Camie78

Quote: Originally Posted by DWandMJ Yes, we used David Pena Marie, Congrats and I can't wait to see your pictures! We were able to confirm that our photographer is going to be David Pena as well so I can't wait to see your pictures. T-minus 20 days... Camie

Quote: Originally Posted by Fabi Is the Immaculate Conception Catholic Chapel REALLY recognized by the Catholic Church? Hi Fabi, We are in Dallas and we did not have any issues getting the MP chapel 'confirmed' by the church here in Dallas. We went through all of the classes that were required and then the Deacon tracked down the Priest in Mexico to confirm that it was legit - it took him a couple of days but he succeeded and then gave the OK for us to get married there. The Deacon required us to send all of the Catholic documents to a different address than what MP provided us. We did this and it took several months to track down that they actually received the documents. I'd recommend sending copies of your documents and then bring the originals with you when you go to MP just in case. Also if I had to do things over again, I would have sent a copy to the MP address as well. Oh and one more thing the Miami office also requests that you send them a copy of your documents too. We decided to get legally married in Dallas versus having the civil ceremony prior to the catholic ceremony. It was cheaper this way and seemed easier for some reason. If you decide to do this I would recommend getting married at least a month prior to your departure date. It took about 2.5 weeks for us to get the marriage certificate (just received it yesterday) and now I need to track down someone at the government offices to get copies (MP requires a copy) - not sure how long that will take. MP recently had a change with Catholic ceremonies - the new Father is Father Benedict and his email is [email protected] (baguilar at palaceresorts dot com). The official name on his email account is: Padre Benito Aguilar Mendivil Camie

Quote: Originally Posted by Myen Thanks for posting Camie! My issue with this is if you have 21 guests vs 29 guests, you end up paying the same price which just doesn't seem fair. Oh well ... I hear that! We are in the same situation but what can ya do?

Quote: Originally Posted by soon2bemsleblanc Camie... Great cake choice! I love the lopsided effect!!! Thanks and all for $240. I still feel like there is a catch. I'll be sure to report back on how it all turns out.

Hi Ladies, I received a response from my WC about the private function pricing. Not the best news but at least we have an answer. Question: Quick question for you about the pricing of the private reception. I know that the pricing is $400 for 10 people so if we have 25 people, do we pay $800+$200 (for the additional 5) or do we have to pay for 30 people, $1200? Answer: The price is $1200 for the 3 tables.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jennifer43 And another question...if you sit in on the timeshare pitch thingy...what do they give you in return? I have heard a credit to the spa or golfing...is that true? If so how much do you get? Thank you again! Hi Jennifer, I highly recommend staying away from all timeshare pitches unless you truly plan on buying one. I have had friends who have and they have regretted doing so because they were stuck inside for 4 hours listening to someone try to sell them something they had no interest in and at the end of the day, just wasn't worth their time. Another tip - I was in Cancun for a wedding in January and the sales people in the airport are relentless. They will act as though they are your tour company and that they are directing you toward your van/transportation but instead they bring you over to the side of the hallway when exiting the airport and try to sell you on excursions, etc. I should have known better as I've been to Cancun before but I fell for it. Pete and I got sidetracked with this and we wasted over 20 minutes trying to get out to our transportation after we were pulled over to the side. My advice for the airport is to walk straight through the double glass doors and do not stop for anyone. Your transportation company will be outside waiting for you and you will have no issues finding them. As for the all inclusive question about wrist bands, the resort will cut off your wrist bands for your wedding. The charge typically if you lose it is $20.

