Ana

Welcome to the forum! we're getting married at Dreams Los Cabos as well. And like everyone has said, it kind of depends on what you want, and how detail oriented you are. You can easily spend the same amount of money that you would in Toronto, but factor in that you will also be there for a week, not a day. We initially were going to have a winter wedding in Lake Louise, and it was going to cost us about $30,000 just for the food, drinks, cake, etc...on the wedding day. We're now planning to spend close to that, but we're also getting the photographer, transportation etc...plus a whole week away with our family. Just do some research on this forum and with Dreams directly and see what you find.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations!!! Your location looks beautiful!

Welcome to the forum! I'm getting married at Dreams Los Cabos too! congrats!

Welcome to the forum! I went to Cayo Coco a few years back for spring break and totally loved it! Your wedding will be beautiful! Good luck with the planning

Dreams doesn't usually book two weddings on the same day unless they really have to. Also, if you're looking at a location as Los Cabos, the resort is located 20min from San Jose Del Cabo which has a few (different denominational churches), there are also a bunch of other beaches and parks etc... around the area. Those would be private, and if you did run into another bride it might only be at the reception (although they would be booked on a different terrace).

We felt the same way when we were originally looking at the Mayan Riviera as a destination. Then we started looking at the Dreams resorts and they are totally reasonable and affordable and do beautiful weddings. My fiance, Michael and I decided on Dreams Los Cabos as our destination. We wanted to have a private ceremony, and we were able to do that at the Church in Los Cabos. (the resort also has an amazing gazebo and they block it off for your ceremony). We also wanted an private outdoor reception and cocktail, we love the idea of palm trees all light up, tea lights around the pool etc... Dreams doesn't charge you extra for the meal either. They charge a $28pp set up fee to put the tables etc together....but the food, drinks etc are all included because after all its an AI resort! i don't understand all the other resorts that charge you extra for the food and the drinks when your'e paying to be there for a whole week! All of the Dreams resorts are the same too, if you want to stay in the Mayan Riviera then maybe look at the Dreams Tulum or Dreams Cancun (Cancun is amazing).

Kendra, I'm so sorry...that's so terrible for them to do that. I'm really glad that you're not taking their bs though. Your wedding is about you and only you. Just focus on yourself and your FI and you'll have an amazing wedding! My FI and I arent' really too concerned with the wedding party, we picked eachother's sibligs to be our maid of honor and best man, so that avoids any stress (they're family they have to come! lol) but the rest of the people, if they come they come if they don't whatever. We're not doing gifts or a registry because we figured that if they do decide to come that will be their gift to us, and we made that clear when we asked them.

congratulations! that's such a great proposal

Hi Sophie and welcome to the forum! Do you sort of have an idea as to the country in which you want to get married? and the type of weather that you would like? I think that might help you narrow it down. Just check the weather patterns in different places for the time that you wish to get married at.

So its been about a week since I last posted and quite a few things have happened.

 

1st Michael and I started our Marriage Prep classes at the Cathedral, and they were nothing like I'd imagined! It ended up being such a nice experience. We are in a class with 38 other couples (lots of people getting married it seems) and there were older couples that had been married for 40+ years that came in and talked to us about their experiences. The whole thing is geared at getting us to communicate with one another and to focus on the relationship and less on the wedding prep. All in all it was really nice and we're actually looking forward to going back again this week.

 

2nd We signed the contracts with both Maye Cortinas and Juan Carlos, and sent them the deposits. So that's another 2 things crossed off. Most of the big things are out of the way and that's super exciting.

 

3rd, 24 of our guests flying with Sunquest booked with our Travel Agent already. Our family members and some of the most important friends are all set, the rest will book in the fall with the land only rate. All in all I think we'll probably have close to 40 people at the wedding.

