So we just returned from our week at Now Jade for our Wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding, exactly how we wanted it! I'm going to try to be pretty detailed because I've read some of the forums and there seems to be a lot of confusion out there. I know others have said it before too but, DON'T WORRY! It really will all turn out perfect!!

We had 61 people including FI and myself and were there from March 31 to April 7th with the wedding on the April 2nd.

We chose the Divine package with pergola, mix bar and bamboo room.

Air Transat

They were fine. When we got to the airport, we got to skip the line and go straight to the front (same thing on the way back) They put little stickers on your tickets so everyone that looks at them knows you're getting married (not that the huge dress I was lugging around the airport didn't tip them off!) We got to board the plane first with a super embarrassing announcement (all in good fun) so that I could lay my dress down in an overhead compartment and then close it right away to signify it's full. Everyone else that got on board was super nice and when they saw my dress was in there, no one even came close to trying to stuff a bag in with it. There are no closets for your dress! The only compliant about them is I wish our group could have had a section blocked off so we could all sit together instead of being scattered everywhere. I feel like this should be offered when we booked so far ahead of time but I guess it's not possible, I asked numerous times leading up to the departure date.

Check In

Took a bit long but not a big deal, we were a lot of people that walked in at once and it happens. About half of the group stayed on the basic side and the other half on the perferred side. FI and myself got upgraded from tropical basic to ocean view perferred for free. There are no time share people that I have ever seen there (we've been twice) and no one in our group was bothered by them. 

Welcome Dinner

The day we arrived, we met with Deisy and it went super quick and well. She took a ton of notes and did some sketches for us and the two moms and myself were with her for about an hour. That night we had a welcome dinner for all our guests. We arranged with Deisy to have a section of the Buffet dinning room roped off for us that way everyone could pick what they wanted to eat and it was free. It was a bit loud because there are other people actually eating but it worked out fine and was free! At this time we did introductions since our two families had never all met before. And we gave out our welcome bags. Each family/couple got a little bag with sunscreen, hand sanitizer, a deck of cards, chocolate hearts and a hand written note saying thank you for traveling to the wedding. We also gave out our gifts, sunglasses for each of the groomsmen, Fossil watches for 2 bridesmaids, a pandora bracelet for the third bridesmaid and a build a bear dressed as a bride for the flower girl. It was a intimate dinner but FI and myself didn't want to spend a ton of money on it. It was great for what we wanted! Later that night, we each had our own bachlor/ette parties and joined up in the Sports Bar after. BE AWARE!! Kids are not allowed in the sports bar after 10pm. We ran into this problem twice. Nieces and nephews are teenagers and wanted to hang out and have fun while we drank but they got kicked out at ten. Basically, we just said screw that and all 60 of us left (which left the bar almost empty) and went to the lounge to party.

Resort itself

FI and I had been here a year before so we knew we loved it. It's pretty secluded and not much night life but we're not 18 yo's looking to party. We can have fun in our own group and don't need crazy bars or anything. The A la carte's are awesome. Best food I've ever had at a resort. Some people didn't like that there are no reservations for the a la carte's but we love this as we don't get up early. You just go down an hour before you want to eat, ask for a table, they tell you anywhere from 30-60min wait, you go to the lounge and drink until that time. The pools are great, the beach is nice and cleaned daily. The grounds are beautiful. Rooms are great. Sometimes it does take them a while to clean them but only one person in our group didn't get them cleaned at all one day. Fridges are always restocked. People that work on the resort are really nice and do all they can for you.

Before Ceremony

Woke up, ate breakfast with FI then we had a quick 15min rehersal so everyone knew where to stand for the ceremony then we went back to the room and got all of FI's stuff out of the room, boys got ready in the best man's room. He had to be out by noon because my dress was due to come back from being pressed around then.  I had lunch with my dad then went to the spa to get my hair and make up done along with my mom and one of the bridesmaids (the others did their own). I booked the appts 45 days ahead of time as told and there was no problem. We booked it for 130 with my mom's at 200. We were out of there by 315. They have a large binder with a ton of hairstyles in it if you're like my and my BM and not super concerned. We flipped through the book quick and both picked something. They replicated it perfectly. Maybe a touch too much rouge on my checks but I don't wear a lot of makeup so it was probably just me. Then we went back to my room. Hung out, drank, took some pics. The photographer was supposed to show up at 430, The  ceremony was for 5. She was 18 mins late. We started panicking and decided to not take pics of the dress hanging and just started getting dressed. She showed up with no apology. Her name was Erika and she was with Adventure Photos which is who the resort uses. Needless to say, she started off poorly and unfortunately didn't get better. All the guests met in the lobbey for 430 along with the groom. Pilar distributed the corsages and boutineres there and walked everyone to the ceremony then came to get us in my room.

