Here is my review from my wedding at NOW Jade on January 22^nd, 2013.  Sorry it has taken me soo long to post this, but my pregnancy has gotten in the way J  We had a beautiful day and lucked out that we were the only wedding that day.  My review is kind of long but I want to give you the most information I can.  I was 4 ½ months pregnant when we were there and also have a 2 year old daughter so I can’t really give you great reviews of the bars or drinks but I can tell you about everything else.

 

                                                                                 

 

 

Resort Review

 

NOW Jade Riviera Cancun Resort – This resort is truly amazing.  We had 35 guests come there with us and they all raved about how this was the BEST resort they had ever been too and many of our guests are big travellers.  The resort was amazing, food was delicious and the staff was so friendly.  I would go back again, and again, and again!!!

 

Resort Location – I loved the location of this resort.  It is half way in between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.  It was nice and quiet where we were (preferred side) and we really enjoyed it.  There is construction going on next door as they are building a new resort.  We had a few people that had rooms facing out that way.  Some got their rooms switched very easily and others it didn’t bother them at all.  We went to Puerto Morelos for a couple hours one day and did some shopping.  We bought our daughter a dress and a cute little headband.  We also went into Playa one night for shopping and supper.  It was so neat to go and experience 5^th Avenue as I had never been there before.  But glad we weren’t staying in Playa as it just seems so much busier there.

 

Bars – The entire bar staff at the resort were amazing.  As I said I was 4 ½ months pregnant and they all remembered.  The first day we got there and I would order a Pina Colada with no alcohol they looked at me funny until I told them I was pregnant and they would get so happy and congratulate me and from then on they remembered me the whole trip.  The bars that our guests were at the most were the 2 pool bars (regular pool and preferred pool) and the lounge bar.  Our friends and my husband went to the Sports Bar (Disco) pretty much every night and really enjoyed it.  I never made it as I was in bed with our 2 year old daughter and exhausted from being pregnant J

 

Restaurants – My Husband and I tried to eat at all the Restaurants.  We never made it to Spice, Cin Cin or Mercure (we went there for breakfast one morning though).  We really liked Capers (Italian Restaurant) and our guests LOVED Spice and I think most of them went there twice.  Wish we had been able to get there.  We ate breakfast every morning at the buffet except the morning we had our champagne breakfast.  It was soo good, they brought us so much food with lots of variety and there was enough for our daughter to eat as well.  We mostly ate lunches as Castaways or the buffet.

 

We also ordered room service a couple nights and most of our guests ordered it EVERY night.  They were usually pretty fast bringing it.  Usually around 30 – 45 minutes, this is pretty good for a resort in Mexico.

 

Overall, the food was very good at the resort.  Our well traveled guests said that this was some of the best food they had ever had at a resort.  And they all liked that you didn’t have to make reservations earlier on in the day.

 

Wedding Review

 

Wedding Coordinators – We had Pilar and Priscilla as our wedding coordinators.  These women are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.  They really know their wedding stuff.  As I am a low maintenance person all I brought for decorations were table runners and chair bows in eggplant and Mr. and Mrs. Chair bows for our chairs, and they made everything look beautiful.  The ladies made menu cards for us in our colors and they looked awesome, we weren’t expecting them to do that and they also put table numbers on our 4 guest tables.  We made our own wedding programs and I put the seating chart on the back page so everyone knew which table they were at well in advance!!!

 

 

Picture of the Menu Cards they made for us at no extra charge

 

I know everyone wants the answers to their question right away, but these ladies are EXTREMELY busy.  I know I got a little worried the week before as I didn’t know whether the photographer and DJ were booked but Pilar had everything under control.

 

I was talking with Pilar a couple days after our wedding and she told me that she hadn’t left the night before until 5:30am and I think I was in there talking to her before lunch time.  These ladies work super hard with the brides that are there, as there are usually 2 weddings a day as well as going through everything with the other brides that are there to get married that week.  Doesn’t leave them a whole lot of time to answer everyone’s emails right away, but they do their best to get to them.  Have to remember that these ladies have lives and families at home too!!!

 

 

Above picture is us with Priscilla

 

Welcome Cocktails @ Lobby Bar – We had our welcome cocktails the night we arrived.  As no one really knew the resort yet it was nice to have everyone meet in a location they were already familiar with as they had just checked in a few hours before.  I would say at night the Lobby is probably the busiest place on the resort.  There was live entertainment every night we were there.

 

They sectioned an area off that said Lawrence – Bell-Evans Wedding so that was really nice to have our own area.  The bar staff was bringing us trays of drinks and taking orders from us there so no one had to get up and go to the bar unless they wanted to.

 

If you are looking for something quiet and intimate I would suggest not having your welcome cocktails in this location.  It fills up and gets very loud in there, but we were fine with it!!!

