Hello All Brides To Be!

 

My name is Umi and I got married at the Now Jade resort on June 1, 2012. I found this website towards the beginning of my planning last July 2011 and am so glad I did! Thanks to everyone on BDW I was able to get so many helpful suggestions on how to plan our destination wedding!  And now  I feel like it is my turn to give back! Please feel free to ask any questions you may have and I will try my best to answer them. Here is my overall review of our whole process! I know it is really long so I tried breaking everything up into categories.  If it doesn’t pertain to you skip over it and keep on reading!

 

Location: Now Jade Resort

Arrival: May 29 – June 3

Wedding Meeting: May 30

Wedding Coordinator: Pilar

Wedding Package: Divine

Wedding Date: June 1, 2012

Wedding colors: Aqua and coral

Wedding Group: 45 people

Ceremony Time/Location: 4:00pm was supposed to be at the Pergola ended up being outside next to the bamboo room

Cocktail Hour: 5:00- 6:00pm supposed to be at the Blue Beach Bar was in the lobby due to rain

Reception: 6:00-10:00pm at the Bamboo Room

 

Travel Agent Booking

 

The most stressful point for us was deciding on a travel agent and picking the resort.  I have always booked ALL of my trips on my own I knew from the beginning that I wanted to go through a travel agent to book our wedding.  Although I love our family and friends I did not want to be the go to person to help book their trips!

 

We went to a local travel agent and I was not happy with the experience so I decided to do more research online. That is where I came across this website! I found good reviews about the travel agents on this website and figured I would shoot them an e-mail. I got a quick response from Wendy Hicks.  We talked over the phone she was so friendly and so informative! I was a little worried at first knowing she was all the way on the west coast! But once we spoke over the phone it was smooth sailing from then on! And seeing as all of our guests were from all over and would be booking either through e-mail or by phone anyways so the location didn’t really matter.

 

Wendy helped me decide on my wedding location and honeymoon location. She explained the differences between group rates and individual bookings.  We decided to go with her and she set up a contract for us.  My guests have had nothing but pleasant experiences with her since the beginning of our booking! She literally gets back to your e-mail within the hour if not sooner! She also set up our transportation to and from the resort for all of our guests! One less thing to worry about!

I was not sure at first if we should go with a group booking or individual bookings.  Since we knew we would have enough people coming to book a group we decided to go with that choice and I am soooooo glad we did! We booked around 25 rooms and got back a good amount of money that paid for a big portion of the wedding day!

 

Travel

 

Our flight and trip went very smooth! I was a bit nervous because we had 8 suitcases filled with wedding related stuff! I was not sure how everything was going to make it on the flight or past customs but it did!  There was 8 of us going on the same flight so everyone helped bring things. We packed all the glass vases in the small carry on luggage bags which all went through fine.  I carried my wedding dress on with me and left it in the cockpit closet as soon as you enter the plane.  My husband had a garment bag with his suit and our bridesmaids dresses. I was a little confused about the declaring items part.  You do not have to declare any personal items.  When bringing other items for the wedding you do not have to declare anything under $300 (each person can bring a total of $300 worth). My husband did get his bags searched once we got to Mexico but he just mentioned we were getting married and they let him through without a problem.

 

When we arrived we were greeted and brought to the preferred check in where we waited a while for our room to be prepared.  We went with the ocean view.  The rooms are all beautiful along with the whole resort!  I fell in love with this resort because of its modern look.  The size of the resort was perfect; very easy to get around and you don’t have to walk for miles just to get somewhere which was nice!  Everywhere we went we were able to spot people from our group.  The restaurants were all great and we enjoyed the food a lot! Everything was always kept so clean and the staff are always willing to help you! We had a small issue with our iron so we had mentioned it to the concierge and by the time we got back to the room a new one was sitting there waiting! These are the small things that go unnoticed.

It did rain more than I would have liked to during our stay but that is just something out of our control! They put up signs everywhere because if it rains the grounds are supper slippery!  We had a couple people hurt themselves.

 

Meeting With Pilar

 

I know every bride says not to worry everything will go smoothly…..and it is so true! I met with Pilar the morning after we arrived and she had everything all together!  She has a whole list of questions that she asks you.  She takes lots of notes and labels everything you bring.  They know what they are doing!!!!! Sit back and let them take over! Once I met with her I was definitely more relieved and knew everything would be taken care of! At the end she has every item broken down with the price. She walks you over to the front lobby so you can pay with your credit card or debit card. Just make sure you call your credit card or bank company a head of time letting them know you will be paying for your wedding so there are no issues.  We paid with our debit card and had an issue with paying.  We had to call up so they could allow us to pay the whole bill at once.

