Excellence Playa Mujeres Brides Post Here!

[Amanda Gardner]

lciz your photos are gorgeous!!!

[MsBlissMpls]

It was mentioned before and I just want to highly suggest again that any future brides have someone appointed to check out the ceremony & reception site before hand. I believe the ONLY reason everything turned out so great for us is because my husband was there to move chairs around and have things set up property for the ceremony, and then when it rained he went with someone to check out all of the possible "backup" reception locations, rather than just let them pick it and set it up for us. If he would not have done that there were countless details that would have been missed and we would have been disappointed. Luckly he was all over it, but looking back I am sad that he did not feel Taken Care Of by the wedding coordinator the morning of our wedding. It makes me sad that he was not able to relax and be calm and taken care of wth no worries. The details and things that he did are things that I would consider the "wedding coordinators" tasks on the morning of a wedding. Because of this I would also suggest the (if it's in your budget), to hire a day-of coordinator to come and be the organizer for your day - this way you can go over all the details with one person and they will be there for you to take care of everything, especially the details.

 

Like I said before our day was wonderful, but still there were things that were off, here are a few for future brides to look out for:  

 

1) To many chairs set up at the ceremony even though we went over the numbers at least 3 times and they were in the planner.

2) We requested the Audio setup for the ceremony and it was not put up for us my husband decided that morning ot not make a big deal of it and we just used our Bose system with the iPod, which made it very intimate, but it was a disapointment because I could not hear the music as I was walking down and if I had I would have walked faster to be 'on cue' with the timing we wanted.

3) Flowers were really late in coming to the room and to the guys.  

4) We had 20 people for our dinner (which included our photographer & assistant), their 2 chairs were not set up at the table, so we had to take the cake table and extend the table for them. This was dissapointing because we rented 2 extra tiffany chairs for them and the table decorations were not set up correctly once the extended portion of the table was added. Why would we rent 2 random extra chairs?!? - this was a detail that the WC should have been on top of. In the end it worked out, my main concern was that we really wanted them to feel welcome and this bump was kind disappointing. 

 

Things that were extra awesome:

1) Adrian and his assistant. They were so sweet and everyone LOVED them. At dinner they told us they had taken over 2000 photos and the night was not over yet!

2) Edgar (the head waiter) at our reception. He made sure we had everything before we even though of it. If you can I would totally request that Edgar and his staff of waiters be at your reception. Their service was THE MOST AMAZING part of our reception. We love him and miss him already. He is also the head server for the breakfast and lunch buffet at Toscana. Definately request Edgar's team for your reception. You will not be disappointed.

3) N. hooked us up with some extra flower centerpieces and great pricing on our decoraitons (way less than stated in the brochure - or free for some of the decorations for our ceremony & reception) This could have been because of the mess-ups but I think it was because she is really caring and wanted to match our inspiration photos that I gave her. Either way we are grateful for the extras that she hooked us up with. She is really sweet and I really liked her a lot, but I think she is just over booked. They just had 3 helping coordinators quit on them in the last few weeks which is why they are so behind on emails, etc. It's not her fault, but they need to hire some help ASAP.

4) Our final bill. Like I mentioned in #3 we received some complimentary items which was super cool and when going over the final bill everything was perfect. No translation or anything needed. I did request our final room bill (which is where they put your wedding charges) a few days before we left, and while my father-in-law (who is fluent in spanish) left the resort. I didn't even need his help in reviewing the invoice because it was all pretty clear to me. I divided all the amounts by 12.5, the exchange rate, and it was all perfect.

 

I am so grateful for those of you who gave things to "look out for" because I was SO on top of those things, however our own things to "look out for" came up - which is why I'm posting this, and I'll add things as I think of them. I'm excited to post photos as soon as we get them!

 

 

[caroline0822]

I was told everything is done in the convention center. 

[ahoff]

Hello Ladies,

 

I have really enjoyed reading your posts they have been very informative!

 

We are getting married on November 23, 2012 @ 4:00 and was looking for some advice from past and future brides.  What are you doing for photography using the photographer provided (pricing?) or are you using an outside vendor?  We thought we would bring our own sound system to save some money, what has worked best in the past?  My biggest concern is making sure that it is loud enough.

