Fairmont El San Juan Hotel

We just had our wedding at the Fairmont El San Juan Hotel and wow… Wow is really an understatement to how we are feeling when it comes to the overall experience that we had working with this venue as our wedding venue. Really - we are still stuck somewhere on cloud 9 which nearly a week later is such a great feeling to have.

For starters - let’s just talk about Vilmarie! Hands down one of the best people we have ever worked with. Vilmarie is an absolute professional who just understands her business so well. Through this review, we will reference VIlmarie a lot and that is because she has always just been so amazing to us and has done everything she can to accommodate us. Vilmarie is a true asset to the Fairmont El San Juan Hotel.

Starting with location, the ESJ is located a quick 5 minute ride from SJU Airport which was one of the reasons we had considered this hotel as a location of interest in our initial wedding venue searches. To give the full picture, we toured 4 venues. The Hacienda Siesta Alegre, The Wyndham Rio Mar, El San Juan Hotel and Hotel El Convento - all in that order. Each venue had its own beauty to it, but ultimately, when we stopped at the ESJ, we knew then this was the place. We gauged event spaces in all of them, but we also gauged the service we received in each of them too when it came to showing us the spaces. Vilmarie by and far exceeded the experience that we had at the other three venues. She was punctual, no-pressure, super knowledgeable and was already showing many signs of being accommodating to whatever it is we needed. After meeting with her, we knew then this would be the place of choice.

Once we set a date, we were quoted a price for our wedding of 100. The price was competitive to that of the other venues that we were looking at. Let’s put it this way - all four were within about $2500 of each other. The date we had originally wanted ended up not being available, but we were not 100% set on the date anyways so it worked out great and we were able to pick a day that worked well for us. We wanted our wedding under the Banyan Tree. Throughout the months leading up to our wedding, Vilmarie would reach out for check-in’s with us to make sure all is well and anytime we had questions, she was also very quick to respond whenever we reached out to hear. Usually within 24 hours we would hear back from her.

When it came to our food tasting; they made this feel so special. The Chico Cabaret was closed off and we did the tasting there. The food at our tasting was second to none. We were so impressed. What we were even more impressed with was how Vilmarie was taking pictures of all the food as it came out as she mentioning this is the product they are selling us and want to make sure it comes out that way even if there is a different chef working the day of our event. This. This was impressive and just a step above.

Going to touch on the room block real quick too. We only did one block for our wedding at the ESJ hotel and Vilmarie and her team were super accomodating to ensure that all of our family had a great stay. This was again, just a step above.

Let’s talk about the wedding weekend now! We had booked our Rehearsal Dinner at Cana, one of the restaurants onsite and let me just tell you, wow! The food was incredible and price generally speaking was very competitive. There was a small snafu when it came to seating in the restaurant that Vilmarie was able to overcome for us ahead of the date of the rehearsal. Vilmarie was very focused on making sure that we had a good, stress free experience. Our rehearsal dinner went off without a hitch. The service in Cana was unreal. The three servers that we had, they did incredible.

Wedding day was so very exciting for us - we had so much fun getting ready. We were given the wedding suite and oh my, this suite was incredible. We had getting ready spaces, but ended up all in the wedding suite because the views of Isla Verde were just incredible. Vilmarie was present through the wedding and made sure that she worked in tandem with our Wedding Coordinator, Wanda Garcia (highly recommend her for your wedding by the way - she can be found under “WG Special Events”). Their collaboration is so important and it is clear that Wanda and Vilmarie consistently work very well together.

Despite Mother Nature nearly foiling our plan to get married under the Banyan Tree - the weather held out and we had a beautiful ceremony there. We had our reception in the Grand Ballroom and this space was perfect for our 100 guests. Everything fired just as it should. The food was incredible, the drinks amazing, but let’s talk about plating service. This by and far exceeded our expectations. We had asked about having all courses of dinner plated and served within an hour. The staff CRANKED the food out and had dinner complete within the time frame that we had requested. There is nothing worse then going to a wedding and the kitchen not being ready. With ESJ - this definitely is not the case!

Vilmarie came to check-in with us during dinner and we could see how happy she was for us and the overall event. Having people who care for the event that you are working on is so important and we are tremendously grateful for the Fairmont El San Juan Hotel. Not only was Vilmarie excited for the event, but others who work within the resort were excited for us and when we saw them the next day, they were so excited to see pictures. This is warming. This is the kind of service that will bring us back to the ESJ. We could really go on and on about our experience and how amazing it was, but I think we’ve made that ample clear.

From S&G, 7/10/22 - thank you Vilmarie and ESJ team for creating a literal lifetime of memories for us in just one weekend.