CaraW

Hello and welcome to the forum!! I know what you mean about being frustrated, but don't worry, I found that picking the resort was really hard, trying to find something that was in everyone's price range, but one we still loved. But once you book, it's all uphill (so far I've found at least.. lol) And now it's just exciting!!! Good luck!

Awww I'm sad cuz I missed last week's episode. Can't miss it this week!!!!

Welcome to the forum!! Cara

Welcome!!! You will get lots of help here! You've come to the right place! Cara

Those are so nice!! I love them!

Thank you BBtoB for your response! We will probably do something similar to that. Good idea!

Thanks ladies! I thought he must be busy, his pictures are amazing. I hope we can snatch him up too!!! I can't wait to see your pictures LadyN!

Does anyone else find that his response time is a little slow? I am just trying to get some prices from him and I can't seem to get them. He emailed me back at one point asking what I wanted (wedding day coverage, TTD) and I am still waiting to hear the prices. Cara

Congratulations!!! Happy planning!

Hi ladies, I just found this thread and Ivan's work is absolutely amazing! I was blown away by his trash the dress photos on his site. WOW. I'm going to contact him. If someone had used him for their wedding, I'd love to see your photos! Thanks! Cara

I think Xhail has been there for a while. If you look on the bottom of the 2008/2009 wedding packages document, it says "For further assistance, do not hesitate to contact the wedding coordinators: Gabriela Barbabosa, Claudia Vazquez, Xhail Flores." So I'd assume she's been there since '08. I am sure she's great too. Cara

Hey everyone!!! We have put our date on hold for May 14, 2010 @ 5:00 and I am so excited!!!! WOOOO Does anyone know if 5:00 is a good time in May? I think the only other time available (besides really early) was 3:00 and I figured it'd be too hot then. Especially for my FI - he sweats a lot in the heat. LOL And I am 99% sure we're booking this week!!!!! I am so excited things are finally coming together.

Quote: Originally Posted by Donie Jordan Have you considered passport or boarding pass invites? While they will take some time to complete via DIY, there is plenty of room on these to give guests lots of info. Then you could include your wedding website on the invite for further info and updates! I've considered this, and I do love the passport & boarding pass invitations, the only thing is I'm not sure whether I should send an email now and have everyone put down their deposit, because we do want them to do that as soon as they can, and then send out the boarding pass or passport invites, and if we include an RSVP card with that or not.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ebbie475 CaraW One thing you could look into is getting a free website where you can update friends and family of any information you need to get to them. I used myweddings.com. You can do so much information distribution with a web site. And you can even put music to it! This will save you from sending out another mailing. Get folks email addresses too. Good idea! Ok maybe I will just do that then. Hmm.. so if I send out an email or post the booking information on the website, then what would be included on the invitations? We wouldn't really need anyone to RSVP because they most likely would have already put down their deposit after the email. So would I just include the resort information in the invitation, and the AHR info? And my RSVP card would only be for the AHR?

Hello ladies! My FI and I have been researching and contacting TA's for the last few months trying to get a decent quote and pick our resort. I haven't really thought much about invitations and how we are going to tell our guests about booking information yet because I have been so worried about the prices that were coming in for our 2010 wedding. Well, we have finally received a great quote and think we may be ready to book. My question is, how have you girls told your guests about your wedding? We sent out save the dates a few months ago just to let every one know when we were getting married, so they could start saving. And we just had "Mayan Riviera" as the location. Now, I would like to send them all the booking information, etc. Do I send that in the invitations? Or do I send out an email first or something so that people can put down their deposit? The thing is, it will take me forever to decide on invites, and then for them to get here, and I am trying to save money since we have a tight budget so I'm hoping to do DIY, which will take me forever (LOL), so I don't know if I can make my guests wait that long, and if we can wait that long to find out who's coming... ugh. I guess I should've thought of this sooner? I'm also wondering about the AHR, do you send out a separate invite to that? Or do you include that in your destination wedding invite? Sorry this is so long, but I am so confused!!! Thanks for any help, Cara

