I just returned from hosting a wedding of 54 guests at the Now Jade, with the ceremony at the Pergola, the cocktail hour at the Mix Bar, and the reception at the Bamboo Room. I had a blast because I was surrounded by my closest family and friends; however, there were many issues caused by the resort that kept my wedding week from being a stress-free dream. None of which, however, were directly related to my wedding day so if you're having your wedding here--do not worry: it will be beautiful. I mention a few resort issues (and wedding kinks) in hopes that it helps other brides. I'll post pics when I get them. The photographs I've seen that my friends have taken are breath-taking. Trust me, you won't be disappoionted by having your wedding at the Now Jade.

The Good: The resort is BEAUTIFUL!! I found the grounds to be very well-maintained and clean. Yes, the beach is a bit rocky in areas, but walk a few feet and you're away from the rocks. There is very little seaweed and the beach is small but stunning--in other words, ignore TripAdvisor. We all went in the water and walked the beach and LOVED it. There is also plenty of room and we never had a problem getting a seat at the beach or at the pool--it was honestly the best I have ever experienced at a resort. I saw no evidence of the "towel game" complained of on TripAdvisor and the resort was at capacity.  I also did not see any sanitation issues or questionable washing methods (i.e. the "dirty cup issue" is a non-issue). The drinks were strong and plentiful and service was AWESOME. Even with the resort at full capacity, you did not wait more than a minute for a drink anywhere, whether in line at the bar or with a waiter coming to the beach and around the pool areas. As for restrauants, no one had more than a 30 minute wait, and the food was very good. About two out of 54 people didn't feel well...not a single person got so ill it had them out for a day--just an upset stomach here or there for two to three people for a couple hours. As for bug bites, I was probably the worst victim. I gave all of my guests bugspray in their out-of-town bags, about half didn't bother to use it and they were fine, the other half did use it and was fine...I completely forgot to use my own and my legs paid the price, but, I was the only one and it was my own fault--definitely not a dealbreaker as TripAdvisor makes it seem. The rooms are extremely clean with great views and decor...they may not be as polished as the Four Seasons, but you also aren't paying the price of the Four Seasons. All in all, with respect to the resort grounds, maintenance, food and drink quality and food and drink service, I could not have been more pleased.

The "Good" of the wedding: the food was really good (both at my rehearsal dinner in CinCin and my wedding menu). I hear the appetizers were delicious as well. I upgraded to the Mexican Trio, which was a hit, and the reception decor looked beautiful--exactly like the pictures I provoded. Same goes for the flowers and cake--they literally imitated the pictures, and I could not have been more pleased. 

I hired Del Sol as the photograpgher for my wedding, but used the resort photographer for my Welcome Party (I had the Divine Package so an hour of photography was included). The resort photographer was very nice and seemed to cover the party very well, although I did feel they did a lot of "staged" pictures (i.e. bringing a group together to smile at the camera) rather than candids. I haven't received the actuals photos yet, but was pleased with their service and overall demeanor and friendleness at the party.

Similarly, hair and makeup by the resort spa was included in the Divine package. I heard mixed reviews and was nervous to have to work around a language barrier on my wedding day so I hired MVP Hair and Makeup for my actual wedding day (side note: hiring MVP was by far the best decision I made for my wedding day; Melissa and her team were amazing, but I'll write a separate review in the vendor section). However, I used the included resort spa hair and makeup for my Welcome Party and was pleased. My hair fell that night, but I wore it down in curls when I have pretty straight hair and it is really humid. Makeup looked nice, but NOTHING like the picture I provided. I was very pleased for a Welcome Party hard to say if I would have been as pleased on my wedding day.

The Bad: A few things went wrong on my wedding day--none of which "ruined" the day or are caused the only three-star rating. I'm only mentioning these things so that brides-to-be are aware of it so they can get it right on their wedding day. Overall, the wedding department does best with pictures as examples. I gave pictures for my bouquets and reception centerpieces and coulds not have been more pleased--they were truly beautiful. However, for the ceremony flowers on the Pergola Deck, I simply said "use all white lillies"...assuming that was pretty self-explanatory. During my rehearsal, flowers were still up from a previous wedding that had reds and green flowers all through it so as a reminder I simply said, "My flowers will be all white, right?" I was reassured they would be (so I told them all white during my meeting as well as during rehearsal). My ceremony flowers were red, green, and white. Don't get me wrong--they looked beautiful, but as I'm turning the corner for the first time, instead of my first thought being "Eeeek, I'm getting married!" I saw the flowers and thought, "What the heck?" Probably more my issue, but i'm convinced had I given a picture, they would have gotten it right. 

