Barcelo ANYONE?

2009 Packages attached.

 

 

Barcelo Maya 2009 Packages.pdf

"Where did you hold your reception? It is exactly what I have in mind for my reception!!" "I loved your beach location and reception location. Where were they at?"

 

1. Ceremony Location: We had our ceremony on the beach in front of the gazebo. Claudia offered us another more private location, but the water level was down, so the scenery wasn't as pretty. There were a bunch of rocks, and the sand wasn't as nice. It wasn't a problem at all. They moved the chairs out of the way, and it was perfect. There are not as many people on the Palace end of the beach anyway, so I didn't feel like there were a bunch of outside people watching. There were a few though, and they took pictures and video of the whole thing... but I didn't even notice them until we were walking back up the aisle.

2. Cocktail Hour: We had a cocktail hour on the terrace which overlooks the Coral Grill and the gazebo. It was awesome, the view was great; and it gave everyone something to do while we took all of our pictures.

3. Reception: We had our reception at the Coral Grill, which is the grill at the Palace. It is definitely the nicest of all the grills. I would recommend using this grill, especially if you are getting married on the Palace beach. It is much closer than the other grills.

 

"What did you think of the Barcelo? Were you happy with it?"

 

1. I loved the Barcelo Resort! I could not have been happier. It is a great resort, especially if you are bringing a big group of people. We had 40 guests, and we mostly stayed with in the Palace area the entire time. We would venture over to the Tropical some, because the sand volley ball court is in front of the Tropical Grill and Bar. There is so much to do, you could stay there 2 weeks and not get bored. The resort if pretty big so we picked a meeting place, The Coco Bar, to meet at every night around 5 or 6. We would have drinks with everyone for an hour or so and then head off to dinner.

Oh, this is important! You will get tired of eating at the buffet, I promise. And all the a la carte restaurants require a 24 hour in advance reservation. When you get there, make a reservation for every night you are there. Its easy when you just have to make it for 2, but it did get harder when we tried to include everyone. We made a reservation at the Caribbean Restaurant one night for 20 at 6:00 and 20 at 6:30. They ended up putting all of us on the balcony, so we were all together anyway. The night before the wedding, I went in to the buffet before they opened and talked to manager about blocking of a group of tables for 40 people. It wasn't a big deal at all. We got there shortly after they opened and everything was great.

 

 

"Also, did you make your table centerpieces or did they have them at the Barcelo?"

 

- Barcelo did the centerpieces for me. I told Claudia what I was looking for before I got there, and when I went in for my meeting with her she had it already set up so I could see if I liked it or not. They cost $20.00 a piece. Also, we had to pay for the centerpieces in cash before the day of the wedding, which we didn't know about so we had to pull extra money out of the ATM. It wasn't a huge deal, but we just wished we would have known so we could have planned for it. So just make sure you know if you have to pay for anything in cash or not.

 

"Did they set up the ceremony site with the white netting or did you do that?"

 

- Barcelo set up everything, but I requested the yupa. The yupa is an extra $396.00 with flowers, but I didn't have flowers so mine was $240. I brought her a picture of one that I had seen in a magazine and they copied it exactly. If you see something you like, bring pictures and they are really good about doing exactly what is in the picture.

 

 

"What time was your ceremony at, did you feel like you had enough time for pictures before the sunset?"

 

- My ceremony time was at 4:00, but I don't think it actually started until around 4:20. The one thing you will learn in Mexico, is that when you have a set time to do something, its just an estimate... nothing happens on time. The sunset in January is around 5:30, but you have until around 6:15 until it starts getting too dark for pictures. I would have liked to have a little more time, because I felt we were a bit rushed... but if we would have started on time, it probably wouldn't have been an issue. But I wasn't too upset because I knew my husband and I were doing a "Day After" shoot the next day, so i would get all the pictures of me and him that I wanted. I would suggest having your ceremony at 3 or 4, but no later than 4 if you want good sunset pictures.

 

"How was the weather that week?"

