orionandmari072510

I love your dresss!!!!!! and the blue waters are gorgeous and match so well with everything! LOVELY!

That is definitely gorgeous! love the set up and the flowers!!!!!

Here were the wedding invitations. We handmade everything to try to save money. Unfortunately I ended up breaking our printer because of an unfixable paper jam and having to purchase a new one. I am not sure how much I ended up saving because of that. I could have probably bought pre-made ones for the same price as i spent making them.

We went to PAPER SOURCE to pick our paper. The paper costed about $70 I bought ribbons at $6 a roll. I bought two rolls (1 green and 1 papaya color) for $6 each.  I made a small booklet to go with each invite. It listed everything from our wedding website info, to how to book with moon palace resorts with our agent, to info on our wedding itinerary. A great idea!!!!

I bought a seal with the letter "B" for our last name from PAPER SOURCE for $24 and the seal wax for about $12. We used 4 rolls which are in one package. I also bought hot glue guns to seal because after experimenting we realized we could not use matches to create the seals the way we wanted them to look. We reverted to new technology then with the hot glue guns which i got from wal-mart for about $3 per. My hubby did the seals on all the invites.

I tore the edges of the white paper surrounding the invite by using a steel ruler and just pulling the paper (tearing) on the edges of the ruler for a clean break. I also used some of the ribbon to emboss the invitation itself, and added tiny swarovski crystals as deco on the invite. I got the crystals from a local craft store for about $10 per small bag. Each bag had about 20 crystals. I used the leftovers on the programs.

This was the mess on our floor when i began making our programs. That was a task. I printed all the programs on white cardstock and then created the cover for them out of the leftover invite paper. I bought two more spools of ribbon (1 inch thick) to finish them off and close them up. Again each spool was $6 from PAPER SOURCE. I added turquoise glitter cardstock that I found in AC Moore for $1 per sheet. I bought too many and ended up with a huge stash left which I will convert to small paper frames for sending pictures to family and friends as a thank you for coming or supporting the wedding. I figured the turquoise would match the waters in the wedding.

This the end product. I will post a picture of the inside once i find a pic of that. Our guests took over 800 photos. I am sure one captured that! haha!

Here are some pictures of the flowers. The bouquet was the complimentary one. I asked for the cascading style. I also asked for all roses and gave the colors I wanted. Had I known how pink the pink roses would be, i would have dropped them and kept it to only orange and white roses. I am not a fan of pink, lol!

But overall I think it was nicely done for a free bouquet.

The corsage below was what I bought for my sister's hand. It wasn't big at all, but at the same time it was nice. Had I known the size I would have bought all the women a hand corsage to wear.

Here is another picture of my bouquet in the light if this helps to see better.

I also used my hairdo cost within the spa credit! super helpful. I would have been disappointed otherwise because my hairdo blew away with the winds and got wet in the cocktail reception. I am glad I didnt spend an extra cent on it.

Mayan Ceremony includes everything in the complimentary wedding but adds the mayan table decoration, props, floral, the shaman costs, persons to play traditional mayan music on instruments, they also have a complete sound system. We played 3 songs (2 processional and 1 recessional). The shaman and translator used the microphones.

I used the complimentary flower bouquet and buttonaire and bought my sister a hand corsage to match my bouquet for $45.

We also got the complimentary cake in which i paid $50 for the cake topping to match the roses on my bouquet.

the trips included in the $1500 credit are:

-Tulum

-Chichen Itza

-Wet n Wild

-Holkan Kingdom park zipline

-Shopping/Palace resorts tour

-Xu Ha

That was it. You will have to pay out of pocket for the rest. Some dolphin trips are free with a certain promotion and they do the timeshare tour that gives you extra credits for tours and spa even if you do not sign up for it.

Only overall problem you will run into is the free tours are booked super fast. Like right after you check in you should book your tours immediately or you run the chance of them getting overbooked and you will be unable to get a spot. I also suggest staying 5+ days. This gives you a higher chance to attend more trips before they are overbooked.