The song playing as I walked down the aisle lasted about 20 seconds too long. The Now Jade employee in charge of the music didn't shut it off, and the Judge didn't wait until it was over. So, as the music is still blaring, the Judge asks, "Who gives this bride" (or whatever they say), and my Dad can't hear him. So we're all just standing there and I try to whisper to my Dad but he can't hear me because then the judge repeats it and my Dad says "Her mother and I do," but the music is still blaring so now the Judge can't hear him. I finally have to turn around and yell "Please shut off the music!"...all of this happening on video.... Not the best start to a ceremony--again, though--barely worth mentioning. The only reason I inculde it is so other brides-to-be are warned to either time your music perfectly (which is hard when you don't know how long you have to walk to the aisle) OR be sure to tell them you want the music cut the minute you reach the groom/end of the aisle.

My cake was never cut...ever. The bride and groom cut the cake, but then the cake was never sliced and served to guests. Maybe this costs more, but I never saw it as an upcharge so I guess just assumed it was included; if it wasn't, I certainly would have paid for it and put one of my guests in charge. However, my wedding coordinator, Ariadna, never mentioned a word, I never thought of it, and it went undone so the cake pretty went to waste. Clearly no one noticed the lack of cake so again, so again only mentioning it as a warning so other brides can plan for it.

We used the resort DJ and he did a very good job of playing songs on our list. I had a very mixed playlist, as I had guests who were 30 and love old school rap all the way to guests who are 60 wanting to hear oldies. The DJ played allllll rap in a row then allll oldies in a row. If you have a similar playlist, then I highly suggest including on your DJ form to mix it up. It seems that the resort and its wedding vendors are very good at doing what is asked of them, but it doesn't turn out well if you don't spell out each detail. Despite how this review probably makes me sound, I'm not a huge micro-manager and based on other reviews felt comfortable leaving small details up to the "professionals" as they have handled thousands more weddings than I have, but it seems where I failed to give specific instructions is where stuff went wrong. Also, Ariadna is relatively new--has only been there 7 months--so perhaps the more experienced wedding coordinators would have known to cut the cake, shut off the processional music, etc.

Last little detail you need to spell out is seating. I gave a seating chart with the number of people at each table, how many of each meal should be served at each table, and created "tent" seating cards with each guest's name, their meal choice, and their table nunber. I felt that I was pretty specific on this front. What I failed to explain was that I wanted to tent seating cards placed on a table for the guests to retrieve themselves and go to their respective table and have the privilege of choosing their own seat at the table. Instead, the seating cards were set on the tables, but in no order so that husbands and wives were not even seated next to each other at the same table. Some guests realized this must have been an error and took the liberty of just switching amongst themselves. Other tables asumed that I took the time to make the seating chart that way for a reason so didn't switch seats and rather than move to be next to their spouse sat seated during dinner in a seat between strangers and four seats away from their wife or husband. Again, though, dinner lasted an hour so this was not a huge deal--just a warning--either tell your wedding coordinator to leave the seating cards on the table or make a specific seating chart that puts a guest at each and every seat.

The Ugly: My fiance (now husband!!) is probably the most easygoing person you will ever meet; his only "non-negotiable" for the entire wedding week was to have an oceanfront room. I noticed oceanfronts were not eligible for upgrades so we booked and paid for an oceanfront rather than leaving anything up to chance. We check in and there is no oceanfront available for us until tomorrow so they offer us an Oceanview. We just arrived in paradise and were fine with it so we accept it and leave. We get to our oceanview room and realize it is beautiful and we're absolutely fine with it. We tell the reservations department that we'd prefer to just stay in the oceanview room, as I just want to get settled in one room and not unpack, pack, re-unpack, move our stuff, etc. I tell the resort, "We'll stay in the oceanview so please just refund us the difference between the oceanfront we paid for and the oceanview we received." They refuse. They say, "Technically, we're offering you an oceanfront tomorrow so we can only comp you one night and it wont be a refund. We'll give you a free 25 minute massage." I inform them a free massage is included in the Divine package and they are pretty much like "Sorry, that's all we can do." I tell them I upgraded to the Mexican Trio for $150, could we just get that comped? Nope, I can't. I can move tomorrow or keep my Oceanview and get nothing for it. We have to go to the reservations department on Sunday (the day after we arrived) to find out our new Oceanfront room assignment  is with double beds. I inform them we are having our wedding/honeymoon so we'd really prefer a king bed. They tell us beds are not guaranteed and basically make it very clear that they could not care less that we are having a wedding/honeymoon. We have to wait another six hours to get a king bed. This leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth so Saturday and Sunday were spent dealing with reservations, moving rooms, etc.  Not the greatest start to vacation, especially when I learn that all six couples who booked an Oceanfront failed to receive it. So of the 20 people who arrived on Saturday, 12 did not receive the correct reservation--one couple actually booked a Preferred Oceanfront and received a Non-preferred Tropical view and had to wait two days to get moved and got nothing in return.

