Excellence Riviera Cancun Brides?

[Jill Conner]

Glad it looks like the weather head out for you!  It was perfect for us too on Friday!!!!  Good thing we didn't get married a week sooner, right!?

[BeachBride04]

Thanks for all the info! That's really helpful and will make my decision easier! Any other words of advise with the wedding planning? Where did you have your reception?

[Jill Conner]

1st piece of advice: QUIT STRESSING because it will be BEAUTIFUL.  Exceeded every expectation I had!!!!!

 

We had our reception at the Lobster House, and it was PERFECT.  We were worried about the temperature since our wedding was June 29th, and the Lobster House is outdoors (e.g. NO AC!), but it was great.  There was such a wonderful breeze coming off the ocean.

 

Our cocktail hour was at Garibaldi Square, and my husband and I missed the ENTIRE thing because we were taking pictures with our photographer, Juan Navarro.  We arrived back at the cocktail hour to find it had ended 10 minutes early, and the guests had already moved onto the reception.  We thought this was a little weird, but then we found out that our guests ASKED to end it early because it was SO HOT in Garibaldi Square.  They said it was like dead, humid air, and they were sweating to death.  Our only other option for the cocktail hour would have been on the Pier, which I heard is much nicer, but again, I was selfish and I wanted us to have pictures taken on the pier(s) after the wedding (rather than having a cocktail hour). 

 

More advice:

Use the resort videographer!  It was included in our wedding package, and I was VERY pleasantly surprised when we got our video back!  It was very nicely done!  I thought it was just going to be a 15 minute recording of our ceremony, but there was a lot of footage of the ceremony site before we arrived, of our friends and family arriving, it was set to music, it was edited VERY nicely.  GREAT SURPRISE!  I wasn't expecting much from this video, but I cried when I watched it the first time!

 

We opted to hire an outside photographer, Juan Navarro, for our wedding pictures & trash the dress.  AMAZINGGGGGGGGGG.  Can't think of the words to describe how much we LOVED Juan and his assistant.  Because pictures with the resort photographer were included as part of our wedding package, the planner told use we could have the resort photographer take pictures of us on another night during our stay at the resort (she suggested something similar to engagement pictures).  This would have been a great idea; however, we were too busy spending time with our family and friends and never got around to this!!

 

Get your make-up and hair done at the Spa, and do not waste any time thinking that it might not "look good".  I met a girl in the pool prior to our wedding that had gotten married the previous week.  She told me her hair and makeup was PERFECT.  She said she had no issues with her hair, but had an interesting experience with her make-up... she said she gave the stylist a picture of Lauren Conrad and told him she wanted her makeup "light and natural".  She told me he wouldn't let her watch as he was putting the makeup on (she was turned away from the mirror), and that when she turned around her first thought was "WOAH, that is A LOT of makeup!".  She said her friends kept telling her how amazing she looked, and she knew they would have told her if it looked bad, so she just kept it on.  Then she told me THANK GOD she did, because the makeup stayed on ALL NIGHT, looked AMAZING in the pictures, and was perfect.  I was SO GLAD she told me all of this because I had the same experience... my hair was absolutely PERFECT, but my makeup made me nervous at first. My stylist did my makeup and then I turned around, and my first thought was "WOAH that's A LOT of eye shadow!".  My friends were like, "NO YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL", so I kept it on.  As I was putting on my dress, I got used to the amount of makeup on my face.  It looked GREAT, I just wasn't used to wearing that much!  Then the pictures came.  And they are PERFECT.  My make-up looked beautiful.  It was amazing how natural looked during the ceremony and reception, and how well it stayed on throughout the night.  I was SO GLAD I had met the girl in the pool who told me about her make-up experience, because had I not, I probably would have washed it all off after I got back from the spa, which would have been a HUGE mistake.  Huge.  It looked beautiful. 

 

Before your ceremony, give one of your girlfriends or family members a few bobby pins.  I had a hair get loose during the ceremony because we had a pretty strong breeze, and it needed pinned in place before we took the rest of our pictures.  

 

We got the GOLD package and it included "additional decoration for the ceremony" which = chair ties or rose petals for the aisles.  We chose to have champagne chair ties, and we bought the orange chair ties from home (I bought them online for like $0.60/each).  Loved the dual tie look!

 

Will post more later... but seriously, don't worry about anything.  It's going to be 100 times more beautiful than you imagined!  I could rave about it all day long!!!!

 

 

 

 

[Jill Conner]

Sorry, forgot to attach the pictures from my message above!  I attached a picture of Elias doing my hair at the resort spa, and then a picture of my Dad walking me down the sand aisle so you can see another shot of the hair and make-up.  Doesn't the make-up look good!?  I can't believe I thought it was too much!  My skin looked perfect all night, and it looked very natural in the pictures!!!  Also, someone recommended that I DO NOT use a live flower in my hair for my wedding... I heard they're a pain-in-the-butt to keep in your hair, and that they wilt easily in the heat. I bought my flower from the Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/82177162 for $20.  It was amazing... everyone thought it was a real rose!  I have no idea what it was made out of!!  My flowers had ivory roses, so I wanted a hair flower that was an ivory rose also.  Worked out perfect... would definitely recommend.  

 

There is a pic of the table at our reception at the Lobster House.  The staff moves the ties on the chairs from the ceremony to the reception during the cocktail hour.  We brought the maracas and stationary from home, also from Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/SusieSuesCuteDesigns?ref=seller_info  We were able to have the maracas painted to match our wedding stationary.  They were a big hit at the reception. 

