and through it all there were no blunders, balls dropped or confusion what so ever. Having Francisco and his team take lead based on our guidance allowed us to truly enjoy our special day (entire week in fact).
We look forward to many more trips to Zihuatanejo over the years and will continue to revisit La Perla, Casa Don Francisco and the many friends we made throughout the process. We would without hesitation urge anyone who is considering a destination wedding anywhere in Mexico to consider Zihuatanejo and specifically Francisco and his team. They truly delivered on our vision for the most amazing wedding we could have ever had! Thank you to all who made this so special especially Francisco, Angie & Erica.
This is our testimonial.
Maggy & Jean-Luc
Maggy and I met a several years ago. We had the opportunity to take
some vacation in Ixtapa in 2005 when dating. While we were having fun
exploring the region which is absolutely wonderful, we had a very unusual
adventure that prompted our choice years later…
We were looking for a fun and a trendy but authentic place where to
have dinner in this beautiful and charming town of Zihuatanejo and decided
to go for dinner at the Coconut restaurant downtown. Unfortunately, when
arrived, we realized that the whole restaurant was reserved for a private
party, a wedding. The bride saw us at the door of the restaurant and very
nicely invited us to participate to their special evening; we had lots of
fun with a very nice team of people.
The day after, barely recovered from an evening of night of fun,
Maggy and I were looking for a very romantic restaurant with a view of the
ocean. We were guided to the La Perla Restaurant on la Ropa beach. As soon
as we arrived in this magical place, we noticed that the full wedding party
of the day before was also at the restaurant having fun in a privately
reserved section of the beach. Elegant, but fun and a relaxed place, we had
the opportunity to meet Francisco and some of his family; more than anything
else we loved the settings, the people and their hospitality and the quality
of the food. At this point Maggy and I made the decision that if we were one
day making the decision to get married, it would be here in Zihuatanejo, on
this beach at la Perla.
Two years later, in December 2007, we finally made the decision to
commit to one another and get married. I had just taken a new job on the
East Coast and we were relocating from the Bay area in San Francisco. I was
fully absorbed by my new position and Maggy by the move. We decided to call
Francisco and reserved the Date of June 28th for our wedding and
celebration. We were worried to not have enough time to take care of the
details and thought that organizing a wedding with many people coming from
everywhere in the world to attend would be extremely difficult and time
consuming.
We were wrong; Francisco and Angie were absolutely fantastic, they
recommended places to stay function of our style and got that perfectly
organized for everyone coming from the USA, Europe and Asia. We went for
large Mexican style villas with beautiful views of the Ocean and the bay,
perfect service from a very nice team of people. We structured our wedding
over three days with a cocktail reception and dinner at our villas on the
first day, a celebration with ceremony, cocktails and dinner at La Perla
restaurant on the second day. Everything was there from the Latin music band
“the Chamin Trio” to the firework and dancing all night. The theme and
setting was elegant, refined but also relaxed and conducive to fun and good
times. The food was perfect and the whole evening will be in our memories
for ever. The day after, Francisco and Angie reserved a boat for our entire
party and we went to the small Ixtapa Island for a lobster lunch and an
afternoon of beach play.
Everything was absolutely perfect, nothing to rethink, nothing to do
different if we were to do it again. Francisco and Angie have known to
recommend the best at every step of the way and were both comforting and
very helpful. They organized everything perfectly, from the lodging to the
party favor to the elegant setting for both the ceremony and dinner. They
know how to listen and translate the requirements into what will work
effectively within their environment. We could not have wished for a better
choice and assistance. Everything was perfect from our perspective and more
importantly from the perspective of our family and friends.
The cherry on the cake, we did not even stress once about it. Angie,
Francisco thank you again very much for that very special event. Many thanks
also to all your friends, family and suppliers that have made of this
journey and very pleasant one.
