We had 30 people come down with us to Cancun and it was such a wonderful and amazing experience!

 

Summary:

 

Miami contacts: Michelle Farinas- first and she was prompt with answering but then we had to switch to Geraldine Flores when we booked under a membership and then there were many problems with communication.  I also dealt with Ivis and Joannis

Onsite Coordinator:  Claudia Fonseca

Wedding Week:  April 15th-22nd

Wedding Day:  Friday April 20th, 2012

Ceremony:  Capilla Gazebo at 3pm

Cocktail Hour:  Venado Terrace 3:30- 4:30pm

Reception:  Caribbean Terrace 6- 11:30 pm

Wedding Package: Complimentary

 

Planning/Communication:  C (at best)

 

Well just like every past bride, communication before the wedding was horrible.  It seems as though it is a rite of passage that brides have to go through before their wedding.  I tried to plan as much as I could beforehand with them, but took things with a grain of salt since policies were not set in stone once down there and the Miami people do not have the final say.  The wedding department at Moon Palace does want to please you and will do pretty much anything you are dreaming of and really have it down smoothly.

 

Arrival:  A-

 

15 of us arrived together on April 15th and it went very smoothly.  When we arrived they took our luggage as we checked in at the members desk.  We were given a yummy champagne drink as we were taking our turn checking in.  Our room block was in the Sunrise section and I requested the Toronja (grapefruit) buildings since it is the last buildings in Sunrise- right next to the Nizuc section so we were perfectly in the middle of everything!  The only weird thing was that the hotel had made one of the groomsmen's room the VIP room and couldn't tell us why it wasn't the bride and groom and just laughed when we asked if they could change it.  The VIP bracelets did not get them any perks that we could tell and then their room ended up not being near us so we wouldn't have wanted that.  We were taken to our room where a cute honeymoon cake was waiting for us and we had a great view!

 

 

Restaurants:  A

 

The first night we went to Palapa Barracuda- its pretty casual and it was ok

 

Mo-Mo-No-Ha-Na- LOVED this place- other people in our group went back here another night for sushi

 

El Caribeno-  we really liked the atmosphere but the food really wasn't that good- maybe it was an off night?  They were out of the Mahi Mahi and I think we had a server on his first night and it literally took 3 hours for dinner

 

Arrecifes- we had our dinner rehearsal here and it was soooo good and I'm glad we chose here.  And it was really fun having the meat come out on sticks!

 

Los Caporales- we went here on our last night and it was very good!  And the Mariachi band was cool.

 

For lunch we would have pizza by the pool or Palapa Delfines and just eat at the lounge chairs at the pool most of us didn't want to lose time in the sun to go inside somewhere to eat and the food was good- everyone loved the fish at Delfines.

 

We ate breakfast mostly at the buffet Bugambilias in the Sunrise lobby which was also very good and lots of variety.

 

Tours:  A

 

We only did one the Jungle Tour which was $120 a person that we used the resort credits for.  It did not include transportation so they arranged transportation for us- 2 vans for 7 people each in it for $74 roundtrip.  My husband and I paid for it as a thank you to everyone plus we didn't feel like getting $5 from everyone and they just billed it to our room.  This tour is through Aquaworld and the location was only about 20 mins away from the resort.  We left at 8:30 am and were back by Noon.  The Jungle Tour includes a ride on the Aquatwister, which is a super fast jet boat that was SO much fun, and then 2 person boat ride out to the reef to snorkle.  The guides at Aquaworld were amazing and really fun and def know what they are doing.  We meant to go on other tours but we didn't have time and wanted to just relax around the pool.

 

We also did a night out in Cancun and used Cuncrawl- I would like to recommend them but they were disappointing.  They were over an hour late picking us up and our guide Jorge sucked!  He was more interested in MCing the whole bar instead of entertaining our group and we stayed way too long at the first bar and asked to leave but we wouldn't let us for another hour.  We had done party things like this before in Mexico and were disappointed in how this played out.  But we had fun with the group!

 

 

 

Vendors:  A+

 

PSAV- we used them for our Welcome Party and for our reception and we had no issues with them.  We booked them through their Moon Palace representative and had their services billed to our room which worked out great.  We did just the iPod set up- 2 hours for the Welcome Party and 4 hours for the reception and it cost $463 in total for both.  Also we ended up extending our reception an hour and that cost $55.

 

Marvin from Maya Diseno Floral- Yes his communication was bad but the flowers were beautiful and half the price of the resorts!  They were on time delivering the flowers- the front desk called the room to say they were downstairs and I just a groomsman down to pay him and get the flowers.

 

6 Bridesmaids Bouquets- $330 ($55 each)

7 Boutonnieres- $105 ($15 each)

1 Corsage- $20

2 Pomanders- $70 ($35 each)

Delivery fee- $30

Total $555

 

 

 

 

Wedding Coordinator Meeting:  A

 

We met with Claudia the day after we got there at 12 pm in her office.  I brought a suitcase full of decorations along with our wedding cake topper, cake cutting, and champagne flutes.  Our meeting lasted for about an hour since we weren't asking for much and I knew what I wanted.   Claudia only charged me the $65 set up because I told her that was what I was told and she said fine.  She also did not charge me for the 2 hours of extra staffing at the reception.  She asked if we needed any other flowers besides mine and my husband's and I said no and we moved on.  She asked about photography and I said we have an outside one and that we paid for a room for them and she said ok and we moved on.  Claudia was very professional and after our meeting I had no worries and was sure everything would be taken care of. 

