Excellence Riviera Cancun

We had our wedding at Excellence Riviera Cancun on March 15th, and it was truly everything I could have dreamed of and more! The whole experience was so smooth, so fun, and I would absolutely do it again!

For starters, if you are looking to book your wedding at this resort, I highly recommend joining this Facebook group: Excellence Riviera Cancun Weddings. There are tons of past brides and grooms who can answer questions, provide insight, and have given reviews. There are also TONS of photos shared in there that can help your inspiration!

Welcome Party – Beach Oregano
We started the weekend with a welcome party on the sand at Beach Oregano. We had a 3-hour open bar and served our signature cocktail, the “Spicy Marry Me Margarita.” We opted to not add food options, but we told guests to eat beforehand or grab dinner after. It seemed silly to pay extra for appetizers when the guests can eat anywhere around the resort since it's all inclusive. We had 7 high-top tables, no chairs, just a pretty casual setup. I would recommend bringing a speaker to play music or something. I know others have said this too, but it slipped my mind. They had Karaoke starting just shortly after our party ended so our group walked over to that and closed out the night.

Getting Ready
My bridesmaids all came to my room to get ready with me, and we had one of the junior suites. It was more than spacious enough for the 9 of us to hang out and get dressed. Everyone did their own makeup, and one of our groomsmen (who’s also my bestie and a hairstylist) came and helped with hair for anyone who wanted it. The guys got ready in one of the groomsmen's rooms.

Hair & Makeup (Bride)
My hair and makeup were included in our package, so I went to the spa the morning of. I don’t remember the name of the stylist, but she did both hair and makeup and was honestly incredible. I told her I wanted a light, natural makeup look and needed an updo that could handle frizz, humidity, and wind since I have naturally curly hair. She made sure my hair didn’t budge, even after hours of dancing, my hair still looked flawless.

Florals
We used the resort florist to make the most of our included package and concessions, and I was really happy with how everything turned out. I told Elizabeth to have them make it colorful and fun, and that I wanted it to be primarily pink and orange with some purple and blue mixed in and sent her some pictures for inspo. My bouquet ended up being a custom mix of BB25 and BB26 styles, while the groomsmen had birds of paradise boutonnieres (BB16). For the reception, we picked centerpiece style BC15 but asked them to match the bouquets. If you have an idea of what you want, just ask them!

The Ceremony – Beach Gazebo
The ceremony took place at the Beach Gazebo and was everything I dreamed of. The ceremony setup was all included with our package: river rocks and candles for decor, an ivory carpet aisle runner, and white chairs. We added a couple of cocktail tables to hold fans and tissues, and Velvet Design did the signage for that. It was extremely windy that day, and our runway ended up being buried in the sand, but oh well! My dress looked amazing blowing in the wind and the photos are stunning!

Cocktail Hour – Kitchen Table Terrace
After the ceremony, we moved to the Kitchen Table Terrace for cocktail hour. Our signature drinks were the “Mint To Be Mojito” and the “Marry Me Margarita.” We had three hot and three cold appetizers being passed, they were all SO good! We also had the Romantic Trio perform in mariachi style. They were such a hit—my husband's family is Mexican and Nicaraguan, and everyone was singing along and making requests. It was a really great addition!

Reception – Beach Oregano
Our reception was magical. We extended it to 4 hours (HIGHLY recommend doing this!) to allow more time for dinner, cake, and plenty of dancing. The setup included a sweetheart table and 9 guest tables with 5–8 guests per table. We also had the open bar included in the package, and chose the Marry Me Margarita for the signature cocktail. Every single thing was delicious and we heard so many compliments from our guests!

Cake
We went with the heart-shaped 3-tier cake in tres leches flavor. It was SO good—super moist and creamy. I only got a few bites, but they were worth it. We brought our own cake topper and the resort provided the knife and server.

DJ & Dance Floor
We used the resort DJ and he absolutely killed it. We also paid extra for the RGB pixel dance floor—definitely worth it because it gets really dark on the beach at night, and the lights gave it an extra party vibe. We asked our guests to submit song requests when they RSVPed and created a Spotify playlist from that. I gave that list to the DJ with a few “must plays” and “do not plays.” I asked for dinner music to be the slower/not so dancy stuff, then for him to just keep the party going all night. He totally delivered. After the cake cutting, he asked everyone to get out on the dance floor for our photographer to take a group picture, she got the shot, then he started playing Danza Kuduro which got everyone hyped, and the dance floor stayed packed ALL NIGHT!

