Hi brides!

I got back on Sunday from my wedding week at NOW Sapphire and I just wanted to write and let you know if was perfect and every way!!  Honestly, it was a dream come true.  In fact, it was beyond our wildest dreams.  All of our guests raved that it was one of the best nights of their lives … and it was absolutely the best day/night of our lives as well.  So, you have nothing to worry about, because yours is going to be the exact same way - MAGICAL!  

My wedding coordinator was Anel until she transferred me to Ramon a couple of weeks before my April 23^rd wedding.  I had some of the same difficulties as all of you did in not getting timely responses in the planning stages, but I want to assure you that they have all requests documented and have everything little detail under control.  Ramon (and I’m sure all of the wedding coordinators) are awesome and highly organized.  Someone joked on here awhile back that they are wedding factory, and it's true - they know their stuff!  So, leave the worrying up to them and just enjoy the whole wedding process, and of course … YOUR WEDDING DAY!!! 

Here's a recap of our wonderful wedding day ...
 

CEREMONY @ 5pm on the Tequila Beach:
It was so special and wonderful.  It lasted about 15 - 20 minutes, which was just the right amount of time in my opinion (my guests also appreciated this).  The minister was so lovely and warm.  She asked my groom what kind of ceremony we wanted when she first met him a few minutes before everything began.  We opted for a simple, love-focused ceremony, with some religion peppered in.  We also incorporated 2 readings.  I was running a little bit behind schedule and Ramon kept all of our guests in the shade until he got word that we were on our way.  I thought this was a nice touch, so our guests weren’t sitting in the sun.  However, the sun starts to cool off by that time and the breeze from the ocean is wonderful.  Our guys were all in tuxes and none were sweltering or counting down the minutes until they could take their jackets off.  Actually, a few of them left their jackets on the whole night.  We also paid $50 to do a sand ceremony, which was a nice added touch.  We likely could have gotten this for less back at home, but it would have added to the weight of our luggage and I didn’t want to risk it breaking or sand spilling all over our luggage.

CHAMPAGNE TOAST @ 5:30pm on the Tequila Terrace:
We left about 15 - 20 minutes for this and that was a perfect amount of time.  It gave our guests time to hug, cheers and take a few personal photos, then off to do our professional photos with our photographers (who I can't rave enough about!!).

COCKTAIL RECEPTION @ 6:45pm – 7:45pm on the Tequila Terrace
It was perfect ... so we hear  :)  We left an hour in between our champagne toast and cocktail reception to do our photos, with the intention of not missing our cocktail reception ... and we ended up missing it anyway, LOL.  By the time we did group photos (we had 52 people, so it took some time to get everyone organized) + family photos + bridal party photos + bride & groom shots, all the time was eaten up ... but we wouldn't change a thing, since photos were extremely important to us and we wanted to make sure we got all the shots we wanted.  I did get to try a couple of the apps right before being introduced as husband and wife to the reception (they kept some aside for us, which I thought was very sweet) and they were delish!  I tried the mini taquitos (so yummy) and the bacon wrapped shrimp (AMMMMAZING, my mouth is still watering) and my groom tried the curry chicken skewers and said they were really good as well.  The only thing we didn’t get to try was the goat cheese mousse.  We had 2 signature cocktails to match our colours (turquoise and coral).  I didn't try the turquoise one, but was drinking the coral one all night long.  It was so yummy!  We also ordered personalized cocktail napkins from theknot.com, which were a huge hit with our guests.

