all the love

Our wedding is over and now DH wants the spare room back *sigh* Here is our wedding stuff for sale. Sorry, I do not accept Paypal, only email money transfers. Bride & Groom beverage holders – blue text with rhinestones $5 Chair sashes – light blue/aqua – 25 never used and packed nicely $5 Hair flower/feather with center crystal. Worn once. Purchased on Etsy. $50 Blue & brown guestbook pen with decorative box $5 Aloe, 4 tubes from Avon. $5 Wedding dress, bought for TTD but used my real one instead; never worn. Includes matching purse and shawl $40 Flip flops, white with rhinestones. Worn for a few hours during the reception. I put them through the washing machine to clean. $10 White 'Bride' tanktop with blue rhinestones. Never worn, arrived in the mail after we left. Size L $15

Hi ladies, here is what I'm calling "thing I wish I had known about Jade." I hope some of you find some of it helpful. Sorry it's so long! Airport & Travel Read the customs form carefully. We got detained for two hours and fined for not declaring our wedding party gifts (Burberry sunglasses). You are allowed to bring in $300 per person of goods not for personal use (this includes all gifts, all OOT bag contents, etc). If we could do it again, we would give our wedding party their gifts before we left. If you are bringing in stuff you will have to pay taxes on, make sure you have the receipts! Your bags all go through an x-ray machine before you can enter Mexico. I had never seen this process before. We were late arriving and our private transfer had already left, so we got suckered into a private sedan for $80. If you don’t have a shuttle waiting for you, be wary about how much you pay. The resort has set posted rates for taxi, and a taxi from the resort to the airport is a fixed cost of $360 pesos (about $30). The resort is not right on the highway. You will leave the highway and drive about 5 minutes into the town of Puerto Morelos and then you will drive out of town down a windy road for a further 5 minutes before reaching the resort. If you arrive after dark, it totally feels like they’re driving you out to the middle of nowhere. The Resort The front desk staff will provide you with change (for tipping). We used mostly $20p notes for tipping. Ana and Pilar’s office is located in the same building as the photo desk and spa. It is on the main floor behind the photo desk. The resort can send your dress out for cleaning! Pilar offered this the day after our trash-the-dress session, and it hadn’t even occurred to me. It was $40 and they did an amazing job. I was quoted $300-$500 at home! The housekeeping service was inconsistent at best. They often forgot to leave new towels or bathmats or replenish the soap, and we never once got the nightly turn-down service (except for the wedding night, with rose petals and a bath drawn!) Your room should have robes and slippers. Call the concierge if they are missing, because they are quite nice to have. We didn’t even know we were missing the slippers until almost the end of our vacation. =( The resort means it when they say the adults-only pool is adults only. Children are evicted very quickly. Keep your patio door shut or you will have geckos in your room. My new husband performed the heroic act of evicting one by catching it by the tail with a face cloth. The resort kills them rather than catching them, so best to keep them out in the first place. Restaurants and Food Remind your guests that they do not need to make dinner reservations at any of the restaurants. Many of our guests did buffet the first night because they assumed they would not get a reservation. If you eat outside at the buffet during the day, watch out for birds. The ceiling canopy is open and we saw people get pooped on. Two of the restaurants require men to have long pants, collared shirts and closed toe shoes, and they enforce the dress code pretty firmly. We saw a few groups denied entrance. We did dinner around 6 every night and never had to wait for a table. Restaurants all filled up by about 7pm and were full until well after 9. Any guests with food allergies or other dietary restrictions (in our group it was Celiac) should chat with the concierge early in the week. They are more than willing to accommodate these things but need to know ahead of time where you plan to eat each night. The food is never hot, anywhere. It was usually lukewarm. The room service takes a LONG time at night. When you are drinking in your room and think “hey, a late night snack would be awesome!†it will likely take 1.5 hours to arrive, and everyone will have left or passed out by then. The bartenders –especially at the Mix and in the preferred lounge - make the drinks very strong. The Beach The beach is quite rocky, and I would recommend water shoes, especially for children. There is a small sandy section at each end of the resort, but it is mostly rocks. There are bugs, especially at night, we think they were on the beach. Many in our group ended up with lots of bites on their legs, and they are itchy for days. Not sure if bug spray helps, we didn’t have any. We didn’t go, but the snorkelling is apparently amazing, either on your own or with a tour through the reef. You are not allowed to climb the lifeguard tower, even in your wedding dress. The ‘romantic dinner on the beach’: I recommend pants (that was the night I got all my bug bites). Also, ours was only lit by 3 candles and the server had to use his cell phone to show us the food we were eating. The Wedding Take super-strong eye makeup remover – the black eyeliner that Angel used took me 5 days to get it all off. You can have round tables on the Festival Terrace, I saw it! We were supposed to have that too but there was some sort of communication error. The sun sets FAST! I couldn’t believe how quickly it was absolutely pitch black out after the sun went down. It was nice to hear the waves from the festival terrace but there was no view. The outside eating area for the buffet during the day is the Festival Terrace for weddings. They pull down most of the blinds between you and the buffet, but we had a few people cut through our reception to get to the buffet. We found the beach very loud, between the waves and the wind, and during the rehearsal we chose to move our ceremony onto the grass off to the side of the fountain. Other If your FI is wearing shorts for the wedding, don’t let him ride the mechanical bull before your wedding. The bruises last for days (I believe the mechanical bull is out every Saturday) Book your couples massage ahead of time by email (ours was included in the Divine wedding package). It was wonderful. The spa has some great facilities so plan time before or after your massage for the whirlpool and steam shower.

