May12

Hi Coko! Congratulations!! We were married at EPM this past May 19th and will be going back for our anniversary in 2013 so we will be there while you're there! You picked an amazing place for you wedding...you'll love it!

OK....My husband said he heard the Dr say something about checking for HIV...I missed that part, but they do want to make sure you are not trying to marry your brother! You'll get your blood drawn at the hotel on Tuesday or Wednesday and you have to pay the Dr in USD ($200) at that point. What is great is that is truly is a legal document! My Husband is retired from the Air Force.This week we finally made it to the base to "put me in the system" and get my Military ID card. There was no issue what so ever! We did not have to have it translated, register it at our county court/town hall, or anything else for that matter! When you get married in Mexico-legally, it is 100% recognized here!

We had DJ Mannia and on the event (CECO) Terrace and you really don't need a dance floor. There is an area under the pergola that defines it perfectly. I even asked about rose petals to further "define" the space, but apparently it makes it very slippery so we opted out of that idea. They do have great lighting that is included.

I asked about this being that we had several guests "sharing" vs being a couple in a room.They DO have curtains for those rooms. Just be sure to tell Nayeli and your travel agent ahead of time that the double bed "shared" rooms should have curtains. This was not an issue at all and the showers were covered. What you all do need to know about is the bathroom-toilet room. In ALL rooms there is no bottom or top to the toilet door and part of the actual door is glass. This is also RIGHT behind the open wall (where the bathroom mirrors are) to the bed. What this means? Not a whole lot of privacy!! The first time we went to EPM, my husband-then fiance- admitted to frequenting the gym bathroom..... I may be in the TMI area here but seriously, it can be an issue.

We flew Air Tran for the first time for our wedding...a little bit of a risk but the price was great and had to do it. So here's the deal. I called them a few weeks before the wedding and found out that they do not have a closet. What they suggest is putting it in a garment bag type of suitcase. We have a rolling garment bag and luckily my dress-on it's bust form that the tailor put together, fit in there along with my husbands clothes for the wedding and our rehearsal clothes...including my veil and shoes!It wasn't even wrinkled when we unpacked everything! My dress is a silk stretch jacquard and with not one ounce of poof so if you have a fuller dress, it may only fit the dress and shoes. (It's the London fog rolling garment bag if you want to check it out) You can carry it on the plane and will be safely over your head! Excellence picks up your dress and his clothes on Thursday and returns it back to you by Friday afternoon. (for a Saturday wedding) Everything was pressed/steamed PERFECTLY! No worries. Even if your dress wrinkles on the way down there, it won't be by the time you walk down the aisle. Another cool thing that air Tran has is the option to upgrade to business/first class. If you call 24 hours before your flight you can upgrade as long as there is room. So, for $99 a person, you can check 2 bags per person for free, and be the first on the plane with no worries about not having your dress and carry ons with you. Being that we had 9 bags, we only had to pay for 1 bag checked, and an overweight bag fee for another. They are pretty strict about the 50 pound limit rule. We flew this way there and back and it was a great experience with them..we were pleasantly surprised! We have all our miles and former status with United and US Air and were checking daily for flights but couldn't do it. If you do happen to have status with Star Alliance, chances are you'll get a free upgrade-somehow we always did going down to Cancun-not a lot of business travelers! If not, you might want to think about going first class-3 free bags each and up to 65 pounds with them! It's awesome! No worries about shipping things then.

