mexico_2011

This picture was taken in the kids water park....we had so much fun!

And in the ocean at Playa Azul...

Hi everyone, I have a few pictures from our TTD photo session that we did the day after our wedding at Barcelo. These ones were taken at Playa Azul. Mel

I should also mention that the wedding coordinators will do everything they can to make your wedding day how you want it. They are very helpful, I'm sure everything will be great and you will have a wonderful day! Good luck future brides!! Mel

Hi there! I think I can sort of help you with these questions. The only thing they supply is what is included in your package. I don't think they keep stuff like candles and baskets on hand. When we were at the wedding office, they only had the items in there that are included with wedding packages (chair bows, center piece examples that are an extra cost, etc) There is a book to go through when picking out your flowers and center pieces, so I think what you see is what you get, unless you bring your own stuff. They may be able to get candles for you but it would be much more expensive than bringing your own with you. So my advice would be to bring as much with you that you can, and they will set it all up for you for no extra charge. That way you will be guaranteed to have exactly what you want. We brought a lot with us and luckily our friends and family were willing to pack stuff for us in their suitcases. If you are having an outdoor reception, I recommend bringing flameless candles. I brought both flameless and regular candles and we couldn't even light the regular candles because of the wind, so I'm glad I had the other ones. I also brought my own candle holders and vases. My suggestion for the flip flops is maybe you can bring them to the wedding office and they can put them all out on a table for you at the reception. Maybe on the table with your guest book? Here is a list of what we brought with us for the wedding: Candles, candle holders, vases, sea shells, decorative sand, maracas, cake topper, sand ceremony vases, wedding bubbles.

And here are some pictures of our reception at Playa Azul...

Here are a couple pictures of Playa Azul during the day...

No, the dye didn't rub off on anything. Not even when I got the bouquet wet during our TTD photo session!

The flowers in my bouquet were roses, gerber daisies, and mini calla lilies. There is an extra charge for coloured calla lilies ($25 per flower). So the wedding coordinator recommended using white calla lilies and they dyed them to match the colour of the roses and gerber daisies. That way there was no extra charge for them. I am very happy with how it turned out

Your welcome! I should also mention that the colour of the bridesmaids dresses match perfectly with the chair bows that the Barcelo provides

Thank you!! I am from Winnipeg and I got the bridesmaids dresses from a local bridal salon called LA Collection. They are made by Impressions, which I'm sure can be found all accross Canada. The girls tried the dresses on in a different colour and I ordered them in this colour, which I think was called turquoise according to the colour swatch I chose from. They had no sample dresses in the turquoise, so I had to go off the little swatch they showed me. I think they turned out perfect and I love how they looked with the hot pink flowers!! Mel

Hi Everyone! I have a few pictures of our ceremony at Coral Beach. Just a few snapshots that one of our guests took. I will post some more once I have them, including some from our reception at Playa Azul. Mel

Hi! I just had my wedding at the Barcelo on March 16. Our ceremony was at Coral Beach at 4:00. There was a light breeze, no strong winds. Also, they provide a microphone & speaker so all the guests can hear the wedding. Even watching the video we can hear every word and there is no wind noise. Hopefully that sets your mind at ease for having your ceremony on the beach. Their beach locations are gorgeous for having a wedding. And much more private than having it at the gazebo. Playa Azul is the most private beach location, it's where we had our reception. Mel

We used an Ipod Nano, but I'm sure an Ipod Touch would work too. We had the playlists loaded onto 2 different Ipods for the same reasons that Meggers mentioned above. I should also mention that for the ceremony music that we used the Ipod for, we labelled the songs in different playlists so it would be easier for the person to play them at the right time. There is a staff member that takes care of the music for you during the ceremony. So the song I walked down the isle to, we labelled "bride walking down the isle". The song that played during our sand ceremony we labelled "sand ceremony". etc. One thing I am glad we did was ask people ahead of time if they had any song requests for the reception. We sent out an email about 2 months before the wedding. This way we were able to compile a playlist with a good variety of music and with something that everyone would like. Our playlist had people up dancing the whole night!

Here is my bouquet inspiration picture. I showed it to the wedding coordinator and my bouquet turned out almost exactly like this! I loved my bouquet!

