Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

The 4 business days is a Barcelo rule. Mexican law states 3. We were only there 3, because technically you can't include the day of the wedding. (We arrived on a Sat. and were married on a Thursday). You'll see the 4 and 3 day rule varies from resort to resort and I almost didn't chose the Barcelo because of the 4 day thing, but in the end my wc said it was fine. Knowing we'd be flying on a Sat. - Sat. just seemed really anti-climactic to get married on a Friday and have everyone leave the very next day.

Hi lovelys! I had an email from Victoria today to say she will keep our wedding date on hold till we can book! Yippeee!! She said she has had problems with her computer and sorry for the LONG delay in replying (it's been weeks)... Just incase anyone else is waiting to hear from her i'm sure you will soon! x

Hi Laura,

I was wondering if you could tell me how much it was to hire Kiko and Carlos band. I'm trying to get a quote from them but wanted to be able to compare their quote with what other people have paid. Also, did you have the whole band? They offered to have the whole band vs. only 3 people. Thanks a lot.

I know I am not Laura but I had the same band for my wedding last July... I had them for ceremony, cocktail hour and 5 hours for reception... and I believe the total was around $6,000.. give or take a few dollars.
I hope this helps!
-Erica

I was married on April 14, 2010. I always liked reading about other people's experiences on here, so I thought I'd share mine.

 

First of all....like others have said, don't stress, your wedding will be great!

 

Hotel:

Originally we were told that all of our guests would be in the same building...but that wasn't the case. Luckily it didn't matter, we all set up times to meet, and ran into each other...so don't worry if that happens to you. All of our guests were staying at the Palace. The hotel was beautiful, food was great, and everyone had a great time!

 

Coordinator:

I had been communicating with Gabriela by email before we arrived, and Karen was our coordinator there. Karen was fabulous. She did her best to get us our perfect wedding. She was very nice, and super helpful. She was able to get us all into the Brazillian restaurant for the night before our wedding too...which was nice.

 

The wedding:

It POURED rain on our wedding day. I wasn't too stressed about it, and I'm happy I wasn't. We had the ceremony inside by the gazebo, and everyone still thought it was beautiful. We got some great pictures too! The reception was inside, we had the mint breeze package anyway, so that was fine! It was nice, and we had lots of fun. The food was fabulous. The flowers were PERFECT, I loved them so much. The cake was nice and simple. Our reception room was decorated exactly how I had asked! We used an Ipod for the music and danced like crazy. It was soooo much fun! Karen said I was one of the most laid-back brides she'd met...I didn't have schedules or anything, we just went with the flow, and it worked for us.

 

The photographer.

We had chosen Cecilia Dumas and she was amazing at writing back to us via email before the wedding. We booked her and her assistant a room for the night of the wedding, and we had no problems with doing that. Unfortunately, two days before our wedding, Cecilia had a family emergency and had to fly to Argentina. She called us, and we spoke to her while she was at the airport. She set up another photographer for us named Alberto Alvana from Cancun weddings Cancun Wedding Photography

We felt so bad for poor Cecilia. Anyway, Alberto was fabulous. He took so many beautiful pictures, and even laid down in the water to get some good shots. He took pictures for several hours on our wedding day, and the next day we had him for the TTD. We ended up just taking pictures in the sun the next day, and didn't really trash my dress at all. I am soooooo happy with our pictures. Cecilia ended up editing them for us so that she was still a part of it since we hired her. I would recommend either of these photographers to anyone...I can't speak highly enough of them.

 

It was a beautiful day, and an amazing vacation. I wish all of you very happy weddings too!!!

Can we see pictures? Thank you so much for the review.

I read on tripadvisor that some people have had items stolen from their room. Is anyone else concerned about this or has had any issues?

We didnt have any issues with stolen items...and some times I worried with the sunglasses, purses, ipods, etc that we would forget and leave out

Thank you Erica! I actually loved reading through all of your posts. They have been really helpful, and you're one of the reasons I initially contacted kiko and carlos. I was thinking of having them for a couple of hours for our welcome dinner. I forget, did you also have firedancers perform? I have been debating whether it is worth the money since they are super pricey. Thanks for all of the great advice!

I stayed at barcelo maya palace a year ago and had no issues with this. I lock all of my valuables in the safe ervyday but on occasion when i forgot to put away my camera or ipod they were untouched. i would even say that the first day we left a tip it wasnt even taken! That being said, we left $5 the first day and $2 everyday/every other and $5 on the last day (we were there for 8 days). not sure if the generosity helped but it was def well deserved- are rooms were cleaned really well every day and our fridge was always fully stocked and tons of extra water bottles (we would leave notes askign for extra). I wouldnt worry.