mrsnova

Oh and here is a picture of my sister and I with her bridesmaid dress! Weird how it looks a lot more blue then it did online. Geez my dress is wrinkled lol!

So I came home this weekend to pick up my dress! It still needs to be altered (too long, taking 1/2 train off) but after 4 months I still love it Still deciding if I want to leave the back panel out (it is not laced up all the way).

Congrats! I am also doing the Mint Breeze package. The package includes 20 guests, and it is $27/per person for each additional guest (over 20). I think the 11 guests you are talking about is where it says if you have less than 11 people you have to have your reception at a semi-private restaurant instead of a banquet room. It explained it better in the 2012 wedding package document. I believe that guests staying at any of the Barcelo resorts do not have to pay a guest pass if your wedding is at the Palace and they are not staying there. Any wedding guests staying outside of the Barcelo resort have to pay a guest pass for your wedding. I can't remember how much it is and if I am wrong about this please someone correct me!

Barcelo Maya Palace has a pretty gazebo. I think it can hold that many guests, it is a family friendly resort, and in Riviera Maya. Good luck!

Yea I think it will all work out fine . Sounds like you have been busy/stressed, but I am sure you will be able to find a resort you love with those dates available! Dreams Tulum was in our top 3 resorts, it is beautiful! In the end we chose Barcelo because they have three different resorts in one and wanted to offer the different price options for the guests.

I had a hard time deciding my reception timeline at first. We are not very traditional and want it to be casual and not dragged out with speeches and traditional elements of a reception (especially since we only have 3 hours for the reception!) Here is what I have so far: 7:00-7:15- Bride & Groom entrance & greetings (no wedding party entrance) 7:15-8:15- 4 course served dinner *speeches/toasts in between courses (very short and minimal) 8:15- First dance 8:20- Father/daughter dance 8:25- Mother/son dance 8:30- Tribute song to parents 8:35-9:00- Dancing & fun! 9:00-9:10- Cut cake 9:10-10:00- More dancing & fun!

Congrats and welcome to BDW! Definitely a great site and has been VERY helpful:)

I just booked Juan Navarro. After researching many many photographers in the area he was the most responsive (almost always responded with a couple hours), very willing to work with your budget and needs, and he had GREAT reviews. There are many other good photographers, so I guess it just depends on your budget. Because we had to pay the resort a $500 fee, we were limited on our budget. Some that seemed very good (but unfortunately not within my budget) were Claudia Rodriguez, Del Sol, and Pierre Visual Studio.

I love Vitamin String Quartet! You are right it can make things a little more traditional and elegant while still being able to have a modern song you like. All You Need Is Love and You Are The Best Thing will also be on my playlist. Music is really important to my finance and I too and ever since we got engaged (okay even before haha) we have been adding to our playlist. We are not having a DJ so I am glad I started early to have plenty to choose from! I will have to share the list when I am done

This forum is so great to connect with other brides, I love it! Labor day is a good idea for the extra day off. Unfortunately I do not want to wait that long (my wedding is March 1st). After talking it over with friends and family I think I decided on March 30th (about 3 1/2 weeks after I get back). Believe it or not this is the original date I had set lol. I guess I will just have to figure out time off work later I can see why having some time in between would be good to get settled in but for us I think we would be over it by then and not want to do it. Haha probably sounds crazy but we are not 100% excited about doing the AHR anyways (doing it more for those who couldn't make it to the destination wedding). Thank you so much for your input Good luck on your planning! I see you are getting married in Riviera Maya too..which resort?

So cute and easy! I will for sure be making these! I saw some on pinterest that were blue, for your 'something blue'

So sorry that this happened to you. How horrible! Thank you for the heads up on the photographer..

I have not personally tried to use the cups but I have been to 3 different all inclusive resorts and have seen several people using them. It seems like they wouldn't care because it is unlimited and instead of filling up 5 small cups they could fill up one bottle! Also, on my resort thread (Barcelo Maya Palace) many, many people talked about using bottles/cups in their OOT bags and haven't heard anyone say they had a problem.

