Excellence Playa Mujeres Brides Post Here!

[MsHarryWinston]

Thanks thats great to know!

Ok well then next questions...

A) Did you go with a local travel agent or did you find a random one online? I live in a small city and I'm not sure if I should just use one of ours or find someone who "specializes" in destination weddings.

None of the wedding packages seem to include a dinner. They have cake and a cocktail hour but I'm not seeing anything about private dinners. Is that a huge extra charge?

 

I sent away for more info but I love hearing first hand from the brides. And for some reason I dont "qualify" to view PDFs on here yet.

Thanks!

[Amanda Gardner]

Thanks thats great to know! Ok well then next questions... A) Did you go with a local travel agent or did you find a random one online? I live in a small city and I'm not sure if I should just use one of ours or find someone who "specializes" in destination weddings. None of the wedding packages seem to include a dinner. They have cake and a cocktail hour but I'm not seeing anything about private dinners. Is that a huge extra charge? I sent away for more info but I love hearing first hand from the brides. And for some reason I dont "qualify" to view PDFs on here yet. Thanks!

A) We are using a local travel agent, but I live in a larger city. She also specialized in destination weddings and has been awesome to work with. I don't think it matters if they are in the same town though. The majority of our conversations have been through email and all my guest are from out of town. A private dinner is included in the top 2 wedding packages for max of 20 people. This is done after your cocktail hour, during the reception which is 3 hours long? When is your wedding date?

[danak71]

Originally Posted by MsHarryWinston 

 

Thanks thats great to know!

Ok well then next questions...

A) Did you go with a local travel agent or did you find a random one online? I live in a small city and I'm not sure if I should just use one of ours or find someone who "specializes" in destination weddings.

None of the wedding packages seem to include a dinner. They have cake and a cocktail hour but I'm not seeing anything about private dinners. Is that a huge extra charge?

 

I sent away for more info but I love hearing first hand from the brides. And for some reason I dont "qualify" to view PDFs on here yet.

Thanks!

It was definitely cheaper for our guests not to mention there's a ton of amenities that are included with the group rate (especially if you have a large group). I've been checking Expedia, Hotwire and the resort's website periodically and our contracted rate is always much lower.

 

Not to mention, one of the ways I was able to convince my guests to use our travel agent was by letting them know that a lot of times they oversell rooms at resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. When that happens, they start moving guests to their "sister" properties. When you're part of a group, they won't break the group up so you don't have to worry about some of your guests getting moved to a different property.

 

We went to the Now Jade Resort in Riviera Maya in April to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday, they were oversold and were sending some of their guests to their sister property, Now Sapphire. I've heard Now Sapphire is a really nice property but I wouldn't have wanted any of us to get sent there. Because we booked as a group we weren't split up.

 

We went with www.destinationweddings.com. My brother and sister in law used them when they got married in DR a couple years ago and my sister in law said they were great so I decided to use them as well. They specialize in Destination Weddings and our travel agent Pam has been great to work with. We were able to book our block of rooms and give our guests about 6 weeks to put down their deposit. That was in May and even though we've since released the block, they're still honoring the same contracted rates for our late guests that are just booking now.

 

The Excellence of Love Wedding Package includes the Silver Menu for 20 people and the Gold Excellence Wedding Package includes the Gold Menu for 20 people. They both include cake and cocktail hour for 20 people as well. Last email I received it was $45 per person over the 20 that's included. That $45 covers cocktail hour, cake and dinner.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Lynn

[kshannon]

Originally Posted by Momoarc83 

 

Anybody have suggestions for a DJ?  I need to hire one soon!  Thanks!

If we go with a DJ, we are going with DJ Mannia, which the resort will book for you a month in advance  

[TammyWright]

Originally Posted by MsHarryWinston 

 

Thanks thats great to know!

Ok well then next questions...

A) Did you go with a local travel agent or did you find a random one online? I live in a small city and I'm not sure if I should just use one of ours or find someone who "specializes" in destination weddings.

None of the wedding packages seem to include a dinner. They have cake and a cocktail hour but I'm not seeing anything about private dinners. Is that a huge extra charge?

 

I sent away for more info but I love hearing first hand from the brides. And for some reason I dont "qualify" to view PDFs on here yet.

Thanks!

 

You might want to try one of the BDW Travel Agents.  We Specialize in Destination weddings and are very familiar with the Excellence properties.  In fact, we are just about to schedule the excellence webinar where our clients get amenities not offered to other agencies.  You can see our 2013 Webinar Schedule here.