Ceremony

We had it at the pergola which I think it the best spot. No one can really watch your ceremony except your guests because it is elevated above the beach but the ocean is still directly behind you. Two set of flowers came with our divine package to decorate the poles of the pergola as did the table centerpiece and the white walkway and white chair covers. We brought our own blue bows that they put on the chairs free of charge (we did iron them ourselves). The also transferred these into the reception for us with no charge. The ceremony was lovely. We brought our own officiate so did not use anything from the resort for that. She is actually an officiate in our hometown and my MIL's best friend so it worked out great for us. She is going to marry us in our hometown 2 months from now, legally. My only compliant again, was the photographer, she was in everyone's way for seeing, got terrible pictures, DIDN'T EVEN GET A FIRST KISS PICTURE and has the videographer in most of her shots. Useless. Luckily, we had our friend who is an amateur photographer with us and we just made sure he got all the shots in the world and his turned out MUCH better than hers. He also did a trash the dress for us a couple days later. For the bouquets, I brought mine from home (all made of seashells!) So Deisy let me split the bridal bouquet that came with the package into two and then I only had to purchase one bouquet for the third BM. The flower girl, we bought her fake flowers from Michaels and glued seashells into it to match mine and the BM! Loved it. The coursages went to the mothers and the we bought 4 boutonieres on top of what came with the package for the groomsmen and dads. In addition, we had programs and bubbles. Two of the nieces stood at the entrance to the aisle and handed those out. Everyone blew bubbles as we walked back down the aisle. We also had the guitar player as our music that came with the package. I didn't even hear him while I walked down but I heard him on the way back up and he was really good. Groom said he heard him while they were waiting and he was good.

Cocktail Hour

We took some group pictures on the beach for about 30mins then the photographer said her time was up, she would come back for the start of the reception and just left. So we went to cocktail hour with everyone else. We did not pay for extra champagne, just took the 25 glasses that came with the package but they actually poured 60 for us anyway. We actually got them as we left the ceremony which I thought was nice. We also did not order any more hors d'ouevres, just went with the 25, might have order another 10 persons worth but it was fine. They played whatever music they normally do there and it was awesome. The bridal party started dancing early! We also brought our own cocktail napkins which we moved inside for the bar for the reception. 

Reception

Room was perfectly done! They moved all the chairs with bows inside for no charge. We had a table set up when you walk in with our version of a guestbook and a seating chart. I brought shells to scatter on that table and the cake table. We had 7 guest tables each named for a place Groom and I had traveled to together. We had pictures of us in those places with the name which they put on the tables for us. The centrepieces were from the resort, we paid 65$ each (one was included so paid for 6) and it came to 432.90. Way more worth it than worry about bringing our own vases or picking up flowers from someone at the gates, etc. The two flower arrangements on the poles went on the head table and the piece from the table at the ceremony  went on the guest book table. We also brought table runners for each of the guest tables which they put out for us. We brought paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling which I LOVED and they hung those for free but we did bring them fishing line to do so. Our parent's surprised us by putting baby pictures all over the cake table which was a nice touch but my mom did that herself. We brought our own cake topper and just picked which ever cake from their book. It was chocolate fudge and tasted amazing! We did not pay for more cake, it got served to the head table and I have no clue if anyone else ate it lol. My SIL was arranged to go into the reception before everyone to make sure it was perfect and she set up the kissing game too (20 blue solo cups set up in a heart on the dance floor, half filled with sand and four ping pong balls. Guests had to bounce a ball into a cup to make us kiss or else they had to kiss/hug me. Think beer pong) had a GREAT time playing that). She said she switched up a couple things but they did a good job. Our favours were white starfish with a thank tag attached with ribbon. We had glued magnets on the back of them too so they could go on the fridge once home. We had brought lights for the head table but couldn't use them since they had to be plugged in so bring battery operated ones if you want. We did not bring any but there were menu cards at everyone's plate which I thought was really nice of them. The food was amazing!! My uncle was the MC and the DJ gave him a microphone to use which was free. I actually don't even know who the DJ was but he was awesome. I was a bit scared because I'm a huge country fan but he played all our must plays and had all the country we wanted and the classic wedding songs. Had a great time dancing. The DJ for 3 hours was 832.50 including tax. My only regret is that the party ended at 10pm. We could have gone till 11pm but it was going to cost 250 for the DJ plus 15$ a person, so over 1000 bucks. We didn't feel that was worth it. We went to the lounge after the kids were kicked out of the sports bar and there was a live band playing in the lounge! We danced to that before sitting on couches drinking till 2am. 

After Math

We had a romantic dinner scheduled but cancelled it. We felt it was more important to spend time with our family than alone on a beach. We had a breakfast in bed scheduled but it never showed up, whatever. We went down to the buffet. We did have our massages that were included and it was great!! The video is going to get sent to us in a couple of weeks. The wedding was Tuesday and the pictures were ready Thursday, we went and picked out 124 (24 in the package plus we paid 499.50 including the taxes, 450 before, for 100 pics and a cd and an extra hour of photographer at the reception). They were terrible as mentioned previously, we picked the best ones and the cd was ready in a couple hours so we had it before we left. Whatever, our friends and family got some great shots! Christian was the air transat rep and he was awesome, he got 4 big vans arranged (with my dad) to take 58 of us to Playa del Carmen Friday night, 20 bucks each and everyone enjoyed it. Everyone else did various tours inlcuding, dolphins, tulum, XhelHa, fishing and all went well. One boat caught a tuna and they cooked it for them on the resort. Also, don't panic about your stuff. Everything showed back up in my room the next day in the same bags we gave them. I think I was down a couple paper lanterns but no biggie.

I know everyone loves knowing prices, I tried to include them, for the whole wedding, we paid the resort 7 217.84$ Basically, there were no hidden charges or 40 fees for ironing, bows, chair transfers, lantern decoration, etc. Just paid extra for the dinners (kids are 20 bucks), DJ, flowers, and photos.

Hope its helpful!!! We had a great time!! Just don't sweat it if something doesn't go perfect, its your day and that's all that matters!