OK, so here is the deal on the terrace: it's quite long, and is a decent size, but regardless of how many people you have, the area for dancing is pretty small, and it has a curb in the middle of it. We didn't really do much dancing, but I can imagine that with lots of people and some alcohol, it would be pretty easy for someone to twist an ankle. I'll try to find a photo of what the curb looks like to describe it better. It would be tight for 75 people to dance in the space, anyway, unless they moved a table or two after dinner. Let me know if you have any other questions, we just got home yesterday so it is all still fresh in my mind!

Hi ladies, I had some issues with customs, so I thought my experience might be helpful to share. We took our wedding party gifts with us (9 pairs of Burberry sunglasses). I mis-understood the customs form and did not declare these, as well as all the rest of the wedding stuff that was "not for personal use" (all OOT bag items, chari sashes, favors, etc). You ae allowed to enter Mexico with $300 (per person) of merchandise not for personal use. Everything above that must be declared. They saw the sunglasses when they scanned our bags and started asking questions, but I didn't know what the issue was, so then they searched ALL our stuff and basically threatened to confiscate it all. We ended up having to pay a 16% tax on the value of the sunglasses (SO GLAD I had the receipts!) and they let us go with the rest of the stuff. My advice is to declare everything, and have your receipts. And give your wedding party their gifts before you go! I kept a copy of the declaration form, I will scan it and post it later incase you want to read it before you go.

Hi ladies, I just got home last night from our wedding and it was fabulous! I'll post my review shortly and I'm also putting together a 'Things I Wish I Had Known" list that I will share with you. I want to let you all know that I left with Pilar our bubble machine so it can be used for other weddings. You'll just need to take bubble juice for it. I honestly didn't even see it, but apparently my niece quite enjoyed it. We had them turn it on for the recessional.

Well, we are back from our wedding week and it was amazing! We got so many compliments about the OOT bags, and the things people used most were the Aloe, the sewing kits, and the tylenol and tums. I don't think anybody used the candles or bath soaps. My biggest recommendation about the OOT bags, if it works for you, is to greet your guests when they arrive at the resort and hand deliver the bags. Every one of our guests commented on how nice it was to have a friendly face waiting when they arrived, and it was nice to see their reaction to the bags.

