TaraW

Wow that's terrible news about the concert. So sorry for the brides looking to get married around this time! I'm glad my wedding is over and done with!! For those brides wondering about a DJ, I say if you have a small group DON'T spend the money!! I brought down my iPod and plugged it in to their fabulous sound system and danced the night away with my guests for a cost of 8.95 ..... the amount I paid for the "wedding DJ" app! It was awesome! You can build play lists for different parts of your wedding (dinner music, first dance, reception, etc) and program it to pause and do different time delays between the songs. SOOOO glad I didn't hire a DJ for my intimate wedding and spent the money on other things my guests enjoyed way more. We also skipped having a dance floor, kicked off our shoes and danced on the sand without any regrets! If we had a much larger group we would have hired a dj and had a dance floor, but anything under 20-25 people I wouldn't bother. But different things are important to different brides so this is just my opinion!

@@SamanthaElizabeth Check out YouTube There's a few video clips of the captain Morgan beach as well as the grill. MishkaDesigns did the uploads as they seem the most accurate of what I remember of that part of the resort. It doesn't afford you the same privacy at all compared to playa Azul but both my hubby and I said if we had to be relocated to a grill anywhere in the resort, Captain Morgan was the nicest as it had both a covered and open area, and the reception set ups we saw were very beautiful

@@SamanthaElizabeth Were you wanting an indoor or outdoor location? And beach setting or covered area? Playa Azul is huge if you wanted a beach wedding reception as well (We did that and it was awesome) and can easily manage any size of group. Any of the grills can accommodate a large group of 90 as well. I think the Captain Morgan grill was our favourite out of all the grill areas when we were scoping out "back up" reception locations. I didn't see any indoor venues at all so I can't speak to those of you were thinking of going down that route. @@smfahey Glad you booked the location. I promise you, you will absolutely LOVE it!

@@smfahey The thumbnail I attached earlier is the Playa Azul beach, where your ceremony could take place. You could also have farther up on the sand, which I have seen pics of. There is also a building right beside the location with a small kitchen, and washrooms to accommodate events in that area. I don't have a pic of that tho. I've attached a few more pics ..... a few show our large square reception table we had (in lieu breaking up a small group) It was very cool because it had color changing lights under it that really showed up at night. There are a few of the ceremony set up near the water and then one of us walking back to our group after the photos were done. That photo was taken at about 7:00pm and it gives you a bit of an idea of the beautiful beach and shows how private it really is! If you look closely you can see where we had our reception table set up, a small cocktail area (with stand up tables) and the wedding spot. Off to the left of that shot is all the palm trees, and they had white lights wrapped around them for when the sun went down. I would have liked a little more lighting for after sundown in hindsight, but it was really beautiful overall. Hope this helps a bit!

@@smfahey We only had 30 people invited initially when we booked, and over half of them cancelled with all the Zika virus scares and a very poor Canadian dollar right around booking time (1.40 to every USD!) so there was only 14. Playa Azul was not too big at all! the WCs try to discourage you from booking it because it's so popular, and they like to save it for the larger groups. Its a large part of the beach and can accommodate a lot of people, but it's not like having a wedding/reception in a large hall or indoor venue where if it's not full with people it seemed too big... it's outdoors so size of the area is completely irrelevant. Both of us and our guests were blown away by the beauty, privacy and intimacy that location afforded us throughout the day and evening. It was really magical!!!! Looking back and after scoping out tons of weddings during our three weeks there (we probably saw 30 or more since there were several every single day!) it's the ONLY location I would book again for our ceremony because if it's beauty and privacy. We felt like we were in our own private beach club!

@@vida Hi there, I just wanted to share with you about the beach wedding location. We were just married in April and we specifically chose the Playa Azul location at the far end the resort (closest to the Beach resort side, not the Palace) We chose the location for our ceremony and reception for all the reasons and concerns you mentioned in your post! It is VERY private, it has the most beautiful beach (no rocks or coral, etc) and it was an amazing day!! So ask your WC if it's available because I PROMISE you wont be disappointed! We were at the resort for 3 weeks and saw tons of weddings (there were 100 weddings in April of this year!!!) and definitely there are sunbathers and lookie loos everywhere ... EXCEPT at Playa Azul! So don't give up that hope for a private beach wedding ceremony just yet! Here's a pic ... I was told afterwards that there were about a have dozen people coming down the beach to see the ceremony and to see the Mayan Shamam that was present in his traditional costume blowing the conch, but the wedding coordinator / staff chased them away, and that was literally it! NO sunbathers, noise, disruptions, etc. Just us! It was a perfect day and I'm so happy we got married there!

Hey there all of you 2016 brides that were married at Barceló this year!! I have a question for all of you that had a civil ceremony: We were supposed to get an official marriage certificate in the mail "within three months", but 4 months has passed and nothing has arrived yet. I know everything is a LOT slower than they say, but I'm just wondering if/when you've received yours, and what the timeframe was. Thanks!