Erick is AMAZING!!! He does a lot of spotlight work and plays with the scenery and lighting! He was awesome! We saw some of the photos right after he took them and they were incredible! WE CANNOT WAIT TIL WE GET THE PROOFS!

Mayan Ceremony is $1000.

We got the free flowers (bouquet and buttonaire) and I purchased my sis's hand corsage for $45.

we spent $200 on the sound system for the free cocktail party.

and $6 per person to move the cocktail to the beach (which is a great idea since they had it right by the wedding. This made it easy for guests to get to)

we spent $1600 for 3 hours of photography with Erick (not the resort photographer). And we booked him and his assistant one room for one night which came to $310. Photos are super important to me so i rather spend the extra $$ to get stellar photos. Some of the palace resorts photos looked very commercialized or like what you would find on an advertisement. Claudia photo was more what we liked, artistic and personal. It takes 4-6 weeks for the photos to ship to us so we are eagerly awaiting!

asbarret,

i actually got my hair curled at the salon before, but unfortunately it was all gone by the time i went down the aisle. She put a lot of spray but the wind lows strongly. it makes for great pictures though!

alison15,

yes, we booked an extra night for the photographer and left him a note at check in to let him know my room number and where to meet us when he arrived. I do not think the photographers actually use the night stay, but they definitely use the wristband to photograph the wedding.

VENDORS:

We used moon palace resorts as our vendor and booked all our rooms through their agents in miami. Carilis was my accomodations agent. She was excellent. I emailed her pretty much 2-3 times a week for asking questions and getting things booked. Only bad thing was organizing how many days people would stay (which was not the vendor's fault). We had to change booked rooms to arrange this and add reservation numbers which made the whole ordeal a little hectic. In the end, Carilis was a big help and was in constant communication with the resort. She was the one who found out if the Mayan Wedding was still available at Moon Palace and how to set it up for us. Since the agents are in Miami I called quite often to ask questions and organize everything. I was organizing a military ball at the same time as my wedding and that just goes to show how easy it was to plan with the agents. I had more of a hectic time planning the ball with local caterers than with palace resorts. I am so glad we chose to have a destination wedding and not something local. Planning from scratch would have given me some major headaches!!

RESORT AGENTS/ COORDINATORS:

The resort agents were all helpful. The trips agents were not so much. They seemed to want to sell trips more than help with the process of assuring our trips. This is why we had such a hectic time when  we arrived. Yes you will get a free trip, and if you are lucky two or more free trips, but it doesnt come easy. Lots of stressed planning when you arrive and rearranging since the free trips is first come/first serve.

our wedding coordinator was Claudia and she was awesome! She made sure everything ran smoothly and I emailed her about every single day two months out of the wedding. I never actually called her. There was really never a need. Although we were doing a small simple wedding with only 12 attendents. Had we a bigger wedding, we probably would have been calling the resort everyday. I did end up calling our photographer a couple of times just because email was slow. I used Skype, which is a great way to call international for cheap and not have to buy an international calling card or spend on phonecall rates on a cell or home landline.

of course! I will update that right now!

check out the moon palace resorts wedding website. It shows all the packages. I think its www.palaceresortsweddings.com. We booked everything directly with the resort which helped a lot. If you are having problems with coordinators I suggest asking for another if you can. Moon Palace on its own was great and hassle free in regards to the wedding, We didnt have it so easy with spa and trip credits. That was harder to schedule and fit in for us. We had planned on 3 trips and only could enjoy 1 with the credit. My mother in law had to book her spa 3 days in advance because it was super booked when we arrived. Otherwise it was an easy do for everything else.

Check out our moon palace wedding review. I will be adding to this with more pictures over time.

Thanks,

Mari

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/62655/moon-palace-mari-and-orion-mayan-tradition-wedding-review-07-25-2010

ARRIVAL: B- (only because they delayed our guests so much)

We flew American Airlines and they put my dress in the first class location for the trip. I was a bit worried because it was out in the open and any passenger could have easily dropped coffee or any drink on it. When i spoke to the flight attendant they merely said "ma'am its a flight. there is nothing we can do". Overall the flight was smooth with very few bumps and the sun was super bright. I have flown in at least 100 flights and it was definitely the smoothest ride and landing from Miami to Cancun. Not to mention a quick flight.

