Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe

[Bjeantil]

Thanks girl no worries.... I just called the resort and the new WC said Susanna may be out for another month... But I am going to prepare myself and not expect her to be there in August. If Susanna is not there in June for my meeting someone better assist me! Lol But I can't wait to hear your review!!! Thanks

Hi Girls, I'm back!!! I have so much to share with you all! I hope to get to my review at some point today. For those that have Susanna she is out on a medical leave for an indefinite amount of time so Marlene is handling most of her weddings. Although weather.com showed 40% chance of rain nearly everyday it was beautiful! Rained In the late hours and sometimes early am. A few bumps here and there but after all said and Done it was beautiful ceremony! Will post a full review tonight. Bjean I'm sy I didn't get the speaker voltage I will say that it was loud and absolutely no complaints with the music. For those planning their wedding I will say the MC I found to be a must so if possible budget for it. More to come and breath because after years of planning the day comes and goes so quickly

[Bjeantil]

Hi Girls, I'm back!!! I have so much to share with you all! I hope to get to my review at some point today. For those that have Susanna she is out on a medical leave for an indefinite amount of time so Marlene is handling most of her weddings. Although weather.com showed 40% chance of rain nearly everyday it was beautiful! Rained In the late hours and sometimes early am. A few bumps here and there but after all said and Done it was beautiful ceremony! Will post a full review tonight. Bjean I'm sy I didn't get the speaker voltage I will say that it was loud and absolutely no complaints with the music. For those planning their wedding I will say the MC I found to be a must so if possible budget for it. More to come and breath because after years of planning the day comes and goes so quickly

For those that have Susanna she is out on a medical leave for an indefinite amount of time so Marlene is handling most of her weddings. Although weather.com showed 40% chance of rain nearly everyday it was beautiful! Rained In the late hours and sometimes early am. A few bumps here and there but after all said and Done it was beautiful ceremony! Will post a full review tonight. Bjean I'm sy I didn't get the speaker voltage I will say that it was loud and absolutely no complaints with the music. For those planning their wedding I will say the MC I found to be a must so if possible budget for it. More to come and breath because after years of planning the day comes and goes so quickly

[Bjeantil]

I apologize for the multiple post. I am not sure what happened!

[Jcastro0124]

Originally Posted by trivera5521 

 

Hi Girls, I'm back!!! I have so much to share with you all! I hope to get to my review at some point today. For those that have Susanna she is out on a medical leave for an indefinite amount of time so Marlene is handling most of her weddings. Although weather.com showed 40% chance of rain nearly everyday it was beautiful! Rained In the late hours and sometimes early am. A few bumps here and there but after all said and Done it was beautiful ceremony! Will post a full review tonight. Bjean I'm sy I didn't get the speaker voltage I will say that it was loud and absolutely no complaints with the music. For those planning their wedding I will say the MC I found to be a must so if possible budget for it. More to come and breath because after years of planning the day comes and goes so quickly

Welcome back!! I can't wait to read your review!

[MissJali]

Originally Posted by trivera5521 

 

Hi Girls, I'm back!!! I have so much to share with you all! I hope to get to my review at some point today. For those that have Susanna she is out on a medical leave for an indefinite amount of time so Marlene is handling most of her weddings. Although weather.com showed 40% chance of rain nearly everyday it was beautiful! Rained In the late hours and sometimes early am. A few bumps here and there but after all said and Done it was beautiful ceremony! Will post a full review tonight. Bjean I'm sy I didn't get the speaker voltage I will say that it was loud and absolutely no complaints with the music. For those planning their wedding I will say the MC I found to be a must so if possible budget for it. More to come and breath because after years of planning the day comes and goes so quickly

Congratulations T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about your special day! and Pics please!!

[Jcastro0124]

I remember reading on one of the previous post about a website where you can bargain with a photographer, to take pictures for you...and pay for their vacation???

 

Can anyone remind me what web site it was?

 

I don't know what to do for pictures!!! Any ideas?

[pclama2013]

