yesther

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsC-to-Be My soon-to-be-brother in law just got back from the Barcelo Colonial, and he said that I think it was 20 USD each way cab ride, but that it was quick Yes, $20 USD for up to 4 people one way. About 15 mins...

Quote: Originally Posted by michelle2011 Is anyone having a CD play for the ceremony? Or ipod? Is 3 songs enough? We are still deciding on what to have. Also do you use your own ipod/CD for the cocktail hour? Thanks We did the Ipod/CD thing and it was GREAT. We burned CDs of our playlists at home just in case the ipod connection didn't work there, but it was fine.

Quote: Originally Posted by laura4ever That is good to know. Our wedding is in 16 days...holy crap! And the video thing has started to worry me...should we have someone taping the ceremony As long as you have a friend with a steady hand, and are not expecting super professional work, I think you'll be fine. I will say that my sister, and then later my brother didn't have a super steady hand, but my husband and I laughed our way through those parts of the video.

Quote: Originally Posted by FutureMrsG Thanks for the review Yester!! Very helpful! What about video? Who are you guys using or are you skipping it all together? We ended up not using the videographer there either. To be honest, I never even thought about videotaping. I was more concerned about the photos. My Sister ended up taping the ceremony and with the mic etc that you have during the ceremony, you could hear it pretty well on the tape.

Quote: Originally Posted by CaraW yesther, Did the Barcelo deliver your OOT bags to each room? Yes, they did! Each guest got them around 6:30-7:00 pm the night they arrived.

I LOVE this POV! Congrats!

Yay! Congrats!

Quote: Originally Posted by yesther Here is a picture of my hair...I LOVED it. ha! I can't even view my own pic, so if anyone knows how to upload it so the image shows, that would be great. Thanks! Also, if you have ANY questions please email me, I'd love to help!

Here is a picture of my hair...I LOVED it. hair_2.pdf

Sorry for my uber long posts, but here are my helpful tips for all the future Barcelo Brides: 1. There is a feather bed between the mattresses, put it out the first day you arrive...I was told about it on night 4 and wish I would've had it the first night. it's awesome. 2. Print out all your emails. 3. Towels: Get them early in the morning. They run out of towels ALL the time. Seriously, we went SIX times in a row and they didn't have towels. It must be like gold...hahaha. 4. They have these chocolate filled mini croissants. Eat them. You will not regret this. 5. Fajitas for lunch...cooked to order. It was at the bigger restaurant, it was AWESOME. Everyone's favorite. 6. Cooked to order omelets. Can you say my heaven? I can! Plus, if you don't find the bacon there, look around the buffet and you will surely find bacon to put in your omelet! 7. Smoothies in the morning....you choose the ingredients, they whip them up. Yes! 8. Avoid the Asian restaurant...unless you want to sit there for 3 hours for blah food. The best part was the sushi...but you can get the sushi at the big buffet. It seriously was sooo disappointing. If you want to make reservations for your group, make sure to do it in advance BEFORE you get to the resort, b/c they fill up super fast. 9. The other non-palace food choices aren't bad, but they don't have as large of a selection as the Palace, so we ate at the Palace all the time. 10. If you want to do any day trips, go into Play del Carmen and negotiate with the people in town. The tour guides at the resort quoted us $89 for a private van for our family (12 people) and in town we got the same tour for $35 per person). We saved so much money we decided to buy them as a gift to our fam! 11. Have fun! After our weird first meeting, I walked away second guessing my decision to have the wedding at the Palace. I admit, I got a little bummed, but an hour later, I resolved to not let it affect my mood or my time with my family and friends. After that moment, everything else was awesome. Xahil and Gabriela really came through, and we made sure to let them know that we were so thankful for all their hard work and their efforts. They really know how to throw a party!

