jess102784

FireyNurse, If your guests are staying at any of the other Barcelo hotels (Beach/Caribe/Colonial/tropical) you do have to pay a fee to have them go to the Palace. It's a way for the hotel to make money with guests staying at the lower hotels. At least thisis what we were told when we asked about our guests. The $500 fee is for both photos. If you book a hotel room, you will have to pay for 2 people in the room. I originally booked a room for my videographer and was told that he would bring an assistant. I was going to have to pay for the second person in the room. The $300 fee worked out to be cheaper. The fee has gone up from $300 to $500. hope this helps!

Hi mrssemenuksoon, Thanks so much!! I know you will have a fabulous day!! Congrats!! Jessica

Hello Brides, I have just returned from a two week stay at the Barcelo Maya Palace resort. I was there from November 26-December 10. My wedding was on December 1. Here is my review/breakdown/tips to help you. Please if you have any questions, my email is [email protected]. I would be more than happy to answer them, as I have relied on this site for my wedding. Travel Agent/Booking: Due to the hotel having a policy of holding your wedding date for 2 months until proof of booking is submitted, we booked our trip in the first week of March 2011 (for November 26 travel). Our travel agent (Fred from Holiday Market Travel in Toronto) advised us that package deals are only offered 9 months from the date of return. Therefore, a package was not available when we needed to book. We booked our flight, hotel and transfer separate and surprisingly it was cheaper than a package. We flew WestJet, hotel and transfer was through Sunquest. I would never book a package with Sunquest again. We had a private van that picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel. Once we were at the hotel, we did not exist to Sunquest. The rep never provided us with any information on a welcome meeting (to arrange your transfer back). A binder with the Sunquest rep’s hours stated he would be in the lobby at another hotel and we went and he wasn’t there. We had to make several calls to arrange our transfer back to the airport. We were just not happy with the customer service. Wedding Co-Coordinators/Wedding: Our WC was Claudia and she was amazing. Her response time to emails was great (within a week). My last email communication with her was that we would meet on November 28. We attended the wedding office on the 28 at 9am and Xihal helped us. We had the Mint Breeze package. We chose our flowers and décor during this meeting. If you want exotic flowers (like orchids) you need to inform them before hand. I brought (from home) little votive candle holders with candles and fake flower petals as centre pieces. With the Mint Breeze package a fruit centre piece is included. It was a frozen melon that had been carved. We got so many compliments on them. They didn’t push any extra cost items onto us. We added two bags of flowers and it was only because the beach walkway looked plain. We already knew that we wanted to add bridesmaid bouquettes, mother of bride/groom corsages and boutonnières. They gave us extra corsages and an extra centerpiece in the hall (no charge to us). We anticipated only working with Claudia and brought $100 for a tip. We left this for both Claudia and Xihal to split. The Coordinators picked me up and took me to our ceremony location (3pm Coral Beach). They made sure that no other guests would walk by (they re-directed traffic or stopped it all together). We did a legal ceremony. I was a little skeptical about the blood work involved, but it was done very professional and clean. We choose to have the violin and it was beautiful. It’s connected to speakers so everyone can hear. The ceremony was quick (20-30 mins). We had to give our thumb prints on the certificate. We then had a toast. Then the guests went to the lobby bar (we didn’t want to pay for a cocktail hour) while we went off for pictures. Our reception was at 6pm in the Chak-Hal meeting room. We were so happy with the room. It might have been too big for our party size but it was private and inside (we were concerned about the wind and weather). The room was set up just the way we wanted. They greeted everyone with a drink that matched our colour scheme. Our thank you gifts were set according to the seating chart we gave the WCs (we collect magnets and shot glasses so we bought each guest/couple a magnet and shot glass).The reception flew by. We had the salad, minestrone soup, lamb, and the caramel roll. Everything was amazing. The service was amazing and we tipped the 3 servers each $40. We did our dances in between courses and only had about 30mins to dance before 9pm. We went to the lobby bar and there decided to go to Jaguar (the resort night club) (I changed into another white dress, but other brides were there in their gowns). It was actually the older group that wanted to go there and dance. You can either take the hotel bus to it or walk (10min walk if you know the way between hotels). We brought iPod speakers to use, but didn’t because we had fun at Jaguar. If you stay at the Palace entrance is free and your drinks are included (not sure about the other hotels, but I never saw anyone paying unless it was for VIP and even then $5 for women and $10 for men and its charged to a room). Hotel: The Maya Palace was a 5*+ hotel. The service, the grounds, the pools, the bars, the restaurants were amazing. Front Desk was so friendly and if we did have any problems, they would call us to make sure it was resolved (our AC stopped working one night but it was fixed within an hour of reporting it and we were at the beach). Workers are grooming the property everyday. The buffets were amazing, there was so much variety. Some of the a la cartes were not good. We LOVED the Italian and French. We disliked the Steakhouse and Brazilian (both restaurants the meat was really fatty) and the Japanese (not a lot of selection). So we were ok going to the buffet for dinners because of the variety. Hair/Make-Up: Like many other brides, we went with Adrian. He was amazing. Adrian does the make-up and Christian does the hair. I feel really bad for them, as the hotel has started to take a 30% fee of whatever services they provide. They came and did my trail and I absolutely loved it. The wedding day all my girls, mothers of bride/groom and myself were done in plenty of time for pictures. We tipped them a little extra because of the hotel taking a portion of their fee. I think in total he got about $100 in tips (6 people in total). Photography: My best friend’s husband does photography and we hired him. He did an amazing job. Because he was staying there for the week, we did not have to pay the $300 fee. Videography: We used Mike Cantarell from Cancun Wedding Video. His wife is Claudia Rodriguez who does photography. We were very happy with the service that was provided. Mike was great with email and sending a contract. We haven’t seen the video yet, but the 2 videographers were very professional and worked really well with our photographer. We provided them each with a meal as it was a long day for them as well. They came from 1pm-9pm. We did pay the $300 fee to use this company. We did not tip them (based on what our photographer advised. He said that photogs and video guys don’t get tipped). I can’t think of anything else but that my day was perfect. I enjoyed every minute of it because of the staff at Barcelo.

