Excellence Riviera Cancun Brides?

[hapykat]

@@JenniferH114

I've sent her an email to see if she has any or if she can suggest where to buy some

[JenniferH114]

Random update, but I told Jessica that since we hired an outside photographer for the wedding we'd like to use the photographer/pictures included in our package for our welcome party. She said that's not a problem. I know I saw mention of others doing something similar on here, but I hadn't confirmed it yet. Obviously it is not an issue.

[upstatekj]

FYI - I asked Jessica how long the walk was to the beach gazebo - she said 15 seconds! Seems a bit short to me, I asked HNeal and she said this: 15 seconds if you're speed walking! The full walk is a couple minutes b/c you wait behind the building and walk down the stairs to the beach. Once you reach the top of the steps all of the guest and groom can see you. From there I would think at least 30 seconds probably longer.

 

I think I'll time my songs for one minute each (one minute for my sister, my MOH, and one minute for me).

[JenniferH114]

@@upstatekj - While I didn't actually time the walk when we did our site visit, the gazebo is very close to the sidewalk/stairs. I would not imagine it is a long walk at all from the time people can actually see you.

[Giocivs88]

who takes care of the music when we walk down? we have to pay for that too? lol

[Wrathwitch]

OK Ladies!

 

FWIW, here is my experience at the Excellence. I will try to keep this factual so that I don't ramble on forever Our wedding was SUPER simple so it may not compare for some of the plans that the ladies here in this forum are working on.

 

The Hotel: OK both my fia..husband and I agreed that the Excellence was not Excellent but Very Good. There were just too many small hiccups that turned it from a Excellent experience to very good. I won't get too much into that right now because most people are concerned with knowing how the wedding goes. If you want to know more then just PM me.

 

The wedding: We arrived in Mexico on Saturday and our meeting with Jessica Morelos was on the Monday morning at 10:00. Do remember that when you arrive in Mexico, they are what we called "Mexico time" this means for the most part you can expect to not have punctuality...ever...

 

I went to the front desk and asked for her, despite the fact that the wedding coordinator door is 5' away from the desk I still had to wait a little over 5 mins for her to come out. But she was very sweet. We covered the pertinent details, however she failed to mention the room set aside for the groom as part of the package (we took the basic package that was available through the room upgrade). So we had to chase her down later and ask about it. Just so you know, your groom has the choice of sleeping overnight in it OR having it from Noon (Mexico time = 2pm) on the wedding day until about 3-4pm to prepare for the day (not both, at least with the basic package anyways) which was fine with us. She took my 4 witnesses and Stephane and my passport and had all of the witnesses sign the paperwork she had with her which prepared for the ceremony later.

 

At 11:00 we were scheduled to do the blood test (Mexico time = 11:30) we had to chase Jessica down. Kind of irritating since we wanted to get some use out of our day after the initial 10:00 am meeting. The Dr (I am assuming he is a Dr.) had a little travel bag and drew blood from both of us. It felt like he had done this quite a few times and everything appeared sterile and clean. Steph did end up with a huge bruise afterwards though, but I came out of it pretty clear. Afterwards the day was ours. 

 

We chose to have Steph use the room to prepare for the wedding in the other room provided. Thank god that I didn't do hair, or much make up because at 2:30 (Wedding at 4:00) the bloody room service cleaning was just finishing up the room next to mine and mine wasn't done yet!!! So note to you, on that day (especially if you are doing getting ready photos) ensure that room cleaning will do your room early. I waited out on the balcony and had to start my shower with my door partially propped open because my girlies were coming at 3pm (The maid just left at 3pm) so they could come in (they had to be down on the pier at 3:45). 

 

The day was BEAUTIFUL! Warm ocean breezes and sunshine on the pier where we were having the ceremony. 

 

Jessica came by and dropped off the bouquet at about 3:20 and went off to deliver the boutonniere for Steph. The flowers were beautiful and nicely wrapped with a white satin ribbon with pearly tipped pins to secure it. They smelled beautiful. 

 

My girlies headed for the pier at about 3:45 and all pretty and bejewelled, I waited until around 4:05 for Jessica to come. Wedding was scheduled for 4pm. She took me on a little walk about to get lined up for the pier without immediate visibility (I had bare feet and it wasn't a problem) she brought my dad to walk me down to the pier. We let her choose her music and she picked well. 

 

On a side note when we were shopping in cancun we saw these cute little boxes made from sand, I bought one for a dollar and put some padding inside and had my MoH carry the rings in it.

