Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[Moments That Matter]

What wonderful ideas + info, ladies regarding asking guests to be present at your ceremony, etc - Great Idea!!!

 

We've also heard from so many wedding couples struggling to pay the vendor fees to bring in an outside photographer, that we're now offering a 100% vendor fee discount!!! YES!!! check it out in our signature below

 

Hope this enables more couples to be able to capture their Special Day in a photo record they'll cherish for the rest of their lives - Priceless!

Wishing everyone happy planning, and that they Totally enjoy this amazing journey they're on - cheers, team MTM

 

....leaving you with these magical moments that matter taken from our Barcelo Wedding Stories:

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Moments That Matter

[Aparke10]

If anybody has any questions, I've spent 2 vacations there in the last 2 years and got to know the resort extremely well.

 

If you're wanting to send your guests somewhere to eat that's close keep on mind that generally the lunch grills restaurants get better quality the closer to the Palace you go. So if you choose the location that's right off the Beach Resort then Rancho Grande is closest but the least quality. There's a beach venue by Captain Morgan and is pretty. The best buffet food was in colonial and tropical. Remember you can visit every restaurant except for palace if you stay on the other 4 resorts!!

 

Again, if you have questions message me and I'll be happy to answer. I'm currently planning my wedding in Punta Cana

[adonik]

Hi everyone, 

 

So my wedding is May 31rst, 2016. I went through two different WC just like a few of you I read about. I now have Abraham, after i send three very "nice" emails of having to wait 2 months for a simple response to the wedding manager at barcelo. I then waited another month for Abraham to reply. I finally got tired of waiting and called him. He picked up the phone right away, which was great. I was on the phone with him for about an hour getting all my questions answered in my email. I then told him, I will be calling not emailing because it seems the most efficient way and he said he actually prefers the call. So CALL HIM, His number is in his sig in the email! If you need it, contact me, I will pass it on. 

 

We are going with MTM for Photo's, Lincoln is very easy to work with. The resort people do a really bad job and want wayyyy too much, the extra $500 will save you and MTM gives a discount actually. I have a few photography friends going and they have offered to also take pictures. 

 

I am actually ordering the linen napkins, runners and chair ribbons off line. WAY Cheaper!! (you can find a napkin as low as 15 cent, good quality, a friend of mine did that for her mexico wedding two years ago and just reuses it every time she has people over.)

 

My goal was to get EVERYTHING done by Feb and im only 40% done if that! 

Im trying to find an excel or word doc with a reception timeline to give to the WC and another person from my party to make sure everything is running smoothly. So, if anyone has something to pass along, that would be great! 

 

 

 

 

 

[kthomp0615]

Hello ladies,

 

I have been back from my wedding at the Barcelo Maya Palace for a little over a week now, it was Feb 29, 2016   it was SO hard to come back!  I had an amazing time and our big day was perfect!  However, the week and wedding was not free of troubles with the resort as well as our wedding planner, Yasmin Gomez.  I will give a run down of the week but because I don't want any of you to have the same issues feel free to message me if I can help you, I'll do my best!

 

We arrived Thursday, 5 days prior to the wedding.  My parents and my husband and I were at the palace, check in was smooth although the rooms weren't ready yet and once they were it took 2 hours for our bags to arrive...no biggie just make sure you throw a swim suit in your purse so you can enjoy the beach!  Later that day my husbands parents as well as my MOH and another bridesmaid arrived, I told them I would meet them in the lobby, they booked at the Tropical.  (Let me back track for a second, prior to booking our wedding with Barcelo we contacted Delta Vacations (who we booked through) and the resort itself and were promised in writing that any guests who choose to book at the Tropical/Colonial would be guaranteed a room at the Tropical so they were close to us.)  So anyhow, upon their arrival they were brought to the tropical lobby and then put right back on the bus and sent to the Beach - the furthest hotel from the palace.  I went there and spoke to several managers and front desk people.  After SIX HOURS of arguing and emailing my travel agent who wasn't available at this point because it was after hours, they were all moved to the Tropical where they should have been to begin with.  Luckily my travel agent contacted the resort the next morning and moved the remainder of the group where they should have been because the resort placed most of our guests not booked in the Palace at the Beach.

