MObride09

Thanks for sharing! Very helpful info:)

WOW! those are amazing. Great job!

Can't wait to see it!!!!!

Sandra, The invitations are amazing! Great job!!!!!!

This list is very helpful! Thanks for posting:)

Beautiful! Congratulations on a great dress! I love,love,love the train!

I had looked at dress #2 for my girls as well. I can give you this input. One of my gals is a little less endowed on the top if you know what I mean, and this dress made her look even smaller and accentuated a rounder backside. The other gal is rather busty and it didn't really provide the support she required. Both girls are thin and expressed that they felt it made them look heavier than what they were and I had to agree. While I loved the look of the dress and the variety of color options, it didn't prove to be the most flattering fit for them. But it could be different for your 'maids. Good luck with the decision!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by laura4ever DId you end up using them for your wedding? We are pretty sure that we are going to use them and I wanted to see what you thought I think there is a bride who used them for her wedding this summer and wrote some nice things about them on the Barcelo Palace brides thread. You might look there for more information,

Love, Love, Love the wine glasses! I'm making something very similar for my girls for the bachelorette party. Thanks for posting all the pics! You're going to have a beautiful wedding!

Everything looks great!! You're ready to go!! Best wishes!

My wedding is in May 2010 and I was in the process of booking my photographer when this new policy was announced. I sent my coordinator an email explaining that I had already booked my photographer from the US and she will be staying at the resort as a guest. I received an email in return stating that this was OK. There was no mention of having to pay an extra fee, and I would think not since I'm paying for a 4 night stay for my photog!!! From what I have read from other brides, they are allowing outside vendors onto the property to photograph weddings, but the couple or the vendor must pay for at least one nights stay on the property (any of the 5 hotels).. I will be sure to take the email with me just in case any problems should arise once we get there....

Quote: Originally Posted by estella1007 Here's mine! He is a huge Nightmare Before Christmas fan,and I actually got the idea from on this forum. Someone posted a pic of a cake topper and it got me thinking about doing this as a groom's cake. It was a total surprise and he had no idea until he walked in the room and saw it! It was def the hit of our wedding... This cake is too cute! What a great surprise!!!

The photographer I hired for my wedding in Riviera Maya has studios in St. Louis, MO and in Florida, around the Ft. Lauderdale area I believe. She is great and her prices are too! She does weddings all over the country! The name is Maggie Stolzberg Photography!

I agree, I think we all get that feeling at some point. Considering my original date was this Sat, I've had my dress for over a year. About 2 months ago I got that " did I make a mistake" feeling when I saw a new Maggie dress in an ad. It was everything I had originally wanted but couldn't find at that time. I went as far as to contact the dress shop which still had my dress about ordering in a loaner so I could try on the Maggie dress and compare with mine. They were willing but before I/we went through the trouble I thought I should try mine on again. Low and behold once I put on my original dress I got the Teary eyes and the "this is it" feeling all over again. It helped that my BM's, who are painfully honest, were with me and both stated they liked this dress better than the dress in the ad. I guess I should have trusted my instincts.

Quote: Originally Posted by svetayasofiya I think that's your answer there! Yeah, must be. Victoria actually never even mentioned upgrading as an option. I wonder if you upgrade, then do they offer the restaurant as a private venue? Not that it makes much difference to me really, cause either way I want to have the dinner there, but funny how some WC's offer things others don't, ya know? Thank Goodness for all you girls on here, I have gotten WAAAAYYYY more information through this thread than I have from any of the coordinators!!!!

I agree, 1 and 3 are fabulous!

Quote: Originally Posted by vlynnw I originally wanted to go with the mint breeze package but when I emailed Xhail about using the French Restaurant because I liked the decor more and didn't want a drab banquet room, she told me I would have to upgrade to strawberry passion in order to get the restaurant. How were you able to keep that package and get the restaurant? If this is the case I think I need to try to negotiate it. Not sure really Victoria never mentioned having to upgrade the package. It may be related to the fact that we will not have the restaurant for the entire 3 hours and she said it will not be entirely private...