 

The judge was a woman and while waiting Stephane got to talk with her a bit and was pleased with her as it seemed she really liked what she was doing and took the time to make sure she would pronounce our names correctly. The wedding documents, signed in triplicate were very pretty as well. You also had to thumb print all 3! 

 

Being on the pier it was as nice as we could have asked, it was distant enough from the beach that you truly felt that you were alone, the breeze was pretty strong but I love that sort of thing, lots of wind blown hair photos but I wouldn't change a thing. The only thing is that the judge spoke in a microphone and with the speaker being on the other pier sometimes due to the wind it was hard to hear her. Since it was such a small wedding everyone was close enough though. So yes the pier felt very private and very beautiful. 

 

Because we didn't have a reception as part of the package, Jessica booked us a place at lobster house which was BEAUTIFUL for that occasion and the staff was amazing for us that night! It has a nice view to the beach and is sheltered enough that you don't get your food chilled before it hits the table. The cake was a simple heart shaped white cake (which they had to find for us lol but they managed) It had strawberries in the center and everyone agreed that it was excellent. 

 

When we got back to the room, there was a banner across the door (Just Married) and rose petals strewn around the hot tub as well as a set of love bird swan towels with roses in amongst the plumage.

 

We didn't do the romantic dinner (which to my opinion would be one on the beach, not just a reservation in a ala carte restaurant) but if you want the dinner on the beach it will cost you 200.00 usd. We also passed on the breakfast in bed as part of the honeymoon celebration because we were going on an excursion the next day. I asked Jessica to just add another bottle to the toast on the beach which occurred after the ceremony, but the bottle didn't happen. 

 

I thought the bubbly on the pier was very nice and special. As was the whole wedding experience.

 

Some interesting things to note was that I think for Mexicans that the signing of the documents are almost equal to our exchanging of vows in importance because she kept telling us to pose and look up for photos when we were doing it, which was no problem but everyone had to sign them in triplicate (again very nice looking documents) AFTER the forms were signed, we started the ring exchange and vows. Which seemed a bit backwards to me haha since I would think that you would say the vows FIRST and then sign all the paperwork, but not there anyways, which was fine, it was all a great experience. It just had me wondering if they forgot the ring and vow part at first!

 

 

[calgarybride2015]

Glad your wedding went well and it was what you hoped it would be!!! I hope you will share some pictures with us

 

You made a few notes I could agree with and I didn't even stay at your resort lol. Our room wasn't cleaned before we got ready either so I quickly made the beds but the photog said not to worry she'd ensure they weren't in the pictures.

 

Also we signed before exchanging rings too. The friend who taped our ceremony said with the walking it was all over in 12 mins lol. Super fast.

 

Congrats again. Glad you had a good week.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited February 15, 2015 by calgarybride2015

[JenniferH114]

@Wrathwitch - Sorry this is so delayed, but thank you for the review!! It's always helpful to hear what others have experienced, both the positive and negative. Overall, it sounds like you had a beautiful wedding!! If you think of anything else to share, please do!

 

Thankfully, we'll basically have an extra room to use the day of because my sister is staying in a room by herself. I'm guessing that will be the get ready room for the girls.

Edited February 25, 2015 by JenniferH114

[Giocivs88]

hello ladies!!!

@@Wrathwitch congratulations on your wedding and thank you for the review! i hope that you will share some pics with us lol

 

 

i have a question girls....

how many months in advance did you guys start making decisions with jessica like...centerpieces, menu, music pictures, time of ceremony?

my wedding will be this june and i still have not set anything in stone what so ever 

[JenniferH114]

@@Giocivs88 - We locked in our ceremony time and locations pretty much right away, which was last July. At the time, I wasn't sure how many (if multiple) weddings are per day and I wanted to make sure we got the locations we wanted. Looking back, it is really a non-issue, but it certainly didn't hurt. We also booked our photographer last July. Pretty much all of the other big decisions (menus, DJ, fire show, setting hair appts, etc.) were made before the holidays (November & December). We are bringing our own centerpieces and décor. I think the only thing I really have left to decide on through ERC are the flowers, but I'm honestly okay with choosing those when we get there. We also have to submit our questionnaire/info sheet to the DJ, but that's not a huge deal. We have a couple more things to order for OOT bags and favors, but we are waiting until the RSVP date (two more weeks), just in case. So, other than those last few items, we are ready to go!

Edited March 2, 2015 by JenniferH114