Our wedding was so beautiful.  Everyone that was there said it was definitely the coolest wedding they had gone to.  If you have any questions, just PM me.  All of the photos are unedited still, but I wanted to include some.

Overview:

• Resort:  Moon Palace
• Room:  Nizuc side (Concierge Level)
• Wedding Date/Time:  March 31^st, 2012 @ 4PM (Saturday)
• Miami Coordinators:  Geraldine, Ivis, and Joannis
• On-site Coordinator:  Kalena
• Wedding Package:  Complimentary/Symbolic
• Number of Guests:  18 people, including us
• Ceremony Site:  Tucan Gazebo
• Cocktail Hour:  Tucan Terrace
• Dinner:  La Trattoria
• Photographer:  Photos in Cancun

Resort Check-In/Transportation/Rooms:  We came into Cancun at 10:15A on a Wednesday.  We were through customs, had our bags, and were out of there in record time.  We were on our way well within an hour.  We got green lights, no problem.  However, when leaving Indianapolis, they searched my carryon because I had the sand ceremony stuff in there.  They ran tests on it.  It only took a few minutes.  No one bothered checking it on the way back.  I think it was because it was in Ziploc bags still.  My brother-in-law carried my dress and husband’s clothes in a garment bag.  They wouldn’t hang it up, but my dress had to be steamed upon arrival, anyway.

            We stayed with a  membership for over a week, so our transportation was included.  It was the same as previous visits.  We walked out, easily found them, got a bus ready, and we were off.  It’s only 10 minutes to the resort.  We were originally booked on the Sunrise side, but they wouldn’t let us have a room block in the Mango building (where my family was requesting), so we decided to upgrade our rooms to Concierge Level.  They do not advertise that you can do this.  I only found out because I had read reviews and this forum.  I asked if we could use our Resort Credits, expecting it to be really expensive.  It was only an extra $300 in credits for our 10 night stay.  We had to move to the Nizuc, though.  It ended up being really convenient.  We spent our time running from Sunrise to Grand, so we were in the middle.  The wedding location was at Nizuc, too.  My husband’s parents were in a room right in front of the Tucan gazebo, so they got ready there and walked right out.  Concierge offers a few perks.  They come to your room 3-4 times a day to clean and leave goodies.  We had chocolates, chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate mousse, and towel origami every night.  It was fun to come in from dinner, and have little surprises.  You also get a pillow menu to order whatever kind of pillow you want and aromatherapy for your room.  The rooms are really nice.  They are different in each section.  Nizuc rooms are the smallest, I think.  Grand rooms are HUGE.  They only really have garden views there, though.  Almost all rooms have the 2 person Jacuzzi.  We did not use it as much this time.  The only bad thing about this whole section, was the resort lost my father’s reservation, and they had to sit there in the lobby for 2 hours while they tried to fix it.  After a very long trip with a 6 year old, they were REALLY upset.  They could have handled it better.  They told him that someone in our party cancelled their room (which is impossible).

Planning/Miami:  Not much really needs to be said in this regard.  It was exactly the same as everyone else.  Geraldine was the only helpful one.  She was pretty prompt, and always put me in contact with who I needed.  Ivis was absolutely horrible.  I sent 4 emails over the course of 2 months, and she never answered.  Geraldine gave me her supervisor’s email, who never bothered to respond to me, either.  The whole thing was awful.  I found out through this site that Ivis was no longer there.  No one bothered to tell me that.  I basically had no wedding planner.  The things Ivis told me I could and could not do, Kalena later told me were incorrect.  It was a complete waste of time.  Everything that she confirmed for me, such as cake, did not make it down to Kalena…we had to go through all of that again down in Cancun.  We all booked our rooms through the room block website that Geraldine set up, and had no problems with that.  It was easy.

