The Now Riviera Cancun

[primavera]

I finally got my dress last night!! I am having it altered right now, and will go for the fitting on Friday. Not a day too late since we leave in 2 weeks!! 

 

We only have 18 guests and I have kind of stopped my planning. It will just be a laid back, intimate family wedding and I feel good about that now. I emailed Ana yesterday and did get a reply a few hours later. She said all the vases that the bride (forgot the name) left there in Nov are gone or broken. Sucks! Anyway, I will figure that out.

I wanted to have a welcome dinner but she said the only time we could do that is at 6PM and most of our guests arrive that same night (day before the wedding) but at 6.50PM. Sucks too! Haha! Excuse my French.

We are not having a DJ since we are such a small group and will go with the eternity package for the same reason. To use the iPod equip. at the reception is $150 and she hasn't replied to if that is per night or hour.

 

I wanted to add to our photo package but not sure how it works when you add that from the a la carte wedding stuff. Does anyone know? Do I just add an hour and get more pics?? Also wanted to add a videographer for the ceremony so that my family can show everyone back home that couldn't make it.

 

I feel very confused and of course stressed, so any advice to ease my confusion would help! Thanks ladies!

 

[irishdonna]

Awesome! I was thinking i'd have to pay more for a private room. I just wouldn't want to have the dinner, speeches and dancing where everyone else in the resort can join in lol

Originally Posted by SKing24 

IrishDonna,

If you're having 25 guests and you choose the Divine package, you can pretty much do anything you want and not pay extra because 25 people are included in the Divine Package.  So you can do just a dinner in a restaurant, or you can choose a private reception spot with a sit-down dinner and a DJ and everything.  I think it's 2 hours you get of the DJ for free.  I'm paying extra to have 4 hours of the DJ.  Oh and the cocktail hour is included too. 
 

 

 

[lisadias]

Lindzee we are going to crete first (4days), then santorini(3), then mykonos(3) and then ending in athens(2). I am so pumped for this trip! Any tour or excursions that you would recommend while there. We have a car rented for crete for 4 days and for 2 days while in mykonos.

[primavera]

Where in Crete will you be staying Lisa? In what city/village? There are some really pretty and secluded beaches in the south. Easy to get to by car, we rented vespas when I was there and drove across the island. You should also do the walk through the canyon (forget the name) but I'm sure you will see tours for it when you get there.

 

I had a little freak out moment today, started crying this morning because the wedding didn't turn out as I had hoped. I have been so busy so I think the disappointment finally hit me this morning. I'm sure it will pass and I will be excited again, it is just one of those days...

[lindzee602]

Hi - We had gone to Greece as part of a two week cruise around the Mediterranean and were only in Greece for three days total, but it was so wonderful that we swore we'd go back soon.  In Santorini the cruise ships docks a couple miles from the island, so after taking a boat to land you have two options to get to Fira, which is the main part of the island:  Donkey or a Cable Lift.  Either is fun and definitely an experience.  We wound up doing the volcano tour one morning, which is pretty cool.  Afterwards they took us on pirate ships to the hot springs where everyone jumped off the boat into the water.  The water is crazy warm around the springs, but full of iron, so don't wear your best bathing suit!  Chris and I wound up spending the afternoon at one of the black sand beaches.  The cafes are pretty much right on the beach, which is very convenient and fun.  We wanted to rent ATVs since we saw a lot of tourists riding around with them, but didn't have time.  That night we took at cab to Oia, which is the best place to eat dinner and watch the sunset.  It is absolutely breathtaking watching all of the ships come in.  As we were walking to the restaurant, we passed a fisherman that had just caught a huge swordfish.  He was delivering it to the restaurant where we were eating, so of course we ordered it!  Our table was literally a quarter inch from the end of the dock.  I accidentally dropped a fork in the water and could even see it on the bottom of the ocean floor! 

In Athens we did the popular Parthenon tour, which you have to do.  It's really amazing to see these structures and buildings that have been there for centuries.  We also took a tour out to the Temple of Posidon (I think that was the name).  That was just okay.  Check out the original Olympic stadium (very quick) and many other ancient ruins that are still standing throughout the city. 

