JenniferH114

@@hapykat - No, but that would be funny! I'm going to give everything to Jessica with a picture so they can *hopefully* replicate as best they can. Yes, Jessica sent me pictures of the vases. I'll dig them up.

Can you send it to me too, please? jhowe114@gmail (It was making my email address weird... it's gmail.com)

I still can't see it. Maybe it's my computer. The other picture you posted worked. @@hapykat - Sorry, my mom is not making the cake! She made and/or ordered all of the items to decorate it and then she'll be bringing graham cracker to crush up as the sand. So, our cake won't end up being turquoise but the decorations will be on it. We are renting the vases for the centerpieces and bringing everything else ourselves. The resort has practically identical vases of different sizes that you can rent for $4 each. Jessica said they have a lot of items like that, you just have to ask and there's usually a small fee.

I think the picture with the lights didn't work. Can you try posting it again? I don't think I got a pic like that from Jessica. $60 isn't bad, in my opinion. Maybe it is $60 and she just didn't mention that. Anything we don't have to bring is a plus to me!!

The Mexican theme is only for our welcome party. Our wedding theme is just a beach theme. Here is what we are doing for centerpieces (my mom is putting them together). And then cake...our colors are a deep/bright pink and turquoise... (this is also being put together by my mom). We are also ordering custom maracas in our colors with starfish on them and names/dates/location. We have small white starfish to lay around the table and then we'll be having menus printed.

@@hapykat - I think the welcome dinner is worth it. It's only $25/person and you get a private bar for two hours and a four course meal. That's when we are going to hand out our gift bags. We are doing more of a colorful, Mexican theme for it. So we ordered tissue paper flowers in different bright colors and we are ordering colorful papel picado to hang as well.

@ Sabes44 - Jessica said they put up lanterns and string lights as standard decoration for Las Olas. I will definitely be confirming that with her again though. Also, there are two piers and only one is used for the cocktail hour, so depending on what kind of pictures you want you could use the other pier. We decided we are doing our "first look" before the ceremony so we can get some pictures out of the way ahead of time. We really want to enjoy the night as much as possible, so we don't want to have to spend a bunch of time taking pictures during the cocktail hour. Obviously, that's a very personal decision but I think it will work very well for us. We have our photog for six hours, so I'm thinking 3:30 - 9:30pm. (Ceremony starts at 5pm.)

@@hapykat - So, we are doing beach gazebo (ceremony), pier (cocktail hour) and Las Olas (reception). We chose Las Olas for a few different reasons. 1. Probably the biggest reason is that we are getting married at a beach destination, so why not take full advantage and be on the beach as much as possible? That's great ambiance itself. 2. We booked the private fire and percussion show as a surprise to everyone (even our parents!). This takes place on the beach and we didn't want to deal with everyone traveling back and forth to different locations. 3. The breezes at night tend to be pretty nice on a beach in our experience, so hopefully that'll help with the heat in May. 4. We just liked the look of it and had definitely ruled out some other locations, so it just fit for us. We will have about 30 guests, maybe 35. We did book the DJ. Jessica told me a while ago that Las Olas can handle up to 40 and still allow for a dance floor and DJ. We will likely be having one square table for all of the guests for dinner. Las Olas is not huge, but it is definitely big enough for those things, as Jessica originally described. Let me just say that the Foyer is beautiful! I was actually really surprised, and the view (while it is still light out) is awesome. You see directly to the beach/ocean. We are having a private welcome party/dinner. We originally booked Garibaldi Square for it but I was not impressed, so I think we are switching to the Foyer. Yes, it may be hot, but at least for the welcome party people will be in more casual clothing. @@Sabes44 - Have you spoken to Jessica about the x-lounge? I only ask because we walked by it and it is VERY small. She even specifically mentioned that they rarely use it for weddings and only for very small ones. Sorry, I am not trying to rain on your parade but just wanted to mention it. I don't know about the bathrooms, unfortunately. Yes, you have to walk across the beach/sand to get to the piers. You would actually have to cross less sand with the beach gazebo than going to the pier. I took pictures of Las Olas but I don't have them with me. I found this, which is a pretty good picture (if it works). You can see the people sitting down to get an idea of the size. It's not huge, by any means, but picture the table taking up about half and then the dance floor taking up the other half. <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g240327-d499896-i89018589-Excellence_Riviera_Cancun-Puerto_Morelos_Yucatan_Peninsula.html#89018589"><img alt="" src="http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/4e/50/dd/excellence-riviera-cancun.jpg"/></a><br/>This photo of Excellence Riviera Cancun is courtesy of TripAdvisor