@@WattGriffiths Congrats on your upcoming wedding! We were married on April 15. I also went through 3 WC's in the year that I spent planning the wedding - it was incredibly frustrating! Itzel was my last planner and the one who was there at on my wedding day but she's since left .... Funny because she worked front desk for four years before moving to the wedding side of things, and then was only there for 7 months!!! Makes you wonder a bit what's going on in that department!! I'm not sure if she's still at Barcelo, I used Beso Brides for my hair and makeup and have no regrets at all! My guests also used their services and were very happy. I did a lot of research prior to and I found their prices very fair, and quite a bit less then many I checked out. They also don't ask for a deposit, just full payment on the day of the wedding. With all the money I was bleeding out before the wedding I found that refreshing! Do NOT use the spa - my daughter used my hair and makeup included with our wedding package and she had to fix it all afterwards. The makeup was very theatrical looking, and not flattering at all. They like their frosty eye shadow, that's for sure!!! Haha We declined the upgrade to the Palace and stayed at the Tropical, which is where us and all of our guests booked. We just asked for a nicer room at the location, and got a beautiful ocean view. We personally felt the Palace is too far away from Some of our fave places at the resort so we prefer to stay there (second time at Barcelo and we've stayed at the Tropical both times for that reason). I'm not sure what you mean about doing your cocktail hour as a reception? Do you mean you are extending your reception or just doing an extended cocktail hour instead of a reception?

Hi there @@smfahey, 1. I have read nothing but positive comments on the wedding cakes overall. Ours was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!! but it was vanilla, so that doesn't help you. You can do a tasting when you arrive at the report for 10.50 USD per flavour, so that's an option for you. (that's the quote I was given last summer - it may have gone up) 2. Surf and turf was good, but it was very cold so that was a huge disappointment for us. And people don't get a choice of how they want their steak cooked, so that cook be an issue for some. A week later we got to try the beef wellington at our romantic dinner on the beach, and after eating it I really wished we had chosen that entrée instead of the surf & turf. It was amazing!! 3. Both entries came with potatoes and roasted veggies, which were really good as well. To answer your last question about pros and cons about the resort, you should definitely take some time and ready over this thread. It's worth the time investment! Many brides have shared the good, bad an ugly about the resort, and overall I think it's been fairly consistent. Barceló has their issues and we certainly had our share during our 3 week wedding/honeymoon, but overall it was a very special time for us and I have no regrets about getting married there. Hope this helps and happy planning!!

@@Alemike Congrats on your upcoming wedding - looks like the countdown is really on now! You will love Beso Brides! Michael and Martina are both lovely people and did a great job for me and my guests that used their services. Highly recommended!!!! We LOVED having the guitarist. We sent him 4 songs ahead of time, with youtube clips of an instrumental guitarist playing them in the tempo we wanted them. He learned them in time and played them perfectly! We had: Before the ceremony started: Bless this Broken Road - Rascal Flatts Walking down the Aisle: We Found love - Rhianna (slowed down tempo and gorgeous that way!), Signing the certificates: Marry You - Bruno Mars After the ceremony and while we all toasted: I'm Yours - Jason Mraz Go on youtube and search for ambonick1. He was the inspiration for our own choices. We sent our WC these video clips as a guide, she forwarded them on to the guitarist and they were all perfect! So get creative with your choices - he only needs about 2-3 weeks to learn any new ones he doesn't already know. They will charge you 10.00 per room to deliver the wedding bags (YIKES!) so I got a list of room numbers my guests would be in and did it myself. The day the guests arrived I just went to the room and tipped the maids in the hallway (they are there pretty much all day cleaning rooms) to just open the door and put it on the bed for me.

@@smfahey Check out my pics that I posted on here May 12 - we had both our wedding and reception at Playa Azul. It's a GORGEOUS location, and wonderfully private. You can't go wrong!

Hi there, Yup, I still have some available! I'll send you a message!

@@SammyMac That's terrible about your friend falling and injuring himself! You said they tried to get him to sign a release form - hopefully he didn't? Gawd, I don't even know what that would be like trying to come after the resort for damages. Long distance wedding planning was stressful enough! every morning on the way to breakfast we thought we were going to slip on the wet soapy floor while they were cleaning the hallways in front of the room. My hubby and I joked about trying to manage a lawsuit after everything else .... But seriously, hopefully your friend is doing well since he's been home? @@Bcari16 Sorry for the late reply Thank you for the wedding wishes on our wedding day! That was so sweet! I just realized you day is just around the corner as well. Hope everything goes as smooth as possible and that your day is everything you imagined it to be! I still have my internet codes/passwords .... I think they are good until the first week of June. Let me know and I will email them to you!