It was SUPER windy that night, but it was still great. We had our own music (via Ipod and CDs) and then we had dinner. We did the shrimp appetizer, chicken and lemon soup, the surf and turf and then the molten chocolate cake. I know people had some complaints about the meat for their surf and turf, but we LOVED our meal. The lobster was a good size, the meat was being cooked on the grill and we had it all medium....pink in the middle but not bloody. Honestly, it was the best meal I had at the resort. Again, service was FANTASTIC. The main server there was so attentive to adult and child guests (which I absolutely adore!). There were extra plates of fries given to the kids, and they ate them all up! Because the wind was so strong, we decided to leave the Palermas grill and head to...you know where, the Caray bar! Ha ha! Do you see the pattern here?! We took our music with us, they let us play it on the CD player there, they brought us our cake, and we stayed there the rest of the night. My husband and I aren't wild going out dancing kind of people, more loungey types, so it was perfect for us. We may have had friends bust out their piano skills, have an impromptu sing along of oddly enough, Bryan Adam songs, and may have taken up the whole bar, but no one complained and we all had a great time. So, all in all, the wedding was SPECTACULAR! I do not regret having my wedding there for one minute and despite our minor hurdles with Xahil in the beginning, it all worked out. We had our breakfast in bed the next day, our massages the day we left, and we left happy and married! It was perfect!

They had the music playing in the background, I said some words, we had SUPER awesome servers, and dinner started. We had the shrimp appetizer, lobster soup, salmon with risotto, and creme brulee for dessert. All of it was good. Some of the stuff came out a little cold, but there weren't really any complaints. Seriously, the staff was AMAZING. They were so nice, soooo accommodating, and overall just super. After that, we took the party to the Caray bar...it seemed to be our spot for our hanging out. It was easy to get to, an easy place to find people, there is a ton of seating indoors and along the wrap around porch, and the staff there is also nice. The day of the wedding, i got my nails done at 10 a.m. After that, Nancy did my hair. If you can request anyone, I would HIGHLY recommend Nancy. She was spectacular! I had three smallish grainy printouts of styles I liked, and she gave me her opinions, her suggestions, and then turned my hair into this amazing style. Gorgeous. I was telling my friends that if I could afford to, I would have Nancy style my hair for EVERYTHING! Xahil came in to check on me during my appointment, and she showed me my bouquet. GORGEOUS!!!! It turned out so well! All of Xahil's suggestions in re flowers were right on, and I told her so! She had great floral recommendations! I didn't use my make-up appointment and was going to give it to my mom, but she wanted her hair done instead...so, I asked the guy at the front desk if I could pay the difference between the cost of the two things and have her get the hair done. He said absolutely not. Hmm.....what to do? Waste the make-up appt and pay for my mom to get her hair done? I thought, what the heck....I'll call Xahil and see if she could do anything. Sure enough, she pulled through. She spoke with him for a minute, then he went ahead and charged me the difference. Great! Afterwards, Xahil picked me up in the cart, then we headed back to the room. I got my makeup done, and we arranged with Xahil a pick up time for her to come and get me for pictures. We decided to do pictures before the ceremony so we met at the Lobby. I'm so glad we decided to do it this way, it just made the flow of the whole day better, IMO. After that, we parted ways for the ceremony...Xahil was AWESOME. I had paper cones that I wanted filled with flower petals for people to throw, and she made sure all the guests had one. She also made sure to keep random guests away from the line of pictures, and kept random busy bodies at bay. It was great. Also, we did a Christian ceremony, and the pastor we had was SPECTACULAR! (I need to stop using caps so much!) He was sooo great. Everything he did was smooth, he moved us around, he guided us perfectly, it was like he thought of all the little things we never would've thought of. For example, during the vows, instead of saying them into the mic and then having us repeat them, he would whisper them into our ears while holding the mic in front of us. See, the little things! He was sooo great that I am going to send him a thank you card. After the ceremony, we took more pictures, had our champagne toast, and then headed up to the Caray bar for some drinks before the reception. I had thought about doing a cocktail hour, but it ended up working out that we didn't. Everyone of my family and friends that were there are sooo chill and relaxed that they could've hung out anywhere. Like I said earlier, the Caray bar seemed to be our bar of choice, so we had some drinks there then headed over the Palermas Grill.

