Moon Palace 2012 Brides

[Renewing32]

I am curious about this as well! I was told by one bride before that you have to pay a couple hundred dollars to actually do the "rehearsal".  Total waste of money in my mind- people know how to walk down the aisle.     What did everyone else do?  I currently have about 40 guests for my wedding in Nov and want to have something at Moon Palace the night before- more of a welcome/reherasal dinner.  I think I have too many people to just do a reservation in one of the restaurants.  I have unlimited private events, but I don't want it to seem like the wedding reception.

You can a welcome dinner on the beach. That way your guests have an opportunity to mingle with each other and it not feel like a formal reception. Thats what I want to do or maybe use the ballroom and have some music which would make it seem more like a drunken party!

[mrsbruff2b]

We're doing a rehearsal/welcome dinner.  But we're meeting bridal party only (earlier at the ceremony location) for an ACTUAL rehearsal.  Then everyone is welcome to join us for dinner afterward (just a dinner like a meet n greet).  We're not reserving, will just be showing up.  I've been told that many brides have done this without a problem.

 

Originally Posted by shan0487 

I am curious about this as well! I was told by one bride before that you have to pay a couple hundred dollars to actually do the "rehearsal".  Total waste of money in my mind- people know how to walk down the aisle.     What did everyone else do?  I currently have about 40 guests for my wedding in Nov and want to have something at Moon Palace the night before- more of a welcome/reherasal dinner.  I think I have too many people to just do a reservation in one of the restaurants.  I have unlimited private events, but I don't want it to seem like the wedding reception.

[shan0487]

Thank you- that is good to know.  That is very true- I have never even asked Miami so I don't know what they would say.  I would like to have a rehearsal, but not if it's going to cost $.  I am curious with any of the recent brides what they did! Let's hear it ladies!

Originally Posted by CurlyBride 

The wedding I attending at Aventura Spa Palace had a rehearsal, no extra charges, it was just the parents and the people who walked down the isle, bride and groom. took about 15 min and then they met their guests at the rehearsal dinner location. I think its best to coordinate this part with the wedding planner on site and probably once you get down there because Miami may mess this up.

[shan0487]

That would be fun, but I think they have a set up fee for the beach, don't they?  If our budget allows, that is a good idea.

Originally Posted by Renewing32 


You can a welcome dinner on the beach. That way your guests have an opportunity to mingle with each other and it not feel like a formal reception. Thats what I want to do or maybe use the ballroom and have some music which would make it seem more like a drunken party!

 

Good to know.  That would probably be the easiest way to do it- just a meet and greet thing.  I don't know if it will be possible for me to do an actual rehersal since we are getting married at Sun Palace and staying at Moon Palace.  I wanted to do the welcome/rehearsal dinner at Moon.  But maybe I will have to do it all at Sun as well if they allow for it.  Complicated!! lol.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsbruff2b 

We're doing a rehearsal/welcome dinner.  But we're meeting bridal party only (earlier at the ceremony location) for an ACTUAL rehearsal.  Then everyone is welcome to join us for dinner afterward (just a dinner like a meet n greet).  We're not reserving, will just be showing up.  I've been told that many brides have done this without a problem.

 

[CatWoman]

I'm not entirely sure why anyone would think Miami "may mess" anything up. I'd much rather speak to them, as they know proper English, and have a way better turn around with their response time. I had a terrible time with my coordinator on site, Lily. My planner in Miami, Joannis, has even sent me follow up messages to see how everything went, I'm planning on sending her photos soon!

[Renewing32]

That would be fun, but I think they have a set up fee for the beach, don't they?  If our budget allows, that is a good idea. Good to know.  That would probably be the easiest way to do it- just a meet and greet thing.  I don't know if it will be possible for me to do an actual rehersal since we are getting married at Sun Palace and staying at Moon Palace.  I wanted to do the welcome/rehearsal dinner at Moon.  But maybe I will have to do it all at Sun as well if they allow for it.  Complicated!! lol.

There is a set up fee for dinners, but if you do like like a cocktail hour you can probably aviod the fee since there won't be a lot of tables and chairs.

[CatWoman]

I find it rather silly NOT to pay for your services before hand, as this is virtually the only way things can be confirmed before you arrive. The process, as explained to myself was that the wedding is turned over to the coordinator once everything is finalized. I'd much rather trust someone in America than someone in a third world country...all of the fraud has been found to be routed from there, anyway, as payments post from the resort once the planner sends it for processing. Under the proposal that Joannis sent me, it does state:

* Items listed are not confirmed until FULL payment has been made on each item.

* Final payment is due 45 days prior to arrival. Any items purchased within 45 days of arrival are subject to availability

 Policies may have changed since the new collections are out now, and they do have a bit of a mess with that since a lot of them are not available when they are stated to be on the site. This is the resort's fault of course, though. I had a wonderful time, and nothing has come back to haunt me afterwards either. My opinion is, if I can't trust someone from a company with my money, I wouldn't want to have something as important as my wedding to be handled by the company in general. I had generosity from both Joannis and Janina, and I would recommend either of them to future brides that have an open mind.

[stefn1218]

My friends got married at the Beach Palace in 2010 and I was the maid of honor.  We did a very quick (15min) rehersal that as far as I know did not have an additional charge.  Her's was VERY low key, so if they would have charged for a rehersal I doubt she would have done it. Most of the time involved was honestly just getting the bridal party to pay attention (the wedding area was upstairs, but the area where the bridal party was waiting to be called was RIGHT next to the bar

 

They had an actual rehersal dinner that they did pay for, but I personally think that if you are asking people to fly out to Mexico then, bridal party or not, they should be invited to all the formal events.  So, then I'm not really sure what we would do much differently for the rehersal dinner versus and wedding reception.  My FI and I are still trying to figure it out, but we are leaning towards either a Welcome Cocktail Hour or Welcome Dinner the night before, after the rehersal that we'll have with the wedding party.

 

Also, I did just read somewhere that there is a separate charge, even if you qualify for unlimited events, for both the cocktail party and receptions if you have them on the beach or terrace.  I can't remember what the exact price is, but i think it's like $6/pp for cocktail party and $12 for the reception.  We REALLY wanted to have EVERYTHING on the beach, but we're expecting (hopefully!) a lot of people (like around 60), and at that price, it is going to be hard to justify that added cost....hope that info helps!

[leenancy]

Originally Posted by LurkerDan 

 

What have folks done for rehearsal? I know that many have a "rehearsal dinner" but every rehearsal dinner I've been to was just a dinner, whereas my fiancee is expecting to actually rehearse.

Did you actually rehearse, with the wedding planner there?

 

My wedding was on May 27th. I didn't think we would be able to do a rehearsal because Joannis had told me the wedding coordinators are too busy and there are too many weddings going on throughout the day to be able set one up. So I just planned on doing a rehearsal dinner with our parents and wedding party to talk about what needed to be done. Lo and behold, she was wrong (no surprise). When I met with Valeria, she asked if I wanted to do a rehearsal with her. So we were able to go to the actual ceremony site on the beach and do a quick rehearsal. It had to be at 10 in the morning due to her wedding schedule, but that was fine by me. Everyone just went their separate ways for the day after the rehearsal and we met up again for the rehearsal dinner so that we could thank everyone.

[leenancy]

Oh and there was no additional cost. That would just be ridiculous to charge for something like that.