On-site Wedding Coordinator:  I can not stress how much I loved Kalena.  I had low expectations after the Miami ordeal.  I never heard from her prior to going down there.  I even tried to call Miami 2 days before I left.  They said she would contact me the day before we left.  (Yeah, right)  However, when we arrived at check-in, they had a letter from her telling me the appointment time.  It is usually the day after arrival.  Once I met with her, all of my worries were gone.  She was very organized.  Everything on the wedding day went exactly as planned.  I was kind of mad that we had to change our plans once we got down there.  That was not her fault, though.  It was Miami telling me the incorrect information.  They told me we could throw fake petals on the beach, which we couldn’t.  This was a problem because we also brought petals for guests to throw at us.  Miami also told us we could have our dinner at La Trattoria, which Kalena said we couldn’t since we had such a large group.  She was excellent, though, and called the manager over there.  They agreed to let us eat there if we had a set menu.  The food was wonderful.  We had Caprese salad, tomato and spinach fusion soup, beef tenderloin with vegetables and potatoes, and ice cream with the wedding cake.  Kalena made sure everyone was in the right spot at the right time.  Everything went extremely smooth.  She even called the day before to make sure I didn’t need anything, and that I had my dress back in my room from being steamed.  She immediately made me feel at ease, and I didn’t spend a minute worrying about if things would be perfect.  The only thing I’ll say is, you have to be flexible with a destination wedding.  Things change at the last minute, and there’s nothing you can do.  You just have to go with it.  Bonus:  When we came back to our room after the wedding, our Jacuzzi was filled with bubbles and flower petals.  There was also a huge flower arrangement and card from Kalena.

Makeup/Hair:  Alberto did my hair and makeup.  He was fabulous.  He spent about 40 minutes doing my eye makeup.  I brought some makeup with me, and he used his own for the rest.  I didn’t feel like I even looked like myself when he was done, but in a good way!  I don’t normally wear makeup, so everyone went on and on about how pretty I looked.  My hair was pretty fancy, too.  I gave him an idea, and he made it 10 times better.  It was amazing.  I couldn’t be happier.  The only problem with the salon was, we had 6 people booked for appointments that day.  I confirmed all appointments when we got there, but they said they didn’t have a record of my mother in law’s appointment.  Then, they told her to be there at 1:30P.  When she showed up, the appointment was actually supposed to be at 12:30P.  They still ended up doing it, but it was a cluster.  Also, I had confirmed my niece’s appointment on a Wednesday, and then on Saturday, they said they lost her appointment.  They did her hair, anyways, but people were NOT happy.  Especially finding this stuff out a few hours before my wedding.  Booking through Karla was easy and stress free.  She sent me confirmations for everyone’s appointments, and way very prompt responding back to me.  I used Resort Credits for my hair and makeup.  We got free mani/pedis with the membership.  I used the remaining salon credits on massages the day before for my husband and me.

Flowers:  Once again, Miami really dropped the ball when I tried to ask them about flowers.  I ended up packing our own bouquets.  They turned out beautiful with the help of my friend.  I asked if we could use the free bouquet as decoration for the altar, since I brought my own.  Kalena agreed, but I don’t think she was supposed to.  It was fine for what it was, but I was glad I brought my own flowers.  I was not impressed with theirs.  I used True Touch flowers from Hobby Lobby, wrapped them in bubble wrap, put them in a box, and packed the box in my luggage.  No problems there.

Ceremony:  The ceremony was great.  We were allowed to use our own script for the whole thing.  The minister just read it word for word from the copy I brought.  Everything was beautiful.  The wind was out of control, even in the gazebo.  My bangs had been secured to one side, and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction the whole time.  My hair was constantly in my face, and I had to keep reaching up to adjust it.  In the end, I was glad we switched to the gazebo.  It was really pretty, and everyone enjoyed it better because there was shade.  It only lasted about 20 minutes.  My husband complained afterwards that it was hard to hear the minister.  We opted to add the Horse Drawn Carriage, and that was totally worth the money.  They let my two flower girls ride in it with me.  They thought it was the coolest thing EVER.  My niece kept saying, “I thought they only had these things in storybooks”.  It was beautiful, and almost made me cry before the wedding when it came to pick us up.

Cocktail Hour:  I think we ended up missing the entire cocktail hour.  I had 2 pieces of pineapple, and then we had to start taking pictures.  My ceremony ended at 4:30P, maybe.  They had moved our dinner reservations from 6:30P to 6:00P, so our photographers were kind of struggling to get everything done.  I saw pictures of the food everyone was eating J  I don’t even remember which menu we picked.  I never saw a menu prior to getting to Cancun.

