reaganlane

I would so pick El Patio!!! The beach and pool deck receptions are pretty but while I was there it was crazy windy and I think your guest would really enjoy El Patio and you don't have to worry about the weather. You have NO privacy at the beach or pool deck. Everyone at Seaside Grill looks down on your reception at the pool deck and they still have private dinners and random people wandering on the beach. I looked in on a reception at El Patio while I was there and it made me wanna join the party. It looked amazing and everyone was having a blast! Let us know which one you pick!

 

Originally Posted by amlambert 

UGGGH, OK brides, I need your opinions.  I have gone back and forth about where to have the reception.  Originally I had the beach reserved, then Ana talked me into having it at the El Patio because it was "air-conditioned", not knowing that she had another bride who was asking for the beach and by talking me into changing venues she was able to pacify us both.  When I asked to change it back, she told me she had reserved it for another bride.  This morning I received an email from Gabriela telling me that I can have our reception in either the El Patio or beach location.  I am torn about where to have it, there are pro's and con's for both locations.  In the El Patio, you can go an hour longer and it is private, but I am not crazy about the decor.  The beach location would be a bit prettier and scenic in my opinion.  For any brides who have already been married there or who has any suggestions on this, please give me guidance!! Thanks

So, I totally peeked in on your reception because I thought it was the club. LOL! It was our first day there and we were checking out resturants and I was like "man, this club is hopping!" haha! It looked amazing! With the dj lights and everything it really came alive! I would so pick that as my reception location because it is private. The one on the pool deck is pretty but everyone at the resort can see and hear your reception. I loved yours! It was like your own personal club!

 

Originally Posted by rdsjcr 

Hey!  We had our reception in El Patio (it started raining - so they moved it there to be safe)  and we were SO happy that we had it there in the end.  We had 40 people and it was so private and intimate.  We partied and danced all night long.  It was like our own restaurant, then our own night club.  It was so so perfect.  I mean yeh-- my starfish namecards did not go that well with the Mexican decor but who cares-- I didn't!  They (Gaby and team) transformed the room and got my flowers and seating charts together in no time and had everything set up (food, decor, DJ, etc) perfectly.  It was smaller and more intimate than the pool deck, where we would have had random spectators.  We would not have had it any other way.

 

 

 

Yeah, my room was above your ceremony and I saw them setting it up and then kinda watched it from the swing bar! It was beautiful! Congrats! I stressed too much also so I am looking forward to returning without the wedding stress and just drinking and relaxing! I believe we are all going back next year around the same time. It wasn't crowded and it was great weather!

 

Originally Posted by rdsjcr 

So glad you had a great time!  I was hoping that we would run into each other-- as I got married Oct 24..but no such luck... I want to go back and do it all over again.  I stressed so so much leading up to it and everything went absolutely perfect.  I am at work right now and they don't allow us access to facebook- but I can't wait to see your pics
 

 

They had messed up my spa appointment. My TA had Ana set up a makeup appointment for the day of my wedding and when I got there, they didn't have it scheduled and their stylist wouldn't be there till 3. My cousin (who is great at negotiating) went to the front desk and told them this had upset me because I hadn't packed wedding day makeup (which I really hadn't) so they said they would make up for it by giving us a reservation at the resturant for my reception. Well, when it came time to go to the reservation and the resturant said they didn't have it, my cousin went off and that is how we got the wine room. We were just going to go to the mexican resturant because the hostess there was so nice and pulled tables together for us and told us we could order from any other menu and they would get it for us...but then my cousin came back saying we had the wine cellar so we moved. Looking back on it, I wish we would have just stayed at the Mexican resturant because they were so nice and willing to please but it all worked out. They say they don't take reservations and even if you got one, I wouldn't rely on it. After your pics or the ceremony, just have someone from your group go to the resturant of your choice and tell them how many guest you will have. Himitsu is a little more stuck up because I guess it is resturant of choice, but we had so much better service at the Seaside Grill and mexican resturant. They really like to please! All my guest loved the Seaside Grill the best so maybe they can set something up for you? Really, don't stress about it. Once you are there, everything will fall into place.

 

Originally Posted by BethAnne 

Congrats! Sounds like everything did fall into place and you ended up having a great time. Seems to me though after reading there really is a huge communication problem though, as you probly sent so many detailed e-mails up until your arrival to get everything worked out.. i know I have.

Tons! and everytime i get a response saying "ok, great" So i start to think she's got it documented somewhere and will take care of it. We have a small group too, 10 people and she did say you cant have a private reception with this small of a group, and also they dont take reservations anywhere, so im worried about us wandering off after the ceremony trying to find a place to have our family dinner together and we might have to wait like 5 hours, or we wont be able to be seated all at the same table! thats not at all how i imagine it going, its an intimate group for a reason, so of course i'd like us to all be sitting together for dinner! Im so worried about this, but it sounds like they all worked it out for your group. Im just curious how your family made a reservation in the first place if they dont take reservations? Anyways, glad it worked out for you- can't wait to check out your pics.

Hey girls! Sorry for the late review but I just got my AHR done and man am I tired! LOL! Ok,so here goes. I'm sure I will leave some stuff out but I will try to tell ya all the good juicy stuff!  We had our wedding October 26th at Dreams Riviera. We arrived October 24th.

Check in was amazing for us. We walked in and were taken to the Premiere check in upon arrival. They served us with drinks of our choice and checked us in promptly. We had booked the Honeymoon Suite but were upgraded to the Master Suite for our whole stay there and OMG it was amazing! Room 1500...it had the most amazing view and was just beautiful! We planned all our honeymoon package stuff with the lady at check in and made dates and times for everything with no problem. We were then taken to our beautiful room and went and met with everyone at the Seaside Grill to eat. Only two of our guest had to wait for their rooms but they were ready after we ate and everyone was amazed with the resort. It is truly beautiful and breathtaking and we got a million compliments for choosing the place!

I met with Ana on October 25th and we discussed everything for the wedding. I had the free package and only 14 guests so we didn't have too much to talk about. But word of warning...don't take "Ok, Perfect" as an answer! She said that to everything I told her and when it came down to wedding time she had no clue how things were to go. Thank goodness for my great aunt who went down there and told her how to set things up. I had brought my own chair bows, material for the chuppah, programs fans, petal cones, sand ceremony frame, and script. I just gave them to Ana the day before in a suitcase and she had the bellman come up to the room and get my dress, veil, and groom's suit for pressing. They gave my groom his own room the night before and it was just a regular room. We were planning on doing a rehearsal dinner this night but ended up doing the Playa-del-Carmen shopping tour instead. It was fun to get out and check out the city and we got some great buys on some items. I originally wanted to go to Walmart for the flowers but after talking to the cab and hearing that it was going to be $80 just for me and my fiancé to go there and back, we just got some rose petal bags from Ana.

Wedding Day: My family all met at the World Cafe for breakfast and everyone there knew it was my wedding day and were so nice and served us champagne and pineapple juice (which is amazing! We even incorporated it into our AHR when we returned) One of the waiters even made me a cute cricket out of grass for good luck! Then, me and my sis went to the spa at 10. She got an hour massage and I got a Tropical Body Wrap. It was amazing and relaxing but in the hut it kind of sounds like it's raining and I was laying there the whole time stressing out thinking it was raining outside only to realize afterwards that it was part of the music they played. LOL! I then went to my suite and began to get ready. My BFF is a hairstylist so she did hair and makeup and I had all the girls meet me in my room at 3. My dress was delivered at 2:45 and my flowers were delivered at 3:30. My bouquet was AMAZING! It was so beautiful! My groom had a dozen roses delivered around 3 to me which was a great surprise and so sweet! We had Claudia Rodriguez as our photographer and she called at 2:50 saying that Ana didn't have her on the list so she couldn't get in. (again, bad communication) So, Ana took care of it and she was at my room around 3:10. Tropical Storm Richard was suppose to hit the day I got married and I prayed that it would pass. We hadn't had rain all day and then it started to lightly sprinkle. Ana came and asked if I wanted to move the wedding to the balcony because she said it would rain it out. But, it was so clear outside and the dark clouds were all behind us. I was stressing but Claudia said I should go for it and all my girls said if it started to rain, we would just dance in the rain and celebrate so I said let's do it! Ana didn't even start setting up the ceremony till 3:40 and we were suppose to start at 4. We ended up starting around 4:30'ish. We rented the sound system and I brought my Ipod with music. The tech did an amazing job at starting and fading out the songs...it was great. It was very windy that day so the minister had a hard time with her paper that she was reading...it kept flying up and she would have to stop the ceremony to readjust it. So, I would recommend printing your script out on something she could flip or somehow that the wind won't blow it around. She began the ceremony and it wasn't my script! I whispered to my groom but decided to let her keep going. About half way thru, Ana ran up with my script and told her to use it. She began to read it from the beginning! During one of the breaks, I told her to just keep on with her script because it would last too long if she re-did mine. (I felt like we were up there forever!) She said ok and only read the sand portion from my script. I was kinda upset about this because I was so excited about my script and it involved the audience and my parents but oh well...the show must go on. Oh, and we had some people from the beach who wanted to watch the wedding and this one lady in her bikini stood right between me and my groom behind us so Claudia had to run her off! LOL! People just don't realize they will be in your wedding pics! The wedding ended and we had our champagne and pineapple juice. Claudia took some AMAZING pics and I can't wait to receive them! She kept telling us we were blessed because we had a great wind that made my dress and veil flow and there were beautiful clouds in the sky and an amazing sunset!

After the wedding....my family had set up a reservation at Himitsu for 8pm but when we arrived they said they didn't take reservations. So, my cousin went and talked to the manager of the concierge and he apologized and opened up the wine cellar for us free of charge. They allowed us to order from any of the restaurants that were open and we did but service took forever because they had to pull a server from the French restaurant and he wasn't familiar with the Himitsu or Portofino menu so we didn't get all that we had ordered and by the time it all came out, we just ate whatever was handed us and didn't complain. Our cake was to be delivered to the cellar but it wasn't and they took forever trying to find it so I told them just to forget it and let's go. We got in the wine room at 9 and didn't leave till 12...we had planned to party it up but I was so tired and had a headache that me and the hubby just went back to the room to relax.

They ended up delivering our cake the next day while we were at the beach. We came up to see a beautiful cake covered in ants because they had just left it sitting out and somehow the ants crawled all the way to the top floor and found my cake! It was a pretty cake and I’m sure the ants really enjoyed it. LOL! We called maintenance and they cleaned everything up.

Once the wedding was over, I got to relax a little more and actually enjoy my honeymoon. Overall it was a great experience. I was upset about the ceremony script but when it was all said and done, no one really noticed. There is a lack of communication with the wedding coordinator. I'm so thankful that my aunt was there to oversee everything and get things set up the way I wanted them. Another word of advise...I purchased a TON of rose petals because I wanted the walkway covered before I walked down. Well, they waited till right before me and my dad walked down and scattered them out but the wind was blowing so hard that it blew almost all the petals away. So, if you know it's going to be a windy day...just save your money!

I would advise setting up all your honeymoon package has to offer when you get there. The spa day with my hubby was amazing and the romantic dinner on the beach was great (but a little windy). We also got breakfast in bed and champagne and rose petals on several nights! What little things that did mess up, dreams really tried their hardest to fix! I love the resort and we are all planning a return trip next October. It will be so less stressful now that the wedding is behind me! I had a small group and dreams treated me like royalty.

Here is a link to my facebook page with some family shots that we got. As soon as I get pics from Claudia I will share them.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065850&id=1515431708&l=970cfb8ec1

Hope this helps some brides out! Please don’t stress too much...it really all falls in place once you arrive and your guest will be so happy just to be in cancun they won’t realize any mistakes or bumps in the road! Overall everyone had an amazing time...my wedding was exactly what I wanted...and I have memories that will last a lifetime! Enjoy getting married at Dreams Riviera and good luck to everyone! J

Hey girls! It's officially my wedding day and I just got out of my hot tub and I'm getting ready for bed. Dreams has been AMAZING!!!! I will give a full review when I return but I just wanted to let you know that I am having the most amazing time! We've been here two full days and have had nothing but compliments from our guest and amazing service! They have fulfilled everything they promised and even upgraded us to the Master Suite (which is amazing more than words!). My groom is tucked away in his personal room for the night and I am so excited for the morning to get here! It's going to be an amazing day rain or shine and I promise that each of you made the RIGHT choice chosing dreams. We are only doing the free wedding package and they have treated us like kings and queens. I am blown away and me and my guest are already planning our return trip next year!!! Ok girls...jumping off here to catch some zzz's before the big day! I will have a full review when I return!

Goodnight,

The Soon To Be MRS!

Hey fellow brides! I leave Sunday to head to dreams and my wedding is Tuesday. They are calling for Tropical Storm Richard to hit Cancun Tuesday so please keep in on your prayer request that it changes direction this weekend! I really want to have a beautiful day for my wedding! Will let yall know how everything went when I return.

Oh yeah, I told Ana that I wanted to eat my cake in a resturant (because we are having a small ceremony) and it was going to be $15 per person plus tax and gratuity which ended up being like $320 just to have a reservation for the 15 of us. Crazy! I'm going to try and have my dad slip the guy a $100 bill like the past bride said and hope we can get a table together!

Ok ladies...I'm leaving in exactly one week to head to Dreams to have my wedding in 9 days! OH MY! Did anyone ever figure out the whole petal thing? Ana needs to know if I want to purchase rose petals from her and I was wondering if anyone ever went to the local Walmart there and bought roses to use for petals? I am not having a large wedding but I do want the isle covered in petals and I have petal cones for my guest which will run around $330+ just for the bags of rose petals from Dreams. Decisions...decisions

Ok, so does anyone know if you are allowed to take flying wish lanterns and use them on the beach??? I would love to take some and send them off but who knows where they would end up and I wouldn't want to get in trouble

Originally Posted by futureMrs.S 2011 

 

Hi Reaganlane,  

 

I am also planning to get married under the huppa and so I was wondering...Are you taking down material for the huppa because they dont provide any or are you looking for specifics that they dont have?  I asked the WC if they provide decoration for the huppa but I havent heard anything back yet...

I am taking down my own material because they do provide other options for the huppa (besides white...this option is included) but they charge a small fortune just to change the colors of the material on the huppa. So, I am going to take my own material down and have them use it to add a splash of color to the wedding

 

Ok, so I am taking down my own material to put on the huppa. I think tulle is too see thru...does anyone else have any suggestion as to what I should use? My colors are watermelon and tangerine

Ana told me that there would be no outside vendor fee for my photographer because they will only be there 3 hours. I am using Claudia for the wedding and Juan for a TTD a few days later. By purchasing the smaller time packages, neither require a food pass so Ana said I would not have to pay the vendor fee. I hope Gabby keeps Ana's word! I have it in writting so I hope she will!
 

Originally Posted by lilly129 

It depends - if they live nearby and are just coming for the day and leaving, then you have to pay an outside vendor fee.  If they live in Mexico but need a room that night, then you do not pay the fee...but you're paying for your photographers room for one night.  

Wow! Your dresses are amazing! When is your wedding? What decor are you taking down or using?
 

Originally Posted by pbjwed 

regalane,  please let me know if someone does respond. I actually am using the same colors.....  hot pink and orange..  my BM's  dresses are GORGEOUS!!  Ill attach pic!!!

Does anyone remember who the past bride was that recently got married at DRC and her colors were pink and orange and she had pics of the huppa covered in those colors? I've gone back thru the posts and can't seem to find her or any of her posts. I wanted to get her pics to show the coordinator for my setup. Any help would be great!

My TA said that Gabriela wants to have everything final 2 weeks before the wedding. She said that Ana waited till 2 days before when the couples arrived and it was too stressful. She is sending me all the options and I am picking everything out. I am taking alot of my decoratoins down with me also because I think they charge way too much! So, as your date gets closer (probably in the next 2 months) you'll want to talk with the wedding coordinator.
 

Originally Posted by Mkandola 

Hi all (past and future brides),

 

I am a December 2010 bride (21st) and our wedding date is creeping up on us slowly. I haven't tried to get in touch with the wedding coordinators in regards to the nitty details because I have heard that my best option is to bring whatever I can to Mexico, write down everything I want for my wedding day, and they will take care of it once we get there. Is this not the right approach? 

 

In terms of my dealings with Dreams, I have only put down my $500 deposit for the Ultimate wedding package and my wedding date reservation. I am currently scheduled for a 2pm wedding but I have not talked to the coordinators about possible reception options ... should I do this before I arrive? 

 

Is there anything else that I should be doing before I get there? I feel as though this whole process has been a little too easy for me, especially considering what I am reading about other brides. Any help or suggestions are appreciated!! 

 

Thanks and happy planning! 

 

Melissa 

I am registered and excited!

I love your AHR dress!!! Is it super short on you? I'm 6' tall and wonder what the length is

Does anyone know the measurements for the huppa thingy? I am going to bring my own material to use on it. Thanks!

Hey Cathyandchin - will you please email me a copy of your script? [email protected] Thanks!

 

Originally Posted by cathyandchin 

 

Hey Leanne!

 

--We did a symbolic ceremony.  We didn't want to deal with the legalities and blood work.  I put together my script from others' on the forum and googling things.  I can send you a copy if you're interested.

--We bought our sand ceremony frame from amazon.  It's the umbra ether frame in espresso and we caulked the glass panes.  The glass bottles with the sand were about a dollar a piece from Michael's. We didn't get these back

--I'm not sure if we had the equipment for a certain amount of time, he just told us he had to pack up and go at that time.  I've heard that you can keep partying until 11 or 1130.  We were so hot and tired that it didn't matter.  Some of us went to Desires afterwards.

--No rehearsal.  We didn't have a bridal party so it just didn't seem like a priority for us.  In hindsight, I should've told my dad what to say.  But it's better than he fumbled!!

 

Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

[email protected]

I also need fuchsia satin chair sashes...only about 10 so please PM me if you have any for sale!

I am doing this also. Ordered my postcards off vistaprint and went with the larger sized ones. Also made a place for "advice for the newleyweds" and "predictions". I think my guest will love them and I know we will enjoy getting them in the mail. I am also going to be in Mexico so I would like to know what the postage issue is. I was just going to put extra US postage on them since US money is worth more anyways but it would be nice to make sure they get mailed.

if she doesn't purchase them, please let me know! I'll take them!

Hey girls! I'm getting married Oct 26th 2010. Let me know what you have!

Hey there! I am having a small wedding and in need of orange and fuchsia decor...chair sashes and beach arch decor and anything else. Please let me know if you have anything for sale and your asking price.

Thank you!!!

Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 

 

Ana e-mailed me about the orange and pink coverings on the beach thingy instead of white.  She said it would cost $200 USD to change it to be a color.

I think that is crazy! They are going to drape it with white for free but to use something that another bride left and to drape it cost $200? Pretty sure I will bring all my own stuff and have them do it for free! $200 will pay for all my sashes, beach thingy cover in pink and orange, and all my other decor! I just think that is pitiful! We're spending a fortune just to go to the resort! Sorry, had to vent!

BTW...if any brides that go before me are doing pink and orange as their colors...please don't leave your stuff with Ana so she can charge other brides a fortune to use the stuff. Bring it home and sell it to me!