My wife and I are back from our wedding at BBPD. I will keep this short as it looks as if most of the brides here have captured the main details of the wedding there. We had 36 guests, including 4 children. We had our wedding at the Garden Gazebo and the reception at the bar huey. Originally we we dealing with Lianne and she disappeared, meaning no email replies and really no responses for awhile before we left. We showed up and when being assigned our room asked for an upgrade, they did this for us for free, in fact they did this for most of our guests for free! So tell your guests to ask, because you never know. We told the reception that we were getting married and asked about out wedding planner. BTW the English at this resort is weak at best and I used to teach ESL so I know poor English. There were so many misunderstandings that I would recommend that you a should invite a Spanish speaking guest for insurance. We were upgraded to a two level room with a king bed and two singles, two washrooms and two tvs, not brad! This room was located pretty far away from the main area, maybe a 5 to 10 min walk... Which was hard on one of our guests who was in her 80s, so if you have any guests who are not in reasonable shape consider this, and don't forget it is freaking hot and humid. I wish I had a pedometer for this trip, because I am sure it would have rolled over.... A few times. Hoyo 19 is a gem, great a la cart food and great margaritas as well. We had an impromptus dinner there for 10 of our guests and they all loved it. If we knew about this before hand we would have had everyone meet there! We got to our room and spent a hour or so unpacking and getting ready, at this point we thought we decided with a few of our guests to hit the pool, but thought we should speak to the wedding planner first. So we went to the front desk to ask where they were, as they didn't seem concerned about where we were. We eventually found them and they were like ohhh we were calling your room... not sure how true that was, but OK. The summary of our planner, Helen, she was extremely nice and her English was not bad. However I felt she was extremely disorganized. We had to meet with her close to 5 times in the first two days because she failed to get her act together. We gave her a list of the tables, including who was going to be at what table and spellings of names, and she managed to mess this up, excluding one of our guests, and at the wedding when he didn't have a table she was looking at us to explain why we had an extra guest.... This was just one of many things our WC did that made us very confused. We decided that it would be good to have a wedding day itinerary made up for all our guests, as so they know when and where to be, and really so my mother wouldn't freak out not knowing what the plan is. We asked to have them print these out for every guest and had them put them in their package that came with their room keys. BTW they were not going to do this, in fact they were like, just tell your 36 guests to meet at the lobby bar at 4:15 on your wedding day and we will go from there... This would not fly with my family, so I had to take matters into my own hands. The ceremony was very nice and for us almost exactly what we wanted, although they get our guest's name wrong, calling him Dan instead of David... ohh so close. BTW did I mention that it was hot and humid? I am pretty white and of Nordic decent so this is hard on a guy like me, so if the heat doesn't bother you this is right up your alley. When the ceremony was over we had photos, with Tropical Pictures, who were very professional and did a great job!! however they do pull a sneaky move to get you spend more money, if you buy a package with 100 photos they will take like 150 pics, and then ask you to select them or..... you can pay more money to have all of them. And, trust me you want them, as it is hard to choose they were all really nice. As you can guess we paid. haha After the ceremony is where our WC really started dropping the ball. Our guests were very confused where to go and what to do, as my new wife and I were off taking pictures they were supposed to be enjoying appys and relaxing getting ready for the reception. Many of the guys were so hot they wanted to change, but were unsure of how much time they had before the reception as a result the start time was late and our WC didn't have any answers. When we got back from the photo shoot the guests were scattered all over, and the WC was asking where my best man was saying he decided to go back to his room... everything was delayed. In the end, I felt like I had to make sure our DJ and MC were on the same page and that we were moving along. The food came out slow and really, considering we were behind schedule you would think it would be ready. From then on it was pretty smooth and although we got everything we wanted in, it felt rushed because we didn't start eating until 730, an hour behind schedule and after the toasts and dinner it was close to 930... We had enough time to have our first dance and one song and they were like OK time is up... but she did offer on the spot we could continue at $17 per person per hour... we declined. We called it and had everyone meet at the Carey bar and kept the party going from there. As you may be able to tell, I wasn't too happy with our WC, but overall the wedding was great despite her. The upside, our guests other than David barely noticed and loved it!! All of them said the wedding was beautiful and they had a great time!! So who cares!! Overall we also loved it!! I think for this kind of wedding this is par for the course and you have to learn how to roll with the punches. Most of the guests said this was the best resort they had been to, and the food was great for the most part. The resort is huge and has a lot to offer guests in the way of entertainment. They are liberal with the drinks in general very polite. The resort was also very clean and kept this way. Everyone loved the excursions, I did the ATV excursion and it was good fun!! Guests were playing tennis, shuffle board and volleyball. My friends who brought their kids loved the Pirates Bay Water Park, which is extra, but they spent 6 hours there one day. So for $10 a head that isn't bad. And really, they have a free water park which all the kids enjoyed. The shows are also appropriate for kids and they particularly enjoyed the circus show. I give this resort credit as they are constantly asking for feedback, and I am happy to give it. I shared this response with my WC, and wasn't sure if she cared or not, but couldn't resist the opportunity. I don't plan on returning to this board much, so if you have any questions feel free to email our account, [email protected].