We definitely didn't have the shuttle experience that you did! That was a total scam whatever that woman was trying to pull with you without a doubt. In the end were also charged twice for the shuttle and spent about an hour at the desk the day before we checked out trying to get the charges removed. (paid for the shuttle separately when we got there, then the shuttle charge also showed up on our room charges as owing) So my other piece of advice is check your invoices as well, ladies!! More advice for all the brides that I forgot to mention: TAXI VS SHUTTLE In the end we cancelled the return shuttle 24 hours ahead of time, had the amount credited back to our hotel account (they wont refund you, but will let you apply the credit to cover your room charges) and just hopped a cab by ourselves We were flying out of Cancun at 7:20pm and the shuttle wanted us on the bus at 2:30pm. No thank you! We enjoyed the beach for an extra hour instead, got a late check out, left at 3:45pm instead and had tons of time at the airport. And the cab was cheaper anyhow and it was just us, with no other pick ups to slow us down. We found out while we were there that a taxi to/from the airport to Barcelo is a set fee (most destinations are) - 830pesos or 70.00 if you pay in USD. With the current US/pesos exchange rate it's a lot cheaper to exchange some pesos before you leave, hop a cab and go directly to the resort and pay the driver in pesos. The shuttle was basically 50 bucks for two of us when paying in pesos, the shared shuttle was 73.00 per couple. One of our guests was stuck in a 2.5 hour shuttle ride from the airport to the resort because of all of the other drop offs that they did on the way, as not all passengers on the shuttle are going to the same resort. Cab ride was 50 min door to door. Time is money to the cab drivers, so they will get you there as fast as they can!! INTERNET - Many people get "free internet" when they book through Barceló.com, but this only covers one device at a time. You can't log on and off as easily as you may think either - it's a real pain and an obscure code that's different for everyone and a challenge to remember for most. It also boots you off fairly regularly and you have to keep signing on. My advice is to pay the 40.00 US for a second code if you and your hubby both want to be connected with your phones, ipads, or whatever. They will tell you that you need to come back after 7 days and pay for a new code but DONT I decided to see how long it would work for, and it was good the whole three weeks! I did notice there was a date on the bottom of the card that appeared to be an expiry date, that was June 15th or something like that. All of this to say they just try to get you to come back and pay for a new code - chances are you don't need to!

Hi there Yooyooo, Sounds like you had very similar problems to us with regards to dealing with reception and checking in your guests. I also had many issues like that but left it out of my already lengthy review. Like me, glad to hear that your wedding was everything you had hoped it would be! Thanks for sharing your pics - beautiful! It seems like there was definitely some huge issues with your shuttle but I wanted to add some info as well, hopefully to put you a bit at ease as to why this company had your contact info. We also booked through Barceló.com for ourselves and our guests, and one week before hand we went online and paid for everything. The only amount we couldn't pay for ahead of time for any of the reservations was the shuttle amount of 73 USD return pp, which we paid at the resort when we arrived. I thought this was weird since we were able to pay thousands of dollars ahead of time, but couldn't prepay the shuttle, so I asked the gal at the front desk about it. She said it's because they don't always know which shuttle you will be transported on. Over the 3 weeks that we were there, we saw our guests come and go on a few different company shuttles even though they were all booked through Barcelo.com so clearly there are different companies that share the business/workload, etc from Barceló. With regards to the Vacciones Barceló shuttle service specifically, we also arranged for the shuttle as part of the option during our online booking. Shortly afterwards I received the corresponding emails from Vacciones Barcelo, with references made to the correct/corresponding reservation number as we received with each reservation that we made. (Their layout was exactly as you copied and pasted to your post here - asking for flight info, etc.) We provided all the flight details and we received shuttle confirmation back from the company ... some came immediately, others took a few weeks. The confirmation page had clear instruction on what we needed to do once we got to the airport, photos of the guys in their yellow shirts, and clear direction not to go with any other shuttle company or else we would not be reimbursed. They do this because there are lots of shuttle companies at the airport not working with resorts directly that do try to scam you! When we got to the airport the guy was waiting for us with a sign with our names on it, we got on the shuttle and carried on to the hotel. As I said there was certainly something sneaky happening with your experience, but it sounds like almost infighting amongst the companies that do service Barceló, or a bad employee trying to scam you ... but this is why they had your name, email etc. Hope this helps a bit!

BEAUTIFUL shot! I love the purple against the ocean backdrop, and the flowers on the huppa look amazing. I just loved that location so much. It was perfect for what we envisioned. I guess that's why Barcelo is a popular spot because there are so many different options to satisfy everyone.

Thanks so much SammyMac! We are really happy with the few we've seen and pretty excited so see the rest. Not lame at all, I like the chairs too!!! Hahaha! Were your wedding colors purple by any chance? We were walking back from the beach on your wedding day and I saw my WC Itzel and another WC stop at the back of the colonial building, heading up to pick up a bride, and I was wondering if it was you!! I was going to stay and stalk you but it was taking too long and we had dinner reservations at 5:30. The WC had a bouquet in her hand that was purple, that's why I ask.

Let's see if these pics work .... Playa Azul location My hubby & me Sunset ... Mayan shaman Reception table ( don't be fooled by all of the light ... It was the photographers flash mostly! ) As I said before we only got a sneak peek (15 shots) back from our photographer, but here are a few of them. Still waiting for a few hundred more!

