Princess402

Here's a thread on mom's dresses: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...s-dress-11617/

Quote: Originally Posted by ebernard4985 I dont know if any of you have been on the site lately.... Dreams is not longer offering golf complimentary at El Cameleon... it is some other golf course and only being offered until the end of April!?!?!?!? WTF!!! My wedding is in June and many of the guests were looking forward to this!!! AGHHH!!!! Sorry that's happening for you - that sucks big time!!! If it were me, I would raise hell over that, because you are right, guests will be looking forward to that. I would think for those that have already booked, they should still offer them free golf or something in lieu to compensate.

Wow, this is great! We've got so many new brides and so much activity on here!!! If I'm not on here everyday it's almost hard to keep up. I remember someone saying many pages ago that they didn't know how to multi-quote, and in the interest of reducing the number of pages new DRC brides have to scroll through to get up to speed on here, I just thought I would re-post this info about multi-quoting if anyone would like to use it: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ti-quote-1043/

I didn't lose anything either But next week I am determined will be different!!! I went shopping a couple days ago and loaded up on good healthy food... not all I need to do, but a step in the right direction

Hi Brooke, welcome to the forum!!! Maybe I'll see you on the Dreams Riviera Cancun thread

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Has anyone decided on the menu? I can't decide on the plated dinners vs the buffet. The plated dinners look a little more gourmet but a buffet might be better so that there is something that everyone will like. I'm just thinking that everyone might be buffett'ed out from being at the resort all week. I'm anticipating having to do a buffet because of the size of my group so I haven't really given it much thought, but actually I don't think that people will be buffeted out! There are so many a la carte restaurants, and you can even do a la carte for lunch, so I'm sure folks will eat at the buffet but probably not as much as at some other resorts. I personally think that the plated dinner sounds nice, but on the other hand with the buffet you get more choices. I think your guests will be happy either way!

Hi Jen, welcome to the forum! Looks like you've gotten some great advice on here already so I won't bore you with too much of mine... all I can say is that this forum has been a lifesaver in my planning and so hopefully it will be for you too!

Quote: Originally Posted by Boo again sorry to be a pest - jeez I have so much time - but fire dancers? fireworks? has anyone know a vendor for either of these, good or bad experience? Thanks - you girls really are my sanity for the last couple of months! Boo, are you getting a DJ? Some of them provide cold fireworks. For example, DJ Doremixx does this. As for other fireworks or fire dancers, I don't know! Which is why I haven't responded before. I'm guessing other girls don't know either and that's why you haven't gotten an answer on here. However, I'd be curious to know about fire dancers as well! Have you tried asking Ana? You could also try searching or asking this question on the RM/Cancun Vendors thread. Good Luck

Quote: Originally Posted by marymason are there any recent pics of receptions and ceramonys at the dreams riviera really torn between dreams and spa palace There aren't many unfortunately but if you check out the facebook fan page there are a few under Fan Photos. For example: Wedding Gazebo: Private Reception setup on the pool deck: There are some older photos of the beach ceremony setup but this is going to be changing so we're all eager to see what the new arrangement there will look like!

I take mine off to sleep, to shower, to clean, and often to swim or excercise. I am a little fearful of losing it but mostly I just don't want to wreck it! FI hates it when I take it off outside of doing these types of things ("where's your ring? why aren't you wearing it?") but actually will get mad at me if he sees me wearing it when I go to the pool or something cause he's afraid of it being lost or damaged too!

Quote: Originally Posted by carinagirl Hi Ladies! My wedding is in 45 days...wow! Just wondering your thoughts on tipping. We are bringing our own DJ and Photographer, so I think I am okay there. However how do I just what I should tip Ana, our wedding coorinator. Hey carinagirl, you should check out the etiquette section regarding tipping. Here's a good thread: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...dinator-52354/ My personal thoughts are that it depends on the WC, and I also think on how much "work" you are as a bride, lol. I mean if you book your date and then basically just show up and get married, I might tip a little if all goes well, but if you have sent Ana a million emails and have lots of requests, and she does a great job answering your questions and making your day amazing, then I would say a decent size tip is in order if you can swing it. Just a nice way to say thank you I think Also, just curious, who are you using for a DJ? Or is this someone coming with your group from home?

Quote: Originally Posted by andim Heres my dress! I'm so excited for it to come in! Watters Brides | Bridal Gown Collection | Style Cabo | Washed silk organza strapless gown with re-embroidered lace bodice and tiered organza ruffled skirt. Chapel train.<br><br> Lace is available in white or ivory. omg I love it so much!!! Make sure you post pics of you in it when you get it!

