Let me first mention the positives of ERC:

The hotel is absolutely gorgeous! The grounds are the prettiest I have seen at a resort. The service is really good. The food is decent. Some restaurants are better than others. The breakfast is awesome! The room service takes a while but it is a really cool option to have. The rooms are very clean and very pretty. The shower is awesome! The spa is amazing! I would highly recommend this place for a honeymoon or just a vacation. It truly feels like paradise.

Now for the cons..

Igot married at ERC on April 30th 2011. The year prior to this date I spent planning and researching and emailing the coordinator. It takes them weeks to get back to you. I got used to that so any questions I had I would know that I would receive an answer for a while. I printed all of my email correspondence with Nayeli (the wedding coordinator) and kept them in a notebook. Before I went I sent a long email confirming most things that we discussed.

When we arrived we met with Nayeli to go over flower options, linen options and other details that you choose when you arrive. Everythign that I had mentioned in emails prior to me arriving seemed to be forgotten because she would ask me questions on things that I had already discussed with her. She had a form that she would jot down notes on but most of the things we discussed in our meeting I noticed that she didn't take any notes. I just figured that she was really good at remembering details since she does do this every day.

Long story short, if you plan on making your wedding anything outside of their box wedding package good luck to you bec they don't seem to be capable of that. Examples:

• I discussed with Nayeli that I wanted plenty of candles running down the middle of the dinner table. I even provided her a picture of how I'd like it to look. She agreed yet not one candle was anywhere to be found.
• I discussed with Nayeli how I wanted the napkins folded bec I had put together starfish place settings and wanted them to lay on top. I even showed her a pic. The napkins were not folded in this way when I arrived.
• I discussed with Nayeli that my maid of honor will perform a song on her guitar durign the ceremony. She agreed and said that after I arrived and the minister said a few words she would introduce my maid of honor. well the minister had no idea about this and so we had to stop her in the middle of her script to let her know it was time for my maid of honor.
• I discussed with Nayeli that we were goign to say a personal statement to each other before saying our vows. the minister had no idea this was in the plan during the ceremony and we had to mention this to her during her long script.
• I discussed with Nayeli that we wrote our own vows for the ceremony. during the ceremony the minister announced us to give our vows but then at the end she didnt mention us exchanging rings. So in the middle of her script we had to interupt her again to remind her of the rings. she told us that comes later. (huh?) so then a few minutes later after more of her script reading, she had us repeat the tradional vows to each other! so basically we gave two sets of vows.
• I discussed with Nayeli that I did not want a sand ceremony (to save time for our other items). sure enough, the minister had sand ready to go during the ceremony.
• When I arrived at the alter our mics didnt work. We had to stand there for 5 minutes so that they could fix the mics. For them to perform several weddings per day all year long you would think that this type of mistake wouldnt happen.
• I made my own guest book and explained to her how I wanted it set up. she agreed but when I arrived it was not at all how we discussed
• I explained how i wanted the flowers on the table but that too was ignored. She said she would take the bridesmaids bouquets and use them after the ceremony to decorate the table. this never happened.

These are just  few items that went wrong because of the coordinator. As long as you dont do anything outside of the box, she should do fine but if you want to personalize it in any way just prepare yourself for mistakes. There were other weird things like the "champagne breakfast in bed" that is included in the honeymoon package not really being in bed. When the waiter brought it in he put it on the table. It was no different than room service except with room service you get more food.

After the wedding I went to discuss everything with the general manager of the hotel. All he could offer to us was free massages in the spa. we were not realy interested in this since we had just gotten massages and they were not that great (they were not bad but not great). He insisted that this is all he was willing to do. Honestly, the only thing i really wanted was an apology and an explanation bec i just couldnt understand why I was completely ignored during the planning process.

The "special romantic dinner for two" that is included in the package is nothign more than going to one of the all inclusive restaurants just like any other day. when i asked what was "special" about it they said that the will put a candle or somehting on the table before you arrive.  So at this point my husband is really pissed and he requested that we have the romantic dinner on the beach. They agreed and it was really nice. Normally it costs a couple hundred dollars to do this (why i am not sure bec the food is all inclusive) but they included it for free bec of all the wedding day issues. (or so we thought)

when we went to check out everythign on our bill was completely wrong. the hair and makeup that is included inthe wedding package was on the bill. the romantic dinner on the beach was on there. the massages that the manager gave us was on there and other items had the wrong price. when we asked for them to be removed they refused. when we asked to speak to the manager about the items they said that the managers were in a meeting and could not leave to help us. Our taxi was waiting on us and we needed to get to the airport to catch our flight. Nayeli finally came out and got the bill straight. Not once did she apologize for the mistakes of the wedding day. That is all i really wanted anyway. she could have cared less i guess. I was just another face on another day.

At the end of it all I loved my wedding; not because of the little details that I planned or the color scheme or the flowers or the decor but I loved it because I was surrounded by those I love the most. U underestimated the importance of this. I was so caught up in all the details and as you can see nearly all of my details didnt go as planned anyway. I had the best time there and I truly have the best memories from my wedding because of my friends, family and husband. I had the best damn photographer (delsol photography) http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=441 on the planet and my videographer (Mike at Cancun wedding Video) was awesome too. The videographer cut out the odd parts of the ceremony so that I can completely forget they happened. lol. And my pics are so amazing that I could care less now whether there were mistakes (Nayeli who? lol).

So my advice is if you are going to go with ERC for your wedding, don't waste a lot of time trying to personalize it. If it's possible, have a close friend or family member perform the cermony for you that way everyone is on the same page. And demand more time out of the coordinator. Tell them you want to do a rehearsal if possible.

I hope this is helpful.

Tiffany