We had the same dilemma. Just got married last month and we were in Mexico for a little over 2 weeks, with 31 guests. 1st 3 days in a non AI resort to get some shopping and things done. Several guests stayed there before checking into our "wedding" hotel to save some money and they were a great help with anything we had to do...probably the most relaxing part of the pre wedding week. We were then at Excellence Playa Mujeres for 7 nights staying 2 nights after the wedding and everyone was there by Thursday (wedding was on Sat). Most people checked out on Sunday...alllllll of them said they should have stayed till Monday-something to suggest to guests. There were about 7 of us left there until we checked out on Tuesday. We then went to Zoetry for the Honeymoon for 5 more nights. We purposely chose a spa like, more boutique style resort to wind down after the craziness of the wedding and could also be alone if people were staying the week after the wedding. Well, although Zoetry was a fantastic resort, we REALLY missed Excellence and probably would have gone back if the honeymoon weren't already prepaid! So my suggestion is this...if you do decide to go to another resort, make sure it's something of a similar speed to the one you had the wedding, or just stay where you are....maybe in an upgraded room or "club" area. Most of your guests will probably be gone a few days after(and you can even ask them to vacation the week before if you really want to-they'll understand.) Everyone will already know you in the resort you had the wedding, and you'll be able to spend time enjoying the resort doing non-wedding things. You'll be amazed how fast the time goes and 99.99% of it will be "Wedding". This would be your time to do the excursions, go to the different restaurants you missed, take the cooking class, etc...

We did some shopping down there for favors. We really wanted to have some authentic things for them in their OOT bags and for the tables. We scouted out the Market in the Hotel Zone and Mercado 28 when we were down there 9 months before the wedding, and went back in "negiotiation" mode the week before the wedding. We found these cool hand painted Margarita glasses that we used for favors along with maracas. Everyone loved them and they survived the trip home. We also had little bottles of tequila along with our favorite recipes, Mexican chocolate and a colorful Mexican blanket that we bought down there for the oot bag (along with the totes for everyone not in the wedding party-they had "special" ones) Things we brought down with us for the oot bags were the sunscreen, aloe, lip balm, 5 hour energy, Emergen-C, Tums, ibuprofen, flip flop bottle opener, and Starbucks mints. (and the backpacks and totes for the wedding party) We had 9 suitcases including our 2 carry on's each- and did have to pay some overweight charges for a couple of the 5 we checked. About 2 and a half of the suitcases were "stuff" for the wedding. Looking back, I am SOOOO glad we bought as much as we did while we were down there. We would have paid just as much for shipping as we did for the checked baggage.

Lynn is SPOT ON with this type of communication with Nayeli. You will be able to narrow down each detail and it makes it sooooo much easier for her and you! You may not hear from her for a week or 2, but you'll have more questions answered in each email. Just make sure to get price quotes along the way for the details you are thinking of doing or deciding on being that rates may go up or there may be a different vendor they're working with by the time your wedding day is here. Nayeli is great and will honor what you've already discussed and decided on.

We had a ton of spa "things" going on and they are fantastic there! Miguel is just plain wonderful! He will probably be the one coordinating everything for you depending on what you want to do. The day of the wedding, our ceremony started at 5:30, but people got there at 5. I had 5 bridesmaids, my Mother and myself all doing hair (and make-up for me). And my fiance/husband decided to get a last minute trim. We had 3 of the girls and Frank go in at noon, I went at 1pm and my Mom and the other 2 bridesmaids come in at 1:30/2. This worked out perfect because we were able to get back to the room with plenty of time for pics, order some room service and wrap up anything else last minute. I originally had things scheduled for 2 and 3, and once I spoke with Miguel, he recommended to make it earlier...thank god! We would not have made it had we not started at noon. Start early and get things booked. They can always change times, add people, move things around, etc. We started the spa planning part about 4-5 months out. You can go on to the resort website and there is a part there where you can get to and email the spa. They respond VERY quickly....the best response I've gotten...usually within a day, sometimes that day!