We set out to Cancun bright and early and I was very thankful we arrived at 10am there. Extensive lines began to form at the passport area around noon. I was congratulated many times as people saw my dress at the airport. They only searched my dress and it took only a minute. Super easy. Our guests didnt have it so easy since they all arrived after noon. The wait was about an hour to get through.

MOON PALACE SHUTTLES: A++

Moon Palace shuttles were ready and available on location. We asked to wait for family and they had no problem with that. They piled us all in and we left about 10 min after arrival. It was about a 15 min ride to Moon Palace

CHECK IN: A++

Check in was AWESOME. They gave us each a carnation and their welcome drink (which was delicious! I still want a recipe!) We all got in easily and checking in was simple. They gave us wristbands and we were on our way to the rooms. It was a LONGGGG walk to the rooms and it was super hot outside. Thats the only downside. We stayed at Sunrise, and I am thankful we did because there was definitely more entertainment and fun on that side.

ROOMS/ RESORT: A++

 The rooms were fabulous and everything as described in the website. They were amazingly clean. Even though we were garden view we all could see the ocean from our rooms. The room given to us (bride and groom) view was the best of all our guests! We were very content. Most of our guests were situated in our same hallway or close by, which was helpful. Our room had a rose, fruit, and champagne since we ordered the honeymoon package. The resort itself was absolutely stunning.My mother in law bought an opal bracelet and said “it reminds me of the ocean here and its different shades of blue, which it does! And there were activities on every side. We were put next to the miniature golf area and we played it at night. There was a full moon every night. Super beautiful! We got to enjoy all the resort amneties and the pools were amazing. We even got plastic cups and played beer pong (using tequila) on one of the tables in the pool. Even though it wasn’t allowed to swim at night, the pool managers allowed us to do so. We enjoyed everything from the pools, to the swim up bars, to the restaurants, beach, and even the adromeda disco.

RESTAURANTS: A+

 The restaurants were AWESOME! We ate at the buffets at the sunrise side. Our rehearsal dinner was at Los Corporales at the Nzuic side and reception dinner at Arricifes at Nzuic. The food was fantastic! We also ordered a lot of our meals through room service. There chocolate cake on the room service menu is sooooo goood! We changed our cake flavor to match up to it!

TRIPS: B-

This was the stressful part of the trip.We had booked a dolphin swim in advance and sadly had to cancel it since the only available Mayan ruins tour was on the same day. Also the zip lining trip we wanted to take was overbooked and we were unable to make it. Id suggest to people wanting to enjoy the trips to stay 5+ nights because they get booked within minutes! SERIOUSLY! Or go at a low season time to Cancun when less people are touring the area. In Lieu of the ziplining trip, we took the free shuttles to Cancun Palace and enjoyed their pure clear turquoise beach. The resort was a little boring compared to Moon, but definitely pretty on the beach! The rest of Cancun Palace looked like your commercialized resort. That is one thing we liked about the Moon, it had a distinct look and gardens. Beach Palace offers the market and mall shopping experience After a huge hastle, we did finally get booked to see the Mayan Pyramids. Whenever we return we want to check out Tulum. The Tulum trip has many activities involved with it. So for a future anniversary, we will be heading in that direction! LOL!

REHEARSAL DINNER: A+

 We held our rehearsal dinner at Los Corporales. Since the group was small, we did not use our dinner reservation for this and just went there directly to eat. I asked for two tables seating 6 people each. She got us the tables within minutes. The food was great and we were serenaded by the mariachi. It is definitely a fun place and great atmosphere for a rehearsal dinner.

ROOM SERVICE: A+

This was excellent! They brought everything in about a 30 min timeframe. Food was delicious. Our honeymoon breakfast came in at 9am exact. Again, everything was very well done and delicious. 

