sfrench0621

Was going through and cleaning out my computer and found my pre-wedding newsletter from my wedding last year and figured I'd post it in case anyone is interested. Borrowed a lot of ideas from other girls newsletters in creating mine. Hope this will be helpful to some of you! Pre-Mexico Newsletter.pub

We got married there last May and I believe it was $12/person per extra hour. May have gone up for 2011 though!

Just looked at my receipt and I paid $77 per girl for updos plus tip. Each girl also wanted to have white orchids in their hair as well and I'm not sure if they charged extra for that or not. They really liked how their hair turned out, but I had them bring photos of how they wanted it done because the stylists spoke little to no English.

Yes- they had my contact information just in case of any problems, but luckily they had no problems at all. I had forwarded them all the reservation information to take with them for check in as well. Â

When I booked my photographers room using Happy Days I was able to change the reservation name right when I was booking. It defaulted to my name but I was able to change it. I also booked a room for one of our groomsmen and was able to book it in his name online with the Happy Days special.

Glad to hear you got a quick response back. I'm sure it was an accident and never once felt like the resort was trying to nickle and dime me. I acutally felt like their prices were reasonable compared to other resorts we looked at. Â

We had to give our WC the cash for the officiant and mariachi band right after we met with her to plan everything. She then took us to the front desk of the Palace and we then put the remaining balance on our credit card. Â

On the unofficial barcelo maya website forum there was a discussion about this and apparently the happy days special is only good for US Citizens for some reason. Â

We had our wedding at the Palace in May 2010 and were able to book our photographers 2 nights at the Beach for $65/per night ($130 total for the 2 of them) through the Barcelo's "Happy Days" promotion. You have to join the Barcelo's free online frequent guest club, but was definitely worthwhile for me. Here is the link to the promotion website: https://www.barcelo.com/BarceloHotels/en-GB/UserRegistration/Ofertas_HD_Hoteles_LatAm_NoReg.htm#Mexico  Since they were staying as guests at the Barcelo we didn't have to pay any extra for a day pass or for them to eat at the reception.  Good luck!

It's been a few months since my wedding and I need to make some room in my house. I have a bunch of OOT bag leftovers, DW stuff, stationery, etc for sale. Check out my website for photos and information. If you're interested or have questions shoot me an email: sfrench0621 at gmail.com http://weddingitems4sale.weebly.com/

We went with a nonlegal, symbolic ceremony performed by a minister... I think that would be the best route to go if you're writing your own vows. The minister seemed very flexible- one of our relatives is a Deacon and the minister allowed him to give a special blessing during our ceremony. Quote: Originally Posted by staceychris17 Can any one help me out with a silly question? We are able to have a nonlegal Interactive Blessing Ceremony?? Am I getting this lingo correct? If so, do we have to option between a JOP or a minister? Anyone who had this type of ceremony, do you have any suggestions at to which one to choose. We wrote our own vows. 17 days until the big day:) Thank you so much!!!

Regarding the music- my hubby brought his Sony MP3 player and it worked fine with their equipment. He says it was attached to their equipment via a 2.5mm audio cable. As far as special songs- I would probably put them on your MP3 player... I think they had the cord there. We paid cash for the mariachi band ($400) and the minister ($300). The rest was paid via credit card (in retrospect we wish we would have paid via travelers checks since we ended up having to pay the foreign transaction fee credit cards charge). Regarding spa appts- I wouldn't worry about this at all. Claudia made the appts for hair (for 3 people), massage, makeup, and manicure/pedicure the day we met with her to plan the wedding and we had no problems getting in at all. Quote: Originally Posted by finzup My wedding is 12 days away. I am leaving in 5 days. I still can't really get any answers from my WC (Claudia) I know it'll be fine and fabulous and it'll all work out and I'm trying not to stress but there are just a few important things that I need to know before I go... If anyone can answer, I'd be forever grateful We are doing strawberry passion package.. i still don't know the location of my ceremony/reception .. I know it's on the beach but my questions for the past few months have gone unanswered as to location. Is this normal How do I tell my guests where to be for the wedding, when I don't even know it myself? DJ - I want to do a DJ. .which they list as $540 for 2 hours. I want to have the DJ for the whole 3 hours but I can't get a response on that price... has anyone used their DJ ?? Are they good? Worth it? Music -- I want to bring down my "special" songs but I'm unsure about the format -- MP3, on a CD, etc. Anyone know how I should bring down my songs? For the cocktail hour, we want to have music but just play our own.. I don't own an iPod.. can I use a different MP3 player and what cords might I need? Spa - does anyone have confirmed appointments? I sent in the information to Claudia but I haven't gotten any confirmation that they are booked Payments - who needs to be paid in cash vs on a credit card?? I'm not using the resort photographer, so is it just the officiant? I can't seem to get a response to that either. Thanks ladies.... SO stressed out right now!!!