They always have some kind of backup for you and it will depend how many people you have and if you have a DJ. Some locations you can't have a DJ. We had 31 and a DJ so our back up was the foyer of the CECO Terrace (believe it or not). There is a big circular reception desk that they transformed into a bar, and although we ended up having it outside, they still set it up in there. Our entire reception was set up inside because of rain earlier, and then they moved it back on to the Terrace last minute(when it dried up), but they left the bar and DJ set up inside. We decided to do it there vs one of the rooms because the foyer is actually pretty nice...leather couches, art...similar to the lobby. You can see in there with some of the reception pics we have, if you saw our pics on the YouTube slide show. (and the DJ "stuff" was inside, but the speakers and MC with his cordless mic was outside with us.) Another thing to think about with some of the other locations is how long you can have the reception if you have a DJ. Some places need to be over by 10. Ours ended at 11:30 and we would have been able to extend it if we had a que earlier...With DJ Mania you need to tell them an hour and 15 minutes before the end of the reception, if you'd like to extend it. They told us 5 minutes before the last song...not sure where the time went, but it was too late for us to extend it. SOOOOO, if you are thinking about possibly extending your reception time but don't want to do it ahead of time just in case the crowd winds down, etc... (we wanted to see what the vibe would be before we committed to an additional cost) Tell the DJ during your meeting a few days before, and the Captain during the reception that they need to alert you of the time and ask THEN if you'd like to extend the wedding. Hope that made sense!

We checked out the ball rooms inside the CECO Terrace and they look like any other room you'd see at a wedding or conference. Our concern was that we'd have to add a lot to it to make it look special where outside on the Terrace is just stunning all on it's own. We were worried about the heat as well, but it wasn't too bad being that the wind was non stop. Should have re-thought the design elements we had...wind never entered my mind in the planning process. The thing about the summer is that it is during hurricane season so you run more of a risk with rain and wind. We've been there at the end of August/beginning of September and it was hit or miss during the day with rain, but beautiful at night.

Hey Shannon! We had our reception at the CECO Terrace and I did the same thing...thank god because I must have re-flat ironed my hair 3 times! So, YES, there is a private bathroom there. We grabbed the shoe bin basket from the room, lined it with white cloth napkins and filled it with the necessities. Nayeli said she had a basket for us, but that was actually perfect so we just went with it. Don't forget a Tide stain remover stick! It came in handy! They can also move the flowers from your ceremony to the reception so because of the crazy wind the night of our wedding, they ended up in the bathroom and looked great! I have a pic of us in there, but for some reason I can't upload it. I'll try again later for you... -Sheryl

Hola! We have THOUSANDS of pictures and we're still trying to figure out which ones we want for our "book" that he is putting together. We had Juan Carlos(the in house photographer) for everything... an excursion to Tulum and Playa Del Carmen, Spa day for the wedding party, welcome cocktails, rehearsal dinner, wedding-including getting ready, ceremony, cocktail hour and to the VERY last minute of the reception, and TTD in Isla Mujeres. Here is a link to a slideshow he did for us that we put up on YouTube. It'll give you a taste of all of it.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFzYYWe7a6k Quote: Originally Posted by kshannon Hi there!! Have you seen any pics yet from your wedding? Did you use the in-house VIP for both wedding pics and TTD? I'm questioning using them..

You can alway check out a fabric store...they should even be able to cut it for you!

Congrats Sarah!! We did round tables and a "sweetheart table" for the 2 of us. Tables fit 10 but it's crowded. We did 5 tables of 6 and there was enough room without being too empty. 6-8 is probably perfect. We did not do fireworks but did do sparklers...if you go this route, order A LOT! People grab a few at a time. I had to tell the captain to stop everyone so we had some at the end! It all worked out fine, but I caught it just in time(and my husband was the worst offender!) We ordered 3 per person. We did it during the reception at some point,and then at the last song. We did an excursion to Tulum and Playa Del Carmen for the day and had the photographer join us....very much worth it. Didn't book through the resort, just on our own hiring Cancun Vans (www.cancunvans.com) It was $400 for the day for up to 16 people. One of the best rates I found. We negotiated a price with the photographer(in house) for $500 for the day, getting all of the pictures on disc, with some edited as part of our wedding package.

FANTASTIC! How funny...I totally agree with the do again! We booked already for our anniversary next year...that place is addicting!

We did a "street" style TTD in Isla Mujeres with the in house photographer...didn't want to roll around on a beach or cenote...not the best look for us! It was $550 and we had him as long as we wanted him. He paid for cabs and ferries to and from, and rented a golf cart to ride around on...it was a blast!

