I got married on May 12^th 2011 at The Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico and I’ve finally got round to writing my wedding review!!!!! I knew I had to write a review for my wedding as this website was so valuable to me while I was planning mine that I think I should offer something back. I had the most amazing day and would like to thank everybody that was involved.

 

If you have any questions feel free to message me J

 

Summary:
 

Miami Coordinator: Liza Lizano (but was constantly changing)
On-Site Wedding Coordinator: Kalena
Wedding Date: Thursday 12^th May 2011
Room Block: Moon Grand Side
Ceremony:  3pm. – Wedding Chapel
Cocktail hour : 4 – 5pm Terrace next to chapel

Reception: 6:00 p.m. – 10pm Caribbean Terrace (on top of restaurant @ Moon Grand)
Professional Photographers: Lorena and Fernando of Photos in Cancun  (outside vendor) http://www.photosincancun.com/
Guests: Bride & Groom + 38

 

Contact with Wedding Co-ordinators

 

This was hard work, I won’t lie. Particularly with the Miami office. They take forever to reply and then you finally get an email from them and it will only answer half of your questions. It was so frustrating. However, once I got my venues confirmed, that was the main thing for me. I had to really really fight to have the Caribbean Terrace privately. I think this took 6 months of constant emailing for us to get this confirmed, but my persistence eventually paid off. I also requested Kalena as my wedding planner as I’d heard such nice things about her, and I was not disappointed. I LOVED her! She knows exactly what she’s doing and she is so sweet. She was so easy to work with and both my husband and I are so grateful to her as she really did go above and beyond to give us the perfect wedding.

 

 

Wedding Package

 

We decided to go for the Ruby package. We worked out what we wanted and this seemed to include most of the things we required. Because of the number of nights our guests had booked, we received a complimentary cocktail hour. This was well worth it, and so many of our guests still comment that this part of the wedding was their favourite. We chose the Asian hors d’oeuvres which included:

 

Assorted Sushi

Octopus

Chicken Yakitory Kebabs

Spring Rolls (people raved about these)

Tempura Shrimp (huge hit)

 

The cocktail hour took place on the terrace which is right next to the beach. It was really hot, so everyone took full advantage of the private bar at the cocktail party. The décor was lovely. There were tablecloths and ruby ribbons over the tables and plenty of chairs for people to sit down. It was a definite hit with our guests. I was conscious that we would be having pictures taken and would have hated the thought of our guests just being left stranded with nothing to do, so this was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Invitations and Wedding Brochure

 

My husband is so creative and very good at IT. We decided we were going to design our own wedding invites in the style of a British passport, and included information about the Moon Palace, prices, and an explanation, all in colour. We sent them out to everyone that would have been invited to our wedding if we had been getting married in the UK. Of course, we expected lots of declines. The lesson I learnt from this was that people surprise you. There were guests we invited that we were sure were never going to make it, but they accepted, and vice versa. A few of the people we thought would definitely come turned us down. It was a little heart breaking when you got a decline, but you are asking a lot out of people. We live in the UK and we were asking people to go to a 5-star hotel in Mexico. It’s not like you can just go for the weekend. We were both shocked at how many people came and it was enormously humbling. To each person that came out for our wedding we will be eternally grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally got our exact numbers, we decided to make a wedding brochure for everybody that was coming. We included a Mexico Luggage Tag which we also designed ourselves. The brochure included information about the Moon Palace, Cancun, and the wedding day.

 

 

 

We also designed a children’s colouring book and activity booklet for the children that were going with us; one for the plane and one for the wedding reception.

 

 

 

Personalised Party Bags and Gifts

 

At our wedding reception we gave out personalised party bags.

 

 

The bags included:

 

A bottle of hot sauce

A miniature Kahlua

Mini Maracas

Mini sombrero

Scented hand gel

Test tube of Tequila

 

I bought my bridesmaid some Vera Wang Champagne flutes (which I gave to her before we went as I didn’t fancy the thought of packing them in my suitcase). I gave my flower girl a rag doll which was wearing a similar dress to her which she loved.

 

 

 

 

We bought my parents restaurant vouchers, my mother-in-law a wedding bell charm for her Pandora bracelet and my father in a law a book. We bought our best man some Hugo Boss cufflinks.

