May12

Hi Monica! We don't have a Cigar smoking crowd, so never asked about the roller, BUT there is a full on Cigar Bar that some of your guests may love! The Menu cards we had were made by our stationer who did our save the dates, invitations and everything else"paper" wise for the wedding. We LOVED working with her! Absolutely everything was customizable....from wording to colors to design...just chatted/emailed with her about it and she sent proofs. (She is based in St. Louis and we are in NJ, so it was all done via email, mail and phone calls...Still worth it! She is also WAY less expensive than most places I looked at. She is doing our friends wedding right now and their invites came out awesome...totally different from ours and very much their style. She has a knack of understanding the client and making it work in their style! Her info is as follows, if you want to check her out/give her a call: Ginger O'Hara. Serendipitybeyonddesign.com Email: [email protected] ph: 314-514-5774 The Ceremony is a half hour, especially if it is a legal ceremony. We had our blood taken the Tuesday before the wedding on Sat. at the resort in the room behind the reception desk in the lobby-super easy. ($200 USD cash to the Dr when he draws the blood) Also, your 4 witnesses need to be there by Wednesday afternoon at the latest for a Sat wedding. Nayeli will get their info and has to get everything together to send to the judge by then. IMPORTANT!! make sure the people you choose as your witnesses are aware that they need to sign AT the ceremony, as well as you and your hubby. You will need music (your guitarist would play if you go that route) You may also want to coordinate the color they wear-there will be pics. We were unaware of this "signing at the ceremony" until the rehearsal the night before! Luckily, the people who were our witnesses were my Man of Honor and a Groomsman, and their fiance's. The girls had our colors in their dresses so it all worked! Here are pics of the ladies signing....we also had to sign as well as the 2 guys but I'll skip those pics... No kidding.....you stick your thumb in ink and leave your print 4 times on each copy! (you also sign 4 copies) Something else to know about the musicians is that you pay for an hour but they are part of a Union, so to speak, where they get a 15 minute break every hour....so you really only have them for 45 minutes. And the soloist we were quoted was $550 IF we did it in addition to the mariachis...you do get one or the other as part of the gold package. So, not sure if they'll deduct the cost of the pics for you, but you may be able to negotiate it into something else. The on-site photographer will deduct it from his price if anyone is going with VIP. An extra hour of the reception for us was: $160 for the DJ and $16 per person....for each hour over, and they MUST know 1 hour and 15 minutes before the end of the reception unless you set it up ahead of time. We wanted to play it by ear, just in case, but didn't get the heads up early enough. As long as you have someone on that during the reception, you can decide then. Flowers....now there's something that can add up FAST! For us, 4 of our boutonnieres were free and we paid for the Groom's upgraded one to an orange cala lily which was $15. The bridesmaid's bouquets that are free are the "gold" ones. Everything above that amount will be an up-charge.... We originally were quoted $45 per bridesmaid bouquet for orange calla lily's(1.5 years before the wedding) The vendor changed and they became $230!!!! No joke! We negotiated, I compromised, changed the flowers and we ended up paying $50 per bouquet. My bouquet was an additional $60 because of what I chose. NOTE: flowers that are grown in Mexico are WAY less expensive. If you're thinking of a colored calla lily, it's imported and VERY expensive. White Calla Lilies (the large ones) are all over the place and less expensive. Private dinners can add up, especially with a large group. We decided to do a "meet up" at Cafe Kafe after the rehearsal. What they did was reserve tables for us at the Mexican Fiesta on Friday night for free. We told guests (and our wedding party) to either meet us at Cafe Kafe at our reserved tables for the group, or eat where they wanted so they could partake in all the resort has to offer, and then meet us there afterward. It worked our great! a little over half the group was with us for dinner, but the rest came a bit later. The other issue with the private dinner (other than cost) is you have a pre-set menu that they order from, not the full menu. they cannot guarantee all will be seated if you don't set it up ahead of time...it's just too many people. We didn't do lanterns, but they do have the curtains and flags down the path for free with the gold package if you want them. We opted for tiki torches down the path as well. Hope this helps answer some questions!

The X-Lounge was not private but there was no extra cost. What we realized in our prior trip to EPM, was that NO ONE is really there at night. They have quiet music and 1 waiter bringing drinks for you from the Sol Bar which is right up the path. When asking Nayeli (and our other wedding coordinators before her) about having welcome cocktails there, it was not a problem, and we could bring the docking station from the room...worked out great! There were a few people who came by, but it wasn't a big deal that they were there, and left soon after. We also liked the idea of doing cocktails vs. forcing everyone to do dinner somewhere, especially when we had gust who arrived later that night. It was also a good starting/meeting point where we had the place to ourselves, and then went up to the Martini bar later...with those who were still in party mode!