Now, before you walk away thinking that I am a total crazy person and was a bridezilla, let me tell you this: the whole point for me to having a destination wedding was so that I did NOT have to make all the little decisions. Flowers? Great! What colors? You decide! Seriously, it was like that...I didn't want to do any of those kinds of things, but what I did want, was for our friends and family to be able to spend time together and feel welcomed, so the only things I was concerned about was the welcome dinner and the reception. Oh! That reminds me! When we were going over the wedding locations, she had us down for both the wedding ceremony and the reception to be on the beach. We NEVER discussed it. In all the emails I have between myself and Gabriela, we never once discussed wedding locations, and the email I got before I left was that we would go over the locations once I arrived. Thank goodness I was the only wedding that day, otherwise it could've been bad. I actually never wanted the wedding on the beach, and wasn't completely sold on having the reception on the beach either.... Luckily, since we were the only wedding, we were able to have the gazebo for the ceremony, and the Palermas grill for the Reception. OK...now that the drama is behind us, let's move on. The next day, Thursday, Gabriela came over with her golf cart and picked up all the welcome bags. They were delivered to the guests around 6:30-7p.m. the day they arrived. I actually thought it was perfect, as it gave guests time to check in, go eat, go to the beach, then come back to get ready for dinner....perfect! On Thursday, my husband and I went into Playa, picked up maracas (for someone's awesome "shake for a kiss" idea), went to Wal-mart for last minute stuffers for our welcome bags, and then returned back to the resort. After that, we didn't have any wedding related things until the night of the welcome dinner. We had the dinner in Tule 1 in the Lobby building, and it was GREAT.

E: Can I talk to the Hotel Manager please? X: Why? E: So we can work this out...having dinner at 6 when not all of our guests are here or at 9:30 when people will be starving are not options that will work. X: Well....her name is Lorena (this may be helpful for any brides having problems down there) E: Fine, can you please contact her? X: She's not here. E: (Not sure I am believing this) Karen(?): I got a hold of Gabriela.... E: Perfect. So, I discussed this issue with Gabriela and it got resolved. She had a private banquet room (I think the room they use for the Mint Breeze package-ooops, I should've told you that I got the Strawberry Passions package earlier...) and they let us use the Caribbean menu for our welcome dinner. Nice! Needless to say, this soured both my husband and me for the rest of our meeting with Xahil. Because I now felt as though Xahil wasn't going to be helpful, I continued to make the final arrangements with Gabriela. We arranged for her to pick up the welcome bags from my room and have housekeeping deliver them as guests arrived. Awesome! I then discussed with Gabriela the issue of day passes. We had 4 guests that were staying at another resort, and we wanted to pay for the day passes for them so that they could attend the welcome dinner and the wedding. The day passes are $95 USD per person, but we negotiated them down to $75...double awesome!!! During the meeting, I made sure to write down EVERYTHING we discussed on to the contract. The extra flowers, the change of the welcome dinner, the extra layer of cake, the delivery of the welcome bags, the cost of the day passes, EVERYTHING was written on the sheet. Call me anal, but after the first day...I just felt the need to. We even went so far as to tell them we wouldn't pay them for the package until after our wedding, or when we were checking out. In hindsight, we were right to do that b/c we had 2 day passes go unused b/c 2 of our guests didn't make it to the welcome dinner...but we really didn't want to lose our leverage if we had to do some more "negotiating."

Xahil then tells us that the welcome dinner will be at 6:00. Umm...what? No. That is unacceptable! Our guests won't even be here at 6! Here is how our conversation went: Xahil: The only open times are 6 or 9:30. Esther (with parts of my husband chiming in, but for ease of reading, we'll limit it to me being the bad girl, LOL) : Well, we requested 7:30 in October, and Gabriela said it would be fine. X: Well, it is booked. No more room at 7:30. E: How was it that we were not able to secure that time at 7:30 when we asked months in advance? X: The reservations don't open up until 2 weeks before. So, in October, they were not open. E: I understand that, but when they did become open, why were we not the first people to get the reservations? X: You were, for 6 or 9:30. E: Again, I'm not understanding why when the reservations were open we weren't given that spot. X: It is full with other guests. E: OK, here is where the problem is...we are paying to have our wedding here, the time we requested in OCTOBER was secure via my communications with Gabriela, and you are telling us NOW that it is unavailable? X: Yes. No more room. E: OK, then why weren't we told this BEFORE we came? Or in OCTOBER?! or even 2 weeks ago? X: Well, we didn't have your guest list. E: Umm... no, no, no. You DO Have my guest list, and you DID have it. (this is where I bust out my emails and show here that approximately one month prior to my wedding, I emailed them my guest list). X: Well, you didn't send it to us in time. E: If the reservations don't open until 2 weeks before the date, and I gave you the list 4 weeks before the date, then you DID in fact have my guest list. X: Oh, then it's because you have 37 people and the max is 30 and we are doing you a favor, which is why we are offering you 6 or 9:30. E: Again, if you told me this BEFORE I got here, printed out all my information for my welcome bags etc., then we could've made other accommodations and worked around it. But telling us the day before is unacceptable. This continued on for about 1 or 2 more minutes before I busted out the supervisor card...