 

OOT Bags

 

 

I purchased blank tote bags from Cheaptotes.com and the designed a Riviera Maya, Mexico image to iron on our bags. I didn’t want to put our names or date on it because I wanted this to be a souvenir that people can use after the wedding. We greeted our guests and gave these out to them instead of having the hotel pass them out.  The guests all seemed to love them!

 

In the OOT Bags are:

-mini sun block from target

-mini aloe after the sun lotion from Harmon

-hand sanitizer from Dollar Tree

-Drink/ coffee mugs from Dollar Tree

-coil wrist bands with clear pouch to hold key (I think this was the most used item along with the bag)

-rescue kit with toothbrush, tooth paste, tide cleaner, sewing kit, q-tips, advil, tums...

-beach ball

-welcome brochure

-description card of restaurant/bars on the resort

-we survived the wedding! magnet

-flip flop playing cards and notepad

 

Wedding Decorations

 

Since the centerpieces I liked were over $250 per piece I decided to make them myself! I made my own centerpieces, which consisted of tall clear cylinder vases with dark branches and floating orchids in water.  Surrounding the tall vase we had mini cylinder vases with floating orchids and floating candles. Very simple but elegant!

 

We brought many things with us for the wedding. We brought our centerpieces, all of our OOT bags with many things in them, props for our photo booth, messages in a bottle for our guests seating, Menu cards, programs, guest book, unity sand kit, cake topper, and decoration frames on the table.

Decorations included in the Divine Package:

2 side floral arrangements for the ceremony location
- 1 small floral centerpiece for the ceremony table
-  Bride’s bouquet
- Groom’s boutonniere
- 2 corsages and 2 boutonnieres  since I made my own fake bouquets for my bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the groomsman I used these four our parents (a nice touch!)
-white material for the pergola
-white chairs (I really did not like the look of the white covered chairs so I opted for the white tiffany chairs with aqua cushions (looked so much more elegant in my opinion!).  This cost $10 extra per chair though!
-the package only includes plain white tablecloths but I decided to go with these really nice aqua colored ones that the resort had. It really made everything pop! This was $25 extra per tablecloth.

 

Rehearsal Dinner

We were originally thinking of doing a sit down dinner in one of the restaurants but this would have cost over $20 per person so we had it in the regular buffet for free.  Our rehearsal started at 5 the night before our wedding.  We all met in the main lobby and then headed over to the Pergola with one of the wedding coordinators to rehearse who will be walking with who and where everyone should stand.  This went smoothly and only took 10 minutes. We then headed back to the main lobby and had some drinks. Around 6 we went to the main buffet for dinner.  They put us in the very back where we took over a bunch of tables and one of the waitresses took our drink orders.  It was nice and quiet in the beginning so we were able to get some speeches in before other people started to come.  This ended up working out perfectly and it was free!

 

Wedding Day

Our ceremony started at 4:00 and here is the schedule:

 

11:30-1:30 Hair/Makeup appointment  

1:30-2:30 Pictures of bride getting ready with bridesmaids

2:30-3:00 Pictures of groom with groomsman

3:00-3:30 First glance pictures

3:30-4:00 Guests are being seated

4:00-4:30 Ceremony at the Pergola(was on the side of the bamboo room due to rain)

4:30-5:00 Group pictures

5:00-6:00 Cocktail hour at the Blue Beach Bar (ended up being in the lobby due to rain)

6:00-10:00 Reception at the Bamboo room

10:00- after party at the beach bar!

 

I did not use the transfer from the airport so I was able to trade it for a hair trial. I decided to do my hair trial the day before the wedding and boy am I so glad I did!  I had my hair done by Angela I think that was her name.  I was really not exactly sure what I wanted so I brought a bunch of pictures with me that had a similar style.  She tried doing an updo with curls and towards the end of the trial I was kind of just giving up because I didn’t really like how it looked. She saw I was not too happy with it so she tried something completely different and I loved it!  So even if you think you may know what you like it may not look the same on your type of hair so I would def do a trial! 

 

I like to always be in control, especially on my wedding day but some things just can’t be controlled! On our wedding day I woke up to the sun shinning…..it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky! I headed over for some breakfast and then off to the salon I went!  The lady doing my hair and makeup was running late so another girl started on my makeup. Since I had my hair trial the day before Angela knew exactly what needed to be done.  Both my hair and makeup turned out beautiful and I am a tough critic!
 

As soon as I left to head back to the room it started to rain! I kept thinking to myself….. it will go away! My photographer that I flew in came to my room to take pictures of my bridesmaids and I getting ready…..it didn’t just continue to rain but it pored!

