Our Wedding Weekend was AMAZING - with a few minor hiccups but I can explain those in more detail below.

Arrival to the Hotel:

Seemless - a golf cart took us (my husband and my parents) to the Preferred Club private check-in and were greeted with cool towels, champagne and snacks. Thank goodness b/c we were starving from traveling! We booked a group through our TA of 36 rooms for our 61 guests and through our negotiations, we ended up getting our room and parents upgraded to Preferred Club (we had Ocean View). 

Carlos our Concierge met us after we were all squared away and took us up to our room in building 26. My parents were in building 17 I believe, just across the property. 

I had shipped 5 boxes to the hotel prior to arrival (about a month before) containing our welcome bags and some other things I knew I didn't need to carry with me and I had emailed Cecilia the night before to ask her to have the boxes brought to my room when I arrived. Sure enough, the boxes were there waiting for me :) My communication with Cecilia was great over the course of the 9 month planning process and this was a pure example of how she is a woman of her word.

We made the welcome bags that night and had the hotel pick them boxes up from our room the next day to gradually have the welcome bags delivered to everyone's room - this made me a little crazy...see more below.

Thursday 11am - Finalize wedding with Cecilia

We met Cecilia to discuss the final details for the wedding and since we had met 2 times prior and had great communication, we really didn't have a lot to discuss. We had been going back and forth with the reception location and decided to have it behind the Gazebo Terrace area. Cocktail Hour was on the lawn behind the Terrace and Reception right behind that. My father met with the Food and Beverage Manager of the hotel, Daniel, and we talked a lot more about food options for our guests and ironed out some questions with him. We had our welcome bonfire Friday night which we had to finalize the amount of furniture needed and such and we had also decided that even though we brought our own Ipod, we need the sound system to be set up so everyone could hear the music and we also had some speeches so the microphone came in handy. All of these details were finalized on Thursday morning.

Hair trail at the Spa Thursday 5pm:

I had my hair done back in NYC by my girl and she took lots of pics and directions on how to do my hair but I ended up just showing the picture of where the inspiration came from to Blanca (who was amazing) and she actually did it better than my girl in NYC! I was glad I did the trial with her b/c we played a little with the front of my hair - either parted or all back - and then after wards she helped to change the look to something I could wear to dinner :) I felt great after I left the spa that night knowing exactly what my hair was going to look like for the day of. My mom also did the same thing and was so happy she did too.

Thursday evening:

We didn't plan anything formal for our guests since only about 32 were arriving at different times and we figured many of them would want to have dinner and relax and get to know the amazing resort. We did however just tell everyone who was there before dinner that we would have a little happy hour meet up in the lobby bar before dinner to say hello and have a drink.

Some people had told me that they hadn't received welcome bags and this alarmed me - looking back I should have let it go - b/c the hotel wanted to make sure everyone stayed in their assigned rooms in order to deliver the bags but for some reason it drove me nuts that people didn't get them since we paid to have them delivered.

Friday:

Beach Bonfire

We planned this for after dinner so our guests could go to dinner where ever and with whoever they wanted. For the bridal party, we planned to go to the Caribbean night fire show by the pool and met for drinks in the lobby first. It worked out nicely - Cecilia had the hotel save us tables for the 22 people we had included. The only thing I was disappointed with was that the tables were next to each other not together but it worked out.

At 9pm we all headed down to the beach where the lounge furniture, cocktail tables, tiki torches, bar and desserts were set up. The sound system was hooked up to our i-pod (husband made a bonfire playlist) and there was a microphone as well for speeches. The bonfire was set up a little far from where the tables and desserts were but there were beach lounge chairs set up around it in case anyone wanted to sit down there. 

Saturday - wedding day!!

My husband was taken care of with his own room for Friday night (this is included in the package based on availability). I made sure with Cecilia that this was going to happen and had our TA confirm with the hotel as well. I planned to have breakfast with my parents and grandfather at 830am so I wouldn't run into husband at World Cafe and then had some time alone in my room to shower and get my things together to bring to the Bridal Suite in the Spa. My dress was picked up from my parents room on Friday as well as my husband suit to be pressed and ready to go.

