VENUE

We booked 8 nights/9 days at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. I saw the ERC on a Destination Wedding community on LiveJournal about two years ago, and I fell in love. I knew from that moment, this was my wedding venue. When we arrived, we were taken to the Excellence Lounge to check in. Our room wasn't ready to we ate lunch and explored the resort a little bit. Finally, at 4pm our rom was ready! We were taken to the 8th building, 3rd floor, and our room was amazing. The view was spectular, that is all I'm going to say. We had a clear shot of the wedding gazebo on the beach and the pier, which worked out wonderfully because I could see almost every wedding before ours, and decide where to have ours.

WC

We met with our Wedding Coordinator, Ramon on our second day. He worked out all the details I wanted- orchids and hot pink on anything I could find. We had double chair sashes- hot pink and Tiffany Blue. I brought my own TB sashes, but they used their own, which was no biggie. There was no charge for the sashes, I was originally told $7 for doubles, last year, but maybe because we brought our own they didn't charge us. He also got us the music we wanted for the ceremony, which was great.

We settled on a two tier cake, one layer vanilla with chocolate mousse, and another chocolate with fresh raspberry filling. The cake was amazing. If I could have brought it home, I would have. It was sooo good!

We were having such a difficult time trying to find a spot for our reception, after finally deciding on the beach for our wedding. We when out on a whim and asked Ramon if possible, could we have the reception in the garden gazebo, he said the resort never had a wedding there but he would check. Well, he did and we were able to have it there which was awesome. There was a live band the entire night, so we didn't have to worry about music at all. We had a small group, 8 with us included, and we fit in perfectly. Ramon had the gazebo water cleaned out, and put rose petals, and light candles around it. It was beautiful.

I am a HUGE MJ fan, and I mean huge, lol. I was so devestated the MJ tribute show was going to be the same night as our wedding. But here comes Ramon again! He was able to reserve us the front section of the theater so we could come to the show at the end of the reception! Needless to say this made my night even better!

SPA

The spa was expensive, so I decided not to go, instead we went on a trip to Tulum and Xel-Ha. I did however, get my hair and makeup done in the spa, by Vernonica. She was amazing, and so nice. She really took her time, and unlike every hair stylist I went to- did not complain about how long it took to do my hair, because it's so long and thick. My hair and mekeup came out so beautiful, and I was so worried because past brides said they caked it on and didn't do a good job. Have no fear ladies, they are great! They use quality products, and their gold body dust is amazing. if anyone knows where I can get it let me know!

WEDDING DAY

I spent the day so care free and relaxed, I took a nice Lush bath in the jacuzzi tub in our room before going to the spa, and it was just so nice to sit back and not worry. I knew Ramon would be handling everything. I did get kind of worried when I saw two three more weddings going on (normally they only do two) so I was kind of shocked to see three more on a Tuesday!

I had three off property guests coming to our wedding, one which was a bridesmaid. Ramon took their names at our meeting so I though no problem with them getting on property. Well, the front gate told them, there was no wedding that day. The front desk wouldn't allow them in, even though they were going to pay for their day passes, and made them sit around for 40 minutes in the lobby. I was in the spa at this time, and knew nothing about this! Finally they let them go, and I found them sitting outisde the Excellence Club because they called my parents to pick them up! This is the one thing that annoyed me that day. So advice to you ladies, let the front desk know as well about guests coming, because apparently Ramon didn't tell them.

My dress was pressed by the resort, and it didn't come back with any problems, thank goodness! They did however leave it hanging in the lobby on a luggage cart because I had a DND sign on the door. Luckily, Ramon called to confirm it got there, and told me to look outside. It was supposed to be there at 1 and didn't come until 3, btw.

I was a little stressed because two weddings were going on at the same time, and my spot wasn't even set up yet. Finally at 4:45. they started carrying chairs and drapery across the beach and we were all set up within 10 minutes.

I didn't get my flowers delivered to my room, so my photographer wasn't able to take any photos of them. Ramon gave them to me when I was walking towards the gazebo, so I didn't even get to see them until I was ready to walk. Kind of dissappointing, especially since the colors in my bouquet didn't match anything I wanted, or the other flowers in the wedding.

Our ceremony was great, the officiant was spectular, it wasn't a quick 10 minute ceremony and she was done, she really got into it, which was nice. We had a sand ceremony, with the Ether frame, and she loved it. I was so surprised she hadn't seen a wedding with one before.

We spent about an hour on the beach taking photos and our guests were back at the gazebo for cocktail hour. When we got back, we were greeted with drinks from the bartender, and sat down for dinner. Our menu was a little wrong, but it wasn't anything major, so we let it pass. Dessert was soo good, and our cake, again...amazing!

The band was great that was in the square, and played everything you could think of. Our guests loved it, and it was so much better than having an iPod playing!

At 10pm, I believe we went to the theater for the Michael Jackson show, which was awesome. Thank you Ramon! It was a perfect day and I wouldn't have changed anything about it.

PHOTOGRAPHER

We booked Claudia Rodriguez for our photographer. She showed up around 4pm, and left around 7. We didn't feel we needed a huge package due to having such a small wedding, and three hours was enough for us. Claudia was so nice, and so friendly, and spoke great English. If you want a specific picture, just let her know, and she will try her best. We had no problems with her getting on property at ERC either day we booked her.

The following day we booked her for a TTD session on the beach, she was a little late due to car trouble, but no biggie. I had fun walking around the resort in another dress. Once she arrived she took us to some awesome spots on the hotel grounds, and we then ventured to the beach. We spent about 2 hours taking photos, and it was a lot of fun. We ended our session jumping into the pool which was a nice relaxing end to that!

Claudia was wonderful, and her assistants, Freddie and Alberto, I believe-were great too. Claudia really worked with us with payment options due to a problem we were having before the wedding. From the day she asked me for my shipping address, not even 24 hours later my photos were in my hand! Being a photographer myself, this was the one thing I really wanted to splurge on, and I'm glad we did.

Our wedding photos can be found at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlynn/sets/72157624851697849/

My TTD photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlynn/sets/72157624988452010/

And my own photos from the resort:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlynn/sets/72157624847025673/