Wedding Date: October 25th, 2012

 

Resort Stay Length: October 20th to 27th

 

Number of guests: 38

 

Miami/Mexico Coordinators: Ivis Hitchcock/Renee Christine Garcia

 

On-site Coordinator: Claudia Alejandra Fonseca

 

Room Location: Sunrise - Pina building

 

Cost Break Down and Location:

 

Hair and Make up: $ Free (resort credits)

Wedding Ceremony @ 3:00pm: $ Free  - Dolphin Beach

Horse Carriage:  $137

Wedding Cocktail Hour @ 4:00pm: $ Free (Group Benefits) - Bugambilias Gazebo

Wedding Dinner Reception @ 5-8 pm: $1900 (38 guests x $50 ea.) + $300 for extra hour - Bugambilias Terrace

Wedding Cake: $ Free (included in package, no upgrades)

PSAV iPod set up rental for 3 hours: $231.90

Day Passes: $91 for adult, $46 for children (paid for by guests)

 

Total = $2750.90 (paid for by my amazing Mother-in-Law)

 

*NOTE: the majority of the decor was supplied by the complementary package. I brought the sand ceremony items, welcome bags (delivered as guests arrived by me), candles, favors, cake topper, time capsule guest book, and name displays (ALL made or customized by me). The only thing I purchased was the centre piece flowers from Marvin (Maya Floral) for $325 total, 5 x $65 ea. plus $30 delivery fee).*

 

Photographer: Dean Sanderson http://deansandersonweddings.com/ <-- 100% RECOMMENDED!! Will post a review under his page if you would like to read it. All the pictures posted from him have a watermark.

 

My scores:

 

Resort: A

Resort Activities: B+

Food: A

Wedding Coordinators, offsite: C-

Wedding Coordinators, onsite: A+

Wedding Ceremony: A

Cocktail Hour: A

Reception: A+

 

Summary: I loved my wedding, I loved the resort!

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The Resort: 

 

The resort is big. And when you hear people say big, you don't get just how BIG it is. It's huge. But it does not mean that it is inconveniently so. I was 5 months pregnant at the time of the wedding and I could walk the resort without a problem. But if walking seems like such a drag or the bike's are not an option, then no worries, they have a golf cart service. My grandma, who is legally blind and has a lot of issues walking, would call the butler service and ask for a cart, and one would arrive at the entrance of the building within 20 minutes (sometimes within 5 minutes, it all depended on the time of day and whether a large number of people just arrived to check in). However, I would like to say that if people are just lazy to walk from their room to their lobby, that they should consider that they are taking away a service that is intended for either large amount of people that are going to the golf course restaurants, or people that truly need assistance. So please, don't abuse this.

 

The resort itself is amazing. An intricate maze of paths, buildings, gardens and activity areas are what you will find between the 3 lobbies (Sunrise, Nizuc and Grand). And every now and then, you will find a critter to show you that nature still has a place in the resort. I found iguanas and cute frogs quite often in the paths near the gardens. And don't worry, they don't stick around if you get near them. I also saw coatis (look them up, the raccoons of mexico) on our way to the golf spa and restaurant, and I heard that there was a crocodile in one of the ponds in the golf course. Eek! Oh, and watch out. There are some wild cats around. Do NOT touch them or feed them...

 

The lobbies in the resort were huge, and all of them had souvenir shops, restaurants or cafes, and areas for entertainment. Sunrise had the Skybar (amazing place for watching "The Game", whatever it might be); Nizuc had the piano bar (a lounge area great for coffee, drinks and a good conversation); and the Grand had the Grand Terrace (we saw a live band play some awesome songs).  

 

I would have to say that the only bad thing about the resort was the fact that WHEN we went, most of the Sunrise side was under construction. The lobby itself was being remodeled with new granite and a new lounge area; part of the pool area was closed so they could build the wave pool; and 2 of the building blocks were closed for COMPLETE renovation. It was inconvenient at times, specially in the lobby, but the staff made sure we were able to get what we wanted and constantly apologizing about the disturbance. I am a pretty laid back person, so I just stuck to the open pools in the Sunrise, and the rest of the time we spent in the Nizuc lobby. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Weather:

 

The time of the year we went was the end of Hurricane Season. However, we were there while hurricane Sandy made her way through the Caribbean, so we would get stays from it. Meaning, it would rain really hard for a couple of minutes or hours 2 to 3 times a day. Which is normal for the time of the year, as I asked locals. However, for our wedding day, we lucked out that it did not rain at ALL!! Phew! So if you are planning on booking your wedding or vacation during this time, expect rain. So bring umbrellas :)

