Wafflesmom Moon Palace Planning Thread - January 23, 2016

[acw271011]

Happy wedding day!! Congrats on being a Mrs!!

[Wafflesmom]

Ladies, thank you so much for all the well wishes! Der and I had the most amazing wedding day and week. I promise to do a full review as soon as we get back from our mini-moon.

 

xoxo, Mrs. Marsh

[bride2016]

<3 love the sound of that!

[ashhtayy]

@@Wafflesmom Can't wait to read all about it!

 

Enjoy the rest of your mini-moon

[deecol]

Aww Mrs Marsh!!! Enjoy your mini-moon!

 

 

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[Wafflesmom]

REVIEW

 

Resort: Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort

Date: January 23, 2016

Offsite Wedding Coordinator: Elizabeth Yañez (October 2014 - March 2015) and Yanet Zavala Serna (April 2015 - December 2015)

Onsite Wedding Coordinator: Leidi Laura Guzman

 

Wedding Locations:

Ceremony - Toucan Beach

Cocktail Hour - Toucan Garden

Reception - Toucan Gazebo

 

Vendors:

Hair and Makeup - Styling Trio

Photography - Samuel Luna and assistant for the day, Karla Dela Rosa

Décor and Flowers - LatinAsia

DJ - PSAV

 

I cannot say enough great things about our wedding day, our resort and our vendors! My husband (still feels weird to type that) and I are truly thankful and overjoyed with how everything turned out and we have absolutely no regrets with our decision to have a destination wedding.

 

Departure Day:

So our flight was really early, 7 am PST to be exact so that meant a short nap and an early morning commute to the airport. The night before was spent packing all of our clothes. Luckily I was organized and had already packed all of our wedding décor. After everything was packed, we had a total of 7 bags, 4 check in and 3 carry-on. The ever so generous @ gave me her wallybag to use and it was awesome! It was easy to carry and stored mine and Derrick's wedding outfits, as well as both of our shoes.

 

The morning we departed, we treated our families to a limo ride to the airport. Aside from being awesome, it's actually cheaper than a cab. We made it to the airport safely and no problems with check-in. Air Transat was awesome and the perks of option plus for the bride and groom is fabulous!

 

Our flight was just over 5 hours and we arrived safely in Cancun at 3:30 EST. Well that airport is ridiculous! I think we arrived at the same time as 4 other flights so you can just imagine the line up. Considering the lineups and the potential for emotions to erupt, a lot of the passengers were actually smiling and very accommodating. I think the worst part for me was getting out of customs and looking for the shuttle. People would stop abruptly and not move as I carried multiple bags (no carts allowed at this point). By the time we left the airport, it was 6:00 pm

 

Since Moon Palace is really close to the airport, we made it to the resort by 6:20. I have never been there before and as you drive to the lobby, you get an appreciation on just how big the resort is...it was a long drive! It was really funny because we drove past the stables where they keep the horse and carriages. Der looked at it and said Oh that's neat. I actually never told him about the horse and carriage and so I looked at him and said, "I'm glad you like it because I'll be riding that for our wedding" lol

 

As the shuttle pulled up to the Sunrise lobby (there are three lobbies at Moon: Sunrise, Nizuc and Grand), the bellboys immediately greeted us with a cold towel that smelled like rose water. After the long wait at the airport, it was refreshing and made me feel human again. They also greeted us with a carnation, definitely a sweet gesture and impressed our guests immediately! Luckily we were the only ones checking in so it was quick and easy. They gave Der and I pink bracelets and I asked what the pink meant. It signified that we were honeymooners. It was cute and anytime any worker saw our bands, they would congratulate us.

 

By the time we finished checking in, it was 6:30. Well our welcome cocktails and dinner started at 7, we only had 30 minutes. The bellboys said that they would take our bags to the room for us. We told everyone to not worry about being dressy and to just come as is. We knew everyone was hungry and since it was a bbq buffet, we really didn't mind not being dressy. Most of our guests, aside from two rooms were assigned to the Toranja building (grapefruit). From the lobby, we didn't exactly know where it was so it took us 15 minutes to find it lol. Once Der and I found our room, we were happy that we got upgraded to a partial ocean view. Perks of being the bride and groom! It was already 6:45 at this point and I sent a group message (I had everyone install whatsapp on their phone) for everyone to meet at the sunrise lobby so we could all go and try to find Bugambillias terrace where our welcome event was held. Our luggage hadn't arrived yet so I didn't have our welcome bags to give out. I had planned on giving them out to our guests at the welcome event. Surprisingly none of this bothered me and I was ready to just party!

 

Der and I headed to the lobby and found only 1 guest waiting for us. Since we were already running late, we decided to leave and messaged everyone to just meet us at the terrace. It was 7:10 at this point and it was dark out. We decided to take the fast route and asked one of the workers on a golf cart to take us to the terrace. Boy do they drive those things fast!

