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Now Jade Riviera Cancun Wedding

MPopp

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  • 2 months later...
ALLYGATOR

ALLYGATOR

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I am getting on a forum so late in the game, but better later than NEVER!

We are getting married at Now Jade Riviera Maya Resort November 25, 2010....one month from today!!

 

We have 52 guests booked to join us in Mexico! I can't believe we have so many coming :)  
I am in the process of doing all the final prep for the wedding & the trip, one of which is filling out the Now Jade Wedding Planning Form.

I can't decide where to have the ceremony & the reception. I don't want to have it on the beach, as I think it is too public, so we originally chose the Pergola which looks more private. But now I am thinking maybe the Seaside Garden....any suggestions?  I want the ceremony site it to be beautiful, yet private. We are also torn on which reception area to choose; we like the Ocean Front Terrace, but with 52 guests in total and DJ, we worry it will be too cramped. Pilar (Now Wedding Coordinator) has suggested the Yellow Bamboo Room (fits max 100), but we worry that it will feel to empty and cold with only 52 of us in a room designed for 100. I am also concerned about the floor plan on the Ocean Front Terrace - where does the Head Table go?

 

If you can help or have already got married at Now Jade Resort please tell me EVERYTHING!!!

I would greatly appreciate a little advice in these final days of wedding planning.

Ally
Vancouver Bride 

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  • 2 weeks later...
MPopp

MPopp

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Hi Ally,

 

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you! I don't check this all the time. I am getting married at Now Jade on December 13th, so shortly after you. We are having our ceremony at the Pergola and the reception in the Bamboo Room. The Pergola looks absolutely amazig and has a beautiful view of the ocean, so that would be my suggestion. I guess it really is just a personal preference. I don't think the Bamboo Room will feel empty ad cold. We have 49 guests and we choose this. I think it will just make for a bigger dance floor :) I think you can only have one long table at the OCean Front Terrace. This is one of the reasons we chose the bamboo room. I know that Las Olas restaurant is aother option and it is open but covered. I think quite a few people have chosen this location. I actually just finished filling out my Wedding Planning Form and sent over to Pilar.

 

Hope that helped. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I'd love to hear all about it when you return.

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  • 4 weeks later...
ALLYGATOR

ALLYGATOR

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Just got married at NOW Jade Resort on Thursday, November 25, 2010!  (52 Wedding Guests)

 

Firstly, it is a beautiful resort with fabulous restaurants and a beautiful setting right on the ocean. The ocean is stunningly blue and the water is warm (warmer than the pool). There are very few rocks on the beach and in the water, but if rocks do bother you, bring your water shoes. The sand is white and so soft; just picturesque!   

 

Pilar, the wedding coordinator, is a very layed back person, hense taking sometimes weeks to respond to emails. Her relaxed demeanor makes her not very detailed oriented. So if your wedding has a lot of tiny details, make sure Pilar writes everything down. She will tell you to "relax" over and over again and "not to worry" but if you want all your tiny details to make an appearance at your wedding - make sure she writes it down! My wedding was very detail oriented, as I made table numbers, cocktail napkins, decor, signage and so on for our wedding and she and her team of people had to remember to put out everything, However b/c she didn't write anything down she did forget some things. My mom & sister thankfully caught the errors and the reception was exactly how I imagined it. ...still the drink menus never made it on the tables. Again, the tiny details.  

 

The service is very slow all over the resort, from the restaurants to the swim-up bar. They have been at capacity all month, so this must contribute to the extremely slow service also not enough staff!  Word of advise: when you arrive, immediately set your watch back to Mexican time and prepare to wait!  The wait for a table at any of the restaurants can be up to 2 hours, as there are no reservations allowed. If you want to eat at 7pm, go at 6pm to collect your buzzer. Once you do get seated at a restaurant, know that you are on Mexican time and that everything will take longer - A LOT LONGER even drinks take up to 30mins to get at bars throughout the resort, even the swim-up bar! However, when the drinks/food does finally arrive it is fabulous!! When it came to food quality and flavor there were no complaints.  

