sfrench0621

Thanks for the info- I am going to stress to everyone that they should leave all valuables in the safe. I went down for my site visit in January and didn't have any problems and am hoping for the same thing in May! Quote: Originally Posted by DDBentley15 No, the stolen items weren't taken out of a safe. It was kind of strange...we had 2 different incidents. One room had some clothes stolen and some prescription drugs. Another had clothes stolen (nice jeans, shirt) and a nintendo DS. The strange part was that they had dug through a backpack because they had put the wrong cell phone back into the wrong backpack.

DDBentley15- were the stolen items taken out of the room safe? I'm always paranoid about using them.

These turned out great. I like the idea of using the velcro dots to open and close. Did you glue the ribbon on the pocketfold?

I emailed Claudia about a week ago and haven't heard anything back- normally she takes about 3-4 days. When I was at the resort I heard that they had over 75 weddings scheduled this month. Quote: Originally Posted by FutureMrs.D Hey ladies, Just wondering how often you've been hearing back from the WC's lately?? Mine is Gabriela.. I would usually get a reply back from within 1 week, 1 week and a half.. but the last email I sent her was on Dec. 29th, and haven't heard back yet...? Just wondering if anyone else's email responses have been slower than usual?

I was just at the Barcelo and saw a sign that said scooters and golf carts could be rented. Can't remember the price but I think it's listed on the unofficial barcelo maya website: Unofficial Barcelo Maya - Index Quote: Originally Posted by nisi1125 Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone knows if you can rent wheelchairs at Barcelo Maya? We have a 90 year old grandma coming. I was also wondering if anyone knows if projectors can be rented for a slideshow? I know they have business conferences there...

These look amazing! One question for you- where did you tie the band?

Just PMd you about the following if they're still available: 10 spanish for dummies 7 Sudoku for Dummies 46 wrist keychains with whistles, various colors 18 beach safe containers

Just PMd you about the thank you parasol!

Just posted the pictures from my site visit. You can check them out here: Picasa Web Albums - Stephanie - Palace

Just got back from my site visit at the Barceló and I’m so happy I chose this resort for my wedding. My sister and I already had a trip to Cancun planned, so we booked a room at the Barceló Maya Caribe for Monday night and met with Claudia on Tuesday. We had left early since we’d only have 2 days at the resort and arrived at 11am (took about 1 hour from Cancun). We received our welcome drinks and checked in, but were told our room wouldn’t be ready until 3. We were given our all inclusive wristbands and were told we could use the lockers in the gym to store our stuff in so we could go to the pool/restaurant/bar. We headed to the Caribe pool which was very nice. Plenty of hammocks and chairs were available by the pool and they had American music playing. They had a swim up and walk up bar right there which was awesome. We ate the lunch buffet at Captain Morgan’s which was pretty good. We returned to the front desk at 3pm and received our room key. Because we were staying only 1 night, we didn’t get any tickets to the ala carte restaurants, but were informed we could pay extra to eat dinner at one. We headed over to guest services, and made reservations at the Brasserie restaurant in the Palace for $20 each, since our guests will be staying at the Palace for our wedding in May and I wanted to check it out. We then headed to our room which was in the Sayil building. The room was a little disappointing to me- just your average room, nothing special. The beds were a little hard and the room never did cool down, despite keeping the AC on the coolest settings. That had me a little worried at first, but Claudia showed us 2 Palace rooms and they are gorgeous! After getting settled in our rooms we headed to the lobby bar for some drinks before dinner. A mariachi band was playing in the lobby and they were great! We took the tram over to the Palace for dinner at the Brasserie. That restaurant is amazing- so beautiful and the food was delicious. I had the surf and turf and everything was prepared perfectly. The lobster soup was also great and had huge pieces of lobster meat in it. The waiter let us pick 2 desserts each and those were great as well! After dinner we headed back for bed. The next morning we got up to meet with Claudia. She is so nice and does speak great English. Upon arriving, she showed us the book of flower choices. I believe I ended up picking the same bouquet Sandra did. She also showed us the options for the chair bows and I picked the shimmery orange ones since my colors are pink and orange. There was a sample table setup in the wedding coordinators office so you could see what the tables would look like. Then Claudia showed us a book of possible reception and ceremony options. We then left the office to see them in person. Because one of our groomsmen is a wheelchair user, we couldn’t look at the beach sites that had deep sand. Claudia first took us to the Palmeras Pool. I wasn’t too crazy about this location because you couldn’t really see the Caribbean Sea from there. Next stop was the Palmeras Grill. The grill is huge, but Claudia said they would section whatever wasn’t being used off. The grill had a great view of the Caribbean and was my second choice for a reception. Next we went over to the Palace and saw the gazebo which I selected for my ceremony. She then showed us the Coral beach reception area and I fell in love! The sand is packed much harder here and they said they would be able to put a ramp for our guest in a wheelchair and have a table close to the walkway for him. This location already has lights around the palm trees which look beautiful at night. We then selected a terrace in the Palace that overlooks the gazebo and Coral Beach to have our cocktail hour in. Claudia then showed us around the Palace lobby, some of the bars and then I asked if we could see a guest room. We looked at 2 rooms, which were beautiful. Much more modern, classy and updated than the Caribe rooms. I am so happy we chose to have our guests book the Palace- that section of the resort is much newer, the décor is gorgeous, has the largest pool (absolutely enormous), and has the added bonus that guests staying there can go anywhere in the resort, but resort guests not staying at the Palace can’t come there. Definitely worth the extra money in my opinion. Some things I got clarification on from Claudia: •Frozen drinks are included for the receptions. •You can decide to add the extra hour to the reception now or during the reception •Guest names should be given to her no later than 3 weeks prior to the wedding date, so she can arrange for the guests rooms to be near each other •She said we could have a rehearsal dinner the day before either at the Palace buffet restaurant during the first seating, or possibly the Brazilian restaurant at the 9:30 seating depending on resort occupancy for no extra charge. •Backup location in case of rain is a banquet room for the reception. My sister took a bunch of pictures of the resort and I’ll post them as soon as she sends them to me. I am so happy I was able to do the site visit. The resort is great and I’m sure all my guests will have a great time. I can’t wait for May! Let me know if you have any questions!