Quote: Originally Posted by BethBride1 Hey Cara! I'm getting married at the Palace too! Our day is July 1, 2010. We are in the process now for booking a site visit this June...so if you want me to find anything out or take any pictures when I'm down there, let me know! Hi there!! Thank you so much for offering, I would love to see pictures of the gazebo if you could, I know there's lots of photos out there, but not a lot of them have the stairs included in the picture. I'd like to see how many stairs it has on either side of it if you don't mind. My dad is in a wheelchair, and we'd love to use the gazebo, but aren't sure if it's going to be possible if there's too many stairs. And if you could take any photos of some of the reception areas? That would be wonderful!!! My FI & I were thinking of doing a site visit, but it's just not in our means right now. Trying to save for a house, so I would be so appreciative of any info you could provide me with. Thanks again!!! Cara

Hey ladies! I wanted to bring this thread back because it's great to talk to other Barcelo Palace brides. We are still trying to get a decent quote from our travel agent, and they are coming back a little bit better than they were before. *Crossing my fingers!* What step are you at? Our wedding is in May 2010, so I guess we have been told to wait until about August/September to get a good quote. Hope all of your planning is going well! Cara

Quote: Originally Posted by RCBlondie Cara W, you mentioned getting married at Barcelo, we stayed there in Dec '06 and had a wonderful time. There are four sections to the resort, two are the older and the other two (could be a third now as they were in the throws of building it when we were there). I will send you a PM if I can find the picture I have of the resort. Or you can go to Whateverblondie.com - Rachelle Cadieux and look at the pictures from Dec 2006 Mexico and find the resort in there. I have a tone of pics. Good luck with your planning. Thank you so much RCBlondie!! It's great to hear about the resort from someone who has stayed there. We were considering looking at other resorts, as some of the quotes for Barcelo came back pretty high, but there's only a difference of about $200 from other resorts we've had quoted, so we have decided that Barcelo is the resort we love, and so that's the one we're going with!!! I am so excited!! Now hopefully this swine flu thing blows over so we can book! I know my family won't be big on booking while this is going on. *fingers crossed*!!

Great review Shannon!! I can't believe your wedding already came and went!! Time flies! It looked beautiful, I can't wait to see more photos.

Is it an extra $70-$80 pp for the symbolic ceremony as well? And are we still able to have a private reception with the symbolic package?

northernflasher, What great advice! I just loved reading your post, and you are so right. We need to take our time right now and there's no need to rush. We are put under so much pressure from outsiders who have no idea how hard it is to make a decision on a resort!! My fiance and I have already given up the resort of our dreams because of all of the complaints we had from family & friends of it being too expensive. It's alright with me because I know the resort we end up picking will still be perfect and in the end I am marrying the man I love, but it's still hard to not let the stress & pressure get to you. I've been on a mission to find the perfect resort and it's like I'm in a rush, even though we still have a year.... I need to sit back, and talk it over with my FI and see what it is that WE want, and go from there. Thanks again!! Cara

Hello Grand Palladium brides!! I am considering the GP Kantenah for our May 2010 wedding, just started looking into it and it looks beautiful! I have some questions though if you don't mind - the gazebo's look beautiful, and I am wondering if you can have the ceremony if at one of them if you are staying at the Kantenah, are they on the Kantenah property or on the White Sands property? I thought I read somewhere that you can have the ceremony on the beach if you stay at Kantenah, or in the gazebo's if you stay at White Sands. Also, can you have the reception at Grand Azul or La Laguna like the pictures above if you stay at the Kantenah? Sorry if these questions have already been answered before, and thanks for any help! Thanks everyone, Happy Planning!! Cara

Hey! We've been quoted around $1700 to $1800 for a week at the Palace with a group rate. And that's not including tax. I'm sad though because my FI and I REALLY REALLY want the Barcelo Palace, but our guests would never pay $1800.... should we just try to get people to stay at the Colonial or other resorts? I feel bad doing this.

Hello ladies, I've recently started to consider doing a site visit. I was wondering, do you need to purchase a day pass for every resort you visit? or do you just contact them ahead of time and set a day and time to stop by? Thanks in advance! Cara

Hello Jennine! Welcome to the forum! you've chosen a very beautiful resort. My fiance and I are considering it for our May 2010 wedding. Either the Palace or Barcelo Colonial. I found this thread to be very helpful: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t21746 Also if you search for "Barcelo Maya" lots of other helpful info and some reviews will come up. Best of luck with all of your planning!!