 

 

 

 

 

Hair Salon

 

I requested Alberto to do my wedding hair and make up as I’d seen some of his work on here. I made my appointment for 11am (I was getting married at 3pm). My mum, sister, bridesmaid and I went over (Alberto works at the Sunrise Salon). I was quite pleased really as a few of my guests were getting their hair done at the Nizuc Salon so at least this way I knew I wouldn’t run in to anyone. I took lots of pictures so he had an idea of what I wanted. I don’t think he was expecting my hair to be so thick, plus I insisted he washed my hair. My hair took ages and I was getting so stressed. When he finished he did my make up, which I didn’t love, and had to keep telling him to calm my eyes down, as I thought it was too heavy. But overall I was pleased. I had to rush back as Kalena was collecting me in 40 minutes and I still had to get ready. My bridesmaid had to beg a coach driver to drop us off quickly at the Moon Grand.

 

Ceremony

 

As my husband and I had been to the Moon Palace quite a lot we always knew we wanted the chapel. Its surroundings are beautiful and we always thought we’d be safe in case it rained. A month before the wedding I had second thoughts and requested Bugambilias Gazebo, but it was already booked up. I am glad we kept with the Chapel as I loved the pews and it gave it more of a wedding feel. My only issue is that, however much you saw people cleaning them, some of the windows still show marks on the photos. It was really hot in there, but the air conditioning helped. It’s a good job I had asked Kalena to place the fans I had bought on ebay on some of the pews as the guests were using them to keep cool. We also had red parasols for the entrance which, again, I bought from Ebay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Décor

 

I bought 2 red parasols from ebay for the entrance of the chapel. I had also bought silk red rose petals for the aisle and red fans from ebay. I bought some white paper cones for the petal toss, also from ebay. I gave them all to Kalena at our meeting and asked her decorate the chapel. I purchased freeze dried rose petals from the Moon Palace. These were $35 and each couple got a cone. We purchased chair sashes and runners for the reception from the Moon Palace. I felt this was expensive, but I just found it easier hiring them rather than buying them and taking them with me. The white table cloths were free for the tables at the reception, the ruby red runners were $6 each (we had 5 tables for guest, a cake table and a table for the party bags) and each chair sash was $4, eeek! For 30 chairs it adds up. On reflection, I would recommend just having chair sashes on each alternate chair. I took red scatter crystals for the tables at the reception, LED flickering tea lights (real ones would have blown out with the wind) and votives from IKEA. Each table place had a starfish and each table name was an ancient site in Mexico.

 

 

 

 

Flowers

 

As part of my package, my bouquet was included (and 1 boutonnière, which we didn’t use). My bouquet was made up of red roses with no green showing. I bought little diamonds for the inside of each rose (again from ebay). This really set my bouquet off nicely. I also added a diamond starfish to it. I was really pleased with it. The price that the Moon Palace were charging for flowers was expensive, so I decided to look at an outside vendor. I discovered Marvin Jose Ku Kinil and emailed him ([email protected]). I found his contact details on this forum as he had been recommended. He was so easy to work with as we were emailing for a long time. I was constantly changing my mind and he was also suggesting ideas. He was so quick to respond to emails and he even accepted the booking without any sort of payment from me. It was that easy that I was so convinced something would go wrong with him, but it was perfect. My husband met him with our best man in the hotel lobby and they brought everything up to our room.

 

From Marvin I ordered:

 

 

4 red rose boutonnières = $40

2 Carnation spheres for the cake table (1 red and 1 white) = $50

5 red / white rose centrepieces in cylinder vases = $275

1 bridesmaid bouquet of Calla lilies = $35

 

The whole thing came to $400 which I thought was very reasonable, and I was so pleased with everything he produced. Everything was gorgeous. I would recommend him highly. All flowers and decorations at the Chapel were provided by the Moon Palace or myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horse and Carriage

 

As soon as I decided to have my wedding at the Moon Palace I knew I wanted the horse and carriage. It was also part of my Ruby Package. It was perfect, and the amount of people that stopped and looked! It was a perfect start to my wedding. My mum joined me in the carriage, as she was giving me away. She really enjoyed it too and it does give you that private moment just to compose yourself. It was so nice, as soon as I saw the wedding chapel all the guests were at the window waving and taking pictures.

