LMC1

oops, I meant to add that I actually picked my flower bouquets and center pieces from pictures I found online and I emailed Floral Fantasy the pictures of what I wanted the bouquets, boutonnieres and centerpieces to look like a year before the wedding. She responded and said she could make it happen and then we didn't communicate until I put the deposit down and then we emailed a few times when the wedding was a couple months away.

I contacted Floral Fantasy about a year before my wedding and then I put my deposit down and signed the contract about 6 months before the wedding and finalized everything with them about 1-2 months before the wedding. I noticed that I did not have much communication with all the vendors until a few months before my wedding.

I was married at Moon Dance Cliffs on 3/16/13. It was amazing and worth every penny! My main advice is to to just enjoy the entire time, know that it will all work out and let yourself have fun with your friends and family. Everyone has told me how much fun they had, we did not hear one negative comment from any of our guests and we had 76 guests at the wedding. Every single room at MDC was reserved with our guests and we had 11 guests say at other properties. The service at MDC is ridiculous. They go above and beyond to make sure you and your guests are taken care of. I could not have dreamed of a better time. I'm still in awe of how well everything went and what a good time we all had. When you are there you quickly learn that the staff's number one priority is to help make sure your needs are met and your having a good time. The food is delicious and the drinks keep flowing. The quality of the resort tops any other all-inclusive I have ever stayed at. If you have any questions let me know but I can tell you that our flowers were gorgeous (Floral Fantasy), the DJ was very good (Sound Illusions), our photographer was spot on (Clayton with WPA) and our band was the hit of the party... I would recommend them to anyone in a second, we got so many compliments on how good they were, our guests danced the entire three hours that they played. The band is the PACE Band and I would hire them again in a second!!! Also, I did use the spa at MDC for my hair, my seven bridesmaids hair and two other family members. They did all 10 of our hair quickly and nicely. I would say that I've seen better wedding hair styles before at high end salons but I thought they did a good job overall on the bridesmaids hair and I actually loved my hair. None of my bridesmaids had ideas on how they wanted to do their hair so they just did it but I think if you have a picture of what you want (like I did) they will do a great job matching it. Also, I had my makeup done and it was good, not out of this world but I was satisfied and received many compliments Let me know if anyone has any specific questions!!! Good luck and congrats to all the upcoming brides.

Hi Carrie, We are doing all inclusive at MDC and we have around 65 guests staying at MDC and about 12 staying at outside resorts. I'll be able to give you more info after our wedding which is like 3 weeks away regarding final costs. etc

HI la2424, I'm getting married in a few weeks at MDC... I'm so excited and I'm just working on making sure everything is done and ready. I've been in the planning process for a year so I can't wait to see how it all comes together. I'm happy to report back after the wedding to let everyone know how it went and provide any tips for future MDC brides. Regarding your questions.... 1. We are packing suitcases with all of our welcome bags and goodies, favors, etc. We booked all of the rooms at MDC so we have a lot to pack. It looks like we'll have at least 3-4 large suitcases full of wedding stuff and our clothes, etc. Several friends and family have offered to take a suitcase for us so once we are all packed we'll see if we can manage to take it all ourselves and if not we'll have a friend or two take a suitcase for us. 2. We were thinking of doing a group excursion but I think we are just going to do an informal trip to Ricks for those that want to go but I know Kerry is happy to arrange any type of excursion you want to do. 3. We are doing a welcome dinner on Friday night (we get married on Saturday). We aren't planning anything fancy for Friday and we are just having guests order off of the menu at Annies for the dinner meal. We are getting a steel drum band for an hour on Friday night to play at the welcome dinner. I'll let you know how they are (Kerry is arranging it, I'm sure they'll be great). We are using a DJ for the ceremony music and then we having PACE band for three hours during the wedding reception. I'm not sure if that helps but good luck planning and I'm happy to answer any questions that may be helpful to you.

Hi Kaitstr, I am getting married at MDC in less than 2 months, I set the date almost a year ago and I can't believe it is getting so close... I'm so excited. We are doing a resort take over so we have reserved the entire resort. I know the cost is a lot to ask of friends and family but we are actually having around 70-80 guests attend (which is more than we estimated) so it looks like the cost didn't prevent too many people from coming. If you want to email me at my personal email address ([email protected]) then I'll email you back more specific budget info We have almost everything in place so I should be able to provide a good estimate of the total cost. Good luck!