 

 

 

Welcome Party:  A-

 

We had our Welcome Party on Wednesday and it was suppose to be at Tucan Terrace but it rained in the late afternoon so they moved us into a ballroom, Laud, off the Nizuc lobby.  We chose the Asian menu and it was sooo good!  We had a lot of fun and the drinks were flowing!  They set up the room like I had asked with the luminaries I brought and starfish on all the tables and on the food buffet.

 

 

 

 

Dinner Rehearsal:  A

 

We had ours at Arrecifies and it was amazing food.  Most people said it was their favorite meal of their stay.  The staff was very attentive and kept the drinks coming!  We had so many people we took up a whole side of the restaurant.  

 

My brother was waiting patiently for some steak

 

 

Golf Salon/Spa:  A+

 

Two days before the wedding, my husband and I had a massage there and it was awesome and very relaxing.  Then the day before the wedding my sister, mom, and I went for mani and pedis and they did a good job.  The salon and spa are very clean and the staff is very professional.  The day of the wedding I only had my hair done there but my mom and bridesmaids had their hair and makeup done and we all used our room credits and there were no issues with that- I booked the appts ahead of time with Karla, the salon manager.  My hair appt was at 9:30 and the girls were also scheduled around then and it worked out perfectly so I wasn't rushing to get ready for our wedding at 3 pm.  The staff did such a great job with everyone's hair and makeup but I suggest bringing pictures of what you want so they know what to do.  I had a hair trial at home and brought pictures with me of it.  Silvina even took pictures of my hair for her own hair gallery- she was great and I highly recommend her!

 

One of my bridesmaid with her hair and makeup done

Me

 

 

Photographer:  A++++++

 

We hired Photos in Cancun and Derek and Lorena were amazing!  Like I said before we paid for 1 night for them since they were an outside vendor.  Lorena did my makeup and did an awesome job and touched it up throughout the day.  I did a full review on them under the vendor reviews.  But I can't thank them enough for what an awesome job they did with our wedding- they were so easy to work with and our guests loved them.  And it was great receiving ALL of our photos at the end of the night on CD.

 

Picture of Lorena doing my makeup

 

 

Wedding Day:   A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

We had such a wonderful day- perfect weather and just so magical.  It flew by and I wish I could remember everything that happened!

 

Ceremony:  3 pm at the Capilla Gazebo

I'm really glad we chose this gazebo- its pretty secluded so we didn't have too many gawkers and I did the carriage ride which is a must!  At first I thought it was cheesy so my parents said they would pay for it, but I'm so glad I did- it made me feel really special and my guests loved it.  I gave Claudia at our meeting the CD for the ceremony and had labeled it myself with the order and they did it perfectly.  We did a symbolic ceremony, but the minister had asked Kevin if we wanted prayers and he said yes so it felt religious and I really liked that.  The only thing is I look miserable in a lot of pictures because I was concentrating so hard on what he was saying as he was kind of hard to understand with the accent, but he did a great job!  We had our champagne toast right after we walked out of the gazebo and the waiters had it all ready and waiting for us.

 

I was so happy with my complimentary bouquet- I went with ivory roses with bells of Ireland- it was just beautiful!

 

 

Cocktail hour:  Venado Terrace 3:30pm

 

We really liked the Venado Terrace- its not really near anything so there was no one near us so it was private which was really nice.  We chose the Superior menu and the stuffed peppers were a big hit and I loved the pineapple and shrimp!  I brought our iHome and an iPod and plugged it in at a lamp post to play music and it worked out really well.  After the cocktail hour we took pictures with our wedding party and then just ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reception:  Caribbean Terrace 6 pm

 

I'm very happy that we had our reception here- the view alone is worth it!  We chose the French Buffet for  our dinner and it was ok.  Our decorations were set up just as I had asked- we had lights hanging, blumeboxes for the bridesmaid bouquets, sand dollars on the tables, our guest poster on a table to be signed, and mr and mrs signs on our sweetheart table.  This is where I get disappointed with Claudia and why we didn't give her as good a tip:  our cake came out without our topper so I had to find Claudia sitting with the PSAV guys texting to find it and put it on our cake, my husband went downstairs to the bathroom at one point and found that our poster was down there since it had blown away and she was nowhere to be found.  Then when we decided to extend our reception an hour since we didn't arrive til after 630- we were asking the PSAV guys and they said they had to ask Claudia and I asked where she was and they said in her office so she had LEFT our reception to go to her office to do work and only came back for me to sign the extension.  This upset me since these are things she should have been on top of.  But I didn't let these things get me upset and we all had a great time!  I highly recommend the Caribbean Terrace but beware how windy it is but this also worked out since we weren't sweaty from dancing!

 

 

Our cake was 2 layers vanilla and 1 layer vanilla with fruit with Chantilly frosting which is like a whipped cream- it was really good!

 

 

 

 

Farewell Brunch:  A

 

We had our brunch at Bugambilias Terrace at 1030 AM the day after the wedding.  We chose the American Breakfast buffet and it was really good and just what we all needed after drinking all night!

 

 

 

Closing:

 

We had a fabulous time and a wonderful wedding with amazing people.  Even through all the stress and poor communication I would have my wedding again at Moon Palace in a heart beat!  And I couldn't have had such a awesome wedding without the help of the brides here on BDW especially my Moon Palace 2012 Brides!  If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me!!!!