 

Saturday was my meeting with Yasmin, she never told us where to meet but the map said the Wedding Office was in the Palace on the bottom floor.  No one was there, we went to the lobby where we found Yasmin's assistant.  We were supposed to be in the Colonial.  Her assistant got a golf cart and drove my mother, a few bridesmaids and myself over to meet with Yasmin.  She was very friendly and got right to work, unfortunately, the spreadsheet we had been building off of for an entire year was not completed on her end...we basically re-planned the entire wedding, I was annoyed as my hope for having a destination wedding and planner was to have to spend as much time on the beach and with our guests as possible.  After about 2 hours it was complete.  I met with the DJ later that day, he is awesome, bring a list of songs/requests that you and your quests would like to hear he is great and incorporating everything.

 

The next few days were awesome, all of my guests arrived.  We had a day on the beach, the day before the wedding during the day we did a group excursion.  We went on the Maya Jungle National Geographic tour...it was amazing, repelling into caves, snorkeling, zip lining and their Mayan Medicine Man did a Mayan ceremony for us in a Cenote - it was beautiful and so unique, I will always remember it.  Everyone loved it!  That night we had our rehearsal dinner/welcome dinner at the Tokyo Restaurant in the Maya Mall - also perfect!   

 

Monday - WEDDING DAY!  My bridesmaids stayed in my room and we got breakfast and Mimosas before heading to the Salon.  A few different girls did our hair, honestly I wasn't totally in love with my hair as I had given her a specific photo that I loved but I am pretty relaxed and since it looked ok I went with it.  I asked for a brown/natural color smokey eye, they did a great job, my makeup looked great and stayed on all night!  My appointment was an hour after my bridesmaids hair appointments but they ended up getting me in at the same time which was nice.

 

Photographer - We chose Photostudio AB, Alessandro Bancelli is the photographer.  http://www.photostudioab.com/ I LOVED HIM.  He responds quickly to emails, is very fair priced and was so much fun.  He had us laughing the entire time and was even dancing around with guests at the reception while capturing all our special moments!  I highly recommend him if you haven't booked yet!  

 

Yamin dropped off our flowers about 30 minutes prior to the ceremony but forgot my hair flower, no big deal she went and got it right away.  She drove myself and my mother a back way to the ceremony, which was at the Palace Gazebo so that no one would see me   Honestly, I do not remember what anything looked like at the ceremony but from pictures it looked nice.  It was short and sweet, we were all greeted with champagne after the ceremony then it was off to pictures. 

 

After pics we walked to the reception location, the Palmeras Grill.  I was worried that the grill would be to big as my wedding was small, only 30 people.  But it is sectioned off and was perfect.  The set up was gorgeous, however, my bridesmaids did do a lot of setting up before the guests got to the grill.  Have some one meet your wedding planner early while they are setting up so that they can make sure it is how you want it.  Everything was great, entrance, dinner was amazing, service was good.  All went well until cake time, Yasmin brought out my cake with my grandmothers cake topper on top tipped over and no flowers that I had asked for.  My dad fixed the cake topper and my bridesmaid and I (we're quick thinkers I guess) grabbed a few flowers out of the head-table centerpiece and arranged them on the cake.  No big deal.  The cake was delicious , we have pineapple for the first layer and vanilla for the second.  For 30 people, we bought the 20 person cake and had entirely to much cake.  We had almost the entire bottom layer in our room that night.  Keep that in mind if your wondering what size to get!

 

Our reception was only 3 hours, if its in your budget pay for more time!  The reception was so much fun and went by so quickly.  After it ended we all met at the Lobby bar until the night club opened and went and dance the night away!

 

I have no doubt that I left out some details that you guys want to know!  Even though our day/week had some little mishaps, it was the best most beautiful day of my life. Good luck with your planning.  Remember that nothing will be perfect but you are marrying the love of your life and that is all that matters, everything else will fall into place!

 

~Kristin

Edited March 10, 2016 by kthomp0615

[TaraW]

This is a question for all of my fellow Canadian brides out there that were recently legally married in Mexico:

 

There is LOTS of different information floating around online, within this forum, etc with regards to your marriage being legally recognized once you get back to Canada. Does anyone have any experience they can share?

 

My WC is trying to convince me I need to pay the 95.00 for an apostille seal (which is not recognized here) before it will be considered legal, other brides have said just present your translated licence, others have said they've taken it to the Canadian consulate to be certified before they leave Mexico, others have done nothing ..... HELP!!  

[eleern]

I am planning a June wedding at the palace but I haven't heard back from Christian as far as options for the mint package. I'm budgeting and can't figure out if there are more additional fees Regards to linens, sashes, decor, etc. Please help. Email me at elisaslee17@yahoo.com

[TaraW]

@@kthomp0615

 

Kristen,

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us! Sounds like a few small hiccups but overall a fantastic day for you both! Congratulations!!

