zorlack76

Hey there, the sand ceremony deal is actually pretty cool. It is said right after you do your vows, and just before they "pronounce you husband and wife." We didnt have any problems bringing it back through customs. After all, its fake sand anyways. The wording is fairly typical, something like what you have with a unity candle. You know, they talk about how its two people pouring sand and how 2 vases of sand become one, just like the two of us joining in marriage. Things like that. The ceremony is only about 3 or 4 minutes long. It was read by our minister. I hope this helps.

FYI I posted my review of DJ Mannia on his review thread if anyone is interested http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t20951-9

Hey All, We are back from our Dreams Cancun wedding so I guess its time to start the reviews. We hired DJ Mannia for our DJ and we were relatively pleased. The purpose of this review is to neither recommend nor bash anyone, only to state the facts. So with that said, we will begin. We had Sergio from DJ Mannia and he seemed like a very nice fellow. He was likable from the start and appeared very organized. Our reception was supposed to begin at 7:00 with dinner, but our photo shoot ran a little late. I met with Sergio at about 7:15 and we discussed everything prior to our entrance. We discussed the first dance and Sergio recommended we do that before the dinner and just after our entrance. I loved the idea and only wish we would have been able to tell our photographer who had went up to our hotel room in order to snap some shots from up high. He had no idea we were doing our first dance before dinner. We discussed with Sergio our cake cutting song as well as garter and flower toss. That went pretty smoothly. Sergio then specifically asked us if we had "DO NOT PLAY" songs. We told him we absolutely did not want anything with swearing or cursing. We were very clear about that. Rather than Sergio telling us he would not play those songs, he told us he would just play the "radio" version of the songs. I was mildly annoyed at that point because they were supposed to be "DO NOT PLAY" songs, but I dismissed it and tried going with the flow. We never discussed a father/daughter or mother/son dance which we wanted, but with the time constraints, we understood. After discussing the songs to be played and not to be played, Sergio told us he would play a couple of Michael Jackson songs. I was growing more and more annoyed because I really dont care for Michael Jackson...especially since his death, everything associated with Michael Jackson is getting really old and really played out. Again, I dismissed it and thought he would only play one or two songs. Rather he played like 5 or 6 (maybe more) Jackson songs all combined into a really long and annoying mix. Lastly, we discussed the last song to be played. Sergio recommended "We are family" and due to his recommendation, we accepted. I gotta say Im not a big fan of the song and I think we could have picked something better, but ultimately it was our decision to go with his recommendation. Now, onto some more positive things. During dinner, we had a song request for some Barry White. I told Sergio and it was immediately played! The rest of the music during dinner was perfect! Sergio came up to us toward the end of the dinner and due to time constraints, he made some recommendations to change the order in which we did things. We gladly accepted and it turned out just fine. Sergio was able to set up the toast very quickly and that helped give us more time to dance. Throughout the dancing, Sergio approached us again and asked us if we wanted to do a "Tequila Conga Line." We thought that was the coolest thing in the world and most people participated. So thanks Sergio. On a more sour note (and FYI my timeline might be off a little bit here,) they played a few songs with swearing (particularly the song which talks about sweat dripping down certain parts of a mans body ....some pretty vulgar stuff for an older crowd) and we had to run over and tell him to cut it off. That was after we dismissed the first song which had swearing in it. Ah well, he cut it off pretty quick. Sergio did a nice job of MCing and keeping people up and dancing. Overall, I think Sergio did a decent job. I dont think he did a bad job and I dont think he did a great job. I would give him an average grade. Would I recommend using an iPod for the reception? NO!!! Get a DJ and preferrably DJ Mannia. There are tons of reviews on here which totally rave about their performance. Maybe we caught Sergio on a bad day. Sergio really made no attempt at staying later than contracted (7pm-10pm.) If he would have offered to stay later, we would have gladly payed him. But it seemed like he did not really go out of his way to make it a more pleasant experience. So if anyone has any questions, feel free and let me know. Best of luck to you all. I hope this review wasnt too disorganized.

Hey All, I too am back from Dreams and will be doing our review soon. Mrs Butler, we felt so bad for you that night, but we are happy that everything worked out for you. It seemed everyone kept their composure pretty well and the both of you looked great!!

Quote: Originally Posted by rabutler816 Hi!! I am the reason the hotel is sold out. Im sorry!! I also have 5 guests ho have to stay elsewhere. We have 50 rooms. I have 75+ guests for my wedding. I had no idea but I can assure you this. We will be very good and make sure your day does not go interrupted Brides honor! What time is your wedding? We are having a party in teh bar lobby from 7-10, so we will def be 'out the way' now for the other guests booked that have nothing to do with my wedding..ummm I cant say how well behaved they will be. I pray VERY WELL. Soo excited!! Hahaha, I think we are all the reason the hotel is sold out I know of at least 3 weddings between Thursday and Sunday, and Im sure there is one more on Saturday night. I have a few guests staying at another resort too...of course they booked too late. Oh well, they had plenty of opportunity We were just a little concerned more with people "crashing the wedding." I actually wouldnt mind as long as they are friendly and dont cause problems, you know. We are doing the typical day, wedding at 5, cocktail hour at 6, and reception from 7-10. Are you doing the same?