So, we get to the desk, and again, I felt as though the staff was ill prepared for the number of people checking in. Of all the encounters I've had with the staff, the front of house staff were the worst. They were a little aloof, unhelpful and not very pleasant. I will say that the front of house staff at night was a different crew, and they were MUCH better. We get to the unhelpful desk and were told that our room wasn't ready. Ummm...check-in is supposed to be at 3 p.m. we got there a little after 3, so why isn't the room ready? To be fair, at this point, I was STARVING, annoyed with the long lines in customs, luggage and to check-in, so I'm sure I wasn't the most pleasant person either. Nevertheless, we waited around for 10 or so minutes and then we got to the room. We dropped our stuff off and headed straight to the buffets. I <3 the buffets. I like the big one better (Mirador?) and the small Coral grill was OK, but if you could wait another 30 min or so until the Mirador opens, it's well worth it. More on food later..... When we got back to the room to change, I noticed we had a message from Xahil requesting a meeting the following morning. Awesome! Off to a great start! The next morning, we met with Xahil in the wedding offices. It started off great. STARTED being the key word. LOL. We discussed flowers, we added a tier to the cake (which we ended up not even eating, hahaha) added to our flower packages and were moving along just fine.....until the issue of our welcome/rehearsal dinner came up. I learned from this thread that the Brazilian restaurant is for 30 ppl max. However, when I emailed Gabriela in OCTOBER about wanting to do my welcome dinner there, she said it was fine. I gave her the final guest list in February and then reconfirmed both the time 7:30 p.m. AND the location with her. I specifically asked her for a reservation time of 7:30 p.m., as some of my guests were arriving later in the afternoon on Friday. There was no email response from her indicating that there would be a problem.

Hi everyone! I am back from my wedding, which was on March 20th, and wanted to give everyone my full review! It may be a long one, so brace yourselves! I got so much helpful information from this thread, I thought I would give back. So, if you have any questions, please PM me and I will do my best to get back to you with the answers! Date: March 20, 2010 Time: 5 p.m. Number of guests: 35 (including two children ages 1 and Let me first start off by saying that I was SUPER excited to get out of Chicago. The weather was bleh, and I needed to get away and enjoy some sun and some time on the beach! I was all ready to go and was eagerly awaiting my first drink by the water. Apparently, the Cancun airport had other ideas for me.... We left on Tues the 16th and to be honest, I was nervous about taking my dress and my husband's suit down there... We ended up checking two bags (free for the first bag, score!) and then carrying on our wedding clothes and one carry on bag filled with our wedding shoes, my jewelry and wedding essentials I didn't want to take a chance with. We arrived a little earlier than our scheduled time. We deplaned and then were met by the LONGEST line of all time. My husband and I kept laughing about how the people at the airport must have been surprised, b/c they were NOT equipped to handle one plane going through customs, let alone three. We spent nearly and hour waiting in the line to get our passports stamped. Suck! After that, we waited to get our bags, and then were greeted by the longest snaking line I've seen in a long time. We were in a line that was curving around multiple baggage checks all to get our bags checked before we left the airport. I had a ton of things that I was putting in our welcome bags and when they asked me about it, I simply replied, "por mi boda" and they smiled and waved me through. Phew! Crisis averted! We made our way out of the airport and met the Lomas/Funjet travel guides who were taking us to the airport. We were in a van with 10 other people and had to make one stop before we got to Barcelo. If I had to do it all over again, I would arrange for transport directly to the hotel. From what I gathered, from my friends that DID do their transportation that way, the price difference was negligible and they got to the hotel much quicker than we did. I think all in all we arrived in Cancun at 12 p.m. and didn't get to the resort until 3 p.m.