 

The Rooms:

 

The reason why we were placed in the Sunrise side was because I had requested to have a hammock. It was worth it. I loved waking up and lounging in the balcony overlooking the ocean as I laid in the hammock. So beautiful and peaceful, specially because my balcony overlooked a garden. The room itself was standard. A bed that was a bit hard for me but the pillows made me sleep like a rock. The jacuzzi was amazing to relax in after a long sunny day. The bathroom and showers were clean and came with awesome toiletries, and even a blow drier and straightener to borrow (not the cheap hotel ones). The mini bar was constantly stocked up and we were always given 2 1L water bottles to carry with us (good if you are going on trips outside the resort). The cleaning service was great, and the turn down service always turned on time for us. Over all, I got nothing bad to say about the rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

The Beach:

 

As many have said, the beach at Moon Palace is more for looks than for use. It is what I would call a "virgin beach". Meaning there are lots of broken coral in the sand, and vegetation that washes up. It is not much of a beach to go swimming in, but you have to respect the fact that the coral read is not to far from the resort, and cleaning the beach up would destroy that, so I would recommend to stick to the pools or go to Beach Palace (information below under Activities).

 

However, one good thing about the beach is that I did go into it to about my knees 9being very careful because some of the rocks are sharp), and I had a school of silver fish following me, nibbling at my feet, eating the dead skin. I found this to be incredibly ticklish but a neat experience at the same time. I had seen places in Thailand that people PAY to have this kind of "treatment" done, and I was getting it for free. It made me smile to see that there were still fish around the area.

 

 

 

 

The Pools:

 

The beach at Moon Palace may leave you wishing for more, but the pools there are incredible! There are over 16 pools and most are long, curvy and with plenty of service. The best area for using the pools is the Sunrise side (bias opinions since it was where we hung out the most). There are a few swim-up bars, a pizza hut, a sushi bar (at the swing bar), and lots of waiters ready to deliver drinks right to you. The Nizuc pools are similar, but with less twists and turns; and the Grand pools are more for lounging, peace and quiet. There's something for everyone, even for the kids.

 

 

 

 

Activities: 

 

The resort has PLENTY of activities available for everyone. There is always something going on in one of the lobbies or pool areas for entertainment and at night they have great shows. I was too stressed out to participate in any of these, but I did use my resort credits to go to Chichen Itza, and we used the complementary shuttle to go to Beach Palace. 

 

Chichen Itza was an awesome adventure. It is one of the NEW World Wonders and it was in our bucket list, so we signed up. The trip is long, and they make a stop at some restaurant with a huge tourist trap (they sell things incredibly expensive, and the same things will be found at the location itself, for less, so why bother) and it only signifies the halfway point. As I said earlier, I was 5 months pregnant, so walking in the heat for a long time was not an option for me, so once we arrived we followed the tour guide for about half of the tour, and then my fiancé and my dad split from the group. We got as close as possible to the pyramid and marveled for a bit, and then returned to the restaurant to get some cold drinks. Later, when all our family caught up to us, we went outside and shopped at the market, where the prices of the merchandise were decent and the selection was better. I would recommend to BRING AN UMBRELLA, for the sun or rain, and plenty of water. Other than that, it was great. 

 

*Note: if you don't like history, or walking around, or museums, or anything of the sort, don't bother. 

 

 

 

 

 

The trip to Beach Palace was great. We got a shuttle at a determined time, and were supposed to be back 4 hours later to catch the shuttle, but we decided to pay the cab back ride and stay until late in Cancun. Beach Palace is a nice resort, but it is TINY in comparison, and people are so worrisome about strangers getting into the resort, that we were constantly asked to show our bracelets. 

 

The beach here, however, was AMAZING! Gorgeous colors, white sand, excellent waves and NO ROCKS! it is worth the trip over just to go swimming in the ocean. But be warned, you will be constantly bothered by walking merchants singing "Necklaces, earrings, cigars, t-shirts, jet skii". Something that I truly did not miss while I was at the Moon Palace. 

 

 

 

The second reason why we went to the Beach Palace was to go to downtown Cancun and go to the Hard Rock, Harley Davidson and all the awesome Malls and markets. I recommend visiting Cancun, which is still a very touristy town, but making sure that you are safe. 

 

 

 

Resort Credits: 

 

This is separate from the activities because it is not about the activities themselves, but the free credits. The only bad experience I had with the resort had to do with the stupid credits. The main reason why a lot of my guests booked through the membership wedding booking I created, was because they would have their resort credits on TOP of the membership benefits that are included through the booking. To clarify, the membership credits are in addition to the resort credits (i.e. we had 2 free excursions and 2 free massages, plus the $1500 in free resort credits). When we checked in, we were asked to go to a second desk where we registered as members and our membership credits were credited. Then, we were asked to go to a third desk and sit through a resort presentation that explained the credits. We decided to do this the next day since we were tired and hungry.