 

Finally it was time for our first glance so I headed down as my husband had his back turned away from me.  We took some pictures together and then with our bridal party.  The wedding planners were running all over trying to fix everything in time for the wedding.  They waited as long as they could but the rain just wouldn’t let up.  They moved everything under the overhang right outside of the bamboo room.  Although I was really upset about the rain everything ran smoothly! The ceremony was quick.  The rain had stopped for 15 minutes so we took family pictures by the pergola. 

Cocktail Hour

 

The cocktail hour was moved to the lobby. 

We had asked for a carribbean trio but instead got the mariachi band.

We chose these four hor de ouvres:

1.Beef Brochettes

2.Chicken and cheese turnovers

3.Spinach quiche

4.mini vol au vent with seafood

 

I have no idea how this went because we both didn’t get a chance to see any of it!  We were off taking pictures for the whole hour around the resort.  They have some really interesting places in some of the buildings! 

 

Reception

 

The reception was in the bamboo room from 6-10.  Apparently the reception is only 3 hours long so we talked Pilar into giving us an extra hour.  The reception was set up beautifully. The food was very small portions but tasted great! We had dj doormix who did a wonderful job.  He knew what types of songs to play based on the crowed we had.  The cake cutting was a little awkward because the dj announced us to cut the cake but there was no knife! So we stood up there while everyone had no idea what was going on! So we danced for everyone and finally someone got us a knife. There was no one there to assist us so we were kind of on our own.  I don’t even think anyone had any cake!  I was so glad we stuck with the cake for 25 people that was included in the package and didn’t pay the extra $8 per person!

 

During the reception we had a guest book in one corner with a photo booth in the other.  Everyone seemed to love the photo booth with all of the props we had!

 

Our Menu:

Salad: Royal Mixed Salad with Bluefin Tuna Sashimi

Soup: Lobster Bisque

Entrée: Beef Fillet and Shrimp or Yellow Tail Tuna Steak or

Penne pasta en salsa de tomate y albahaca con vegetales

Desert: CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE WITH BAILYS SAUCE and wedding cake

 

 Trash The Dress

 

I approached my photographer with this idea and although he had never done this  particular photo shoot before, he was up for the challenge! Both of us did not have too much knowledge in cenotes so I picked a place, hired a  van and we went the morning after our wedding.  We had no clue what to  expect! We pulled up, purchased tickets at the entrance and headed down  a long bumpy path. I changed into my dress and headed toward the not so  friendly ticket collector. He looks me up and down in my white wedding  dress and says in Spanish something to the effect of I have to pay $100  extra to enter if I want to wear my dress.  We tried to talk him down  but there was no budging him!

 

He was thinking stupid Americans.....I  turned around and said I refuse to pay you this extra money and headed  back towards the van.  I was pretty bummed because 1 it rained on my  wedding and 2 now I couldn't even get these trash the dress pictures I  had so badly wanted! I hopped in the back of the van, undressed myself  and then put my bathing suit on.   There was no way I had travelled all this way to not even give this a  chance! I glanced over at my dress and then back at the backpack I had  just pulled my swim suit out of. It did not take me more than a second  to contemplate putting my dress in that backpack. What was the worst  thing that could have happened I thought.... getting locked up abroad?! 

 

I rolled it up tight and shoved it into the backpack, covered it with a  towel and off we went! My Uncle Joe took the back pack....there was no  messing with him! We walked right past the mean ticket collector and  headed to the first cenote.  We scouted out the place...we saw a group  of people with snorkelling gear and tanks.   I must say it was pretty  intimidating. We tested out the water while the photographer checked out the  lighting. The group of people started to slowly leave so i quickly got  into my dress and slipped right into the water!

 

We ended up staying  there for almost 2 hours and snapped away!  When we were finished we  walked right past the ticket collector and off onto the dirt path we  drove back to the resort.  A sigh of relief as I blurted out SUCCESS!  Having these pictures were so worth it in the end! And by the way..... my dress was not trashed and is still just as  beautiful as when I wore it for the wedding.  It is hanging in my room  and will be put back in my closet :)

 

 

Over All

 

We spent 5 days at the Now Jade and then we went to Maroma Beach for another 5 days for our honeymoon. We had an amazing wedding and all of our guests loved every minute of their trip!  Between all of the wedding stuff going on during those 5 days I was not able to spend too much time with our guests.  Every time I would go somewhere I would be stopped by one of our family members or friends wanting to talk but it was impossible to spend time with everyone!  If I had to do it all over again I would but I wish I had more time to spend with everyone!

 

I apologize for the lengthy……ok extremely lengthy review but what can I say….I am one detailed gal! I know while planning for our wedding I LOVED reading reviews and depended on them! So if I can be of any help to you please feel free to ask away!

 

The link below is some of our pictures from the wedding and trash the dress session.

 

http://rominlee.com/UMI-BILL-RIVIERA-MAYA-MEXICO