Hey there beautiful brides,
I am new to this website and absolutely love it!!!! Congrats to everyone who has gotten married and to everyone who is getting married!!!! This is so exciting. I figured doing a destination wedding that it would be cheaper, less decisions and less stress...hahahah well for sure the first to were wrong lol.
As I have started reading a bunch of your experiences, I think we made the right choice choicing the Barcelo Complex....I was unsure as we have never been there before. I have a ton of questions (as most brides do) and hope I am not being overbearing,
Majority of my guest are staying at the Barcelo Colonial, we will have around 30 people attending. Our wedding is on April 5th 2017 at 4pm, but I am not to sure if that is to early in the day now after reading so many reviews. Do you suggest trying to change it to 5pm?
My WC is Simona Gigli and so far she is pretty good at responding (except when she went on holidays for a couple weeks but she let you know she was gone so you were not wondering why she wasn't responding), she usually takes a couple days the most to respond. I booked through a travel agent not barcelo.com like I have read a lot of ladies have. I haven't gotten a spreadsheet like I am hearing about most ladies working off of, which kind of concerns me. We chose the Strawberry Passion packages because we want our reception/dance to be outside on the beach. Our Ceremony is going to be at the Gazebo at the Palace resort then the recption is on the beach somewhere (havent choosen a place yet).
Do you guys have a rehearsal dinner for everyone at your wedding or just the wedding party?
I have read about ladies bringing decorations? What type of decorations are you bringing? How many suitecases are you bringing to bring all these decoration? Does the hotel not provide ribbons for the chairs and other items like that? I would think for over 4000 USD that they would provide something. I also read on one ladies blog that she bought the Strawberry passion package and said a DJ was included.....is that true?
I read that hair and make up from the Spa are not that good for wedding standards, so I think I will pay the vendor fee and get an outside vendor but I am not sure which one to choose. I read good things about Yucatan hair/Beso brides and the styling trio, what are your thoughts on those?
We are looking to opt out of a cocktail party and add an hour onto the reception like everyone has suggested, did your guest get bored between the ceremony and the reception then?
When I asked my WC about the cost on palm tree/dance floor lighting and lanterns or other decors for the ceremony, she gave me two emails to contact. Encore-MX and decocancun........does this mean you have to pay a number of vendors and not just our hotel for everything wedding coordinated? You would think if you see things in their pictures that the hotel could provide. The palm tree lighting isn't even through the hotel?
Lastly I was thinking of getting a off site photographer, but not sure which way to go. I haven't read nice things about the resort photographer and do not know if I should be flying one down or try one like photostudios, MTM or Octavio. What are your thoughts?
Sorry about all the questions but it is really hard when you do not live there and can not see things for yourself.
Thanks you so much