 

Welcome Dinner @ Carnival Buffet – We also had our supper the night we arrived after our welcome cocktails.  They closed off a part of the buffet for us to sit and we had our own waiters.  The food in the buffet at the NOW Jade is the best buffet food I have ever had at a Mexican resort.  There was so much to choose from.

 

Our guests had a blast as Jesus was bringing them bottle after bottle after bottle of champagne and was even letting them shot to cork.

 

Wedding Rehearsal – We did not do a rehearsal as our wedding was so close to the start of our trip.  We didn’t want to inconvenience our wedding party!  We asked Pilar at our meeting if we needed to and she assured us that we would be told were to go and the wedding day was perfect.  If you have been to a wedding before you know the drill already.

 

Meeting with Coordinators – We met with Pilar the day before the wedding.  She went over EVERYTHING with us.  She had a folder that had all of our emails back and forth and everything that we had picked.  You can change a lot of stuff that day just not the venues if you are not the only wedding that day.  We were but were very happy with everything that we had previously picked.  We gave her the stuff that we had brought with us and she let us pick certain things we wanted.  Pergola set-up, she had a bunch of different pictures to show us, we picked our flowers and cake and gave her our list of songs that we wanted played at the ceremony.  We gave her our iPod the day of the wedding and they played the music for us.  We also talked to Federico that day about pictures, as to what time he was to come to the Spa and what time he would then meet the guys in their room and us girls in our room.

 

Hair, Makeup and Massages @ Renova Spa (on-site Salon) – The morning of our wedding my matron of honour and I went down for our massages.  My husband didn’t want to have a massage and they let me bring my MOH instead.  I couldn’t get a massage because of being pregnant but they gave me the most relaxing facial instead.  As my MOH and I have never had massages before we didn’t know what to expect but my MOH said that it was amazing.  If you go the day of the wedding though make sure you wash your hair really well after.  The must have put massage oil in my MOH’s hair and she said it was hard to get out J

 

Hair and Make-up was awesome.  My mom, MOH and I all got our hair and make-up done.  MOH and mom had the same ladies that had done the massage and facial earlier and I had Angelina.  I didn’t have a picture with me as I forgot to print one off before I went but I described to her how I wanted it and she did exactly what I asked for.  I don’t wear a whole lot of make-up and had read previously on here that they put lots of make-up on so I just told her light on the make-up and she did a perfect job!!! I would not worry at all with these ladies unless you are EXTREMELY picky which I am not.

 

 

 

Ceremony @ La Pergola – The pergola is absolutely stunning.  We chose this location because it is the most private.  You will still have some onlookers but not as many as you would have on the beach or in the garden.

 

Just a note, I noticed this about a week before the wedding by watching other peoples videos from the resort.  There are 2 steps going down to where the bride and groom stand.  I was wearing flip flops so it wasn’t a huge thing for me but my dress kind of got caught a little in my legs while stepping down.

The Pergola was decorated beautifully.  Exactly as I had envisioned!  We didn`t want flowers on the Pergola so they used one of our centerpieces on the ceremony table.

 

 

Picture of our set up at the Pergola

 

 

Picture of ceremony showing our officiant and the two steps

 

Wedding Officiant – This woman was amazing.  She said such beautiful things at our ceremony.  We asked for it to be about love and family and she never strayed from any of that.  I couldn’t have asked for more beautiful things to say.  We choose not to do a sand ceremony so she did a really nice ring ceremony instead!  We had a symbolic wedding and it was nice that they actually had a certificate there to sign that we can keep as a beautiful reminder of the day!  So now we have our Canadian one that we did before we went down and our Mexican one from when we were there.

 

 

 

Cocktail Hour @ The Mix Beach Bar – This was so much fun.  Right after the ceremony we walked down to The Mix and Darius was standing right there with 2 glasses of champagne.  I took a little sip and then he asked me if I wanted something else and he made me the best virgin blender drinks the rest of the cocktail hour.

 

We then went down and did group and wedding party pictures and also finished off the wedding video.

 

 

 

The only thing left for food when we were done pictures was chips, salsa and guacamole but our guests said that the appetizers were awesome.

We had:

• Mini Tacos Dorado’s
• Quesadillas with Chicken
• Guacamole and salsa with totopos
• Tostadas of beef salpicon

 

It got dark at the mix bar quite fast, wishing that maybe there was some extra lighting there.

