orionandmari072510

We returned to Moon Palace for an early anniversary celebration. It was as wonderful and beautiful as when we got married. We took some pics of the actual wedding site we got married at. For anyone who wishes to have a morning wedding at sunrise, i highly suggest it. Its absolutely beautiful at dawn. We returned and enjoyed many trips we missed out on during the wedding week. Check out our original wedding review thread: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/62655/moon-palace-mari-and-orion-mayan-tradition-wedding-review-jul-2010-with-pro-pics-newly-added-on-page-3-4

We returned to Moon Palace for an early anniversary celebration. It was as wonderful and beautiful as when we got married. We took some pics of the actual wedding site we got married at. For anyone who wishes to have a morning wedding at sunrise, i highly suggest it. Its absolutely beautiful at dawn.

thank you again for the nice compliments!

You all will love the Moon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got married in July 2010. You can check my posts and wedding review thru my profile any time for info. congratulations to all you new brides to be! Mari and Orion some pointers: 1.wedding coordinator- if they are hard to reach, ask what days they work at the resort and email them those days. email photographs of inspiration for your wedding and ask for palace resorts catalogs to see your choices. 2.photographer booking room- yes we had to, but it was a must to get the photographer we wanted. we paid for only one night stay. the travel agents said two, but we only booked them for one night and gave them no info about the photographer. the wedding coordinator is the only person you have to tell and comply with on the photographer information. 3.hair salon-yes, we got our style free. the travel agent said it wasn't possible, but everyone gets salon credit when staying 3+ days. Be sure to book your hairstyle and bridesmaids hairstyle appointments several weeks in advance. My maid of honor had to beg to get a hair appointment since there was little space. 4. traveling with a dress-airlines do this all the time so no need to worry. They see a white suit bag and already know the deal! They will put your dress in a compartment or in 1st class. Be sure to have a heavy duty cover just in case 1st class travelers spill drinks on it. Hang it immediately upon arrival in an area where it will get shower steam. My dress didnt even had to get it steamed then. 5. INFORM INFORM INFORM GUESTS-if you make a good plan, timeline for all events, and share information with guests about traveling to mexico, the resort, mapped locations, etc. everything will run smooth. We did this all on our wedding website and it was a relief to not have to answer questions duing our entire wedding trip. Do this and it will save a huge hassle later!

love these Save the Dates!

One way to get control of the reservations being made outside of the resort through bookit or expedia, etc. is to tell guests in the invitation that you are making the reservations through one travel agent and give them their contact information. the travel agent can assist in convincing them to book thru MP directly and get all the benefits with. The other option is to book the guests yourselves. This is what we did. And we had all the guests pay us back. It is not the most safe thing to do if you have more than 20 persons going though. If they cancel, this can be one hefty bill! Hope this helps, Mari

You all will love the Moon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got married in July 2010. You can check my posts thru my profile any time for info. congratulations to all you new brides to be! Mari and Orion

THE SECRET: Lots of cardio workouts and running! This really did the trick. I had to work myself to it but I started with 1 mile a week, then worked to 2miles a week. by June I was at 4-5miles a week. I made sure I worked up a good sweat. That feeling of exhaustion is neccessary. Comfortable workouts will tone you, but will only lose you a few pounds. I also began to drink loads of water from working out. Diets are good, but definitely lots of fat burning exercises are needed! I recently joined Crossfit and it has lost me 3 pounds in 1 week. Its high intense mixed workouts. I am continuing and loving the results!!! As for weight watchers, there frozen meals are definitely helpful. I didn't use this for my wedding weight loss, but they have helped me in the past. So good idea!