 

When we got there, I noticed that our party was moved to the gazebo and only Derrick's parents were there. I messaged everyone where it was and as soon as I walked in, I was so happy. I didn't plan for any décor for this party since I didn't want to bring too much and I wanted our reception to stand out. Well my lovely onsite, Laura provided small vases with décor and set our tables up in a U-shaped. It was perfect for mingling and talking to each other. As soon as we walked in, we were offered drinks and was informed that the hors d'oeuvres were ready. We chose the Mexican hors d'oeuvres and they were a hit! Slowly all of our guests arrived and everyone raved about the hors d'oeuvres. We were all hungry but despite that, it was delicious. Since we were all late, 30 minutes later, our dinner buffet started. We chose the BBQ buffet and again, delicious! Our wedding coordinator also stopped by to say hi and see how things were going. She's so sweet since she wasn't actually working that day! She said that they opted to move our party to the gazebo since it rained earlier in the day. I actually liked it so much that I asked her to book the Toucan Gazebo as my alternate for our wedding day (so thankful I did this).

 

Now sometime after dinner, someone suggested group shots to celebrate our first night in Mexico. Derrick's sister suggested lemondrop shots. They were tasty! The rounds kept coming and within 30 minutes, I think we drank 6 lemondrop shots already. This is how we became known as the "lemondrop wedding" lol. While everyone was mingling and drinking, Der and I decided to go to our room to see if our bags were dropped off, and they were! I had pre-assembled the bags (yay) so I quickly grabbed them and ran back to the party. All of our guests were surprised and loved them. They all used the bag the whole week.

 

So we all partied until 10 and we headed out. Since the lemondrop and tequila shots were free flowing, we had to drop some of our guests off in their rooms. The rest of us who could walk decided to head to the lobby for crepes and ice cream. So good. From there we decided to call it a night and everyone had to use the hangover kit the next day lol

[calgarybride2015]

Yay your review!! Sounds like a great first start to your wedding week

 

I also commented in my review about the Cancun airport and the lack of carts past a certain point -- was chaotic!!!

 

Love the idea of the pink bracelet. Can't wait to hear more.

 

I can only imagine how much trouble you can get into without kids. We had to split our nights out ... So other than our wedding night Shawn and I couldn't stay out super late together!

 

 

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[Wafflesmom]

@@calgarybride2015 I left out the details but let's just say that a lot of guests had to leave a hefty tip for some of the room cleaners. Lol

[calgarybride2015]

@@calgarybride2015 I left out the details but let's just say that a lot of guests had to leave a hefty tip for some of the room cleaners. Lol

Oh nooooo! Haha I've heard of this story numerous times

 

 

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[Wafflesmom]

Review continued:

 

Day 2

 

Surprisingly, I did not wake up with a hangover! Unfortunately I couldn’t say the same for Der lol. While he slept in, I organized all our décor and made sure everything was clearly labelled. Our meeting was scheduled for 11am so Der and I headed to the wedding office (in the Nizuc lobby), along with our four witnesses. We decided to pick Derrick's mom and dad, my mom and my brother as our witnesses. For Quintana Roo, if you want your parents' names on your marriage certificate (for civil weddings), you needed to have your birth certificates apostilled and translated. We opted to not do this to save on headaches. As a work around, by having them as our legal witnesses, they're still on our marriage certificate! Sneaky huh?

 

So we arrive at the Moon Palace Wedding Department and it is impressive. It's big and each coordinator has their own office. We met Laura again and she quickly had an assistant photocopy our witnesses visitor card. She also had them review their names and age that we had previously provided them as it was going to be sent to the registry office. It's a good thing she had us review it since Der's dad celebrated his bday on Jan 9 so his age had changed. Once that was done, all our witnesses were able to go off and enjoy the morning while Der and I stayed with Laura to go over the wedding and get our blood taken.

 

Having seen what she had done the night before for our welcome dinner, I was already impresses by Laura. So coming into the meeting, I was relaxed as I knew I was in good hands. She went over every aspect of the wedding again to make sure she had everything right. We talked about ceremony set up, reception set up, décor and music for the ceremony. She was so detailed and even talked me through things I never considered like how to make sure to get our room cleaned early for photos, and who would be getting me for the ceremony. I also made sure she set up a separate table for our photographers so they could eat.

 

During the meeting, she informed us that the person who would be taking our blood had arrived. So off we went to the room he was in and he had us sign a few forms. I decided to go first. They really made it a point to show us that everything was sterile and clean. He showed me the new package of gloves before he put it on. Then be showed me the vial with the needle in it and I had to verify that he broke the seal on the vial in front of me. This is to certify that it's a new unused needle. He did the same to Der. I'm not afraid of needles so it was really painless and quick. Der's was even quicker. As soon as the needle went in his arm, he filled the tube! Even the guy was impressed lol. The whole process took only 5-10 mins.

 

We continued our meeting with Laura and we proceeded to show her all the decor I brought. She jotted down notes of how and where I wanted them displayed. She asked us if we wanted a rehearsal and she was so detailed that Der and I didn't feel the need to go over it. So after 2 hours, we left and headed off to get something to eat.

 

The rest of the day was spent by the pool. I was happy to see that all of our guests were all lounging by the pool together! It was really nice to see that everyone had already clicked.

 

 

That night, we all decided to have dinner at Momo's (Asian cuisine). The food here was awesome, we went three times during our stay! One of my bridesmaids arrived that night and so we decided to spend a nice night chilling at the swing bar.