Excellence Riviera Cancun Brides?

TrishaJ34 · August 1, 2012

Hi Ladies! I'm booked for 7/12/13 at ERC! Very excited. This forum is so helpful. I also had the same questions about flowers. I will have several bridesmaids that will need bouquets. Anyone have a ballpark for how much this sort of thing costs? I'm trying to do an overall budget and I'm sure all the extras will add up!

Jill Conner · August 1, 2012

Here is the pricing information I have from the 2012 weddings, I assume 2013 will be similar!?

Bridal Bouquets:

Bouquet: $60 (included in the complimentary package)

Love: $90 (included in Love package)

Gold: $110 (included in Gold package)

There are also bridal bouquets for $170, $230, $270, which you can upgrade to. Of note, if you buy the Gold package, and upgrade to the $270 bouquet, you less the difference of the flowers included in the Gold package (basically saying you have a $110 worth of $$$ to put towards a bridal bouquet with the Gold package, so the flowers listed as $270 will actually be $160). If you buy the Love package, and want a Gold package bouquet, you pay the difference (basically you'll pay an extra $20 for the Gold bouquet vs. the bouquet that comes with the Love package). Does that makes sense? I picked flowers that didn't require an upgrade. Again, you can see my pictures above.

For bridesmaids, there are 6 different categories of flowers: $45, $75, $90, $135, $190, $230. I didn't have bridesmaids, so I'm not sure about these. It doesn't appear that ANY are included in the wedding packages? I also never saw a catalog of bridesmaid flowers, so I can't speak to what they look like. I just had a general "cost sheet" for all things wedding!

Hope this helps!

TrishaJ34 · August 2, 2012

Thanks Jill. That's super helpful. I have 4 bridesmaids at least. I may be having them hold maracas if I ask to many more girls, lol. Did you get your hands on the pricing sheet before you went down to Mexico or once you got there?

stella331 · August 2, 2012

Originally Posted by Jill Conner

Our ceremony centerpiece was missing all together the day of our wedding! It was so beautiful we didn't even notice until we got home & were looking at pictures! Ha! Per Gloria, EVERYTHING used from the wedding ceremony is moved to the dinner table (I was bringing chair ribbons from home, so I wanted to ensure if I had 20 ribbons, and we had 20 guests the ribbons would be moved from the ceremony to the dinner, which they were!). I would consider asking again, because in my experience, the dinner centerpieces and ceremony centerpieces were interchangeable. That being said, I wouldn't worry about it too much, because everything will be so beautiful, it won't matter too much! Seriously, I didn't even know they were missing! Hilarious!

I found pictures of flowers online that I liked (and didn't see anything that matched exactly in the Excellence catalog), and Gloria/the florist/resort were able to duplicate the bouquet PERFECTLY (see pictures below). In the catalogs I saw bouquets with both roses and lilies (but not these colors), so I figured "why not". Look at the picture I sent compared to the picture of my bouquet. It was spot-on. I couldn't have been more happy!

I didn't give much direction with our dinner centerpieces... I just said, "make them match my bouquet". Same with the cake... I just told them to "make it match the bouquet". Gloria is fantastic, and the staff at the resort do many, many weddings. I think part of the fun of a destination wedding is giving up control and "going with the flow". I let them have some freedom with my decorating, as long as it was in the "orange/ivory/tan" theme, and it was PERFECT. Again, could not have been happier. Try not to stress

Beautiful, right!? I'm not sure I would have wanted flowers blocking the amazing view!

This is the picture I gave to Gloria... I didn't really "pick" from the Excellence catalog of flowers... and...

This is what my flowers actually looked like! Pretty close, right!? I was so happy!

Here's a shot with the "matching centerpieces". I'm not sure those were really a "choice" in the catalog either!? I brought the maracas and stationary from home. Of note, I only brought a "thank you" & a name card as stationary (we didn't have menu cards because I didn't finalize our menu in time), and when we sat down at the table, Gloria and the resort staff had somehow created matching menu cards that were inside each envelope! They were SO CUTE, and I was SO GLAD that I didn't pay to have them printed at home! It would have been another thing we would have had to drag down with us!

Also, we brought the orange chair ribbons from home (I ordered them online for < $1/each). "Additional Decoration" was included as part of our package, and Gloria informed me this meant either: 1. Chair Ribbons or 2. Rose Petals for the aisle. I asked for additional chair ribbons (we had 2 ribbons on each chair: Champagne & Orange ribbons both @ the reception and the dinner).

Hope this helps!

Jill thank you so much for explaining! You def eased my mind with the flowers. And your right they looked exactly like the pic you sent! Couple more questions;) Did you get you hair/makeup done at the spa? Were you happy with the ending result? If so who did your hair/makeup? Also do you have a timeline of your wedding day meaning when did you start getting you bridesmaids/moms hair done? Sorry for all the questions but your such a good explainer lol Also any other words of wisdom about planning my wedding their?

Jill Conner · August 3, 2012

Yes, I got my make-up and wedding done at the spa. My ceremony was @ 5pm, and Gloria suggested I start hair/make-up @ 1pm. A gentleman named Elias did both. I made a pinterest board of hair styles and make-up ideas, and brought an iPad to the spa (the resort wi-fi worked fine in the spa). Elias did not speak English well, which made me nervous because I didn't feel like we had a good dialogue about what I wanted my hair and make-up to look like, but I showed him quite a few pictures, so I didn't worry.