Decor by Velvet Design
Velvet was amazing to work with and handled all our signage and lighting. We had:
10 strings of lights over the reception area (a must for beach weddings after dark)
Welcome sign
Signs for fan/tissue tables
“Wish You Were Here” memorial table sign
Shot glass seat assignment wall
Table numbers
Photo guestbook sign

Our Coordinator – Elizabeth
Elizabeth was everything I needed in a wedding coordinator and more. Communication with the resort was a little slow to start (which is super normal for destination weddings), but once we got closer, she was responsive, helpful, and made everything feel so easy. She got on video calls, answered every question, and handled last-minute details like a total pro. On the day of, when she came to drop off the flowers, she told me it was extremely windy and offered to move the ceremony and/or reception somewhere else. She even walked me through other options. But when I asked if anything was unsafe (thinking lights or speakers falling), she said no, it might just be a little uncomfortable. I told her I could handle some wind, and I’m so glad I trusted my gut. She supported that decision and made sure everything was still perfect despite the weather.

Photography
We had our photographer travel from Phoenix, AZ. I had seen photos that the resort photographer does and it just didn't quite fit my vibe. Also, the price for what you get just didn't seem worth it to me. We DID have Seasons do photos of the ceremony because it was included in our package and WOW I am so glad that I brought my own photographer. Lacie's photos are just significantly better than what Seasons provided. Lacie Photography is her page if anyone is interested. She also shot our engagement photos and our local church ceremony before our Cancun wedding. Her work is incredible and I am so so so glad I found her!

Prices
I opted to not add my costs in my review because I know that the resort has changed their packages and prices since we booked our wedding and I don't want to mislead anyone. If you have any specific questions, I am happy to share, but just be aware that it may not reflect accurately.

Final Thoughts
This whole experience reminded me exactly why we chose a destination wedding—to let go of the stress and just enjoy the moment. The team at Excellence truly knows what they’re doing. From planning to execution, everything ran so smoothly. The staff was professional, kind, and genuinely cared about making our day special, I truly felt like royalty the whole time. The food was amazing, the setting was beautiful, and the entire vibe was full of love and celebration. If you’re considering getting married here—do it. You’ll be in great hands! 

We are so happy we went with ERC, it was perfect for the variety of age groups who attended our wedding. The staff was fantastic, service was so impressive.

The day I will always call a day that God has made for me was that day I read an article about a wonderful and powerful spell caster "Lord Erhun" on the internet who has helped countless people with different problems of life. I was suffering from a 3 years divorced with my husband whom I so much love and appreciate. My husband divorced me after 11 years of marriage without giving him any child not even a miscarriage for once in my life. The world was on my shoulder because I have gone through different medical solutions but none was able to make me conceive. I was so devastated and lost all hope of ever getting a better life again.

Everything turned around the very day I read an article about the great Lord Erhun who finally helped me with his powerful spell to end my divorce and reunited me with my husband and also restored my fertility with his powerful spell. Today all my problems are over because I'm a pregnant woman now with a set of twins and I have my husband back into my life with much love like we have never had a divorce I am so great to those who took out time to write articles about the good work of Lord Erhun. Don't be drained by whatever you might be facing in life contact Lord Erhun to get solutions to all your worries. His email (meetlorderhun@gmail.com) WhatsApp +(44)7862133661. Contact this great spell caster and all your heart desires will be granted just like me today.

Gorgeous location for wedding and the wedding planner is fantastic. They took all the stress away for wedding!