 

Originally Posted by lisadias 

Lindzee we are going to crete first (4days), then santorini(3), then mykonos(3) and then ending in athens(2). I am so pumped for this trip! Any tour or excursions that you would recommend while there. We have a car rented for crete for 4 days and for 2 days while in mykonos.

 

[lisadias]

Wow thanks lindzee,sounds like you had a blast!  I was looking into exactly what you did in Santorini and I really want to do the volcano hot springs thing and we are staying just a short walk from oia so i will take your advice on that one for sure!

I was thinking of doing the hop on hop off tour in athens since we are only there a short time and visiting the parthenon during that tour.

In crete we have booked two days in chania(north west part of the island) and we are going to try and find another two days on the east part near agios nikolas or elounda or malia or hernosissos. Just have to pick one soon! We land in heraklion and then are driving west and stopping along the way in rethymno and a few other beaches but we are sticking mostly to the north part of the island. I would like to see the gorge that you are talking about though if we have time, samania or something like that. Also wanted to check out Loutro but don't think we will have the time. We we are in the east we are going to check our the palace of knossos (ancient minoan palace).

[Nan]

 

 

Originally Posted by primavera 

 

Where in Crete will you be staying Lisa? In what city/village? There are some really pretty and secluded beaches in the south. Easy to get to by car, we rented vespas when I was there and drove across the island. You should also do the walk through the canyon (forget the name) but I'm sure you will see tours for it when you get there.

 

I had a little freak out moment today, started crying this morning because the wedding didn't turn out as I had hoped. I have been so busy so I think the disappointment finally hit me this morning. I'm sure it will pass and I will be excited again, it is just one of those days...

Cheer up cheer up!!! What happened with your dress Got one already?? Any ideas so far???

 

[primavera]

Yes, Nan I got my dress! Going to my first and hopefully last fitting tomorrow. I'm happier today! Just needed to let it all out yesterday and now I feel so much better Thanks.
 

Originally Posted by Nan 

Cheer up cheer up!!! What happened with your dress Got one already?? Any ideas so far???

 

 

[primavera]

Does anyone know how it works if you only use the resort photographer, like what pics does he take? I was told by Pilar that he will take pics at the ceremony and then of the family...but for how long? Since our wedding is small I didn't want to spend the extra money on an outside photographer, but I'm considering adding an hour of photography to our package and maybe even an hour of videography from the ceremony to make sure we get enough pics. 

[Kmart48]

I got married here on 4.8.11 and here is my review:

 

Absolutely Fabulous!!!!!!  From the moment we walked in the resort, my fiance (now husband) and I were pulled into the preferred lounge where they upgraded our room.  At that time, Pilar came in to introduce herself and she took my gown/his suit so they could be pressed and delivered to our room on our wedding day.  We had a beautiful view of the preferred pool and ocean.  The room, the view,and the service was amazing!!!!  The staff is absolutely wonderful!  The ocean on the preferred side is rocky.  All of our guests were down in buildings 2 and 4 and we spent most of our time at that pool because that's were all the activities and music is and the beach is much nicer in that area.  The restaurants were good.  Unfortunately, we never got to try the french restaurant, but the rest were great!  Capers, the Italian restaurant, was my fave.  I cannot say enough good things about the staff here.  Everyone was so friendly and accomodating! 

 

On to the important stuff....the Wedding!

-Pilar was my wedding coordinator.  I was getting really nervous before we left for Mexico, because communication was not always good.  I'm sure I got on her nerves at times, because I was impatient and not always nice in my emails.....if you are having problems, RELAX!  We met with Pilar the Monday evening we arrived and got all of our wedding details squared away.  She was sooooo wonderful and accomodating.  Everything seemed to fall into place.   I brought everything with me to our meeting, centerpiece stuff, chair bows, table runners, lights, programs, guest book, music, favors.  We went over the whole wedding packet and we were able to make changes and finalize everything. We had planned on a beach ceremony with cocktail hour on the beach and then a reception on the pool terrace.  She walked us to the sites and at that time, I changed the reception site to the indoor Bamboo Room.  I had read reviews about it being windy there, but had to see it for myself.....It is WINDY!  It was fine for a beach ceremony, but I did not want my guests trying to eat outside in the wind.  I was very, very glad the bamboo room was available.  My wedding was fairly small (27 people) and it seemed like the reviews I read were brides with larger weddings of 50-80people.  The bamboo room  was still perfect!  The ceremony location was on the preferred side of the beach....perfect b/c I could watch the set-up and guests arriving from my hotel room. 