Hi everyone, Sorry for the late update! We’ve been back from our wedding/honeymoon for 12 days now and after being gone for 3 weeks we had a lot of life to catch up on! This is going to be very lengthy because LOTS to share about our experiences at Barcelo – most good, some bad, costly and frustrating. I share them not to complain, because you don't know me it absolutely going to come across sounding like that!!! I'm sharing it just in the hopes that this can help some of you!!! I'm a very meticulous, organized person and I did my best to plan, prepare, and anticipate as much as I could prior to the wedding. We set our date 14 months ahead of time and my goal was to have everything done and planned with months to go so I wouldn't be worrying about anything. Unfortunately the constant change in WCs (three in a 14 month span) the delays in responding (went three months without hearing back from my WC Estrella on one occasion ... Only to finally get so frustrated that I called the resort and found out she had quit and nobody bothered to tell me, and my new WC didn't make contact until I complained either! ) despite my best efforts we still had a huge issue just a few days before we left for the resort and just about couldn't legally get married, and it was all Barcelo's fault. My husband and I are both divorced, and I kept my married name for the last several years (it’s the one on my passport, DL, etc) but my birth certificate is different obviously. I wanted to use my maiden name on my marriage license and so we made the resort aware of all of this NINE full months before the wedding in order to find out what we needed to do to make sure this could legally happen. I scanned all of our documents (passport, birth cert, divorce certificates, etc) sent them to our WC and asked them what I needed to have done here in Canada to ensure everything was in order, as I had read different things online. I was told T the beginning of August of last year that everything had been sent off to the judge and they were just waiting for a response from her. Every month that passed I contacted them again and asked for an update, and each time I was told “don’t worry”. At my last wc change (Itzel took over our wedding in November last year) I emailed her and the WC supervisor at the time, expressing my concern with not getting a response back yet about our documents after waiting for 5 months, and at that time we only had 16 weeks left and I was getting anxious. They kept telling me not to worry, not to worry, not to worry. Well, wouldn’t you know it, 6 DAYS before we were supposed to leave we received an email from Itzel telling us the documents weren’t sufficient … but we just needed to run on down to the Mexican Consulate and get a stamp, like it was no big deal. First off, the closest Mexican Consulate is in a different city that required a few hours travel, a few hundred dollar ferry ride to get to from where we live. We didn’t have one just down the street but the email read like all we needed to do was go down to the corner store to do this. We phoned our wc immediately and explained that I would have to take time off work and spend several hundred dollars travelling to do this if we wanted it done in time, and was this really necessary?. We also did a conference call with the new WC supervisor to try and find out why this was happening with only a few days notice! I was pissed off to say the least and in tears especially because I did everything I was supposed to and trusted in their guidance, and I had been told repeatedly over the months not to worry. Now there was a chance we could not get married legally!!! After an emotional conversation I sucked it up, booked MORE time off work just before our holidays and started the travel to the consulate. But of course when I showed up there with our documents and explained what the Judge in Mexico required, I was told that they did not just stamp a document like the judge in Mexico was insisting they could do, but they could only go through a lengthy legalization process that took 5 business days. WTF? We were leaving in 5 days and it’s not like I could wait around in town for the paperwork!! I burst into tears while standing in the lobby area of the consulate and called my hubby to tell him the news. We emailed Itzel and the supervisor and told them when we NOW had to do, and I told them how furious I was they they were causing me so much financial and emotional stress just days before the wedding. I found it very hard to believe I was the first Canadian bride ever to want to get married when my birth certificate and passport were different, and couldn't believe they put me in this position with just days to go. (Normally it's a fairly simple process that takes about 12 weeks via mail and way less cost and hassle, but you obviously need to know with enough time to do this!) The woman at the Mexican consulate took pity on me because I was a sobbing mess, bent some rules, put a rush on it and we got the documents completed a day early and sent via overnight courier to our home so we had them Thursday night. We scanned the new documents and insisted we get the judges written agreement that everything was now in place. We heard back from her on Friday night they were now all in order, and we we on the plane Saturday morning! (Can you say Stress. ?!?!) We also made sure the WC supervisor knew that we expected them to make this up to us in some way given that this was their huge mistake. They did assure us they would give us an upgraded room, upgraded chairs for wedding and reception, a huppa, and free cocktail hour. These were certainly nice gestures, but nothing that we had actually booked as part of our wedding day so they didn’t help to compensate us for the extra 1000.00 bucks we just just had to spend, not to mention my time loss from work. I asked them to waive our photographer and our makeup/hair vendor fee as well to save me that expense. They waived the 150.00 but said they couldn’t do it for the photographer for contractual reasons though. Anyhow … moving on … We got to the resort and met with Itzel on Monday morning. She was very apologetic for the issues that had just taken place. She was my wc for 4 months and she was one of the wc’s that did tell me not to worry, but I just wanted to move past it because I wanted to enjoy every day and not stress any more. She took us to the Playa Azul to see the site (we had already scoped it out the day before and loved it) and we fine-tuned where the huppa would be and where the reception tables and lights would be set up. We spent about 2 more hours going through everything we had planned. I was thankful I had all of our emails printed off because she did try to add extra charges on that were not agreed upon, so I referred to previous correspondence with my other wc’s before her and she agreed to those prices. (Tried to charge me for my bouquet when it was included, tried to double the price of my daughters bouquet, etc) I don't think this was done to be deceitful, I just got the impression that there seems to be a lot of flexibility with what they can and can't charge, so all of you brides out there, feel free to push back a bit if you feel this is happening at all! And print out any email that quotes a price and bring it with you. Saves time having your WC dig through their emails when they don't have time.... In April there were 100 weddings at Barcelo, so they are very busy!!!! WEDDING DAY - Overall our wedding day was really AMAZING. The weather was absolutely perfect, and a 5:00pm ceremony at Playa Azul was intimate, romantic and absolutely magical. Our judge ended up being a completely different one then we were communicating with prior, but he was so AMAZING! I didn’t think that the words in their civil ceremony would be so touching and have me and my hubby in tears like it did, and there was something about this judge made us both feel like he had known us forever.! It blew us both and our guests away. We asked our wc to get a copy of the vows that the judge spoke because we want to keep them and look back on them. We also hired a Mayan Shaman (dressed in his tradition ceremonial costume/makeup/body paint) that blew the conch at the start of the ceremony and did a smudge/blessing on my hubby and I at