They are strict about the 3 day rule for symbolic ceremonies. And Sundays do not count as a day. We arrived on Sunday and the earliest day we could have our wedding was Wednesday. If we arrived on the Saturday, the wedding still would have been on the Wednesday. We ended up switching our arrival day from Saturday to Sunday with the travel agent when we found this out, so there would be less days before the wedding once we got there. Mel

Coral Beach is fairly private. There are no beach chairs around, so you don't have people laying in the sun right beside your wedding. The beach is separately raised up from the rest of the beach, overlooking a rocky area of the ocean. So there is no one swimming there. The only area that there would be people around is on the sidewalk between the beach and building that is behind it, but they stop people from walking there during the ceremony. It's hard to describe without a picture so I hope that makes sense. Playa Azul is more private in the sense that there is no sidewalk there, it is all beach at the very end of the resort. There are very few beach chairs at Playa Azul, but more people swim there because there are no rocks. It is quite secluded though. Either location is beautiful for a ceremony and both are private (Playa Azul being a little more private). We chose Coral Beach because of the palm trees (it was more sheltered) and the gorgeous scenic background. And we wanted to have part of our wedding near the Palace. It was nice to have 2 different locations for the ceremony and the reception. It made for a variety of backgrounds for pictures. I wouldn't change a thing!

Wedding Review Date: March 16, 2011 Ceremony Location: Coral Beach Reception Location: Playa Azul This website has been so helpful in planning our wedding, so I wanted to do my part and help out any future brides. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me and I will do my best to answer them. Resort: The resort is so beautiful and well kept. We stayed in the Colonial section and all our guests were happy with their rooms. We were all fairly close together which was great. The pools and the beach were fantastic. The buffet restaurant got repetitive after a while but that is to be expected. It was difficult to get reservations at the a la carte restaurants. We went to book them as soon as we checked in, but were only able to get in a few nights. The Japanese restaurant was our favorite. One thing I should point out is the floors can be very slippery. We saw a lot of people on crutches and in wheel chairs with broken legs and ankles, and any of them that we talked to said it had happened at the resort. It’s a good idea to warn your guests about this. Wedding Coordinator: Our coordinator was Claudia. She was so great. I had been emailing with her for months ahead of the wedding and she always responded within 1 – 3 weeks. We met with her the first morning that we got to the resort. She was very organized and had all our requests in a file. We finalized all the details in about an hour and then she took us to our wedding location in a golf cart. She had booked our spa appointments for me and the girls to have our hair done and booked the couples massage that was included in the package. I wanted to have a welcome dinner in one of the a la carte restaurants, but they only provide a set menu when you book a large group. We ended up all going to the buffet instead and Claudia made sure there were tables together for all of us. We also wanted to have a rehearsal for the ceremony, so Claudia met us at the ceremony location 2 days before the wedding and walked us through everything. I am so glad that we did this, it made the wedding day run very smoothly, especially because we had kids in the wedding party. I can’t speak highly enough how helpful and professional that Claudia was. You will be in good hands with the wedding coordinators. We made sure to tip her at the end of the reception. Spa: The main spa was closed for renovations, so we went to the salon at the Palace. I brought a picture of how I wanted my hair and makeup done and they did a fabulous job! I loved my hair and had so many compliments on it. Our appointments were for 11 am which gave us enough time to have lunch after and not feel rushed getting ready before the ceremony at 4 pm. It was pouring rain while we were getting our hair done, but thankfully it all cleared up a few hours before the ceremony. Wedding Ceremony: We had our ceremony at 4:00 at Coral Beach. This is the beach in front of the Palace section of the resort. It was absolutely perfect and everything I dreamed of. My bridesmaids and I walked down the isle starting at the Palace gazebo and down the sidewalk to the beach. We used the violin player for the bridesmaids and then a song from my ipod for me and my dad to walk down the isle. It was so beautiful, I started to get tears in my eyes when I saw everything set up for our ceremony. And even more tears once I saw my groom waiting for me at the end of the isle J We did a symbolic ceremony because we were legally married in Canada before we left. My husband’s uncle performed the ceremony for us, which took $300 off the package price for using our own officiant. We had rose pedals down the isle ($15 per bag of pedals, used 2 bags) and the centre piece that was included in the package was on the table along with our sand ceremony vases that we brought. My bouquet had fuchsia roses, gerber daisies, and calla lilies…so gorgeous!! I loved my bouquet. My bridesmaids had fuchsia roses for their bouquet and the groom and groomsmen had fuchsia rose boutiniers. After the ceremony there was a champagne toast on the beach and we went right into taking group photos. Photographer – Ivan Luckie: I am so happy that we chose Ivan to do our photographs. Pictures are so important to me and I love his style. He was so wonderful to work with. He has done quite a few weddings at the Barcelo and knows all the right places to take pictures. We just followed his lead and let him do his work. I can’t wait to see how they turned out! He was there from when we started getting ready in our rooms until the end of the reception. By the time our ceremony was done, we had 2 hours for pictures before the reception started. It was just enough time to get some really good shots of me and my husband before the sun went down, but I still wish we had a little more time. I paid for Ivan to stay for 2 nights at the resort to avoid the outside photographer fees. We did a TTD photo shoot the next day on the beach at the resort and in the pools. He brought his underwater camera. It was so much fun going in the ocean with my dress on and I totally recommend doing a TTD if it fits your budget. Wedding Reception: Our reception was at Playa Azul, which is at the far end of the beach in front of the Barcelo Maya Beach. A train picked up all our guests at the Colonial lobby and took them to the reception site. It is the most private area of the beach on the resort. There is a thatched roof covering the area of the beach where the tables are set up and white lights wrapped around the poles. There was an area for dancing as well and the entire area was surrounded by candles. I brought my own centre pieces and Claudia set everything up for us. I used “flameless†candles and I am so glad I brought these because it was windy and real candles would have blown out. I brought maracas for each guest and they had to shake them to have us kiss instead of clinking glasses. We also put a disposable camera on each table so our guests could take pictures of the night for us. The food was delicious – we had the chicken and tomato salad, minestrone soup, surf & turf, and chocolate mousse. We paid extra to have a 2 tier wedding cake. Mostly because it looks nicer and so we could have 2 different flavors. Only half the cake was eaten and we had 30 guests, but it was sooo yummy! We brought our own cake topper and they added flowers to the cake that matched my bouquet. After dinner we had speeches, then our first dance, cut the cake, and father/daughter dance. We used an ipod for the music and it worked perfectly. Also, there is no need for a dance floor. We all took off our shoes and danced the night away with our toes in the sand. We paid for an extra hour so the reception went from 6:30 – 10:30 pm. A train picked us all up and took us back to the Colonial lobby. Overall, the day was wonderful and I wouldn’t change a thing. It was perfect for us. We had a lot of fun and it was one of the best days of my life!! Romantic, beautiful, magical…so many words to describe the day. Now I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend J I will post some pictures that my family took of the wedding soon. The pictures from Ivan will take up to 2 months, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait! Mel

