Our wedding was incredible!  I had been with my husband for 10 years before getting married.  He's Mexican and I'm from MN.  We met while I was living in Mexico and about 4-5 years ago we both moved to the Washington DC area.  We had a very diverse group of guests and they were coming from all over. We were very fortunate to be able to share our special day with them.  Everyone wants to go back next year, but we've decided we'll go in 5 years so hopefully guests who couldn't go this time, will be able to go in 2018.  

 

Wedding Date:  January 14, 2013

Wedding Package:  Strawberry Passion

Number of Guests:  65

Ceremony Location:  Chapel

Cocktail Location:  Palace Terrace

Reception Location:  Coral Grille

Wedding Planner:  Gabriela Barbosa and then Jacqueline Ochoa - A+

Gabriela quit sometime in September and Jacqueline took over.  We had some issues getting responses via email so as our wedding got closer, my husband would call if they would not respond.  We were waiting a long time on getting a response regarding our Catholic paper work.  Jacqueline was GREAT every time we talked to her by phone.  We arrived on the 10^th, met with her on the 11^th and went over everything.  We met her on the 12^th to go through a quick rehearsal at the chapel and also made paid. 

Me and Jacqueline on January 16.

 

 

Resort:  Barceló Maya Palace Deluxe – A+

 

Check in:  We were the first to arrive on January 10^th.  We were immediately sent to the Premium lounge for check in and given welcome drinks.  Once we got our room keys, I thought it was strange that the bellman was not going to escort us to our room – they just sort of pointed in the direction of our room.  Luckily our room was literally the closest to the lobby – I think it was 8101… and shortly after we arrived the bellboy was there with ALL of our luggage (which was a lot – we had over 200lbs of checked luggage).  There was a welcome bottle of champagne (which we shared with my parents when they arrived). 

 

 

Accessibility:  I never thought about it until we actually stayed there, but 99% of the rooms are REALLY far from the pools, beach, and restaurants.  Had I paid more attention, I would have told the reception about one of our groomsman who was wearing a boot from an injury. He was placed in the very last room, closest to the road.  I think the biggest complaint from our guests was that they had to walk far for everything.  Once they went to the pool/beach for the day, they were NOT going to go back to their room if they forgot something.  We had a few of our guests stay at the Beach/Caribe and it’s just too far – we never saw them except for organized events.  I would highly suggest your guests stay at the Tropical or Palace.   

 

Rooms:  Half of the guests reserved rooms in the Tropical or Colonial but they got upgraded the Palace because they ran out of rooms at the Tropical/Colonial.  So, the majority of our guests stayed at the Palace.  All the rooms were nice, clean, all have a balcony. The Palace has 2 showers, two sinks, bathtub, lots of space to put away your clothes (closets, drawers, etc.).  For my brother, they made the two couches into beds and my nephews stayed on those and thought they were quite cool – even though there was another bed for them to share.   

 

Restaurants:  We did not try the Japanese restaurant but those that did said it was “fine”.  We celebrated a birthday at the Caribe – it was nice and everyone liked the food.  We ate at Rodizio twice and we also ate at the French restaurant.  I don’t think we had one favorite – all were good.  If you are picky – there are plenty of buffets that are great too.  We ate at the Tropical buffet twice – not that much different from the Palace buffet. 

 

Pools:  Great!  Our group typically hung out at the pool that had a swim-up bar.  I don’t know if there is usually a problem but our guests from the tropical/colonial had no problem hanging out at that pool either.  As a very BUSY bride, I wish I had had more time to spend at the pools.

 

Beach:  Great!  There are some areas that are better than others and I walked the WHOLE resort… so I found that by the beach/Caribe the water was the clearest and the sand the softest… I also found topless girls there.  By the Palace, it is rockier but there are some parts where it is just fine.  I took my nephew and swam around to see fish.  We went just beyond the Colonial to go jet-skiing (rough waves $60/30 minutes) and some went kayaking (free). 