Quote: Originally Posted by Betsy Your link doesn't work Camie :*( Hey Betsy, try replacing the 'dot' references that I put in there with '.' and that should work for you. I did this intentionally so brides who did not have enough points could access the link as well:) Below is the true link if you wish to go that route... Fun With Sugar demo cake on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Quote: Originally Posted by Myen Ladies, Moon Palace quotes private reception costs as $400 for 10 people. I find it confusing that they quote the reception based on 10 people versus a $40 per person price. Therefore, if you have 25 guests, would the total cost be $1000 ($40x25ppl) or do they round the number up to $1200 ($40x30ppl)? Hope this makes sense. This is an excellent question, one that I have pondered myself as we have about 25 people attending. I emailed my WC to see if the $400 is really a per table price because the tables seat 10 or if it really is $40/person. I thought I had read somewhere earlier on the forum that the charge is by table (you can also infer this from their $60/table extra service charge). So if you are over 20 people but under 30 people, you could seat 8 people at each table instead of 10 to give everyone a little more elbow room. I'll let you know what she comes back with. Camie

Quote: Originally Posted by nibsmom Hey Camie! Congrats! That's exciting! But scary too, LOL! Definitely let us know about the cake - I want something fun too! I probably will just use their non-fancy cake knife...I don't really want to lug all that extra stuff down there...I'll have enough with OOT bags and stuff!!! Thanks! The 'ceremony' yesterday with the judge was quick, like 30 seconds and it was kind of hard to take it seriously because we were in this courtroom with all these other couples getting married/trying to get their traffic violations dismissed. I felt like I was a giggle monster the entire time. I heard back on the cake and the quote was unbelievably low - $240 for 3 tiers and large enough to feed up to 30 people. Below is the link to the cake and they are going to change the colors to be chocolate brown, khaki, white, and light blue to match our wedding colors. They charge $240 for their normal, plain cakes, so I still feel as though I am going to get something entirely different but she says they have had lots of requests for lopsided cakes so I'm going to run with it! Anyway, check out the link below if you are interested in seeing what you can get for $240 (still feel as though there is a catch here). www dot flickr dot com/photos/sutterby/3167603660/in/pool-topsyturvycakes

Hi Ladies, I've been getting a lot of questions recently about the tours and if my guests can book in advance or if they have to wait until they get to the resort. I was able to get in touch with two (yes, two, they were all over my questions) different tour planners at MP and below is the response from one of them. As you can see in the response, it appears as though a word is missing as it reads as though you can either pre-book or book after you check in. So, I had replied to Xochitl and asked again for confirmation on if guests can ONLY book for the included tours after they check in to which the response was very similar. I concluded that guests can only book included tours after they check in but they can book the optional tours whenever and that it is actually recommended that they book the optional tours in advance. Luis Villeda is the other tour planner that emailed me (lvilleda at palaceresorts dot com). From: xesquivel at palaceresorts dot com Dear Camie; I will be very glad in taking care of you. Yes, the included tours can be booked after your check in because the system recognize your hotel package information when the room number is assigned. Optional tours can be booked in advance or after the check into the hotel. We recommend you very much to book in advance to secure the spaces due to you are coming on high season. Cordially, Xochitl Esquivel

Hi Ladies, Pete and I have always wanted one of those lopsided cakes for our wedding. I asked my WC last week if MP does custom cakes and she said that they do. We sent in a picture of what we are looking for and are now waiting on a quote for our cake. I'll let you know how it pans out; I have a feeling it is going to be more than we are willing to pay but its worth a shot. I also asked if they have a cake knife or if we had to BYOCK and she said that they have one that we can use but that its not fancy. Just wanted to share the above - we are actually getting married by the Justice of the Peace tomorrow. Scary.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jennifer43 Does anyone have a photo of the arrecifes restaurant terrace? I know I saw one somewhere, but can't find it for the life of me! Thanks girls! Hi Jennifer, I did a quick Google search for "arrecifes restaurant, moon palace" and found a couple pictures of the restaurant, so give that a shot if you haven't already. The problem is that the pictures do not show the terrace portion of the restaurant; only the indoor pool area. I was surprised to see a pool, I didn't realize that this restaurant had an indoor pool!?!?!

