Kmart48

Irishdonna--I was married here on April 8. I went with the divine package....I used the resort florist and loved my flowers. I used an outside photographer and swapped out the photographer for extra videographer time.....I highly recommend this. The video turned out amazing!!! I can't even tell you how great it is to have it all on video. The videographer was there for half of the reception and I wish I had paid more to have him there for the whole thing!!

FYI ladies....posted my review in the review section under Now Jade Wedding........I will post pics soon! Happy Planning!!!

I got married here on 4.8.11 and here is my review: Absolutely Fabulous!!!!!! From the moment we walked in the resort, my fiance (now husband) and I were pulled into the preferred lounge where they upgraded our room. At that time, Pilar came in to introduce herself and she took my gown/his suit so they could be pressed and delivered to our room on our wedding day. We had a beautiful view of the preferred pool and ocean. The room, the view,and the service was amazing!!!! The staff is absolutely wonderful! The ocean on the preferred side is rocky. All of our guests were down in buildings 2 and 4 and we spent most of our time at that pool because that's were all the activities and music is and the beach is much nicer in that area. The restaurants were good. Unfortunately, we never got to try the french restaurant, but the rest were great! Capers, the Italian restaurant, was my fave. I cannot say enough good things about the staff here. Everyone was so friendly and accomodating! On to the important stuff....the Wedding! -Pilar was my wedding coordinator. I was getting really nervous before we left for Mexico, because communication was not always good. I'm sure I got on her nerves at times, because I was impatient and not always nice in my emails.....if you are having problems, RELAX! We met with Pilar the Monday evening we arrived and got all of our wedding details squared away. She was sooooo wonderful and accomodating. Everything seemed to fall into place. I brought everything with me to our meeting, centerpiece stuff, chair bows, table runners, lights, programs, guest book, music, favors. We went over the whole wedding packet and we were able to make changes and finalize everything. We had planned on a beach ceremony with cocktail hour on the beach and then a reception on the pool terrace. She walked us to the sites and at that time, I changed the reception site to the indoor Bamboo Room. I had read reviews about it being windy there, but had to see it for myself.....It is WINDY! It was fine for a beach ceremony, but I did not want my guests trying to eat outside in the wind. I was very, very glad the bamboo room was available. My wedding was fairly small (27 people) and it seemed like the reviews I read were brides with larger weddings of 50-80people. The bamboo room was still perfect! The ceremony location was on the preferred side of the beach....perfect b/c I could watch the set-up and guests arriving from my hotel room. We had a quick rehearsal on Thurs and I was able to give Pilar some last minute changes. We then had a welcome dinner in the buffet. I do kind of regret that......It was just a long table set up at the Carnival Buffet. I was kind of done with the buffet food at that point, and we probably all could have gone to eat at one of the other restaurants...It wasn't really private or anything. I honestly don't know if you can have a welcome dinner in of the other restaurants. I had just asked Pilar for a welcome dinner and she set it up there.....wait staff was very nice though! Back to the wedding: I had the divine package and chose menu #1 (the beef filet/lobster bisque). Because we were having wedding cake, Pilar substituted the dessert for the asparagus/watercress salad. The food was phenomenal!!! I thought it was the best food we had the entire trip!! The waiters during the reception were awesome!!! They went out of there way to get coors lights for our guests!!! The package included 2 hours of DJ time. The DJs were there at the beginning of the reception to introduce us. I provided our dinner music, because I wanted to save our DJ time for dance music. They stayed throughout dinner to "man the ipod" and then played our first dance/cake cutting/dance music. The cake: tasted really good, but looked nothing like the picture we chose.....although at that point, i really didn't care anymore. The flowers: Lupita, the florist, and Pilar met me in the spa while I was getting my hair done to show me my flowers......I was not happy at all. My flowers were supposed to be light pink, ivory, with some green filler flowers. I had emailed Lupita a picture and she had told me she could do it. The bouquet they brought in had dark burgundy calla lilies and when I questioned it Lupita told me they didnt make light pink calla lilies....They took the flowers back and brought me new flowers a few hours later that were absolutely perfect!!!! (I felt bad, but I was not expecting to see dark flowers like that!--not what I chose for my wedding colors) The spa apparently burnt down 2 weeks ago (as did the sports bar), so they were running the spa out of the "governors suites" on the 4th floor of one of the preferred suites. it wasn't the best experience.....I believe it was Angela that did my hair......she did a really good job!! They don't seem to speak much english in the spa, so I highly recommend bringing a picture of your desired hairstyle. After my hair, I had her do my makeup (both were included in the package) and I told her I wanted a natural look. (I really don't wear much makeup). After a large amount of eyemakeup and little communication, I went back to my room, scrubbed my face, and did my own makeup............ In a nutshell: -Don't freak out!! Everything will be great!!!! Pilar is fabulous and I'm sure Ana is too!........There was 1-2 weddings a day while we were there. They are Pros at this! -We used Derek Campbell and his wife,Lorena from Photos in Cancun for our photography. They were awesome!!! We got all 2000 pics on CDs to do whatever we want with!!! I highly recommend them! We were able to substitute the photography for 2 extra hours of videography. -Tony, the videographer, included in the Divine Package was great too!!! Don't skimp on the video! It's soooo great to have! Pictures are great but video lets you relive every moment!! And don't forget to have a cd with a few songs that you want for your video! --We were able to substitute dessert for appetizer --Don't waste your 2hrs of DJ time on dinner or cocktail music. provide your own. --Also, someone on here mentioned making there ceremony earlier because of sunlight.......to each his own and I can only speak from my experienc, but my ceremony was at 5pm. I am disappointed with some of the pics, because we're squinting a little. It didn't even seem that sunny, but I can't imagine how bad we would be squinting if our ceremony was earlier. The sky got really pink and pretty for sunset around 645ish. I am gonna try and post some pics on here soon!!! If I think of anything else, I will add it later.Best wishes to all of you brides!!!! I know it sounds cliche, but enjoy every single minute and try not to freak out because it truly does go so very fast!!!!!!!

