Kristina610

Hey ladies, we are home from our wedding/honeymoon. It was AMAZING! I will do a full review later once we get settled in. I would love to be helpful to all of you future brides like the past brides were for me! My best advice would be, don't panic about details. Like everyone else one here has said, it may feel like your coordinator is not answering you but everything WILL come together.

Leaving tomorrow for my site visit/mini vacation.. Can't wait!!!!!!!

Yay, we are leaving tomorrow morning for our wedding!! I can't believe it's already here, we are beyond excited! I will share all the details when we are back from our honeymoon

Does any one know if they provide candles? Pillar candles to make a center piece with sand? And what about just small tea lights or votives or the tables to have burning?

FireyNurse, you had your reception at Coral beach or Coco beach? I didn't know that there was a "coco" beach. I wasn't really given any options when it came to locations. Also, there is a picture on here of you and your bridal party toasting in a room. Do you mind me asking what that was for? Cocktail hour? Beginning reception? I saw a speaker in the picture so I was wondering what part of your wedding this was. Thanks!

Greetings, I am less 2 weeks away from my wedding at the Barcelo Palace on July 23rd.  Everything is ready for my OOT bags with the exception of a welcome letter/itinerary.  If it is not too much to ask, could a few people please email me their welcome letter/package/itinerary so I have an idea of what information should be included?  I keep having this feeling like I am going to forget something important. Email: [email protected] Thank you, thank you, thank you! Vanessa

I emailed my WC Lillian and she sent me photos of some of the options for the ceremony.  I can send them to you if you would like.  She sent photos of coral beach and the beach in front of tropical (unsure of which beach it is). 

Originally Posted by Lori Granados 

 

TTD SESSION QUESTION:

 

I'm in the process of booking my photographer and can't decide when I should book the TTD session. My plan was to book a room for 2 days in order to avoid the vendor fee and do the TTD the next day HOWEVER I'm not sure if my fiancé and I will be up for a photo shoot the day after partying all night for the wedding. So I figure well maybe I can book it for a day later BUT how will that work as far as the resort's outside vendor fee. Will I only have to pay for a day pass for him to return or will I be stuck paying the $500?

I actually just asked that exact question and here is what I got...

"I have a question regarding our photographer. We are hiring an outside photographer and I have seen that there is a vendor fee of $500 for the day of the wedding. He will be coming back a few days later to do more photos for us. When he comes back will we have to pay another vendor fee or will it be a day pass fee since it isn't for a wedding?"

Wedding Coordinator answer... 

"Yes he would have to pay the fee again."

So I am not sure what to think.  I didnt think we would have to pay $500 again but thats the way it sounds.  Our wedding is less than a month out and to book a room now it would be close to $800 for three nights.  I dont know what to do now....  Do I take the chance that when we get there they wont charge me two vendor fees?  Or book a room for $800???

Has anyone done a fishing trip with the hotel.  My FI and his groomsman want to go deep sea fishing and I know in the past when we went there was a company at the hotel that did it.  I was just wondering if anyone has done something like this and had any recommendations.

Anyone have an answer for me?? How  long does it take to walk down those steps to the arch??

Has anyone had their photographer come back to the hotel a few days after their wedding to take TTD pictures?  I am wondering if I would have to pay the day pass to get him in or if it would be a verndor fee again. Thanks!

Hey ladies, so I got an answer as to why we were not offered playa azul for our ceremony. Here is what I was told " Yes it is available, the thing is that we are redesigning the maya beach hotel where playa azul is and the bus is not able to take you to the beach, the bus can leave at the Caribe hotel and then you should walk to get to playa azul, if this is fine for you; you can have the ceremony at playa azul, it is like less than 10 minutes walking. " So my question for y'all is, is the walk from the caribe too far to have my guests walk or not really? It had been years since we were there so I don't really remember just how far it was. Also, recent brides. Was the "construction" at the maya beach hotel something that would get in the way of pictures or be noisy?? Thank you!

Has anyone else been placed in a ceremony and reception space they did not ask for? I was tols today that I have to use the beach in front of the palace. I'm pretty bummed out because I had my heart set on playa azul, but was not given any options

Carry your dress on for sure.  It gets a lot of attention and makes airline staff a little nicer to you.  We traveled with all of our stuff (OOT bags, favors, decorations, etc) and just had it all spread out in our checked luggage.  Just make sure you carry receipts for everything.

We had the strawberry package but we asked for special requests. I don't know what our guests had for the cocktail hour but we ordered the Mexican appetizers. We had a caesar salad that was huge... Tortilla soup... surf and turf... and the dark chocolate fondant. ALL of our guests said it was the best meal they had.  I agree - it was amazing.  I thought the lobster tail may be poor quality but it was delicious.  So much so that our guests went to the caribe restaurant the next night to get more lobster.   For the kids they gave fish sticks or chicken nugget and fries.   After dinner everyone said they were stuffed but a few hours later we had a taco guy come and serve traditional street tacos - some couldn't even try them because they were still stuffed.  oh an no one really ate cake - we had 2 tiers and we would have been fine with 1 tier.

Yay Mel!!!  I hope your wedding is perfect!  Have fun and takes lots of pictures, cant wait to hear all about it

Thanks ladies, I like the idea of him standing out a little more than the other guys i just didnt know if that would look weird.  Thanks for sharing your picture Mufin1785!

I need opinions on ceremony music!  I am torn between the violin and guitar??  I feel like the violin would be my natural choice but the guitar is different and might be really pretty if it is more like "spanish style" guitar.  Has anyone gone with these?? 

Originally Posted by FireyNurse 

 

We went

We went with the surf and turf theme for the whole dinner, we figured it was a safe way for people to have something they liked, either steak or seafood. We had Sea scallop ceviche to start, lobster bisque for soup, surf and turf for main and the raspberry tiramisu for dessert. We chose coconut for our cake flavour and it was also amazing!

 

I can't comment on the food myself as I am a vegetarian and I had food off that menu but I know that every person in our wedding group raved about the food, even the soup! The dessert was apparently so tasty that people ate mine and my hubby's while we were away doing pictures.

Great, thanks!  Im glad you mentioned cake flavor, coconut was going to be my choice also but my FI doesnt like coconut so i might have to go with vanilla...

I have an etiquette question for the mens attire.  We finally found my FI suit (pants and vest) in a darker khaki linen but is a little expensive and i dont want the guys to have to pay that much also.  Would it be wierd if they were in the same style, vest and pants, but a  little linen?  More of the natural linen color? 

Fireynurse, what did you pick from the menu? I just got this list and have no idea where to begin on picking...

Quick questions. .. when booking a room for the photographer did you book the room for only one guest? AND did you book the room in the photographer's name or your own? I'm pretty sure I have read the answer somewhere on here before but i have no idea how far back i need to go to find the answer now. Thanks!

Originally Posted by 780chick 

 

 

I had Lillian last year and she handled our wedding of 80 almost flawlessly. There were only a couple of glitches - like having to wait for a second bus to transport people to the reception. You can read my very long review

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/barcelo-maya-palace-deluxe-all-inclusive/reviews/5916

Great, thank you! That makes me feel better.  Your wedding looked amazing, do you have a link to your TTD pictures.  I love looking at them to get inspiration for ours, I am very excited about doing them!

Has anyone had Lillian as their wedding coordinator?  I have been working with Jacqueline up until now but just got an email saying that I will now be working with Lillian??  This makes me a little nervous since I have never heard anyone talk about Lillian...

If I book my photographer for 2nights, mon and tues night (ceremony on Monday), will he still technically be a guest of the hotel Wednesday morning so he could come back and do the TTD? Has anyone done it this way?