JoanneIreland

Quote: Originally Posted by holls213 Did anyone use the resort spa for hair/makeup?? I cannot find pricing for it any where and the information sheet claudia keeps sending me doesnt seem to have it.

Got a bunch of emails asking for the template. All the emails are sent now. Best of luck!

Yup gotta love VP!!

This is amazing! So flatering on you, congrats and have a great wedding in DR!

No they won't allow fake flower petals. I took 2 bags of freeze dried petals with me and our w/c double checked them to make sure they were real so we could use them. You can also buy them through you w/c if you don't want to bring them with you. I needed more so purchased additional from the resort. I can totally undertand why they want you to use real ones though. I know they rake them up but some always get away so they need to be biodegradable. The resort is so clean and it's good that they make sure they maintain this in every way possible.

Beautiful pictures Jaimee!! The second last one if my favorite!

Fanastic review and planning thread!! Oh it makes me want to go back to the Barcelo and do my wedding all over again!!

Congratulations on your engagement!!!

Congrats and welcome to the forum!!

Congrats and welcome to the forum!!

Congrats and welcome to the forum!!

Hi, I never ate at the Caribbean so can't comment on that one. I did have dinner with my family at the French restaurant and I wouldn't recommend it for your welcome dinner, it's a bit too "stiff and serious" if you are looking for a more relaxing evening. For our welcome dinner we booked the Brazilian and everyone loved it and had so much fun. First course is an appetizer buffet which was really good. That was followed by a seven course (yes 7!!) meat dinner ..... You are served a plate of baked potato and veg and then the waiters come around with meat on skewers and shave it off to your desire. They come 7 times with 7 different meats, it was so good and everyone loved it, it was a bit of a novelty. The waiters were a lot of fun too. One took a liking to my sister and every time he passed her he jumped in next to her for a hug, kiss on the cheek, take a picture .... he had everyone laughing. There was then a choice of dessert. Keep in mind though if you have any guests not staying at the Palace you will have to pay $15 per person to have them eat at a Palace restaurant. We had 4 guests at the Tropical so had to pay a $60 cover. Worth it tho! Afterwards we all went to a show at the Palace theatre and had no problems with the Tropical guests as we had paid he $15 each.

About the string lights, the resort takes them down after every wedding and will only put them back up if you pay. I think it's $6 per string. We had our reception at Playa Azul and I believe we had 10 or 12 stings of lights. I still don't have my pro photos but here you can get some idea, in the first pic you can see 10 columns of lights but I think there were 12 total : Quote: Originally Posted by Macker Hi gals!! So i'm getting married at Barcelo Maya Palace 2012, and I am wondering if everyone is having the same trouble as I am. Firstly, I can not get a hold of my WC to answer some questions, so I am going to go here and see if any Brides will have any answers!! Thanks for your help ladies!!! Question 1.) For those gals who are getting the Strawberry Package, do you know if 15 is the max and then it's $66.00 US per additional guest, do you know if this is true, and what does this cover, I am so confused, since the package is expensive enough, why add on 66 for additional people? Question 2.) I would like the strings and I have read it's 5 US per string, but does any bride know how many strings are needed for the trees for Playa Azul Question 3.) When they say they decorate the table,( we have only one table at Playa Azul) does anyone know what that includes, because I just bought some place card holders, then I realized maybe they will provide that?? I think that's all of them {for now at least ) } Thanks in advance for anyone who is able to answer one or all of these questions!!!!! Alison

Dan - such a refreshing change to have a groom on here!! We used Ivan Luckie also but are still waiting on our photos. How long did it take for you guys? Did he deliver everything on CD? I love the photos of you guys on the rock in the ocean. How in God's name did you get up on it and stay dry??

Avens you look gorgeous, I love your hair and makeup! We had the same JOP as you, he was a great guy!

We got the maraca's from a party supply store online. I can't remember the name and I didn't save the website URL but I will see if I can find it from my bank statements and I will get back to you.