 

 

 

Cake

 

As part of the Ruby Package we had a choice of cakes. My husband chose the cake he liked and I was fine with his choice. We decided to have 1 layer of Vanilla, 1 layer strawberry and 1 layer of lemon. To my surprise, the cake exceeded my expectations, as I hadn’t read great things on here about wedding cakes from the Moon Palace. I know everyone had a piece but I can’t tell you how it tasted as by this time the disco was in full flow, but looking at it, it was just what I wanted. I provided roses for the cake and a personalised cake topper, which I adore. I will treasure the cake topper forever. I used http://www.cakemates.co.uk. Kylie was amazing to work with and I was so pleased with my finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reception

 

I knew I wanted my wedding reception held on the Caribbean Terrace at the grand side. We are regular visitors to the Moon Palace and we always stay on the Grand side, and we quite often end our evenings there. I’ve always loved it as you can see the ocean, and the pool is all lit up at night. I was certain I wanted that area privately. I really had to insist on this with Kalena and it took me about 6 months to get it confirmed that I could have that area privately. Although we did have to pay extra for this, in my mind it was worth it. We paid $15 extra per person that was attending the wedding reception. Kalena made a sign for the area to say it was private. We chose to have a buffet at our wedding rather than plated food as we preferred those options from the menu. We chose the Cajun buffet and added beef lasagne for free. People said the food at the wedding was fantastic and some said it was their favourite food of the week. There was plenty of food as they kept topping everything up. We had a champagne toast and speeches, then everybody ate, we cut the cake and then the disco started. We hired the terrace from 6pm-10pm. When it finished at 10pm, it didn’t seem like long enough for us, so we wish perhaps we’d had it for an extra hour. However, as we were in a presidential suite, the party continued back in our room. At the reception we had created our own play list as my husband is super fussy about music. We felt we had the perfect mix and there was something for everyone. People were dancing the whole time, and having the bar right there was also great for everyone. We hired the IPOD, stereo and speaker package and disco lights in the tree. I can’t remember how much we paid for this but we were both so glad we had the technicians to work the IPOD and the disco lights set the scene perfectly.

 

 

 

DVD

 

I wasn’t that bothered about having a DVD of the wedding but it was included in our package so I thought I might as well have it. Even though I cringe watching it I am really pleased with it and it was put together really well. Plus I got to see the chapel before I arrived with the guests and groomsman which I loved. It also made me realise perhaps I would have liked the whole wedding and reception videoed.

 

Photographers

 

After so much deliberation I decided to use photos in Cancun http://www.photosincancun.com/. My husband and I both agreed that this was an important part of our wedding as we both love photos and my husband knows quite a lot about photography so he has quite high standards. I started emailing Derek Campbell from Photos in Cancun and I found him very easy to work with. He replied to my emails quickly and he immediately seemed to understand what I wanted. I looked at his portfolio on his website and loved his work. I also sent him images from another wedding, showing what I liked. I thought their quote was extremely reasonable, particularly compared to some. Looking back at the wedding they also stayed well beyond the agreed times and carried on taking pictures. On the morning of the wedding I was already quite stressed as I was so late to get back from the hair salon. The best man then told my mum that, unfortunately, Derek was unable to make the wedding due to personal reasons, but he had sent his partner Lorena and Fernando for our wedding. I was, of course, a little bit disappointed, but completely understood why Derek couldn’t make it. Derek had passed on all my communications and Lorena and Fernando knew exactly what I wanted.

As soon as Lorena saw me, I told her I was not sure about my make up. She immediately calmed me down and got her own make up out and started touching it up. She did this throughout the day, which I loved. She told me she used to be a makeup artist herself. She immediately put me at ease. They took (literally) thousands of pictures which included many of before the ceremony, during the ceremony, the cocktail hour, some pictures on the chessboard, some by the sea, at the reception, and then some more at sunset which were amazing. My only regret is that I didn’t get as many posed pictures with our families as I would have liked. On the whole I was delighted with the results.

 

Below is a link of some of our wedding snaps on their website.

 

http://www.photosincancun.com/moon-palace-weddings/

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions at all just message me.

 

End of review