the start of the ceremony and before we walked down the aisle. It was so incredible and so glad we incorporated that piece in honour of where we were getting married. It was 180.00 for the hour to have them there, and we got some amazing pics with them!! The white huppa we were married under was a freebie that was added for us, and in the end I’m glad we had it, as it gave some nice shade for us , and framed the location beautifully. It was gorgeous. We opted for the guitar music before and during the ceremony and so glad we did. About 6 weeks before the wedding I sent the WC a list of 4 songs we had chosen outside of the list she provided, and the YouTube links of a guy on an acoustic guitar playing them slowly and so beautifully, and the guitarist learned them exactly like we had hoped for! You get a choice of 4 songs so we went with Bless The Broken Road (before ceremony), We Found Love (Rihanna) walking down the aisle. (not the upbeat version you are thinking with the tempo slowed right down its soooo beautiful!) Marry you (Bruno Mars) during the certificate signing and Im Yours (Jason Mraz) after the ceremony. So glad we chose them, so use your imagination if you are going this route! As long as he has enough notice he can learn them. HAIR AND MAKEUP– I hired Michael and Martina (hubby and wife) from Beso Brides / Yucatan Hair. I would NOT hesitate to do this again! They were both so lovely! My airbrush makeup was exactly what I had hoped for (I’m 45 so my skin isn’t young and flawless like it was 20 years ago, but she certainly made me look beautiful!), and Michael did some updo’s for a few of my guests that were amazing! I have very short hair so there was nothing too dramatic about mine, but I did like the way he styled it for me, and he listened to what I wanted. They are very reasonable with their costs as well, they don't ask for payment up front, they are so great with communication before the wedding and will happily pose was “guests” or friends of yours in order to get onsite without having to pay the vendor fee. (They charged each of my guests 75.00 each for their hair as well, cheaper than the resort spa that give you an an 85-100 quote when you book) They live very close to Barcelo and offered to pick me up and do everything at their place and then bring me back that day as well to save the fee. I wanted less stress so I had them to the hotel, and got the fee waived in the end anyhow. My daughter/maid of honour used my bridal hair/makeup package at the resort spa. Her updo was nice but her makeup was terrible! She wanted a bit of a smoky eye and brought a pic, and they did white frosty eye shadow everywhere like I’ve never seen it used before! It looked very theatrical and nothing like the pic at all. She managed to fix it up with her own. I was happy I wasn’t the one in that makeup chair! I had already had a mani and pedi back at home before we left, so my husband enjoyed a guys mani pedi on the morning of the wedding instead of me so it didn't go to waste PHOTOGRAPHY- playaweddings.com. Rachel is/was amazing!! Our photos take a while to be done but we did get a sneak peak of 15 of them and I am so excited to see the rest! She also gives you an extra hour free with some of her packages to help offset the vendor fees. I actually booked Rachel and her assistant a room for two, for two nights in lieu of the vendor fee. My WC told me this was okay. I booked this via Barcelo.com a year in advance, which allows you not to have to pay for it until the day of, and it was only 400.00. Saved me 100 on the fee. Especially if the vendor fee is going up like I read, this is a worth while option, t do it as soon as you ca because costs do start to go up as the date gets closer. The same room was over 600 as our day approached. Also the photographers only need the wristbands to get access to the resort and to eat, so we were able to take advantage of the extra room for the two nights and used it for the guys to get ready before the wedding , and we let some of our guests use it that were doubling up in rooms for the week to save costs. FLOWERS: My flowers were just okay. We thought we were going basic and easy, with everything just white roses and lots of them! No such luck. My bouquet was three dozen white roses and nothing else ... No greenery, baby's breath, etc. I had brought down my own white ribbon to wrap the stems and 36 crystal flower sprays that I wanted used in amongst the white roses and gave them pictures and directions of exactly what I wanted it to look like (with. Request to use at lease 24 crystals) and what showed up in my room wasn’t the case at all! They used only about 8 of the crystals so it didn’t have the sparkle I was hoping for, but I just let it go because we were in full getting ready mode and I couldn't be bothered to push at that point. But given that it was. Basic bouquet design request and that I purchased and delivered the accessories along with a clear picture I was certainly hoping for better! The men’s boutonnieres were nice, but quite large and too heavy to stand up properly on their linen shirts so they had to improvise with extra pins etc to get them to look okay. (would have worked better on a suit lapel) My sisters wrist courage was the wrong flowers I ordered, which was the one thing I was upset about because mom passed away a few years ago and her favourite flower was a cala lily so I wanted that for my sister - instead I got some beat up white roses that arrived looking brown and wilted. The centrepiece was full of greenery and I specifically said no greenery. So kind of a fail overall on the flowers for me. COCKTAIL HOUR The guests really enjoyed the cocktail hour right on the Playa Azul beach while we had our photos done. This was one of the “freebies” added for us, but in hindsight I’m very glad we had it. I liked that the guests got to stay at the same location in a beautiful and intimate setting, have waiters there just for them and not have to wander off to the Rancho Grande grill as was our initial plan. Before the wedding we figured we’d be wasting that money on the cocktail hour since it’s an all-inclusive and there are bars everywhere, but in the end I’m really happy we had it. Something to think about for you brides trying to decide…. And only those that are at Playa Azul, since it is a bit more out of the way and secluded. I may not have done it if I was getting married at other beach locations. RECEPTION – Sadly our table was not set up anywhere near the location we had discussed earlier in the week. At first when I saw it I didn’t mind because the sun hadn’t set yet and it all looked really very beautiful with the table settings, etc. With our small group of only 14 we asked them to do one large square table, which was perfect. But when the sun went down the lit up palm trees were up the beach away from us and way too far away to provide any kind of light source for us, and instead they had this terrible spot light set up pointing at our table, which caused the guests that were facing it to be squinting the entire evening, like we were at some kind of concert. They did put a cool light under the entire table that changed colors and made for some beautiful pics, but it didn’t brighten up our area at all. DINNER. Unfortunately the food was cold! (the soup and entrée) We went with the asparagus soup (it’s a broth for those of you who are wondering, we assumed it would be a cream soup so initially we thought we had the wrong soup) and the surf and turf. Both tasty but ice cold unfortunately. I was upset about that but just kept eating. Not like you can complain at that point and send it back. We did start the reception / dinner about 10 min later than what was initially planned but that shouldn't have affected it. DESSERT- We cut the (vanilla) wedding cake just before dessert (dark chocolate fondant) and had them cut up and serve everyone a piece of the cake with the dessert so people could have at least one bite. The wedding cake was freaking AMAZING!! The chocolate dessert was very chocolaty and yummy – like a lava cake. We were all so stuffed by that time though so much if it went to waste, but it was great. And there was lots of cake left so listen to your WC if she tells you that you don't need a bigger one DJ – Didn’t hire a