Hey All, I know there have been some threads on transporting your dress to your DW location. I was just curious if anyone has flown on USA 3000 Airlines which is an Apple Vacations Charter plane. If so, dod you have any problems transporting your dress? I called their customer service last night and they told me the dress had to meet the dimensions for a carry on bag in order to bring it on the plane. The lady said they dont have much room in the planes and definitely cant hang it up anywhere. Any advise? Thanks in advance!

Hey all, I have a question for all the brides who have already been married at Dreams. Call me petty, but I am kind of worried about the noise level during out ceremony and reception. We are only having 15 people at the wedding, and I checked and found that all rooms are booked during our stay. There are only a few dolphin view rooms left, but everything else is booked. Did any of you have a problem with people being loud or obnoxious who werent part of your group? If so, how did you handle it? If not, how would you recommend I handle it? Thanks!

Based on everything I have seen and heard, you pay the set amount for the package. I think it is $2650 for the Dreams Ultimate package. That will serve cocktail hour, dinner, drinks, and cake for up to 20 people. Everyone above and beyond the 20 people you will have to pay for. I had a quote for around 40 people with the Dreams Ultimate and it was right around 5500 bucks. I dont think the prices vary from resort to resort...they all reflect the same price on the Dreams website.

Quote: Originally Posted by KarenM So glad you were able to get some $ back and that your dress is fixed! I find it hilarious they had the 1st page of your thread printed as "ammo". whatever. Yeah it was kinda funny. The page they printed off wasnt even complete. It was just my original post, and the right side of it was chopped off so you couldnt even see the entire sentences. I guess they may have been too embarassed to print off all the replies hahaha

Quote: Originally Posted by DreamsTulumBride OH! MY GOSH! I don't know what I would of done if was you... I cannot believe you agreed to repay the alternation... why? It's their mistake! I wish you the best and I am sure in a few years you will laugh about it and concentrate on the good memories of your dream wedding! Honestly I paid for it because the money wasnt that important at the time. As long as I had my perfect dress, I would have paid a lot more than 50 bucks. But we ended up getting the second payment back too.

Honestly, it wasnt even about the money. I just wanted the dress to fit and not fall apart. Of course it bugs me a little bit because the dress is $250.00 cheaper now than it was when we bought it...and they only give me 50 bucks. Ha. What a joke. I see other brides or friends have had the same experience I did. DB blames the customer because DB ordered the wrong product. Shandalier, 10 weeks later!! Are you serious!! And they had the audacity to blame you. Completely unacceptable. Id still love to hear more experiences. Maybe that will reinforce to the Noobs that they would probably have a better experience elsewhere.

Well ladies, we got the issue resolved. Let me first start by saying DB caught wind of this thread because they apparently search for negative feedback about DB online. So, if you do choose to go there and have a bad experience, just post a blog or thread somewhere indicating all the facts. So, they finally got my dress altered the way it should have been done to begin with. It is a little bit tight around the ribs but I dont want them touching the dress any more. I can deal with it being tight. So when we were getting ready to check out, I was ambushed. The lady asked if I posted a blog which was bashing DB. She actually gave me a print out of the first page of this thread. She told me it would be in my best interest to take this blog down. HA!! No way lady. I am telling everyone I can about my horrible experience with your store!!! The more people that know the truth, the better. I didn't really think I was bashing DB anyways...i was just telling the facts of the case. So, thank you all for all of your feedback. I am still interested in hearing other peoples experiences there, so feel free and keep this thread going. It might come in handy if I decide to go to the media about this (or have to defend myself in a lawsuit.) ..Oh, by the way, they were soooo generous and told us they would refund $50.00 to us. That is so nice of them considering they are a huge corporation who (according to corporate) can afford to lose business. Wierd!

One thing is for certain, Davids Bridal (if you have one out there) may destroy your dress if you buy it there or online. I, from the sounds of things several other brides on here, would NOT recommend them. So many people have had HORRIBLE experiences with them. Best of luck to you!

Some would say you get what you pay for. My opinion is that you spend the extra couple of hundred (or more) bucks and go elsewhere. Then, take the dress to a professional tailor. The "rinky-dink" tailors are very fair priced and they make sure they get the job done right because they cant afford to lose any business. Davids, as so eloquently mentioned by the corporate office, can afford to lose the business.

Sigh...I just had virtually the exact same experience at Davids Bridal. They destroyed my dress and there is no time to order a new one and start from scratch. I totally sympathize with you. I wish you the best of luck!!!