[pclama2013]

oooops I forgot to say... I planned on making this short, but just couldn't get it all in.. sorry for the lengthy post. LOL

[candacey]

Thanks for the review pclama2013! You have given me some more food for thought! I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind. What room type did you originally reserve to get upgraded to the 2 story? Also, how much extra did Tropical Pictures charge for the additional 50 photos? What do you recommend guests do during pictures/ between ceremony and reception? Are you happy you paid for the DJ and MC? What did you and your guests do after the reception? Thanks and congratulations!!!

[teena84]

Hi ladies,

 

I'm from Toronto, Ontario - Canada, and I just came back from BBPD for my wedding and it was AWESOME!!!  I kind of wanna do it all over again!

 

I joined this forum months ago, and participated very little in the past.  Many of you have been very helpful to me in the past so I know I have to owe it all to you past and future brides by writing a review of my wedding experience at this resort.  I figure I should do this now while it's still fresh in my head.  My original coordinator was Susanna, but when I went to meet with her, I found out that Marlene will be assisting me instead for my wedding.

 

I picked the strawberry package ($2780USD) which allows up to 25 guests, and paid for 2 extra guests (one of them showed up last minute, i wasn't too keen about that) at $50 a head.  We also paid for sound system, which had speakers and microphone, for $400, and audiovisual system which had screen and projector for $300.  We had 17 fish dishes and 10 sirloin steak dishes, so we paid for the extra $16 per plate of steak.  I made menus for each guest to remind them which dish they are getting, but when the waiters/waitresses went around to ask what each person picked, they came back with 18 fish and 9 steak.  When this happened, Marlene immediately came to me to explain what happened, and to make sure we know that they didn't mess up on the count..it was one of the guests who changed their mind and with the type of guests we had, I believe her (still don't know who, but I didn't want to let it bother me, so I just shrugged it off even though it meant that that one extra beef plate I paid for went to waste).

 

My duration stay was from May 17th to May 24th.  My wedding date was on May 21st (ceremony at 3pm, and reception at 6pm).  My original meeting time given to me was 10am on May 17th.  This was impossible since I wasn't arriving to the resort till that night!  I called them, and had them changed it to the next morning, May 18th, at 9am.  That morning, my husband and I, along with my maid of honour and best man (they insisted on coming even though they didn't have to), went to meet with Marlene.  The meeting took about an hour altogether, give or take.  We figured out the breakdown of the timeline of everything during ceremony and reception.  She went over all the details I filled out in the wedding questionnaire that Susanna sent a month ago.  She set up the layout of the tables for reception on her laptop, and showed it to me.  We only had a total of 5 tables including our head table, so it was easy for her.  I asked to book my manicure/pedicure for the day before my wedding, and my massage, for the day after my wedding as my reward.  I don't think I would've been able to relax and enjoy the massage if it was the morning of the wedding.  My maid of honour also ended up booking a massage with me.  I'm glad I didn't have to do mani/pedi and massage on same day of wedding day because hair and makeup took about 2 hours!!  Our meeting ended with Marlene driving us to the garden gazebo location for our ceremony at 3pm - beautiful place...there were peacocks always around that area.  The bar higuey where we were going to have our reception was very close by.  I was able to breathe much better because of the big weight off my shoulders after the meeting.  Marlene overall did a great job, so ladies, please don't kill yourself worrying!!  Here's the breakdown from what I can remember of my schedule:

 

May 20 - 11:00am manicure/pedicure.  This was after breakfast that morning, and dropping off my centerpieces and cake topper with Marlene.

May 21 -

11:00 - photographer met up with the boys at the gym to take pictures of them working out and getting pumped up for the wedding

11:30am - hair/makeup begins for the girls (gym was in the same building as the spa) i wanted some small white flowers in my hair on my left side, and one of the girls working there called Marlene to tell me that I didn't order that.  She said it would cost me $7 each, and my girls wanted one too, so I just bit my tongue and said ok, fine.  Marlene showed up with 3 HUGE white lilies and my lovely pink roses bouquet (which weighed like a brick, so beware!!).  Who the hell wants a huge lily in your hair?! It was the size of my head.  I told her that's not what I want, and that I wanted the smaller kind.  The girl who was doing my hair knew what I meant and asked Marlene to take those white lilies away, and so I didn't get charged for that.

12:30pm - MOH and bridesmaid finished hair, and went back to MOH's room to change and get ready

1:00pm ish - the girls came back to see my makeup was still being applied - the damn fake lashes took a while to apply, and the girl who put that on for me didn't really know the proper way to do it, so if you ladies are wearing fake lashes for your wedding and you know how to do it yourself, just do that yourself...i took someone's advice here and brought my own makeup (eyeshadows, waterproof pencil eyeliner, brow liner, lipsticks, face primer, eyeshadow primer, blush, finishing powder)..i didn't have foundation but the girl used one of their own lines of foundation there and it was pretty good.