@@hapykat - My fiancé and I made a stop at ERC last week to take a tour and speak with Jessica. Our reception is going to be at Las Olas and Jessica said they (ERC) hang lights and lanterns. (We are not bringing any.) She mentioned no cost for doing so. She also said, in terms of other decorations (menus, favors, etc.), that we will give everything to her and she will handle it. We are bringing our own centerpieces to be put together, so I am thinking of drawing a (very basic) picture to help show what we were thinking.

@@HNeal - Did the resort help setup your decorations or was that your responsibility? For example, did they hang the papel picado and lanterns or did you have to do it?

Did anyone do a symbolic ceremony and use ERC's officiant (or equivalent)? I'm just curious if you can give a brief overview of how your ceremony went. It makes me a little nervous that I can't see some sort of script ahead of time. Seeing as they do so many weddings there, I'm sure it'll be fine, but that's a pretty big part of the day so it would help it I could have an idea. Or did anyone write their own script for the person to read? I know some people have added things like a sand ceremony, so I'm assuming you just let them know. Just trying to get a feel for how it will work... Thanks!

@@HNeal We will be sending a music list and probably a do-not-play list. I already reached out to them once and they replied very quickly and sent a form to fill out with specific requests. It's nice to hear that you thought they were worth it. We just didn't want to be messing with an iPhone playlist all night, regardless of the number of people. It's worth the convenience, and I think it just adds to the fun of the night. Thanks for the insight on tipping. I have been hearing the same thing about photographers, especially if he/she works independently. We hired an outside photographer for the whole day; it'll be him and an assistant. If we hired someone that we knew worked for some major photog company and they were likely only getting a portion of the fees, then we'd be more inclined to tip (if that makes sense). I think most photographers do independent work, so they are keeping a large portion of their fees. (We tried tipping our engagement photog because we had such a great time with him and he actually genuinely refused it.) Good to know about Jessica, too. She seems to be such a huge help throughout the day, so I wasn't sure if tipping is expecting. This is helpful. I'll keep it in mind. Jessica already said that having two entrée choices is fine, but I'm just wondering if it's worth it. We are also doing a welcome dinner/cocktail reception, so we'll be choosing a menu for that, too. We are visiting the resort and meeting with Jessica in a couple of weeks (staying in Cozumel, not at ERC), so I'll ask some more questions about the menu options and possibly changing some things. I think we'll be able to get a lot of things ironed out when we are there. Does anyone have recommendations for a company that does ziplining? We would like to organize a private group event. It's okay if it's a combo tour of some sort, as long as ziplining is included. (The mother of the groom is just dying to go ziplining!)

@@HNeal - Thank you for the detailed review! Even though I am confident in our decision to get married at ERC, it's helpful to continue to hear positive feedback. Also, we booked the DJ but I have been reading mixed reviews. Hopefully we end up having a positive experience with them. I'm glad you had a positive experience with them. I'm sure I will probably think of more questions, but one that keeps jumping to me is regarding tipping. If you don't mind, how did you handle this? I know a lot of it is personal preference, but we definitely want to take care of those who help throughout the day. Some of it seems a little less straightforward (e.g. Jessica, the DJ, etc.). Did you leave anything for the server(s) and bartender(s)? Also, I think what you said about the entrées is interesting. We are planning on having two choices, but I'm wondering if it might be easier to just have one. (We'd have to do some modifying based off of the menu, though, because we aren't too fond of some of the protein pair-ups as-is.)

