OFFICIAL NOW Jade Wedding Thread

[rachelia160]

I just got an email that my official wedding coordinator is Carla. Have any past brides worked with her before? I've seen her name pop up a few times on here but haven't heard too much about her.

[breezie]

Hey Ladies,

 

So I got an email from Pamela over the weekend. I had emailed her last week asking her if I could make some adjustments on my wedding. I asked if I could use my bouquet for my cake flowers instead as I wasn't needing it. she said No, that anything that comes in the package can not be used towards anything other than what its for... This frustrates me beyond belief! I also asked that I don't have extras at the cocktail party, extra cake for guests or extra champaign. Just to save on some costs and such. She basically told me I couldn't cancel the extras and that if I wanted to cancel some the whole service would have to be cancelled. Eg. champaign for 25 comes with the package and I have about 80 guests. But really not everyone drinks it and will likely have their own drinks anyways. She said it was impossible to do champaign for 80 people anyways so she's cancelling the service all together.....that means none for the 25 people as well... what the heck?!?! When Ariadna was my coordinator she never said that... infact the contract she sent me had the extra costs for all my guests to have a glass of champaign. 

 

I am sure I have read on here that some brides used the flowers from their bouquet as the cake flowers... am I just making things up LOL.... UGH I'm so incredibly mad right now!!! 

[tracyannhoward]

@@breezie If you can I would hire a photograher in your situation given that she isn't sure if she can attend.  Then if she is able to attend she can enjoy the wedding an take some photos on her own if she wants.  The photographers are definitely busy!  The photographer was M&J Photography - check out their website.  They also have reviews on this site.  The photographers are not keen on everyone sharing their pricing and I can respect that...  I will say they were in the middle of the prices I gathered for photographers.   Just email Jennifer - she was always very quick to respond and sent me their pricing guide on my first inquiry.  Good luck!  

[Nybride525]

I still have to post my review....which is pretty good but also has some issues we went thru. Just want to warn any other brides that intend to pay cash to save from any bank fees....they limit you to 1500 per month in U.S. Dollars at the resort. To pay my wedding balance was 6100 and I had to have 3 family members use their Id to pay with my money because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to pay for anything else at the resort....I ended up canceling the champagne just bc I didn't want it plus they were gonna require a 5th Id for that 100 over and I didn't want to bother anyone else in my party. The front desk (Eric) and wedding coordinator Pamela even said not to tip anyone cuz id exceed my limit....needless to say we tipped everyone and told them we were told not to and our wedding coordinator got nothing sinc that's what she said to do. It was so stressful I was hysterical crying the night before our wedding and they did nothing to make me feel better...in fact they had promised my parents to set up a comped spa day for me and never did. I was always under the impression pay cash to avoid fees and it wasn't told to me until 2 days before the wedding when we were already in Mexico with cash that it would be a problem so that's why I'm letting You girls know. The wedding itself was wonderful....they screwed up the cake wrong flavor and everyone ended up with champagne at the reception anyway (for cocktail hour I had then serve a shot in our wedding colors which was better tasting then champagne lol and it was free)...everything worked out with in the end so those who are booked don't worry....we were in heaven our wedding day however knowing how they handled my situation no one in my party will go back....which is sad bc all the entertainment people, pool people, and bartenders we're wonderful but they literally had me crying 45 min and refused to do anything to make it easier on us....and I'm not a BrideZilla at all....but flipping back and forth between pilar and Pamela got quite annoying when neither would communicate with one another

[vancouverpetunia]

@@breezie That sounds like some frustrating updates  I am at Now Sapphire and had originally figured that Now Sapphire and Now Jade would have pretty much the same policies. But that doesn't seem to be the case all the time. That said, I was told that I could use the value of my 2 included corsages (which I don't want) towards the cost of flowers for the cake. On the other hand, I asked about only adding hors d'oeuvres & cocktails for 10 extra people (total 35), rather than 15 (total 40), as I figured the wedding party would be busy with photos and wouldn't have much of a chance to eat/drink. I was told that wasn't possible. I'm going to try to push that again closer to my wedding date. I hope you can get something worked out!

[julianow]

Hi Everyone, Does anyone know the length of the tables used on the Carnival Terrace? Trying to buy table runners :S

 

Thanks for your help

[meahar]

I just received my contract (AKA cost breakdown) from Pilar, and luckily it's in the ballpark of what I was expecting (since a lovely bride on here sent me the spreadsheet they use to add up all your extras!)

