Hi Ladies!

This review is LONG overdue. Life got so busy after the wedding but I will try to be as thorough as possible and try to remember everything.

My husband and I arrived to Now Jade on October 30, 2013 with 4 of our guests. We flew Jet blue from NY and the flight was smooth. I placed my dress in the overhead compartment and it was fine, they steam the dress at the resort anyways so I was not worried. When we arrived we had to wait about 20 minutes for the transportation to arrive but it was ok. We were just so happy to finally be in Mexico. The drive to the resort was about a half an hour and we drove through a cute little town called Puerto Morelos. When we arrived at the resort we were greeted with cool towels. My husband and I were happy to hear we had been upgraded to the Preffered section (we didn't even ask to be upgraded). I don't remember the room we actually booked but I was happy to get the upgrade. We were taken to the preferred section to check in which took about 1/2 hour. Our room wasn't ready so we hung out at the Lobby Bar and waited for some guests to arrive. About an hour later the room was ready. We were very happy with the room. It was clean and it had a bucket of champaigne waiting for us. Obviously this is not a 5 star resort so there were some small details that need to be worked out but nothing I would freak out about. Some guests had to switch room due to a "musty smell" and small ants in the room. I am so laid back though that I didn't let peoples complaints get to me. We went to eat at the buffet and the food is ok not great. I did have some guests complain that the food was bland. It is an all inclusive resort and if you don't like it, try another place! I would say the Hibachi restaurant was BAD. The food looked old and the sauces looked like they had been sitting there for days. We ended up leaving before we even finished and tried Capers which was better. Again, I don't think the food was great at any of the restaurants but I expected that since it is an all inclusive. The beach was nice and we went Jet Skiing, the pools were nice as well and we spent most of our time between the preferred and the other pool. In my opinion this resort was nice but it was not the best. But, we all had a great time, we made the best out of everything and we were in Mexico, not cold NY so we were happy.

I met with Isela on Thursday 10/31 to hand over the decor I brought over and to go over last minute details. I brought mason jars, burlap chair bows, burlap table runners, seating cards, guestbook, tea light candles and some pictures for the guestbook table. Isela was so organized, she had all of our email correspondence over the course of the planning. I had decided to upgrade my bouquet for an extra charge and received 3 bridesmaids bouquets and one small bouquet for my junior bridesmaid. I had the Divine package, if I remember correctly, I got one bridesmaid bouquet plus mine (which i paid extra to upgrade) and then I paid about $50 extra for the two other bridesmaids bouquets. I decided to use the flowers that would be placed on the Pergola to be rearranged after the ceremony along with the bridesmaids bouquets as my centerpieces. That helped cut costs and it looked fine. I am not too big on flowers anyway so I was very happy with that decision. I also brought along an ipod with the music for the ceremony. We decided to book the DJ used by the resort. For the ceremony we had the Pergola, then cocktails at the mixed bar and reception at the Bamboo Room. I was concerned since I only had 30 guests including myself and my husband. I didn't want to room to look empty but Isela did a great job with the placement of the three rectangular tables plus the guestbook table and the sweetheart table that it looked amazing.

Wedding Day

The morning of my husband and I went to the pool to chill out and relax then split up around 10am. The ceremony was starting at 5PM so I had an appointment for my hair and make up at 1pm along with two bridesmaids (everyone else did their own hair and makeup). I brought a picture of my hair and they matched it perfectly. For someone who barely wears makeup, i was VERY happy with how mine came out. Luckily I had my sister who is fluent in spanish so she was able to explain exactly what I wanted. I booked Uriel perez from Victor Herrera photography for the day and he and his assistant arrived just as my hair and makeup were finished around 3pm. They followed us back to the room and started snapping away as we all got ready. They went between my room and where my husband and the groomsmen were to make sure they got shots of them as well. I am not a picture person AT ALL. Neither is my husband so we have A LOT of funny, goofy pics. At one point the photographer said we were the funniest couple he ever photographed lol. Isela arrived with the bouquets around 4:45pm and we went down to the ceremony at 4:55pm.

Ceremony

The ceremony space looked beautiful! I think that is where it hit me that I was about to walk down the aisle. The music I brought was playing and everything was set up great. We had a symbolic ceremony since we were married in NY before we left. The officiant spoke very clearly and made everyone laugh. I would say the ceremony was perfect and lasted about 20 minutes. Right after the ceremony we went straight (just us two) to take pictures and the guests went to the cocktail hour. Like most couples we didn't try the food at cocktail hour but I heard it was great. Like I said we do not like taking pictures but we knew we had to for the memories lol. We wanted to start partying right away!

Reception

The reception space was decorated beautifully and everything went smooth. The menu I chose was a mixed green salad, the riccota ravioli (I had as my entree since I am a vegetarian), choice of chicken or beef and for dessert was the wedding cake (I opted out of the dessert since we had the cake and was given two extra cocktail hour choices). I would have to say the food at the wedding was WAY better than any food at the restaurants. I was very happy about that. We literally started partying right away. The DJ did an amazing job of keeping everyone on the dance floor. We danced from the moment he started playing till the last dance. We were SO exhausted by then end of the night we didn't even go to the disco after. All in all the wedding was amazing.

My review of 4 stars is for the actual wedding day.

My husband and I left two days later to Secrets Maroma for our honeymoon and we were SO glad we did. It was expensive but well worth it. You can def tell the difference between a 5 star and 3 star resort. We liked the Now Jade but would prefer the Secrets Maroma. Again the Now Jade is a good resort and I had an amazing wedding but I think they can work on the small details when it comes to the food and how some of the rooms are kept. Oh and NO ONE got sick. Thank goodness! I am sure I missed some details but it has been so long since the wedding. If any one has questions let me know! For some reason I am unable to upload pics, if anyone is interested I would be happy to send! Happy Planning!