@@upstatekj - We are not paying for our guests' transportation to/from the airport. If you book through a travel agent, they generally bundle that in with the package price. Even if you book through an online TA site (e.g. Travelocity), you can add that to your package at the end. I believe it's about $40 per person roundtrip.

@upstatekj - We said Riviera Maya and used the resort's name, as well. I think more people know where Riviera Maya is, so we went with that on the Save the Dates, Invites and RSVPs.

@upstatekj - We will be going with the Caribbean trio for our cocktail hour. (We are getting the DJ for our reception.) We want the entire day to be fun and upbeat. I think the Caribbean trio would be more fitting for us for that reason.

@@Crystal17 - You might want to request a full copy from Jessica. That was just part of it.

@@Crystal17 - The fire show with percussion is listed on their entertainment brochure. I haven't asked her about it yet, but that would seem strange of them to list these options without them being available. I'll ask her about it at some point... it's on my list.

@@Sabes44 - We are going with the Gold package. I think we'll also do a private welcome dinner for everyone, too. We are staying in an "Excellence Club" level room, so we will be getting about $800 off the wedding package total. We really want our guests, who are obviously paying good money for the trip, to enjoy themselves and have a memorable time. Also, we just have the view of once-in-a-lifetime, so some things are worth splurging for, in our opinion. That being said, everyone has a different budget and like/dislikes, so what is important to us may not be to other people (and vice versa), and that's okay. One of the things we are interested in is the live percussion and fire show. Has anyone seen or done this at this particular resort? (I've seen shows like this elsewhere, but just curious about this specific performance.)

@@CancunTrish To clarify, I was talking about the gazebo that's not on the beach when I said I don't think it can accommodate as many people. When I had first glanced at your post I thought that's what you meant because I just saw gazebo and, while I know they call the beach option a gazebo, I just hadn't been thinking of it like that. Sorry!

@@hapykat - If you google "Excellence Riviera Cancun wedding photographer" (or something similar) you should get links to various professional photographers photos. I searched quite a bit when researching resorts and photographers and it is really helpful to see the weddings in action. Here are two with a pier ceremony: http://elizabethmedina.com/excellence-riviera-cancun-destination-wedding-photography-jamie-and-aaron-05-14-2010/ http://saraniweddingsblog.com/2014/05/21/katie-ken-destination-wedding-at-excellence-riviera-cancun/

@@CancunTrish - I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that ceremonies at the gazebo can only accommodate smaller groups (like under 25). Maybe double check with Jessica? Again, I could be wrong. We went back and forth on our reception location, but we decided to go with Barcelona. We are getting married on a Saturday, so the Lobster House is not an option. The ceremony will be on the beach and the cocktail hour will be on the pier, so that will fulfill some of the tropical ambiance we are looking for. We are getting married in May, so it will be quite hot out. Not even taking in account our guests, I know that I get overheated (and crabby when hot!!) very easily, and I’ll be wearing a full wedding gown. I thought the A/C option, though it might not be freezing like we are used to at home, will prove to be a nice break from the heat for everyone, not just myself. In terms of the ambiance of Barcelona, we are having a DJ, so that will add lighting. Also, my mom is extremely creative and has lots of experience decorating, crafting, planning parties, etc. We plan to bring a number of decorations, including table centerpieces, chair sashes, maracas, etc. to liven up the room. We are heading to Cozumel in November and have plans to take the ferry over and meet with Jessica one of the days. If we look at the space and it’s totally not for us we have plenty of time to change our minds. I'm not sure if I'm adding pictures correctly, but if they worked they are a centerpiece and cake my mom made for our engagement dinner with family last month. We plan to make the centerpieces for our reception and replicate the cake as best we can.