Hello Ladies,

 

My now husband and I were married in a symbolic ceremony at NOW Jade on Saturday February 2nd. I will write more details below, but in summary, we were extremely pleased with our experience, and we would recommend this resort to anyone. All of our guests had a fabulous time.

 

Wedding Date: 2/2/13

Number of Guests: 53 for the wedding (including us), 6 guests stayed at another resort

Ceremony Location: Pergola at 5:00

Cocktail Hour Location: Blue Mix Bar at 6:30

Reception Location: Ocean View Terrace at 7:30

Room: Junior Ocean Front (#1321) + upgrade to Preferred Status

Wedding Package: Devine

Wedding Planners: Pilar and Deisy

Photographer: Adventure Photos (Frederico)

DJ: Alex (coordinated by the resort)

Hair & Makeup: Jacqueline (at the resort Spa)

 

First, I'll write about the resort and then the wedding details...

 

Resort

This was my third trip to the Cancun area, and NOW Jade was definitely my favorite resort. I chose it based on the value, reviews from this website, and reviews from Trip Advisor. My two main reasons for choosing it were the ceremony locations and the rave reviews of the wedding coordinators. Neither disappointed. The resort itself is huge and has everything you need on site. The food is decent for an all inclusive (one of our previous stays was at a higher rated/more expensive resort, and I thought NOW Jade's food was just as good). We split our days between the beach and the pools, which are very nice. The beach is definitely rocky, but there is one good place where you can swim. The bars are great, and the drinks are very well made with premium liquor. We attended two events, one of which was the Super Bowl - we had both Baltimore and SF residents with us - and both were really fun and well done. We ventured into Puerto Morelos twice for dinner and had an amazing meal at Chimichurri (I would not recommend walking there).

 

The one huge con was the construction that is being done to the South. At least half our guests who booked through Apple with us upgraded to Ocean View rooms and received rooms in buildings 1 and 2 which faced the construction site. Needless to say, they were pretty upset to realize they had paid more to face a wall of workers and port-a-potties. A couple successfully argued to have their rooms switched, but the resort was full, so not everyone was able to switch. Our Apple rep in the US told me they could file a complaint with the rep at the resort, but I'm not sure any of them did. This was seriously disappointing to me, considering these were supposed to be better rooms. I'm not sure how to avoid this going into it other than to advise your guests to book a tropical view room and upgrade to ocean view when they arrive if there are rooms available that actually face the ocean. Most of us spent so little time in the rooms that it was really about the principle of it rather than the actuality.

 

That being said, the rooms are really nice. Our room was on the corner of building 1 and looked right out over the beach. The bathrooms are huge and have big windows, so they are full of natural light, which I really appreciated compared to past experiences. The beds are comfortable. My only criticism, which is small, is that I wish there were more storage for clothes. It was hard to keep the room tidy with only a closet and shelves (we were there for 10 days). Our parents all upgraded to Preferred rooms, which they really liked. It is definitely much quieter on that side of the resort.

 

We stayed for 9 nights, and half of our guests stayed for 4 nights, and half for five nights. We ate at Spice twice, Capers twice, Mercure once and did not try Cin Cin or Tamarindo, which was closed most of the time we were there. I thought the food at Spice was really good (except for the Sushi) and the food at Capers ok. The dinner at Mercure was really tasty, but our waiter was fairly rude. We ate the breakfast buffet every morning and at Castaways for lunch if we chose to have some. Overall, the wait staff at the restaurants and beach were 98% great with a few being exceptional. We did experience some - like the waiter at Mercure - who were jerks, but that's going to happen anywhere.

 

We traveled to Playa del Carmen one afternoon and had dinner at a Mayan restaurant, which was delicious. As I mentioned, we went to Puerto Morelos twice for dinner. In each of these cases, the resort arranged the taxi for us. The taxi driver, who took us to Playa, waited there for us.

 

We did one excursion, which we booked through the Apple rep on site. It was the Catamaran/Snorkel trip that involved stopping at Isla Mujeres. This was a terrible experience for me from start to finish. The Apple rep's service was definitely irritating (she chastised us for not scheduling our airport transfer sooner, then had to rebook us twice after promising us we were all set, so we ended up going on our last day), and the boat itself was completely overcrowded. My parents went on a different snorkel excursion and also had a terrible experience for completely different reasons. Other guests had good experiences visting ruins and snorkeling in caves. I would suggest getting personal recommendations for specific excursions if you can. I had read about Mayan Eco Tours extensively before we left, and I'm disappointed I didn't follow my gut and book through him. Lesson learned.

 

Now for the wedding...I will try to remember all of the important things. You can feel free to email me with any questions at jillianlare@gmail.com.

 

 

Group photo

 

Wedding Coordinators

We booked our wedding in June through Apple Vacations. After reading through this site, I knew that communication from the resort would be spotty at best. I didn't hear from anyone there until late December, right around Christmas - so about six weeks in advance. I did have a difficult time getting Pilar to answer my questions before we arrived, though her communication the week prior did pick up. I kept a cool head about it, because I was mostly concerned with making sure that we had things like the locations and services reserved and would worry about the details when I got there.

