Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[KirstenChrisDW2016]

Hi Ladies,

 

I have a few different questions.  I know this has been brought up many times but if someone can direct me to the thread, it would be great.  I need suggestions on photographers and are any of you using the photographer from the resort?  I tried to go to their website and cannot and I emailed them over a week ago and no response.

 

That leads me to other brides that have Abraham as their WC!  He seems great BUT it has been almost a month since I last heard from him, my wedding is in 3 months and not even 1/4 of the way through the planning.  IS anyone else having issues with him getting back with you?  I have emailed him 3 times since, a simple reply of "yes I received it" would be great but NOTHING=(  I am starting to get frustrated and a bit stressed out...this is supposed to be fun

 

Thanks Ladies

[SammyMac]

@@KirstenChrisDW2016 - I haven't heard anything good about the resort photographer. I've heard great things about Mike Cantarell. Just googling Barcelo Maya wedding led me to getting a feel for the different styles and photographers out there. Personally I'm flying my photographer there from home. Just be mindful of the vendor fee. Don't worry too much about Abraham not being responsive. That's pretty typical. You're in good hands I promise. Where are you at in your planning exactly?

[TaraW]

@@KirstenChrisDW2016

 

I haven't heard good things about the resort photographer either. It's such an important event and you can't retake photos, so for us it's a worth while expense to pay the vendor fee and hire someone I really want. Way more money than I want to spend especially with with brutal exchange rate right now, but all we have is the memories and photos after the wedding is over and I will hate myself if I try to cut corners with this.

 

Check out playaweddings.com. If you get a min 5 hour package, they will give you an extra hour to make up for the vendor fee. I was searching the Internet for beach pics and I kept getting drawn to both her work and deal sol .... In the end deal sol was more expensive and has different photographers, where this company only has the one. Her husband is the videographer as well, and I like the intimacy of their company verses deal sol as well.

 

Slightly off topic, we have put together a page that is going in our wedding package for our guests about our ceremony being "unplugged". Nicely put, we are asking everyone to be present in the moment with us and to put down their phones and cameras just for the ceremony. This for a few reasons: I don't want our beautiful beach wedding shots to have everyone looking through a lens, we've asked the photographers to capture lots of pics of our guests as well, and again I don't want them looking through their cameras or phone screens,, and most importantly we really do want people present there with us! I'm mean, it's only 30 min .... And once we walk back down the aisle they are free to snap away again. We also added a phrase that asks to everyone to give us 24 hours to upload our first photos and announcements to social media as husband and wife given that so many people can't make it and we want it to come from us first. Anyhow the write up is nicely put I think, but I'm sure some people won't be thrilled about it ... But it's OUR wedding!! Has anyone else given this some thought?

[KirstenChrisDW2016]

@@TaraW

 

Thanks for the info, I will look into that photographer.

 

Any way you'd be willing to let us see what you have written about unplugging, etc.?  I would like to get an idea of what to add to ours and think that sounds like a great plan, especially the social media stuff =)

 

@@SammyMac

 

We are only up to the picking our wedding cake.  I just feel like it is not what we are paying for, with no communication at all.  I know that it will be perfect when we get there but we have a ton going on and I don't want to neglect the most important part...the ACTUAL wedding!

[ashbuoni]

Hi Ladies!

 

I have a question for all of you

 

Is anyone planning to (or did do, for those of you are already married) tip your Wedding Coordinator? I know there are different packages that are different prices, so I'm just wondering if any of you have an idea of what you will be doing. Is there a set amount that is the going rate, or do you base it off of a percentage of what you are paying for the wedding?

 

I figured that it would be easiest for my fiance and I to create envelopes before we go down for each person that we will be tipping so that we have this all sorted and don't have to try ruffling through cash once we are down there.

 

I am also wondering if anyone has ideas about how much to tip for DJ, waitstaff, etc?