Wow thanks for the great review Sandra. Seems to me like almost everything was perfect, which is so comforting. I am a little disappointed to hear about the beef at the reception being overcooked. Just curious- what pool area did you have your reception at?

Congrats Sandra! I'm so happy everything went well for you! I'm headed down Friday for my site visit and can't wait to meet Claudia and check out the resort. Can't wait to read your review.

Glad they're back in stores. I'm definitely going to stop by and pick some up! Thanks for the heads up.

Can anyone give me a price range for Maggie? How long are you all paying for her to stay? I am trying to decide if it's more reasonable to book a photographer from the states and fly them down or to use a local photographer in Mexico. Thanks, Steph Quote: Originally Posted by mctilleys For us, we are planning to have a beach reception. We are using a photographer who has an officer here in St. Louis and one in Florida. Her name is Maggie Stolzberg and she specializes in destination weddings. Her prices were very reasonable. Her website is Maggie Stolzberg Photography - Destination Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer We are using an ipod instead of a DJ.

Thanks for the information! Quote: Originally Posted by Andi sure the all caps is Copperplate Gothic Light

Hi Andi, Love your invites. I am in the process of designing mine and am having trouble picking out the fonts I want to use. Would you mind telling me what font you used for the text that is in all caps (date, time, etc). Thanks so much! Steph

These look great- love the color combo. Can you tell me what fonts you used for the invite?

Good luck Sandra! I'm sure everything will be amazing! I am headed down to meet with Claudia on January 19 for a site visit, so I will take a bunch of pics and post them for everyone. If anyone can think of any questions they want me to ask her just let me know!

Thanks for posting! I'll be sure to stop by the store on my NYC trip in April!

Someone posted pics of her reception at the new location on the Unofficial Barcelo Maya website. I am doing a site visit in January, so I'll ask Claudia to show me the new location and will take some pics and post them! Quote: Originally Posted by DDBentley15 I head rumors about a new reception location on the beach by the Caribe side. Does anyone have pics of this? Thanks!!

The menu was too big to upload so I posted the PDF of the menu for the Strawberry Passion package on 4shared.com for anyone to download. Hope this helps! If someone wants to send me the menu for the other package I can post it on the download site as well. sfrench0621 at gmail.com 4shared.com - document sharing - download MENU_ING_PLAYA.pdf

I found a few cute things for OOT bags at my Dollar Tree tonight. Got a bunch of these fish loofas: I also found travel mugs that come with printable inserts. I didn't end up buying these though because they were only 11 oz. and I thought these were too small for my liking.

Just PMd you about the sewing kits if they're still available!

Thanks for posting the photos BethBride! Can't wait to go for my site visit in January! Question about the food tasting- did you have to pay extra for that? Quote: Originally Posted by BethBride1 We had a food tasting in July when we were down there....everything was DELICIOUS!!! My fiance's family is straight from Italy, so this was very important to us. We were so nervous....but were soooo surprised and happy!! Even the presentation was amazing!

Wow these look amazing! Great job!