Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[Bcari16]

@@yooyooo,

 

I will let you know as soon as I hear back from her. Thank you @@TaraW for that information! I will confirm with Estrella as well. That would be very helpful to many of my guests her who prefer not to stay on the Palace side!

[MissMeg]

@@CellineSouza your dress is amazing!!!!

 

 

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[kimmyd2]

Congrats @CellineSouza and thanks for posting those pictures, you made a beautiful bride! 

How did you find eating outside?  Was it windy at night?  We are planning to have a beach cermony infront of the tropical resort, but worry it might be cool or windy.  Right now I am making reception decisions with menu and tables etc.  How was the food?   

Are you writing a review?  We would all love to hear more about your wedding it sounds perfect!

 

thanks

 

Kim

 

Hello everyone! I had my wedding at the Barceló on July 18th. My ceremony was at the gazebo and the reception at Coral Beach, both at the Palace. My husband and I went with the Strawberry Package and my wedding coordinator was Estrella, who by the way is awesome! Everything was perfect and if I could change anything I would have added more time to the reception. As everyone always says, it went by too quickly!
We had a total of 31 people, and everybody had a great time.
If anyone has any questions I would be more than happy to help! I'm attaching some pictures so you guys have an idea of how my wedding was set up.DSC02337.JPGDSC02294.JPGimage13.JPG20150718_191336.jpgDSC_0257.JPGDSC_0208.JPG

Hi @@bluecastr1, did you wc organize and book the dj for you guys?  I asked mine (Jasmin) about it and with her broken english I have found some things hard to understand in email and she just said yas and gave me the email, so not sure if I am supposed to email the dj or not?

thanks

Kim

 

@@Ivydulce2015 The hotel DJ (we had DJ Aztecca) was great! Our friends and family had so much fun dancing and everyone commented on how good he was

[bluecastr1]

@@kimmyd2 We just booked the DJ through the WC. When you arrive they will have a sit down with you and go over all of your selections for a final time. I did tell her ahead of time that we wanted the DJ. You should try to specify DJ Aztecca if you can because he was awesome! We also did an extra hour of reception time and it was by far the most worth the money! I can't imagine it being an hour shorter, it went by so fast! 

[TaraW]

We still haven't decided on a DJ or not. With only 20 max people coming (only 13 confirmed right now) it seems like a crazy amount of money to spend. I'm Canadian, so we have to add about 30% exchange rate to everything, and since we would want to add an hour onto the reception 1100+for a DJ for maybe only 14 people?? Hmmm... Not sure if it is worth it, but we don't want to seem cheap either because those 14 people have still come a long way!! ! We've discussed bringing a loaded up iPod and having someone supervise it for the evening. We have a friend staying at a neighbouring resort that is coming to the wedding, and she is travelling with a large group of friends that don't know us. She's offered up one of her friends to come and help operate the iPod and we would cover the resort day pass and dinner for him to attend and party with us. I'd rather spend that money somewhere else like pay for a cocktail hour the night before as a reception evening, or in some other way that everyone would enjoy. We are also a bit concerned about the quality of the music system they will set up for us to plug in the iPod. Gawd, I just don't know! We are still quite torn! I would love to hear what you all think as outsiders looking in, but people still very much in wedding and thoughtful planning mode!!!

Edited August 8, 2015 by TaraW

[calgarybride2015]

I'm an outsider jumping in!

That DJ price does sound expensive and I understand your dilemma as you may only have 15 people. I'm going to guess that the sound system is actually what's already in place by the resort for the DJ or the ceremony or whatever so it would be of decent quality -- meaning it's probably already wired in.

There are DJ wedding apps for you as well that brides us. We have a bride here now leaving tomorrow who is using it @@TinkerSofi who will give us a review upon her return. That would be an option and if you have an MC they can man it should it be needed. I believe the DJ apps can be made to work themselves

You will figure it all out. Will come down to what is more important to you or not. I have a coworker who married at the Barcelo, I'll ask her too!!! And... As a Canadian i feel your $$ pain!

 

 

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[CellineSouza]

Hello ladies, I talked a little about my wedding the other day and some of you had some questions, so I'll try to summarize how my process went.

We had 31 people coming, including my husband and I, and we went with the Strawberry Package. All but 2 stayed at the Palace where our ceremony and reception happened - the 2 "outsiders" were at a different hotel (not Barceló) but somehow managed to attend the wedding without a day pass. I had given their names to my WC so they would have it at the hotel gate, and I guess no one ever checked if they were guests or not.

My wedding was on Saturday and I arrived on Wednesday. On Thursday morning I had a meeting with Estrella (WC) just to go over things we had already discussed through emails. I gave her my decorations and told her kind of what I was looking for and she just got it! Again, Estrella is great!!!

We went with the hotel photographer and they were also really good! I haven't seen the pictures yet, so I can't really comment on the quality of them.

As for our DJ we went with DiscoMovil. Because our reception was at the beach we thought a dance floor was a must, and cost-wise the outside DJ, dance floor and vendor fee was still cheaper than the resort DJ. And he was amazing! He definitely kept the party going.

As for the food I can't really comment because I didn't eat much but EVERYONE said it was absolutely delicious. For those of you who are still choosing the menu, go with the the Lukes Warm Half Baked Dark Chocolate Fondant for dessert. It was probably the best thing I've ever had!

