kthomp0615

Hello ladies, I have been back from my wedding at the Barcelo Maya Palace for a little over a week now, it was Feb 29, 2016 it was SO hard to come back! I had an amazing time and our big day was perfect! However, the week and wedding was not free of troubles with the resort as well as our wedding planner, Yasmin Gomez. I will give a run down of the week but because I don't want any of you to have the same issues feel free to message me if I can help you, I'll do my best! We arrived Thursday, 5 days prior to the wedding. My parents and my husband and I were at the palace, check in was smooth although the rooms weren't ready yet and once they were it took 2 hours for our bags to arrive...no biggie just make sure you throw a swim suit in your purse so you can enjoy the beach! Later that day my husbands parents as well as my MOH and another bridesmaid arrived, I told them I would meet them in the lobby, they booked at the Tropical. (Let me back track for a second, prior to booking our wedding with Barcelo we contacted Delta Vacations (who we booked through) and the resort itself and were promised in writing that any guests who choose to book at the Tropical/Colonial would be guaranteed a room at the Tropical so they were close to us.) So anyhow, upon their arrival they were brought to the tropical lobby and then put right back on the bus and sent to the Beach - the furthest hotel from the palace. I went there and spoke to several managers and front desk people. After SIX HOURS of arguing and emailing my travel agent who wasn't available at this point because it was after hours, they were all moved to the Tropical where they should have been to begin with. Luckily my travel agent contacted the resort the next morning and moved the remainder of the group where they should have been because the resort placed most of our guests not booked in the Palace at the Beach. Saturday was my meeting with Yasmin, she never told us where to meet but the map said the Wedding Office was in the Palace on the bottom floor. No one was there, we went to the lobby where we found Yasmin's assistant. We were supposed to be in the Colonial. Her assistant got a golf cart and drove my mother, a few bridesmaids and myself over to meet with Yasmin. She was very friendly and got right to work, unfortunately, the spreadsheet we had been building off of for an entire year was not completed on her end...we basically re-planned the entire wedding, I was annoyed as my hope for having a destination wedding and planner was to have to spend as much time on the beach and with our guests as possible. After about 2 hours it was complete. I met with the DJ later that day, he is awesome, bring a list of songs/requests that you and your quests would like to hear he is great and incorporating everything. The next few days were awesome, all of my guests arrived. We had a day on the beach, the day before the wedding during the day we did a group excursion. We went on the Maya Jungle National Geographic tour...it was amazing, repelling into caves, snorkeling, zip lining and their Mayan Medicine Man did a Mayan ceremony for us in a Cenote - it was beautiful and so unique, I will always remember it. Everyone loved it! That night we had our rehearsal dinner/welcome dinner at the Tokyo Restaurant in the Maya Mall - also perfect! Monday - WEDDING DAY! My bridesmaids stayed in my room and we got breakfast and Mimosas before heading to the Salon. A few different girls did our hair, honestly I wasn't totally in love with my hair as I had given her a specific photo that I loved but I am pretty relaxed and since it looked ok I went with it. I asked for a brown/natural color smokey eye, they did a great job, my makeup looked great and stayed on all night! My appointment was an hour after my bridesmaids hair appointments but they ended up getting me in at the same time which was nice. Photographer - We chose Photostudio AB, Alessandro Bancelli is the photographer. http://www.photostudioab.com/ I LOVED HIM. He responds quickly to emails, is very fair priced and was so much fun. He had us laughing the entire time and was even dancing around with guests at the reception while capturing all our special moments! I highly recommend him if you haven't booked yet! Yamin dropped off our flowers about 30 minutes prior to the ceremony but forgot my hair flower, no big deal she went and got it right away. She drove myself and my mother a back way to the ceremony, which was at the Palace Gazebo so that no one would see me Honestly, I do not remember what anything looked like at the ceremony but from pictures it looked nice. It was short and sweet, we were all greeted with champagne after the ceremony then it was off to pictures. After pics we walked to the reception location, the Palmeras Grill. I was worried that the grill would be to big as my wedding was small, only 30 people. But it is sectioned off and was perfect. The set up was gorgeous, however, my bridesmaids did do a lot of setting up before the guests got to the grill. Have some one meet your wedding planner early while they are setting up so that they can make sure it is how you want it. Everything was great, entrance, dinner was amazing, service was good. All went well until cake time, Yasmin brought out my cake with my grandmothers cake topper on top tipped over and no flowers that I had asked for. My dad fixed the cake topper and my bridesmaid and I (we're quick thinkers I guess) grabbed a few flowers out of the head-table centerpiece and arranged them on the cake. No big deal. The cake was delicious , we have pineapple for the first layer and vanilla for the second. For 30 people, we bought the 20 person cake and had entirely to much cake. We had almost the entire bottom layer in our room that night. Keep that in mind if your wondering what size to get! Our reception was only 3 hours, if its in your budget pay for more time! The reception was so much fun and went by so quickly. After it ended we all met at the Lobby bar until the night club opened and went and dance the night away! I have no doubt that I left out some details that you guys want to know! Even though our day/week had some little mishaps, it was the best most beautiful day of my life. Good luck with your planning. Remember that nothing will be perfect but you are marrying the love of your life and that is all that matters, everything else will fall into place! ~Kristin

@@Stephanie2015 thank you! That helps a lot I start my bags this weekend!

Hi everyone! I am so happy to have found this forum, although wish it had been sooner. I have already seen so many helpful posts and ideas. We are getting married at the Barcelo Palace on 2/29/2016, its coming to quickly and there are still so many things I need to do! I have had a little trouble not only getting my wedding planner,Yasmin, to respond but also to get all the answers and correct attachments to view all of our options. We are getting married under the big white gazebo and plan to have our reception in the Palmeras Grill. I asked for pictures of the grill but Yasmin has sent me pictures of what appears to be several different locations. If any one has pictures of the grill I would love to see them, I only have about 35 guests attending and I am nervous that the location will be to big and not look right. I am also working on my wedding welcome bags for the guest and am kind of stuck on what to put in them. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, we are trying to be budget friendly! Any tips, pictures or advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you all and congrats to everyone! Kristin