This is what Ana sent me: Menú vegetariano Vegetarian menu Ensaladas/Salads Ensalada de rucula con láminas de pera con vinagreta de limón y aceite de olivo extra virgen. Arugula salad companied with pear layers, lime vinaigrette and extra virgin olive oil Esalada toscana, lechugas mixtas, tomate, champiñones, espárragos, endivias y duraznos californianos y alcachofas, con vinagreta de tomate deshidratado. Toscana salad, mixed lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, asparagus, endives, californian peaches and artichokes with sun dry tomato vinaigrette Sopa/ soup Sopa minestrone y espinaca Minestrone soup and spinach Plato fuerte/ Main course Penne pasta en salsa de tomate y albahaca con vegetales Pasta penne in a tomato and basil sauce with vegetables Lasagna de vegetales Vegetables lasagne Postres/Desserts Espuma de queso cottage y fresas Cotagge cheese foam and strawberries

Any suggestions on what to say in a thank you speach to the wedding party when only 2 of the 6 of them actually did anything worth thanking them for?

So we met with our photographer yesterday to go over the final details (only 9 days to go!) and they asked if there were any cool shots we wanted to try and I didn't really have any ideas. Is there that one picture you've seen that you can't wait to have your photographer take? Some cool pose or effect you want to try? I want to hear your ideas for awesome photo ops!

The reason we chose not to use the resort photographer was because we have photographers from home we have worked with and love and they are coming down with us for the week. We have 'donated' our photos from the resort to some friends of ours who will do a photo shoot with the resort photographer and they will get all their prints which are included in the package. If we hadn't brought photographers from home, we would have used the resort photographer ourselves.

I got Ana to agree to give us an extra hour of video since we weren't using the judge or minister, but with an extra $100 fee, which is about what an hour of video SHOULD be worth, rather than the $400 they charge. She did tell me it was a 'special circumstance' and that they are not allowed to make swaps, but she seems to tell that to almost everyone. I've heard from previous brides that it is sometimes easier to get her to agree to the swap once you are down there, but it sure makes planning ahead of time difficult.

We will be 32 of us in total, so quite a bit smaller than your group, and even I was worried about the size of the terrace. I'll let you know for sure how it is.

Hi, we are getting married at Jade in just two weeks, and most of our guests paid similar rates to that, from Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

Hello ladies, My wedding is at Now Jade in 15 days! I thought I might have some info that would be of interest to those of you in your planning stages. We chose the Divine wedding package. Food/Meals We were able to offer our guests a choice of two entrees for dinner, and got the numbers to Ana 1.5 months ahead of time. There was no additional charge for this. We were also able to mix and match the courses from the various menus in the planning book (from both the divine and eternity menus) There is a vegetarian option and a gluten-free option available at the same cost as a regular meal. Children's meal is half the price of adult meal For our 'rehearsal' we are doing a lunch. Ana told us we can't make a reservation without paying the $500 'event fee' but she told us that she would let the captin at the restaurant know we are coming and that they will try to accomodate us. We are doing a rehearsal lunch at Castaways at 11:30. For a welcome evening we are doing drinks and some appy's in the Lobby Bar, but it will not be a private event We were able to extend our cocktail hour to 2 hours (gives us more time for photos without guests having nothing to do) and paid for extra appy's so there would be enough food (we chose appys from both Divine and Eternity menus) Ceremony We are having our ceremony on the beach, with music from our iPod Ana is arranging for somebody to run our bubble machine at the end of the ceremony during the recessional Vendors We are bringing photographers from home The photographer included in our wedding package will be doing a photo shoot with some of our friends on a different day. Ana scheduled this for us We are not using a minister/judge (had a legal ceremony at home, having a friend marry us in mexico) Ana is letting us 'Swap' the minister for an extra hour of videography, we are paying only $100 for this additional hour. We are getting flowers from the resort's florist (bride bouquet, groom bout, corsages for mothers, centerpiece for head table, combining the flowers from the groomsmen bouts for additional flowers on the ceremony table - Ana also said they will use the dinner centerpiece here as well). Our bridesmaids bouquets are realtouch flowers we are bringing from home, groomsmen will not have flowers. We are using the resort DJ only during dinner (2 hours). We are not having a dance and will just go to the 'club' at the resort for dancing after dinner. We have not been in touch with the DJ at all yet, not sure if we will do this before we arrive or not We booked appointments at the spa for hair/makeup for the whole bridal party and mothers. Whoever answers the spa email is amazingly helpful and accomodating, and let me change the schedule four times (email [email protected] ) FI wants to hire the fire dancers to perform at the reception; we will book this when we arrive. Ana quoted us $800 for this Other Our wedding contract shows that cocktail hour includes Tiki Torches (if possible) and a welcome tequilla shot (for everyone I am assuming) that I hadn't heard about before We have the terrace tentatively booked for the reception but Ana said since our wedding is a Tuesday and nobody else is getting married that day we can choose a final location once we get there (also considering the pool deck...) Let me know if there are any questions I might be able to answer for you, and I will be sure to post a thorough review when we get home! Our wedding date is November 8th.