My hair was SPOT ON what I wanted. Again, amazed! I bought this flower for my hair: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/82177162 from the ButterflyEnchantress shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyEnchantress?ref=seller_info. I found the price to be AMAZING compared to what I was finding in the local bridal boutiques, and the quality amazed me. I wanted the flower to LOOK REAL (so I didn't order a hair piece with pearls, rhinestones, etc.), and I my family & friends didn't know it was fake until I told them. It was amazing. Can't recommend highly enough. You can purchase live flowers from the resort/florist for your bridal hair, but I would suggest against this as I heard they wilt badly, bruise, and are difficult to get to stay in your hair all night.

I LOVED my makeup. It was a little scary because I was not facing a mirrow while Elias was putting on my make-up, but it worked okay in the end. I had told him I wanted LIGHT and NATURAL make-up. And I will be honest, it was NOT LIGHT, but I feel it looked very natural (especially in pictures). When I first saw myself, I thought "WOW, I have never worn this much make-up in my entire life", but it looked good. My friends and family kept telling me it looked good too, and I didn't think they would lie to me on my wedding day! I am SO HAPPY I decided to have my make-up done because it stayed on ALL NIGHT. For real. A lot of my friends look a little shiny in the pictures later in the night, and my skin looked flawless. Amazing. Would highly recommend. Just don't get too scared when it FEELS heavy... it won't look it! Also, they had really nice make-up @ the spa (M.A.C., smashbox, etc.).

I did not have bridesmaids, so I didn't have anyone else getting their hair/make-up done with me. My mom wanted to do her own hair also. My mother-in-law had her hair & make-up done @ the spa; however, her appointment was made for 3pm. I would ask Gloria to advise you on times to have bridesmaids and other guests start. I'm inexperienced with this! While I was getting my hair and make-up done my mom and friends visited (poked in-and-out of the salon). The salon staff gave everyone a glass of champagne to drink, and had little snacks sitting out for everyone.

Other than what I mentioned above, I didn't really have a real "timeline" on my wedding day (this type of thing tends to stress me!). I wanted the day to be "go with the flow" and organic. I floated around in the pool by the spa all morning with my friends and mom, and my fiance was over with his friends in the pool with the pool bar most of the morning. The only "mistake" I feel like I made was skipping lunch. Although there were snacks in the spa, I was really missing lunch, and then didn't eat until our wedding dinner. Like I said above, once I made it to my appointment for hair/make-up, I felt like I was having an "open house" with the rest of the girls visiting me.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, on of my friends wanted to do her hair and make-up herself, but did it IN the spa with me. She plugged in her personal curling iron/straightener and plugged them in right at the station next to me. They didn't mind at all. So if you want girls to get ready WITH you, but they don't want their hair or makeup professionally styled/applied, this is always an option too.

This is one of the pictures I showed Elias (and then said I wanted the flower on the right side):

This is my actual wedding hair (good work, right!?) & check out that Etsy site... the flower was seriously AMAZING

Here are a couple pictures of the hair & make-up in natural light... I was super-happy...

Finally, here is one of the pics of make-up that I showed Elias:

And this is what my make-up still looked like pretty late in the night:

JessicaC07 · August 7, 2012

Hi Everyone! I just confirmed my wedding for May 17, 2013 at the Excellence Riviera Cancun!!!! I am so excited! I'm new to this forum, and this is my first post, but I have already been gathering a lot of great information from reading everyone's posts. I am wondering - has anyone used the in house photographers - VIP Wedding Photographers Riviera Maya ? I contacted del Sol, and they said they no longer accept bookings at this resort. That was kind of a bummer. If anyone used an outside photographer recently, I'd love to know who it was so that I can look at their portfolios and gather more information. Great photos is really important to me! Thanks!

SunsetLove · August 8, 2012

Originally Posted by JessicaC07

Hi Everyone! I just confirmed my wedding for May 17, 2013 at the Excellence Riviera Cancun!!!! I am so excited! I'm new to this forum, and this is my first post, but I have already been gathering a lot of great information from reading everyone's posts. I am wondering - has anyone used the in house photographers - VIP Wedding Photographers Riviera Maya ? I contacted del Sol, and they said they no longer accept bookings at this resort. That was kind of a bummer. If anyone used an outside photographer recently, I'd love to know who it was so that I can look at their portfolios and gather more information. Great photos is really important to me! Thanks!

Congrats on booking your wedding at ERC! You will LOVE it! I personally did not use the in house photographer because I didn't like a lot of what I saw on their website. We had 24 pictures included with our wedding package and since we hired an outside photographer, VIPs didn't even bother to show up for the wedding. However, after talking to them - they let me choose 10 pictures from our romantic dinner on the beach that was included in our package. I honestly had a really hard time picking 10

As for our wedding photographer, I cannot recommend Photos In Cancun enough!!! Derek and Lorena were awesome to work with, they responded to emails quickly and were a blast on the day of the wedding. I still haven't done a review on them yet (sorry guys!) but I plan on giving them an A+++++ because they're just AMAZING! Here is a link to their website (http://www.photosincancun.com/) and of course I'll share a couple of my own wedding photos below I apologize in advance for the photo montage of myself and my hubby LOL

SunsetLove · August 8, 2012

PS: For those of you asking about the spa/hair/makeup - Elias did my hair and makeup as well and I loved it! I brought pictures that I printed from Pinterest for both my hair and makeup, and like Jill - I came out thinking that my makeup was so heavy! But I don't wear a lot of makeup so I'm just not used to wearing a ton of eyeshadow and stuff. Everyone said it looked great and I think it turned out perfect for pictures!

Here are some photos my sister took:

SunsetLove · August 8, 2012

Ok last post Re: the flowers...I chose BB-06 (I didn't care for any of the Love bouquets and didn't want to pay more to upgrade LOL) and asked her to use only ivory roses. I loved the way my bouquet turned out and she didn't charge me extra to tweak the bouquet:

BB-06: