gimliori

Quote: Originally Posted by violetvixen gimliori, thanks so much for posting your review. your wedding photos are so lovely! Could you answer a question about about the itinerary of your wedding day? Our ceremony will also be at 3pm and I'm wondering what time the cocktail hour and reception started for you, so I know what to expect. thanks My MOH and I had hair and makeup appointments at 12 PM at the spa. It finished just after 1 PM. The ceremony was at 3 PM (took about 30 minutes). Pictures took about 1.5 hours and then cocktail hour was at 5 PM for an hour. Everyone went to the Sugar Reef Bar for drinks while we had pictures. Dinner was at 6 PM. Hope this helps you with your planning. Cheers!

Hey Tisha! There were 3 weddings on the day I got married. I didn't really notice the other weddings, the resort does a good job of juggling them all! The resort does manage a lot of weddings. There were quite a few while we there! It didn't really bother us though. They make it seem like your wedding is the most important!

We finally finished our review! If we didn't do the review soon after coming home, we both knew that it would never have been completed. The forum helped us so much that we wanted to let others know how it went for us. Any questions, feel free to ask! We had a fabulous time at Dreams Tulum! Review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...9/#post1101492 Pictures: Dreams Tulum Wedding pictures by gimliori - Photobucket

Here’s the review! We were legally married at Dreams Tulum on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 3 PM. There were 44 people in our wedding group including 3 small children. Overall we had a fantastic wedding and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! Resort : Overall (9/10) Location (10/10) Dreams Tulum was everything we had hoped for and more! I loved the more remote location (it took us away from party central – playa and cancun) but playa was still accessible for those guests that wanted to pub crawl and such. It is about a 90 minute drive from cancun, so our driver stopped at local liquor store and we bought some dos equis to quench our thirst on the drive down. The resort is close to a couple of eco resorts and is only 5 minutes from the Tulum ruins. It’s about a 40 minute drive to playa where we did some shopping along 5 avenue. Another bonus was we were last to be picked up for most tours and the first to be dropped off! Rooms (9/10) We had an Oceanfront room (#8240) which was located by the Seaside Grill and looked over our wedding site. The room was clean and nice, as was the other guests. I didn’t hear any complaints from our guests about their rooms and they were located throughout the resort. The bed was a little uncomfortable but my DH thought it was great. If you don’t like the pillows, you can also phone and substitute for a variety of types. The maid service seemed to come quite early in the morning but we just put the do not disturb light on (conveniently located by the bed) and then the room was cleaned for us after we left for the day. The turndown service was around 6 pm and they make the most amazing towel creatures! I really enjoyed them! Service (9/10) The service was fantastic for us! The hotel staff was very helpful whenever we had questions. We tipped the staff as we went and had no problems! Food (9/10) We ordered room service for breakfast most mornings (why turn down breakfast for 2 on your balcony!). Otherwise, it was the World Café which had a decent buffet selection. We alternated between the Seaside Grill and El Patio for lunch. We usually ordered from the front waiter and then ate at our beach chairs by the pool. Our favourite dinners were at Portofino and Himitsu. All the restaurants had good food! Beach (9/10) The beach was very nice and the sand was great. If you want to go for a long walk on the beach, we suggest going south and taking your sandals as it can get a little rough (not much though). Entertainment/Activities (8/10) Our group had an excellent time with all the pool activities they had going on! The children enjoyed the nearby ecoparks and the Explorers Club. The night entertainment was usually enjoyable. The fire dancers are amazing! Skip the magician show – it is quite horrendous. Wedding : Overall (9.5/10) Wedding Coordinator (10/10) Our wedding coordinator was Anabel and she was fantastic!!! We had our initial meeting with her where we went over the ceremony and reception, and the legalities (ours was a legal ceremony). I had brought pictures of previous dreams tulum weddings to help show her what I liked, and she took it from there. She even walked us around the resort to show us the cocktail and reception sites. Photographer/Videographer (9/10) We used the resort photographer (Filemon) and videographer. Filemon was fantastic! I was initially worried about the quality of the resort photographer after hearing some reviews from other brides but I wasn’t willing to pay thousands of dollars to bring in another photographer when this one was included. Filemon took excellent pictures for us – we had a hard time narrowing them down (there was 210 to choose from) to 50 and ended up getting 55! The video is what we expected – pretty cheesy, but it’s nice to be able to show people that couldn’t make it down for the wedding footage of the ceremony. Our guests are sending us all the candid pictures of the wedding, so we will have more than enough pictures of the special day! Hair/Makeup (9/10) My hair turned out great as well. Trinidad did a great job with doing a creative bun! And I loved the flowers in my hair. My MOH and mother also loved what the girls did with their hair. My MOH and I also got our makeup done by the girls. I was initially worried because I don’t usually wear a lot of makeup and it felt like a lot but the pictures turned out great – so they know what they are doing. Flowers (10/10) The flowers were fantastic for the bouquets, and the ones that lined the sand and on the gazebo. We had told Anabel that we wanted exotic and colourful and she exceeded our expectations! Music (9/10) We had rented the sound system for the ceremony and everyone was able to hear the music and our vows. We chose some flamenco guitar songs for the ceremony and we had the Caribbean Trio for cocktails (which the guests seemed to enjoy). We had an iPod playlist for our reception which only was able to be played till 9 PM (the ballroom has to be shutdown at that time unless you pay more). It didn’t seem to bother our guests much as we headed to the Sugar Reef Bar and then on to the Disco. Ceremony Setup (10/10) The ceremony was on the beach beside the Seaside Grill and was beautiful. The ceremony time was at 3 PM but we waited a couple minutes as there is a giant turtle (mascot) that comes to the pool at 3 and does a dance with the staff everyday. It helped break the ice before I walked down the aisle! 3 PM was a good time as it gave us time for pictures afterwards and there wasn’t a big lag until cocktails. I had colourful flowers lining the aisle and a large colourful flower arrangement in the center of the gazebo. We added purple fabric to the corners of the gazebo to contrast with the white tulle. The judge spoke in Spanish and Anabel translated in English. She quoted a Mexican philosopher which was a nice touch. We had to ink our thumbprint onto the marriage papers (as it was a legal ceremony). Good thing my MOH had a kleenex hidden in her hand for afterwards! Cocktails Setup (9/10) Cocktails was held on the terrace of the lobby and it was great. We had a good view of the resort and everyone was quite comfortable. For appetizers, we chose the mushroom stuffed with cream cheese with black truffle, smoked salmon on melba bread and shrimp with parsley on melba bread. All were fantastic! The Caribbean Trio was also great! Reception Setup (9/10) The reception was set up in the ballroom and it worked out well for us. We were able to eat with light and no wind! We had our iPod hooked up the to speakers for dinner music and it worked out well. The service was also very good. For dinner we chose: Appetizer – Portobello mushrooms with truffle mousse and mozzarella cheese Salad – Asparagus salad with Dijon mustard dressing Main Course – Surf & Turf (Mignon & shrimp with gravy sauce and melted butter) Dessert – Tiramisu The food was absolutely fantastic!!! Everyone was talking about it days afterwards. We picked Golden 03, a vanilla cake with strawberry filling and it was quite tasty. Anabel decorated the cake with flowers that matched the bouquet and it was very pretty. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake – there wasn’t much leftover at the end. Overall, we wouldn’t have wanted our wedding any other way! All our guests told us that it was the best wedding that they had been to! Pictures: Dreams Tulum Wedding pictures by gimliori - Photobucket

Quote: Originally Posted by oasisgirl Thanks, vlynnw for the pointers to these pictures on pg260! Very helpful! =) I'm still deciding where to have the reception...dolphin pool, relax/adult pool or beach? What is the lighting like in the different locations? Do I have to rent light columns or put up lanterns (I'm trying to save some money)? I worry that they might be too dark to dance or for photos... Thanks for the help, girls!!! I had my reception in the ballroom and it was nice. The receptions that I saw while I was there (2 weeks worth) most seemed to be at the dolphin pool. If you don't bring your own lighting it seemed to be quite dark though the dolphin pool has more lighting. The relaxation pool reception had a large flood light so people could see. The relaxation pool is also close to the patio which has nightly entertainment there. It's not as isolated as the dolphin pool. I didn't get a chance to observe much of the beach receptions. But it can get quite windy some nights. Hope this helps!

OceanWonderland - I just got married on December 4 at 3pm and it was fantastic! The couple that got married after us at 4pm still had great pictures that I saw in the photoshop. Our pictures turned out great as well. The resort photographer that we had took fantastic pictures. It was so hard to narrow them down! Anytime of day except the evening is hot in Mexico. I had fans for my guests for the ceremony and they did fine, plus the fans were easy to pack and inexpensive. No one once complained about the heat - that's why we all went down there, to get away from the snow! Anabel pretty much took care of everything for my wedding. I just showed her some pictures of previous dreams tulum weddings that I liked and then let her run with it. I couldn't have planned it better!