 

Staff:  Everyone seemed super friendly.  We had a very diverse group with us so half spoke Spanish and were usually able to speak up if the staff didn’t seem to understand… so everyone was very happy with the staff.  My parents made friends with a waiter at a buffet and went to him every day. 

 

Spa:  Average for the area.  I’ve been to the spa in a few resorts in this area and the Gran Melia is the best by a long shot. 

Pedicure:  I had a pedicure here – the girl didn’t seem to know what she was doing.  Spoke no English so I spoke to her in Spanish.  She first put me in a chair and the water was freezing so I told her I would wait to get a chair that actually had warm water.  She was nice; I got a basic pedicure as I didn’t trust getting a French. 

Wedding Day/Hair Make-up:  I got my hair and make-up done by Beatrice but she was going on maternity the next week.  She was GREAT…. In fact at one point, when she was almost done, I made her start all over (that’s not typically how I am but my friends pushed me to tell her I didn’t like it).  My Matron of Honor’s hair was incredible and it took the girl only 15 minutes to do it! My hair stayed in place and my make-up was good… it was thick (not too thick) but it needed to be for pictures.  Our wedding day was the hottest day of the week so I wish I had blotted my face more as it looked greasy a lot.  

My matron of honor and bridesmaid.

Best shot of my hair:

 

 

Couples Massage:  On the 16^th we went to have our couple’s massage – we were late because the shuttle bus never came so we had to call for a golf cart to come pick us up – so we lost about 30 minutes of our massage.  L   

 

OOT Bags:  Our OOT bags were a little bit of a disaster… but I won’t get into it.  We used Bolsas de Mandado (google it) that we bought in Mexico City and brought to the resort.  I made name tags to go onto the bags before we went to Mexico and they said the guest name, their hotel and their date of arrival and departure. Each bag had a welcome packet with information, hand sanitizer wipes (2 kinds), ibuprofen, beach ball, water gun, Tylenol, gum, chapstick, package of Kleenex, pen, hair ties, etc.  People with kids got more stuff to go into their bags.  I saw most of the guests using their bags throughout the week to carry their stuff to and from the beach. 

 

Welcome Cocktails:  We had a welcome cocktail on Saturday, January 12^th, from 6:00-7:00 PM at the Tropical Lobby Bar called Tequila… or something like that.  It was a great location, but needed more time to mingle as we didn’t get to everyone.  We set up a Facebook “group” and told everyone before where and when this was going to happen – we did not set it up through our WC or the resort.  It was a chance for everyone to put names to a face.  We were able to introduce people.  After that people went their separate ways to have dinner.  

 

Rehearsal:  DISASTER!  When we went with Jacqueline on the 12^th, along with my parents, she gave us about a 5 minute review… and told us that we could meet with the priest that same day at noon to go over things.  So, we went BACK to the chapel and he was 45 minutes late.  (Lucky for us it rained while we waited so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on beach time)  I brought my ipad to go over what I was expecting to have in OUR wedding, such as readings, music, etc.… once the Priest got there he told us what we would be doing – what readings would be done, how many readers we would need, bla bla bla… So all my time spent on making programs and printing them was a complete waste of time and it was literally HOURS of work.  At the same time he wanted us to confess our sins (I’m not catholic) so my husband went first… and then I met with him and he was just waiting there, and I said, I’m not catholic, all of our paperwork that we sent him said I was NOT catholic… so he pushed me to think about confessing my sins anyway so that I can receive communion.  He told us he expected us (and our wedding party) the NEXT day at mass and I would tell him at that time whether or not I would confess my sins.  (sorry this is so long but it’s important for anyone having a catholic wedding).

Fast forward to Sunday, January 13: we attend mass… afterward we were scheduled to have OUR own rehearsal with our wedding party… but he came to me and asked me if I thought about confessing my sins so that I could receive communion on my wedding day and I thought “why not”… so he took me in the back of the chapel and started talking to me… and talked to me the WHOLE time my rehearsal was going on… asking me VERY inappropriate questions about sex, contraception, etc… I was so uncomfortable and when I left I wanted to cry and cry.  I felt violated.  Luckily my husband and two girls took over the rehearsal and got it going the best they could.  I never had anything to do with my rehearsal… and the Priest made us late to the groom’s dinner.   

