Cost Breakdown:

 $280 = passports each $140 (plus passport photos $20 each)

 $300 = plane tickets each ($600 total)

 $1000 = Mayan Wedding with amneties of the Free Wedding Package

 $45 = decoration fee

 $150 = invitations and programs, plus ink, paper, and materials

 $50 = cake flowers

 $250 DJ Services

 $50 = Maid of Honor hand corsage

 $1000 = maid of honor, best man apparel and accessories

 $80 = shuttle fees

 $1300 = our 5 days/4 nights stay

 FREE = bouquet/boutoneire

 FREE = Hairstyle for me and Maid of Honor

 

There are extras we paid in regards to the family, but I will not count that cost towards the wedding.

 

 

ARRIVAL: B- (only because they delayed our guests so much)

We flew American Airlines and they put my dress in the first class location for the trip. I was a bit worried because it was out in the open and any passenger could have easily dropped coffee or any drink on it. When i spoke to the flight attendant they merely said "ma'am its a flight. there is nothing we can do". Overall the flight was smooth with very few bumps and the sun was super bright. I have flown in at least 100 flights and it was definitely the smoothest ride and landing from Miami to Cancun. Not to mention a quick flight.

 

We set out to Cancun bright and early and I was very thankful we arrived at 10am there. Extensive lines began to form at the passport area around noon. I was congratulated many times as people saw my dress at the airport. They only searched my dress and it took only a minute. Super easy. Our guests didnt have it so easy since they all arrived after noon. The wait was about an hour to get through.

 

MOON PALACE SHUTTLES: A++

Moon Palace shuttles were ready and available on location. We asked to wait for family and they had no problem with that. They piled us all in and we left about 10 min after arrival. It was about a 15 min ride to Moon Palace

 

CHECK IN: A++

Check in was AWESOME. They gave us each a carnation and their welcome drink (which was delicious! I still want a recipe!) We all got in easily and checking in was simple. They gave us wristbands and we were on our way to the rooms. It was a LONGGGG walk to the rooms and it was super hot outside. Thats the only downside. We stayed at Sunrise, and I am thankful we did because there was definitely more entertainment and fun on that side.

 

ROOMS/ RESORT: A++

 The rooms were fabulous and everything as described in the website. They were amazingly clean. Even though we were garden view we all could see the ocean from our rooms. The room given to us (bride and groom) view was the best of all our guests! We were very content. Most of our guests were situated in our same hallway or close by, which was helpful. Our room had a rose, fruit, and champagne since we ordered the honeymoon package. It also had a king size bed. I didnt get many pics of our room, but here are some pics of the guest rooms.

The resort itself was absolutely stunning.My mother in law bought an opal bracelet and said “it reminds me of the ocean here and its different shades of blue, which it does! And there were activities on every side. We were put next to the miniature golf area and we played it at night. There was a full moon every night. Super beautiful! We got to enjoy all the resort amneties and the pools were amazing. We even got plastic cups and played beer pong (using tequila) on one of the tables in the pool. Even though it wasn’t allowed to swim at night, the pool managers allowed us to do so.

We enjoyed everything from the pools, to the swim up bars, to the restaurants, beach, and even the adromeda disco.

 

A lot of people complain about the color of the ocean in MP, but as you can see here in this photo, there are various blue colors. I thought that was gorgeous and very naturally stunning to have many hues of blue and turquoise. At around 3pm it is most apparent and absolutely stunning! However that is also the HOTTEST time of day.

 

 

RESTAURANTS: A+

 The restaurants were AWESOME! We ate at the buffets at the sunrise side. Our rehearsal dinner was at Los Corporales at the Nzuic side and reception dinner at Arricifes at Nzuic. The food was fantastic! We also ordered a lot of our meals through room service. There chocolate cake on the room service menu is sooooo goood! We changed our cake flavor to match up to it!

 

We chose a SIMPLE 1 LAYER CAKE. The reason for this is: I saw countless of 2 layer or 3 layer cake pictures on MP reviews and they always looked like they were melting or falling. My suspicions were correct because even our cake seemed to have a couple melting spots. It was barely noticeable since nothing was stacked on top of it except the flowers. Otherwise it was gorgeous! Also we knew we wouldnt be able to bring lots of leftover cake back to the US, so to save we felt we could just save ourselves the hassle. You can see the photo of the cake below with the rest of the cocktail photos.

