Nibsmom's Moon Palace Wedding Review - 7.18.09

Hey everyone! Well, yes, it's time for me to write up my review! I haven't gotten any pro pics back yet, so all the pics that are included in the review are non-pro - but still gorgeous! I can't wait to see the pro ones...I'm thinking I'm going to just move to Mexico and live at the Moon Palace!

First, a huge thank you to all the MP brides who helped out soooo much with helping me with everything - and to all the brides on the forum for your great ideas, feedback, and tips! I can't even tell you - I would have had NO idea about bigggg things if I wouldn't have found this forum (like customs...eeps!)!

So, THANKS!!!! Ya'll rock my socks.

On to the good stuff!

The Details

Wedding Date: July 18th, 2009 at 1:00pm

Wedding Coordinator: Kalena Arroniz, then Claudia Sanchez

Wedding Package: Free

Gazebo - Tucan

Cocktail Hour: 2:00 to 3:00pm, Tucan Terrace

Reception: 6 to 10pm, Moon Light Terrace (Sunrise Side)

Bride and Groom stay: July 14th - 19th

Guests stay: July 16th - July 20th - most people stayed three nights between these dates.

Everyone stayed in the Nizuc section. We had a total of 28 people, including the bride and groom. Four guests were children under 4 years of age.

Wedding Events

Thursday, July 16th - Most Guests Arrive

We didn't have anything formal planned for this night, but ended up having everyone meet up for dinner at Los Corporales. Matt and I had went there the night before, and it was excellent. They got our big group of 20 something into two big tables right near each other, and were really nice about it. The Mariachi came to serenade us many times! It was great!

One of the groomsmen and his wife with the Mariachi in Los Corporales!

Afterwards my bridesmaids surprised me with custom tees and a trip around the Sunrise side for a 'bachelorette party' - I live in WI, and they live in MA, so we wanted to make sure to live it up! We did some shots at the Sunrise Lobby bar and then went to the fire and drums show - it was awesome!

Our custom tees! They all said our names on the back - mine said Matt's Bride to Be! So cute!!!

Thursday we also had our meeting with Claudia to go over our wedding stuff. It lasted about one hour. Shorter than most, I think. We had had a lot of things planned out before though. We handed over all our stuff to her and she handled it from there. We picked linen colors and went over line ups and order of events kind of things. I dropped off my dress for pressing. We also scheduled our blood tests for the next morning...which was a bit of a fiasco...

Friday, July 17th - Welcome Dinner and Blood Tests

Well, Friday morning we were supposed to get our blood tests pretty much first thing. They told us to arrive at 10am to the medical office, so we arrived around 945. We sat waiting until 1045...and no one ever came. So finally we went over to the weddings office to see what was up, and they were scrambling about trying to find a nurse to come in and take our blood. We ended up hanging out in the Nizuc lobby bar until almost 130pm, when someone finally showed up. Then, we had to have our blood taken in a WC's back office...lol, apparently, they can't get into their medical office unless is the normal guy that comes - he must have the key. Kinda sketch, but the nurse that came was very nice and did an excellent job.

We had our welcome dinner at Arricifes on the Terrace. It was really nice and breezy - not too hot. The food was good, but I felt like the service took forever. There was a huge gap between dinner and dessert - so much that people were wondering if there even was dessert and if we were just sitting there for nothing. It was pretty strange. The mariachi came out and played the bridal march and a few other lovey dovey songs, which was nice. Overall, it went pretty well!

Okay, so this looks like it's going to be a few posts long...here goes!

And continuing on!

Saturday, July 18th - the BIG day!

Woot woot! Everybody parrrty!

Okay, so I woke up around 8am and made my way over to my Bridesmaid's room, where we had breakfast and chatted about the day's upcoming events. I went to my nails appointment at 10am - got my fingers and toes done real pretty by a super nice woman who's name I can't remember. At 11am, I had my hair appointment with Doris, who was just awesome. I didn't even have a clear image of what I wanted, and she did an outstanding job. Everyone loved my hair - even me - and I didn't even know what I wanted! You would have thought I would have planned that out a little better...whoops.

