primavera

Signature drinks are free as long as they include the liquor they already have at the resort.

Quote: Originally Posted by jmac So turns out the bamboo room is inside only - and this terrace is a completely separate location (yet somewhat attached). I am not able to have my reception outside there... apparently its not available. Im bummed - this is what happens when you have no idea what you are booking! I didnt specify the terrace, I said Bamboo room - yet I thought the terrace being attached was the same thing. Not so... so now I have to find a new location for my reception. Has anyone used Castaways? Pilar sent me some pics - it looks ok - but still quite a large room. I dont think I will have that many people (25-30 maybe... max...) so I dont want a huge room that we aren't really using. I also don't want to be in the 'garden' where it looks like the entire resort looks into that area, and people walk the paths through there. Doesn't feel quite as private as I would like. I originally thought having a beach reception would be great, but then had visions of people trying to eat with sand blowing in their food. Does anyone have any suggestions? Im a bit lost... Thanks! Castaways is nice and has like a divider in the room, so it would work for a "smaller" group too. It is open-air but covered roof, still close to your other locations. I would not have the reception in the garden as it is in the middle of the resort and not private at all. The Bamboo room is inside but has a wall of windows facing the ocean and the festival terrace, now if the terrace is booked I would have wanted to keep the blinds down so the people out there are not staring at you inside the room. We chose the Bamboo room and were very happy with it. You are outside during the whole stay there and with the ceremony and cocktail hour being outside we didn't feel the need for the reception to be outside as well.

Quote: Originally Posted by jmac Hi Ladies Just out of curiosity - can someone tell me what the 'festival terrace' is? I am getting married at the Pergola, and have the cocktail at the blue bar (its underneath right?) and then I thought I booked the terrace or bamboo room for the reception. I can't remember - but I wanted to be outside. I thought the terrace was outside of the bamboo room? Or how does this work? Thanks! The Festival Terrace is outside (with roof if I remember correctly) the Bamboo room and right next to both the Pergola and the Blue Beach Bar. I think my sister might have taken a picture of the menu card, I will see if she can send it to me and I will upload. It was pretty in our colors, pretty font and decorated simple but very beautiful. It had our names and the menu on there, don't remember if it also had the date. I loved it, especially since we didn't expect it.

Quote: Originally Posted by melissa80 Hey Everybody! My wedding is planned for December 5th at NOW Jade. My invites are sent out and the RSVPs are due back by September 1st. My color is aqua and that is probably the only detail I have. I have looked through the NOW wedding book several times and read through this entire thread. WOW...so many great ideas! I do have a few questions that I thought I would post on here. Any other suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated! How much is the buffet per person ( I didnt even know this was a option) For people who didnt hire a DJ, what are other options? If you bring an IPOD, do you have to rent the speakers? cost? How are the decorations that the resort supplies? candles? I feel like I am not sure where to begin. Money is an issue and we are on a budget. We also face the reality of both of us being young with no living parents to go to for advice and suggestions. Thanks! We didn't hire a DJ. Used our own ipod instead and had made playlists beforehand. The price for the sound system (speakers etc.) for the night is $150. We ended up getting ours for free though (thanks to Ana). Since we were on a budget as well we did not buy or bring any decorations. I told Ana to set it up nicely to whatever decorations they would let us have for free. It was very pretty! Simple but pretty! She had vases filled with sand and shells with a candle inside, shells and starfish spread out on the table, white table cloths and napkins etc. She moved the chair bows to our reception which added some color and had even made a beautiful menu card in our colors and our names on it. I was very happy with it all. Then again, I was a pretty laid back bride, didn't feel like the decorations were the important part of our wedding. Good luck!

We used the Bamboo Room for our reception and there were only 15-17 of us. It felt a little empty, only because we didn't have a dance floor/dancing. I loved the privacy though, and happy we stuck with it.

I think she is telling you that because of the time of the sunset at that time of year. Click on this link to see the sunrise and sunset on your date: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=923&month=11&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

Quote: Originally Posted by saraandjon I'm leaving for Mexico in 5 days, and I'm feeling very nervous this morning. I feel like half of the stuff that Ana and I have talked about and agreed upon she has forgotten about and we have regressed to 6 months ago! I'm trying not to worry and hoping we can get it all figured out when we get to Mexico! Don't worry! I promise you she has everything under control and whatever is still confusing you will fix when you arrive. When I got my contract a few days before we were leaving a bunch of stuff was wrong on there. Locations that had been the same on all previous communication was now wrong, it said we were bringing our own photographer, the kid menu was wrong etc. I just sent her an email with the corrections and confirmed everything else when we got there. I think as brides we think that there is nothing more we can do when we leave the country for Mexico, but there are still a lot of things that you can change or confirm when at the resort. So take a deep breath, everything will be great! Ana is the sweetest and she has everything under control, it might not feel that way all the time but don't for all future brides; I wouldn't worry.