DJ as we had such a small group but glad we didn't spend the money,. We had an ipod and downloaded the wedding dj app which made life super simple and worth the 8.00 or whatever it cost us!! Sound system was great. We also didn’t have a dance floor and dancing on the sand was a ton of fun! We paid for the extra reception hour, and once it was over we were shuttled back to our lobby (nice big shuttle too that takes your guests there and back) and hung out in the Tequila lobby bar for an hour before we packed it in! BREAKY IN BED – This was supposed to be included in our wedding package. Yeah … NOT! We were told it would be there the next morning but it didn’t come. We waited patiently, called down about 30 min later only to find t we weren't on the list at all and so we took a shower and headed to the buffet because we were starving. Our WC set it up again for us about 5 days later once all of our guests had left, and the SAME THING HAPPENED! We finally just told them to deliver the sparkling wine that is supposed to be included to our room to enjoy at our leisure, and they did. So can't comment on how good the breakfast in bed was! MASSAGE- there was 50 min massage included in our package, and we decided to pay 60.00 exta for both of us to extend that to an 80 min massage. My daughter is a registered massage therapist so I enjoy massages often, and these gals were just as amazing as I've had before. BUT!! They are currently doing construction and replacing the tile in a lot of the spa area and so for about 40 min all we could hear was the hammering in the tile right outside the door! It was almost laughable. I felt sorry for the therapists because as good as they were they can't drown that out. We tipped them well anyhow because it certainly wasn't their fault. Of course said something to the gal at the reception desk when we were leaving and we got an "I'm sorry" and nothing more. I would have expected not to be charged for the extra time but I guess they don't think like that there. If you are enjoying a massage or any treatment definitely go to the spa and hour early and enjoy the water therapy system they have because it's pretty awesome. And the gym is out of this world now too!!!! BLOOD TEST – For those of you having to do this, be warned!!! This is NOT done by a doctor as I was told or maybe I read somewhere, it was done by incompetent guys with “paramedic” on the back of their blue shirts (we joked because we think it’s the same shirts the Dolphin place has down the way … ) They did not wear gloves while handling our blood vials which was quite shocking to us, and the kid (he looked about 19!) punched the needle completely through my vein. It HURT like hell, I had a nasty lump immediately, as well as a huge bruise and a lot of discomfort in my arm for almost two weeks. One of my girlfriends is a retired nurse and arrived 2 days after we had the test done and was stunned at how bruised and swollen my arm was. My hubby got a bad bruise as well, just not as bad as mine, and I do not bruise easily. I give blood a lot and although I’m not a huge fan of needles, I’ve certainly never had pain or a reaction like that after a simple blood test. My wedding photographer was asked to edit it out in the final photos where it's showing (didn't want to use makeup and risk it getting all over my white dress) But if you want to be legally married in Mexico this is not optional. Just be prepared is all! PREMIUM WRISTBAND - this gives you premium alcohol, unlimited access to a la carte restaurants, 10% off gift shop purchases, and access to the premium concierge (this is a nice bonus because the line ups are much shorter to book your restaurants,etc compared to the guest services desk) . If booze isn't your thing them you may not appreciate this next bit of info, but if you enjoy your premium liquor and expect that's what you are getting, just know that you have to watch the bartender very carefully. They don't care you have a bronze wristband on even if you point it out and will pour you the crap anyhow. Many will lie to you when you confront them after you've watched them grab the wrong bottle and pour it into your drink. We found a couple of bartenders that were awesome tho, so it's not all of them! I'm a Baileys lover and although I don't mind almost all house brands I've tried, the particular one they serve at Barcelo is really not very good in my opinion, so I made sure I asked for baileys every time. 9 times out of 10 they try to serve you the house brand even though you show them your wristband, and tell you that it's baileys. Not a big deal for a lot of people, but we paid a lot of money for the wedding package, and we felt we deserved to enjoy the added benefits it came with, that's all. ALA CARTE RESTAURANTS- la trattoria was awesome (mozzarella balls and pizza are amazing), Capri was good too, both Japanese teppanyaki ones are great, we heard repeatedly how gross the seafood restaurant was, we tried it anyhow ... It was definitely yucky! Mexican (In beach lobby) was also very good. Buffet was consistently good breakfast lunch and dinner. If nothing looks appealing, there's a pasta bar every afternoon and night to customize your own pasta. Delicious! We were fortunate to have three weeks at the resort to enjoy. We've been to Barcelo before and had zero issues, which is why we decided to get married there. Unfortunately we found that you have to "fight" a bit when you have packages where extras are promised. That's where we found they fell down on making sure those things happened. A few of our guests that paid more money to have the premium benefits found the same thing. ROMANTIC DINNER ON THE BEACH – If you can afford the splurge, PLEASE DO THIS! If you have the luxury of having a few days after your guests leave it’s a wonderful wayt to start your honeymoon. Even if you aren’t alone at the resort, take the time get away and just be together by yourselves. It’s 305.00 USD. I know! It’s a big chunk of change when you are already spending so much money on the wedding, but treat yourselves (if you book through Barcelo.com you will get vouchers and can use them towards this!) It was incredibly private, romantic and wonderful! There are a choice of beaches to have this, and we chose Playa Azul obviously … we will totally do this again if we return. There is a 4 course set menu (4 or 5 different menus to choose from) , dinner music, your own waiter, endless drinks, light up pathways and hearts etc all around your table. We went with the option that had scallops, lobster bisque soup, beef tenderloin .... It was amazing and the food was hot this time!! I was also given a dozen red roses before we left and when we got back to the room there were rose pedals, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. Even if you don’t get married at Playa Azul, it will provide you the most privacy for this dinner, just an FYI. And book it soon, even book it before you head down if you can because it books up fast. Keeping in mind sunset times when you book your start time because you do want to enjoy all the lights around your table when the sun goes down! We set it for 5:30 and stretched out the dinner until 7:30 after the sune was gone. We took a ton of pics and really just savored all of it. It was worth every penny. Okay have I bit**ed and complained enough in this message yet???? OMG I read it back to myself and I sound so bridezilla and freaking high maintenance!!!!! Hahaha!!! Please know that I'm soooo NOT, and neither is my husband. When people ask me how the wedding was, I only have one word: MAGICAL. No regrets!! Yes there were issues but I think there will always be stuff you can't control. We just had number of things unfortunately! We loved getting married at the resort and we will go back again. Again, I share this much detail with all of you so that it may help in some way. I don't want other brides to think it will go off without a hitch, although my hope is that it everything will fall into place beautifully for all of you reading this!!!!! Obviously we had a number of issues, but in the end we are happy and married and have some really wonderful memories!!!!! We encountered some amazing people during our stays there that made all the hiccups worth it!!! Any questions let me know!!