I am going to do my best to make this review as detailed as possible without being too long. Here are our wedding details:

1. Wedding Date - January 2019
2. Number in Bridal Party - 10
3. Number of People in Attendance - 53

Before we got engaged we had discussed having a destination wedding. We are a couple who loves to travel and we wanted to incorporate that into our wedding day. In October of 2017 we got engaged and immediately started narrowing down locations and hotels for potential venues. A few things that were important to us:

1. Reviews of Grounds
2. All-Inclusive
3. Food Reviews
4. Pricing

From our search we came across a few properties in the general Riviera Maya area. We contacted multiple of them to receive wedding pricing along with the price of what we thought would be an average stay for a guest (Thursday-Sunday). There were many beautiful properties, with great reviews but what stuck out to us regarding the Excellence Cancun was the price, as well as the reviews associated with them (in general, not just weddings). They have major 5 star reviews across the board for food, service and cleanliness of property and that was major to us.

We emailed the wedding department and started discussing possible options of packages. Out of the package options, we went for the Gold Package because it included so much and we knew we would have at least 20 guests in attendance. We were assigned Liliana as our wedding coordinator, and from the beginning she was a DREAM. I cannot give Liliana enough props for executing everything we communicated (mostly over email as well!).

The biggest advice we received was to VISIT properties and see exactly where the proposed venues lie, and where the ceremony will be. There are a million resorts with beautiful spaces, but until you are onsite you do not notice the ceremony space is right next to the pool and there are intoxicated vacationers enjoying an evening swim. Excellence Cancun's beach ceremony space is not completely secluded, but it is not on top of guests and you do have a good amount of privacy. There are other options if the beach is not what you wanted, however the beach is definitely their go-to option and what they recommend. During our site-tour we were able to tour every reception and ceremony option and Liliana discussed with us how each venue is available certain days of the week. Also during this time we did a menu and cake tasting and WOW the food was phenomenal and the cake even better. At this meeting at as well we met with Katie with Alquimia Events as well as Mannia DJ Services.

Once our visit ended we decided we wanted to have our ceremony on the beach (due to numbers), the cocktail hour at square (by Flavor Market) and the reception at Agave. For our back up we chose oregano for the ceremony and the upstairs terrace (by the lobby) for the reception. Upon reviewing what was including with the Gold Package, we knew that we were going to want to have additional décor services added to our venue. Katie with Alquimia events (https://www.alquimiaevents.com/) reached out to us and we began discussing exactly what our vision was for that day.

I am a very type A personality, so I found organization key when discuss options for both wedding execution and décor with Liliana and Katie. We opted to do a lot of flowers, a private cloth wall to close off the area, and tons of flowers in the fountain at Agave with floating candles. For the ceremony and reception, we opted to upgrade to nicer chairs, and we upgraded the bridal table as well. Guest were to be seated at round tables.

Emails were typically returned in 2 business days, and for my organizational purposes I kept everything in the same email chain. This way, if needed, I could go back and reference what I needed to. We had a few phone calls throughout the year as well if there was anything specific we needed to discuss that required more detail than an email could provide. I found communication with all the Excellence Staff and Alquimia Events professional and helpful.

We ended up doing hair and make up with Mille Spa (onsite) and we paid an extra fee to have everyone’s hair and make up done in their room. The make-up is a bit darker than I am used to but TRUST ME when I say you will look FANTASTIC in pictures. I had so many compliments on my make-up! Hair was also wonderful! I had given them images from Pinterest of what I wanted for hair and makeup and they followed them to the T. I also opted for a make-up trial on our rehearsal night, so I felt that was helpful to get to know the make-up/hair artist and really make sure I knew exactly how I wanted to look.

For photography, we decided do not utilize Seasons. Photos are the most important thing to both of us and we had a very specific look we wanted. We found Monica Lopez (https://monicalopezphoto.com/) and it was the best decision we made. I cannot tell you how easy she was to work with, and how high quality her work was! She was also easy to communicate with and provided us assistance throughout the entire planning process. Helping me with my timeline of events, and suggesting best places to take pictures.

Overall, our wedding was pretty customized. I opted to bring a few homemade decoration items, and my own Welcome Signs, Seating Chart, etc. I am in the events business for work so I opted to create my own floor plan, seating chart, and other organization items. Excellence completely could have done this, but I really wanted some ownership of tasks. When we arrived onsite for our final walk through 2 days before the wedding Liliana had everything I’d sent waiting for us. It was so impressive.

