Katie and Matt May 17, 2012

Divine Wedding Package

Can't believe I finally get to write my own review!! Overall, everything was fantastic and I am so happy that I chose Now Jade for our wedding!

Matt and I, along with some family members, arrived on Monday May 14. We had some friends and family arrive the Saturday before us. Some used Apple Tours for their transportation and the rest of us had Olympus Tours. There seemed to be no issues with either company. When we arrived, Matt and I were taken over to the preferred lounge to check in. Matt's parents were nice enough to upgrade our room to Ocean Front so we didn't stay in the preferred building but we the resort upgraded us so that we had all of the ammentities of preferred. To be honest, we didn't really take advantage of anything that is offered to preferred but I guess it was nice to have. We were taken to our room (1320) and it was absolutely fantastic. I miss taking a shower looking out over the ocean everyday! Our view from our balcony:

Our family didn't have too many issues checking in, my sister and brother in law didn't like their room and they were able to switch. We spent the first day at the pool and just did the buffet for dinner. I think it was Spanish night and I wasn't impressed with it but it wasn't horrible.  We had ants in our room the first day because of some apples that they brought to our room. I called and they came while we were out. When we got back we didn't have any ants and didn't have a problem the rest of the week.

The next day we had our meeting with Pilar to go over everything for the wedding. Matt and I were legally married in March but our family does not know that so I made sure to call Pilar for our meeting and to make sure she knew that. My Mom and Matt's mom were going to the meeting with me and the last thing I needed them to find out was that we weren't having a legal ceremony!! Pilar was great and made sure to confirm that we were having a "legal" ceremony. The meeting with Pilar was pretty easy. I gave her everything I had brought with me (paper lanterns, drink koozies, paper straws, table runners, signs for our chairs) and she went over everything we had discussed through emails.

On Wednesday I did a trial hair and make up run at the spa. Maria (I think) was the one who did both for my trial and the day of the wedding. I wasn't too thrilled with my hair but I am also very very particular. I was glad that I did a trial just so I knew what to expect for the wedding (and I could get upset about it the day before instead of the wedding day!) I had also arranged with Pilar to receive a free trial for my hair since I didn't use the private transfers included in the package. There was some confusion with that at the spa on Wednesday but on the wedding day I didn't have to pay either so I was quite happy.

I had Pilar send a bottle of wine to each room with door hangers that I had made. Everyone received these on Wednesday. We were supposed to be charged $20/bottle but never were. Not sure if that was a mistake or not but I wasn't going to question. :)

The day of the wedding I sent my dress down to get steamed. I had put a hanger that I bought for my dress in the bag (it said "The Dress" ) and when my dress came back to me it wasn't in there. I asked Pilar about it and she never found. I am sure some other bride enjoyed my hanger! I was a little upset that I wasn't able to get pictures of my dress on that hanger but oh well.

Around 12, Deisy found me to tell me that we were going to have to move reception locations. We were originally supposed to have it on the terrace but due to some not nice clouds we were changed to Castaways. She said that they would wait until the last possible second to make the call for the ceremony on the beach.  Luckily the rain held off and we were able to have it on the beach!

 My photographer (Gonzalo Nunez A+++++++) showed up around 2:30 to start taking pictures. I highly recommend going with an outside photographer. Gonzalo was fantastic and I am so happy that I went with him!

There wasn't much communication the day of the wedding between me and Pilar and Deisy. Matt and I did a first look around 4:30 and on my way there I had to stop in to her office to get my flowers. Deisy came to get us in the main lobby around 5:20 to take us down to the beach.

The beach set up was awesome!!

The only thing that I upgraded was the chairs and I am so happy that I did. I think that they look great in the pictures.

I had basically put together the wording for the ceremony and gave it to Pilar. She gave it to Gorge (who did our ceremony) and he read from that. He was pretty easy to understand, which was nice because I was worried about that!

Once the ceremony was over Darius brought us some champagne and then we took some pictures on the beach. We had our cocktail hour at the bar right along the beach. Darius was the bartender and he was awesome! Everyone loved him and he kept the drinks and shots coming! Around 7 Deisy came to tell me that the reception area was all set up and she showed me some pictures of it. She came back around 7:30 to walk us over to Castaways for the reception.

Everything I gave them was set up and it looked great. They even printed menu cards and put one at each place setting. The waiters were all very good and they just kept giving us shots! The DJ was good...he played everything that I had sent to him prior to coming down. He only played about 20 seconds of the song for me and my Dad but other than that they were good. If they didn't have a song they used my sister's ipod.

I should have had to pay a day pass for my photographer for Thursday and Friday (trash the dress session) but Pilar never charged me. She also said that she would charge $40 to hang the paper lanterns and the metal hanging things for the lanterns during the ceremony were supposed to be $8 each but we were never charged for those either.

We did our dinner on the beach (included on the package) on Saturday. It was nice but it was very windy so that made it kind of hard to enjoy. Most of the restaurants were pretty good. My sister and brother in law loved the italian place but I wasn't too impressed. We really liked Spice, Tamarindo, and Mercure. Cin Cin wasn't open at all while we were there. Alvaro was our waiter everyday by the pool and we LOVED him! He was great and even sent us home with a bottle of tequilla and a bottle of rum! I wanted to stay longer than a week so that we could have some time to ourselves but I couldn't convince my husband. I would suggest staying longer than your guests if you can.

We had 15 others with us and they all raved about the resort and the wedding. I highly recommend Now Jade to other brides!