Uh this is annoying!!!! I didn't know that either, that you couldn't just go and get married at City Hall! That was one of those things on my list of things to look into at some point... FI and I are still a bit undecided about whether to get married legally here or in Mexico. On the one hand, totally seems to make sense to just get married here. On the other hand FI hates (like with a capital H!) the idea of having two ceremonies. The only way I could even half way convince him was to describe the wedding here as being just signing paperwork, like agreeing to a business deal or something... "Do you take her?" "I do" "Do you take him?" "I do" And great we're done! We don't want to have parents or anybody there - would prefer to just have two strangers as witnesses! So, this new info gives me some more to think about... sigh.

Quote: Originally Posted by amybermuda I have not heard anyone on this site recommend avoiding resorts. There are pluses and minuses of every place. When I was second guessing my choice I started looking at other threads on here and reading what the other brides were complaining about I realized that there is no place perfect. This is SO true!!! This is one thing that I found during the process of my (ridiculously long and extensive) resort research - there unfortunately is no "perfect" place. There are pluses and minuses, and this totally varies by bride to bride... otherwise, we'd all be getting married at the same place! Quote: Originally Posted by 2010 Bride! Thanks for your help everyone. Last night we were able to trim the list to 3 resorts. We are now looking at Secrets Maroma, Excellence Playa Mujeres and Dreams Riviera Cancun as our child friendly option. Time to hit these specific threads! Sorry to burst your bubble but Secrets is Adults Only

Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 Seriously?!? That is so annoying to me! Basically, they are charging us an extra $650 for the DJ. Where does this money go to? It's not like they have to do a lot of extra work to have the DJ there. I would be perfectly happy making all of the arrangements for myself. All of the "extra" costs are so aggravating. This one especially because I *know* how much I am being over-charged! So, what are you going to do about music? So I emailed Ana back and told her that Doremixx told me they charge $650 for up to 4 hours, and using her price structure that same 4 hours would cost me $1320! I told her there was NO WAY I was going to knowingly pay double to the resort what I know the vendor actually charges, and that this was totally unfair. She emailed me back in literally like 5 minutes and asked if I could send her the price quote that Doremixx gave me, and that surely they could "work something out" for me. So, I sent her the info, and will let you know what I hear back... I guess I will be happy if they will honor the $650 but it kind of makes me mad at the same time because it's like if I didn't have this quote directly from the vendor you would happily rip me off and charge me double?!?!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ebernard4985 So I spoke a bit too soon with my last post. Ana just emailed me back and I did get some good news about cost. The first good news is that the arch with white tulle is complimentary I am very happy about this because that is a couple hundred dollars saved and I like very simple, clean decorations. I am doing the Dreams of Love package and it comes with the 20 person reception and 20 person cocktail hour. My fiance and I have decided not to have a cocktail hour because it seems silly with so many bars available to them for free. For that hour we will be taking our pictures and my bridal party has agreed to "gather" everyone else at the beach bar where they all can drink and hang out for the hour. We are having 40 people and most of them are family so I know they all will be okay with hanging out at the beach bar for that hour. I just figured that the resort includes these bars so we might as well take advantage of it. So the good news is... instead of the cocktail hour I only have to pay $20 per extra guest at the reception (tax and gratuity included in the $20!). This has brought down the price significantly! Just thought I would share with the rest of you if you maybe wanted to try to cut costs. I would rather spend the extra money on group excursions than a private hour of cocktails. Yay that's really good news!!!! First about the beach arch cause when I read your earlier post I was like wt?!?! But it's all good now Second, about the cocktail hour... I would love to have a private cocktail hour but really it's not necessary for the exact reasons you mentioned. I think that's great that Ana has made that deal for you to scrap cocktail hour and reduce the price of dinner. Hopefully she'll do the same or something similar for me - I would totally rather spend that extra money elsewhere too!

Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 I completely agree. I too thought my wedding could be $10,000 but I think with everything thing that I want it to be it will be much closer to $20,000. There seems to be a 25% service charge for everything. I asked if I could just have silk flowers on the beach instead of purchasing real ones and Ana told me it was against the Mexican Law to have fake flowers on the beach, and I totally understand from an enviromental standpoint but I would like one flower on the back of each covered chair and it is $15 per chair! Ugh, it is frustrating! WHAT Am I understanding you right? I get it if they say you can't have fake rose petals or something, cause those could end up being left on the beach and then wind up in the ocean, but why can't you have fake flowers on the chairs? Does that mean you can't use a fake flower boquet if you get married on the beach? That is so silly!!!