 

4th, we started looking around for invitations. Michael and I really love one design but the problem is that it only comes in aqua blue and brown so that's kind of crappy. We decided to try to make our own in our wedding colors (light pink, gold, kiwi and cream). Michael really wants modern invitations so I think this is the best compromise. He's done a ton of print work before and since he has all the proper computer programs and vendors etc... we figured we might as well try. This way he will get modern mixed in with a bit of romance. Here is the one that we love, and we're using as inspirationfor the DIY project:

 

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j.../BLU-YDT-M.jpg

 

Lastly, we started shopping around for cakes. We have contacted two of the girls recommended on this site, Deena Abadiano and Jennifer Hutton. Both seem amazing, but Deena really stood out for me. Her website is incredible, and she's so sweet to talk to. Here are the 3 different cakes we're debating on (I'm gravitating towards two and three):

 

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...ylemoncake.jpg

 

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...07_cake17a.jpg

 

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...ception15a.jpg

I wasn't really sure what I wanted and I didn't set a budget for the dress. It happend that the one that I fell in love with came to 4k. I had the material changed from the original and that added to the cost. I love it so much though and I think its so worth it

Congratulations! Your ring is beautiful, and worth the wait!

Welcome and happy planning!!

Michael and I had been together for about 2 and 1/2 years when we got engaged (we don't really have a "dating" anniversary") and we will be together for about 3 and 1/2 years when get married. We picked April 1st (april fools) for our wedding date so that we don't forget our anniversary (we're both horrible with dates)

Since we're at an AI we figured there was no real reason to do a welcome dinner. Plus everyone gets on different days. So we're going to set a time and a restaurant at Dreams, where we can all meet and have drinks etc... My FI doesn't even think we should do a rehersal dinner since we're not doing a rehersal...haha! So I'm going to have to figure out something for that. :S

I'm not sure whether you've all seen these websites before but I thought I'd share them with you. They're great for super cute little gifts, favors, monogramed items, invites...etc... I bought the Mindy Weiss Wedding Planner and I ablsolutely love it! Her work is amazing and romantic, I love how she spends time on the little details!

 

Love, Me - Bridal Boutique by Celebrity Wedding Planners

 

Lehr & Black

 

Mindy Weiss

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum! You must be soo excited, your wedding is just around the corner1

I vote for #3 its beautiful and romantic

Hi Congrats on booking! its so exciting when you finally get your date. I'm getting married at Dreams too (next year) and I hired Maye to coordinate everything. However we're expecting about 40 guests, and I am not doing one of the package weddings from the hotel. Since all the vendors etc... have to be booked seperately and since I'm super detail oriented I realized that I couldn't do this all myself. Ultimately its a personal choice I think. If you feel confident in your ability to plan this, and you have people in your wedding party who volunteered to help then you might not want to spend the extra money on the outside WC.

I didn't know that actually! But its strange that my TA here quoted me the $246 pp then. Do you know why she would have a higher rate than what the resort told me?

So yesterday night we went for our Marriage Prep course. It was totally different than what I thought it would be like. 1st of all it was a huge class, with 38 couples! It was more of a lecture-style class than anything. We had two men talk to us about their experience with marriage and then Father Dion said a few words. We didn't have to do a FOCCUS test or anything, we were a tad disappointed actually because the night before we went online and found a bunch of practice questions from it...so felt really prepared lol! I guess it doesn't really sound so good to that we were trying to cheat but we didn't want to get ragged on yet again. Anyways, we got the impression that they were just trying to get us to open up and talk to eachother, and also to learn from other people's experience. So I'm actually really excited to go home tonight, grab a bottle of wine and do the homework with my FI. I almost feel a little bit silly for thinking it might be this horrible experience

Yesica from Dreams quoted me the same rate, so I'm assuming it is correct.

No we're not paying the higher amount. I wrote an extensive email to our guests this morning and explained in detail why, in our opinion, they shouldn't pay the higher rate. I want to wait until the end of the summer to see how many people would need the land-only rate and then get a group quote, either from a reputable TA or through the hotel directly. With that said, its up to everyone whether they choose to go with this TA's rates, if so that's their choice but I've given them all of the information, so they can't say they weren't told.

I will get back to you as soon as I hear anything about the toronto area ta's

to the forum! Starting the research and planning early always helps! Happy Planning!