svetayasofiya

Quote: Originally Posted by kateg527 Has anyone seen the work of the in house photographers at the Palace? I'm kinda curious..I've only seen the website & wasn't too impressed. They looked like snap shots that friends & family could have taken. For such a beautiful place, you'd expect more. Go to Weddings at Barcelo Maya On the ''Neverending Photos Thread'' you'll see some brides who posted photos from the resort photographer. I don't know. I don't think they are that bad. I guess it just depends what you want. I can see how people would be disappointed to be forced to use someone, but I personally don't understand this new trend in wedding photos. They are so editorial, like you are posing for Vogue magazine or something. I prefer something more real that actually looks like myself and my fiancée.

Keep in mind it's not the resort... it's the tour companies. ie. Air Transat, Westjet Vacations, Air Canada Vacations... it totally depends on them and what kind of group deal / policies they have.

Quote: Originally Posted by yesther Thanks BethBride for your review! It was great! As a side note...does anyone that is working with a travel agent get some perks for having guests book through them? I feel like my TA is not doing anything for me...except getting a commission! Am I wrong to feel like I should at least be getting some of my stay subsidized if I am guaranteeing 10-15 rooms? I think I posted this already a couple pages back, or in another thread... so forgive me everyone for repeating myself! But we did get a HUGE perk. It was through the tour company we booked with (WestJet Vacations). The 21st person of our group travels free (a savings of $1539.00). That can be applied to anyone so obviously it's being applied to me and my fiancee. It gets even better!! The 42nd person travels free! We are currently 8 adults away!!! Wish us luck! We haven't told anyone about these perks because I think some of our guests would be upset... but my TA got them all an awesome deal so I don't feel guilty. I don't think the Barcelo generally does upgrades or special deals themselves... but I know my TA is working to get us a special suite and somethingi else, but she won't tell us! She is a real doll. Have someone working for you who cares, and who is not just in it for the money. (Mind you... we got her tons of $$ with 38 people booking all over the country... that is over $50k to Westjet Vacations)

Quote: Originally Posted by Danielle77 I am getting married at the Colonial on January 5, 2010. We arrive on the Saturady, get married on the Tuesday and aren't meeting with the wc until Monday. I am a little worried anout leaving things until the day before the wedding...yikes. Not to ensue panic but... are you doing the legal wedding? Because by Mexican law you have to be in the country three business days before getting married which would mean the earliest you could be married is the Wednesday or Thursday... I wouldn't worry about meeting with the WC the day before your wedding though. From what I hear, they have everything under control. Essentially all you are doing is picking flowers, location and stuff like that. Try to organize alot of things before you go via email with your WC. I guess it depends on how many extras you are adding on.

Here you go... http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t3107

I booked my whole group through a travel agent but I have been working directly with the wedding coordinator myself. So far we have some paper work to fill out regarding the legality of the wedding but I have not yet been asked the guest list. It is still 6 months away... I am sure they will ask you soon if you are getting married in November.

kinthia- to answer some of your questions (as I am getting married at the Maya Beach)... basically you have all the same options as those at the Palace... except for location of ceremony and reception. Palace guests can only have access to Palace restaurants etc... and this includes the gazebo for weddings. However, what is available to you in regards to wedding packages etc... is the same for all the Barcelo brides. If you go back a few pages you will see someone already posted the wedding packages and prices for 2010. Maybe someone else can answer you re. the chapel. I suggest you read this thread from start to finish and you will find most of your questions answered. There is also an extremely informative thread in another section on the Maya Beach and there are also pictures posted of the banquet rooms etc... I will find that and link it in here... give me a sec!

Interesting....... I thought it was only 3 hrs too.... can any past brides confirm what the story is? I have been trying to plan out my time line as well....

Quote: Originally Posted by breens Very Cool!!! We will be there then as well! Do you know who your WC is yet? The beaches are really great. Also, there is a space between Caribe and colonial for the ceremoney that feels a little more secluded, feel free to ask any questions. But, when we went in July, the Caribe wasnt open, the guests were moved to Colonial/tropical, but you could still use their beach. We thought about booking that one in hopes they'd move us too I have Gabriela. Yeah the Beach/Caribe is closed and apparently has been completely renovated so I am pretty excited about that. It is scheduled to re-open in Dec., but if not... worst case scenario we'll be upgraded to the Tropical/Colonial. I have never been there but I hear they have the best beach in the Mayan Riviera!