Here's a picture of our cake- we only requested a 1 tier (included in the Strawberry passion package) but somehow they brought out a 2 tier free of charge. We were the only ones who even ate a piece. We didn't really care for the vanilla and wish we would have picked another flavor. I think they use the same flowers that were in the bouquet. Quote: Originally Posted by BethBride1 Hey girls- how were the wedding cakes?? I already had a tasting when we were down there & showed Claudia a picture of what I wanted & she said it was no problem.....but I never actually saw one of their cakes (we just had small ones). Are they decorated nicely? ...or should I stick to a simple design?

The Carey Bar (Palace lobby bar) is probably your best bet- it has both indoor (A/C) and outdoor seating. Quote: Originally Posted by staceychris17 Hello Girls, I am having my ceremony and reception at Coral Beach....does anyone know of a nice bar or close lobby bar that I can tell my guests to go for drink in between the two events? Oh yeah and what is the name...so I can write it on their welcome letter:) THANK YOU!!!!!!

I'm jealous! Wish we could do it over again- best wishes! Quote: Originally Posted by MObride09 Sfrench, Thanks for the great review, it was very helpful! I can hardly believe it's my turn now. We leave in 3 days!!! I'm much more relaxed after hearing such great reviews like this in recent weeks. Congrats Mrs:)

No rehearsal, just a welcome dinner Friday night. Claudia basically told us to have all the guests, groom, and groomsmen to show up 15 minutes beforehand. She told the bridesmaids and I to stay in our room and she would pick us up on the golf cart. She drove us to the ceremony site and she gave the bridesmaids quick directions on where to walk to and that was about it. Quote: Originally Posted by jjflipt I remembered my question!!! Did you do a wedding rehersal on Friday night?

These were Martha Stewart wedding kits I bought last summer at Big Lots for $2/pack. They came preassembled, I just printed out the smaller heart shaped label and stuck it on. I thought they turned out really well- except I put the wrong ceremony time on there! Oops! Quote: Originally Posted by Daily2011 Oh and I wanted to ask how you did your programs. Did you buy the heart paper or did you cut it all yourself and how?

We didn't have any problems communicating with them. Lupe is better with English than her boyfriend. The only thing really noticeable is through email- sometimes her spelling is off- similar to what I noticed with the wedding coordinators. We had worked with them before and they were well organized, scoped out different sites for the wedding photos the day before, and were really easy to work with. Quote: Originally Posted by Daily2011 sfrench--thanks so much for the review and photos. They are great. Did you have any problems communicating with your photographers? Were they easy to work with?

The only guests we had that didn't stay at the Palace were our photographers and they were taking our photos during the cocktail hour, so I'm not really sure about that. I'd say if it was a problem you could always sit out on the terrace of the lobby bar and have someone with a Palace wristband go up and get their drinks and bring them out. Quote: Originally Posted by diamondpooch sfrench, great review! Thanks so much! I can't wait till next week when we have a couple more girls coming back with more reviews! Glad to know you wouldn't pay for the coctail hour as Im not paying for it either. So, they were ok with non-Palace guests drinking in the Palace lobby till the wedding? I'm nervous they will be asked to leave and come back when the reception starts.

We ended up tipping Claudia $50 and each server $20 (we tipped the one server we really like extra)... we weren't really sure what to do there. Quote: Originally Posted by jjflipt sfrench0621, as I was looking for your pics I thought of a few questions. Now for some reason I can only remember one. Did you tip Claudia? If so, how much?

We had 34 total. Only 1 slice of cake was eaten because everyone was so full after the appetizers at our cocktail hour and a four course meal. The lights were already on the trees at Coral Beach, so no extra charge there. I love how my pics turned out! Thanks! Quote: Originally Posted by jjflipt Did you have to bring the lights around the tress for the reception? I have posted under you on this board and the UBarcelo Board. You are so beautiful. You look GREAT!!!!