Good morning fellow brides, Wow this board has been quiet lately! Just thought I'd reach out and say hello and tell everyone what I've been up to and hopefully you will do the same The countdown in definitely on and we leave for Mexico in 2 weeks! When we set the date 14 months ago it seemed so far away, now it's just around the corner. Aside from the wedding itself and seeing family and friends, I'm looking forward to three weeks away from work & life, that is for sure!! I just had my final dress fitting and I am so pleased with how it looked. Back in January my beautiful dream dress was literally 2 sizes too small! (*GULP*) so I have been a VERY disciplined bride for the last 12 weeks. It could almost use a little taking in now! but I had a corset put into the back of it because I liked how it looked visually so it's all good now. We had some drama with our documents for the legal ceremony several weeks back and I had a total freak out on my wc because it looked like we wouldn't be able to get legally married as planned! I sent scans of all the documents to my first wc last April to get confirmation from the judge that everything was okay (I've been married before so my birth certificate and passport are in two different names) I kept asking and asking through the changing of the three wc's I've now gone though, pushing them for an answer, and each one kept telling me not to worry, not to worry, not to worry! Well with 5 weeks to go I was told I needed a certification process done here in Canada that was going to take about 12 weeks! WTF?!?! Imagine how pissed I was after a year of repeated emails without a response! I dragged the head WC into this issue and I think we've resolved it now. Thankfully we have a friend that's a lawyer that saved us several hundred dollars in fees doing up some legal paperwork for us that would hopefully satisfy the judge. It's not what they originally asked for but it's the best we can do in this time frame. Still waiting to hear back from them for final confirmation that everything is okay. I know lots of brides have chosen to get married back at home and have a symbolic ceremony to save the hassle. We really wanted that beach ceremony to be "it" for us because that was what we dreamed about, so I'm not letting go of that dream without a fight just yet!! Time to start packing next week I guess and making sure I've brought everything along! My carry-on will be filled to the brim with everything wedding, from the few decorations we are bringing, to my jewelry and jeweled flip flops ("Mystique" brand - check them out if you are looking for some gorgeous flats for the beach! Not cheap, but so beautiful and I'm worth it on my day!), and the reception wine glasses I hope will survive the trek. If they don't oh well! I'm not that hung up on some of the details. I'm anxious about travelling with my dress as I've been told WestJet does not have anywhere to actually hang it, and will simply have you shove it into the overhead compartment area. Umm... I've seen some passengers try to cram stuff into that bin when the flight is full and there is a shortage of space, so I'm hoping to prey on a sympathetic airline person to be kind!! Haha We arrive at the resort 6 days before the wedding so we hope to sort out all the other little details my wc failed to get back to me on. I know that's been a big issue for many brides on here (lack of communication!) But I've printed off all our email correspondence and I'm bringing it with me - mostly because through the different wc's I've received different price quotes, etc and I'm holding them to what was originally agreed upon. Not sure if anyone else has found that? The most recent charge they tried to lay on me out of the blue was for mine and my maid of honour's bouquet. Mine is supposed to be included in the strawberry package (it clearly says that!) and I was quoted 40 for hers. The email I just received said I would now have to pay 100.00 for mine and 65.00 for hers!! (Yeah, that's not going to happen!) I referred her back to my original email quote back 12 months ago and the fact that mine was supposed to be included and then she agreed to honour that. ?!?! I still found it weird that she would try to charge me an extra. I have to wonder if there is a standard or if some wc's are just not up to speed? Just sharing for everyone to be aware of that because you never know what those end charges are going to reflect!! Anyhow that's about it from my world. I hope you all are having lots of success and limited stress with your planning. Share what you've been up to!!!