Quote: Originally Posted by Paige2010 Are any of you getting good group discounts or reduced rates for having a large group book? I haven't been offered any by my travel agent and now am wondering if I should have all my guests book through a different TA that can offer some sort of large group special (or even get my room discounted?) If you are NOT going to receive any perks for booking as a group than don't bother with the stress of it all. However, you SHOULD be getting some deals. Definitely! To count as a group you need ten people and that alone should get you better rates. With our tour company... the 21st person was free... which can be applied to anyone (of course we are taking the $$).... then after that the 42nd person is free! So I am really hoping for that. We are currently at 34 (the 4 others that make 38 are kids and don't count). In addition... I do believe we will be upgraded to a suite. My TA is working on that. Fight for deals / perks if you are going to book as a group. Originally to get the deals we got, we all had to fly out of the same city, but we are spread out all over the country. My TA worked real hard to have all the cities included so we can take advantage of the 21st free trip incentive. When you do the math... our group of 38 people consists of $60,000 +++ to the airline and hotel! Bringing in that kind of cash better get me something, LOL

Hey Breens!! I am getting married the day before you!!! I haven't met anyone yet who is close to my date.

Gabriela is my wc and she has been pretty good so far but I haven't been demanding. She was quick to hold my date (about a week?). I haven't bombarded her with questions because I am not getting married until February and I am sure she is busy with those who are coming up soon. She took a little longer to respond to officially book my date after I sent the manifest... actually no, she was probably within a week too. Then she sent me the paper work I need to fill out for the legal aspect. I dunno, they probably get annoyed with people emailing all the time asking the same questions. Try to get a lot of your questions answered here. There is not a whole lot you can do with them before you get there anyway. Give her a chance, but if she doesn't put your date on hold soon, maybe give a call. Once you have your date on hold you can sit back and relax.

Quote: Originally Posted by brandynd Well, they had said they would hold our date and time for two months until we got everything booked. Brandy From what I understood (as the english in the emails isn't always the greatest) you have up to two months BEFORE your wedding to confirm the date. I just confirmed with Gabriela last week and our date had been on hold since May. My only suggestion to any of you newbies is patience. They are slow to respond but I have had no troubles so far. Gabriela has been great. Just be patient. They are super busy and if you aren't getting married until next summer, there is nothing to rush for. Put your date on hold, then shop around for prices.

Not a silly question! I want to know too! lol I have an additional question... I am considering doing a cocktail hour between the ceremony and the reception... anyone know where this would be located? For example, we are doing the ''Mint Breeze'' so our reception will be in a banquet hall... would the cocktail hour be there? or would it be outside? Also... re. pricing... is that the $9 per person National Drinks extra hour?

Hey guys... I have a question. If you are staying at the Beach/Caribe I know you cannot go to the Tropical/Colonial restaurants (buffet and à la cartes), but when you are swimming in their pools are you able to order drinks at their bars and have lunch and snacks at their outdoor grills? I can't seem to find any information regarding that. It would really suck if you can use their pools and stuff, but not be able to order a drink or have a snack.....

I have a question... what is it about the AI that people don't like?

Quote: Originally Posted by Sandra&Mario Amy, I have no clue if this is going to work, but I'll try. Are you subscribed to the "Barcelo Maya" thread. It is there that you will see a bunch of different pictures of the centerpieces and table arrangements both inside the banquet hall and outside. I believe is the 2nd to last page. I'm horrible at html coding. I need to look it up and then I'll post all the pics! But it's late and I'm pooped out! http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...terpiece_1.jpg Hi! If you don't mind just posting the link to that thread that would be great... I tried to find it... :s