 

The rooms are beautiful, but not large. As bride & groom you get an automatic upgrade to Preferred Club. Our view from room number 7303, overlooked the Preferred Club Pool and the ocean - it was spectacular!!  Definatley one of the nicest rooms at the resort. I also asked for the parents of the bride & groom to get upgraded to Preferred Club, after much back and forth with Pilar over email, once I had arrived Pilar made it happen. I also requested ocean view for my bridesmaids and Pilar also made that happen! :)

 
Room service is 24 hours and pretty good. They do not bring alcohol to your room. There are 4 beers in your mini-bar, which they restock everyday - but no hard alcohol. If you want an alcoholic beverage you must go get it yourself.  

 

We did the ceremony on the Pergola, which they advertise as a rooftop patio, which I thought meant totally private, being a rooftop - but it isn't. The Pergola is on a patio, but not rooftop, in fact it's right beside the buffet area. So if you choose this location make sure to make your ceremony for when the buffet is closed, for instance at 3pm, as I did and it was a lot more private than the beach. I watched another wedding on the beach while I was there and it was very public. Their ceremony was on the beach in front of the Preferred Club Pool and I bet close to 100 people in their swim suites stood and watched...including myself.  

 

We did the Cocktail Hour at the Blue Beach Bar, which is right below the Pergola and beside the beach. It was the perfect location for the cocktail hour. We did some pics on the beach in front of the Blue Beach Bar so our guests watched - this was fun for them!         

The reception was in the Bamboo Room. We had 54 of us in there, so it filled the space nicely, but any smaller and I would not recommend it; as it fits a maximum of 100 guests. We had 6 round tables for our guests, one head table, one cake table, one podium for speeches, one long DJ table, one signing table and one table for our seating chart/guest favor (MARACAS). The center of the room was reserved for dancing. Pilar had the tables backwards, so had our families at the back of the room, when I noticed this I immediately asked her to change it but she refused saying it was too hard to do - but since we had 30 mins before the reception began I insisted, as we didn't want our parents at the back of the room. She wasn't happy about it, but she made the change - something I am so glad I insisted upon. 

 

After 11pm, all our guests went to the Sports Bar to dance. As a group we went there after dinner almost every night the whole week and it was soooo fun! Great music with a huge video screen on the dance floor that shows music videos. Totally not a cheesy "discoteca" like I have been to at other resorts.  

 

We went snorkeling, ATV'ing through the jungle, visited Tulum and swam in the Cenote (underground river). All amazing tours I highly recommend. The contact to hook you up with all of these tours is Alejandra (Alex) your Cancun DMC   [email protected].. A

Alex went above and beyond! She took my parents and I into Cancun to get things for the wedding & do a little shopping before the rest of the wedding guests arrived and she organized some of the most amazing tours for our guests, that I have ever done!

 

Alex also recommended a friend of her's who is also a florist to do our flowers, Juliana. The prices for flowers at the resort is outrageous, so I began emailing Juliana some pics of what I wanted & she said she could do it. Juliana is based out of Cancun but will travel to surrounding areas (Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos)  to do your wedding. When I arrived at NOW Jade, Juliana came to meet us - she brought samples of the flowers she had in the colors I wanted (coral, white and green). She was very professional and did a beautiful job on the flowers for a very low price. 10 boutenierres, 3 wrist corsages, 4 bridesmaid bouquets, 1 bridal bouquet and 2 centerpieces and the rental of 9 vases and a basket for only $200 USD!!  NOW Jade wanted $65 for one bridesmaid bouquet?! In the end we saved close to $800 using Juliana and the flowers were so beautiful, my bridesmaids are still talking about them!! :)  NOW Jade's florist did not like that we ventured out to get our own florist, but there is no clause saying you can't. Also, when I told Pilar the price she said "I don't blame you". Perhaps now, NOW Jade will re-evaluate their prices for flowers. Highly recommend Juliana:  [email protected]   I  

 

TELL JULIANA & ALEX, ALLY SENT YOU!  

 

Well that's all for now. Although there were some glitches along the way, it was the BEST week of my life! I am so excited to start this new chapter of my life as Mrs. Allison Fuller. Any questions email me at [email protected]

 

Lots of Love,

Ally 

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ALLYGATOR

ALLYGATOR

Posted
Posted

Just got married at NOW Jade Resort on Thursday, November 25, 2010!  (52 Wedding Guests)

 

Firstly, it is a beautiful resort with fabulous restaurants and a beautiful setting right on the ocean. The ocean is stunningly blue and the water is warm (warmer than the pool). There are very few rocks on the beach and in the water, but if rocks do bother you, bring your water shoes. The sand is white and so soft; just picturesque!   

