Moon Palace 2008 & 2009 Brides - POST HERE!

[casey+aric]

Hey everyone...I posted this in the newbie area but I thought I might introduce us here too...I finally decided we needed to introduce ourselves and share our story. When we first started wedding planning we knew we wanted to get married on a beach but had no clue where or even where to start, then we found this forum. It was a fabulous day and we were so excited to find some direction, since I was already ready to pull my hair out! Since, then Aric and I have spent numerous hours on the forum reading everything we could about different options for our wedding. Now I am super excited to be a MOON PALACE BRIDE!!! I want to thank all the ladies who have spent endless hours sharing their ideas, experiences, and reviews so we could ease our own fears.

 

It has really been hard to plan a wedding, considering that we are in the industry ourselves. We have seen so many beautiful weddings with amazing ideas, details, personalities, and unique events that planning our own became quite the task. We are wedding photographers ourselves, so we see all the little moments, special details, and events of the wedding day as the words of the couple's love story. And when we give a couple a wedding album telling the story of their day, we feel that it should draw others into their day, emotionally connected them with the couple and their love story. Thus we want to take care in picking every detail as it relates to our love story and the family and friends that have played a role in it; this is where the forum has helped immensely with the sharing of others' ideas and love stories.

 

A little about our love story:

 

Aric and I were introduced to each other at a photography conference. Our mutual friend Brittany had invited us both to go with her and a couple other girls to a photojournalism conference in Fort Worth, TX. Long story short-it was fate. I'm not the kind of girl that goes out on a limb and takes a trip with a group of people that I don't really know. I made every excuse for myself why I should not go-but in the end I knew that none of those excuses were sufficient. So I walked into Brittany's house that day whispering prayer after prayer under my breath and looked up to see Aric standing there-big smile and all and I knew I was on that trip for a reason. That weekend was the beginning of our friendship and when we got back we knew it was on the road to blossom into something more. Aric pursued me over and over again and as our friendship grew so did our love. He's my best friend in the whole wide world and graciously loves me in ways I do not deserve! I simply cannot wait to marry him!! August 1st can't come soon enough!!!!!

 

Not long after the conference, Aric started a photography business shooting engagements, kids, families, or whatever came his way as he finished business school. I began shooting sessions with him for fun, and we realized it was a fun dynamic for us to document others' love stories in the midst of our own. Finally, we started shooting together 100% of the time, and I joined the business. Since then we have both become full time wedding photographers and have started another side business renting photobooths. We can't wait for our wedding, and though we are super busy ourselves, hopefully I can find a way to give back to the many ladies who have given here themselves. Thanks for all you do ladies!!!! Because of you our wedding will be even better!

 

Oh and you can check out our blog to learn more about our love story and life! And lastly, I'll leave you with a with pictures from our engagement You can check out the proposal story on our blog too!

 

www.aricalanphotography.blogspot.com

 

 

[TinaM2b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWandMJ Just interested if anyone is planning to tip the WC? And if so, what's fair?

I was planning on giving an OOT bag to the WC and our TA. I actually asked this before too but got no responses so I just decided to do it. I didn't think of money though. I would like to see how prior brides have done it.

[TinaM2b]

Welcome Casey and Aric!

 

When is your wedding date? (or did I miss it..dooh!) Your story is beautiful. We are all blessed to have this forum and all the ideas.

 

We are actually renting a photobooth for our AHR before the wedding. This particular AHR is only for the people close to us that would of come but can't and the people attending the Moon Palace wedding. I am so excited about the photobooth because it is going to be so fun. We are working on the design of the cards that come out now, and the music playlist that plays inside. We are doing our STD for the reception next week in the booth. At the reception, we are going to have people go through as they arive (no props) then after a few drinks, bring out the props, ask them to go through again and tape one of the cards in our books with a note. SO FUN!!

This is the link to our local company - Austin Photo Booths

[Jennifer43]

Does anyone have a photo of the arrecifes restaurant terrace? I know I saw one somewhere, but can't find it for the life of me! Thanks girls!

[katt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErikDaGenErik Hi Katt, Here's the information on the live performances: Price $1,215.00 USD P/ 45 minutes show •Mexican Folkloric Ballet with live Mariachi (8pax) (No sound system or lighting) Price $3,120.00 USD P/45 minutes show •Folkloric Mayan Ballet (Includes live drums and flaute – prehispanic style music) / (Lighting is not included) 12 pplPrice $1,850.00 USD P/45 minutes show I worked with Nancy to get the performance time down to 30 minutes for timing purposes. We have the free reception too. I am still trying to get the 75 room nights though. I am not that far away, but i dont think I will make it =( it sucks cause if 2 of my family members didnt book with Orbitz and Expedia, we would make it for sure. For the free private function, you actually only get 2 hours of the reception. anything beyond that is $60 per table, per hour. I confirmed this with my WC in Miami. Make sure you include the extra horus in your budget so you won't get any surprises. We're getting the DJ too! Package 1 with the video slideshow. Nancy and I were doing a lot of e-mail exchanges last week and she told me that she would be extremelt busy this week. I am not expecting an e-mail from her since she's probablt working on other brides right now. Your day is almost here as well! Hang in there and best of luck =)