VERY VERY NICE!

lol, a couple more things: 1. I spent more money on making invitations. If i had ordered them from the original source we wanted to it would have been cheaper. Our printer also broke and we had to buy a new one. So sometimes making things at home is more expensive than just buying it already done. 2. a good photographer is EXTREMELY important!!! We were thrilled with ours and it is VERY DIFFERENT than having an uncle take photos for the ceremony. 3. I learned practicality is always better. People expected us to get a huge cake and encouraged it. We rationalized that a 3 tier cake will not be eaten by 12 persons. Heck, the 1 tier cake we got was not eaten by the 12 persons. We had lots of cake left. Best to be reasonable and not spend the extra cash. 4. If you have bridesmaids that are about to get married themselves, keep them out of the planning. One bridesmaid of mine was set on her wedding being the "wedding of the century". She began to give me some unwanted advice and I began to wonder on it too. She told me once upon a time that she thought lilies were ugly, and when i began flower searching for my wedding deco and bouqet, guess what flower she suggested to use, the flower she believed to be so ugly: the lily. I realized what she was trying to do and once i figured it out I kicked her out of the planning. What is worst is I was 100% supportful for her wedding and put $700 worth right before my wedding since her wedding was 2 mos after mine. I began to distant myself from her after that mess 5. Documenting memories and journal-style guestbooks are excellent ideas. We had everyone write notes about the wedding and their experience. It was a great idea! It helped us to remember things that happened as well! 6. Choosing a DW resort that has all one location wedding amneties/ facilities is very relieving! And makes it so much easier to plan around. I got my hair done, confirmed my photographer's arrival, and made it to my room for makeup within 10 minutes. Convenience is KEY! 7. When the stress starts to creep up, go to the nearest bar and grab a pina colada, EXCELLENT IDEA!! 7.

1. I totally agree with everyone here about who had loved ones and close friends being the most likely to hurt you. Some of my quiet friends turned out to be a dedicated help and unconditional support to me. While best friends I had helped numerous times and spent lots of $$ on turned out to be a RIOT. Its funny how they didn't do a fraction of what I had done for them in their weddings and the money i spent, but were the FIRST to talk trash and turn people against me during the MOST IMPORTANT AND JOYOUS DAY of my LIFE! I learned real quick about the TRUTH! 2. Family reunions=Destination Wedding is RIGHT! My husband's family took our wedding as a vacation time and tried to delineate the focus of the trip on our wedding. They would do whatever they wanted and enjoyed themselves, but when my husband and I wanted alone time on the beach or time just to enjoy ourselves, they were always complaining about that and detracting us from our romantic getaway. I learned that only some trips are "family-worthy" and it may have been more wise to arrive several days in advance of them coming to avoid this conflict. 3. Spend the extra cash and get a photographer for each event....Wish we had done this. Our families only took photos of themselves or their side of the family. Thank GOODNESS i told my husband we were getting a photographer and not relying on family photos for the wedding. Then it would have been broken photos of either just me or my husband. When we asked for copies of photos from our families, this is EXACTLY what we got. There were only a few of us together, what a great sign of what they really thought, eh????? 4. THERE IS ALWAYS A THUNDER STEALER or DRAMA QUEEN! In this case, it was our sister in law who wanted to get engaged at our wedding reception dinner. I had advised her mom and the fiancee that they should do it at the rehearsal dinner since that was less important to us, but she was headstrong. It wasn't until my sister told her to either deal with it or leave to go home that she actually decided to get engaged in a private location at the resort way after the wedding. Thank goodness for sisters! Also who plans engagement parties during another person's wedding events??? 5. Last minute people will book. This was definitely stressful. We had our numbers and then someone booked last minute. It boosted us to get a free reception, but again the hassle of providing them all the information and accommodating them last minute was not neccessary. I am so glad we were focused on LOVE and our wedding that day! There were moments before the wedding day that I wanted to lose it. Thats when you realize its all about LOVE LOVE LOVE and being happy with your soon to be spouse!

i totally agree on this 100%

i totally agree on this 100%

AFTER PHOTO at 140 lbs. 1 day before my wedding at the resort.

This is a BEFORE PHOTO (I am in the green dress) when i was 155lbs around Feb. 2010. I lost 15 lbs and dropped to 140 by June 2010 just in time for the wedding. I may have been 1 or 2 lbs under 140 by the actual wedding. Ladies, with a little bit of a workout and eating healthy, cutting carbs and sweets...it can do wonders!