 

Darius got my guests extremely drunk...hahaha...I think they said he was making them Canadian flag shooters.  The all had a blast with him though J

 

Wedding Reception @ Castaways Restaurant – We loved this location for our reception.  I was glad once we got there and seen the other locations.  The terrace is right outside the buffet so if it is open everyone can stare at you all night, and the other restaurants would just seem too small to fit in a DJ and dance area.  Castaways is already closed at night so it was nice getting a space all to ourselves and because it is beside the pool there was virtually no one else around and it had a great view of the pool all lit up at night.  We also went out and laid in one of the cabanas with our daughter and just relaxed and listened to the ocean and looked at the moon.  Our daughter is obsessed with the moon right now.

 

 

 

Our Reception started at 7pm.  All the guests were seated and then the DJ announced the wedding party in.  We only paid to have the DJ there from 8 till 10 but he was there from the start and announced our wedding party and us and then played our iPod music for us during the dinner.  We had speeches and I loved how Pilar had us do them.  We had our salad and then my MOH did her toast to the bride.  Then we had our soup and then the Groomsman did the toast to the Groom.  Then we had our entree and both sets of parents did their welcome to the family speeches and then finally desert and we did our thank you.  It was perfect because then we didn’t waist our dance part of the night with speeches.

 

After that we cut our cake and then immediately had our first dance, first family dance with our daughter and then the father/daughter dance and then we danced for the rest of the party.  The DJ was awesome.  He played the best music!!!

 

We had our own bar set up which was free of charge which I think only happens in Castaways because there isn’t really a bar around that area at night.  There were 2 bartenders and 3 servers whom stayed after the meal to help out and party J and they we great.  They even grabbed all of the shot glasses that we gave as favours and filled them up for the last song of the night which we choose...Shots by LMFAO ft Lil Jon...Hahaha.  The best was that they did this all on their own without us saying anything.  It was a great surprise.

 

 

 

Our Meal was:

• Caprese Salad
• Ricotta cheese and Spinach Raviolis Soup
• 2 Mains
  • Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Mushrooms
  • Beef Fillet & Shrimp
• Chocolate Soufflé with Baileys
•  

I could never imagine having a plated meal as good as this at home

 

DJ – We had Alex from AVI.  He played all the right music to get our friends and family up dancing.  We had originally thought about just using an iPod but the DJ really knew what to do to get everyone going.  We had him 8-10 but he was there even while we were eating supper.  He played out iPod music for us while we ate and he provided the microphone for our MC to announce the speakers that were doing toasts.

 

After Party – After our reception was done at Castaways – around 10:30pm – we all headed to the Lobby Bar.  There was a tribute band playing that night and everyone had a great time.  We headed back to our room around midnight and the partiers that were still up headed to the Sports Bar (Disco) and continued to dance for the rest of the night.

 

When we went back to our room there was a newlywed’s sash on the door and they had put rose petals all over the floor and bed and made two swans into o heart with our towels and also filled up our Jacuzzi with water and shower gel and rose petals.  There were also chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne.  We also ordered room service that night as I was hungry from not eating much that day as I didn`t want to feel too uncomfortable in my dress.

 

Wedding Flowers – Our bouquets, boutonnieres and centerpieces were beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

I was so amazed when I seen the bouquets and the centerpieces.  They did exactly what I had asked for.  The first picture is of my bouquet and they made a smaller one for my MOH, they made us 4 centerpieces and used them at the ceremony too as I didn’t want flowers hanging on the pergola.  The boutonnieres were the green orchids and they looked awesome as well.  They also put two vases with purple flowers on the cake table that we never paid for!!!

 

Wedding Cake – The wedding cake tasted delicious.  We paid for the extra people over the package.  We had originally told her that we didn’t want to but both forgot about it I guess.  The cake tasted awesome but not many people ate it as they were full from supper and we also had an amazing dessert.  So I would definitely tell them not to make a huge cake if you don’t think that people are going to eat it.  Was still nice to have for the cutting of the cake though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adventure Photos, Resort Photographer – We had Federico as our photographer.  We didn’t have a huge budget to get some of the other photographers around the area so we decided to give Adventure Photos a chance.  We were very happy with the photos that we got. All of the photos on this review are from them.  We upgraded to the full day package and we were very happy to have all of our pictures and picture book all done before we left to come home!!!  I have read that some people got a WAY better deal than we did on extra pictures over what is included in the package, I am not a haggler though but make sure you try to get them down more than we did J  We just paid what they told us to pay.

 

Adventure Photos, Videographer – Our video is awesome.  We actually used most of it to show everyone at our dance at home this on February 9th.  It was so nice to sit down and watch it with my husband.  Everything that day goes by soo fast.  Great to relive the moment and actually listen to what the Officiant had said.  Plus it was neat for me to get to see the guys and my MOH and daughter walk in.

 

Our wedding day was PERFECT.  It was way more than I ever expected.  This is a beautiful resort with the friendliest people.  We knew we were getting a nice resort by the pictures that we had seen but it truly beat all of our expectations.