Everything is sold and on the way the way top the buyer. Thanks for your interest!

We actually bought our maraca's with us rather than buy down there. I wanted the large ones and I heard they were $3 each down there, and I was able to get them here for $1 each. Plus I had made tags for each one so I was able to attach them here before we left. They were very light so didn't way down bags, but they did take up a bit of space. We had 6 of us on the same flight (including a 2 year old) and had one checked bag each and one carry on each that we had FILLED with the heaviest items, so between us all we only needed to check one extra bag. We got large yellow ones to match our color theme and they had 'Mexico' written on them :

As Brenners said, I think this could all be easily be booked with your w/c ahead of time, I however waited until I got there. I planned to book my mani/pedi the morning of the wedding but my w/c recommended doing it the evening before, which worked out well for me and the morning of the wedding more relaxed. We booked our couples massage when we got there also as we didn't know our schedule for excursions and stuff, so booked a late afternoon right on the beach. And for the hair and makeup for the TTD day, that was also booked when I got there. But if you know what days and times you want for everything I would go ahead and schedule that with your w/c now. I will add though that the salon never seemed too busy and always appeared to have staff waiting and ready so if you decide to change your days I don't think it would be an issue.

MakeUp by Adrian and Hair By Christian from www.StylingTrioRivieraMaya.com : These are a few photos taken by guests on our wedding day, again I still don't have my professional photos and will post a full review then. My sister/MOH wanted loose curls ala Lauren Conrad style and this is what Christian did, exactly as she wanted as she normally has dead straight hair. Adrian did her makeup and she loved it, lasted all day : From the back : My mum's hair and makeup : Bride's hair and makeup :

Adrian is a professional makeup artist from Texas now living in the Riviera Maya. His work is amazing and he uses airbrush foundation. If you book him he will come to the hotel before the wedding and do a trial hair and makeup run, and will then come to your room again the morning of the wedding. It was lovely and relaxing instead of going to the spa. Adrian and his team came the morning of our wedding and we opened some bottles of champagne and later that morning ordered room service, we were playing music and chit chatting and it just takes away the nerves of sitting in the spa with a stylist who doesn't speak english. Adrian's website is www.StylingTrioRivieraMaya.com To add though, as mentioned in a post yesterday, I used the spa the next day for TTD and I thought they did a wonderful job too.

Hair and Makeup by Barcelo Spa : Not the greatest picture, but the only one I have from our TTD session taken on my sister's iPhone. Will give you some idea on service from the Barcelo Spa but I will post more pictures and full review when I get my pro pictures :

Stunning!! Congrats!!

On my wedding day I had my hair and makeup done by Adrian and his team. Yes it was expensive but they are true professionals. The price includes a trial run which is a nice touch, I used it for my rehearsal/welcome dinner. My makeup lasted all day and night and I absolutely loved my hair. The team also did a wonderful job on my mum and MOH, they both looked wonderful and were so happy with their hair and makeup. I used the Barcelo spa for my hair and makeup the following day for our Trash the Dress shoot and I have to admit I thought they did an amazing job, almost as good as the wedding day and I would definitely recommend them. My advice though would be to bring LOADS of pictures of what you want. As this was for TTD I didn't care so much so just turned up the morning of and flicked through some magazines (I was totally not organized or prepared, was exhausted after wedding and perhaps had a teeney hangover, LOL!) but the girl there did a lovely job. With Adrian you didn't have the language barrier as an issue plus you were able to discuss in detail the look you were after. Now saying that I just sat in the chair and the Barcelo spa and let them do their thing and they did great! I have no professional photos yet (big heavy sigh), but once I get them I will post a full review. I can dig out some pics my guests took on the wedding day so you can get an idea of the hair and makeup from Adrian but I think the pro pictures will do them better justice. I have just one picture of the TTD that my sister took as I was leaving for the shoot, and I will try posting that too so you can see the work from the Barcelo Spa.

Thanks girls!