I went through (am going through) the same thing with my finacée's family. My family is all on board because I live in Mtl. and they all live in BC or Alta., so would have to travel anyway... My fiancée's family is all here and gave us a bit of a hard time when we first mentioned the Mexico thing. Reality is, we can NOT afford a local wedding. As it is the Mexico thing is costing way more than anticipated. We will not be having an AHR even though there is pressure for us to do so. My thoughts are if you can't afford to go, we totally understand, but why should we shell out thousands of dollars to throw a party for them after? No way! My fiancée still has two grandma's and a grandpa all in their 80's. One couple apparently is planning to come :s *Not sure how that will work... but the other grandma is apparently upset that we sent out the 'save the dates' via email, and because she does not have an email she is finding out about it through the rest of the family. Puhleeeeeease. You are never going to please everyone. Think of who the most important people are (besides you and your fiancée) and work with them accordingly. For me, obviously if it was not going to work out with my parents or the fiancée's parents, then we would be planning a very diff. wedding.... as long as I have my mom and dad and the inlaws, everyone else you who comes imo is a bonus. Don't lose focus! These are not the days of our parents when it is the parents who organise everything and call the shots. We live very diff. and independent lives and if it's your dream to have a DW don't let anyone stand in the way. Good Luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by northernflasher Check out the very helpful thread "what I would and wouldnt do again" for opinions from girls that have been through ALL these decisions... sorry dont know how to post a link to it but really think it will help. Good Luck Hi there! Where is this thread? Where on the forum? ie. what page? I couldn't find it........ Thanks!!!

Oh wow... I never thought of it that way at all....... for sure I want a good room! Closest to the beach as possible!! Well... we'll book soon, because like people said before, we have to be there, it's our wedding! All I can do is let the rest of our group know the details and not stress over who decides to book now and who doesn't. I really don't think the price will go down. She has quoted us 7 days/nights from Montreal at the Barcelo Maya Beach $1880 CAD tax in. It's expensive and makes me wonder how people afford the Barcelo Maya Palace! but I also know this is a decent price for a week from Mtl. I guess the whole reason to book as a group is to try to get a free trip... but all the carriers seem to want us to fly from the same city in order for this to apply... impossible for us to have the numbers add up... we are flying from 5 different cities. I am hoping maybe we can get some sort of deal on the wedding itself... if everyone comes who say are coming, we should have 20-25 rooms booked...... is this going to get me anything? The cost of this wedding is starting to keep me awake at night.

Hello everyone, I was hoping some of you experienced brides could shed some light on the whole group booking situation. I am scheduled to get married in February of next year. I have always been a bit of a last minute traveler but I understand with a group (and a wedding!) you can't exactly be... However, how soon must one really book? I see some people have booked over a year ahead. Why? My experience has always been the closer to the date the better the deal. We are currently 8 months off and my TA is pressuring me to book now. I will book soon, but how do I convince my guests to book so far in advance too? Is it better to just forgoe the group booking (and therefore potential freebees) and let everyone book on their own at their own leisure? I mean, what are the advantages of booking as a group so early in advance and paying rates that I feel are higher than people could get as a couple if they waited until November. Please shed some light on this for me, as I am trying to figure out what to do. Feeling a little frazzled and stressed. I want everything to work out, but I am not in any rush...... my fiancé doesn't even have a passport! LOL Advice, tips or any kind of help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

We are currently booked (wedding only) at the Barcelo Maya Beach. I did so much research before narrowing it down to the two resorts. There are aspects of the Palladium I prefer, but there are aspects of the Barcelo I prefer. I know it's my wedding and I want it to be special but we are on a really tight budget and cannot afford to go to Mexico and have a big fancy reception. It sucks for us being over 40 ppl that our only option at the Palladium (besides having the reception in the buffet) is to pay $60 per person on top of the already $20 per person for the ceremony. It's just way out of our budget so in the end, cost wins. At the Barcelo the wedding package incl. 20 people and over that you pay I think $25 per person... but autmomatically get a pricate reception with set menu. It's in a banquet hall... which I am also not too keen on... but we'll see. I am trying to get pictures! I haven't ruled out the Palladium yet! My parents were there in Feb. and fell in love with it so I know it's their first choice. Oh and we have people flying from Victoria, possibly Kelowna, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Chicago. :s Quite a group to organise!

Just send them an email and they usually get back to you within a week (if not faster)....

February 18, 2010 is my wedding day......... I am not currently booked at the Palladium as like I said before the prices were too high. What time are you booked for and what location? What kind of reception are you having? How many people? Just curious...

Does anyone have any pictures of the banquet room set up for the Sea Breeze package? Also, I have heard conflicting comments... some say there are windows, some say there aren't..... We are going to be too many people to have it outside and I also hear in Feb. it's quite cool at night so we'll be going with the banquet room. I just wish I could see some pictures...