My Husband and I arrived at the NOW jade on January 14 for our wedding on the 17th. For all future brides planning, I recommend to try and plan your wedding close to the beginning of the trip so you can truly relax and enjoy.

Check in/Rooms

As part of the divine wedding package you are automatically upgraded to the preferred side of the resort. We were not given champagne or towels upon arriving as we came at the same time as a large bus, but I saw them doing this throughout the week. As a preferred guest you are taken right away for private check in in the preferred lounge. Our check in took about 5 minutes and we were offered drinks and snacks while we were in the lounge. Pilar & Daisey (wedding coordinators) also came and introduced themselves to us right away.

After that we were brought into our room. All rooms on the preferred side have a guaranteed ocean view. We were very impressed with the room. It had a lounge area with couches and a seating area for 2, as well as a bedroom, 2 big closets, a sink area for getting ready, bathroom, and big shower. The staff did an amazing job keeping the room clean throughout the week. I am paranoid about Mexico and bugs, and felt like the resort did such an amazing job keeping rooms and halls clean. We also saw the standard rooms that most of our guests had and they were beautiful as well. The bed was super comfy and we slept very well. I had a few guests say that they left their safe open by accident and the resort left them a note saying that the maid had came and saw the safe was open and left, and they were to call security and have them change their codes. I was really impressed with the staff and security of things in the room. I even had a few guests lose items IE cameras, cell phones, and they had them returned.

Restaurants

The restaurants were overall good food. The buffets are just ok, as are most. Lunch and breakfast are good at the buffet, dinner not so much. The fork preferred breakfast restaurant is nice, and they have a little coffee shop which is awesome where they serve blended ice coffees, pastries etc. The only a la carte we didn’t get to go to was the Mexican one because it was closed. All of the others were very delicious! I will say in the last few days when we were there the resort was closing a few restaurants at night and there were an hour plus waits at all of the restaurants. We did not have this problem earlier in the week and was kind of annoying on the last 2 nights. Overall the food was good, with smaller portions at all the a la carts which was perfect for me but lots of people ordered several appies.

The Wedding

Meeting with Pilar

We had our meeting the morning after we arrived at 11am. We brought 3 suitcases full of decor. Pilar was very organized. She had a folder where she had all of our email communication and pictures I had sent her over the past year. We walked through every minute of the day starting with the ceremony. She took very detailed notes, and even drew pictures of where people were to stand etc. We reviewed more pictures and notes and lists that I had provided her. To all brides, this meeting is key- make sure you have all your information and decor so you can walk Pilar through all the details. She is great at executing as long as you give her all your decor, and plans for your vision. I had wanted to use flowers that the resort did not have availiable which was my inspiration for all of my decor and everything in the wedding. Pilar took the white flowers, and dyed them on the spot to match my vision. Pilars desk was behind the front reception area so we were able to bring her some other stuff once the rest of our guests had arrived.

Rehearsal

The majority of our guests were arriving the night before the wedding. Their flights were landing between 4-530pm. Pilar and Daisy were so flexible to allow us to do the ceremony rehearsal at 8pm, which ended up more like 830pm by the time everyone got to the resort and got checked in etc. They walked us through the whole ceremony at the Pergola, and I got to see the Bamboo room reception space because its right behind the Pergola. We had chosen not to reserve a restaurant because of the cost, but we had them save us tables at the buffet for no cost. The buffet was set up in the garden that day so Daisy took us over after the ceremony rehearsal. We were not all able to sit together as our group had 75 guests, so we had about 10 tables reserved for us.

Wedding day

Hair & make up

I had a bridesmaid who is a hair stylist so I had her do my hair for the big day. All of my bridesmaids had their hair done at the spa, and it looked gorgeous! I traded the hair styling in my package for a makeup trial at the spa earlier in the week. They did a beautiful job on my makeup and it looked very close to the picture I gave her for inspiration. I did bring some of my own make up on the wedding day for her to use as their stuff is not super high quality, but they know what they are doing. The only negative I had with the spa is they were always confused about the billing. IE on the wedding day they tried to charge me for my make up saying that my mom had used the hair and makeup in my package, then my mom came to visit while we were getting ready and she had just came from the beach. I didn’t end up paying for it but it was still frustrating. I know tons of brides stress about their hair/makeup but they will do a good job!
 

Adventure Photos

My Husband and I selected the one day coverage $700 on top of what is included in divine package. Frederico met me and some of the girls at the spa while we were getting ready, and then Sara was our photographer throughout the wedding. Over the whole day we had over 900 pictures taken, and were supposed to select 100 pictures in our package. We ended up paying another $150 for another 150 pictures because trying to narrow them down was near impossible. Overall they had some great shots of the day, but I was a bit disappointed because I had given them a photo list ahead of time of shots I wanted to capture and they did not get a picture of me with each of my bridesmaids which was listed before the wedding as a must. Overall there was a lot of good pictures to choose from, but I may have considered another option if I would have known we were going to end up spending so much more than planned. Their office is located on the resort, so you can easily go and select your photos with them. Be prepared it may take longer than you expect.

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Ceremony

We had the ceremony at the Pergola. They did a great job decorating the space, and using all of the items that we had brought down. The weather that day was a bit overcast and kind of windy, which at times made it difficult to hear the Officiant. The mic did cut out a few times and it was difficult at points to understand. We had also planned to have a prelude of songs to the ceremony about 4 songs, which was probably unnecessary because Pilar had everyone meet in the lobby 30 mins prior to the wedding, and then she walked them over. After the ceremony we had a Champaign toast and a group photo. We cancelled the cocktail hour because of our group size, so most of the guests mingled and did their own thing while we did photos for about an hour.



 

Reception

I opted to have a few bridesmaids& my mother in law in charge of making sure the reception space was set up according to my expectations, so that I could relax and enjoy the day. It did take a bit longer than expected, but once I saw the space I was very pleased. We traded live music at the ceremony for DJ services which was only supposed to be from 8p-11pm but he ended up being there right from the beginning which was awesome so we didn’t have to worry about doing our own music. I was also worried about the room being too small for our group, but it was not at all. The space was decorated beautifully, and Daisy stayed throughout the whole reception to ensure everything was perfect. Despite having air conditioning in the space, it did become pretty hot for me in my dress toward the end of the night, and outside felt cooler. I just took a break for a few minutes and it was fine afterward. We paid to have a 2 hour extension on the reception so it was from 6pm-11pm which I think was the best addition to our package.. The only things that weren’t perfect were the centerpieces were supposed to be a trio of vases, and there was only one. As well as the cake did not show up until 8:30 or so, and was not quite like the one that I had shown in pictures. Overall, I was probably the only person who noticed these things, and everything was still more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. When we got back to our room they had decorated the room with rose petals, drew a bubble bath in the outdoor Jacuzzi, and left strawberries and Champaign. What a magical night!

The whole trip was absolutely amazing, and I definitely think that we picked the perfect resort for our wedding! I could not been happier with the wedding! Some other nice bonus’ with our package were the couples massages included, and the romantic dinner at the beach. Hopefully my hubby and I will be able to return to the Now Jade for an anniversary someday!