 

Pilar, the wedding coordinator, is a very layed back person, hense taking sometimes weeks to respond to emails. Her relaxed demeanor makes her not very detailed oriented. So if your wedding has a lot of tiny details, make sure Pilar writes everything down. She will tell you to "relax" over and over again and "not to worry" but if you want all your tiny details to make an appearance at your wedding - make sure she writes it down! My wedding was very detail oriented, as I made table numbers, cocktail napkins, decor, signage and so on for our wedding and she and her team of people had to remember to put out everything, However b/c she didn't write anything down she did forget some things. My mom & sister thankfully caught the errors and the reception was exactly how I imagined it. ...still the drink menus never made it on the tables. Again, the tiny details.  

 

The service is very slow all over the resort, from the restaurants to the swim-up bar. They have been at capacity all month, so this must contribute to the extremely slow service also not enough staff!  Word of advise: when you arrive, immediately set your watch back to Mexican time and prepare to wait!  The wait for a table at any of the restaurants can be up to 2 hours, as there are no reservations allowed. If you want to eat at 7pm, go at 6pm to collect your buzzer. Once you do get seated at a restaurant, know that you are on Mexican time and that everything will take longer - A LOT LONGER even drinks take up to 30mins to get at bars throughout the resort, even the swim-up bar! However, when the drinks/food does finally arrive it is fabulous!! When it came to food quality and flavor there were no complaints.  

 

The rooms are beautiful, but not large. As bride & groom you get an automatic upgrade to Preferred Club. Our view from room number 7303, overlooked the Preferred Club Pool and the ocean - it was spectacular!!  Definatley one of the nicest rooms at the resort. I also asked for the parents of the bride & groom to get upgraded to Preferred Club, after much back and forth with Pilar over email, once I had arrived Pilar made it happen. I also requested ocean view for my bridesmaids and Pilar also made that happen! :)

 
Room service is 24 hours and pretty good. They do not bring alcohol to your room. There are 4 beers in your mini-bar, which they restock everyday - but no hard alcohol. If you want an alcoholic beverage you must go get it yourself.  

 

We did a Meet & Greet @ 3pm at Las Olas the day after our guests arrived. This gave Scott (groom) and I a chance to say hello to everyone, introduce our families & thank everyone for coming. To thank them we gave each couple a beach bag full of goodies - all of which they could eat or use throughout the week. In a canvas beach bag were travel mugs, Mexican wedding cookies, bag of mini-meds (Advil, Tylenol & Pepto Bismol), animal foam visors (we wore around the pool), dolche de leche caramel, antibacterial wipes, map of Cancun/Puerto Morelos, and an activites brochure. Pilar helped to organize this get together for 54 people at Las Olas, she also got the cookies and the maps of the area.      aA     Alex (our activities coordinator) also came to the Meet & Greet with her staff & set up a table for our guests to sign up for tours & activites. After Scott & I had finished speaking & had handed out all the beach bags, Alex and her staff did a little schpeel of about all the tours & activites. This was great to do as all our guests were there & if there were any questions Alex and her staff were there to field them. 

We organized two tours for our guests.

1) ATV Trip

- Visit ancient city of Tulum, ATV through jungle, swim in the cenote  - $108 for double, $138 for single - 6.5hr tour  AMAZING DAY!!!! So glad we did it!

There are only 14 ATV's, so we encouraged our guests to double up on the ATV's so more ppl could go. We ended up with 18 of us...unfortunatly more wanted to go, but there was no room. So sign up FAST! Includes all transportation in very clean & air conditioned vans, dry snacks (chips & peanuts) and bottled water. They'll also stop for beer if you ask...we did!

2) Private Catamaran Sunset Cruise 

Private 3 hour sunset tour of Puerto Morelos & the Reef. 4 - 7 pm 
Sunny & shaddy spots to sit. Good for all ages. Leaves from El Cid Marina (5 minute walk from NOW Jade)  Includes dry snacks, red & wht wine & beer. 