Shipping to Canada/US is included in prices! Blue chair sashes, 25 pieces, unopened and never used. $5 BRIDES invitation kit (includes invitations and envelopes for 12 invites, with brown ribbon and decorative brads) $5 Wine bottle stoppers, glass starfish (5 available). $12 for all 5

Your wedding is on the day we arrive! I'll be sure to look for you!

From what I've heard you can just let your room steward know your preferences for the fridge and they seem to accomodate quite well. A small tip early in the week and another partway through might help with special requests like this, but I don't see it being an issue.

I'm having a 3pm wedding at Now Jade, right next door to your resort. We made our cocktail 'hour' two hours from 3:30-5:30 (while we do photos), and then the dinner will start at 5:30. We are having a sit-down dinner, so we will spread the speeches out throughout the night between courses. We are doing the cake cutting right before dessert is served, so our guests can have cake or the regular dessert or both. Instead of having a dance, we're all just going to the bar at the resort after dinner, so our 'formal' reception is only 2.5 hours. Hope that helps!

I have a bit of a different guideline for tipping - if someone is running their own business (ie. the florist is the owner of the shop, or the person who does your hair runs their own business) you don't tip them, since they have set their own prices to incorporate this. If they are working for someone else and being paid a salary or hourly wage, then it is appropriate to consider tipping. Sometimes it might be hard to tell, especially at a DW, but that's my general rule for tips. The lady who does my nails works out of her home and sets her own prices, so no tipping. If I get them done at a salon or spa, I do tip though. Hope that helps some people!

I can't believe it's only 26 days until my wedding! I'm actually starting to get nervous, for the first time through this whole process. I'm not exactly sure what I'm nervous about...I guess just the idea of it all coming together the way I want at the end. How are you other November brides feeling? For those of you frustrated with the coordinators at the resort, don't worry. Ana has suddenly stepped up her communication and I've heard from her twice this week already. She requested my planning sheet, and then sent me a copy of the contract to go over, showing all of the charges and what they are for based on what we wrote on our planning sheet. Now we're just going back and forth about each item and she's asking for clarification about what we want, letting me know what they can and can't do, etc. I did a trial run for packing about two weeks ago and managed to get everything into two suitcases, both of which are under the maximum weight. FI's clothes aren't packed yet, but I am so excited that we can do it all with just two suitcases. Between that, two carry-ons, my dress and his suit, I already think we will be a complete mess at the airport. I don't know how some people can do it with 4 or 5 bags!

My goodness ladies it's been so quiet around here lately...I guess all of the most chatty brides have already gotten married! Either that, or the forum is not so comprehensive that every conceivable question has been answered. Ana just reminded me yesterday that she needs my planning for now, so I'm scrambling to make some last minute decisions. For those of you having a sit-down dinner where your guests have a choice of entrée, how did you/will you let the servers know who ordered what? I didn't want to tell people where to sit, but name cards on the table seems to be the best way to communicate this (ie. blue ribbon for pork and brown for fish). Any thoughts?