 

And one final note: these 3 pictures are from a friend's camera.  Not professional (I'm sure you could tell).  Will have to post some of Juan's pictures when I get a chance.  I can't speak to the resort photographer's work, but Juan was AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING.

 

 

 

 

[bondgirl0072010]

Congratulations on your wedding, Jill! You look stunning!

 

I am right there with you on the recommendation of wearing an artificial flower. I wore a real calla lilly and was so upset that I didn't have a memento to take with me AND not to mention it was a fortune. I actually wrote about my own experience at Excellence (with the hair flower) here: 

 

Real or Fake? Another Bridal Conundrum…

 

 

Congrats again!

 

Originally Posted by Jill Conner 

Sorry, forgot to attach the pictures from my message above!  I attached a picture of Elias doing my hair at the resort spa, and then a picture of my Dad walking me down the sand aisle so you can see another shot of the hair and make-up.  Doesn't the make-up look good!?  I can't believe I thought it was too much!  My skin looked perfect all night, and it looked very natural in the pictures!!!  Also, someone recommended that I DO NOT use a live flower in my hair for my wedding... I heard they're a pain-in-the-butt to keep in your hair, and that they wilt easily in the heat. I bought my flower from the Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/82177162 for $20.  It was amazing... everyone thought it was a real rose!  I have no idea what it was made out of!!  My flowers had ivory roses, so I wanted a hair flower that was an ivory rose also.  Worked out perfect... would definitely recommend.  

 

There is a pic of the table at our reception at the Lobster House.  The staff moves the ties on the chairs from the ceremony to the reception during the cocktail hour.  We brought the maracas and stationary from home, also from Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/SusieSuesCuteDesigns?ref=seller_info  We were able to have the maracas painted to match our wedding stationary.  They were a big hit at the reception. 

 

And one final note: these 3 pictures are from a friend's camera.  Not professional (I'm sure you could tell).  Will have to post some of Juan's pictures when I get a chance.  I can't speak to the resort photographer's work, but Juan was AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING.

 

 

 

 

[Tibbetts2B]

Hello and congrats to everyone!! We are very close to booking ERC for 03/30/13 and I'm very excited/nervous! My main concern is the experience for our guests. For those of you gals who have already had you wedding, did you feel like everyone had enough going on during the day/evening to keep busy? We have a wide range of folks coming (between 20-65 years old), and some of our group like to hang out and drink pretty late. Are bars open late on property? We have been looking at properties closer to town (Playa del Carmen) simply due to proximity of "activity". I'd love to hear your thoughts. So glad I found you girls!! - Lissa

[bondgirl0072010]

Originally Posted by Tibbetts2B 

 

Hello and congrats to everyone!! We are very close to booking ERC for 03/30/13 and I'm very excited/nervous! My main concern is the experience for our guests. For those of you gals who have already had you wedding, did you feel like everyone had enough going on during the day/evening to keep busy? We have a wide range of folks coming (between 20-65 years old), and some of our group like to hang out and drink pretty late. Are bars open late on property? We have been looking at properties closer to town (Playa del Carmen) simply due to proximity of "activity". I'd love to hear your thoughts. So glad I found you girls!! - Lissa

 

Hey Tibbetts2b!

 

Congratulations! We had the same range of ages in our group! I think it depends on the amount of time that you're there. We considered booking outside excursions but some of our guests didn't get there until Wed/Thur and the wedding was Saturday. We wanted them to feel relaxed but still entertained, so we did things like a scavenger hunt around the hotel (hilarious) and organized a Welcome Dinner on Thurs once we knew everyone was going to be around. We drank and danced at the little club every single night and I have to say that a ton of our favorite memories were made with our group in that little place! 

 

Nightclub: Someone will have to chime in here because from what I remember, I think it's only open until 1am? Not positive, but it's not open super late. With everyone starting so early with cocktails in the pool, lunch, drinks at dinner and then the club - believe me when I tell you people will have very full days so I wouldn't be too worried that the club isn't open until super early in the morning.

 

It might be a good idea to look into a trip into Playa one of the nights and have that pre-organized if you're looking for something like that. I was so worried about the guests not having enough to do, but it turns out when you get friends and fam all in one place who have never met each other, they become friends in a day and everyone has a blast. The resort is a little secluded though, so if all else fails - book a night or a day off grounds. 

 

Good luck!

 

Needless to say, our group liked to have a good time :-) Here I am with my best friend:

 

[bribribell]

We were also concerned about people getting "bored" at the resort especially the younger crowd.  So on the first night we went on a private bar crawl through Playa Del Carmen.   http://www.playacrawl.com/

 

I emailed them that we had a large group and they got back to me pretty fast.  It was so much fun.  We even asked if they could arrange transportation from the resort in to Playa and it was an additional $10 per person.

 

I would highly recommend it for those in  your group who want to get out of the resort for a night.

[Tibbetts2B]

Oh ladies, thank you so much for getting back to me! I think we'll definitely plan on a welcome dinner/drinks, and perhaps a night out in Playa at some point. My fiance and I were at an all-inclusive in Aruba recently and we NEVER left the property and were exhausted every night by 10pm, so I'm sure everyone will have plenty of booze and fun in the sun, but it helps to know we have some options. Thanks so much!!

[KLPhoto]

this is excellence PC, I still think excellence has some of the best resorts!

http://www.kristinlavoiephotography.com/blog/2012/02/bestof2011/