If you want more food, you can order trays of appy's and/or sandwiches from Costco in Playa Del Carmen or Cancun. The staff on the boat will serve the trays.  

 

THE WEDDING DAY!
 

We did the ceremony on the Pergola, which they advertise as a rooftop patio, which I thought meant totally private, being a rooftop - but it isn't. The Pergola is on a patio, but not rooftop, in fact it's right beside the buffet area. So if you choose this location make sure to make your ceremony for when the buffet is closed, for instance at 3pm, as I did and it was a lot more private than the beach. I watched another wedding on the beach while I was there and it was very public. Their ceremony was on the beach in front of the Preferred Club Pool and I bet close to 100 people in their swim suites stood and watched...including myself.  

 

We did the Cocktail Hour at the Blue Beach Bar, which is right below the Pergola and beside the beach. It was the perfect location for the cocktail hour. We did some pics on the beach in front of the Blue Beach Bar so our guests watched - this was fun for them!         

 

The reception was in the Bamboo Room. We had 54 of us in there, so it filled the space nicely, but any smaller and I would not recommend it; as it fits a maximum of 100 guests. We had 6 round tables for our guests, one head table, one cake table, one podium for speeches, one long DJ table, one signing table and one table for our seating chart/guest favor (MARACAS). The center of the room was reserved for dancing. Pilar had the tables backwards, so had our families at the back of the room, when I noticed this I immediately asked her to change it but she refused saying it was too hard to do - but since we had 30 mins before the reception began I insisted, as we didn't want our parents at the back of the room. She wasn't happy about it, but she made the change - something I am so glad I insisted upon. 

 

After 11pm, all our guests went to the Sports Bar to dance. As a group we went there after dinner almost every night the whole week and it was soooo fun! Great music with a huge video screen on the dance floor that shows music videos. Totally not a cheesy "discoteca" like I have been to at other resorts.  

 

We bought maracas at Market 28 in Cancun (the open air-market) - they acted as our wedding favor, seating chart and when our guests shook them & did a little dance we had to KISS!

We got them for $1.50 each from a vendor in the market after some bartering.

 

We went snorkeling on the Reef, ATV'ing through the jungle, visited the ancient city of Tulum and swam in the Cenote (underground river). All amazing tours I highly recommend!!
The contact to hook you up with all of these tours and more is Alejandra (Alex) your Cancun DMC   [email protected]. 
Alex went above and beyond! She took my parents and I into Cancun to get things for the wedding (maracas) & do a little shopping before the rest of the wedding guests arrived and she organized some of the most amazing tours for our guests that I have ever done!

 

Alex also recommended a friend of her's who is also a florist to do our flowers, Juliana. The prices for flowers at the resort is outrageous, so I began emailing Juliana some pics of what I wanted & she said she could do it. Juliana is based out of Cancun but will travel to surrounding areas (Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos)  to do your wedding. When I arrived at NOW Jade, Juliana came to meet us - she brought samples of the flowers she had in the colors I wanted (coral, white and green). She was very professional and did a beautiful job on the flowers for a very low price. 10 boutenierres, 3 wrist corsages, 4 bridesmaid bouquets, 1 bridal bouquet and 2 centerpieces and the rental of 9 vases and a basket for only $200 USD!!  NOW Jade wanted $65 for one bridesmaid bouquet?! In the end we saved close to $800 using Juliana and the flowers were so beautiful, my bridesmaids are still talking about them!! :)  NOW Jade's florist did not like that we ventured out to get our own florist, but there is no clause saying you can't. Also, when I told Pilar the price she said "I don't blame you". Perhaps now, NOW Jade will re-evaluate their prices for flowers. Highly recommend Juliana:  [email protected]   I  

 

TELL JULIANA & ALEX, ALLY SENT YOU!  

 

Well that's all for now. Although there were some glitches along the way, it was the BEST week of my life! I didn't want to leave.

I am so excited to start this new chapter of my life as Mrs. Allison Fuller. Any questions email me at [email protected]

 

Lots of Love,

Ally Fuller (formally known as Ally Gates)  FUller :

:) ) 

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