 

The next day, we went to the resort meeting at 10 am where a nice lady explained how the resort credits worked, which activities came with extra costs (like the dolphin swim), and how certain ones should be booked ASAP since they only ran during certain days (like Chichen Itza). At the end of the meeting they asked us to book another meeting for the sales pitch, but we turned her down. We asked her just to book our Chichen Itza tour for ourselves and 6 other members of my family. She said no problem, and left us. After 30 minutes she came back and told us none of the rooms had resort credits. I was confused and told here it was impossible since we booked for 7 nights and it was before April, so we HAD to have credits. Long story short, the stupid people at Miami had not "turned on" the credits for any of our guests and it could not be done until Monday. I was ready to have heads roll but I kept my cool and asked the lady to help me. 

 

Here is where manners and respect goes a long way. Rather than freaking out and yelling and treating people like scum, I kept it all in, was polite and asked people to help us. It took us 6 HOURS to fix the problem, but we were credited our resort credits back, even though they probably shouldn't have done it until Monday. We dealt with 5 different people to make it happen, but it worked. Even one of the ladies that helped us told me that she was astounded at how calm I was and I answered "Oh, I am crying inside but I know you can make it happen for us". It was incredibly annoying to waste so much of our time doing this, but I would like to think it was worth it. All of our family members LOVED using the resort credits for activities, wine upgrades and souvenir shop items!

 

In short, make sure you check with your coordinator that your credits are activated before you get there, just to make sure you don't go through the same dilemma.

 

Food:

 

We tried all of the restaurants at the resort. I know some people have way more detailed reviews on the food itself, but I would like to have my say on a few restaurants. 

 

I think the best for lunch was the Bugambilias. I LOVE Mexican food, and this had the best variety of it. And the waiters here are incredibly friendly (well, in all the restaurants they were, but since we kept on showing up to this one for breakfast, the staff would recognize us and remember our orders!). The second best restaurant was the Italian at the Golf Club. It was of a higher class (dress code in effect), where they even serve you a pallet cleanser in between courses (some of my guests were super confused as to why they served ice cream before their entree, lol), and the food was great. My third choice would be the one in the Grand lobby (forget the name). The lamb chops were amazing there, but the AC was WAYY too cold for my liking.

 

All in all, the food is great. I mean, you are getting most of the food as buffet styles, so don't expect 5 star items there, but it sure is better than most restaurants back home, or even better than having to cook every night lol. 

 

Oh and I would recommend, if you are feeling lazy, to order room service. It's delicious, fresh and FREE! And also, preordering breakfast is pretty awesome too! 

 

 

 

 

Summary:

 

I would recommend people to come and visit the resort at any time, for any occasion. If given the chance, I WOULD have my wedding here again, and I definitely will come back. The good things about the resort outweigh the bad by miles :)

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Ok, now for the part that matters, the wedding!

 

Preparation:

 

I had 8 months to prepare for my wedding. Within these 8 months, I managed to get pregnant, so my view of what was important changed from most brides. I could not afford to waste money because I had a baby on the way, but that did not mean that I did not want to say some sort of unique look and feel to our wedding. We picked colors, and a theme, and searched the web for tutorials and cheap items to make my wedding go from simple, to pretty. 

 

The only real stress, beyond the money, came from Miami. I booked my wedding during the time that Miami was still open and doing horrible things to it's customers. I was passed around coordinator to coordinator, and each one told me a different thing. Then I head that Miami was no longer going to be the call center for Cancun weddings, so I decided to wait to book anything until I could talk to someone that would stay as my coordinator. In the mean time, I focused on my crafts. It wasn't until 2 months before the wedding that I was finally contacted by my new coordinator, Renee. We had a bittersweet relationship, because we were on a tight deadline to get things done, and because we had issues with membership bookings so that my plan of getting unlimited events went out the window. I think at some point I "broke up" with Renee, and said that I wasn't going to book anything until I got to the resort. She was very patient with me and helped me figure out what I needed in order to make the wedding booking happen before I arrived. She even pulled strings in order to make sure I was able to have the gazebo for my cocktail hour, like I had planned!

