dzaccaria

Your guests must book through you (or your travel agent) in order to be counted towards your room nights. We had guests book on their own and they stayed in a completely separate part of the resort.

@@natalie25 I believe there are only 2 gazebos at Moon Palace- Bugambilias & Tucan. Then there is also a glass wedding chapel.

Unfortunately we only ended up with 64 room nights as some of our guests decided to book themselves instead of through my group booking. (We would have made the 75 if they had booked through my booking!! I was so mad about this and fought with my coordinator to have them included in my room count but they wouldn't budge!) So since we had 64 room nights we qualified for a 2 hour private function so we used that towards our reception and paid for an additional two hours plus a cocktail hour. (So we had the cocktail hour and a 4 hour reception) Definitely just be clear with your guests about the guest pass and let them know that it not only costs money for them to spend the day at the resort but you would ALSO have to pay for them to actually be at the wedding so they are basically costing you double the amount!!

@@jackielemman ... we had 8 family members stay at another resort. I made it very clear to everyone from the beginning that I would prefer them all to stay at Moon but I couldn't force anyone to. I didn't think it was fair to me that they decided to stay at another resort so I had them pay me for the cost of the day passes. Sounds horrible, but it just didn't make sense for me to have to pay this cost because they decided to save a few extra bucks and go to a cheaper resort. Moon will only allow the purchase of wedding day passes up to a maximum of 20% of the total number of guests. The passes were $94 per person. You would just count these people into your normal headcount for your ceremony and reception.

The cds were sent later with the albums.

We got two cds full of pictures!

@ jackielemman... I used the onsite photographer, Ocean Studio, for both photo and video and I loved them! As with anything else in life I read such mixed reviews about them but decided to use them since the prices were great and I did not want to deal with a vendor fee. I felt they really captured our wedding and knew the resort really well (since their office is onsite) so they knew where to take the best pictures! They took a lot of pictures of the bridal party on the beach which I LOVED and I seriously look at them every day! Feel free to add me on Facebook (Deanna Sauchuk) if you would like to take a look at my professional pics. They are not all on there but all of the ones that they put in my albums are on there so you can at least get a good idea! @@natalie25... we used Ocean Photo and we received our photos and video about a month after the wedding!

Smilenstacy - I would highly recommend getting prices from PSAV for any AV stuff instead of JSAV as they have been known to have MUCH better prices. (PSAV is an approved vendor) Miroslava was my main contact and she was great! Her email is [email protected]

Britt - We ended up giving our WC $200 because she was seriously amazing. We went there thinking we were gunna give her $150 but decided to throw in some more. Then we gave our photographer $50, videographer $50, DJ $50, and each bartender got $25 from us and a bunch of our guests gave them tips as well. We never actually saw our florist or anyone from Zuniga so we did not tip them. Hope this helps!

@@jackielemman We did maracas as our wedding favors and they were a HUGE hit! We had one placed at every table setting and I tied a note on each of them (the size of a business card) and on one side it said: "Instead of tapping on your glass, Heres a system with Mexican class. Stand and shake with all your might, To see the groom kiss his bride tonight." Then on the other side we wrote a short Thank You note to our guests. The maracas were ordered from Amols and were SUCH a great price! :)

@@agarcia1 We did the Italian buffet for our wedding and it was SO delicious! My guests all really enjoyed it and there were so many choices for even the picky eaters to choose from (like me!) Oops that was meant for @@ckl22 :)

I'm not sure if PSAV is only at Moon Palace or not. We had to pay for our cocktail hour and with 44 people it ended up being $1,000. (This is the price if you have between 41-50 people) Our reception was 4 hours long- the first 2 hours were free but we had to pay for the last 2 hours. This was $60 per table per hour. We had 5 tables so it ended up being an extra $600. (Note: this table count did not include our sweet heart table) Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Carlicardenas Hi! how much did you have to pay for 4 hours for them? I am thinking i would like to do 1 hr cocktail and 4 hours reception. They said I have to pay 2 more hours EXTRA even though it says that if you have more than 7 5 rooms you have unlimited events? so why wouldnt a cocktail hour be considered an event and just add one hour to reception? Hello! I believe with the unlimited events its only a max of 3 hours per day. For PSAV we paid $1,086.69 for 4 hours of a DJ.

Quote: Originally Posted by djsupay Does anyone know which locations for ceremony and/or reception are handicap accessible? I have not been able to get this answer from anyone at the resort after sending emails a couple times over the last 3 weeks.....The handicap accessibility is our only concern Both my grandmother and my dad are handicap and my godfather is in a wheelchair. We had our ceremony at the bugambillias gazebo and the reception at the bugambillias terrace. Both were handicap accessible and they are right next to each other so people did not have to go far! Please note that the resort is very good about giving people a ride around in the golf carts if you are handicap. I swear they were best friends with my dad by the time we left!