We didn't want to get locked into something and then having to pay the balance if we didn't have enough rooms blocked so we ORIGINALLY did not do that. As our group had a lot of procrastinators and the rates starting to go up, I knew for sure we had at least 10 more rooms of people who were booking, so we did a block 4 months before the wedding...more than half the group were in it. The cool thing about it was for every 10 rooms booked, we got a free "person" for the 3 day block time. I wish we had gone this way from the get go...we could have had 2 free "people" for the 3 days-or a reduction to our room. The stipulations around it may vary by the travel agent you have, but usually it is 3 days and if people book more days they still get that rate. If you KNOW for sure you've got a big group going, it's the way to go... there are also different airline blocks you can do too if you have a lot of people flying from the same place or on the same airline.

We JUST got back on Sunday...our wedding was May 19th. Our photographer was the in house photographer which actually is bluelense, but called VIP in the resort. We wanted them to capture our weekend and the vibe of the group and they got it! We are not traditional so there aren't too many of those photos. What I loved was that they were there following us around getting EVERYTHING! The head photographer's name is Juan Carlos Lancelotti and Nayeli (or your WC) can communicate with him for you, or you can do it on your own. His email is [email protected] phone: 011 52 998 1049968 If you go with another photographer for the wedding, it may be worth it to work something out with him for an event or TTD you may want to do in addition. Not sure if you saw our slide show he did for us being that it was in the middle of my way too long email, but if you want to check out their work(in our style we wanted) here it is again. We have it up on YouTube, but here's the link.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFzYYWe7a6k&feature=channel&list=UL Quote: Originally Posted by kshannon Ahhh you are so helpful!!!! Thanks so much! Moments that Matter are really good.. Ive looked them up. I LOVE their photojournalistic style I may just go ahead and book then.. when was your wedding?

EVERYTHING! Just always pay in Pesos...cash or tell them to charge your card this way...unless of course their conversion rate is not to your advantage, but I haven't seen that down there other than in money exchange places, which is not advisable. When you get the bill, it will be itemized out in pesos and a dollar conversion. The catch is that the dollar conversion is based on the "resort's" rate which was holding steady at 12.7% the entire time we were there. As you know, the dollar fluctuates every day and was between 13.4% and 14% while we were there. We told them to charge our credit card in pesos and knew we would be getting a discount for this based on the conversion rate that day being better than 12.7%. Your bank will convert it at the highest rate for the day, which again is to your advantage. We also asked Nayeli for the wedding "bill" the day before we checked out so we could look it over and make sure it was right. She got it for us within 5 minutes and it was less than what I expected...in dollars because that is how we have been communicating the prices during the planning. Because we had the house DJ and photographer, the bill for them was included as well. We had extra things we did with the photographer that we decided to do a week before we got there so we dealt directly with him for that and took out Pesos at the ATM! So, when you are anywhere and are negotiating a price, do it in Pesos, pull out your converter and make sure you are getting a better price than what they initially told you in dollars. EX: you're at the market (or in a cab asking for a charge to go somewhere) and want to buy something that they tell you is $40. Ask them "How much in Pesos?" They usually go to 400 or 460 Pesos...something like that. Well, now you just went from paying $40 to $28 or $32! THEN you negotiate in pesos....How bout $350 Pesos? Etc... you just went down to about $25. We paid the spa separately (did a ton of stuff for the wedding party as part of their gift and it was already 20% off as part of our package) We thought we'd be spending about $1200 but after paying in Pesos, we ended up saving close to $200!! Quote: Originally Posted by danak71 What exactly did you pay for in pesos? Was it just what was owed to the resort?

There are flowers to choose from, but I sent her pictures of things I liked because I didn't like the options very much. The only thing that was a little wonky was the centerpieces, but again, weather was the factor. The vases couldn't be completely filled with water with candles floating on top and rose petals on the table were not working (too much wind). Certain flowers are included, depending on what you want, but if you want an upgraded type, the will charge the difference. TIP...colored Cala Lilies are a fortune! This was my first choice for my bridesmaids, but the cost skyrocketed with the new vendor...we had to re adjust and compromise on a price. We did have some local flowers (literally-they picked them from the grounds) for the ceremony that we wanted on the table. They didn't charge us for it. I think a lot will depend on the package you have. Do you have the flowers catalog?