Quote: Originally Posted by ErikDaGenErik hi ladies! it's been over a month since i've logged on here. it's officially march and our wedding is NEXT MONTH! whew!!! time flew by soooo fast!!! we are almost done with the planning. we are just finalizing the reception and OOT bags and favors. We have been sooo lucky to be assigned to Nancy Ariza as our wedding planner. Maribel was our onsite WC prior to that and she was fantastic. It was sad when we received her farewell e-mail. Nancy has been top-notch! We decided to get the Mayan Ballet for our reception. we are so excited to have this performance at our wedding! Nancy also showed us some favors that Moon Palace could provide to eliminate having to bring the favors all the way to Cancun. They have some nice stuff for cheap. You guys should consider it if you dont want the hassle of transporting everything to Cancun. The only thing we are worried about right now is getting the unlimited functions on our contract. we are so close!!! unfortunatelt we have 2 memsbers of our party that booked with Expedia and Orbitz instead of our group rate. This really hurt our chance of getting the unlimited functions. i will be begging my WC to help us make these count. Right now we have enough room nights paid for the free reception. we want the free cocktail hour too since. i have been in contacts with teh new priest, Father Benito. he is very responsive to e-mails and has been so pleasant to work with. wish me luck! i will be posting some pictures of my progress real soon. =) Hey Joy, We had the same issue where we were so close to the 10 rooms and then a couple of our guests booked through Travelocity and now we are certain to not make the group contract minimum. I want to beg my WC to include the other guests as part of the total guest count as well. Please keep me posted on how your battle with this goes and what, if any, tactic worked for her to count the non-group contract booked rooms to apply toward your total booked rooms. I hope you win! Camie

Quote: Originally Posted by TinaM2b Cindy et all, Does anyone have any information on what documents you need at the Moon Palace if you have had a legal ceremony in the States? We do not want to bring all this paperwork to another country if we can avoid it but do want our religious ceremony performed at the Moon Palace. Tina, We are getting married in Texas and then having a Catholic ceremony at MP. I had the same question as you did, so I emailed my WC a couple months ago. Her responses are below. QUESTION: Will we need to provide any of the civil ceremony documents (passports, addresses, occupations, and birth certificates (certified copy of each one) with Apostille document attached), or are our catholic documents from our church in the US all that we need? ANSWER: All that you need is the catholic documents along with a photocopy of the marriage license. QUESTION: Will we need to provide a marriage certificate from the US? Or any other document that certifies our marriage? ANSWER: A photocopy will be fine. We are going to bring a copy of all our Catholic documents even though we have sent MP the originals (spent WAY TOO MUCH on postage, do not do the certified/read receipt option at the post office as you will never get the read receipt and will be annoyed that it cost $20 to mail the documents) and the copy of the marriage certificate and anything else I think they may need to have just in case. Camie

Quote: Originally Posted by Jennifer43 I can't wait to get assigned my coordinator! We are about 2 months out...and although Maribel has been such a great help, as well as my many other contacts at the resort, I would LOVE to know who my actual WC is going to be. Another question...does anyone have a map of the grounds of MP that includes the Grand Moon side? I have never seen a property map that includes the Grand side and I don't understand why either. Hasn't Grand been open for a year or two at this point? I'd think that the Grand side was all a farse if my aunt-in-law hadn't recently been to MP and physically stepped on the Grand side and taken a pictures of the pool to prove it exists!