 

@@eleern, 

We went with the Strawberry package but I'm pretty sure all linens, etc are included. They are with ours. I'm sure someone here can help answer that for you though.

[TaraW]

Good morning fellow brides,

 

Wow this board has been quiet lately! Just thought I'd reach out and say hello and tell everyone what I've been up to and hopefully you will do the same  

 

The countdown in definitely on and we leave for Mexico in 2 weeks! When we set the date 14 months ago it seemed so far away, now it's just around the corner. Aside from the wedding itself and seeing family and friends, I'm looking forward to three weeks away from work & life, that is for sure!!

 

I just had my final dress fitting and I am so pleased with how it looked. Back in January my beautiful dream dress was literally 2 sizes too small! (*GULP*) so I have been a VERY disciplined bride for the last 12 weeks.  It could almost use a little taking in now!   but I had a corset put into the back of it because I liked how it looked visually so it's all good now.

 

We had some drama with our documents for the legal ceremony several weeks back and I had a total freak out on my wc because it looked like we wouldn't be able to get legally married as planned!  I sent scans of all the documents to my first wc last April to get confirmation from the judge that everything was okay (I've been married before so my birth certificate and passport are in two different names) I kept asking and asking through the changing of the three wc's I've now gone though, pushing them for an answer, and each one kept telling me not to worry, not to worry, not to worry! Well with 5 weeks to go I was told I needed a certification process done here in Canada that was going to take about 12 weeks! WTF?!?! Imagine how pissed I was after a year of repeated emails without a response! I dragged the head WC into this issue and I think we've resolved it now. Thankfully we have a friend that's a lawyer that saved us several hundred dollars in fees doing up some legal paperwork for us that would hopefully satisfy the judge. It's not what they originally asked for but it's the best we can do in this time frame. Still waiting to hear back from them for final confirmation that everything is okay. I know lots of brides have chosen to get married back at home and have a symbolic ceremony to save the hassle. We really wanted that beach ceremony to be "it" for us because that was what we dreamed about, so I'm not letting go of that dream without a fight just yet!!

 

Time to start packing next week I guess and making sure I've brought everything along! My carry-on will be filled to the brim with everything wedding, from the few decorations we are bringing, to my jewelry and jeweled flip flops ("Mystique" brand - check them out if you are looking for some gorgeous flats for the beach! Not cheap, but so beautiful and I'm worth it on my day!), and the reception wine glasses I hope will survive the trek. If they don't oh well! I'm not that hung up on some of the details. I'm anxious about travelling with my dress as I've been told WestJet does not have anywhere to actually hang it, and will simply have you shove it into the overhead compartment area. Umm... I've seen some passengers try to cram stuff into that bin when the flight is full and there is a shortage of space, so I'm hoping to prey on a sympathetic airline person to be kind!! Haha

 

We arrive at the resort 6 days before the wedding so we hope to sort out all the other little details my wc failed to get back to me on. I know that's been a big issue for many brides on here (lack of communication!) But I've printed off all our email correspondence and I'm bringing it with me - mostly because through the different wc's I've received different price quotes, etc and I'm holding them to what was originally agreed upon. Not sure if anyone else has found that? The most recent charge they tried to lay on me out of the blue was for mine and my maid of honour's bouquet. Mine is supposed to be included in the strawberry package (it clearly says that!) and I was quoted 40 for hers. The email I just received said I would now have to pay 100.00 for mine and 65.00 for hers!! (Yeah, that's not going to happen!) I referred her back to my original email quote back 12 months ago and the fact that mine was supposed to be included and then she agreed to honour that.  ?!?! I still found it weird that she would try to charge me an extra. I have to wonder if there is a standard or if some wc's are just not up to speed? Just sharing for everyone to be aware of that because you never know what those end charges are going to reflect!!  

 

Anyhow that's about it from my world. I hope you all are having lots of success and limited stress with your planning. Share what you've been up to!!!

[eleern]

@@TaraW,

Thanks for getting back to me. My wedding is over a year away but this is so new to me that I'm freaking out. I can only imagine what you're going through right now! I'm super excited for you! And I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back! I wanna see pictures and the fine details of the day! I'm sure it'll be perfect!

[MissMeg]

Hi ladies! Do any of you have a file with the bouquet options from the resort? I am trying to decide if I want to spend the extra for bridesmaid bouquets or make them myself. I will be near a Hobby Lobby this weekend and they currently have 50% off all of their floral so I was hoping to pick some up if I am not liking the bridesmaid bouquet options.Thanks!