WEDDING: A+++++

 The wedding was amazing! We did the mayan ceremony and this was something the Moon Palace hadnt done in years so it took a while to confirm the availability of the ceremony. Claudia come in just in time to my room to pick me up. She had my bouquet and I gave her my rings, programs, and camara to give to the family. The shaman for the wedding was SO GORGEOUS! Words cannot describe it! We could feel the love! The ceremony is super engaging since all guests were included into it and had a part. I highly suggest a Mayan tradition ceremony for a wedding party in which everyone is close knit (friends and family). Its very uniting and the traditions are beautiful.

PHOTOGRAPHER: A++++

We hired Claudia Photo (www.claudiaphoto.com) and Erick did our photos! He was excellent and played with a lot of light backgrounds. I cannot wait to see the proofs. He even said he will photoshop star wars light sabors to one pic of all the guys! HAHA! He did a lot of spotlighting and image defining on the spot, so i KNOW these photos will be gorgeous. We cannot wait to see them! He followed us around everywhere we went and was super attentive to all the activities.

FREE COCKTAIL: A+

 We had our cocktail and when they mean full bar, they mean FULL BAR! We had our pick of any drink we wanted for the most part. I could only taste one cocktail serving since we had our photographer taking pictures during the time, so unfortunately we could not enjoy it as much as we wanted. My husband made our cocktail music CD (since we got the sound system) with a load of funny 80s songs. It was hilarious! We laughed the entire time and the guests had many good laughs to go with. It rained for 5 min at a part of the cocktail in which we all ran for cover around the corner of the resort. When the rain ended we all ran back and continued to party with no problems.

RECEPTION DINNER: A+

The reception dinner was held at Arricifes and was gorgeous. This was the dinner reservation we made with the Claudia. It all began on time and everyone clapped as we entered. Since it was raining by the time we entered, we could not have the dinner on the terrace as we originally wanted, but they did a nice set up indoors and the lighting was very romantic. We went on the terrace for 5 minutes to toss the bouquet and garter. It worked out perfect because we did get to enjoy a little of the terrace and our photographer was able to capture this part of the wedding as well. The twilight scenery outside with the rain made for a beautiful blue hue backdrop.  I definitely recommend this restauraunt for the reception 100%!!! We didnt get much pics of that ourselves, but the photographer covered it, so once I get the digitals, I will be posting some here!

For moon palace brides to be...DO NOT WORRY AT ALL! MP is perfect at organizing and putting a wedding together!

Mari and Orion

we had a small wedding, 12 people and were qualified for the free cocktail reception and we also had the free dinner reception at Arricifes. It was all gorgeous. We went to Los Corporales for the rehearsal dinner. I just asked for two tables seating 6 persons each close together. They got us two tables next to eachother within minutes. Super easy! Moon Palace is awesome and super accomodating! Everything worked out amazingly! So dont worry!

We got married this weekend, July 25, 2010, at Moon Palace and it was AMAZING!

Words cannot describe how beautiful it was and how everything went so smoothly and even the weather which turned out amazingly gorgeous! I will be writing up my review next!

We did the Mayan Ceremony package combined with the complimentary. We also got the free cocktail because of the amount of guests that booked and moved it to the Beach.

Everything worked out perfectly.

Ladies! Do not worry! Moon Palace is awesome and they do a GREAT job organizing weddings!

our wedding is coming up this July 22-25, 2010! We are so excited and also happy that the info on the weather reports may be slightly inaccurate. I hope so because my wedding is also forcasted to have rain and tstorms. Praying for the best! Blessings on all your weddings!

awesome!! i love those flowers!!

Welcome to the world of all brides in which parents or family object to all their wedding ideas. I assure you if you decided to nuke the DW and stay home, family will find something else to complain about for your wedding. Just remember its you and your FI's day! No one elses. If the whole world was against you, what would you do? Think about it. I know my parents are totally against me having a DW but o well. I love my husband and thats all that matters! Id get married to him far away and alone under a coconut tree any day!