 

Groom’s Dinner:  Since we had 40+ people at the groom’s dinner, our only choice was a buffet.  We did the tropical buffet and when we arrived, everything was set up for us.  There were 3 long tables… since everything was a rush getting there, my husband and I did not sit together.  We quickly ate and then went to each member of the bridal party and gave them their gift.  After that we went to hang out at the Tequila bar again.  I don’t know if this has happened to other brides, but I don’t remember going back to my room or the rest of that night (and I wasn’t drinking)… there are a lot of things I don’t remember.   

 

Wedding Day – January 14

Timeline

9:00 AM:  Any and all the girls that could met in the Palace Buffet for breakfast.  It was a nice way to start the day. 

 

 

10:00 AM:  Spa appointments 

1:00 PM:  Photographer came and started taking pictures.

2:30 PM:  Shuttle came to pick up wedding party and Palace guests to take them to the chapel. 

3:00 PM:  Ceremony was SUPPOSED to start

4:00 PM:  Ceremony was SUPPOSED to end

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM:  Pictures were SUPPOSED to happen

5:00 PM:  Cocktail hour

6:00 PM: Reception/Dinner/Dancing

10:30 PM: Taquero arrived to serve tacos

11:00 PM: Mariachis arrived

Midnight:  Sparkler send-off

 

Photographer:  We had Lupe and Agustin from Take-It Foto.  EVERYONE loved them – they were fantastic – we can’t wait to see what they have done with our pictures.  I can’t say enough good things about them.  http://www.fototakeit.com/blog/

 

Our pictures:  http://www.fototakeit.com/blog/amity-antonio/

 

Videographer:  We used Cinematik Weddings- http://cinematikweds.com/  My husband did all the communication with them… I like their work and we should see a sneak peak or our wedding any day now.  I didn’t feel like they were around much (even though they were everywhere) and there were 2 of them.  Seemed very good.    Our Preview: http://vimeo.com/60633240

 

Florists:  So, we had flowers from the resort – which were beautiful and prettier than I could have ever imagined.  We also had Eduardo from Jardin Floreria http://www.jardinfloreria.com/ We never met with him, just told him what we wanted via email and he did bigger and better than what we thought we were getting!  We got like 6 more boutonnieres than we asked for.  And on Sunday, the 13^th, my husband and I went to Playa del Carmen to run some errands and we ran into a florist shop (Floreria Iris)… and we couldn’t believe the prices and how beautiful the flowers were so we ordered a bunch more from them.  http://floreriairisplaya.com/ - we paid a quarter of the prices they list on their website.

Resort flowers:

 

Eduardo's flowers:

 

 

Catholic Ceremony:  3:00 PM

The 2 reasons we did a catholic ceremony was because the chapel is INCREDIBLE!  And it was important to my husband’s family (who is Mexican) to have a Catholic wedding.  As I stated before, the priest completely hijacked my wedding.  This was the worst part of my day.  The wedding was supposed to be half English, half Spanish but it was in all English so my husband’s family didn’t even understand what was going on.  The Priest had us kneeling most of the time, and I almost passed out.  It was incredibly hot, he started way late, and went on for over an hour, he did some parts twice, he read readings he had assigned to some of my guests… he talked about “free sex”, “wasting seeds”, “spreading seeds”… all things that are difficult to explain to children who were in attendance.  It was a nightmare… and everyone who understood the ceremony made comments afterwards. My parents even threatened to walk out – telling my bridesmaids that if he didn’t end soon, they would leave.  I was embarrassed.  Months ago, I had asked Gabriela about the priest because I had read bad things about him on this website… and she told me, we probably wouldn’t get him and the same priest does not always give the ceremonies.  But once we got to the resort Jacqueline basically said it is the same guy all the time.  What a letdown…  Because of his almost – 2-hour - long ceremony we did not get family pictures.  L  We got some pictures with the wedding party but not everyone.  Not even ½ of the list of pictures I had wanted.  I can’t express this enough how much this pains me.  As soon as the ceremony was over, everyone was picked up by a shuttle and the cocktail hour started IMMEDIATELY because we were already late.      

