Hello! We got married at the Barcelo Resort in Los Cabos on 2/04/12 and just returned on 2/10/12. Below is a review of the resort, wedding and fun things we did in Los Cabos. Believe it or not, I tried to keep it somewhat short! :) Hope this helps with your planning!

Barcelo Review
Abigail—I cannot say enough great things about Abigail! She was an outstanding Wedding Coordinator. You won’t receive a ton of communication until right before the wedding but I promise, it will exceed your expectations! They are professionals and they truly care about making it a great day for you, your future hubby and your guests.

BLACK MAGIC—Black Magic is the nickname of an Event Coordinator at the resort—very fun guy and quite the comedian. We were very happy and impressed with the entertainment and fun things to do at the resort.

Photography
There are many great photographers in Cabo—THE BEST, however, is Dennis Berti. After initial email contact, he requested a Skype with us. He wanted to understand what we really wanted from our Wedding Pics and he wanted to be sure that his style of photography was the right fit for us—Awesome, right!?! We were very honest about what we wanted (fun/relaxed/candid/creative) and he definitely delivered well beyond our expectations. The best part is that we get to keep ALL digital copies of the photos and he released Copyrights to us so we can make as many copies we want and post whatever we want. This is something you may usually have to pay a lot for! They were so fun and light-hearted---all of our guests commented on how much fun they were. I really couldn’t say enough great things—very professional yet very friendly and personable---Perfect combo! Look him up and see for yourself! http://www.weddinginloscabos.com/

BARCELO
Atmosphere: It’s breathtaking. We were treated amazingly well and the staff is SO friendly. As the bridal couple, we were automatically upgraded to a Honeymoon Suite--the other option was a swim up room and, after seeing them, I DO NOT recommend these rooms. They are on the bottom floor (obviously) which means less privacy and worst of all—less of a view! The honeymoon suite we got was on the 5th floor and had an amazing view of the ocean as well as a living/dining space, two balconies and a giant/fancy bathroom. As a couple, you will also be upgraded to “Club Premium” giving you access to other special food areas, limitless dinner reservations at the specialty restaurants and free, limitless room service—yup!

Food: Ummmm…. Out of this world. Yum, yum, YUM! I’m not a buffet eater—ever—but even the breakfast/lunch/dinner buffets were amazing with tons of selection to please all. We really loved Christian—one of the waiters at the buffets—great guy all around! The specialty restaurants were great. We went to all but one (It was closed on the night we wanted to go). They were all amazing but my ranking (from GREAT to great) are Lotus, El Cortijo, Bon Vivant, Capri and finally La Hacienda. We had our Rehearsal Dinner (Included in the Mint Package) at Lotus and it was OUTSTANDING—the food that night was only rivaled by our wedding meal. All of our friends/fam said our wedding dinner was the best food of all!

Ceremony/Reception: We had our ceremony barefoot on the beach at 4:30pm—We had a total of 46 guests and it was very fun! At the last minute, we opted to NOT use the “huppa” on the beach and just had the sky and ocean as our backdrop. I’m SO happy we did this—it was gorgeous and not having the huppa saved us $400 and made for better pics. Our reception was at the Baja bar which is in a more secluded area of the resort next to the adult pool. I was worried that it wouldn’t be private enough. BOY was I wrong! Because our reception wasn’t until 7pm, there was literally nobody at the Baja Bar area except for our guests! Very private! Each table is assigned it’s own personal waiter to bring out the many courses of food as well as ANY drinks your guests may request. We rented the speaker system and one of our friends acted as DJ. It couldn’t have been more perfect and we danced and danced and danced! I was worried that the resort balconies overlooking the reception would bother me--but I didn't even notice them! People don't sit in their balconies after sunset and those that did were just marveling at how awesome the reception was! :) We skipped paying for a dance floor—which seemed an obvious move as the reception was on the patio by the Baja Bar and it made no difference to dance on the stone/cement. I would recommend the dance floor if your reception in on the beach however—the sand is pretty course and rough on your feet (we found out playing volleyball)—for lots of beach dancing, you’ll definitely want to get the wooden dance floor and they have a couple you can chose from. Because the reception is only 3 hours long (pretty expensive to add extra time), we did our Mother/Son & Father/Daughter dances during dinner while guests were eating. It actually flowed amazingly well and I liked that our guests weren’t just sitting there watching us dance—they watched, ate, drank and conversed—it was quite magical! Don’t sweat the 3 hours---it seems like not enough time but, the Lounge Bar, Martini Bar and Sports Bar are open well into the night and there is plenty of time to continue the festivities—we did! I definitely don’t think it’s necessary to fork out the extra dough for more reception time--especially if you're on a budget.