Getting Ready:

At 11am I headed to the spa for my day to begin. The relaxation room was nice to unwind in before my mani/pedi started. My bridesmaids and mother all started to get their hair done around 1130 so everyone was around Spa and was very accommodating. Cecilia brought my i-pod docking station down to the bridal suite for me so I could listen to my own playlist while we got ready. Next was my hair and make-up with Blanca and she did it even better than she had done on Thursday. The only thing I was nervous about was my make-up. I went to NARS in NYC beforehand and bought EVERYTHING down to the brushes and directed Blanca on how it should look. 

I didn't look in the mirror as she did it, I just told her and showed her the palette that the make up artist in NY did for me and she did her best to follow it. When I looked in the mirror, I was impressed to say the least. It was exactly has it had been done before but it was very close. It was a little heavy and not blended on my eyes but I like to think I know how to do my own make up so I made some minor adjustments and was done.

The one minor thing that could have been better was my MOH requested we have some snacks - fruit, cheese, champagne, etc in the bridal suite and it took hours to come. We finally got something to eat around 130pm after repeatedly asking Cecilia but I understand that she was busy but my MOH is an event planner and she wasn't happy which I didn't want to think about at all.

Photographer: Samuel Luna - 2pm start time

I had Sam start with the groom and groomsmen in his room so it bought us a little time in the bridal suite. He came around 230pm and I had already put my dress on but we did some shots of my mom and MOH zipping me up and putting my shoes and jewelry on. He took some solo shots of me around the spa in some great areas and then it was time for "first look" pics which we did in the middle of two buildings under a palapa. After first look, we went over to the lobby, took family pics, some bridal party pics and then headed to the beach for the balance of the pics. I really wasn't as hot as I thought I was going to be - the wind kept me cool and it wasn't that humid at all so we really lucked out with the weather.

Pre-Ceremony - Kettubah signing 5pm

We did this in our room - with our Rabbi, immediate family and photographer. 

After this was complete, we had arranged golf carts with Cecilia take us near the ceremony site at the Gazebo.

I didn't know what to expect for the ceremony since I completely forgot to ask my bridesmaids to make sure everything was being set up like we had talked about - I think b/c I was so confident in Cecilia I really didn't care anymore. She knew what I wanted and I trusted her to make it happen.

We had luminaries lining the aisle and up the steps to the gazebo since our ceremony took place at sunset. I used Gold Tiffany chairs (which we used at the reception as well) and had the harpist playing.

I walked down the aisle to "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles and I told the harpist to play whatever he wanted for the rest of the bridal party - we really were very flexible for this.

Cocktail Hour

Cecilia copied the pic I had given her of the center peices exactly - orchids in water with floating candles and marbles and votives all around it. The Caribbean Trio played music and entertained everyone and the food was great. The entire wedding we had the Platinum menu BTW.

Reception

The centerpeices all looked great - the placecards were places on a table with my bouquet and some of the bridesmaid bouquets with votives lining the table - it looked so romantic.

We had a little hiccup with DJ Mannia - when I had spoken to Erica (one of the owners) in our initial meeting we had explained the ceremony was Jewish and we were going to do all of the traditional things - Horrah, etc .....just as we were going to get introduced the MC tells us that they do not have the Horrah and were not aware we needed it. I was very upset and my husband was even more mad. This was unacceptable and to add to it, the person who was MC'ing acted like he had never done a wedding before. He asked me how I wanted the order of the reception to go and I honestly had no idea. I just wanted everyone to have a good time. 

Our Rabbi ended up saving the day and downloaded the Horrah from You tube on her i-phone and we hooked it up to their system. From there, the DJ really didn't feel the crowd and to get them to play songs for people to dance to was very hard. My brother in law had to step in and help which was almost embarrassing. 

Once they started to play dance music, everyone was up and going but it was very frustrating. This was the only thing I wish would have gone better. 

Dinner - Platinum Menu

I heard dinner was really good - we didn't get a chance to eat it though b/c we were so busy talking to everyone. We had chicken skewers for an appetizer when people sat down, then there was a Mozzarella Caprese salad, Lobster Bisque Soup (everyone loved it), and the entree was Surf and Turf (Shrimp and Filet) or Chicken option. They also served a chocolate coconut bread pudding in addition to the wedding cake.

Cake - was delicious! We had Vanilla and it was sooo good.

After the reception, we all headed to Desires to continue the party. 

All in all, it was a very successful wedding weekend with the exception of some issues but everyone had an amazing time, the food was incredible, the weather was beautiful and everyone was happy - that's what matters.

here are some pics