Married at NOW Jade Resort - Puerto Morelos, Mexico!!!

[ALLYGATOR]

Just go 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

 

 

 

 

[T&A]

Hi Ally,

 

Congratulations! Thank you for writing a review for Now Jade resort.

 

Amy

[chinaire29]

Hi Ally,

 

I am getting married at Now Jade on July 08, 2011, and I'm a person that is very detailed oriented, so it makes me nervous that Pilar is so laid back. Actually, my wedding coordinator is Maria, so I hope that she displays much more energy than Pilar. 

 

I agree that the resort appears to be very picturesque, but I have heard of the resort being understaffed. By now the resort should be well aware of the unacceptable wait times at dinner and at the bars.I hope that changes by July.

 

Currently I have about 40 guests booked, and I would like for their accommodations to be flawless, no one complaining about wait time, or anything for that matter. 

 

You said if there are less in the party than your own, you do not recommend the Bamboo Room, so what room would you recommend?

 

My fiance has his heart set on a beach ceremony, but I agree, it may not be as private as I would like. Were you able to wear shoes on the Pergola?

 

I don't have a wedding party so I don't believe wedding flowers will be an issue, but I do agree Now Jade's flower prices were really expensive. My concerns are the chair covers, center pieces, food, hair and make-up.

 

Did your cake look like the picture, because I've seen wedding cake photos and I wasn't pleased.

 

Do you have wedding photos that I can view? If so, I will send my personal email.

 

Thank you in advance,

Chinaire 

[11-11-11Bride]

Congrats Ally! Hows is married life treating you?

 

Thanks for the advice on how to handle Pilar. Thats what makes this forum so awesome!

[amy9968]

Ally.

I loved reading your post.  Quite helpful.   My husband and I are renewing our vows, 25years at the Now Jade.  I've had many challenges with Pilar.  Even though it's our 2nd wedding, I too, am detail oriented and want all things to be done.   I'm curious, did you get a package?  I am leaning towards the highest package... but it was more for the menu.  The a la carte

items are outrageous!  The cost for bows on chairs, etc...   

I have bags for my guest with hats, tee shirts, bath salts  etc...  did you ship your things prior?

I wonder if I don't use the flowers from the package .... if they could do my centerpieces.

As of now, we have chosen a 6:15pm ceremony at the pergola with the reception on the oceanside terrace... there's only 25 of us and I don't want to pay the extra person or room charges. Maybe we should re evaluate that given what you said about the buffet and the crowds.  I am not worried about the beach with people, since most are off the beach and getting ready for dinner.  I do worry about the buffet crowd.

I will reach out to your florist... I want lots of flower but refuse to pay their prices.

Who did you use for transportation?

 

Amy

[Courtybeens]

Thanks Ally! You're review was very helpful! I'm looking to have my wedding at the Now Jade in May of 2012! Hope married life is treating you well! 

[nikkrtz]

The review was very helpful to me also.  I am trying to plan a May 2012 wedding and have many questions running through my mind.

We are thinking about having the ceremony take place on the Pergola and I was wondering if shoes were needed of not?

The flower vendor is great and I am definitely thing about contacting them.. I was wondering if you have any pictures showing the bouquets or arrangements that Juliana created?

 From the previous posts I have read it seems that the blue beach bar is located below the Pergola and am thinking if a set or scheduled cocktail hour would be needed or if the guests could just go to the bar and hang out and have a few drinks prior to dinner?

 

As of now I don't think out group is going to exceed 50 people so I was hoping to see if anyone else just had reservations made at a restaurant for the group without having to pay the cost of shutting down the entire restaurant.

 

Thanks for any help as mentioned the coordinators have a lag time between responses

[Dana Mendez]

Great review -thanks for the vendor info!