 

I also e-mailed the wedding coordinator and waiting to hear back about the following:

 

What are the options and pricing for a rehearsal dinner?

What are our options for the cake? Design and Flavor?

What are the location options for the dinner?  Do we need to choose this ahead of time?
Does each guest need to make meal selections ahead of time?

I know that we have one hour with hors d'oeuvres, how long does the reception last?

Do hair and make-up application appointments need to be made ahead of time?

 

Any help on this would also be great!

 

Thank You,

Ashley

[Jass7]

Can some of you share your timeline? I'm not sure how long I need to book our photographer for. Our ceremony is at 5:00pm. How long do hair and make up appointments go for? Are they all done at the SPA?

[Jass7]

 

Originally Posted by ahoff 

Hello Ladies,

 

I have really enjoyed reading your posts they have been very informative!

 

We are getting married on November 23, 2012 @ 4:00 and was looking for some advice from past and future brides.  What are you doing for photography using the photographer provided (pricing?) or are you using an outside vendor?  We thought we would bring our own sound system to save some money, what has worked best in the past?  My biggest concern is making sure that it is loud enough.

 

I also e-mailed the wedding coordinator and waiting to hear back about the following:

 

What are the options and pricing for a rehearsal dinner?

What are our options for the cake? Design and Flavor?

What are the location options for the dinner?  Do we need to choose this ahead of time?
Does each guest need to make meal selections ahead of time?

I know that we have one hour with hors d'oeuvres, how long does the reception last?

Do hair and make-up application appointments need to be made ahead of time?

 

Any help on this would also be great!

 

Thank You,

Ashley

 

Those are all good questions, and I look forward to hearing the answers.

[Jass7]

 

Originally Posted by MsBlissMpls 

It was mentioned before and I just want to highly suggest again that any future brides have someone appointed to check out the ceremony & reception site before hand. I believe the ONLY reason everything turned out so great for us is because my husband was there to move chairs around and have things set up property for the ceremony, and then when it rained he went with someone to check out all of the possible "backup" reception locations, rather than just let them pick it and set it up for us. If he would not have done that there were countless details that would have been missed and we would have been disappointed. Luckly he was all over it, but looking back I am sad that he did not feel Taken Care Of by the wedding coordinator the morning of our wedding. It makes me sad that he was not able to relax and be calm and taken care of wth no worries. The details and things that he did are things that I would consider the "wedding coordinators" tasks on the morning of a wedding. Because of this I would also suggest the (if it's in your budget), to hire a day-of coordinator to come and be the organizer for your day - this way you can go over all the details with one person and they will be there for you to take care of everything, especially the details.

 

Like I said before our day was wonderful, but still there were things that were off, here are a few for future brides to look out for:  

 

1) To many chairs set up at the ceremony even though we went over the numbers at least 3 times and they were in the planner.

2) We requested the Audio setup for the ceremony and it was not put up for us my husband decided that morning ot not make a big deal of it and we just used our Bose system with the iPod, which made it very intimate, but it was a disapointment because I could not hear the music as I was walking down and if I had I would have walked faster to be 'on cue' with the timing we wanted.

3) Flowers were really late in coming to the room and to the guys.  

4) We had 20 people for our dinner (which included our photographer & assistant), their 2 chairs were not set up at the table, so we had to take the cake table and extend the table for them. This was dissapointing because we rented 2 extra tiffany chairs for them and the table decorations were not set up correctly once the extended portion of the table was added. Why would we rent 2 random extra chairs?!? - this was a detail that the WC should have been on top of. In the end it worked out, my main concern was that we really wanted them to feel welcome and this bump was kind disappointing. 

 

Things that were extra awesome:

1) Adrian and his assistant. They were so sweet and everyone LOVED them. At dinner they told us they had taken over 2000 photos and the night was not over yet!

2) Edgar (the head waiter) at our reception. He made sure we had everything before we even though of it. If you can I would totally request that Edgar and his staff of waiters be at your reception. Their service was THE MOST AMAZING part of our reception. We love him and miss him already. He is also the head server for the breakfast and lunch buffet at Toscana. Definately request Edgar's team for your reception. You will not be disappointed.

