RESORT:

The resort grounds and pools are absolutely beautiful!  We very much enjoyed the pools - and the little pizza huts near them are definitely great as well!  They were clean, big, and when we were there, not packed at all! ;)  Let's not forget the drinks, drinks and more drinks that were readily available for those who were busy sunbathing and working on their tan! ;) 

RESTAURANTS:

Although the restaurants on the Cove Side were good, I would definitely say that the restaurants on the Spa Side are better.  We enjoyed dinner at Mundaca, Ventanas, Momonohana and La Trattoria.  Out of those four, I would say La Trattoria (Italian) was my favorite!!  However, with that said, each restaurant offered it's own appeal and the food delicious and the service was impeccable!

We held our Welcome Dinner at Las Ventanas and it was great!! We used our promotional dollars to upgrade the wine list and to buy Moet Champagne for our toast!  The staff was amazing and worked diligently to make sure everyone wa shappy and the drinks kept flowing...

WEDDING:

The day of our wedding the weather was absolutely PERFECT!!!  I was a little nervous about Cristina getting everything right since I Had brought so much over and was so meticulous about everything, but she nailed it on the head!!  However, although everything worked out great and we had an amazing time, there were a few mishaps that I wish would've never happened....

We used to the Spa on the Spa Side for our hair and make up.  My 2 bridesmaids, my mother, mother in law and myself went to get our hair and make up done at the Spa.  One thing I will say is that we were lucky that we spoke spanish because these ladies, although they get the job done, do not really speak/understand much English....

I used Hugolina for hair and make up and she did a great job!!   I brought most of my make up over to Mexico just to make sure I would be happy with the colors used, however, although at the trial my eye-shadows were exactly what I wanted, I quickly noticed I didnt' agree with this anymore the day of my wedding.  Hugolina was able to save the day and applied some other colors for eye-shadow... she pulled off the romantic look I was aiming for!! :)

Hair -  My hair was also done by Hugolina and she did an amazing job.  I wanted a loose hairstyle, and she definitely pulled that off for me.  I did a hair trial two days before my wedding day and was in love.  She definitely hit the nail on the head.  HOWEVER, I will say that I believe that Hugolina (or someone from the salon/spa) should've guided me a little better when it came to my hair.    I know that Hugolina did what I requested of her, but what I didn't know was how awfully windy it would be in the gazebo!!! By the end of my ceremony, my beautiful curls were completely loose and hanging down my back.  I don't know if it was the lack of bobby pins, or how loose my hair was put together (again, by request but I mean, I should've had some guidance :()... but the wind along with my veil made my head feel like my hair was ripping out of my scalp....... needless to say, this was definitely a con for me.  We quickly got some shots (and yes, thank God I had a veil on to cover the fallen mess...) and then I rushed back to the bridal suite to fix my hair and completely pinned it up.  Phew. 

COCKTAIL HOUR:

We were not able to enjoy not even a few minutes of our cocktail hour because we were busy taking pictures!! Sadly, I do not have any pictures to share of our cocktail hour *bummer* but I heard the food was really good and the set up was amazing!!  This is what I chose for our cocktail hour:

1.  Chicken Tacos
2.  Prosciutto with Melon
3.  Shrimp with Pineapple
4.  Roast Beef Board
5.  Salmon with Cream Cheese
6.  Mini Beef Kabab
7.  Sushi

RECEPTION:

Our reception was held on the Cove Terrace and although the view was beautiful and everything was set up exactly the way I wanted it... (minus the candles being lit because it is sooo extremely windy up there... *thumbs down*), I will say that I was a little disappointed when I got up to the Terrace and saw how dark it was up there!!  The Cove Terrace was perfect for our party size (30) - but thankfully, our DJ had provided some light because if not, we all would have been sitting in the dark!!!  I didn't let it get to me though because as I said, we had some extra light from the DJ but had I known of this light issue up there before the wedding, I definitely would have picked another location.  All in all, our reception turned out beautifully!  We had a great, unforgettable time with our families and the service was impeccable.  I didn't get to enjoy much of the food because we were so busy dancing and all, but I did see our guests filling their plates with the deliciousness of it all!! ;)

MENU:

1.   Chicken Saltimboca with Marsala Sauce
2.   Stuffed Chicken Breast - Cordon Bleu
3.   Beef Lasagna
4.   Mixed Ceviche
5.   Mushroom Risotto
6.   Cesar salad with Chicken
7.   Chefs salad with variety of dressings
8.   Fried Rice
9.   Mashed Potatoes
10.  Russian Style Potatoes
11.  Sauteed Vegetables
12.  Bread & Butter
13.  Banana Rolls
14.  Chocolate Mousse cake with Pistachio
15.  Arroz con Leche