FOOD
It was amazing and all of our guests raved that it was the best meal they had at the resort (and all the food at NOW Sapphire was really good).  We gave our guests their choice of 3 entree options (seafood stuffed chicken, surf & turf, vegetarian lasagna) and everyone enjoyed their meal.  One of our guests said their steak was the best steak they ever had - and they travel lots and eat at very nice restaurants.  We chose the goat cheese and apple salad (yum!), the mushroom soup (I really loved it, but I also LOVE mushrooms), the 3 entrees I listed above (our guests had their choice of which one they wanted and we supplied this info to Ramon in our first meeting) and the cognac truffle chocolate dessert (SOOOOOO GOOD!!!).  Our dulce de leche cake was also delicious.  We cut it right at the end of our dinner reception (before the first dances), but didn’t serve it until later on in the evening since our guests were all still stuffed from dinner.  We decided to only order a cake for 25 people, which was included in our package vs. upgrading it for 50+ people and I am so happy we did.  It was 3 tiers and we ended up with a ton of leftovers.  With our savings, we added fresh  flowers to our cake ($50) and also decided to pay $6 per person to do a late night menu of chips + guacamole (it’s THE BEST) + pico de gallo, which was served around 11pm.  This was another big hit with our guests.  At Ramon’s suggestion, we only ordered enough for 20 guests, as he said many people would have left by then and many people would still be stuffed from dinner.  I thought it was really nice of him to want to save us money … and there was way more than enough for all of our guests, even though 95% of them were still up and dancing at that time.  Actually, there was a ton of leftovers for this as well.  We probably could have gotten away with only ordering enough for 10 people.

DJ & DANCING approx. 9pm – midnight:
I am not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the best nights of partying I’ve ever had in my life!  We hired DJ MANNIA and it was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding.  Carlos was AMAZING and DJ’d our wedding like it was a club. The dance floor was packed all night long and people were still ready to party when the wedding ended at midnight, so we all headed to the disco and closed it down at 1am, then tried to find a beach party because we were all still so high on life and wedding bliss.  We paid to have a lit-up dance floor from DJ MANNIA and it was worth every single penny we spent.  It really added to the ambiance and party atmosphere.  If you’re thinking about hiring DJ MANNIA, I would say DO IT!!!  It was less expensive than hiring the resort DJ and the quality of the work was so much better.  We also paid to extend our reception and were SO HAPPY we did.  There is no way we would have been ready to end the party when it was scheduled to finish.  It was worth the extra money! 

PHOTOGRAPHY
We hired Amorcito Corazon Studio (http://www.amorcitocorazonstudio.com/), and although we won’t receive our photos for another few weeks, we already know we made the right decision.  Jacob & Anel were amazing to deal with leading up to our wedding day and were even lovelier in-person.  They arrived at 3pm to shoot our get ready photos and stayed until 10pm to cover everything in between.  We also did a “Trash the Dress” shoot with them the day after the wedding and loved every minute of it.  We didn’t really TRASH my dress, however, we had lots of fun in it … and it was cleaner after our session than it was when we first began J  We spent a couple of hours in Puerto Morelos doing a beach/town shoot, then went to a cenote to do an underwater shoot.  I cannot wait to see how the pics turn out from our wedding and TTD session.  We used our hour of free photography that came with our wedding package at our rehearsal dinner.  The pictures turned out nicely, but they were pretty basic and lacked artistic or creative flair, so I am very happy we spent the extra money to hire Jacob & Anel, since their photos are incredible and their prices are really reasonable.  Honestly, if you can work it into your budget, I would highly, highly recommend going with an outside vendor as a photographer and would highly, highly suggest Amorcito Corazon Studio.  You will not be disappointed with this decision.   

FLOWERS
We took advantage of the free flowers that came with our Devine wedding package and hired http://www.floresrivieramaya.com/ to provide our centerpieces, bridesmaid bouquets and groomsmen boutonnieres.  They also provided us with flameless candles + holders for the tables, as well as vases for our bridesmaid bouquets to go in at the head table for a small fee.  Their work was incredible and their prices were much less expensive than what the resort was charging.  Alina was also amazing to work with and offered many suggestions/recommendations, including how to avoid paying the $300 vendor fee.  The groomsmen met with her at 2pm outside of the hotel gates to get the flowers, then delivered the centerpieces to Ramon for them to be placed on the tables (he did this free of charge).  Her work was incredible and I absolutely loved our flowers.