Quote: Originally Posted by ccawley79 Hi there, are there any recent 2013 Moon Palace brides around? I have a question about the remaining balance once you have reached 75 nights booked. We booked 82 nights and paid for a 7 night stay for my fiance and I. Since the 7 nights are supposed to be "complimentary" I thought that meant we would get a check back from the resort with the remaining balace (after we paid for music, flowers, etc). I just received the PO from the wedding coordinator and it says our remaining credits of $1,700 can be used for wedding extras only, no cash reimbursement. I just emailed her to ask because I thought I had read on here that brides had that money returned to them in a check. If anyone has an answer please let me know. My fianace is going to upset if we aren't going to get that money back. Thats one of the reasons we booked 7 nights for ourselves. Our wedding coordinator was able to minus our credit from our PO. I had heard some horror stories from past brides that it took months and months after their wedding to receive the refund check so I asked my coordinator to take minus it from the final total of our PO and she did! I worked with Renee on this. Let me know if you need me to dig up some emails confirming that they did this and I will! Would make it MUCH easier for you instead of waiting for a check!

Quote: Originally Posted by martap7 Went in for my first dress fitting this weekend, I just am in love with this dress...has to be taken in and have to find the right bra for it due to the back being so low, but I cannot wait to see it when its all said and done This is so pretty! LOVE the train on it!! Have you thought about just having cups sewn into the dress so that you don't have to worry about finding a low back bra?

Quote: Originally Posted by Miriam005 how do you think of the two dulex wedding dress,in fact,I havn't paid for it ,I vacillated for a long time between the Chapel mermaid gown and flowers wedding dress Definitely the flowers! That dress is absolutely gorgeous!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ccawley79 Hi! Wow, that is a small world! I live in Watertown and work in Boston. I just looked at your wedding review...so amazing! I hope ours goes as well as yours. The pictures were great! I am hoping we can have the dinner @ Arrecifies. I'm just waiting to hear back from Renee. She initially said it was a 30 person max. I just noticed your wedding was just in May so could they really have changed the rules already? Hope not. I'd rather not have to pay to decorate another terrace if I can help it at all. We plan to rent lights and a few other things for the reception but I think that will be enough. I just heard back from PSAV and they quoted me just over $1,000 for 4 hours of a dj. Sooo much cheaper than JSAV! Im sure your wedding will go just as smoothly, if not BETTER than mine!! Renee never told me about a 30 person max so you should definitely be able to have the dinner there! Maybe she's referring to inside the restaurant? I could see how there may be a limit inside but not outside! I loved PSAV! We did the 4 hours of DJ as well and besides our little glitch, that I'm sure you read about in my review, they were awesome!! My guests kept going up and requesting songs throughout the whole night and they played every request!

Quote: Originally Posted by ccawley79 Looking for a little help picking a location for a private event. We are having our reception @ Tucan Terrace on 11/22/13. In our group I have 34 adults, 3 teenagers, 1 toddler and 3 babies < 1 yrs old. I think having the welcome dinner on one of the other suggested terraces will be too much for these children to be out in the sun two days in a row. I was hoping we could do it in one of the restaurants but we have too many people. Does anyone know of any covered terraces or somewhere else that might work for us? I know there is a terrace outside of Arrecifies restaurant so I have asked for that but the coordinator said due to the construction that area might be changed around a bit. Can anyone who has been there recently help? Hello! Just noticed you are from Watertown, MA! I work in Cambridge/Watertown.. was actually just on Arsenal Street this morning! Small world! We had our welcome dinner at Arrecifes Restaurant which is right off of the Nizuc lobby. Its a Brazilian steakhouse and the food is AMAZING. They set us up outside on the patio and we had plenty of room! We had 36 people (all adults) and we definitely could have fit more! You should think about looking into this! Here are some pics to show how it was set up. The first shows basically how the tables were set up outside in our own private area. And the second shows how it overlooks the pool area of Nizuc. Sorry I don't have better pictures!

Quote: Originally Posted by Zavina Hey everyone! I just need some feedback from brides out there! I was quoted $725 from JSAV for the "indoors wedding package" which includes a projector, screen, dj mixer, equipment etc. Is this considered a good deal? I am not renting the DJ as I am having a friend do that but I need the equipment. Please help! Or give any suggestions you may have. Thank you! Hello! Im not too sure if this is a good deal or not as we went with a DJ from PSAV and it was about $1000 total. I would look into prices from PSAV as they tend to be cheaper! My main contact for them was Miroslava Arriaga and her email is [email protected] .

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsTobeD

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsTobeD Well I also booked photog based on the day pass fee they told me, I will definitely flip if they tell me otherwise. Their Ocean people are no photographers but just people with cameras! Ugh. I sent the STD but very willing yo change the place if they come with that BS. I beg to differ =) Ocean photo actually does a GREAT job so if any of you girls have them booked please know that they will take great care of you and you will LOVE your photos! Please do not bash a photographer if you have not used them before!