Barcelo Maya Wedding Review

[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..