I haven't read too many reviews but there were a couple on the website that were all rated 5 stars out of 5. Here is a review of the company from weddingwire.com, http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/discountmugs-com-miami/e70cf83a0828a88d.html. It seems like for the most part the reviews were good. They have a lot of sales too!

Has anyone had the guitarist play during their ceremony? What sorts of song have the musicians played? I do not want traditional music. Thanks!

I am thinking about getting mine from discountmugs.com. You can get them personalized too for $50. Here is what we are thinking: This website has several other double walled ones! Based on my research their prices are pretty reasonable

I am making and sending my invitations out in about a week and I am including the AHR info to save money and time making separate invites. I am going back and forth between having the ARH directly after the wedding (about a week after we get back), a few weeks to a month after, or like two months after!! The main reasons I am having trouble deciding is because we are having the reception at my parents house/backyard in Portland, Oregon. My wedding is March first and the weather in Portland is pretty cool at that time of year. We have talked about getting heaters and tents If needed and of course using the inside. I am hesitant to wait until the weather gets nicer (especially because weather in Portland in even June is unpredictable) because I don't want it to be too long after the wedding and not feel "fresh". My other dilemma is time off of work (I just got a new job). I live in Ft Collins Colorado and have to make a trip for the ARH and thought it may be easier to either take 2 weeks off and do both at once, or wait a couple months. I don't know I am so conflicted and need to decide SOON! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated .

I know you posted this quite awhile ago..but thought I would offer my input. I have been to Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Cancun and from my experience the Cancun/Caribbean side has prettier beaches. So if this is something important to you then you might want to consider Riviera Maya. We ended up choosing Riviera Maya because it is near Cancun that we loved but away from the party scene and more appropriate for a wedding. We are having our wedding/staying at Barcelo Maya Palace. They have a gorgeous gazebo but we are having our ceremony on the beach:). I agree that a travel agent is a must. It is very overwhelming to choose a resort on your own and good to have input from someone who knows the locations and resorts. You have to factor in the resort it self, the wedding packages/locations, and what your guests want and need. We went for a larger resort that had different price options. Good luck!

I sent my save the dates in the beginning of July (wedding 3/1/13). I would have sent them sooner but we were waiting for our engagement pics to come back and then had to get the STDs made. We just did a generic magnet. I am in the process of making my own boarding pass invitations. Here are some of my inspirations: Here is the link to the template I used:http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2008/08/aylees-boarding-pass-invitation-save-the-date/ It was actually not too hard, I am just picky and wanted it to be certain way so that took some time. It is actually pretty inexpensive to do as well! I will post my finished product on my planning thread in a few weeks so you can check it out if you like: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/81510/kaelas-rivieria-maya-planning-thread-3-1-13 I have seen others do passport invitations that were really cute too!

I am also getting married at Barcelo Maya Palace (on March 1st, 2013) and also chose the Mint Breeze package for all the same reasons you ladies mentioned! According to my WC they choose the banquet room based on how many people you have and because you likely don't know this until a lot closer to the wedding she said we will determine that at a later date. This may differ for every WC as it seems they all say different things! AudreyP thanks for the pictures of the different halls! I agree that the Chak-Halal room is probably the best and if you have a large group I am sure that is what you would end up with. Also you guys should check out the main Barcelo Palace thread: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/21746/barcelo-maya-palace-brides/3270#post_1807155. It is very long but has LOTS of good information from past and present brides! Happy planning

You either have to pay a $500 fee to not use their photographer or have them as a guest (pay for at least 2 nights). So if your photographer is a guest at your wedding you will have no problems!

And we were obviously engaged April 2012 not 2013

Thanks so much! I just saw that I made several spelling errors including the title lol! Can't figure out how to edit it though :/