 

Any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

xoxo

[SammyMac]

@kirstendw2016 - hang in there I know the lack of communication can be frustrating. I've been waiting for my WC to respond for a couple weeks now to a few questions I had and its daunting with my wedding coming up in less than 2 months now. But I've heard from so many past brides who dealt with the exact same thing and then when the big day finally came everything turned out perfectly so I just keep telling myself it'll all be ok. My problem is I keep changing my mind about everything! I was in a wedding in Tulum a few weeks ago and the sun was blinding. I couldn't even look at the groom. Sensitive eyes. So I've been playing with the idea of a sunset or dusk wedding. It would be so beautiful with tiki lights going down the aisle but with sunset being at 710 and dusk being at 740 that would mean a late supper for guests and hardly any time for pictures. Planning is hard.

[Barcelo2016]

@@KirstenChrisDW2016

 

I would def say the resort quality of the pictures isn't very nice. I went to their office when we stayed at the Barcelo last June and I was quite disappointed. The prices are super high for the quality.

Everywhere I looked a really good photographer was costing at least 4 grand in US! Not to mention for barely any time at all. Then to pay the resort fee of $500. Crazy!

My best advice would be if you have a friend who does photography bring them. I'm bringing 2 photographers down for the week and am only paying for their trips. In Canadian dollars. So that's already a huge difference. He even offered to not only be at my service for 10 hours on the day of the wedding but also 1 hour each day for the week to document the trip. Amazing deal!

[TaraW]

@@KirstenChrisDW2016

 

I'm going to try to take a snapshot of the card we've added to the welcome package and post it .... Saves me typing it all out

I have already verbalized this to a few people .... Some understanding, some not so much! But in the end it's not about what everyone else wants for those 30 min .... I want everyone there with us, and I want our ceremony photos to reflect that when we look back on them years later. The rest of the day we have planned specifically around our guests and what they would like, so we chose to be selfish during our ceremony!!

@ashbuoni@ashbuoni

Hi Ladies!

 

I have a question for all of you

 

Is anyone planning to (or did do, for those of you are already married) tip your Wedding Coordinator? I know there are different packages that are different prices, so I'm just wondering if any of you have an idea of what you will be doing. Is there a set amount that is the going rate, or do you base it off of a percentage of what you are paying for the wedding?

 

I figured that it would be easiest for my fiance and I to create envelopes before we go down for each person that we will be tipping so that we have this all sorted and don't have to try ruffling through cash once we are down there.

 

I am also wondering if anyone has ideas about how much to tip for DJ, waitstaff, etc?

 

Any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

xoxo

I'm very interested to see what everyone's thoughts are on this.

 

Personally I have had a hell of a time going through 3 WCs in the last 11 months, facing hassle after hassle, repeating my requests, politely "arguing" about costs they are saying I must incur despite the fact that it's clearly included in the package, and having to wait weeks for a responses. Am I in the mood to now tip this person when I am already spending a lot of money for a now 13 person guest list???? Hmmm .... I'm not quite feeling the need to tip anyone right now! I'm normally very generous when I receive great service, but I am not a fan of tipping when I feel like I HAVE to. At this point I would really need to be blown away on my wedding day to want to do this ... And then I would probably wait until the following day to seek out the persons that made an impact and tip them at that point.

 

What is everyone else feeling? I'd love to hear from past brides as well as to what they actually did.

Edited February 26, 2016 by TaraW

[KirstenChrisDW2016]

@@SammyMac Yes I know it will be great, I am just frustrated with the level of service but oh well!  As for the time of day, our wedding is at 6:00pm, which we were told was the latest that they do ceremonies.  Can anyone else confirm?  I agree that later is best and it would be beautiful with the tiki's and such =)

 

@@TaraW that is great, thanks so much!  It will give me a little something to go on.  Also, I looked into Playa Weddings and they look GREAT...thanks for the info!  I have reached out to them and are just waiting for a price list.

[TaraW]

When considering a ceremony time, don't forget to think about your photos too and what you want from them. After talking about our photo "wants" with our photographer, we set a 5:00pm ceremony time so we can get sun shots AND still capture some sunset shots. We are also doing a "first look" about 90 min before the ceremony (I wanted the first time my Fiancé sees me in my dress to be a bit more intimate) With this schedule our photographer has plenty of time to get pics of us before the ceremony, some guest/group shots right after the ceremony, and then still have time and enough light to get sun and sunset pics before the 7:00pm reception. Talk to your wc and/or photographer (if they are local) about sunset times based on the month you are getting married too, because that changes everything as well!