 

You can read some of our reviews here: Wright Travel Agency ~ Destination Wedding Specialist Reviews HERE

[Jass7]

We got stopped at the customs on the way there. They look at our favors, which were boxed in plastic boxes individually. They looked at it, and almost opened it but then decided not to. Our favors were bottle stoppers, with pointy edge which I didn't know how pointy it was until we opened them later. We told them it was for our wedding and they were welcome to open one, since I brought extra, but they trusted us.

[MsHarryWinston]

A) We are using a local travel agent, but I live in a larger city. She also specialized in destination weddings and has been awesome to work with. I don't think it matters if they are in the same town though. The majority of our conversations have been through email and all my guest are from out of town. A private dinner is included in the top 2 wedding packages for max of 20 people. This is done after your cocktail hour, during the reception which is 3 hours long? When is your wedding date?

No wedding date yet. The other night we were thinking it could be really nice if the two of us just eloped to Mexico for a week. Then we realized how quickly his mom would kill us. But I still love the idea of Mexico so I'm trying to make Mexico a viable option. I was also really set on the Moon Palace for a while, but I feel like budget wise Excellence could be the best way to go. 20 people covered AND a cocktail hour and private dinner and only $45/person for extra ppl and I CAN'T see us having more than 50ppl there in total. It seems really perfect budget wise on our end but... I just need that perfect argument of "come ON, look at how cheap it really is to come!" to get everyone else on board. He is worried that no one would come because of cost.

[smo0ochz]

Hey Brides! We are getting Married April 22, 2013. I have all my planning almost done, but I'm not sure when we actually pay for the wedding? Do we pay when we arrive? Have our meeting with our wedding planner? Can you pay cash/check/credit?

[danak71]

Originally Posted by MsHarryWinston 

 

 

No wedding date yet. The other night we were thinking it could be really nice if the two of us just eloped to Mexico for a week. Then we realized how quickly his mom would kill us. But I still love the idea of Mexico so I'm trying to make Mexico a viable option. I was also really set on the Moon Palace for a while, but I feel like budget wise Excellence could be the best way to go. 20 people covered AND a cocktail hour and private dinner and only $45/person for extra ppl and I CAN'T see us having more than 50ppl there in total.

It seems really perfect budget wise on our end but...

I just need that perfect argument of "come ON, look at how cheap it really is to come!" to get everyone else on board. He is worried that no one would come because of cost.

My success came from getting people to look at the numbers. I'm originally from Boston and now live in Atlanta. Most of my guests would have had to travel to Atlanta to attend a wedding. By the time they purchased airfare to Atlanta, stayed in a hotel for a weekend, rented a car and paid for food/entertainment the rest of the weekend they would have spent the same amount that they would spend at Excellence and I don't consider coming to Atlanta a "vacation". So for the same amount they could vacation in paradise. Also, we sent our STD's out May 4, 2012 and our wedding is May 4, 2013. We encouraged people to make regular monthly payments toward their room which most did and stretching it out over a year made it affordable.

 

At the end of the day, though, we both knew in our hearts that getting married at Excellence was what WE wanted to do. So many people plan their weddings around the wants and desires of other people and it becomes less about the actual couple. We decided that wasn't going to be our story. While there were many that we felt we would love to have attend, we both felt strongly that as long as me, him and God were in attendance that was really all that we needed. With that being said, if it's what your heart is set on, the people that are supposed to be there, will be. Wishing you all the best in your decision and your wedding plans!

[MsHarryWinston]

My success came from getting people to look at the numbers. I'm originally from Boston and now live in Atlanta. Most of my guests would have had to travel to Atlanta to attend a wedding. By the time they purchased airfare to Atlanta, stayed in a hotel for a weekend, rented a car and paid for food/entertainment the rest of the weekend they would have spent the same amount that they would spend at Excellence and I don't consider coming to Atlanta a "vacation". So for the same amount they could vacation in paradise. Also, we sent our STD's out May 4, 2012 and our wedding is May 4, 2013. We encouraged people to make regular monthly payments toward their room which most did and stretching it out over a year made it affordable. At the end of the day, though, we both knew in our hearts that getting married at Excellence was what WE wanted to do. So many people plan their weddings around the wants and desires of other people and it becomes less about the actual couple. We decided that wasn't going to be our story. While there were many that we felt we would love to have attend, we both felt strongly that as long as me, him and God were in attendance that was really all that we needed. With that being said, if it's what your heart is set on, the people that are supposed to be there, will be. Wishing you all the best in your decision and your wedding plans!

Almost EVERYONE is in the same city as us otherwise that would be an awesome argument. I was thinking of even setting it 2 years out to give everyone even MORE time to save money. If they stay for 4 nights that's what, $1800? So over 24 months that's $66/month set aside. I spent that on PIZZA AND HOT WINGS the other night! Maybe that's my argument right there. I was born in the Caribbean and really want to do this next to the ocean. You guys are all so great. I really feel like this can happen!