3) N. hooked us up with some extra flower centerpieces and great pricing on our decoraitons (way less than stated in the brochure - or free for some of the decorations for our ceremony & reception) This could have been because of the mess-ups but I think it was because she is really caring and wanted to match our inspiration photos that I gave her. Either way we are grateful for the extras that she hooked us up with. She is really sweet and I really liked her a lot, but I think she is just over booked. They just had 3 helping coordinators quit on them in the last few weeks which is why they are so behind on emails, etc. It's not her fault, but they need to hire some help ASAP.

4) Our final bill. Like I mentioned in #3 we received some complimentary items which was super cool and when going over the final bill everything was perfect. No translation or anything needed. I did request our final room bill (which is where they put your wedding charges) a few days before we left, and while my father-in-law (who is fluent in spanish) left the resort. I didn't even need his help in reviewing the invoice because it was all pretty clear to me. I divided all the amounts by 12.5, the exchange rate, and it was all perfect.

 

I am so grateful for those of you who gave things to "look out for" because I was SO on top of those things, however our own things to "look out for" came up - which is why I'm posting this, and I'll add things as I think of them. I'm excited to post photos as soon as we get them!

 

 

 

Congratulations again MsBlissMpls! I can't wait to see your pictures! It sounds like even with few hiccups it all went amazing. And thank you for such great advice! I will make sure we or someone we know can check things for us before things start.

 

Let's say ceremony is at 5:00pm, and it's over by 5:30pm, do guests go to coctail hour right away or would a coctail hour be at 6pm?

[MsBlissMpls]

 

 

Thanks Jass7! You get to completely pick the time that you want the cocktail hour to start. Below was our rough timeline that we put in the welcome bags, and even though we left some time after the ceremony to take photos with everyone, the cocktail hour was ready for us immediately after the ceremony but did not start until our first guests arrived to the X-lounge at approximately 4:15.

 

We are getting married on November 23, 2012 @ 4:00 and was looking for some advice from past and future brides. What are you doing for photography using the photographer provided (pricing?) Here's what I recieved from the resort:

Our in-house photography service is VIP Wedding Photos (www.vipweddingsphoto.com), please let me know in case you would like to be contacted with information about their services and packages.

 or are you using an outside vendor? We used Adrian Herrera of Victor Herrera Photography, When we booked his pricing was $2000 for 8 hours and all photos and the resort charges $500 to have an outside photog visit the resort. (which is crappy, becuase VIP just does not want anyone in their territory taking their business, so they get $ for doing nothing- considering we would have never used VIP they did not lose any business, but just recived $500 because they have a contract with Excellence) Adrian was still less expensive than hiring the resort photographer for the same amount of time. We thought we would bring our own sound system to save some money, what has worked best in the past? My biggest concern is making sure that it is loud enough. We used a Bose dock for the ceremony at the gazebo and for the reception. It was definately loud enough for both, but if you want to have loud music when you walk down the aisle just ask them to set up the system that comes with the package for your ceremony.

 

I also e-mailed the wedding coordinator and waiting to hear back about the following:

 

What are the options and pricing for a rehearsal dinner? I'll upload these docs soon. You will have to be a member of this site to upload them, but I think it's worth it because it may take awhile to hear back from the WC.

What are our options for the cake? Design and Flavor? Same as above, I'll upload.

What are the location options for the dinner? I'll upload this pdf as well. Do we need to choose this ahead of time? You can reserve a space ahead of time but they will not confirm it until 1 month before your date.

 

Does each guest need to make meal selections ahead of time? Yes, We then did name tages with different colored rinestones to let the servers know who was getting chicken vs. salmon. They had no problem getting each person their chosen meal this way. We did not need a seating chart by doing it this way as well. People just took their name tags and sat where they wanted. We had 20 guests so it was easy for our small group to do this. However our menu was not finalized until 2 days before the wedding, so don't stress about this to much. Just have an idea of what YOU want and let them know your plan. When they confirm it, your good to go and get meal choices from your guests. 
 