Then I went back to the room to do my own make up and veil...

While I was in the salon, the WC assistant showed up with my bouquet to make sure I liked it. It wasn't exactly what I had asked for, but it was still really pretty so I gave it the okay. I thought it was really nice of them to come ask me in advance if it looked good.

The bridal party went to the gazebo at 1230, and the guests were asked to arrive by 1240. Around 1245, Claudia arrived at the room to pick me up and give me my bouquet and get me in the horse and carriage. I was glad I had gotten ready in my bridesmaid's room - it was really far from the Tucan gazebo and there was no way anyone was seeing me coming! We rode a few circles around the Chapel gazebo because I think the horse was a little restless, and then went and waited around the corner from the Tucan gazebo for Claudia to give the go ahead.

The horse and carriage + me! Woot!

Well, we waited for a while because my own Mom was late! But that's another story for another time...and gosh, did I start to sweat. Nasty.

For anyone considering an afternoon wedding in July....it's freaking hot. It was REALLY hot. Not so much in the gazebo, but afterwards for pictures, I almost passed out, and I sweated all my makeup off into the inside of my dress.

A sweet picture of me wiping sweat off.

Anyways. Back to the important stuff - because who can't deal with a little sweat on their wedding day? Right? Okay.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. We had a civil ceremony, and the MP was great about letting us alter their ceremony a fair amount. We cut out some stuff, and added a reading, a sand ceremony, and our own vows. The justice of the peace was really good about incorporating everything without it sounding strange or disjointed. I am very happy with how the ceremony went. Claudia got everything set up and the fan favors set out very nicely.

My sister and Matt's brother doing our sand ceremony.

Two thumbs up dood - we're married!

And continuing on...

The ceremony probably lasted around a half hour, then we started doing pictures and shots for the video. Unfortunately, not even five minutes out of the gazebo, I tore the front of my dress open. Yes, I should not have cut through the grass. Yes, I should have picked my dress up, whatevs. It was fixable. You couldn't even tell!

A pic of my mom fixing my dress, and Matt hovering to make sure I don't freak. Now why would I do that?

The cocktail reception started at 2pm, but it was a bust because of the heat. Practically everyone went back to their room to cool off, and didn't come back. Well, good thing I didn't pay for it. It was nice though - they put up some shade umbrellas for free and had some flowers at the tables. We had chosen the Mexican menu and the people who ate said the food was pretty good.

The Reception

Our reception started at 6pm and was over on the Sunrise side of the resort. It wasn't a big deal for everyone to travel over there, no one complained or anything. Everyone loved the Moon Light Terrace - it was right on the ocean and very large. Probably too large for our group, but everyone loved the ocean view so much it didn't matter.

As some of the MP brides know, I had to fight to get my square table set up, but in the long run, well, obviously, I got it and I was really glad. I wanted one big table instead of a bunch of small rounds - our group didn't know each other well and I thought that would have been segregating.

We picked the Polynesian menu and it was pretty good! We had read on the menu there would be a pork carving station, and what we got was this!

A whole pig!

Well, one of the flower girls asked her mom if the pig was Nibbler, my dog (in my avatar). I guess that's what I get for nicknaming him the pig dog. Her mom was like, no, honey, that's not Nibbler. It was hilarious.

Anyways, we had also purchased the ipod connection system, which worked out fine. At first they couldn't get our iPhones to connect, so the DJ left to go get a different cord. During that time, he only had two songs to play over and over, which was funny...but luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes until they got our playlists working and hooked up.

We had maracas at every place setting that people used to get us to kiss, which was really cute. I also had made little decorated tea lights to set all about the tables, but we never lit them because it was too windy and it probably would have started a fire. I also had brought along glow necklaces, which turned out to be a huge hit with the little and big kids!

The Big Kids...

And the little!

We purchased a small cake, which looked beautiful, but didn't taste especially...tasty. I thought it was dry. Some people thought it was fine. It was okay. Looked really cute though!