 

My mother-in-law came into the picture, and saved the day by paying for the reception dinner. She was not going to have the reception dinner at the restaurant like I was being forced to do, so that changed things dramatically. I ended up paying less than $3000 for the wedding of my dreams, and all of my guests were astounded at how amazing everything turned out. In the end we booked a complementary symbolic wedding (having officially wed back at home), a free cocktail hour thanks to all the bookings I had, and a purchased reception. I did pay for the extras in advance.

 

Coordinator and on-site preparation:

 

My on-site coordinator was Claudia. She is a bit of an awkward person, but she is super nice and helpful. She booked our meeting and we were able to see where we were at. She went over what I had paid, the places I had booked, and what I was bringing for decor. She also explained what the timeline was for the ceremony, and the reception, and how she would take care of directing people during the ceremony. However, I did hid the fact that I had flowers coming in from Marvin. Since we had a complementary package, I didn't think we had much options for changing things, but she was able to give my bouquet a blue ribbon to match, she lent us a flower girl's basket, and even gave us rose petals for free for our march at the end of the ceremony. I think she did that because we had problems on the day of the wedding (details below) but it meant a lot that she did that. I also explained to her how to arrange my cake topper, how I needed a separate table for my time capsule guest book (no extra charge), and the tables with the names and the favors. She also set up my gown to get steamed (I think like $40?) and took all my decor from me). MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR OWN DECOR TO THE MEETING! I had to run back and get it because I didn't think to bring it lol.

 

Wedding Ceremony:

 

The morning of the wedding was a bit of a whirl wind because I did not plan that day as best as I could.  I had planned was to get my nails, hair and make up done from 10-12:30, to meet Marvin at the lobby at 1pm, and that my photographer would arrive at 2pm. Well, I did not think that by meeting Marvin it would mean that I had to carry all those flowers he brought over to the Weddings Department at the Nizuc lobby. I called my coordinator, and got her assistant who told me to have them delivered to the Weddings Department, but I had to get ready for the photographer! So, I had one of my bridesmaids meet him, and take the golf cart full of flowers while a second drama happened. My block ended up having a pipe burst (because of the construction) and we lost hot water. My room had cold water, but some rooms had nothing. So I had guests coming knocking at my room, begging to use my shower. And then the photographer showed up. It was chaos, but we survived thanks to my bridesmaids. Phew! Glad I took a shower then night before lol.

 

 

 

 

Once the chaos was dealt with, and the photographer started doing his thing, I had Claudia knocking at my door telling me that it was time to get going. We walked down the stairs and the horse and buggy was waiting. She had her own golf cart where she took away my bridesmaids, mom and the photographer to the ceremony site (after we took a few pictures lol). My dad and I sat on the horse and buggy and talked, as we waited for 3 o'clock to arrive. It was such a serene time, waiting for my wedding to begin, in my wedding dress, with my dad, having people passing telling me how pretty I looked, that I think it was worth every penny to buy the service. We waited longer than expected because some guests were late. 

 

 

 

 

Once we got the go, we got carried away to our ceremony site at the Dolphin Beach, right by the Nizuc pool area. I was a bit disappointed that the beach had not been cleaned up, that we were so closed to the pool area, and that there were people at the beach watching. But once I got off the horse carriage, and walked down the steps and aisle, to the music I picked, it was perfect. Also, the area was great because my grandma, and the other elder guests we had, were able to sit in the patio area before the steps, right beside the speaker, so they wouldn't struggle in the sand and were able to hear everything. 

 

 

 

We decided to go with our own wedding script and vows, and the minister was nice enough to agree, even though he sometimes would add his own twist to the words. But it made it sound less scripted which was nice. We were able to do our own Sand Ceremony, for free as long as you bring your own items, and my mom was able to say a few words at the end. It was so nice for the resort to be so flexible with the ceremony for us, and it made it truly our own. The set up was simple but perfect for us.

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the ceremony we walked down the aisle to showers of flowers and to be greeted by champagne for a toast (sprite for me and the kids lol. I was astounded at how the coordinator had done her job, and everything had flowed the way it was supposed to, without me even noticing. It was such a relief to have her help with all that, plus directing people to the cocktail hour as we walked away to take pictures with the wedding party and flower girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cocktail Hour:

 

I had the cocktail hour at the Bugambilias Gazebo because i knew the sun would be really hot at 4pm, and I didn't want my grandma roasting in the sun. The Gazebo had plenty of space, and it offered such an amazing view of the Ocean, that it made up for the fact that i had no decorations for it. Claudia, the coordinator, even brought some small vases with flowers for the cocktail tables. Another amazing thing she added for us.

 

Most of the cocktail hour for us was spent taking pictures, and by the time we got back, we were so thirsty that we didn't care that ALL of the hors d'œuvre were gone. I did hear they were fantastic. We order the superior hors d'œuvres. We had no music playing, but most people had time to talk to guests, and take family pictures and just relax.