Heading to Dreams in 2 days and getting married in a week! Little nervous as there still seems to be so much to accomplish before we go. Reading the recent comments make me feel a lot better! I'm glad Aurora is a pro at this, I'm hoping she will be able to smooth out all the rough spots! Wish us luck!

Thanks Amy!

Hey everybody. If anyone can shed some light on my questions, it would be greatly appreciated as I'm leaving in 2 weeks and Natalia hasn't responded to my emails in a week and half now. I tried emailing Aurora as she emailed me last (for some reason) as I have been dealing with Natalia up to now. I'm starting to feel the stress! Does anyone know if the WiFi is accessible on the beach as we would like to broadcast the wedding back home? The size of the rectangular tables? Does the speakers hook up directly to an iPod? I have more questions but it's a good place for me to start! The last minute details are starting to pile up! Thanks for any help! Cheers.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dee83 I am just wondering if anyone else is having trouble getting email replies back from Natalia lately? Is she on holiday or something because I have emailed her three times in the past three weeks and I have gotten no reply (usually she replies back within the week)...is anyone else having communication problems?? I just got an email from Natalia on Saturday (the 27th). It took her about a week to respond to our email. She has usually responded within the week for us.

I just wanted to post a quick note to all the past brides for continuing to supply info for all us future brides. It is GREATLY appreciated! I have gained so much and have found some great ideas as well! Thanks a million for all the time you have saved me!

Is it standard to use a TA for all the wedding guests? I've been reading the previous messages and it seems to be quite common. I emailed Cecilia Bardi, Groups Sales Manager who gave me a group rate on rooms at DT. It was $150 per person per night which works out to $1050 for 7 days and 6 nights. I was just going to let guests book their own flights down as I'm sure some will want to use airmiles. Have people found it to be a better deal to book through a TA and if you do, how do you block rooms at DT for your guests and get the rooms at DT close together? Thanks for any info sent my way!

Your flowers look fantastic! Congratulations!

Hopefully I'm adding this correctly! Username:gimliori Names: Leslie-Anne & Ryan Date & Time: December 4, 2009 at 3 PM Wedding package: Ultimate Wedding extras (and cost charged): Yet to be determined. Type of ceremony: Legal Coordinator: Natalia Number of guests: ~ 50 people Ceremony location & time: Beach at 3 PM. Unsure what part of the beach. Cocktail hour location and time: Right after the ceremony by the pools. Reception location: Deciding between the pool terrace or the ballroom. Photographer: Most likely a private photographer. Videographer: The resorts. Special arrangements /activities: Rehearsal dinner at the Alux - a restaurant in a natural cavern

Absolutely beautiful pictures!

Your review was very helpful! Do you know if they are still prohibiting people from TTD sessions at the ruins?

Both the parasols and the photo luminarias are a great idea! Did you get the parasols in Tulum or did you bring them with you?

That was a great review! It was nicely detailed and your laid back attitude about the things that weren't perfect made me realize that those situations are what you make of them. There's no need to get upset over the small things. Thanks again!

Thanks for all the great info in your review! I found it very helpful.

Hi, I hope I'm responding correctly and if I'm not, please correct me! Cheers! Username: gimliori Names: Leslie-Anne Smith & Ryan Anderson Date & Time: December 4, 2009 Wedding package: Ultimate Wedding extras (and cost charged): Type of ceremony: Civil Coordinator: Natalia del Olmo Number of guests: ~60 Ceremony location & time: Beach ceremony at 3 PM Cocktail hour location and time: Reception location: Outdoors but not beach Photographer: We will hire a separate photographer from Dreams Videographer: Part of the Dreams package Review (link): Photos (link): Video (link): Planning thread (link): Wedding website (link): Special arrangements / activities: See my review for ….

Thanks for the detailed advice!

Beautiful pictures and very helpful advice! Your flowers looked fantastic!

Hi my name is Leslie-Anne Smith! I'm from Canada where we currently have about 2 feet of snow and it's -20 degrees celsius! Hence, why I'm having my wedding some place warmer! We are aiming to get married the first week in December in Mexico in the Riviera Maya. We have our search narrowed down to 3 - Dreams Tulum, Gran Porto Real Playa del Carmen, and Paradisus Rivieria Cancun. Any advice on these 3 resorts (or others in that region) would be greatly appreciated! I'll be cruising the threads looking for any information on these places. Cheers. Leslie.