@@kthomp0615 Kristen, Thanks for sharing your story with us! Sounds like a few small hiccups but overall a fantastic day for you both! Congratulations!! @@eleern, We went with the Strawberry package but I'm pretty sure all linens, etc are included. They are with ours. I'm sure someone here can help answer that for you though.

This is a question for all of my fellow Canadian brides out there that were recently legally married in Mexico: There is LOTS of different information floating around online, within this forum, etc with regards to your marriage being legally recognized once you get back to Canada. Does anyone have any experience they can share? My WC is trying to convince me I need to pay the 95.00 for an apostille seal (which is not recognized here) before it will be considered legal, other brides have said just present your translated licence, others have said they've taken it to the Canadian consulate to be certified before they leave Mexico, others have done nothing ..... HELP!!

@@msucooper Hi there msucooper, Sorry for the late response! Yup, I still have some available and I'm happy to send along as many as you need. Feel free to message me with your details!

When considering a ceremony time, don't forget to think about your photos too and what you want from them. After talking about our photo "wants" with our photographer, we set a 5:00pm ceremony time so we can get sun shots AND still capture some sunset shots. We are also doing a "first look" about 90 min before the ceremony (I wanted the first time my Fiancé sees me in my dress to be a bit more intimate) With this schedule our photographer has plenty of time to get pics of us before the ceremony, some guest/group shots right after the ceremony, and then still have time and enough light to get sun and sunset pics before the 7:00pm reception. Talk to your wc and/or photographer (if they are local) about sunset times based on the month you are getting married too, because that changes everything as well!

@@KirstenChrisDW2016 I'm going to try to take a snapshot of the card we've added to the welcome package and post it .... Saves me typing it all out I have already verbalized this to a few people .... Some understanding, some not so much! But in the end it's not about what everyone else wants for those 30 min .... I want everyone there with us, and I want our ceremony photos to reflect that when we look back on them years later. The rest of the day we have planned specifically around our guests and what they would like, so we chose to be selfish during our ceremony!! @ashbuoni@ashbuoni I'm very interested to see what everyone's thoughts are on this. Personally I have had a hell of a time going through 3 WCs in the last 11 months, facing hassle after hassle, repeating my requests, politely "arguing" about costs they are saying I must incur despite the fact that it's clearly included in the package, and having to wait weeks for a responses. Am I in the mood to now tip this person when I am already spending a lot of money for a now 13 person guest list???? Hmmm .... I'm not quite feeling the need to tip anyone right now! I'm normally very generous when I receive great service, but I am not a fan of tipping when I feel like I HAVE to. At this point I would really need to be blown away on my wedding day to want to do this ... And then I would probably wait until the following day to seek out the persons that made an impact and tip them at that point. What is everyone else feeling? I'd love to hear from past brides as well as to what they actually did.