Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[ANGELA2013]

Yayyyy that is so exciting!!! Congrats!!!

[SarahCanuck]

wedding is less then 4 months away now! we are at the Barcelo Mayan Palace, Strawberry Breeze pkg, lobster/steak menu, ceremony at White Gazebo, reception at Palmeras grill, external photography: "Foto-Take it", hmmm what else....violin/base guitar for bridal processional: Pachobel's Canon in D, and trash the dress the following day (although my mum will have a heart attack as she paid for my dress & shoes!).

[kisekae]

Sarah, your wedding sounds just like ours!

We are getting married April 26 at the palace, same locations, same wedding package, same food, same music (though, are you having both a violin and the guitar/keyboard?) Only difference is that we are having Playa Azul for the reception instead of Palmeras.

We even have Foto Take It booked for our photography as well! I am sooo happy to hear another bride using them since I really haven't heard a lot about them. I hope they are good, do  you know much about them? We are planning our trash the dress a day or two after the wedding. Are you going to a cenote or doing it at the resort? 

Also, I'd like to know if anyone has used the hotels Hair/Makeup staff instead of Adrian. I keep hearing how amazing he is, but at $300 when hair/makeup would otherwise be free (since it's part of the package), I really can't decide what to do!!

 

[CarlaN]

Blujena Sounds wonderful! Tell me about the music could you post your music list or email it to me at carla_nowak@hotmail.com

how long was your reception? 3hrs? Did you have a dance at on of the Palapas? I am trying to find out timelines from when we start the reception to finish... 

I was thinking about having the dance at the disco if we don't have enough time. Our wedding is coming so fast! Can't wait!

[holls213]

Bluejena I'm also interested in your music  list as we are planning on doing the same thing, ipod with someone kind of in charge of announcing dances/etc...also, if anyone is going with an outside photographer would you mind PMing me with the pricing vs the resort photographers.  Having a hard time deciding!

 

Sarah when is your wedding date???  Ours is also just under 4 months away now! Sooo exciting!!!

[FireyNurse]

Blujena, thanks for the info, you have definetely put my mind a little more at ease! I'm glad everything was so perfect for your day! Congrats!

[FireyNurse]

oh Blujena, I do have a couple questions I just thought of.... how long was the reception, did you feel you needed to add any time to the pacakge? and you said you used the ipod, just curious, how was the sound system or was it your own you brought, and was their a microphone to use for the announcements?

 

Thanks!!!

[JoanneIreland]

I know this was directed at Blujena but I can help answer also ......

 

Included with our package was a 3 hour reception and it just was not enough time at all!! The nice thing about the Barcelo is that you do not have to commit to additional hours in advance, you can decide on the spot. Our reception started at 6pm and at about 8:40pm our w/c let us know that the time was almost up so we immediately said to extend by an hour hour (all our guests were dancing so there was no way we could just shut it down!!). I think my parents signed a receipt and they billed the extra hour to the credit card we used to pay for our package.

Our w/c arranged for the shuttle bus to pick us all up around 10:20pm (we were way down the end of the resort at Playa Azul) and drop us all off at Jaguars nightclub where we finished off the night!

 

We also used our own iPod instead of hiring a DJ and I have no regrets. The sound system was awesome. When we arrived at the reception and were greeted with champagne toasts, our w/c asked who she should show how to use the sound system, and then took one of our guests over to show him the ropes, which apparently was very straightforward.

Yes they also provided a microphone which we used for announcements (first dance, cake cutting, garter) and for the bestman and MOH speeches.

 

Good luck to all the future Barcelo brides!!
 

Originally Posted by FireyNurse 

oh Blujena, I do have a couple questions I just thought of.... how long was the reception, did you feel you needed to add any time to the pacakge? and you said you used the ipod, just curious, how was the sound system or was it your own you brought, and was their a microphone to use for the announcements?

 

Thanks!!!

 

[Avens]

We got married on Thursday (12th) and it was awesome! A few minor bumps, but practically perfect.

 

Our only two bumps were that - they kind of wrecked my cake.  I had butterflies to put on it - but they were edible, and weren't supposed to be refrigerated as they wilted.   It said on the package not to refrigerate, but I guess with the language barrier I should have communicated it more clearly. It was still delicious though!

 

The other one was that the Hubby got food poisoning, or the flu or something the night before, and spent the morning being pretty sick.  I was pretty worried for a while - but luckily a combination of immodium/pepto/gravol and him being a trooper, and we got through it.  We didn't go out with out guests after the wedding to let him rest a bit, but they all went to the lobby bar and continued the party.

 

We also added an extra hour, we figured we'd need it so we did it ahead of time.

 

We also used the ipod and it worked great. My only advice would be to lock it.  Some of our guests got a little overzealous (and had a few to many shots of tequila) and tried to play DJ.  So we had a few minutes of skipping songs halfway (when they were songs we had deliberately put on there for certain people) and people resetting the playlist so songs played again etc.

I was a little choked after the time I spent on the playlist, but we still had fun.  I would designate a "DJ" and have them be the only one allowed to touch it.

 

We had a few guests from the beach, and that night (and a few other nights) they joined us at the Palace Lobbey Bar.  No one ever got asked to leave, so I guess you just have to be sneaky.

 

The pictures are still coming in - so once I get some good ones I'll post them.  I'll probably post a few below in reply to peoples recent questions.

 

 

Originally Posted by JoanneIreland 

I know this was directed at Blujena but I can help answer also ......

 

Included with our package was a 3 hour reception and it just was not enough time at all!! The nice thing about the Barcelo is that you do not have to commit to additional hours in advance, you can decide on the spot. Our reception started at 6pm and at about 8:40pm our w/c let us know that the time was almost up so we immediately said to extend by an hour hour (all our guests were dancing so there was no way we could just shut it down!!). I think my parents signed a receipt and they billed the extra hour to the credit card we used to pay for our package.

Our w/c arranged for the shuttle bus to pick us all up around 10:20pm (we were way down the end of the resort at Playa Azul) and drop us all off at Jaguars nightclub where we finished off the night!

 

We also used our own iPod instead of hiring a DJ and I have no regrets. The sound system was awesome. When we arrived at the reception and were greeted with champagne toasts, our w/c asked who she should show how to use the sound system, and then took one of our guests over to show him the ropes, which apparently was very straightforward.

Yes they also provided a microphone which we used for announcements (first dance, cake cutting, garter) and for the bestman and MOH speeches.

 

Good luck to all the future Barcelo brides!!
 

 

 

[JoanneIreland]

Congrats Aven!! Can't wait to see your photos!