Random Tips
1. All-Inclusive = LOTs of eating/drinking. The drinks were super sugary so I didn’t get the kick I was looking for from them. I recommend using the phrase, “Muy Fuerte Por Favor” when ordering drinks. This means, “Very Strong Please” and the bartenders get a kick out of it. :) I promise I’m not a drunk—just wanted some bang for my buck and my stomach couldn’t stand all the sweet drinks! Please tip well! The service really is over the top and they deserve recognition for how hard they work!
2. Don Julio is GREAT tequila. I’m not an avid tequila drinker and I really liked it! Will be our traditional anniversary drink going forward for sure! If you're the wedding couple or if you chose to pay for Club Premium status, you'll get free access to the good stuff so be sure to specify when ordering! If unsure, ask the bartenders for their recommendation.
3. DON’T lose your bracelet! My bridesmaids and I took the all inclusive bracelets off for the wedding (obviously) and somehow they ended up in the trash and disappeared! The front end staff was very adamant in refusing to give us new bracelets without first turning in our cut, old ones. (It’s a big deal because anyone could glue it on to themselves and use it to get free food and drinks)—makes sense but was an innocent mistake on our end. They were intending to charge a full night’s stay in return for giving us new bracelets—STRESSFUL moment! Thank goodness my Destination Wedding Specialist, Terri Nash saved the day! All it took was one email to her and she took care of everthing. Within an hour, we all had new bracelets at no additional charge--this would not have been possible without her. Moral of the story—don’t lose them! If you cut them for your wedding, make sure the typed number remains intact and place them immediately into your room safe so you’ll have them in the morning.
4. As much as possible, pay in Pesos—the conversion is confusing when you’re shopping in Cabo and the restaurants/merchants are not going to give you the best deal in dollars. The best way I remembered the exchange, is that 50 Pesos = $4 and just calculated everything with that math. The actual amount when we were in Cabo was 50 Pesos = $3.84. You’ll want to look up the most recent conversion before your trip.

Destination Weddings
We used “DestinationWeddings.com” when we first started looking into a Mexico wedding. Terri Nash was our coordinator and she was GREAT! She has a very close and reputable relationship with a lot of resorts in Cabo—others we considered were Dreams, Riu, and Melia and Terri provided tons of info and insight into all of them. She also coordinated all travel for our guests and found great deals. It was nice to have someone else handle the details so we didn’t have to spend a lot of time walking our guests through the process. She’s also the nicest and most sincere lady you’ll ever meet and I’m sure the rest of the Destination Wedding Specialists at DestinationWeddings.com are just as fabulous! http://www.destinationweddings.com/

Activities
Whale Watching—there are a LOT of people trying to get you to book adventures through them! We asked around and the best Whale Watching (more like chasing) is through Cabo Adventures. It’s a bit spendy ($85 per person) but WELL worth it! We double checked at the Marina as well as with the agents at our resort and the price was the same so really no room for negotiating here. The boats are tiny speedboats that take you within arms reach of diving whales--it was pretty amazing! http://www.cabo-adventures.com/

Public Transport—Do not take a cab straight from the resort! If you walk 2 blocks up to the main road, you can get cabs on the main highway or in the MEGA parking lot for WAY less and they’re much more likely to negotiate based on how many people are traveling. I also recommend public transportation when traveling during the daytime—it’s a bit of an adventure but WAY cheaper—around $1.50 per person. You can also walk down the beach and then cut through to walk to San Jose Del Cabo. Black Magic gave us great directions and recommendations but any of the staff members are more than happy to point you the right way.

Kayaking—We rented a kayak for $30 for 3 hours after a bit of negotiating. I REALLY recommend renting them straight off of Medano Beach rather than through the hotel—WAY cheaper and the same exact kayak. Took it out to Lover’s Beach (about 30 minute rowing)—VERY fun! Definitely recommend! If you’re not a big kayaker, you can always take a boat taxi—shouldn’t be more than $3 per person and there are dozens so it’s pretty easy to negotiate.

Hope this helps! I definitely recommend Barcelo and Cabo in general as a great place to get married or just take an amazing vacation!