Cake:   I won't say that it wasn't what I wanted... however, it wasn't exactly what I asked for.  I had asked for a 2 layer PLAIN WHITE square cake and had provided 4 orchid blooms to be put onto the cake.. what I got was a 2 layer square cake that had branches drawn on it connecting to where the orchids blooms were attached.  Not an awful looking cake, just not what I wanted.  So okay, that's fine, not a big deal - one major major downfall??  I am not sure where our cake topper had been sitting, but when I went to look at our cake there were ANTS all over it.... thankfully, it was only a few of them, but you can imagine the embarassment Thomas and I went through.  None of our guests saw the ants, and thankfully we had gone with the fondant that you peel off and do not eat, but had we chosen the buttercream or if our guests had seen it, I am not sure I would be so nice about this review.... Fillings were chocolate mousse and tres leches.  We only got served the tres leches even though the top layer (chocolate mousse) was for us... our guests though got a mixed bag  - some got chocolate mousse, some got tres leches.. even tho the tres leches was their part.  One other thing... there were strawberries in our cake - not a big deal, however, 1. it wasn't requested and 2. we don't like fruit in our cake :(

DJ - the dj was okay but I definitely wish we would have skipped paying for it and just doing the iPod dock.  I was not happy with them as I felt everything was soooooo rushed (when speaking of first dances, mother/son, father/daughter) - there was no break in between anything   and we would have appreciated it being a little bit more spaced out.   Also, I requested that a song be played for my mom (I wanted to dance it with her) and was told it wouldn't be a problem -- it was never played. 

The wedding ended at 10:30 PM due to the time restrictions when holding an event outside.  I am not sure there was anything else going on the day of our wedding even though I was told there would be ... I didn't see anything and this upsets me a little bit because due to the fact that there were other events being held on the same night, we had no other choice of locations for our reception and were therefore, not taken around to see the spots.  

One word of advice is to please make sure you go around and check the locations out.  I am not sure if our wedding Co-ordinator was overwhelmed or what was going on, but I know that she never offerred to take us around to the locations we had picked and I was too busy explaining everything to even think about mentioning it. 

Yes, we had a whole lotta problems on our day, however, it was beautiful and unforgettable!! As you've read many brides say on here... you cannot sweat the small stuff... even if the small stuff really is big stuff -- what you need to remember always is that your wedding day is the beginning to the rest of your life next to your husband... and NOTHING at all can ever compare to that which revolves around that sentiment alone......

VACATION DOLLARS:

The resort promotion dollars are such a great perk!!  We were able to use most of our vacation dollars on the spa and were able to do a few tours.  Tommy is a photographer so going to Chichen Itza was a definite MUST for us!  If you are into history and culture, than the 3 hour bus ride ( ) is worth it... if not, skip to the next trip. Haha...  We also went to Tulum which was also breath-taking - the beach there behind Tulum is beautiful!! We skipped the dolphin excursion because we had recently done that, and also skipped the zip-lining.  We didn't feel too crazy about the fact that the trip to the zip-lining place was longer than the actual tour itself...     We also enjoyed a romantic couple’s massage, hot stone pedicure, manicure and Tommy even got a hair cut!

SHUTTLE:

Since there is no beach at ACP/ASP we did hop on the complimentary shuttle to Playacar a few times.  Let me tell you, the beach there at Playacar palace is beautiful and def worth the 20 minute trip there! :)

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Being that my husband is a photographer, we knew we had to have the ultimate best for our wedding pictures!! That is why from the very start, Del Sol & La Luna became our favorite group of photographers!  Not only was La Luna very responsive to every single question we had before the wedding, they were also very professional, responsible and not to mention, easy to work with once the wedding day actually got here!  We felt very comfortable with Rachel and immediately loosened up for some amazing shots!  We could not be happier with the pictures we received and are so grateful for the beautiful captures she photographed as pictures were one of the most important things to us!! Pictures last a lifetime!!  Thank you to the entire team for helping us re-live our day through our pictures!! Our TTD and Wedding Day pictures are absolutely stunning!! Here’s a link to our amazing slideshow…

http://lalunaphotographers.com/blog/gallery/rachel/weddings/nataliathomas/

VIDEOGRAPHY:

We also took advantage of booking the Resort’s Videographer and getting the Master DVD through them – let’s just say that I’m happy we got the Master DVD because the Edited DVD would’ve highly upset me had we only gotten that from our wedding… From using someone else’s ceremony audio (including saying names during the ceremony that were obviously not ours) to making the edited video 7 minutes vs. the 15 promised contractual minutes for the dvd… we were not happy at all with them and were highly relived that we used the vacation dollars instead of actually paying for this service..  I’ll leave it at that…