Wedding Review

Bibi · September 1, 2013

Hello Ladies!!!

I have been following this board for several months now and I must say it has been very helpful. My wedding on Aug 17, 2013 at 11 am at the Garden Gazeebo. I chose the strawberry package and had 31 people. I want to do a review because I found the reviews by others to be very helpful and this my way of giving back.

We arrived at BarcelÃ³ on Aug 14. Me and my husband were so excited to be there. We booked at the BarcelÃ³ Bavaro Beach from Aug 14-21. When we arrived we found out that we did not have a reservation for the 14th. Our reservation was booked to start for the 15th. This was no fault of the hotel but of expedia. We ended up paying an additional $200 for the 14th. Expedia acknowledged that it was there fault that the reservation was not booked for the 14 but claimed that they could not do anything about it because the reservation was already made. They claimed that they could not comp us the room and gave us a $200 voucher for a future trip. The customer service is terrible and I am surprised that we got that much out of them. My original wedding coordinator was Marlene Rejon who I had been working with since Nov 2012. If it wasn't for this sight I would of never found out that she was no longer with the hotle. Once I saw this that I immediately called the hotel and spoke with Hildebrandba who confirmed that she was no longer with the hotel. I advised her that my wedding was in two weeks and had heard nothing from anybody advising who my new coordinator was going to be. That was when Hildebrandba advised that she would be able to take over the planning of my wedding. The reason why I am letting you know this is because when I arrived the hotel did not even know that I was a BRIDE!. It was sooo irritating. I had to ask for my room upgrade which they did not do correctly. When the bellman went to take us to the room we walked in and the room had not even been cleaned yet. They ended up putting us up in a room with two double beds because they had ran out of queen size rooms

The next day we had our meeting with Hildebrandba which went very well. She did an excellent job at arranging the appointments at the spa and putting together all the details of the wedding. There were no surprises at all. Hildebrandba assured me that she had spoken to the front desk and the my upgraded room would be ready in a couple of hours. A couple of hours went by and we were taken to hour room.

The next day was Friday and I had my massage, manicure, pedicure and had my hair washed and blowed dried. After that the wedding party had the reherssal dinner at the steak house.

Saturday was the day to the wedding. I got to the spa at 8am. They did my hair and make up. The photographer came at 10 am and started take pictures of me getting ready. The girl did my hair very well, but struggled with the makeup. This was not her fault. She just did not have the right colors. The make that the spa had was very matte. So we had to keep working with the makeup. Thank god I brought my own foundation and primer or I don't know what I would of done. I wish I would of broght more of my own make up. If I would of had the right colors I would not of been late to the ceremony. Once my make up was done we did more pics and got my dress on. Then the brides maids were taken to the gazebo and then the maid of honor were taken to the gazebo for reception. We did the ceremony and then there was a cocktail hour for our guest. Our wedding package came with an hour photo shoot. We took pictures with hour guest then my husband and I did pictures alone in the garden, at the hotel and at the beach. After that we went to the reception which was at the Ibiza ballroom, The reception was AMAZING!!!! We had a full d.j. with DJ Mannia

They did an excellent job!!!! They played all the music tht we asked for and the m.c. kept the reception flowing smoothly. The food was also good. We had the caprese salad, a choice of sirloin steak or chicken breast for the entrÃ©e. For the dessert we chose the crÃ¨me brulee. Our guest loved the food. I can say for myself that the steak I had was better than the steak I had at the reherssal dinner in the steak house. No complaints about the reception. We had a good time and our guest enjoyed it. I thought that after the reception there should of been transportation to take everyone back to the a lobby at the Bavaro Beach. Everyone went there separate and then we all met at the pool after the reception and stayed there for about 3 hours.

The rest of the days after the wedding went well. We ate at Mexico Lindo El Coral and El Kiyoto. The two buffets at the beach side were also good. The hotel offers a lot of excursions which we and the other guest enjoyed. The day before we left we went to tropical pictures to view our photos. The pictures were AMAZING! Our photographer did a wounderful job. We were very pleased with her work and even purchased additional photos. I have stayed at the barcelo bavaro deluxe in 2010 and I liked my stay there better than the stay at the bavaro beach. The rooms on that side are nicer and come with a Jacuzzi on balcony and the staff at the deluxe is much more organized. We stayed for seven days and we switched rooms 3 times. We switched twice when we first arrived and then we had to switch again before we left because the air conditioner in our room went out. After having the technicians there for 2 hours we were switched to another room. Once we got to that room the t.v. was not working and we had to call the technicians one again to fix. Summing things up I would say that the wedding wnt very well. The resort is beautigul and well kep. There were a few bumps along along the way but everything went well and my husband and I were very pleased. All of our guest loved the wedding and the resort. The wedding department does a very good job. I t may not look like everything is coming together but it will once you get there. Don't stress and enjoy your day because it goes by fast.