YAY!!! You will love her!!

By the way...Frank (my Husband...that's so weird to write!! ), said to tell your fiance's to get an ap on their phone that has pesos/ dollar currency conversions! Made it very helpful for us when negotiating things down there!

Thanks so much Amanda! I would start sending things asap! We started a year and 9 months out, once we knew we were getting married there and had visited the property. We couldn't do too much other than gather information (and prices) until we could book, which was a year out (had to wait for rates to be published). As soon as you start nailing things down, the sooner you can move on to the next thing...or narrowing it down. Ex: you may have a question about flowers. Head it as FLOWERS and then subhead each type...your bouquet, bridesmaids, boutonnieres-groomsmen and fiance, corsages-mom's etc, centerpieces for reception, flowers for ceremony, hair, anything else you can think of. then send pics, ask questions, tell her what you're thinking and get a price quote on everything under each subheading. This was REALLY helpful when we got prices ages ago and with a different coordinator...since that time, the florist vendor changed and so did the prices/styles. We were able to negotiate and get something we liked at the price we were quoted originally. We did this with EVERYTHING and felt good about the direction we were going in and knew when we were done, had the price and could move on. Even when we forgot something, I added it into the heading it belonged under... The big thing that started to guide us with all of this, believe it or not, was using a different color each time we sent emails...we knew what to look for and it made it quicker....trust me, there was a TON going back and forth when all was said and done, and it made it sooooo much easier...for both of us! With this type of email, I found I got a ton of info at one time and made it easy for her to find and reply to it. We had about a week between each email but so much got clarified each time that it was really minimal once we got close, and I feel like she really knew what I was thinking by the end of it. Any questions I had at the last minute, was just last minute things we thought of. I was stressing about cost and the estimate, but because I had everything along the way, there was only 1 miss with the cost of the ceremony centerpieces and she fixed it within the day I sent the email. By the time we got the final estimate, it was perfect, and less than I thought it would be! And even better once we paid in Pesos!!

Welcome back Mrs!! We looked for you in the lobby bar on Wednesday but didn't see you there. I thought I saw you a couple of times in the resort but wasn't sure it was you. I'm sorry we couldn't connect! We DID however, crash/spied on your wedding!! (we were standing under the ledge of the hut thingy in between the bar and the gazebo.) You looked absolutely beautiful rain or no rain, and there was so much love in the Gazebo with your group...and the way your husband looks at you...breathtaking! We were teary-eyed! I'm sorry you had so much difficulty checking out..I hope it all works out! Congratulations again! Sheryl Quote: Originally Posted by Ally Marquis hello all! well we just got back from our wedding/ honeymoon. the week was fantastic. they treat you like absolute royalty and are all so nice. the wedding was fantastic, future brides make sure you go over your menus with your coordinator, not just that you have silver/gold menu number whichever. they tried to bring us salmon instead of beef, but Alex fixed it quickly. they did not bring us all our appetizers either, which was a bummer. we ended up not being able to have a reception, except for the dinner because of the rain. now onto the negative side, of course on the day we leave. if the week hadn't been so amazing i would not go back there ever. we went to check out at the excellence club lounge, and they said we had a charge of $1500!! and we said what for? well, it was for the excellence of love package, that N knew all along that we had and said that as long we were in the excellence club it would complimentary. NOT SO MUCH! so we ended having to go to the front desk and fight with them for 2 hours, and of course no wedding coordinngator was there. so my parents had to intervine because i was at the point of ripping somebodys head off and so was my husband. we showed them the email and they kept saying we have no proof and they have no proof, and finally i said IM LEAVING! and they wouldnt not let us leave without the security pass. in the end my mom had to put her credit card down until they got a hold of nayeli which with the rate of her replys back could take weeks. i hope no other bride has to deal with this.