This is it ladies!!! I leave at 3 am for my wedding on Friday April 8th!!!! I cannot believe it is here already! I will be sure to post a review as soon as I get back!

Hammy--What package did you have? Did the DJ play through dinner aaand and then 3 hrs of dancing music? I really want 3 hrs of music for dancing after dinner. ($350 is a lil ridiculous or 1 hr). I don't know if I should try to ask Pilar to add it for free now or wait til we get there and then try to negotiate. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

Has anyone had the wedding cake or heard anything about it?? I have the devine package and am trying to choose a cake flavor.....they have a lot of different flavors, so I'm just curious if anyone has any recommendations. Also, I see people are talking about a private bar....how much does it cost??

Jessi-- I emailed her and she sent me a few pictures with ideas. I also sent her some pictures of what I might like. One of them included peonies, which are expensive ( I guess they have to ship them in to Mexico) so she came up with a similar less expensive alternative. Her responses are usually pretty short and don't always answer ALL of my questions, but I think it's probably due to language barrier. I'm just so impressed with her quick response time, because that does not seem to be the norm with other people I've tried to communicate with.......hopefully she will be helpful fo you!

The website for the resort florist is listed below. She has been very good about responding right away! [email protected]

I also emailed Juliana regarding the flowers and haven't heard back from her in 3 weeks....so, I'm done with her! Going with the resort florist. She gets back to me the SAME day!!!!

Ok...so I need advice....I don't expect our guests to give us gifts b/c they are paying a lot for travel expenses....Should I mention that on the invitations?-(ie-your presence not your presents is appreciate) Or is that tacky?? Or is it tacky NOT to mention it. Help!!!

Carly--oops sorry!! I just saw that you posted a link to get the brochure....Thanks!

OMG! Thank you for the very detailed review!!! You have no idea how grateful I am for this site and brides like you who are willing to share! Congratulations to you and your new hubby! I would love a copy of the brochure you put in your welcome bags...Can you please email me a copy-- [email protected]. Thank you so much and Congratulations!!!!!!

Jen--Congratulations!!!! I am getting married there in April....we chose the beach for the ceremony and the pool terrace for the reception.... am starting to get a little nervous about the outdoor reception. Originally our thoughts were "we're gonna be in Mexico. We might as well be outside"...now I am a little nervous about wind and lighting. Did you see any receptions on the pool terrace while you were there? Can you post some pictures please and any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! --Kelly

Yeah, Lisa! You posted those flower pics a while back. I'm new to this site, so I've just kinda been scrolling through, taking it all in. But I saw those flowers and loved em! I have sent Pilar a few bouquet pictures, and all of them included peonies, which she informed me, would be very expensive. So, I'm looking for flower ideas.....not too thrilled with the resort options.....

$4 for napkins.....that's crazy!!! Thanks for the scoop! I will prob stick with the included white napkins!