 

- Our weather was pretty good. It was very nice during the day, but a few of the days it would start to get cloudy in the afternoons. Once 2:00 hit the clouds would roll in, and the wind would pick up a bit. The day we got married and the day before it was perfect. It only rained once while we were there, but it poured all day. The resort is good about having rainy day activities, they do bingo and pottery painting. We had an excursion that day, so we didn't miss out on anything.

 

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions!

You are so helpful!!! Thank you so much for answering all of our questions. You just gave me goosebums all over!!! I am so excited to have our wedding at the Barcelo Maya!!!

thank you again!

Thank you KBBride! This is so helpful! Who did your pictures, did you have an outside photographer? Do you have some we could check out? Also, where did you find the picture of your yupa? I've been looking online but haven't found a great one. Thank you!

Sorry I didn't see your post earlier when I responded to the others. I actually found Matt on this forum. Another bride suggested him. He is amazing and up for anything, you won't be disappointed. They got there on Friday, the day before the wedding. They came to our welcome dinner and ate with us, and snapped a few pics. Matt and Suzanne, spent all day with us on the wedding day. I did a small shoot with my bridesmaids the morning of the wedding, then there was the hair appointment, and getting ready; they were both there for all of that. A couple hours before the ceremony, Suzanne left to take pictures of the Groom and the Groomsmen. They took pics all through the ceremony, and they stayed for the entire cocktail hour and reception. About 12 hours of photography in one day, we definitely put them to work. They even offered to go with us to the disco after, but we told them they had done enough for one day, and probably needed to get some rest. The day after we did the fun pics in the ocean and in the pool. We spent over 3 hours taking pics. They were open to any suggestions we had, and we all had a great time. They left Monday morning, so they stayed at total of 3 nights.


I email Claudia about the centerpieces before I arrived. I told her that I wanted a simple vase, with sand and a candle. When I met with her for our meeting she had it set up for me to look at. She added the shells and everything. The centerpieces were extra, $20 per table.

My photographer was Matt May. There is some info about him in the above post. His web site is Welcome to Matt May Photography - San Francisco, California

To view my galleries:
Go to Welcome to Matt May Photography - San Francisco, California
Click on "The People / The Events"
Click on "The Proofs" and enter one of these two passwords:
Wedding: Muse1
Trash The Dress: Muse2

Note the password ARE case sensitive.
If the site gives you trouble, usually a page reload will fix it.

I found 1 on this forum that I liked, and then I found one in a bridal magazine. If you like mine, I can send you a picture for you to show your WC. She should know what you are talking about, even without a picture, but I would be happy to send you one. When I showed her mine, she said they had done one the day before just like it. She knew exactly what to do.

KBbride,

Thank you sooo much for all of this information! It has been super helpful. My WC is also Claudia and so far she has been great, but after about your experience I feel so good about everything. I just wrote her and asker her about the Coral Grill. How large was your wedding? We were only expecting 30 so I dont want us to be in too large of a room, but I just love the way that the Coral Grill looks in thh pictues!! I looked at your pictures and I couldnt tell if the grill was outdoors, had open air, was completely enclosed(with no windows), or just had big windows that were kept closed. Also, did you have a DJ? Did they have an IPOD dock? I think we MIGHT pay for an extra hour or two of open bar, but we figured that we would then just take the party to the lounge or the club. Last question, I saw that you all had pictures up on a screen, did they provide everything (other than the CD with the pictures) that was needed? I loved it!! Thank you sooo much!

Sincerely

Dearmaya!!!

Thank you so much KBbride! I would love it if you could e-mail me the pics of your ceremony set up and centerpieces. My e-mail is [email protected]. Thanks!

Thanks kbbride for all your information! This was really helpful! I loved the pictures of the Coral Grill as well and emailed my WC about reserving this location for my 2010 wedding! The information about the centerpieces was very helpful as well! Thanks again and congratulations on a beautiful wedding!!!!

Just got news about the outside photographer.......They have changed the rules to the 300.00 us anyways...No more daypass......