Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[gilmana]

Originally Posted by julienelson0713 

 

Hi Ladies,

 

What was your timeline like for the big day?? I'm trying to figure out how much time we will need between the ceremony (hopefully short and sweet, non-denominational minister) and the reception for taking photos? Our ceremony is at 4pm and I was hoping to start the reception at 6:30. Does that sound like enough time??

My timeline was as follows:

3:00 Ceremony (lasted 2 hours - was supposed to last 1 hour)

4:00-6:00 Pictures (supposedly)

5:00-6:00 Cocktail hour

6:00-midnight Reception

 

Where is your ceremony and reception?  If they are close to each other, I think those times are just fine.  

[tiffanyhetzel]

Hello ladies..  This thread is AMAZING! I have learned so much by reading everyone's comments... for hours and hours.  My finace and I have decided to get married at the Barcelo Maya Palace on November 11, 2013 at 3 pm on the beach. (expecting at least 80 people!!!)  There is SOOOO much that I need to do yet and my WC is Ruth which I have only heard from her twice in the last month. I really wanted the reception at Palmeras Grill (do not have the Strawberry pacakge) but I think we are going to stick with the Mint Breeze Package(and they dont allow you to "upgrade") to keep costs down since we are having a reception back home. I have read that a cocktail hour is a waste of money.... so I dont think we will be doing that. We are bringing an IPOD for music.  I am currently looking for an outside photographer!! I received many recommendations reading through this thread... just trying to find the most affordable? Anyone have any recommendations? 

 

Also, how was the food that comes with the Mint Breeze package?

 

I am SOOO worried about the banquet halls, they look so plain!! Has anyone really liked the banquet halls? Can you decorate them or do they put some decorations up if we requested that?  Any feedback on ANYTHING you can think of will be greatly appreciated!!

 

Im still going back and forth between hair and make-up by Adrian or just going with the spa....  ??

[DiggityDawn]

Originally Posted by gilmana 

 

Julie, 

 

I used FotoTakeIt for our wedding and the pictures are fantastic!  Good prices too and there are 2 photographers so when you are getting ready, there is a girl with the girls and a guy with the guys.

 

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

 

Let me know if you want me to send you the packet that they sent us.

 

Basically, you just book the photographer.  A few weeks before your wedding, you WC will ask you if you have booked the 2 hotel nights or if you are going to pay the $500 fee.  We found it was just easier to book whoever whenever and not wait for the WC response - everything worked out.  

 

-Amity

 

Hi Amity!

Could you send me the packet? I tried their website but I don't have a password to look at their pricing... my email is [email protected]  Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.!

[IslandBarbie]

Hi everyone!  I am finally in touch with my Wedding Coordinator, Xahil.  I am in the 2nd phase of planning...picking the menu.

 

After reading on here, I have opted for the banquet room instead.  I, too, think it would be a great relief from the heat and the bugs.  I really don't want to be bothered with either. :-)

 

Does anyone have any recommendations and what is good to eat as far as the menu for the reception goes?  Right now I have a salad, soup, main dish and dessert to pick.  I am pretty set on the creme brulee...I LOVE creme brulee!  I am torn on the other three areas.  Any help would be appreciated!  Here are my choices:

 

Tomato salad or Sea scallops with Lime Vinagrette

Minestrone or Onion Soup

as for the main dish...fish?  pork chops? beef tenderloin?  Rack of lamb?  I need to know what tastes amazing!!!  If anyone has already had it.

 

As for the photographer, is there ANYONE on here who went with the resort photographers?  I know the consensus is that they suck, but I would like to see.  Anyone have the site so I can look?

[karla5280]

If you do a search on the thread you can get people's comments as well as even some photos.  Good luck!  I am getting married 6/7/13.  Yeah!

[OceanPhoto]

Congratulations to you all! 

We are pleased you have chosen Riviera Maya to celebrate your Wedding. 

We are professionals in Wedding Art Photography and Video and the OFFICIAL PHOTO company at Barcelo Maya.

Take a look to OCEAN PHOTO STUDIO and concact us; [email protected]

 

 

 

Also follow us on Facebook & Twitter 

See you in paradise!

[OceanPhoto]

Take a look to our  Lovely Engagement Session @ Barcelo Maya Beach Resort

 

[IslandBarbie]

Originally Posted by OceanPhoto 

 

Congratulations to you all! 

We are pleased you have chosen Riviera Maya to celebrate your Wedding. 

We are professionals in Wedding Art Photography and Video and the OFFICIAL PHOTO company at Barcelo Maya.

Take a look to OCEAN PHOTO STUDIO and concact us; [email protected]

 

 

 

Also follow us on Facebook & Twitter 

See you in paradise!

When you say OFFICIAL does this mean that a bride that uses you DOES NOT have to pay the outside vendor fee or book the room in order to have you there?  Meaning SMILE MARKET is not the OFFICIAL any longer?  That is what OFFICIAL means to me.  Please clarify

[MarinaGVan]

 

Hi Ladies,

 We just returned from our wedding at the Barcelo Maya Tropical.  Our wedding Date was January 31st, 2013 and we had 58 guest. We did the strawberry passion package.  To all of you that are having anxiety and stress about not sure what to expect all I can say is "Everything will work out better than you expect" I was stressing out over not knowing what to stress about.