nmurch, your pictures are gorgeous!! You look beautiful We had Ivan do our pictures for our wedding last week at the Barcelo and I can't wait to see them!! He was wonderful to work with and made us feel very comfortable. We also did a TTD the next day at the resort beach and pool. I will post some pics when I get them!! Mel

Hi everyone! We just got back from Mexico yesterday for our wedding at the Barcelo on March 16. Everything was so beautiful and the day was perfect!! You can't go wrong with this resort, there are so many nice locations to have a wedding and the wedding coordinators are so organized and professional. We had our ceremony at Coral Beach in front of the Palace and our reception at Playa Azul. I will post a full review as soon as I get a chance and some pictures once I have them all organized. We all had an amazing week and loved the resort! Mel

Thanks for the reviews ladies & congratulations!! We leave in 4 days for Mexico our wedding is March 16....getting very excited! I will be sure to post a review when we get back

I think I can help you on a few of these questions. I have some pictures of the flowers that they offer at the resort. Also I have some pictures of the beach locations for the reception. There's Playa Azul which is at the far end of the resort in front of Barcelo Maya Beach. The pictures that nmurch posted on the previous page are of Playa Azul. There's Palmeras beach which is in front of the Colonial/Tropical. And there's Coral beach which is in front of the Palace. If you PM me your email address I will send them to you. I also have pictures of some of the centerpieces that they offer. Mel

You look beautiful!! Can't wait to read about all the details in your review. We have Ivan Luckie booked for our wedding as well so looking forward to seeing some of your pics. We leave in 50 days...YAY!!