I had hair and makeup included in the package at the resort spa and they were also phenomenal. It was what it felt like 200 F and my makeup was still perfect when I went to bed.

We didn't have a cocktail hour included but in between the ceremony and reception, while we were taking pics, our guests gathered in the lobby bar with a much appreciated air conditioning. Remember that everything is included in the hotel, so while at the bar our guests were drinking, eating and having fun!

Anyway, my only regret was not extending our reception. Even though after ours we all went to the resort's club - Club Jaguar, and had a blast.

I can't think of anything else right now to tell you guys but if anyone would like to chat, I'm here!

[TaraW]

@@calgarybride2015

 

Thanks so much for the info! I should have figured there's an app for that We will definitely check it out, and I would appreciate any info your friends and coworkers could offer. It's tough to make these decisions so far away without a real sense of what it will look like when it all comes together. I won't sweat the small stuff, but the music and dancing is a key part of the night.

 

@@CellineSouza

 

Thank you for sharing all of your details, it was all helpful! I'm going with the airbrush makeup from an outside vendor, and letting my daughter/maid of honour enjoy the hair and makeup application I get with the Strawberry package. She will be happy to hear great reviews on that. Even with our small guest list we are also adding an hour because that is one thing I have heard consistently from Barcelo brides.

 

I will check out the Disco Movil recommendation as well!!

 

We have already chose the dark chocolate fondant (Estrella's recommendation!) to go with our vanilla wedding cake .... Thought it would be a good balance for dessert.

[SammyMac]

Hi everyone,

This forum has been so helpful, I'm so happy I found it!

I have a few questions for my upcoming wedding (Apr 25/16). The only thing I have confirmed so far is the date and time which will be 6pm. Hopefully it'll be a bit cooler by that time? My WC is Yasmin, but we haven't really chatted much yet.

We have 34 guests so far and I'm estimating that we will have probably 45 - 55 guests in total. Most of us are staying at Barcelo Maya Colonial. I'm leaning towards the Strawberry Passion package, but the only snag is I really don't want live music during the ceremony. Has anyone used this package and were you able to arrange the use of a sound system so that you could have your own music playing?

Is the 3 hour reception enough? I'm probably going to go pay for a DJ and dance floor.

I have 5 bridesmaids (I know, that's a lot for such a small wedding! hehe) and I'm wondering if the spa was able to accommodate 6 girls for hair and make up. Should I book really far ahead or should I be okay waiting until we arrive at the resort?

I'm really struggling between a beach location and an air conditioned location. If anyone has any more suggestions that would be great as well.

 

And finally - what sort of stuff do you think is really necessary to bring with you with regard to decorations. I was thinking purple sashes for the chairs, maybe some center pieces, favors, gifts for each guest when they arrive and lanterns.

Thank you in advance for all your advice, and congrats to all of the brides and grooms.

Sammy

 

[TaraW]

@@SammyMac

 

Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I'll be there getting married a week before you and we will still be "hanging around" the resort on our honeymoon when you tie the knot too!

 

I'm getting married at 5:00pm because it should be a little cooler AND we want to take advantage of both the sun and the sunset pics as well.

 

I'll share some thoughts to your questions that you asked! 

 

Reception length - The one constant I have read on this blog from bride after bride, regardless of how big or small their wedding is, is that three hours is NOT enough time for your reception as it goes by quickly! We are having an even smaller wedding (about 20 people) and the one thing I am investing in is adding an extra hour to the time. After that we have the option of moving to the disco but I don't want to break up the party earlier if people are enjoying themselves. Adding that enxtra hour willl take a bit of the rush out I think.

 

Reception location - it seems like brides tend to opt for the AC areas when they have elderly guests, etc that may need it more, but if that's not a concern for you then I think it's really about preference and what you envision from your day. If you consider a closed reception area without any windows then you could be just about anywhere for your reception instead of in Mexico ..... for us i think that we've all come to such a beautiful place for the wedding and I want to enjoy that fact right down to the last moment of our wedding day!  I dont think I've read on  here about any bride that has regretting their choice of a beach reception.  Really its just about what you two want for your day!

 

Decorations - I am bringing just a few things down to enhance the table a bit: our wedding favours obviously, some table scatter (gems) that I purchased inexpensively online, rhinestone napking rings that a friend gave me, a dozen beautiful glass votives, battery operated candles (given the beach wedding location!) and small mirrors for the table that I plan on leaving behind. I decided that because i'm not bringing a whole lot of extras with me anyhow, I didn't want to spend 7.00 USD each [10.00 CAN] to rent a small plain glass candle holder for a few hours when I can just as easily bring some more beautiful ones with me in my carry on and leave them for my guests to take home if they wish. It cost me about 30.00 CAN to buy everything and to get exactly what I want instead of renting what I don't really want, so that just seemed like way more sense to me!  We may buy some maracas when we get down there for the "shake and kiss" (Cheezy I know! But better sounding then the clinking of the glasses all night! haha!) but that's about all we are adding. Again, it all depends on what you want for your day! Many brides bring lots of items with them to fully complete their vision, and I think that is totally fine and wonderful because that's what they want.

 

Anyhow I hope this helps a llittle bit! I'm sure other brides can help you with your questions about the Spa accomodations and the live music, etc.