 

We had Xhail as our co-coordinator and she truly was the best. These ladies do a minimum of 5 weddings a week each. The resort is beautiful and any spot you pick will be perfect. We were supposed to have our ceremony and reception at Captain Morgan’s Beach but it was overcast with a chance of rain so we couldn’t do the reception outside. They still managed to find us the perfect under cover area so that we could have our ceremony outside. We had our reception inside at the Colonial in the banquet hall. It was perfect. So don’t let it ruin your day if you can’t have your dream beach wedding.. it won’t matter as they do everything to make it all work out.

 

To start from the beginning. ( I hope this helps and gives most of you the encouragement you need to make your special day everything you have ever wanted. Just like I did)

 

We arrived a few days before our guests just to get familiar with the resort. We had a bunch of party favors that we wanted to package up and hand out to our guests when they arrived. If you are flying Sunwing you pay $20 per kilo you are over in luggage. So pack smart. Not great showing up to the airport and paying $300 off the bat for party favors.

 

In our welcome packages we gave each of our guests a Travel Mug (Ordered off ebay: factory_21), Neon Wafer sunglasses (Alibaba.com $1.65 each), personalized matches and an itinerary for the week. For the itinerary we printed them at home on our printer on photo paper. We left blanks for the locations and filled them in when we got there since we weren’t sure where we would have certain events.

 

 

We met with Xhail our wedding coordinator it took about 2 hrs to go through what we wanted and how the day would pan out. I sent her pictures of the flowers and Pineapple cake (delicious) and centre pieces before by email. She did everything exactly how we wanted it. If not even better. The Christian Minister we had said everything so nicely and we didn't prepare any vows so he just wispered them to us and we repeated them into the mic. We did a symbolic wedding and they still give you a certificate to sign.

 

 

DJ: We used DJ DOremixx (www.doremixx.com) we paid $800 for 5hrs. That includes them showing up 2/3 hrs before to get set up. They were incredible. Set up lights, had balloons, glow bracelets for the kids. Made it a great party. Xhail handles the coordination of them showing up at the resort and getting them set up at the location. We didn’t have to pay a $500 fee to bring them on site but they did charge us $94 per hour to use the hotels power. It was too bad we didn't have a reception on the beach as they had cold fireworks to lite off.. Would have been fun.

 

We planned a surprise first dance and the DJ’s were unreal the changed up the lights and everything to set the perfect mood. You can see what the banquet hall looks like somewhat as well.  Check it out (http://www.youtu.be/cbo3r4YUAGA)

 

 

Photographer: Foto Take It (http://www.fototakeit.com) We had an incredible time with Lupe and Agustine. Incredible people with such creative ideas. We had them for the day of the wedding and did Trash the Dress a few days later. They picked us up and took us to Tulum and a Cenote for underwater picks.We just ended up paying Kodak the $500 (to not use their services. Such a Joke)

 

 

Hair Make-up: Styling Trio – Adrian Guerra. You have to use him if you can afford it. In the end it wasn’t that much more compare to the hotel Spa. Hair and Make up for Bridesmaids $175. Bride $350. Adrian has a contract with the hotel so he takes 30% off of your bill. The rest gets charged to your room to pay at check out, but Xhail never charged us.. Maybe she overlooked it after we tipped her the $100 for making everything so perfect J. In the end I paid $780 for 4 hair and make up and 1 just hair and $100 tip. Not that bad. They are a great group and were there right on time set up and so much fun. I can’t say enough about how great this team is. For not using the Spa I was able to exchange my package portion for two massages on the beach for me and my husband. (http://stylingtriorivieramaya.com/)

 

Wedding Party Favors: We went into Playa and got Maraca’s for each table to shake instead of tapping on glasses. We purchased 50 mini Tequila bottles with the Mexican hats on them $3.50 each. We printed off tags before we left and tied them on to each one once we got there. Great little gifts you don’t have to go overboard.

 

Seating Chart: We saw on Etsy some fun stuff. We printed off pictures of all of the guest and made them look like a Polaroid photo and hung them on twine with mini clothes pins. The hotel wedding team set that up and it looked perfect when we walked it. We had to give very little direction for all the set up we wanted. They just know what to do.

 

Dinner: we started with Curried Marinated Chicken and Tomato Salad. It was delicious. Then Lobster Bisque soup. It was ok.. Tasted too fishy for me. And then the Surf and Turf for dinner. It was really good. For desert we had the Half Baked Dark Chocolate Fondant. Wow!! Was so good.

 

Rehearsal Dinner: We got engaged in the Mayan a year before our wedding at Alux in Playa. It’s a really cool restaurant. We wanted to share the experience with our family so we had our rehearsal dinner there. Having a group of 36 we couldn’t afford to pay for everyone so we paid for the transportation to get there and back. The bell boys at the front are very helpful and arranged for 3 large vans to come pick us up.  (http://www.aluxrestaurant.com/)

 

I could go on and on about how great everything was but I am going to stop here. If you have any questions let me know. I will try and help you if I can.

 

Hopefully we will get our professional photos soon and I can share some of those with you too!! Good Luck..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OceanPhoto]

Ocean Photo Studio belongs to Smile Market. We are sister companies. Meaning there is no VENDOR FEE neither you need to book an extra room to work with us. 

Best regards!