Pete and I have split up the wedding planning duties where I do all the fun stuff and he does all the crappy stuff like getting all the documents together, finding the justice of the peace, etc. I've been bugging him to get the details for the justice of the peace and get a list of everything that we need (we are getting married in Texas and then having the Catholic ceremony at MP). Well, he did all this and asked me yesterday over IM, "Do you want to get married on March 20th?" Then he went on to say, "We've got an appointment with Lance (jeweler) on Monday for our rings." For some reason that scared me and now I'm totally nervous. I didn't sleep at all last night. Reality is hitting - I'm going to be legally married in less than a month! Jeepers. I can't believe it is already March. I feel like I've been twiddling my thumbs for months and now everything all the deadines are quickly approaching. So much to do, so little time. That's why I'm posting this from work:)

Quote: Originally Posted by DWandMJ How on earth did they confirm an ocean side room? We were able to request it, but there is no guarantee until we check in and see whats available. I just went through the MP's website and started going through the booking process for our same week and its turning up with about $8 cheaper a night. I'm not going to sweat a total of $56. Because our guest list is so small, it was pointless to try for a contract (which didn't offer any kind of savings anyway). Everyone went their preferred ways which for most of my family was through Costco. I think they got off paying about $3800 for two people/7 nights including airfare from Reno, NV. Right now expedia is showing $468/night. I'm not going to stress about it. The damage is done. We're going to have an unforgettable time and it still 1/3 of the price than had we had the same caliber of wedding at home. **** Just got word that my brother IS going to attend, yea!!! I have no idea how they were able to get a confirmed ocean side room but their itinerary actually states "confirmed oceanside room." I'll believe it when I see it and I don't mean them getting a room, I mean them coming at all - they don't even have their passports yet, so who knows if they will even make it. One would think that being the mother of the groom (and it being the first wedding in the family) that she'd be a little more prompt with getting a passport, etc.

Quote: Originally Posted by DWandMJ Now I feel like we're getting the shaft. We booked directly through the resort and it was a little over $3,000 for 7 nights.... and that was with an early booking discount that shaved off $30 a night! We're paying $438/night for a double. I can accept that part of that is due to it falling within 'prime' season, but holy hell! I completely agree Marie - we booked early and we paid just under $400/night and that's the lowest priced room that they have. My MIL/FIL just booked and they are paying well under $400/night and they have an oceanside room. I am incredibly upset about this and have been for about 2 weeks - all of my guests that booked early are feeling taken advantage of and complaining to me. I blame this on my travel agent more than I blame it on the economy and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Quote: Originally Posted by HaleGrifa Hello! I know - I know Actually it is so strange to be 'on the other side' You will not be disappointed!! I have guest shots and am awaiting our destination wedding photographers images (may take awhile) They are also completing a web slide show that I can post the link too, once I receive it. I need HELP though posting pics- funny enough I don't know how. Can someone help me Wishing you all the best! Laura aka Mrs. Grifa PS - it is great being married - it changes things and is awesome!!! Congrats Laura! I can't wait to see the pictures! LOL on your 'other side' comment.

Quote: Originally Posted by lawieland Camie-so you can actually just get a new WC? My wedding at Moon Palace is 5/23 and I haven't heard a word, just emails and dates that keep changing. At first it was you'll heard from your WC 90 days beforehand--which is now, then you'll hear from your WC 30 days beforehand..very frustrating Lawie, I was originally assigned to Yudelka out of Miami and one day I emailed her a couple questions and suddenly I was hooked up with Pilar who is the supervisor of the WCs out of MP. I haven't had any correspondence from anyone out of Miami since Yudelka's departure. Pilar assisted me with getting the big ticket items booked (reception area, cocktail hour, etc) and answered my questions as they came up. She will not be my WC as the date gets closer. So like you, I am "patiently" waiting for my new WC assignment. I've never actually picked up the phone and called anyone. I wouldn't even know what the phone numbers are. Maybe that's not such a good thing?!?!? Who are you getting emails from with dates changing? I assume you are referring to the date as to when you will be assigned a WC. If you are getting emails from someone in Miami, I'd recommend sending an email with a couple questions, maybe about pricing or options as to where you can have your reception/wedding dinner and hope that she forwards you on to someone at MP. I think this is the approach most on this forum have taken to get a WC (myself included). Sorry, no easy answer with this one