Hi 419Soon2BBride, I have read some reviews and from what has been posted, brides have not been pleased with the hotels hair and make up. On recommendation (from another bride from this site) she recommended Adrian Guerra ([email protected]). I have booked him for our wedding. So far I am very pleased with working with him. He responds to emails very quickly, he is on facebook and has posted some of his work. I'm from Toronto, Canada and his prices also seem reasonable. For the bride its $300 (trial hair, trial airbrush make-up, wedding day hair and wedding day air brush make-up). A lot of brides on here highly recommend him! As for a photographer...brides have not been happy with the hotels quality either. If you bring an outside photographer there is a fee (either $300 or you pay 2 nights accommodation for the outside photographer). Its because the Barcelo hotel has a contract with the photo company on the resort. I'm not sure what you're budget is....but some brides have booked Claudia from Claudia Photo Studio. We have booked her husband (Mike) to do our Videography. My bridesmaid husband is a photography so we are using him (and we luck out because he is staying the week we dont have to pay the fee), but I would have used Claudia if I didn't know a photographer. She also has a website www.claudiaphoto.com. Both companies wanted a deposit via PayPal. Very secured. I was skeptical to use it, but I requested a contract be sent to me from each company. Hope this helps! Jessica

Hi Joanne, That's too bad, but if it was cheaper and gives you the weekend to relax before work, thats great!!

Hi Joanne, When in the late November are you going? We are arriving on Saturday November 26 with our wedding being on December 1.

Michelle, Your pictures are amazing!! Sorry to hear about all the little hiccups! I'm glad that you were able to enjoy your day!! Congrats!!! Jess

Have an amazing time Michelle!! Can't wait to see pics and your review when you return! Congrats!!!

April 28th Bride, What a beautiful bride!! Your pictures are awesome!!! Thanks so much for the review. You have definently addressed some of my concerns. My WC is Claudia too and she is fantastic on emailing me back! I too have hired Adrian and his team. Can't wait now after your review!! Just a quick question for you. Was your wedding bouquet the one included in your package or did you upgrade? I'm trying to get an idea of what the included bouquet looks like. Also was your chair covers and sashes included or were they extra? Thanks so much for including your tips. Thanks again!! Jess

Meggers, You look absolutely stunning!! So happy that everything (minus the wind) went without a hitch for you!! I do have a couple of questions for ya. What package did you use? When did you decide on the reception location? Claudia is my WC and we were in frequent communication and I had the beach at the Palace booked for a couple of months (well at least I thought). When I asked what the name of the beach was (Coral Beach), she asked me if I wanted to reserve it. Here I thought for months we had this location reserved (according to the title in our emails). I haven't yet discussed our reception location with her, and I wasn't sure if I needed to do this asap. Our date is December 1, 2011. I know you mentioned that your bridesmaid flowers were from an outside company, but was your bouquet part of your package and was there an upgrade? For the huppa is that the one that is about $400 from what I can remember? What time was your ceremony and did you feel that you had enough time from the ceremony, pictures and reception. Our ceremony is at 3pm in December and the sun begins to set at 5ish. Sorry for all the questions!! Thanks in advance! Jess

Hey Michelle, From what I know, you do get a "dummy" certificate. This can be used at the airport if you are having any problems with customs. We are having our marriage blessed in our church when we return and our priest said that this "dummy" certificate is what he needs. Three to four months later you will get the "legal" certificate in the mail in Spanish. From what I know in Canada, we will have to have this "legal" certificate translated into English. My plan is to visit either the Consulate or our City Hall to ask if once the certificate is translated if it needs to be registered in Canada. I know this doesn't fully answer your question, but when I get more information, I will pass it along! Jess

Hi Mel, Thanks for the information on the dresses. They do look fabulous!! Congrats again!! Jess

Mexico 2011, Your pictures are beautiful!! You look gorgeous!! I have the same colour scheme as you (mine is the blue and white)!! Two great minds think alike. Where did you get your dresses from? I'm from Toronto and have only looked at a couple of stores and can't find the dress colour. Any info would be greatly appreciated!! Jess

Hi Meggers, Thanks so much for the information. I think I will take your advice and put the music on more than one Ipod. Thanks for the tip on the Airplane mode!! I never would have thought of this!! Wow, I hope the 26 days go by fast and that you enjoy your day!! Can't wait to see pics (if you decide to post) and your review. Thanks again!! Hi Mexico_2011, I'm hoping that the Ipod Touch works. I can't see why not, because from what I've been told its the same connector for the Ipod Nano. We have decided to have the violin as the ceremony music. I was thinking about doing the sand ceremony too. I guess its easy to do the labelling you did. Thanks for the tidbit!! I was thinking about asking our guests to for their playlist ideas too. Jess

Hi b2b2011, Thanks for the information. Its so weird because, Claudia (our WC) told us our IPhones would definently not work. I live in Canada and went to Best Buy and the staff said that its the same connection for all Apple products. I just want to make sure because I do not want to pay for the DJ and I want to make sure the Ipod will work. Thanks again!! Jess