Hi Jenna, Well I haven't been there yet but I have heard that the layout of Dreams Riviera Cancun is quite good. The important amenities are all centrally located and it's 5 mins to everything. I have also read a couple of reviews where the people said (one person was in a wheelchair and the other had MS) that they found the resort very easy to navigate, and as well the staff were very helpful in assisting them when they needed it.

Hi Katie, welcome to the forum!!! Rest assured you'll find all the info you need here to choose a resort, and to help you with all your planning - good luck

Quote: Originally Posted by ebernard4985 Hello ladies. I was able to book with Apple Vacations and receive the every 6th room free promotion. I am not sure how but I did receive the promotion and it has allowed us to get 3 free rooms so far. If more people book then we can potentially get even more free rooms. Apple Vacations is also letting us apply to free rooms how ever we want. We have decided to total up the amount saved and apply a discount to all of the rooms. It will only be about $150-$200 per person but it is better than nothing! I thought that this was the only fair way to make sure everyone benefited from the promotion. We are also receiving coupons of some sort... not really sure about those. We booked our rooms in August before the resort opened so maybe that is why we received the promotion? In fact, I originally started inquiring about group rates with Hagen Sommers, the resorts group representative and he was the one who told me about the promotion knowing that I was planning a wedding. Why would the group sales rep offer it to a wedding party if it did not qualify? I believe I still have his original email with this in writing..... WOW that is REEAAALLLLY great that you are getting that promotion! I was happy with what I was getting but now I am jealous!!! Maybe that was because the resort wasn't open yet? I'm sure I read somewhere on this forum that girls had looked into this and were specifically told that by Dreams that it could not be used for wedding groups, and it does kind of specify that in the terms and conditions of the offer. But, I didn't start looking into DRC until after it was open so maybe those terms and conditions didn't exist in August! When is your wedding btw? Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 I talked to my TA about all of this yesterday. He told me that because my wedding is in their peak season (February), I probably wouldn't be offered a lot of promotions. He also said that we booked everyone individually instead of doing a group booking because it ended up being $200 pp less to do it this way. So, I guess that is why I didn't get a group promotion. Everyone who booked also got a $200 resort coupon. I am not sure what those can be used for?? We also booked our trip in August and then most of our guests booked in October and November. Laura, yes we did a group booking. I don't think we paid any more or less to do it that way (about $120 a night per person), but we had to book at least 10 rooms to start, and now we can continue to add on as we go.... I can see your TAs point about travelling in high season though. We also get $100pp in resort coupons but from what I have read online these might be kind of useless as they are more like coupons (i.e. $20 towards the spa if you spend over $100). Still, I think everyone will appreciate them and at least some will use them! I think some of the money is good at the spa, some for wine, and the rest I'm not sure.

Quote: Originally Posted by KR2010 Hi there, We are thinking about booking the DRC and wanted to know if anyone out there got any perks for booking 20+ rooms? We are planning on 40-60 people during a slow off peak week Oct 26-Oct 31. Hopefully having the wedding on the 29th. We were hoping with that many people we could get our room for free. The dreams website talks about a buy 5 rooms get the 6th free, and a different promo with 15 rooms and 1 free. Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 Hi and Welcome! I did not get anything like that. I don't have 20 rooms booked though. I have 16 rooms (we will have about 30 people). I think that the promotions on the Dreams site do not include weddings. There was something like that going on when I booked and my TA contacted the resort about it and they said the promotions don't apply to wedding groups I was hoping to be able to get something free too! The 6th room free promotion unfortunately does not apply to wedding groups. It does say somewhere on the website in the fine print that this is only for "social" groups not requiring any other event services, or something like that. However, the new "free ride" promotion where you get one room free for every 15 booked I *think* would apply to weddings as it is specifically for event groups. But I think you would have to check with Dreams for sure on that one as I imagine that it is more geared towards business groups (i.e. conferences, meetings) rather than weddings, but really in the fine print it does not say anything about this so I would push for it! I don't know if it's just cause we booked so far in advance or what but we were able to get from Dreams: - every 12th person free - one room upgrade for every 10 rooms booked - a private welcome cocktail for our group

Super pretty dress and great colour for a DW!

Have you guys started already? I'm definitely interested in joining in! I was sick most of December... so pretty much just laid around and ate shortbread. Yup, I could stand to lose a few and would love to have your girls with me to help keep me motivated

I'm gonna give this threat a bump just cause I like the question and I'm curious what other photogs have to say!