Me, walking in

 

 

Unhappy and hot bridesmaids: 

 

 

 

Cocktail Hour:  5:00-6:00 PM

The cocktail hour was on the terrace of the Palace – good view and the sun was going down.  We had the Mexican hors d'oeuvres menu and a signature cocktail.  We did an ipod shuffle… I have no idea how it went because we were on the beach taking pictures. 

 

 

 

 

Reception:  6:00 PM – Midnight

My husband and I were able to go in there before everyone else and when we saw it we were shocked – I got teary eyed and couldn’t believe how great it looked!  Jacqueline had gotten every last detail!  It was VERY hot in there and they couldn’t turn on the AC because they were missing one of the glass window panels.     

Decorations:  We brought Papel Picado (google it) to hang in the room, we had flowers, menus, and table names, flower petals and candles around the tables… I can’t think of what other decorations we had.

Favors:  Our name cards were our favors – they were little flags, in limes over tequila shot glasses… so the shot glasses were for the guests (which they didn’t know and we should have announced to them).

 

 

 

 

Food/Menu:

Salad:  Caesar salad (it was huge)

Soup:  Sopa de tortilla

Entrée:  Surf and Turf

Dessert:  Half-baked fondant chocolate cake

 

EVERYONE loved the meal and said it was the best that they had while they were there.  We had so many positive comments about the food so we were pleased with what we had chosen. 

 

Wedding Cake:  Strawberry and Chocolate (2 tiers) – You really only need 1 tier… we cut it after dinner and no one wanted a piece because they were so stuffed… so they passed it out when the mariachis came and people were still stuffed… it did not get eaten.  I tried the chocolate and it was really good. 

 

DJ:  We had Discomovil – they were fantastic!  Did everything we asked and were able to get the guests up and dancing.  I am so pleased we chose them.  They handled the bilingual crowd flawlessly – and got the Americans to join in with the Mexicans during traditional Mexican customs such as la vibora del mar.  They had a great mix of music for everyone. 

 

We brought our own “props” such as leis, balloons, hats, glow-in-the dark bracelets, pom-poms, etc… the guests LOVED it all… And then we pulled out traditional sombreros and everyone wanted pictures with us with the hats.  They were a lot of fun! 

 

 

Tacquero:  A lot of the Americans were interested in traditional tacos so months ago we asked if that 

was possible and we made it happen.  A guy came and served traditional tacos – everyone LOVED it… at first they were shy in going to get them – but they were great.  And of course the Mexicans thought it was a great snack late at night. 

 

 

Mariachis:  We hired the group from the resort – and they were good.  They were enjoyed by the Mexicans much more than the Americans.  If you are having an all non-Spanish speaking group, I suggest the mariachis during the cocktail hour.  They were great though – they serenaded us first and then took requests. 

 

 

Sparkler-send off:  AT Midnight, everyone went outside and lit their sparklers and we left – It was really cool… although something I don’t remember very well (and I couldn’t even think of drinking during my reception – all water).  We walked around the corner and took off our shoes and walked into the kid pool!  Ha ha ha 

 

 

 

Things I wish I had done different:

Paid everything in Cash because we were charged hundreds of dollars in exchange rate fees for using debit and credit cards…

I wish we had walkie talkies

Had someone assigned to take pictures of all the little details, my hair, make-up, flowers, each course, the things on the tables, the flowers, etc…

Blotted my face more so I wasn’t so shiny (greasy)

Stood up to the Priest the first time we met him – we were paying him for his services

Ignored the Smile Market phone calls

Given myself more down time

During the reception, I wish I had gone around to each guest to thank them for coming.

During our speeches to the guests, made it more personal. 

We had the issue of making sure everything was bilingual so things such as wedding programs, menus, OOT packets, all had to be done 2 times… and that was stressful. 

STRONGLY advised guests to stay at the Tropical OR the Palace – but nowhere else. 

Have the welcome cocktail at least 30 minutes longer or more.