SPA
One word – AMAZING!  When I went to the spa a few days before our wedding to confirm appointments for our hair & make-up, I was asked if I was interested in upgrading to their bridal suite, which would give us access to the hydrotherapy pools, steam rooms, etc.  I was expecting this to be a major charge, but it only cost me $75 ($50 for 2 bottles of sparkling wine + orange juice to make mimosas, plus $25 to add some small sandwiches + chips, guac and pico de gallo + a fresh fruit platter).  I easily would have paid HUNDREDS of dollars for this in Canada or the U.S.A.  It was a steal!  We were all blown away by the service we received at the spa.  We started our day ordering room service breakfast, then headed to the spa around 10am in our bikinis to take advantage of all of the pools and services.  At 12pm, 4 of my bridesmaids started with hair & make-up, as I sat in our private Jacuzzi filled with rose petals, drinking champagne and taking in the whole day.  At 1:30pm, it was my turn for hair & make-up and at 2pm the mom’s and one more bridesmaid.  Everyone was super happy with their hair and make-up.  Everyone looked magazine shoot ready :)

WELCOME BAGS & FAVOURS
Our welcome bags were a huge hit with our guests.  We included plastic mason jar tumblers for drinks at the pool (these were AWESOME!!), a hangover kit (Advil, TUMS, Lifesaver mint), a door hanger for the day after the wedding, a CD compilation of music we love and have shared over our dating years (we have a friend who is a DJ and mixed this for us), our itinerary which explained the welcome cocktail reception and timing for the wedding day.  We distributed these to a few guests before we left for Mexico and the remainder at the airport (if they were on our flight) or at the welcome cocktail reception.  We are so pleased at how these turned out and our guests really appreciated the extra touch.  We were also over the moon at how our wedding favours turned out.  Me and my husband (ahhh, so exciting to type that) have a vacation tradition that we started a few years back, where we collect a Christmas ornament from every new place we visit, that way we can reminisce about our vacation memories every Christmas as we are decorating our tree.  So, it only made sense to pass this tradition along to our guests.  We saw really nice beachy ornaments on Etsy for $12 each, which was out of our budget, so we did them ourselves!  We took clear glass bulbs (purchased at Michael’s) and filled them with shells and sand (actually from the NOW Sapphire beach) and personalized them with a few details about our wedding day.  Everyone loved them and cannot wait to hang a piece of our special day on their Christmas tree.

WELCOME COCKTAILS
We couldn’t justify spending more money to do something private (especially since it’s an all-inclusive resort!!), so decided to do something at the lobby bar from 4:30pm – 6:30pm.  However, after spending the day in the pool with everyone and having so much fun, we decided to move the cocktail reception to the pool bar.  It was very casual, relaxed and so much fun!  It wasn’t private or anything, but it felt like it with the amount of people we had.  My guests much preferred being poolside in their bathing suits, mixing and mingling with one another vs. going up to their room early to get ready for a more formal event.  Oh, and we decided this only a couple of hours before the event was set to begin and got the word around by asking our guests to pass along the message to anyone they saw.  This gave them another opportunity to chat and get to know each other … and it all worked out.

All in all, our wedding and whole trip was amazing and not only lived up to our expectations – but exceeded them!  It truly was a dream come true.  I am actually quite envious that you ladies still have your weddings to look forward to, because I already miss ours!  I keep joking with my husband that we should do it again and again, since we had so much fun, LOL.  You are going to have the time of your lives and the best day ever, I guarantee it!  We have been married for over a week and we’re both still on a high.  I don’t expect that to fade any time soon  :wub:  Honestly, enjoy the whole ride and whole wedding planning process … and leave the worrying up to your wedding coordinator.  Your day will be perfect, you will be beautiful and your story will end with a “happily ever after”.

~ Jackie

P.S. - Here are some photos of our special day.  I will post more when we get them back from our photographers.

Ceremony: 
http://s1289.photobu...36fe6f.jpg.html

Cake:
http://s1289.photobu...fa8818.jpg.html

Table (w/ guestbook, favours and other decor we brought from home):
http://s1289.photobu...02e2ea.jpg.html
http://s1289.photobu...3d90d8.jpg.html

Head Table:
http://s1289.photobu...52efd6.jpg.html

Centrepiece:
http://s1289.photobu...c975fb.jpg.html

Favours:

http://s1289.photobu...1f8b0e.jpg.html