We just got back from our wedding trip (May 12- 19) and wanted to post a review because so many of the previous reviews were so helpful with my planning! Check In: We arrived at the resort on Wednesday 5/12 and left our luggage with the bellman for delivery and went to check in. Check in was smooth and we were assigned a king room that was spacious and very nice. In retrospect, I wish we would have taken our luggage with us to the room because we waited over 30 minutes for it to be delivered and finally gave up and headed to the buffet for lunch. When we returned the luggage had arrived so we put on our swim suits and hit the pool. I had emailed Claudia a list of the confirmation numbers and room type requests for all of our guests three weeks before the wedding and I was a little disappointed because our group’s rooms were pretty spread out (some in other buildings). She had mentioned these requests were subject to availability, and the resort was having a Sally Beauty Convention so it was pretty full, but the resort is huge so it was a long walk to some of our guest’s rooms. Wedding Planning Meeting: We received a call from Claudia that night and set up an appointment to meet with her the next day. We met her in the Palace lobby because they have a wedding coordinator office on the lower level of the Palace, but once we got there we found out it was being used, so she drove us over in the golf cart to the main wedding coordinator office near the spa. We had chosen the Strawberry Passion package and it was worth every penny! I had already confirmed the locations for the ceremony (gazebo), cocktail hour (terrace above the gazebo at the Palace), and reception (Coral Beach) with her before arriving. We choose the chair bow colors and picked flowers out of her book. We ended up purchasing 4 extra bridesmaids bouquets, 2 corsages for the moms, and 5 boutonnieres for the groomsmen and dads and it cost about $220 extra which I didn’t think was too bad. We picked a 1 tier vanilla cake that was included in the package and went with the standard centerpieces which ended up being rose petals around a clear votive holder with candles in them. We chose to have the violinist play for the ceremony and Claudia had a list of songs to pick from for the bridal party procession, bride’s entrance and exit. We also decided to go with the mariachi band for a 45 minute set after the reception dinner (had to pay $400 cash for that). We also had to pay $300 for the minister’s fee in cash. Claudia also booked our couples massage, my manicure, pedicure, and makeup application appointment, as well as the hair appointments for my bridesmaids ($77 each) while we were there. My hair is short and there isn’t much that can be done with it, but I was able to give my hair appointment to one of my bridesmaids which was nice and saved me some money. During our appointment we also chose the food for the reception and cocktail hour. The whole appointment lasted about 45 minutes and after she drove us back to the front desk of the Palace to pay for everything. Welcome Dinner: As I mentioned above, about 3 weeks before leaving I sent Claudia a list with the final guest count and was able to have her book a welcome dinner on Friday night at Rodizio (the Brazilian restaurant). We had 32 guests and Claudia said that they could only make reservations at the a la cartes for up to 30, so I told her to book it for 30 people at 6:00pm and we just had 2 extra people show up. They were fine with that at the restaurant and we were seated in an area in the back of the restaurant with about 6 tables. The dinner was nice and service was great. Everyone had a great time. Spa Appointments: Our spa appointments were scheduled for Saturday morning before all the events. We arrived around 10:15 and were done around 12:15. My manicure and pedicure were great and they did a great job with the makeup application. I was sure to remind my bridesmaids who were getting their hair done to bring pictures of what they wanted their hair to look like and the stylists did a great job matching it. Everyone was so happy with the way their hair turned out. It cost $77/person for hair. Photos: My sister and I had made a trip to Cancun back in January and stayed at the Gran Melia hotel. While we were there we met the 2 resort photographers (Lupe Arguello and Agustin Bocci of Take It Photo, www.fototakeit.com ) who are a couple from Argentina, graduated from art school and have been in Mexico for a few months working as resort photographers at the Gran Melia. We had them do a mini photo shoot in January as gifts for our parents and we loved their work. I contacted Lupe to see if they were available to shoot our wedding and booked them as soon as they said yes. I had checked with Claudia to be sure that “our friends†could photograph the wedding if we booked them a hotel at the resort and she said yes. We ended up booking them 2 nights at the Beach for $130 total as part of the Happy Days promo at the Barcelo. We also paid for their transportation which was about $100. The photo package cost us $750 and included all photos on DVD and a slideshow set to music. The photographers arrived in our room around 1:30 to take photos of us getting ready. It was really nice to have 2 photographers since one worked with the girls and 1 with the guys. They were there taking photos non-stop from 1:30-10:30pm and covered us getting ready, the ceremony, champagne toast, group photos, a couples session, and the reception. They were great to work with, very