Check in- There was about 50 people who checked in at the same time and it was kind of a disaster. Couples were getting two double beds and friends were getting king sizes. All the family's with babies who requested cribs about 5 times didn't get one and had to wait hours until finally they got one. Pretty much the whole first day was chaos. We flew west jet and the rep told us we had to wait until the next morning to change rooms etc. I think once this was sorted out it was fine and I feel like this would probably happen at any resort when there is a group of 50 checking in. But I did confirm the people and bed sizes with my wedding planner a few times so I was pretty bummed that it was a mess when we got there. 

Resort- Gorgeous! The pool is huge and very clean! The rooms are incredible and the grounds are breath taking! The ocean was crystal clear and had tons of cool fish and turtles that swim right up to you. The food was pretty good, but I have had better at other resorts. There is a huge jump between the palace and the other Barcelo hotels.

Wedding Coordinator-  Xhail was great, she was a bit slow at responding to emails in the beginning but that's just because she is SO busy. I wasn't very high maintenance so I didn't mind so much. During our meeting she threw me a few curve balls that I wish she would have mentioned before our meeting so I had time to prepare. For example, I had picked the violin for music but in our meeting she asked what music I wanted him to play and I had no idea I could even pick the music! So I said whatever, just the usual was good, but some guests told me that they played Madonna's "like a virgin" after the ceremony was done! I was pretty embarrassed about that! Other than that she was great, super super nice and had everything under control! She even upgraded us to an outdoor reception for free!!!!!!! I was extremely happy about this because I had wanted the Strawberry package all along. My fiance wasn't crazy about doing the reception on the beach as she let us do it at the pool which was so perfect. I had brought some programs, menu and table cards and a guest book and Xhail took it all and set it up beautifully for me. After the wedding she even collected everything and put it all together and held it for me.

Spa- the spa is really nice. We had our couples massages on the night before our wedding and it was really nice. The morning before the wedding I had my hair done along with my sister and mom. The girls there were really talented and super fast. I was really impressed. You could tell they do it everyday and are really experienced with wedding hair styles. I would 100% recommend them.

Ceremony- We had our ceremony at 3pm on the beach in front of the coral grill. It was extremely private which I was very happy about, We had walked by a bunch of weddings in the gazebo which is right off the lobby and everyone just walks by and stops to watch. I would have hated it. One day there was even a guy in a speedo standing on the first stair of the gazebo with a video camera! It was awful.The gazebo is beautiful but not private at all. Same with the other beach locations. Its right in the middle of everything. Anyway the ceremony went great, started about 15 minutes late and since there wasn't another wedding that time we started at the gazebo and walked to the beach. The JP was very very nice and funny. He did ask my fiance if we wanted to say anything to each other and my fiance said no but he still asked us anyway. We had agreed that if he asked us we would just say "I love you" but for some reason my fiance decided to say a little speech instead! It was really cute but through me off and I didn't know what to say after that so I just said "I love you"!!!! My advice is to have something planned!

The ceremony only lasted about 20 minutes and then we did pictures for an hour or so with the resort photographer.

Resort Photographer- We went with the classic package plus the CD. There was a few times that we had to say NO to some poses and positions that he tried to make us do and I am glad we did. Most of the pictures turned out great but there are a few horrible/hilarious ones! If I did it again, I would probably just get a friend to take them because I am not really into the poses and stuff, I like them more natural.

Reception- we opted out of a cocktail hour and just had everyone meet at the lobby bar for drinks and popcorn. It was great to get out of the heat and do our rounds with people. Our ceremony started at 630-7ish. Dinner was great we had the goat cheese tomato salad, the french onion soup, the citric crusted lamb and the dark chocolate fondant. The soup was cool, but I was starving and enjoyed it. The lamb was good but a few people got extremely sick that night from it. That is my only regret about the wedding, I wish I would have picked something else iffy, Lamb doesn't agree with everyone. The chocolate fondant was out of this world. So amazing! During the dance they brought out little chocolate treats for everyone which was a nice treat and the wedding cake which we didn't really eat but it was huge and super yummy!

After dinner we did speeches and a slide show and then the resort DJ took over. He was really good, he knew how to get a party started and played peoples requests right away. Everyone was dancing! We paid the extra hour for the reception and our guest were devastated when it ended. Everyone wanted it to last longer. We headed to the lobby bar for a bit to party more with the adults/children and then headed to jaguars and danced the night away!

All in all it was a perfect day for me, I have no complaints and am extremely happy with how everything turned out! I would for sure get married at the Barcelo again! ha ha