erinandchad

It did feel like a scaled-down wedding reception. It had all the necessary elements and it was perfect for our small group of people. Our guests were mostly parents/grandparents, with some younger friends/siblings, but overall we're a laid-back bunch. If we had more guests who were a little more rowdy I can totally see wanting to do a private event with a DJ. Good luck with your wedding planning! I will say though that the waiters didn't seem to understand why I would want to take the wedding cake back with me and freeze it. They didn't even have a container to put it in. Oh well, we were willing to skip that tradition. Like our married friend said at the time, "it never tastes as good as you think it will".

We just got back from our wedding October 15 and did the reception dinner reservation at El Caribeno with 15 guests... and we LOVED it! I actually think a private event would have been an unneccessary expense given how perfect El Caribeno was for our group. The restaurant atmosphere was perfect for a reception. They set us up in front in the elevated part of the restaurant and all the other resort guests were down below, so it felt private to us. We had a separate bride-groom table and a cake table. The best part was a piano player palying music all through the reception, and he also played special songs for our first dance and our dances with parents. There was a large area that was good for dancing near the piano. It felt so special and we do not regret skipping out on a private function. Of course we were there during low season so it might have been different if the restaurant was full of people. The food was just okay but we found that didn't bother us at all.

That's what I thought we would do, but our photog (Sascha Gluck) had serious concerns about not being allowed on the property. Since we really wanted him as our photographer I decided to get something in writing about the outside vendor requirements, bite the bullet and just pay whatever we needed to have him. We're going pretty cheap for the rest of the wedding (i.e., dinner reservations instead of private reception) so it's worth it to us to spend the extra dough on good photos. Your photog may be okay with sneaking around... If it were totally up to me, that's what I'd try to do. Honestly, has anyone's photographer EVER been turned away on the wedding day? I'd be willing to bet no.

We're getting married October 15 and I have an email from Michele Farinas (Miami office) saying we need to book a room for our outside photographer. So that is what we did. I was originally under the impression that a day pass would work fine, but apparently that's not the case. They seem to be inconsistent about this policy from bride to bride which is disappointing.

Good for you! I asked the Miami coordinator about contract changes (Michele Farinas) and she said it wasn't possible. I guess I wasn't persistent enough. We were told that we need to purchase one night's lodging for our photographer, which is really silly because he's based out of Cancun. I think Moon Palace's vendor policy is just dumb and brides should put more pressure on them to change it.

Hi everyone, I need advice about where to book our dinner reservations for our reception dinner. To save money, we are not doing a private event and since we have only 20 guests we thought a dinner reservation would work fine. Has anyone else done this? What restaurant(s) do you recommend for the dinner reservation? It would be nice to have a place that is semi-private, so we can still hear well enough to do toasts, etc. I'm thinking we could head to a bar or club afterwards for some dancing. Thanks so much! This forum has been really helpful to me so far.

Michelle is our Miami contact too. She seems pretty responsive so far.

GeorgiaPeach, thanks for the reply - when did you get assigned a Cancun wedding coordinator? We were told that also wouldn't happen until 3 mos prior to the wedding. I am hoping I can ask the Miami WC all the questions I have for now until the Cancun one is assigned?

Okay, thanks! So basically, are you all able to book your locations more than 3 months in advance regardless of whether you are paying for it or not? We wanted to wait to see if we get enough room-nights before booking our location, but now I am worried all the good locations will be snatched up before then!

Hi, we are getting married Oct 15 2011 at MP. This forum has been really helpful so far! Thanks to everyone who has posted detailed information about this process. I was also told to wait until 3 mos prior to start planning. We have our date confirmed and our stay is paid for, but this exchange has me worried that we should ask about booking a location for our cocktail hour. We had just planned on the free reception dinner, but we might have enough guest room-nights to get a free cocktail hour as well. Are these events that you will be paying for, or are they complimentary?

Hi! My fiance and I are also very interested in hearing reviews of the Moon Palace resort photographers. We are getting married in October this year and are going with the free package, but we are thinking about using our resort dollars to add on a photography package. It seems like going with an outside vendor will be too expensive for us. Erin