Last post of the day (sorry I was about 7 pages behind on the forum). I know that there has been some discussion about using a TA versus using Travelocity. Some of our guests used our recommended TA and some have used Travelocity and I realize now that it really is all about timing. For example, my FH just got a quote from our TA last week and it came in at like $1400 and then he did a search on Travelocity for the same date range and flights and it came in at about $1100. Some of my other guests found out about this and they are irate that they paid $300-400 more for their packages than what they are going for now. I've had to explain that the airline and resort industries are CRAZY and that the prices are always fluctuating. On the flip side, this huge price decrease on Travelocity has allowed several guests to come who most likely would not have come if the prices would have stayed at where they are at. I just checked Travelocity again for the same package that my guests booked last week for $997/person and now its going for $1544/person. This is a battle no one is going to win... Last item that I wanted to comment on was handling accommodations information. We did an insert with our invites, so like Nibsmom we did the cute one, the accommodations card, and then the RSVP. I really struggled with the wording on the accommodations card so I thought I would share in case anyone was having the same issue. So here goes... We have decided to take our wedding to Cancun, Mexico. We would love for you to join us for some fun in the sun but understand you may not be able to be there. We hope that you will send your love as we begin our lives together. Hotel | Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort All inclusive resort located 5 miles south of the Cancun airport in Cancun's tranquil south shore. Resort details and information can be viewed at: (provided the MP website URL here) Information and Reservations Travel details and information can be viewed on our wedding website at: (provided wedding website here) For travel arrangements, we recommend Jane Doe at Jane Doe Travel phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX | email: [email protected]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs D To Be! hey girlies - anyone got any word on when we can start booking our 2010 dates yet?! I thought it would have been last month I was more than a year out when I wanted to start planning and ran into the same issue that they didn't have any 2009 rates and therefore couldn't start with any of the 2009 contracts. Then once I finally hit that year mark and signed the wedding contract, I found out that flights aren't available until 280 days out (varies by airline) so I ended up waiting a couple more months. So, be aware when you want to start booking and you have to hang out for a couple more months until the flights become available:) I feel like I've been living the life of "hurry up and wait" for the last year!

Quote: Originally Posted by emaya77 Did anyone consider getting married at Aventura Spa Palace, and if so, why did you choose Moon Palace instead? We did consider getting married at Aventura Spa (actually it was my first choice) but decided on Moon Palace because it wasn't adult only and my hubby-to-be didn't want to invite people who had families and then basically prohibit them from bringing their families.

Quote: Originally Posted by emaya77 Is anyone qualifying for the group promotions? If so, which ones? And was it super hard to get guests to book as part of the group rather then them going off to sites like expedia and booking at a cheaper rate? How were you able to sway guests away from doing that? Thanks!! Emily We recommended a travel agent on our invites which most of our guests have used. There is at least one guest who chose to use their own travel agent and then we have a couple guests who have returned their RSVP but have not yet booked, so I am not sure if they are going to go through our recommended travel agent or not. We have a block of 10 rooms but tomorrow is our final day where we can release the rooms without penalty. We've got 6 of the 10 booked which means that we would need 4 more to book and I think its just too risky to hold these rooms because if we hold them and they don't book, then we will be penalized. So, we've opted to release the rooms but the flip side to this is that we will now have to pay for the cocktail hour which will be $400-600. Its unfortunate but there is nothing that we can do about it. My WC sent me a 'wedding rooming listing' spreadsheet which she has asked me to fill out with all the guests booking information and send it back to her. I guess this is how they track the guests that are part of your group when you don't have a group contract. I think we need a Moon Palace Economic Stimulus Plan.

I woke up this morning with a couple questions that I am hoping a past bride or someone who has been to MP before can answer. 1. I've heard a rumor that MP has "top shelf" liquor such as Grey Goose. Is this true? 2. For the private reception, do the bride and groom sit at a "head table" or do they sit among the guests at one of the round tables? Thanks, Camie