Congrats Ashley!!!!! So happy for you, and it sounds like it all worked out beautifully! Post some pics when you can! You make a REALLY good point about the reception....In the states we're used to dancing throughout the entire dinner and reception, but in Mexico, they want to get the dinner part over with and THEN do the dancing. My Maid of Honor caught onto this pretty quick while we were listening to mellower "dinner" music, and we changed it up. They even want to do the cake cutting asap. Just make sure to talked to the DJ (if you have one), your wedding coordinator and the Captain at the Reception, to tell them how you want it to flow. We had a 4 hour reception, dinner included, from 7-11.

Thanks for the complements Ladies! I know a lot of you have probably seen our slide show on YouTube, but if you haven't, here's the link... or search on YouTube for "Sheryl and Frank's wedding weekend at Excellence Playa Mujeres Mexico". As for the photographer, we used the in-house photographer, Juan Carlos Lancelotti. It is VIP Photographers or Blue Lens- same thing. We had them following us around for 3 days including our excursion to Tulum and Playa Del Carmen, Welcome cocktails, the spa day for the wedding party, rehearsal dinner, the wedding day from getting ready to the very last moment we were there, and a TTD shoot we did in Isla Mujeres 2 days after the wedding. We negotiated a price with him that was WELL worth it, and less than some other photographers were charging just for the wedding day. We really wanted the moments and our group's personality captured...we've got some characters! Trying to do anything formal with our group is/was exhausting, so we did miss out on some pics that would have been nice to have, but we did get exactly what we asked for. Who you have taking your photos will depend on how long they are there with you. We had the luxury of having them there for everything because, well, they were there! No appointments or fees needed to get them on the property.If I had a do over, I'd write a list of all MUST HAVE photos and tell him to not stray from it, even if at the time I'm telling him something else! I am trying to find pics that explain the resort area a bit in case you've never been there....I've got a ton so just ask if you're looking for something. As for the bars. Algeria is the late night "disco"type bar that is located behind the theater. We went there a couple of times and when we went after the reception at 11:30ish it was PACKED! They were playing 80's music and everyone was having a blast! This is a pic of my Man of Honor playing bartender to some guest...we got there early one night and no one was there so he stepped in! The Martini Bar- located in the lobby and is open ALL day and night until 1am. During the day(and sometimes at night) Fidencio, the bartender is there serving some of the best cocktails! DO NOT miss his Mojitos...the best I've ever had! The Martini bar at night. A lot of folks meet up and hang out here in the evening and can get really packed...The AC feels great and there are a ton of couches and chairs to lounge around on. It's in the middle of many of the restaurants The bar to the right is Cafe Kafe-this was a set up for the Mexican Fiesta when we were there for Independence Day. To the back of the pic in the inside area is the Theater, and there is a bar to the right in the Theater. If you walk by the bar and behind the theater, there's a path that will bring you to Alegria. It opens at 10, has great coffee and stays open 'till 1am. Cafe Kafe at night- some of our group hanging around at the tables surrounding the bar. To the right of this pic is La Habana, the cigar bar-if anyone is into that. On the other side of the bridge is Revive, the juice bar. (yes, just juice) It's right outside the Spa. This is Blue-the swim-up bar. The lobster house is right above it. These Cabana are so cool! These are near the spa bridge on the lazy river pool...they will bring you drinks here too! waiters are everywhere...grab some chairs in the water and some rafts and you're golden! Those are some of the Excellence Club swim up rooms that face the main pool...not so "remote"....try to stick to bldg 9 or the secluded area of bldg 8 if you have a swim up suite in an Excellence Club room. The Swim Ups around the lazy river pool are more secluded. The building behind the Mariachi Band is Sol. This is next to the pool and just above the X-Lounge. It's the meeting point for a lot of activities they do during the day, and a great place to grab a drink if your headed for a walk around the beach area. The path down to the X-Lounge which is on the left side of the pic. On the X-Lounge during cocktail hour At the entrance to the X-Lounge...stilettos do not work well here... X-Lounge at night during our Welcome Cocktails. A waiter will come around and take drink orders or you can go up to Sol to get your own drinks. We told them to bring glasses and keep the bottles of champagne coming....made it less of a wait for the champagne drinkers. We made a playlist for the iPod and brought the Bose radio/alarm clock from the room...work our great! Was loud enough with a large crowd all talking at once, but not overpowering. We did not get a pic of the Excellence Club lounge or Bar, but honestly, we weren't there much. Building 9 is near the Gazebo, but the rest of the Excellence Club rooms are on the other side of the resort, closer to the spa. Just didn't make sense to go there especially when we wanted to spend most of the time with our guests. The best "Bar" ever, is when you finally have "alone time" and get room service and drinks delivered to your rooftop!!