So that was Saturday and Sunday.... Monday night I booked a trip for 21 of us to go to Coco Bongo through the resort (Amstar). I paid for the entire trip, which cost about $2,400, as I went VIP, which was to include private transportation to and from the club. I confirmed this about three times with Miguel of Now Jade/Amstar via email prior to arriving and then with Mauricio of Now/Amstar the day of. I was reassured that two vans would be dedicated to my group. To avoid a long story, when we were leaving the resort to go to Coco Bongo, we at first didn't get our vans as other random guests hopped in them and I ended up on the phone with Mauricio for 10 minutes to have to straighten it out. After the show (which was amazing, by the way--highly recommend it!), people were in our vans again. However, these Amstar drivers didn't seem to care even after I showed confirnation emails and receipts evidencing our private transportation so six of my guests didn't get the ride home that I paid for and was promised four times. Instead, they had to pay $150 out of pocket to get back to the resort. Again, Amstar owns the resort and has a desk set up in the lobby--it actually runs the resort--they did not care at all that I didn't get my guaranteed, pre-paid, private transportation. So this was Monday night and I spent Tuesday talking to Amstar about it--which eventually i just gave up on because it was clear I was getting the run around and no one cared--just as no one cared that the bride and groom didn't get the room for which they paid.

Wednesday was my rehearsal dinner. I booked a private dinner at CinCin, which cost $500 to close down the restaurant and then another $22 per person for dinner. I had 25 guests for rehearsal dinner so it cost me about $1,000 for rehearsal dinner. My rehearsal itself was scheduled for 6:30pm (with dinner at 7pm), but a day before it was moved to 6pm, with dinner at 7:30pm...and instead of Ariadna helping with it, Carmen ran it. No big deal--we're on vacation--you need to be flexible--I get it, and drinks are flowing--who cares!!  As my rehearsal is ending, Ariadna comes at 7pm to tell me that CinCin is experiencing "problems" and my rehearsal dinner needs to be moved to the buffet. Again, having read reviews on here I was prepared to be flexible and understanding so I said, "You know what? Just cancel the rehearsal dinner. The buffet food isn't all that great, and I think we'd rather just separate and eat at different restaurants and grab drinks together later. No big deal. Just remove the rehearsal dinner cost from my bill, please." Ariadna replies, "We are offering you alternative accomodations so you will not receive a refund." I responded, "Let me get this straight, I pay $500 to shut down a restaurant and $22 per person for a specific menu; instead you're offering me a few tables at the buffet with buffet food that everyone has eaten all week which is offered for free to each bride, and I"m not getting my $1,000 back?" Ariadna said "No, you will not receive a refund." I ask to talk to someone else. Isela comes out and informs me "This is not a negotiation. You have been told the circumstances. Take it or leave it."  I informed them that we would "leave it." My wedding party then starts conferring about where we should eat and what we should do and starts trying to make a plan when out of nowhere Ariadna comes up and tells me CinCin will be ready for me in 30 minutes. I have no idea what changed or what happened and no one told me. I can only guess it was something small that they just didn't feel like fixing and hoped I'd just let it go with ease and move to the buffet. Who knows, but I was unnecessarily upset by it all--if they would have said from the start that your rehearsal dinner has to be delayed for an hour, I would have said, "Awesome, Come find us at the bar when you're ready." Isela's attitude was truly one of the worst I ever experienced as a guest anywhere.

If you're still reading, then you've probably inferred that had I just been a guest of the resort, I would have loved it. Good food, great drinks, awesome food/drink service, fun entertainment, amazing grounds with beautiful views and all at a very, very reasonable cost. My wedding day was beautiful, not perfect, but beautiful with a fun DJ, perfect centerpieces ,lovely flowers. Details are not the resort's strong suit and customer service when things go wrong and are the fault of the resort is borderline appalling.

My biggest piece of advice to other brides is to have your wedding early in the week. I tried to do what was easiest for guests (as some could only come for a weekend) so I, the groom, and 40 other guests arrived saturday (and stayed a week) while 15 could only come for the weekend so Thursday seemed most convenient. If I got married earlier in the week, perhaps my review would have been better. However, during the five days before my wedding so many things went wrong that by the time my wedding arrived I was just so fed up with the resort. Again, however, nothing major went wrong, it was just small things here and there and the resort's attitude toward it that kind of picked away at my positivity, and, in the aggregate, started to become a big deal, which resulted in a not so great review of the resort.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Oh, as a side note, other brides have indicated that they are not charged for little upgrades here and there...not sure if the resort is cracking down or if Ariadna is just new and sort of a stickler, but I got charged for each and every single item. In fact, the day of my wedding (after my final bill was already paid), Ariadna came up and told me she thinks five extra lanterns would look better--I told her to add them then. She charged the $25 extra dollars to my room. Not a big deal, I got the benefit of them so am happy to pay for them, but just an FYI for budget-planning,