Hey ErikDaGenErik,
Thank's for responding. Thank you for tell me about the extra cost on the comp/function
my sweetie says it's cool, Because we have 35 people coming so far so were gonna have do five "Cause we have 5 more guest with flights" tables w/ 8 people at each table. So that's only $300 for 1 extra hour for 40 guest. My wedding is at 6pm so we will only need 1hr because the resort ends out door functions at 10 10:30ish,so that's all will need. After I read your mail I spoke with Nancy so she gave me the cost for the dancers
over the phone. We also disgusted a few more details but I told her How much I trust her
and some things can wait until I arrive. I'm going to land in cancun on Apirl 23 at noon.
The resort had put the free shuttle vouchers in our contract so the shuttle will meet us and my guest when ever they arrive at the airport.
I was talking about the slide show i was doing a few threads ago but because my reception is outside they don't set the slidshow up outside. Then I was going to do it at the rehersal dinner Nacny and I talked on the phone about it But i would have to have my dinner in one of the reception halls in order to show the slideshow. If I get 75 room nites then I'll do that because it's free, But for now our slideshow is going to be on the table as favors for each guest. We made sure to include everyone in the Family & Friends section so they will enjoy it. I booked our rehersal dinner in the brizilian resturant
it has an out door terrace area the Nancy says is just beautiful and private so we don't have to sit with the other vactioners while we dine.Cool.

Well good luck honey your going to look beautiful. I would like to post some pick so you can see me also,what's the secret on that? Oh and let me know when the big day is.
Best Wishes God Bless Katt.

[Camie78]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennifer43 I can't wait to get assigned my coordinator! We are about 2 months out...and although Maribel has been such a great help, as well as my many other contacts at the resort, I would LOVE to know who my actual WC is going to be. Another question...does anyone have a map of the grounds of MP that includes the Grand Moon side?

I have never seen a property map that includes the Grand side and I don't understand why either. Hasn't Grand been open for a year or two at this point? I'd think that the Grand side was all a farse if my aunt-in-law hadn't recently been to MP and physically stepped on the Grand side and taken a pictures of the pool to prove it exists!

[Camie78]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinaM2b Cindy et all, Does anyone have any information on what documents you need at the Moon Palace if you have had a legal ceremony in the States? We do not want to bring all this paperwork to another country if we can avoid it but do want our religious ceremony performed at the Moon Palace.

Tina,

We are getting married in Texas and then having a Catholic ceremony at MP. I had the same question as you did, so I emailed my WC a couple months ago. Her responses are below.

QUESTION: Will we need to provide any of the civil ceremony documents (passports, addresses, occupations, and birth certificates (certified copy of each one) with Apostille document attached), or are our catholic documents from our church in the US all that we need?

ANSWER: All that you need is the catholic documents along with a photocopy of the marriage license.

QUESTION: Will we need to provide a marriage certificate from the US? Or any other document that certifies our marriage?

ANSWER: A photocopy will be fine.

We are going to bring a copy of all our Catholic documents even though we have sent MP the originals (spent WAY TOO MUCH on postage, do not do the certified/read receipt option at the post office as you will never get the read receipt and will be annoyed that it cost $20 to mail the documents) and the copy of the marriage certificate and anything else I think they may need to have just in case.

Camie

[Camie78]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErikDaGenErik hi ladies! it's been over a month since i've logged on here. it's officially march and our wedding is NEXT MONTH! whew!!! time flew by soooo fast!!! we are almost done with the planning. we are just finalizing the reception and OOT bags and favors. We have been sooo lucky to be assigned to Nancy Ariza as our wedding planner. Maribel was our onsite WC prior to that and she was fantastic. It was sad when we received her farewell e-mail. Nancy has been top-notch! We decided to get the Mayan Ballet for our reception. we are so excited to have this performance at our wedding! Nancy also showed us some favors that Moon Palace could provide to eliminate having to bring the favors all the way to Cancun. They have some nice stuff for cheap. You guys should consider it if you dont want the hassle of transporting everything to Cancun. The only thing we are worried about right now is getting the unlimited functions on our contract. we are so close!!! unfortunatelt we have 2 memsbers of our party that booked with Expedia and Orbitz instead of our group rate. This really hurt our chance of getting the unlimited functions. i will be begging my WC to help us make these count. Right now we have enough room nights paid for the free reception. we want the free cocktail hour too since. i have been in contacts with teh new priest, Father Benito. he is very responsive to e-mails and has been so pleasant to work with. wish me luck! i will be posting some pictures of my progress real soon. =)

Hey Joy,

We had the same issue where we were so close to the 10 rooms and then a couple of our guests booked through Travelocity and now we are certain to not make the group contract minimum. I want to beg my WC to include the other guests as part of the total guest count as well.

Please keep me posted on how your battle with this goes and what, if any, tactic worked for her to count the non-group contract booked rooms to apply toward your total booked rooms. I hope you win!

Camie

[Camie78]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennifer43 Does anyone have a photo of the arrecifes restaurant terrace? I know I saw one somewhere, but can't find it for the life of me! Thanks girls!

Hi Jennifer,

I did a quick Google search for "arrecifes restaurant, moon palace" and found a couple pictures of the restaurant, so give that a shot if you haven't already. The problem is that the pictures do not show the terrace portion of the restaurant; only the indoor pool area. I was surprised to see a pool, I didn't realize that this restaurant had an indoor pool!?!?!

[Eureaka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camie78 I have never seen a property map that includes the Grand side and I don't understand why either. Hasn't Grand been open for a year or two at this point? I'd think that the Grand side was all a farse if my aunt-in-law hadn't recently been to MP and physically stepped on the Grand side and taken a pictures of the pool to prove it exists!

Same here! I have tried to ask for a map that includes the Grand Moon, but I never get a straight answer! I'm having a difficult time deciding what section to have the group stay at, and was hoping a map with the Grand section would help. No such luck finding one though! Anyone have suggestions as to which section is best to stay at?

I was also looking for an update as to when the new section will be officially "completed". Last update I heard was that everything was finished with the exception of the lobby.