 

We had a quick rehearsal on Thurs and I was able to give Pilar some last minute changes.  We then had a welcome dinner in the buffet.  I do kind of regret that......It was just a long table set up at the Carnival Buffet.  I was kind of done with the buffet food at that point, and we probably all could have gone to eat at one of the other restaurants...It wasn't really private or anything.  I honestly don't know if you can have a welcome dinner in of the other restaurants.  I had just asked Pilar for a welcome dinner and she set it up there.....wait staff was very nice though!

 

Back to the wedding:  I had the divine package and chose menu #1 (the beef filet/lobster bisque).  Because we were having wedding cake, Pilar substituted the dessert for the asparagus/watercress salad.  The food was phenomenal!!!  I thought it was the best food we had the entire trip!!  The waiters during the reception were awesome!!!  They went out of there way to get coors lights for our guests!!!  The package included 2 hours of DJ time.  The DJs were there at the beginning of the reception to introduce us.  I provided our dinner music, because I wanted to save our DJ time for dance music.  They stayed throughout dinner to "man the ipod" and then played our first dance/cake cutting/dance music.  The cake:  tasted really good, but looked nothing like the picture we chose.....although at that point, i really didn't care anymore.  The flowers: Lupita, the florist, and Pilar met me in the spa while I was getting my hair done to show me my flowers......I was not happy at all.  My flowers were supposed to be light pink, ivory, with some green filler flowers.  I had emailed Lupita a picture and she had told me she could do it.  The bouquet they brought in had dark burgundy calla lilies and when I questioned it Lupita told me they didnt make light pink calla lilies....They took the flowers back and brought me new flowers a few hours later that were absolutely perfect!!!!    (I felt bad, but I was not expecting to see dark flowers like that!--not what I chose for my wedding colors)

 

The spa apparently burnt down 2 weeks ago (as did the sports bar), so they were running the spa out of the "governors suites" on the 4th floor of one of the preferred suites.  it wasn't the best experience.....I believe it was Angela that did my hair......she did a really good job!!  They don't seem to speak much english in the spa, so I highly recommend bringing a picture of your desired hairstyle.  After my hair, I had her do my makeup (both were included in the package) and I told her I wanted a natural look.  (I really don't wear much makeup).  After a large amount of eyemakeup and little communication, I went back to my room, scrubbed my face, and did my own makeup............

 

In a nutshell:

 

-Don't freak out!! Everything will be great!!!! Pilar is fabulous and I'm sure Ana is too!........There was 1-2 weddings a day while we were there.  They are Pros at this!

 

-We used Derek Campbell and his wife,Lorena from Photos in Cancun for our photography.  They were awesome!!! We got all 2000 pics on CDs to do whatever we want with!!!  I highly recommend them!  We were able to substitute the photography for 2 extra hours of videography. 

 

-Tony, the videographer, included in the Divine Package was great too!!!  Don't skimp on the video! It's soooo great to have! Pictures are great but video lets you relive every moment!!  And don't forget to have a cd with a few songs that you want for your video!

 

--We were able to substitute dessert for appetizer

 

--Don't waste your 2hrs of DJ time on dinner or cocktail music. provide your own.

 

--Also, someone on here mentioned making there ceremony earlier because of sunlight.......to each his own and I can only speak from my experienc, but my ceremony was at 5pm.  I am disappointed with some of the pics, because we're squinting a little.  It didn't even seem that sunny, but I can't imagine how bad we would be squinting if our ceremony was earlier.  The sky got really pink and pretty for sunset around 645ish. 

 

I am gonna try and post some pics on here soon!!! If I think of anything else, I will add it later.Best wishes to all of you brides!!!!  I know it sounds cliche, but enjoy every single minute and try not to freak out because it truly does go so very fast!!!!!!!