 

 

Reception:

 

Here is where I have to say "It was well worth it to pay the money to be able to have it". We were called that the reception area was ready and all our guests made their way to their seats, except the wedding party and us. I asked my cousin as a favor to MC our wedding and he did an excellent job. He announced every groomsman and bridesmaid from the Gazebo to the Terrace, as it was a few steps away, and then announced us as the newly weds. As per Claudia's schedule recommendation, we then immediately followed our entrance with our first dance. I had planned for my guests to use confetti wands to throw confetti while we danced, but due to lack of communication and wind, it didn't quite turn out as planned, but it was still beautiful (I gave these to my bridesmaids to hand out but they forgot until we were announced and then they didn't explain how to use them lol). Then, after our first dance, we had our father-daughter dance, and mother-son dance. We used PSAV for the iPod set up, but my husband is an audio technician and worked along side the hired technician just to make sure everything went smooth. I believe the PSAV tech would have done just fine, so long as you make your playlist self explanatory, and that the MC knows what song means what. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then proceeded to eat the Italian buffet we picked. It was amazing, and it had something for everyone, even the photographer who is a vegetarian. We had rock ballads playing in the background as people ate and used the bar service. As the sun started to set, the lights in the terrace turned on, and a few mosquitos began to appear. However, I had given people mosquito repellant in their welcome bags, and those that brought it, as I had requested in the itinerary I included in the bag, were not bothered at all. Those that forgot only got a few bites, nothing to worry about. 

 

After dinner, champaign was distributed in order to cue the cake cutting coming up. However, we had the best man and the maid of honor said their speeches then, followed by my thank you speech (bring tissues!!). Then it was the cake cutting. We were given a one layered cake with flowers and our cake topper just made it our own. I would recommend people to bring their own, rather than upgrading the cake. Oh, and ask for the chantilly icing rather than fondant because it doesn't melt. The cake was strawberry vanilla and it was really good. Everyone got a piece of cake even though it wasn't a very big cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, the night turned to the music and my entire family, grandma included, got up on the dance floor and partied like I have never seen my family party before. My husband (tehehe) did such a great job making the playlist that we even had strangers passing by complementing our party, even days after the event. The staff stayed until we were done, and at the very end I made sure that I thanked every single one of them. I gave Claudia, the coordinator, her tip then ($200) and gave $100 for the staff to split between themselves, plust $40 to the PSAV tech who was such a good sport letting us make the party our own.

 

At 8pm, the last song tuned in, and the staff just let us have our moment. We all partied until it was over, and went back to our rooms to regroup later on at the piano bar in the Nizuc lobby. 

 

 

 

 

 

After the Wedding:

 

The hotel ended up screwing up our "Honeymoon cake delivery", supposed to have been ready for when we walked into our room on the night of the wedding. So I called, and asked them to deliver it the next day. That morning we received by accident two breakfasts ( I forgot completely that we got a complementary breakfast the morning after the wedding) and ended up eating twice. The shame was that the complementary breakfast was WAY better than the normal one, and it came with champagne. We left a note to leave the champagne while we went to breakfast with the family, only to return to another champagne bottle, our honeymoon cake and a rose on the bed. It was cute! And the cake was actually REALLY good!

 

 

 

 

 

Overview:

 

In summary, listen to what other brides have to say: "Don't sweat it, the coordinator has it covered!". Seriously, if it wasn;t for the amazing and perfectly timed job that Claudia did, I am not sure the wedding would have been the same. It turned out AMAZING! Even better than I had hoped, and less stressful than it should have been. As I have said before, I am a laid back person about most things, but for some reason the wedding was stressing me out. As it turns out, I had nothing to stress about except the stress I put on myself with my crafts. All I would recommend is: 

 

1. Have back up plans (locations in particular, since i changed my locations 3 times and it turned out for the best)

2. Trust your coordinator. They know what they are doing. They do it every day :)

3. Use your bridesmaids to help with crafts or errands

4. Make sure you plan and coordinate your wedding morning, but make sure you have room for unexpected bumps

5. Make sure you finish your crafts before you leave. I was stupid enough to think that I would be okay to finish my crafts while on vacation. Huge mistake. That was were most of my stress came from, and it would have been nice to be able to relax before the wedding).

6. Take it easy, and enjoy the ride. Nothing is perfect, so just enjoy your day, because it will go by in the blink of an eye.

 

Thank you to Moon Palace for making my vacation and wedding be as perfect as it could have been. I seriously wouldn't change a thing :)