The day of –

We got married the last week of January, which does not typically fall into the rainy season. However, that was not our luck. It was sunny during the day but at about noon Liliana informed us we would need to go to plan B for the Ceremony and the Reception. We knew this was a possibility and we had chosen décor that would look lovely in either space. Liliana gracefully handled everything regarding setup, while we continued to get ready for the day. About 20 minutes prior to the ceremony the rain continued, and our back up ceremony space (Oregano) ended up flooding….when I say it rained, it RAINED. Not a typical beach storm that passed, it rained for a solid 1.5 hours almost. Liliana had to therefore completely execute a new ceremony venue…her team sprung into action, allowed our guests to go to get a drink, hang out for a bit while they moved the wedding ceremony for a 2nd time that day. This is where the team truly shined. While we were delayed a bit, everyone was so kind in keeping us informed but assured that everything was being handled. We tended up having our ceremony in Toscana/Barcelona. It was just as special as it would have been getting married on the beach and I have Liliana and her team to thank for that.

The reception which was originally planned for Agave, was moved to the terrace, which due to the strong winds and rain also got flooded out. Again, Liliana came calmly over to us while we were taking pictures and informed us we would need to move into the ballroom. The ballroom was my last choice ever for a wedding in Mexico, but Liliana and her team did everything they could to make it just as beautiful as it could be with only 20 minutes to flip the venue. During this entire process, I have never been more impressed with a team, and we are so grateful we had the Excellence staff in our corner during this day.

Our guests all raved about the experience of staying at Excellence as well as the wedding! We received so many compliments regarding the staff, and the entire property.

I highly recommend Excellence Riviera Cancun.

*side note* If you are considering this booking, since we had our wedding there, we can refer you and you will receive a free upgrade to the GOLD package! My email is michellereynolds@outlook.com and I am looking forward to hearing from you :) best wishes. I have been to the Excellence several times. After our first visit here (before we got engaged) I knew this was the place I wanted to get married and my boyfriend at the time agreed. From the service to the decor to the food and drinks, let me tell you this place is 5 star! I fell in love the minute I walked in and saw the martini bar which was at the bottom of a double wrap around stair case. The check in was super easy and every single staff member was so attentive. I will say the Excellence pays attention to every detail. After booking our wedding we flew back in to meet with our wedding coordinator, Ariana. She is one of my favorite people still to this day we have kept in touch. Ariana is so kind and quick to respond. Our wedding was everything we dreamed of and more. All of our guests gave us so many compliments I couldn't be happier. Destination weddings can be tough with guests canceling on you last minute, but if you are debating on whether to have one, or have it here, don't hesitate just book it! If you are considering this booking, since we had our wedding there, we can refer you and you will receive a free upgrade to the GOLD package! My email is michellereynolds@outlook.com looking forward to hearing from you :) best wishes.

We checked out the Excellence Riviera Cancun the March before our wedding, and knew at that moment that it would be the perfect place to host a weekend of festivities with our family and friends in January. The resort facilities are beautiful and the staff are extremely attentive - it is truly a five star experience. Everything we experienced at the resort and on our wedding day was beyond perfect! We worked with a couple of different wedding coordinators, but they made sure that everything was seamless. We got married at the beach gazebo which was gorgeous, had our cocktail hour on the beach, and our reception at The Grill. Each location worked well for our 50 wedding guests, and we got so many compliments from our guests throughout our stay. Everything was top quality, from the food to the flowers, and we are so happy that we got to have our wedding at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. We would highly recommend this resort!!

We booked our destination wedding site unseen at the Excellence Resort in Riviera Cancun and it was more than perfect. We worked with Alejandra and she was amazing! She was so helpful in the pre-planning stages, answered all of my questions and the day of she went above and beyond for us. I would highly recommend this resort. We selected the beach for the ceremony and the foyer for the reception and both were perfect. The service was exceptional, food was delicious and the resort was amazing. I want to go back every year! It was absolutely perfect!

My experience with Excellence and my wedding coordinator, Gloria, was nothing less than spectacular!

Gloria was a great wedding coordinator. She was there for everything and I felt rest assured that everything would be taken care of. We had a 5pm ceremony on the beach with cocktail hour on the pier and we could not have been happier with the service, coordination, and resort.