professional and had great ideas for photos. The package didn’t cover any photo retouching, but that was fine by me. The next afternoon, we met with them and reviewed the slideshow dvd, I got a copy of the DVD with the photos on it and paid the photographers in cash. They made duplicate DVDs of each, so they dropped those off at the Palace Front desk that night. I am so happy we chose them- they were cheaper than the resort photographer, the package included more photos, and the photos were better quality than those I have seen from the resort photographer. Would definitely recommend them and use them again!! Here is a link to the slideshow of our professional pics: Welcome to Kodak Gallery! Ceremony: Our ceremony was held at 4:00pm at the gazebo. Claudia picked us up around 3:55 and drove the girls over in the golf cart. The violinist was great- would definitely select this again. We had a non-legal wedding and chose to use a minister instead of the JP. Our minister was Santiago Carranza and the ceremony was in English. He did a great job and the ceremony was very touching. The resort staff did a great job keeping any bystanders to the side and the ceremony lasted about 15 minutes. It was really sunny and hot- everyone was sweating. After the ceremony, we walked back into the resort and had our champagne toast. Cocktail Hour: 5:30-6:30pm While we were having photos taken, we arranged a cocktail hour on the terrace above the gazebo for our guests. We had a playlist made up on our ipod and had a friend set it up and start the music. We chose the Mexican package, which was $14.50/person. Everyone said the food was delicious and the setup was great- apparently they made some watermelon drink that was really good. We never made it to the cocktail hour, so I’ll have to take their word for it. This is one thing I may have cut out if I had done it again. The lobby bar is air conditioned and just as close and would have been fine for everyone to gather at for some drinks before the reception started. Reception: 6:30-10:30pm As soon as we arrived at the reception, the food service started. We chose the mixed green salad, lobster bisque, surf & turf, and strawberry cheesecake. Like many others have said, this was way too much food! Everything was delicious- especially the lobster. The steak was a little well done for my liking, but I heard many guests mention this was the best wedding food they ever had. The wait staff was so attentive, always coming over and asking if we needed more drinks. After dinner, we did our first dance, father-daughter and mother-son dances and the mariachi band came out. They were definitely well worth the price and got everyone up and dancing. That 45 minute set flew by!! The wait staff was great during this time too- bringing out too many tequila shots!! Our one server, Angeles, was amazing, and danced with us for a few songs! We loved her. We followed other brides advice and only went with the basic 1 tier cake (we chose white cake) that was included in the package and are glad we did- the only cake that got eaten was the piece when we cut the cake. From what I remember it wasn’t that great. Again, we used our ipod for music and that was fine. I’m glad we didn’t spend the money on a DJ. At 9:30 Claudia came over and asked if we wanted to add an extra hour to the reception for $12/person and we did. The reception flew by and everyone had a great time- no complaints. Everyone was saying it was the best wedding they’d ever been to. We had no problems with sand blowing around like so many have worried about. We did have a small fire ant problem near one of the tables, but Claudia came and sprayed them as soon as we mentioned it to her. After the reception, the wedding party headed to the Jaguar disco and we had a great time in the VIP lounge. We are so lucky we had such a beautiful day- very sunny, no rain. From Sunday through Wednesday when we left it was overcast and rained all evening and night long. I felt so bad for anyone who might have had a wedding planned for those days. Feel free to ask any questions!

Good luck Cara! We leave next Wednesday!! I finally heard back from Claudia on Friday. She said she could book a welcome dinner for no more than 30 people in an a la carte at either 6pm or 9pm. She didn't specify what a la cartes were available so I requested the French restaurant at 6pm. We have 32 people and are just going to book for 30 and see what happens when 2 extra show up. We'll see when I get there I suppose... Hope you have a great time and maybe we'll run into you there! Quote: Originally Posted by CaraW Holy smokes ladies I am getting so excited!! We leave on FRIDAY for our wedding!!!! I'm feeling the last minute stress, but I am trying to tell myself that everything will come together and will be ok. The wedding coordinator is not getting back to me at all and I'd really just like to confirm that they have a section blocked off for our welcome dinner on Friday night.... oy.... oh well I'm sure it'll be ok. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Cara

Glad to hear I'm not the only one not receiving responses from their wedding coordinator. I leave 2 weeks from tomorrow and haven't heard a word from Claudia.

Laura- thanks for the review- I'm so glad to hear everything went well for you! Question for you regarding the band Kiko and Carlos- how much did having them for the reception run you and how long did they play for at the reception? Did you have to pay some sort of vendor fee to the Barcelo as well?