I'm glad to hear about everyone's experience with makeup and hair. I'm getting married there on the 20th of the month. Yikes, it's coming up! I have been in communication with them via email, but our emails seem to have a 2-5 day lag. I haven't thought that it was a problem at all, but I think I may be a little more lax than most brides. The whole reason why I wanted a destination wedding was so that I didn't have to stress! LOL. Also, part of the lag in communication time is my fault b/c I have taken more than a couple of days to respond back to her. I think someone asked me before about having 30plus people at the Brazilian restaurant for our welcome dinner. Gabriela did not indicate that it was a problem, so I'm just sticking to that. However, I will print out all of my emails with her and take them down with me...just in case

Quote: Originally Posted by CaraW Hi girls, do you know if Gabriela's email has changed? Maybe the've all changed to Bodas@barcelomaya.com? (Bodas1, Bodas2, etc)? And does anyone know if you have to book a buffet in advance if you're having a welcome dinner for your group there? Just so they can plan to block off a certain number of tables? Thanks Cara Cara, Once you get closer to your date, you'll start getting emails (if you haven't already) going step by step through your entire wedding process. I asked Gabriela early on about the welcome dinner, and then just told her a week ago where we wanted it. We opted for the Brazilian restaurant, for about 36 people on Friday 3.19. That wasn't a problem, and she said that would be fine. Hopefully, that helps! Esther

Kind of a random question, but what are your mother's wearing? I wanted to buy my Mom her dress as a gift, and trying to find one for a destination wedding is harder than I thought!

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsC-to-Be Hi Everyone! Whew- just scanned through the past....100ish pages!! I have just recently decided on Barcelo Maya Palace for my wedding, and this is such an asset Thanks to all who have posted good info/pictures. I am getting married January 2011 (date not set yet), I just requested the callback on the Barcelo website a few days ago...no response yet. I will call directly soon so I can reserve a date. I am sure they are SWAMPED right now and are unable to call Any suggestions on this? Also- did any of you go through outside agents like destinationweddings.com? I am considering booking on my own through Apple Vacations (I have used them in the past, and was pleased) . Can I just book the wedding directly with the Barcelo coordinator? It seems that is how most of you did your weddings. Thanks for the help everyone! Best Wishes. MrsC to be, I ended up using destinationweddings.com but I thought they were AWFUL. My experience with them has not been pleasant. I should've done my research on the forum prior to signing up with them. My guests didn't even book with the TA that was assigned to me through dw.com, as they found my TA to be surly, unhelpful, and the prices outrageous. My friends and family ended up booking through travelocity as they found the prices to be cheaper there. With that being said, there are people on this forum that have had good results with their dw.com TA, but also a lot of TAs on this site that I'm sure will give you great service. Good luck!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMHeikkinen Good Morning Everyone! It's been awhile since I've been on here, we actually got married almost a year ago Anyway, I remembered how much I valued the information given to me from previous brides at Barcelo and thought I share my photos for those that were questioning, the resort, food, etc. The photos should be able to answer alot of those questions! Congratulations to everyone!! 05.23.09 Monica and Kevin | Barcelo Maya | Photos by Vincent Monica, The pictures were great! I'm so excited to finally get there already! Can you give us the information on your gazebo decorations? I loved the hanging flowers, and would love to incorporate that into my wedding. Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by elisha0607 Hello, I suggest not needing to include chips and snacks as Barcelo Maya Palace includes this in every room and replenishes daily. I stayed there about a year ago and the fridge was always stocked with chips, peanuts, beer and PLENTY of water. Thanks! That is good to know! I was planning on getting the local flavor snack foods once we arrived, but if they have them in the room, all the better!

I'm getting close to my wedding date...March 20th (!) and am slowly realizing that I have to take a ton of things down there with me! LOL. But, I have a couple of questions.... 1. What sorts of things did you guys put in your welcome bags? So far, I have: Immodium, Advil, Bandaids, anti bac, body wash, lotion, and was planning on getting chips and candy once I got down to Riviera Maya...anything I'm missing or anything else I can add? I have about 35 bags to put together. 2. Are you ladies doing favors, and if so, what?

Sandra, first of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Secondly, thanks so much for all the information. You are a gorgeous bride, and you both look soo happy!!!!! You inspired me to up my package to the Strawberry one I'm getting more and more excited!