Wow!!! Thats all I have to say. It is amazing that so many people have had such a horrible experience. Corporate told my mom on the phone that they dont have any dissatisfied customers. Yeah right!!! This obviously proves that statement wrong. My mom mentioned to them that negative feedback about their store would travel quickly. Their response was that they could afford to lose us as customers because they are such a big corporation and they could regain more people as customers. She was probably right. They are huge. That would be like telling people to stop shopping at Walmart because the clerk threw your groceries in the bags. Davids Bridal has great prices...and people will continue shopping there (unfortunately.) But that doesnt give them a right to treat their current customers like crap. I just got so annoyed when corporate told my mom that we "didnt spend that much money there." May be true to a multi million dollar corporation...but for someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, we spent a small fortune. Anyone else have any experiences they would like to share? This is just more and more ammo against them. Maybe we should consider a class action lawsuit hahaha. What would we sue them for, emotional distress? But to the brides that have had a good experience there, I am genuinly happy for you. The dress is almost what makes the wedding day (well, aside from the groom being there. The two most important days in my life are my wedding and the day I give birth. Lets just hope it gets fixed by this afternoon. Ill keep you all posted and let you know what happens!!

Well, I just filed a Better Business Bureau complaint online. The first part sayd that they will respond within 3 days and that the store has 14 days to respond to them...but the last thing on the website said that they will get back to me within 30 days. Hmm...my wedding is less than 30 days away, so I hope they can expedite it.

...oh by the way Josie, it seems like they are really good at adding extra fees here and there. It seems like they are just making this stuff up to get more money. The most uphauling part of my experience was the fact that the corporate office said that they really value their employees and their employees felt they were working in a dangerous environment around me and my mom!! Unreal, dont they value their customers?!?!?!?! The whole lot of my 95 pounds is SOOOO Dangerous!! Sigh....

Thanks for all the kind words. The most frusterating part is that we will need the dress by August 8th because thats when we are leaving. If I had an extra couple of months, I would be able to contact a bunch of people to get the issue resolved....and of course if I would have known about how horrible their customer service skills were, I would have taken my business elsewhere. Anyone else want to share their bad (or good) experience with Davids Bridal. I would love to hear anything you all have to say!! Thanks again ladies!

Hey All, I just wanted to share my Davids Bridal experience with you and find out what you all think about it. I am also curious to know if any of you ladies have had the same experience as me. So here goes... I found my dress at Davids Bridal online. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. So, I went to the local store and began looking for it. They had it, but not in the size I needed. I am generally a size 0, and the smallest size they had was a 4. I tried it on and obviously it did not fit, but I loved it anyways. The Alterations person took some measurements and recommended I buy a size 0. So, I paid for it and they ordered it. Mind you this took place in February. In April, the dress came in, so I went there, tried it on, and spoke with the alterations person. When I tried it on, it was a little tight around my ribs and some other alterations had to be done (length, shoulder straps, etc.) Sounds pretty normal so far, right? So, here is where it gets bad. The alterations person took all my measurements and told me it would be ready on July 17th. When she took my measurements, she seemed like she did not know what she was doing. I had my mom and aunt with me, and they both agreed. So, we kept out fingers crossed and went back on July 17th. Thats when I broke down in tears!!! I tried the dress on and immediately, the sequence and beading started falling off. They did not adjust the shoulders. It looked like I had 4 boobs because the sides were sticking out so far under my arms. The dress overall looked horrible (after I spent $700 bucks on it, plus another $250 for the alterations.) Now I know thats not an obscene amount of money for a dress, but the principles are still the same. I paid them for the dress and alterations, and expected the work to be done. So anyways, I had my mom with me again (Thank God!!) We all got into it with the employees and manager there. They threatened to escort us out of the building though none of us swore, made any threats, etc. They retook my measurements and charged me again to fix the shoulders but said they would retighten all the sequence and beading. They also said they would fix the 3rd and 4th boob free of charge. Well thats nice, especially since I never asked for the 3rd and 4th!!! So my mom called the corporate office yesterday. Apparently the store manager had done that before us. The corporate office told my mom that we shouldnt have ordered a size 0 to begin with and that their employees would never recommend a size to order. They were basically calling us liars but told her that the dress would be completed tomorrow. I am just looking to hear your opinions. Do you recommend I take other action? Have any of you had the same or similar experience? At this time, I am not going to recommend Davids Bridal to anyone. I am hoping the bad news travels fast as I dont want the same thing to happen to any of you!! Thanks all!

I was able to get a really good deal on Oakley sunglasses, so we got our GMs a pair each. They were the basic version (black frames with gray lenses.) Also got hardshell cases. I guess it totally depends on finances. My brother got his GM's iPod Nano's when they first came out in 2005. Im sure he dropped a pretty penny on those

Hey All, just curious if any of the recent brides can answer this for me. We were thinking about getting some toasting flutes to bring down there, but are really worried that they will get broken. How are the toasting flutes that Dreams provides? Would you recommend we use theirs or bring our own? We are not really worried about the sentimental value of bringing our own, so that isnt a big issue. Thanks a bunch!!

Hey All, just curious if any of the recent brides can answer this for me. We were thinking about getting some toasting flutes to bring down there, but are really worried that they will get broken. How are the toasting flutes that Dreams provides? Would you recommend we use theirs or bring our own? We are not really worried about the sentimental value of bringing our own, so that isnt a big issue. Thanks a bunch!!

That dress is EXACTLY what we were looking for. We couldnt find one like it anywhere. No need now though, our bridesmaids backed out so theres only gonna be groomsmen. Beautiful dress though!! Thanks for posting!

Does anyone know how many dj's they have working for Mannia?