Quote: Originally Posted by nschacht Hi Thank you for answering all my questions. The french restaurant is so nice. We are having over 60 people and we wanted dancing so that want an option. The private catamaran will be so nice. We want to confirm the spoy on top of hill looking over the ocean for our ceremony, its a hard sand area, in front of the palace. We are also using a damask type theme brown and pool color:) We are thinking about an open air restaurant for the reception but I am having a hard time getting pictures. If you have any that would be great. Maybe we could coordinate and hire (makeup artist from the area) maybe hell give us a discount if we book two wedding parties through him? What is his contact information I can contact him. My email is [email protected], can you forword me any pictures you have. Thank you and it was nice talking with you. Nichole Hi Nichole: I'm sending over the pics I have and the contact information for Adrian. That would be great if he could give us a special deal for having 2 brides that day. For what I've priced around this area, his cost for the makeup plus lashes was a little cheaper than what I could get here. I'll send over the price information he gave me as well. He was really nice and responded quickly! Happy planning and please let me know if I can help in any way:)

Absolutely Gorgeous!!!!! Congratulations!

Quote: Originally Posted by nschacht Have you picked where your reception is going to be held? Do you have pictures of flowers for bouquets or centerpieces from the Barcelo yet? Thank you Nichole Hi there! For now, we reserved the French Restaurant for our reception, Victoria said it will not be totally private, but we aren't terribly concerned about that. We aren't planning on a huge DJ type reception so that was fine for us to have a nice dinner with all our guests for the time allowed. If we want to dance we'll go to the nightclub at the resort that night. It's kind of a cheesy place but it was fun the last time we were there :)We are planning on a private catamaran sail the next day with guests so that will be more of our party/nontraditional reception. If we change our minds and use the banquet room for a reception (we are going with the Mint package as we didn't want to be outside for dinner) then we will use the Ipod for music. I do have examples of flowers for bouquets but nothing on centerpieces, send me your email and I'll forward them to you We are having the ceremony at the Gazebo and I'm using a black and ivory floral-damask type print as the base color for my wedding and accenting with lime green, watermelon and a purply-magenta type color. If you've looked at Wedding Paper Divas, the Brilliant Blooms invitation is the one we chose and is the color scheme for the wedding. (One of the reasons we chose the French Restaurant, because the decor is our wedding theme/colors!!! ) Fortunately, my sister is a hair stylist and she will be doing our hair for the ceremony. I've spoken with Adrian(makeup artist from the area) about doing my makeup for the day. If you've seen eblum999's pics, he is the artist who did her makeup! I'm leaning towards hiring this done simply because I want it to last for pics and in the price, he includes individual false lashes which really look great in photos. What about you?? When are you arriving? What are your colors and reception/wedding location? Sorry for all the questions, it's just exciting to think we'll all be there at the same time!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by nschacht Hello I am still getting used to this forum stuff. I am also getting married on Saturday May 29 2010 at the Barcelo Palace at 6 pm. So I know there are a couple brides on this forum that have the same date, I am just wondering what times your ceremonies are ? Also If anyone knows? Do you have to use a D.J. the Barcelo provides or can you bring an outside one? Thank you Nichole Hi there Nichole! Welcome to the forum. I'm the 4:00 wedding on May 29th!!!! I'm just going to use the ipod for music, but I do believe you can use an outside DJ for a charge perhaps for electricity?? Happy Planning!