Dinner:  We decided not to do a reception.  We just had dinner at La Trattoria.  I listed our food earlier.  I had some items I wished to decorate with.  My mother in law was going to go early to set up, but Kalena got the waiters to set up for me for free, since we had had problems with Miami.  It was only a table runner, diamond confetti, and 6 candles.  We didn’t go crazy.  I also did MadLibs for guests to fill out during dinner, which we’re using in a scrapbook.  My brother in law screen printed some awesome koozies for our favors.  We got the Lemon cake with buttercream for our cake.  It was pretty good.  I was glad we ate that during dinner, or I would not have had a chance to eat a piece.

Photographers:  We hired Photos in Cancun after reading reviews and talking with other options.  We got the 4 hour wedding package and the Beach TTD for the next day.  There were two of them that came.  They were sooooo awesome!  Everyone LOVED them.  They did a fantastic job.  Immediately after the TTD, they gave me 3 DVDs with approximately 2,500 pictures.  You pick out your favorites, and they’ll edit them.  It was nice to have all of them to be able to compare.  I can’t wait to get my edited photos back, but I’m still in the process of going through them right now.  The TTD was really fun.  My dress was only $300, so we really had fun doing that.  No one I know has ever even heard of TTD, so everyone has thought those were the coolest pictures from the wedding.  There’s also some pretty hilarious ones in there, too.  We had a good laugh about it after the fact while we were looking at pictures.  They also stayed a little late to finish up.  Also, they took us to the Hotel Zone for the TTD because the Moon Palace beach isn't that great. 

After Dinner:  We were going to go to the Disco to dance after, but it was closed.  Luckily, in the sunrise lobby bar, they had a DJ set up.  Since I was still in my wedding dress, naturally everyone was on top of me all night.  If the waitress wasn’t around every 2 minutes, the manager was checking on us.  It was nice.  I felt like a queen.  We had no problem getting enough tables together, and it was right in the middle of Spring Break.

Restaurants:  We had just been to Moon Palace a year ago, and some things had changed since then.  Everything was pretty good, overall.  I never really cared for breakfast.  Los Tacos at the Grand is the best place to go for lunch, easily.  I didn’t really like breakfast OR lunch at El Manglar.  Last year, Arrecifes was pretty good.  This year, the food was horrible, and the service was worse.  I asked if we could get more steak (I had only had one little chunk), and the waiter gave me this nasty look, like I was inconveniencing him.  The night before our wedding!  We all got up and left in the middle of dinner.  It was awful.  Unfortunately, that was right after my dad had problems checking in, so it took a while to win him over.  Usually, even the pickiest of eaters in my family had no problem finding something to eat.

Pools/Beach:  Moon Palace is not a good place if you like the beach.  There is tons of seaweed.  We didn’t really spend any time on the beach.  I never got in the ocean there.  The pools are fabulous, though.  They’re huge.  We tended to like the pools in the Grand section a little more because there weren’t as many kids there.  Sunrise pools are pretty rowdy and loud.  If you want to do activities like volleyball and water aerobics, go there.

Resort Credits:  We stayed 10 nights, so we had $2000 credits to use.  With the wedding and family being there, we didn’t really feel like doing any excursions.  We spent the whole $400 limit in the salon/spa.  We did the Romantic Lobster dinner, which was wonderful ($350).  Room upgrade was $300.  Tequila package to take home was $100.  Other than that, we spend the rest on upgraded wine list, I think.  Oh, and MOET champagne is not on the list, but you can buy that with credits.  It’s like, $200 a bottle, though.  Hey, it’s free money.

After the BIG DAY:  Our family left on the following Wednesday, and we still had until Saturday.  Since we had not done any excursions, we decided to go visit the Sun Palace (Couples Only, no kids).  It was great there, so we asked if we could transfer the last few nights of our stay over there.  They agreed, and we were moved to the top floor, ocean front there.  It was beautiful.  There was no seaweed on the beach, and the water was so blue.  They only have 3 small pools there, but they were up to my shoulders (deeper than Moon Palace).  No one was really swimming, though.  There are only 220 rooms there, and maybe 100 people there when we were there.  It was pretty empty.  We didn’t have to wait at all to go to their nice restaurant, which was nice after waiting an hour for dinner every night at the Moon Palace.  I highly recommend checking out the Sun Palace after the festivities are over.  It was worth the hassle of moving all our stuff.  Those were our favorite days.