 

TRIPS: B-

This was the stressful part of the trip.We had booked a dolphin swim in advance and sadly had to cancel it since the only available Mayan ruins tour was on the same day. Also the zip lining trip we wanted to take was overbooked and we were unable to make it. Id suggest to people wanting to enjoy the trips to stay 5+ nights because they get booked within minutes! SERIOUSLY! Or go at a low season time to Cancun when less people are touring the area. In Lieu of the ziplining trip, we took the free shuttles to Cancun Palace and enjoyed their pure clear turquoise beach. The resort was a little boring compared to Moon, but definitely pretty on the beach! The rest of Cancun Palace looked like your commercialized resort. That is one thing we liked about the Moon, it had a distinct look and gardens. Beach Palace offers the market and mall shopping experience After a huge hastle, we did finally get booked to see the Mayan Pyramids. Whenever we return we want to check out Tulum. The Tulum trip has many activities involved with it. So for a future anniversary, we will be heading in that direction! LOL!

 

REHEARSAL DINNER: A+

 We held our rehearsal dinner at Los Corporales. Since the group was small, we did not use our dinner reservation for this and just went there directly to eat. I asked for two tables seating 6 people each for a total of 12 persons. She got us the tables within minutes. The food was great and we were serenaded by the mariachi. It is definitely a fun place and great atmosphere for a rehearsal dinner. I do highly suggest getting a photographer for the other wedding events because we never got full shots of the rehearsal dinner, which i would have appreciated. Unfortunately family members take photos of their family only and miss out on taking photos of the overall group and wedding party.

 

 

 

 

ROOM SERVICE: A+

This was excellent! They brought everything in about a 30 min timeframe. Food was delicious. Our honeymoon breakfast came in at 9am exact. Again, everything was very well done and delicious. 

 

WEDDING: A+++++

 The wedding was amazing! We did the mayan ceremony and this was something the Moon Palace hadnt done in years so it took a while to confirm the availability of the ceremony. Claudia come in just in time to my room to pick me up. She had my bouquet and I gave her my rings, programs, and camara to give to the family. The wedding was SO GORGEOUS! Words cannot describe it! We could feel the love!

 

The ceremony is super engaging since all guests were included into it and had a part. I highly suggest a Mayan tradition ceremony for a wedding party in which everyone is close knit (friends and family). Its very uniting and the traditions are beautiful.

 

 

 

for the wedding set up I gave the WC extra ribbons from favors we had made and she tied them around the chairs, which looked gorgeous with the wind blowing. The mayan ceremony included the table decorations which made for a gorgeous set up. We asked for the chocolate canopy since we liked that color better than the light bamboo wood.

 

PHOTOGRAPHER: A++++

We hired Claudia Photo (www.claudiaphoto.com) and Erick did our photos! He was excellent and played with a lot of light backgrounds.He even said he will photoshop star wars light sabors to one pic of all the guys! HAHA! He did a lot of spotlighting and image defining on the spot.

 

 

FREE COCKTAIL: A+

 We had our cocktail and when they mean full bar, they mean FULL BAR! We had our pick of any drink we wanted for the most part. I could only taste one cocktail serving since we had our photographer taking pictures during the time, so unfortunately we could not enjoy it as much as we wanted. My husband made our cocktail music CD (since we got the sound system) with a load of funny 80s songs. It was hilarious! We laughed the entire time and the guests had many good laughs to go with. It rained for 5 min at a part of the cocktail in which we all ran for cover around the corner of the resort. When the rain ended we all ran back and continued to party with no problems. We cut the cake in the free cocktail party.

 

 

We held our first dance on the beach during the cocktail hour. We are very "earthy and natural" type of people and wanted this for the initial reception and events. Again we identified the first dance song that my husband picked out for us. The DJ was right on spot with it.

 

RECEPTION DINNER: A+

The reception dinner was held at Arricifes and was gorgeous. This was the dinner reservation we made with the Claudia. It all began on time and everyone clapped as we entered. Since it was raining by the time we entered, we could not have the dinner on the terrace as we originally wanted, but they did a nice set up indoors and the lighting was very romantic. We went on the terrace for 5 minutes to toss the bouquet and garter. It worked out perfect because we did get to enjoy a little of the terrace and our photographer was able to capture this part of the wedding as well. The twilight scenery outside with the rain made for a beautiful blue hue backdrop.  I definitely recommend this restauraunt for the reception 100%!!! 

 

For moon palace brides to be...DO NOT WORRY AT ALL! MP is perfect at organizing and putting a wedding together! Hope this all helps!

Mari and Orion