 

 

My sister and I on the Pergola deck

 

I had no need to worry at all. Pilar and Deisy are both awesome. They took care of everything we wanted and even accommodated last minute changes. For instance, I saw Deisy bring another bride her bouquet while I was getting my nails done the day before I wedding and asked her to completely change all of our flowers. She did, and they were fabulous. We also had a couple last minute menu changes after finding out a guest didn't eat meat, and that was also not an issue. We basically planned everything the day that we got there in about an hour and a half. The only things we brought with us were place cards and programs, so we didn't have a lot of decor for them to coordinate, but I'm sure it would have been fine if we did. Everything went perfectly smoothly. These women know what they are doing!

 

Advice: Do not stress out before you go. Everything will be fine. Pilar works late every night on the weddings and then comes back to 200+ emails from brides every night. She is incredibly organized and will make sure your day is perfect.

 

 

My parents & I on our balcony (our view was great!)

 

Rehearsal

We were able to do a rehearsal the day before. I would highly recommend doing this, since it was helpful to see where everything would be and practice walking and where to stand.

 

Ceremony

Our ceremony was at the Pergola at 5:00. I chose Jade specifically for this ceremony location because I wanted it to feel like we were on the beach, but I didn't want bystanders on the beach during our wedding. I also wanted to be able to wear heels, so no grass or sand. This location felt private even though it's right in the middle of the resort, and everyone was able to wear shoes. My husband's step-father was our officiant. The resort provided a podium and a microphone for him to use. We used a sound system for the ceremony, and they played songs that we chose. The sound was great. I have no complaints about the ceremony - we were totally thrilled with it.

 

 

Ceremony at the Pergola

 

Pre Ceremony Pergola

 

Advice: Schedule the ceremony for 4:00, 4:30 at the latest during the winter if you don't want to see each other before the ceremony. We didn't have enough time for outdoor photos.

 

Cocktail Hour

We switched our cocktail hour to the beach bar after we got to the resort, so we had to wait until 6:30 to start, since there was another cocktail hour there immediately after our ceremony. Not a problem. We all went to the lobby bar, which was our favorite bar during our stay, and had drinks while we took group photos. 

 

 

Girls group shot in the Lobby

 

Once we got to the actual cocktail hour, we had Mojitos for our signature drink, and there were plenty of both those and shots. I didn't eat any food, but I heard it was good. They played a play list we put together in advance from one of our iPods, which was a nice touch.

 

Advice: Based on feedback here, we only added 15 additional servings for our 53 total guests. This was more than enough. Most people were more focused on drinking than eating. Also, we loved the lobby bar, and I think this would have been a great spot for cocktail hour even though it wasn't outside.

 

Reception

The reception was on the Ocean View Terrace, which is where you eat outside for the buffet, from 7:30 to 10:30. Pilar and Deisy had decorated it beautifully for us. We had four rectangular tables and had purchased three additional centerpieces from the resort. They matched our bouquets and were very pretty. We started with our first dance, followed by the parents' dance and then the cake cutting and speeches prior to dinner. The food was all very good (and we had a chef and many foodies in attendance), though the service felt a little rushed. We had the blue fin tuna sashimi salad, ricotta ravioli, beef with shrimp, and chocolate mousse with Bailey's sauce (I didn't eat mine).

 

The cake was very good...I think it looked like it was supposed to, though it wasn't really on my radar. (This was my second wedding, and at my first, I felt like the cake was a huge waste of money, so I didn't care about it at all this time.) We danced right up until the reception officially ended, then we went to the lobby bar and then to the dance club until it closed.

 

Advice: If you want to really dance and you have a large party, the terrace is tight on space. It didn't stop us, but it was definitely tight, and there is a step that you have to navigate. If you want a true dance floor, one of the other locations would be better. The Bamboo room is beautiful if you don't mind being indoors. Also, I wasn't aware I could give guests a choice of dinners. I thought I just had to pick one of each course and that was it. You can pick up to two main courses and a veggie option, I think. Finally, we didn't add additional portions of cake. No one complained to me about not getting cake, so I'm guessing it was fine.

 

Photographer

I did not do my homework, so I didn't realize until the week before the wedding that the package only included one hour of photos. It was too late to look into other photographers, and they would have been out of our budget anyway. I emailed with Frederico from Adventure Photos prior to our arrival, and we met with him the day after we arrived to discuss what we wanted. We purchased three total hours of photography (plus the videographer that was included), and received the book and all of our photos on disc. Frederico was very professional and super sweet - we really loved working with him, and he put up with our antics. I thought he did a great job, and I would recommend him to anyone. He took all of the photos I've posted here, and you can see our slideshow from the resort here: http://020213lare.nowjade.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Advice: As I mentioned above, our time for taking photos was really tight. We had Frederico with us from 4:00 to 7:00. I wish we had added another hour up front to coordinate family photos before the ceremony. I did love that we didn't see each other until the ceremony, but I'm sorry we didn't have more photos in day light. The lobby was a fantastic place to take photos after the sun went down, and Frederico and his assistant did their best.

 

Dee-jay

Our dee-jay was Alex, who Pilar coordinated for me. We sent him a list of songs in advance, and he played all of the important ones. He really put on a great party for us, and everyone was dancing and had a great time. He definitely turned the reception into a great time. I remember thinking that he took the songs we requested and was able to fill in with other songs that worked with our music taste.

 

I think that's pretty much it. We had a fabulous time and would not hesitate to go back if there weren't so many other places to visit first. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jillianlare@gmail.com. Thank you to everyone who posted here previously! We could not have done this without you!

 

Jillian & Keegan