Great questions, I'm five months out also. Dlh316, I'm thinking you must be the weekend right after mine I haven't thought about the decorations yet for the welcoming/rehearsal dinner but I should probably think about that. For those of you past brides that have been so so helpful, did you have to rent table and chairs for the rehearsal dinner or does MDC supply them? Did anyone get a fire thrower/dancer? If so, would you recommend it? Did anyone use PACE band? If so, what did you think? I'm getting excited as the time gets closer, as always any tips are so appreciated

Thank you for the great feedback, lobster as one option for sure! Thanks again and I'm so happy they won't really 'kick out' anyone at 11pm, I was a little concerned about that... we want to be able to hang out with all of our wedding guests for as long as possible. Happy Friday

Hi dlh316... I'm also getting married in March, 2013 and I have the same question about lighting. We are having a DJ for three hours and the PACE band for three hours so I'm not sure what we should do for lighting. I believe Kerry said we can get the lighting through the DJ and I think it was less than getting it through the band but I would love to know from other past brides if the lighting makes a significant difference or if anyone just went with the natural lighting of what MDC already has? Also, I have a question about outside guests... we are doing the resort take over and our guests have booked all of the rooms. Does anyone have recommendations on nearby hotels for additional guests to stay at? And, when the outside guests come for the wedding do they really enforce that the outside guests have to leave by 11:00 pm? One last question for past brides... any wedding meal menu tips or feedback from your guests on what entre item they liked the best (lobster, steak, seafood, jerk pork, etc)? Thanks everyone for all of your guidance, it is so helpful!

Hi MALDJ1, Thank you so much for answering all of our questions. Your words are letting any worries go away and I'm just so excited for next March! Did you use PACE band and the DJ that Kerri recommends. We've already put our depoist down for PACE band and I was going to have the DJ go first (through dinner) and then the band play so we could all dance during live music but it sounds like I may want to rethink that and do the band first and then the DJ (if I'm using the same band and DJ as you). We were planning on doing 3 hours band and 3 hours DJ. I really like the lantern idea so thank you again for all this great feedback! Thanks!!!

Hi Kleonne06 and MALDJ1, I wish you both the best for your wedding wedding weekends! They are both so close, that is so exciting. My wedding is about 9 months away so I'm still working on all the details, etc. I would love to hear about how the wedding goes so if you're able to post updates after you return that would be so so appreciated! And, if you have any tips or do anything special that the guests really appreciate (like the money/room key holder) I would love to hear about it. I have one questions, do either of you have quests staying off site? If so, do you have any recommendations on where to have guests stay. We didn't think we would have so many guests be able to come so now we're looking for places for the overflow. I have looked into a few resorts nearby but any suggestions would be great. Another questions I have is about what do the guests do after the bars close at 11 pm, are you guys purchasing alcohol for after the bars close and taking the party back to the villas or is there enough alcohol in the villas to supply the guests without having to purchase additional alcohol. I'm just a little curious because I want my guests to be entertained and I know a lot of them stay up pretty late and can consume a lot so I'm just trying to be prepared Thanks!!!

I'm getting married at MDC in March, 2013 and originally we had contacted a travel agent. Our travel agent contacted MDC but it seems like they prefer do handle reservations directly and not through a travel agent. I believe travel agents usually get paid by the resort and MDC does not do that. That's probably why a travel agent wouldn't want to work with MDC but that's just a guess. I'm very excited to be getting married at MDC. I love the fact that we have the entire resort for our family and friends. We were also worried about the cost but we gave our guests over a year in advance and all the rooms are already reserved by our family and friends. Now I'm working on finding alternative hotels for the overflow guests At first I thought a destination wedding would be a little bit less expensive because it would be less guests but I'm finding out the costs are pretty equal by the time you hire a photographer, band/DJ, florists, etc. but I'm sure it is all going to be worth it when I get to spend a long weekend with the people I love the most. On a side note, I do wish MDC was more flexible. They don't seem to negotiate or 'hook you up' with anything. The guests that are staying outside MDC will have to pay $125 per person (plus 20% so $150) per day to come to MDC to hang out with us that weekend. I was hoping that outside guests would be able to stop by the day after the wedding and join us for a brunch and some drinks but if they want to they have to pay $150 just to come to MDC. yikes!

Hi Rivieramaya 2013... the rate we booked it at is $204.00 per person/per night for the basic hotel room based on double occupancy. There is also a $15 per room, per night resort fee and 20% tax. I can provide you the rate for the suites and villas if you want them. However since we booked at a 'special rate' we had to put a 20% nonrefundable deposit down for all the rooms for three nights (to secure the rate). We booked while they were running a special rate on their website. I hope you're able to get some sort of discount, especially if you're doing the resort takeover. I am so excited to get married at Moon Dance Cliffs, but it is a little nerve racking trying to figure out how many guests we think will attend!

We recently reserved the entire resort for a three night all-inclusive weekend in March, 2013 for our wedding and they really didn't negotiate, they just offered us the current 'special rate'. What are they currently offering you?