 

A few things I noticed, in case other brides want some tips on things to look out for when they get their contract:

 

• The extra appetizers for cocktail hour add up fast, because they automatically charge you $15 per person above 25. The total for mine was over $600!  I know there's no way we'll need that many appetizers, with everyone taking pictures and having drinks and chatting, so I asked her if I could only add 10 more servings instead of the 31 she initially had. I'm fairly certain 35 servings for 56 people will be more than enough, especially when you consider that between me and the groom, parents, and the bridal party, that's 18 people, leaving the number of people who will have time to  enjoy the cocktail hour around 38.  That's definitely a quick way to cut a few hundred dollars! Hopefully she'll say it's okay and not be a stickler about needing to pay per person.
• I got this pretty seashell garland off Etsy that I mentioned wanting to have set up on the canopy. There was a $46 charge on my contract that said "SET UP FEE (DECORATION AT CEREMONY : SEAHELL AT THE CANOPY)." Uh, heck NO I'm not paying almost $50 bucks for you to set up one tiny decoration! Unless I'm misunderstanding and that's to set up the canopy as a whole, but I think that's included in the package...I told her that if that was the cost for the one decoration to take it off the contract and I'll set it up myself somewhere else!
• Much to my chagrin, the cost to bring in my two outside photographers is $300 dollars, not the $65 per person for the guests pass like it said in all the original information I recieved back in 2013. Not super happy about that, and I tried to fight it a while ago, but didn't want to get on her bad side so I dropped it after asking twice.

Other than that, it all seems more or less straight forward from the cost information in the information packet. If anyone wants me to forward them the spreadsheet I used to get my ballpark number just let me know and I'll email it to you!

Could you send me that spread sheet? I'm getting married at Now Jade in Nov!! Can't wait and am getting nervous about cost!!! Haven't really done anything yet! Thank you!!

 

-Meagan

[rachelia160]

@@meahar No problem, just send me your email address It is true what another bride said on here at some point - whatever you expect to pay right off the bat, add a couple thousand to it so you won't be too surprised!

[KristyLee21]

This site is great. I am getting such useful tips for my November 2015 wedding.

 

regarding payment, have any of you payed using a prepaid visa or mastercard. I don't know if i like the idea of using my actual credit card in Mexico.

I still have to post my review....which is pretty good but also has some issues we went thru. Just want to warn any other brides that intend to pay cash to save from any bank fees....they limit you to 1500 per month in U.S. Dollars at the resort. To pay my wedding balance was 6100 and I had to have 3 family members use their Id to pay with my money because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to pay for anything else at the resort....I ended up canceling the champagne just bc I didn't want it plus they were gonna require a 5th Id for that 100 over and I didn't want to bother anyone else in my party. The front desk (Eric) and wedding coordinator Pamela even said not to tip anyone cuz id exceed my limit....needless to say we tipped everyone and told them we were told not to and our wedding coordinator got nothing sinc that's what she said to do. It was so stressful I was hysterical crying the night before our wedding and they did nothing to make me feel better...in fact they had promised my parents to set up a comped spa day for me and never did. I was always under the impression pay cash to avoid fees and it wasn't told to me until 2 days before the wedding when we were already in Mexico with cash that it would be a problem so that's why I'm letting You girls know. The wedding itself was wonderful....they screwed up the cake wrong flavor and everyone ended up with champagne at the reception anyway (for cocktail hour I had then serve a shot in our wedding colors which was better tasting then champagne lol and it was free)...everything worked out with in the end so those who are booked don't worry....we were in heaven our wedding day however knowing how they handled my situation no one in my party will go back....which is sad bc all the entertainment people, pool people, and bartenders we're wonderful but they literally had me crying 45 min and refused to do anything to make it easier on us....and I'm not a BrideZilla at all....but flipping back and forth between pilar and Pamela got quite annoying when neither would communicate with one another

 

Did they suggest a better way to pay for your wedding. is it possible to pay for everything before  you leave for your wedding?

[rachelia160]

@@KristyLee21 I think they're pretty insistent on having you pay after your initial in-person meeting with the wedding coordinator, in case there are any changes or additions or anything to your contract that could change the price. Just find a card with no foreign transaction fees, which a ton of cards seem to already have these days (Capital One and Discover are the two that I know for sure that don't have them, even for their most basic cards).