Excellence Playa Mujeres Brides Post Here!

[lciz]

SERIOUSLY!

 

Ugh, I knew something was up when I have been emailing Gustavo more than usual lately and heard nothing back, until IIeana finally emailed me mentioning nothing about Gustavo being gone. I am not happy about this being that it is so close to my wedding AND because the answers she provided me were completely different than what Gustavo has been telling me for the last 8 months.

Sorry for the mini vent sesh!

 

For our OOT bags we are also going with paper bags and a personalized logo and filled with "survival" type goodies... Speaking of, I better get on that!

 

Originally Posted by stefkva 

Gustavo is no longer with Excellence!

 

Ileana just told me that she is the new wedding manager. I have worked with her a little before but I mainly coordinated with Gustavo. I hope the wedding isn't as disorganized as they seem to be :/

 

Also, Ileana just emailed me the contact info for their minister:

 

"The Symbolic Ceremony which is performed by a non denominational minister; it’s a Christian Ceremony and if you want to have more information about it, you can contact directly our Minister, her name is Roxana Fernandez and her e-mail address is: [email protected]"

 

[Sharon99]

WTH!!!  Thanks for the info. Thank god we all have this site!

I now have worked with 3 different people...kind of crazy!!

 

What would you need to contact the minister about? I know we can change the ceremony script(at least thats what I was told) guessing she can give us a copy of it?

 

LC dont worry, I am sure your wedding will still be beautiful. Dont forget we meetup with them a few days before to make sure they have all the info
 

Originally Posted by stefkva 

Gustavo is no longer with Excellence!

 

Ileana just told me that she is the new wedding manager. I have worked with her a little before but I mainly coordinated with Gustavo. I hope the wedding isn't as disorganized as they seem to be :/

 

Also, Ileana just emailed me the contact info for their minister:

 

"The Symbolic Ceremony which is performed by a non denominational minister; it’s a Christian Ceremony and if you want to have more information about it, you can contact directly our Minister, her name is Roxana Fernandez and her e-mail address is: [email protected]"

 

[MsBlissMpls]

I'm sure it will all work out fine. Originally we were working with Ileana and then we were told to speak with Gustavo, both seemed to have the same response time & knowledge. The only thing that bothered me was the switch over. Ileana told us things & prices that were different from Gustavo, however, they honored what the other said. At least Ileana knows the resort and is not someone completely new . Just remember to print out your emails and photos to bring with you.

[k032379]

The turn around at this place is a little scary but I will try to keep positive as I have not made it that far in the planning stage yet. My date is towards the end of the year. We purchased our suit Saturday. Exciting! Is anyone's fi wearing a vest under the suit? It looks like most just do the suit, white shirt & tie. I was going with ipod also but not positive now. I have a specific song I would like to walk down the isle on. Any legal ceremonies? Nervous!!! K

[MsBlissMpls]

Congratulations on your booking K. ! Very exciting. We originally wanted the vest because it always looks so cool & dressy at the same time, but the suit we fell for did not come with a vest, so we are making the best of it. I personally like the vest and no jacket look very much.

 

Our only concern about the legal ceremony in Mexico is the turnaround time for the official marriage certificate to be sent to us after we leave Mexico. I had a friend that had to wait 3 months after their wedding for their offical wedding certificate to be sent to their home from the Mexican courthouse. She was married at El Dorado Maroma (So a very nice place that does lots of weddings). I want to change my name legally right away on all kinds of stuff and don't want to wait 3 months (like she had to) to get the proof that we are married. That long of a wait is probably not the case for every wedding in Mexico, but her experience is what we am going off of. Also, she was told that if you lose that one certificate you get from Mexico it's hard to replace it (trying to track down the exact contact information of the courthouse in Mexico that holds your file) vs. going to your local courthouse and asking for a certified copy. She very highly recommended to us to do symbolic and save some stress. Actually, she told me that is the only one thing that she would have done differently. I'm not sure if other legal Mexico brides would say the same thing or not?

 

I'm bummed about having a different "paperwork" day and Ceremony day, but to us it just paperwork (important paperwork, that we don't want to worry about losing).

 

That aside, if you definately are doing a legal ceremony, I've head that the process of the requirements and the ceremony are all smooth and easy to do. The resort takes care of all of it and other than a needle prick, it's stress free. Nothing to be nervous about there .

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by k032379 

The turn around at this place is a little scary but I will try to keep positive as I have not made it that far in the planning stage yet. My date is towards the end of the year.
We purchased our suit Saturday. Exciting! Is anyone's fi wearing a vest under the suit? It looks like most just do the suit, white shirt & tie.
I was going with ipod also but not positive now. I have a specific song I would like to walk down the isle on. Any legal ceremonies? Nervous!!!
K

 

[stefkva]

Yeah, I'm going to have to keep track of everything I spoke to Gustavo about on the phone and make sure Ileana is on the same page...and then I have to be sure to bring all the documentation with when we go down there......this already feels like a lot so boy am I glad we're doing a destination wedding at a resort and not doing something at home and juggling multiple vendors!!

 

For the ceremony I've gone back and forth. No matter what I decide though I will be sure to make music backups on an Ipod. One review on this thread said that the band she hired did not show up so they didn't have music....I'm going to plan for Murphy beforehand so I won't have to worry about anything while we're down there.

 

I wanted the minister's info so I could get the script beforehand. I might want to add/change a passage or two and I don't want to be surprised.

 

As for the official vs symbolic ceremony, we decided on the symbolic because my fiance is from Switzerland so we have to get his birth certificate and other required documentation officially translated from German to Spanish which is a bit of a hassle as well as the blood work that has to be done at the resort AND you have to be in Mexico several days before the wedding as do your witnesses. So we're just doing the "paperwork" here and the symbolic there.

[Anna6387]

Is anyone that is having / had a Jewish ceremony had any luck with finding a rabbi? We have contacted a few but we didn't really like them. Any input would be great. My wedding is 6/12/12 so I need to find one sooner than later! 

 

 

[k032379]

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I'm a little scared, ok maybe a lot scared in regards the legal ceremony (getting stuck in another country) but my fi wants our first "I now pronounce you husband & wife" to be the first and only one. I do too but I've went back & forth. Still leaning towards legal tho. I've read on this thread & a couple others that the license is mailed to you express at the resort within a couple of days. They will also provide witnesses if needed. I'll have to check into that. Another negative is the money & time it takes to have everything translated once back in the U.S. Yeah, his suite didn't come with a vest either but they had them, along with the matching tie right next to the suits. The vest looked so much sexier once I seen it on. We ended up with the wrong kind so we have to exchange it. Thanks ladies. I'm ready to enjoy the ride. I have all of the big things taken care of already so I'm praying for smooth sailing :0)

[lciz]

Hi girls!

 

I have been emailing Ileana a lot and have not heard anything back, are you guys having any communication issues now that Gustavo is gone?

 

We also decided to get married in the states legally and just do a symbolic at the resort, only because a few friends of mine had issues in the past having a legal ceremony in Mexico. I am sure it would be fine but we just do not want to take the chance (since we are prone to bad luck anyways =)). We are not telling anyone about our legal marriage here and we are going to look at our ceremony in Mexico as our real official wedding, the stuff here as MissBliss said, its just paperwork!

 

Where are you girls having your reception? On the terrace or in the private area?

 

Happy Thursday everyone!

LC

 

[MsBlissMpls]

It is taking a bit longer to hear back. I think we sent questions early last week and still have not heard anything on those ones.

 

We are doing the legal stuff on the down-low as well. My mom & dad are coming as witnesses, which is nice because my dad is not coming to Mexico, but we are not telling anyone about that day - probably just go for a meal afterwards with my parents, and then start changing my name on everything

 

We have not confirmed a reception area yet. We don't even have anything on "hold" At first we were told that we could be on the Lobster House patio, but now they changed their minds on that. I'm really really bummed because we really want it on the beach, but we were told we need a min. of 50 people to do that and there is an extra charge. Partly we're holding out hope that when we get there we can talk them into letting our little party have a beach reception. Asking for things in person always goes better than through an email  - wish us luck!

 

I have a question:

 

For our OOT bags we buying personalized bags for each couple (the beach bag is part of the gift being it is a good quality). We are just thinking of adding per bag (1) underwater camera (for our suba excursion), (2) personalized mugs, (2) personal sized sunscreens (I heard that it is REALLY REALLY expensive at the hotel for anyone who forgets to bring it from home), candle & matches for their room. That is our budget for the bags. I see a lot of OOT bags having lots of little items, but I'm kind of excited about filling them with a couple of nice big items. What do you think about a couple of big items instead lots of little items? I'm open to any and all opinion of what guests are more likely to love. Overall I just really want our guests to know we thought of them, and it's not all about us.  

 

Thanks