I know that we have one hour with hors d'oeuvres, how long does the reception last? 3 hrs. Each additional hour is charged per person (not sure of the amount but it was stated on this board earlier)

Do hair and make-up application appointments need to be made ahead of time? Yes do it online ahead of time to get the slot that you want.Hair and Make up is in the spa, You can go to the website right now and schedule your appointment. I did this months ahead of time and they had my appointment scheduled no problem. I'd say it took about 1 hour for hair and 1 hour for makeup. I have long hair and she curled it all, so it probably took the longest of any hairstyle out there.

 

 

 

 

I also made a made a map of the resort with all the times and places that people should be, just for those that need the visual help to get places on time

 

It's kind of beat up, but here was the sand ceremony card we put in the welcome bags for everyone to participate with us during the ceremony.

 

 

Here's my unprofessional photo of how our sand ceremony frame turned out. I LOVE it. Unfortunately it settled a lot on the plane ride home (even though we packed the remaining sand in there tight), so the right side is blended more than in this photo, but it now looks like the ocean rubbed up on it and it kind of looks cool? ... I cried when I saw it but my husband was trying to tell me how neat it looked with the airplane adjustments: I wish it would still look like this photo. You can see our guests sand forming the bottom triangle.

 

 

 

And just for fun! The morning after our wedding ROOM SERVICE! Oh, how I miss room service....  

You ladies are in for a treat!

 

 

On our last day our favorite guy Edgar & I want to say her name is Marissa, but there are so many awesome ladies and I'm bad at names...

 

 

Crying the day we had to leave I raided the mini-bar for some chocolate comfort, and came home with this in my carry-on...It's now on a platter in our dining room

[MsBlissMpls]

Here was the menu we chose. Everyone had the same apps etc. but got to choose if they wanted chx or salmon. The chx people had a green crystal on their name tag and the salmon people had a pink crystal on thier name tag. I had to throw this together 2 days before we left (and a little work on the plane ride to Mexico) because of not hearing from the WC until then!

 

The salad was not very good (probably the only not so hot thing on our trip), so I would not pick that again. I'd ask for the caprese salad instead. We asked them to not bring out the creme brulee because we were all so full and ready to dance (so that was kind of a waste, I hope they did not make it ahead of time - they said it was not a problem).  The soup was really good! It was only warm so it was a good & refreshing temp for a hot Mexico night.

 

Our cake top tier Tres Leches - WISH the whole cake was this flavor it was AMAZING. However because it is so delicate you can only have it as a top layer or as a flat cake. We chose a top layer, but after tasting it was wish we had a flat cake of it. When we go back for our anniversary we are ordering this cake! Second layer was chocolate, it was good and bottom layer was white with strawberries. There was so much cake we had to-go boxes, but the restaurant has typical to-go boxes if you do not want to bring them and still want to send cake home with your guests. The leftover cake we gave to the servers and they were SO happy to share in our wedding cake. I told them they could box it up and bring it home to their families, but I heard later that they all enjoyed eating it that night with each other They really loved the vanilla with strawberries the most.

 

 

 

 

[k032379]

This was all such great info. Thank you so much for sharing. K

Here was the menu we chose. Everyone had the same apps etc. but got to choose if they wanted chx or salmon. The chx people had a green crystal on their name tag and the salmon people had a pink crystal on thier name tag. I had to throw this together 2 days before we left (and a little work on the plane ride to Mexico) because of not hearing from the WC until then! The salad was not very good (probably the only not so hot thing on our trip), so I would not pick that again. I'd ask for the caprese salad instead. We asked them to not bring out the creme brulee because we were all so full and ready to dance (so that was kind of a waste, I hope they did not make it ahead of time - they said it was not a problem).  The soup was really good! It was only warm so it was a good & refreshing temp for a hot Mexico night. Our cake top tier Tres Leches - WISH the whole cake was this flavor it was AMAZING. However because it is so delicate you can only have it as a top layer or as a flat cake. We chose a top layer, but after tasting it was wish we had a flat cake of it. When we go back for our anniversary we are ordering this cake! Second layer was chocolate, it was good and bottom layer was white with strawberries. There was so much cake we had to-go boxes, but the restaurant has typical to-go boxes if you do not want to bring them and still want to send cake home with your guests. The leftover cake we gave to the servers and they were SO happy to share in our wedding cake. I told them they could box it up and bring it home to their families, but I heard later that they all enjoyed eating it that night with each other They really loved the vanilla with strawberries the most.