1:15pm - went into the bride's room and my girls helped me put my dress on

1:30pm - my MOH had to be back in her room because all of the boys were meeting at her room to put on their ties and socks while having our photographer capture all that.

2:00pm ish - a couple girls from the spa came into my bride's room with some small white flowers and I was happy with that.  The girl clipped some flowers into my hair and left.  But maybe about 15 minutes later, the girl who originally did my hair and makeup came and apologized for taking so long.  She showed me another kind of white flowers she found, and I thought that was wayy better so she clipped those on instead.

2:30pm - all the guests met by the Carey's Lobby Bar upstairs, and Marlene guided everyone downstairs to get on the train to take them to the ceremony location

3:15pm ish - I was left alone in the bride's room until this time.  This was when Marlene showed up and drove me with a golf cart car over to the garden gazebo.  It should've been earlier because our ceremony was suppose to start at 3:00pm and goes to 3:20pm but some of our guests were late >_<

3:35pm ish - ceremony was over, and we spent the next half hour ish having our pictures taken

4:00pm ish - train took all the guests back to the main lobby, and was asked to meet back at Carey's Lobby Bar at 5:40pm for the train to take everyone back to Bar Higuey for reception

4:10pm to 5:15pm ish - was with the photographer the whole time having our pictures taken

5:40pm ish - train took us all back to Bar Higuey.  When we arrived there and my brother and my husband's brother, tried setting up their laptops, this was where we found out that their project is old school and didn't have a USB port to just plug into our laptop.  Marlene ended up having to call someone to bring over another laptop, and finally problem was solved.  I didn't really stress at all about this because we knew we could count on our people to have this taken care of.  While this was going on, my photographer took more pictures of us at reception area.

6:00pm ish - we were surprised with blue cocktail served to everyone upon arrival.  Our itineary during reception was as follow:

1 - Intro of wedding party

2 - Surprise wedding group dance to Danza Kuduro - this is us! 

3 - Slideshow of our baby pictures to present time

4 - Best Man speech

5 - Appetizers served - Chicken Caesar salad was not bad..it came in a cheese bowl.  No bacon though.

6 - Video Montage - will try to upload it to youtube later and share link

7 - Maid of Honour speech

8 - Main Entree served

9 - Video made by brother in law shown, and his speech

10 - Dessert served

11 - Our thank you speech, which we improvised due to not having time to prepare one..turned out very well and very emotional

12 - Cake cutting

13 - Father/daughter and Mother/son dance

14 - Bouquet toss to Madonna's like a virgin...I was quite heavy handed on the throw and my brother in law ended up catching the bouquet and we all had a good laugh, lol.

15 - A bit of dancing before the reception concluded

9:00pm - we took a couple last pictures with our photographer

9:15pm ish - Marlene asked if we wanted to play one last song before wrapping everything up.  FYI, this was no extra charge even though it went past 9:00pm

 

When the train took us all back to the main lobby, I went back to my MOH's room to rest up a bit, before heading on over to Carey's Lobby Bar for drinks.  We continued the party at the disco, which opened at 11pm to 3am.  Of course when you show up at the disco club right when it opens, it was quite sad looking because the place was pretty much empty.  However, the DJ there played a nice version of Stand By Me, and my husband and I got to dance to that song on the dance floor..it was just us on the dance floor, with people gathering around watching, so that was nice.

 

We didn't hire any form of entertainment, nor did we hire a DJ.  With the type of guests we had, hiring a DJ wouldn't have been worth it at all.  Also, with all the videos, slideshow, and speeches, that took up all of our time, and everyone still had fun.

 

We didn't use the resort's photographer because I found an awesome one from San Diego.  I first found out about Aaron Willcox Photography from pinterest and fell in love with his style, perspective, and creativity.  He was amazing to work with, and my guests loved him because he was so patient and thoughtful of everyone.  He also doesn't go by hours for the packages he offer!  It's unlimited hours from morning till night on our wedding day.  As soon as he is done editing all the pictures (approximately 10 days), he'll send me a USB flash drive of our pictures - high res printable versions, and low res for facebook uploads, etc. Please please please hire him because you won't regret it - he's totally worth it!!! 

http://www.willcoxphotography.com/

https://www.facebook.com/willcoxphoto

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=aaron%20willcox

 

Now, I can't guarantee I can answer all questions that will be asked because I don't check this forum as often as I should.  However, I'll try my best to do so.  The best way for me to answer questions is via FB, so feel free to add me https://www.facebook.com/teena.le.23

 

Hopefully this review helped, if not a lot, then at least a little bit, for you all to breathe a bit better.  As soon as pictures become available, I'll share it with you all.

 

Cheers!

 

Teena