Nicola, Pics are beautiful! I know how you feel, I just want to go back too!! We are going back next year for our anniversary, we got a couple of nights free included in our wedding package so we just have to use those

Quote: Originally Posted by Kara80 Hi Ladies- Does anyone have any money saving tips or advise when it comes to using the resort photographer? I'm going with the middle wedding package. It includes one hour of photo time. Each additional hour is $99. I'm trying to decide if I want to pay the extra time? I do want a CD of pictuers so that I can make my own wedding album and video when I get back. Any advise for previous brides is helpful! I was considering adding an extra hour but ended up not to. We had the middle package too (Eternity). He came to my room about 10 min before (I had said I didn't need "getting ready" pics but he showed anyway and I'm glad because I got some beautiful pics of me and my sis) and took some pics of me and my sis and then took pics during the whole ceremony and family and our bridal photos afterwards. I got the feeling the time didn't matter much, it wasn't as he was checking the time or anything. When we and he felt that we were done with our bridal photos is when we stopped. They take a ton of photos and you get to see them all, you can buy as many as you would like in addition to the photos included in the package (we did) and they will negotiate the price with you. We loved our photos and the resort photographers are great and very friendly and helpful!!!! They also gave us a photo book (they are mailing it to us) with our pick of photos and put together a slideshow with pics and music for us. I highly recommend them!!! I only used the flowers included in the Eternity package and they were beautiful!! They did not look like the picture and when I mentioned that they offered to redo my whole bouquet. I said thanks but no thanks, since it wasn't that important to me and the bouquet was beautiful anyway. Now, looking back at the pics I'm happy I didn't. Here is my best advice: This forum is great! BUT don't let it get you into panic mode. We moved to another state, had to find a new home and I started a new job 2 months before the wedding so needless to say I didn't have much time to plan the wedding. Believe me, you don't need it, unless you are a*al on what you want. The wedding coordinators have everything under control and a lot of things can be decided (and are easier to) when you are there. I got my dress 2 weeks before the wedding

We used the resort photographer and could not have been happier! They were great! It turned out a lot cheaper for us than using an outside vendor. Here is their website: http://www.adventurephotosmx.com/ They have an office at the resort so you can meet with them before the wedding if you want to and discuss any special requests etc.

The "dance club" aka Sports Bar, Scores, was open every night when we were there April 27 - May 4. We did the same thing, no traditional reception with first dance and all that, just dinner (with music playing from our ipod) and then went to the Lobby bar (my favorite) and the Sports Bar. Sounds like a good time line to me. I would just check the sunset to make sure you're getting enough light for pics and that it is not too hot during the ceremony. I too found it easier to negotiate trades and prices on the phone or while at the resort. Our ceremony started at 5:30 and the sunset was at 7:10ish. We were...hmmm...what do you call it in English?..squinting (sp?) on many of our ceremony pics because we were facing the sun. If I could do it over I would have started 15 min or 30 min later. It was not too hot, but that was probably because we were lucky, the day before I was sweating at 5:00 but on our wedding day it wasn't as hot or windy, just perfect

Quote: Originally Posted by Nicyx Love your planning thread Michelle :-) HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Well Im back and im now an "old" married!!!! Will get pix up ASAP absolutly knackered, we were delayed in Mexico (not a huge shame) for 5 hours, been up for 29.5 hours now and just catching up on here!!! Will also try and get my review done at some point in the next few days :-) We have our AHR on sat so will be busy planning that when i have got my head together after a good nights sleep!! Congrats Nicola!! Question, is the expression "an old married woman" a Scottish thing? I work with a wonderful guy from Scotland and he said just the same thing when I got back from my wedding. I was like....hmm.."rude!!!" Hahahha! No, I knew he was kidding, but since you wrote the same exact thing, I'm thinking maybe it is a saying from over there. Just curious.

Quote: Originally Posted by lesa860 Congratulations Erin!!!! Can you post some pictures? Did you feel the private bar was necessary? I'm debating if this is something we can cut out. Thanks. We were only 15 guests + us but for us the private bar would have been over kill. We never had to wait for drinks/wine during the reception, our glasses were always full.

Quote: Originally Posted by SKing24 I'm back!! After 2 wonderful weeks at the NOW Jade. I have over 700 pics and everything went perfect! We had 56 guests, had the ceremony on the beach, cocktail hour at the beach bar, and reception in the bamboo room with a private bar set-up. We didnt use any outside vendors, just everything through the package...and everyone was great. For some reason, no one likes talking about tips, but we tipped Pilar $100 the day after the wedding. If everything wasnt so great, we may have given less. Let me know what questions you have! Yay!! Congratulations! I looked for you everywhere, even went up to another girl that I heard was getting married and asked if her name was Erin hahahaha!!! I asked Ana Maria to let you know that I was looking for you should she see you, but no luck I'm happy everything went well, ours did too!! I'm ready to go back already! Haha!

Sanna, I have sent your a private message Our wedding was wonderful, I wouldn't have changed a thing!! You will be so happy with Now Jade! As I said in my message, please feel free to ask me tons of questions!