Quote: Originally Posted by diamondpooch I know! It seems like now that travel arrangements are laid down, STD's are sent, dress is bought, photog and DJ paid, and centerpieces and flowers decided on, I can relax! So, you know another MO girl is the same day? That's crazy! We will for sure have to meet up! How awesome would it be to have some friendships formed that carry over once we get home! Now that's rare. I know, it's such a relief. I've had over a year of planning as our original date was Oct. 17th 2009 and then in January 09 we changed the date for family travel reasons. I feel like I've been planning forever, but you know, I LOVE it. I could so do this for a job!!!!! Like you said, It feels good to have the travel arrangements paid, the STD sent, invites picked out, colors/flowers decided on, locations at the resort booked, dresses ordered and photog paid. And now that I know my sister is coming I can go ahead and order the BM dresses. I'm not sure if the other gal is a MO girl or not, she PM'd me on the Unofficial Barcelo site and I wrote back, but she hasn't responded yet. But New friendships are always great and I can't wait to meet new people!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by diamondpooch Well, last night I sent a reminder to my bm's about Monday being the final day they can put down their deposit in order to secure the pricing of the group rate and two of them pretty much said they don't know if they can come now. SO FRUSTRATING! I've given them 8 months advanced notice and they are both bartenders so I know they make good money. Their trip for four days, flight included is $877. that's it! Even if they put aside $150 a month (which is like one shift of bartending a month) they could save it! It just tells me that they aren't interested in being in the wedding. Now the groomsmen/bridesmaid count is off and I'm going to be forced to ask two girls that are just "sort of" friends to be in the wedding and I didn't want to do that. It's so frustrating cuz I see these girls who say they can't afford it out shopping every week yet, they're so broke. Ugh As far as the rates, my future in laws were at Barcelo Palace last year and they told me the rates I got through my TA were half of what they paid last year in March. I feel confident I was able to get a good rate and if my guests wait till the last minute, they are gonna get screwed Oh well, their issue. I can't stress over it because it's sucking all the fun out of planning this wedding. We have to just relax and let whoever comes, come and not fret, right?!!!! Ugh, that sucks!!! Don't ya just wish that people would be up front and say from the beginning they can't afford it or don't want to go rather than encouraging you to have a DW, say they'll be there no matter what and then suddenly back out. I think it is less painful if you have warning!!! What started out looking like 40+ people has now dwindled down to maybe 20-30 guests for us, but whatever, we'll have a great time no matter what!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by SusieQ Awesome news, You want to talk to my brother who hasn't booked yet because he thinks he is so smart and thinks if he waits to the very last minute he is going to get the deal of a life time and brag to everyone how stupid they are for booking early. Oh he needs to be smacked!!!!! We had company over in August just after the invites were sent out and he was telling other people that I invited that if you go online at 2am in the morning a few days before the departure date you can get deals like half price. I was so close to murder, can you amagine waiting for quest to book days before the wedding. Yikes!!!! He so got a blast of "shut up before I kill you" Oh forgot to mention "my brother the extent of his worldly travel experience, is Thunder Bay Ontario hunting friggin deer" I've had people mention that too. Originally my date was Oct 17th, 2009 but due to some issues with family and time away from work, we had to move back to May 29, 2010. So I've priced this trip on 2 different occassions now. We actually booked in August 09 for our May'10 wedding because we found an early booking special on Orbitz and our travel agency was willing to price match. The prices were even cheaper than what we had originally been quoted for Oct '09 in the offseason!!!. Nearly $1000.00 cheaper for our 9 night stay!!!!! I've been continuing to price check amongst different travel sites and have yet to find anything cheaper or even close.....Sometimes waiting to the last minute isn't the best idea! Our flight is already booked up and the wedding is 8 months away!!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by diamondpooch Hey hey hey!!! Haven't talked to you in a while! We will for sure all have to meet and hang out down there! So crazy! I'm sure all that needs to be changed is the chair bows, so I doubt that's too much work! I can't wait! My in laws have been there and he said that there is nothing to worry about regarding how people will keep busy. Remember they can always go to the bar together where it's paid for! Remember, they are in a tropical wonderland and they'll be happy no matter what! For sure, we'll have to meet up! True about the chair bows, that and flowers I guess is all that would really need changed out. So I wonder if they give us a little extra time for pictures etc, If I remember right you are the 2:00 wedding and I'm the 4:00 so wonder when the 3rd gal is: earlier, later, or in between just wondering if they go every other hour to allow time for photos etc....I'm getting so excited with each plan and decision that falls into place!!! I can't hardly wait:)