Cutting the Cake...

A close up of the cake...and my candles!

We also got a small table off to the side for our guestbook. We purchased ours from theguestbookstore.com and it was a huge hit. I love looking through it!

The Guestbook!

And continuing on...

Great picture laden review!! I am impatiently waiting for the rest to follow! Congrats on a beautiful wedding

Overall, the wedding was amazing, and I'd get married at the MP again in a heartbeat. Here are the grades:

Overall experience: A+

The rooms were amazing, the food was great, and we got room service everyday. It was all wonderful. We didn't use anything in the Palace Passport though - so I can't comment on that!

Spa: C+

I wasn't a fan of the spa. Thursday Matt and I had had a couples massage. The water therapy area was really overcrowded and loud, and it was actually kind of stressful to get to use anything. It really put a damper on my experience. I guess when I go to the spa I don't expect to have to share a hot tub with six other women that I don't know. My opinion!

Wedding Coordinator: C

I was first assigned Kalena, who never contacted me. Two months or so out from my wedding, I got my WC switched to Claudia. Claudia was good via email, but still didn't get a few things right that we had discussed a few times. After the wedding ceremony, she took off pretty much as soon as it was over, and as a result, some of our stuff got lost and we never got it back. Most upsetting was that our custom ring bowl was lost. Other things we recovered, but that is just gone. She never even showed up to the reception. I was a little disappointed.

Welcome Dinner: B

The food was good - the service just took a really long time. I think some people ended up getting bored. I got bored!

Wedding: A

It was beautiful, and the MP really was really accommodating. I felt like I got more than I paid for, which is saying a lot!

Cocktail Reception: A

The food was good and they set up umbrellas for us for free - earlier Claudia had told me they would be $25 dollars each if I had requested them. That was nice!

Reception: A

The food and everything was great. Everyone had a great time, and we loved our location. The only negative to the night was that at the end, the DJ just kind of cut us off with no warning - it was little abrupt. Like, right in the middle of a song. Weird.

Salon: A+

The Nizuc salon did an outstanding job. I cannot compliment Doris, who did my hair, enough!!

Videography: A+

I love our video. It turned out great and the turn around time was awesome. I would definitely recommend future brides not to hesitate if they are considering getting the video or if they are on the fence!

Photography: A+

We brought down Misti Abner, a forum member, to be our photographer. We haven't gotten our pictures back yet, but I know they are going to be amazing. She is wonderful, very professional, but friendly too! I think a few of my bridesmaids wanted to take her back home to be their BFF. It was kind of funny. I'll definitely post some pics when I get them!

Misti getting the shots!

Medical Services: A+

The last day of my stay, I had to go see the doctor because I actually got a skin infection on my leg. I was just going to leave it, but my mom, who is a nurse, nixed that idea. It was kinda nasty - it looked a lot like ringworm. The doctor was super nice and wrote me a prescription that I had filled at my honeymoon resort, since I put off going to see him until an hour before we left the MP. Overall, I was the only one with any kind of medical issue. I haven't even heard of anyone reporting any stomach bugs or anything.

Okay, well, I think that's all for now. And, my computer battery is dying, so I'll need to stop anyways. I'll try to post a link to my wedding video once I get it up!

I know that I write more of a narrative style, and may not have answered everyone's questions completely, so please feel free to ask me if you have any questions!! I'm more than happy to help!!

Here's a few more of my favorite pics before I go!

The Wedding Party

Me and my groom waiting to be announced

The doods and groom

Well, I like this picture! Because I loved my dress!

Another of the wedding party...squinting in the sun.

And that's all folks, peace out!!

your wedding looks like it was beautiful!

Great review and great pictures! Congratulations MRS

great review and loved your pics too!

how much was your reception costs for MP? just curious, as i didn't realize the legal ceremony is free there. might be an option for us, as we still haven't narrowed down a resort.

Awesome Review!!

Love all the pics!!

Thanks for the review Nina! Looks like you had a great time, congrats!