coolashellmel

Hello Ladies! 

I was (and still am) a n00b as I never had the time to post much but, I just wanted to go over my wedding at Dreams in case people wanted any insight/opinions.

I got married there 4/16/2011, which was a Saturday. We had a total of 30 guests, all of which stayed at Dreams. I had never been to Dreams before! Yes and I decided to get married there without ever seeing it!  I first started planning back in January of 2010, our coordinator then was Samantha. We set the date, paid the deposit. It was about December of 2010 when Esman took over as our coordinator. This is the first thing I would like to point out- if you want a unique experience, a wedding like no one else’s – don’t get married at Dreams. This is just my opinion. They have a formula, a set up for each location. If you are looking to have a wedding that will be inexpensive, that you won’t have to do that much planning for, and all your friends and family will really enjoy- then come to Dreams. The turn around on the coordinators is so high because they are stressed out! We saw Esman in his office till  9pm every night (when wasn’t at weddings!) He was at ours the entire time too. There was 1 wedding every single day we were there. I know I saw at least 2 in one day as well.

HOTEL: We arrived the Thursday before the wedding. We booked a preferred tower suite with a jacuzzi for the duration of our stay (7 days), also so we could get the free wedding package and add the dinner/cocktail ala cart. While we waited in the preferred tower lobby they told us that we were in the other tower. Turns out they upgraded us to a penthouse suite for our whole stay! The room was two stories with a living room, 2 bathrooms, a tiny pool on the first floor balcony and a Jacuzzi off the second story balcony! Needless to say we spent a lot of time in our room, and so did a lot of our guests. The staff is great there, they are all really happy to be there! One of our guests said the maid told him they make $50 pesos a day, so we tipped a lot during our whole trip (GUILT!) The food at Dreams is good, not amazing but, good. They haven’t quite grasped the dessert concept as all their cakes/donuts/pies/sweets just taste weird. The pools at Dreams weren’t even worth visiting. The adults only pool was filled with older people that would sit in the same spot all day and never leave. The main pool is very loud with a lot of kids screaming. The Terrace pool was the only decent one, and it never had an empty chair either. Why bother with the pools at all? The ocean is AWESOME and warm and always plenty of lounge chairs open. The spa is rinky dinky but I had an awesome wrap! My friend said her massage was the best one she ever had. The salon is not good, my mani/pedi was messed up in less than an hour and they had me sitting in a folding chair the whole time (2 hours!) complete waste of money.

WEDDING COORDINATOR: He seemed really vague and made me feel a worried when we first started.  I was convinced that I needed to be doing so much more but, it wasn’t until I got to Dreams that I realized these people got this down. We met with Esman the Friday before the wedding. We brought our centerpiece stuff to his office and told him how we wanted the tables, where to put the flowers. We signed a contract, and that was it. I mean he didn’t really have anything to show us. There was no tasting of food or looking at flowers. We just crossed our fingers. He kept telling me “You’re so organized!†(which I’m totally not!)

WEDDING DAY! They gave my husband his own room for the day so the groomsmen could all get ready together, at no extra charge. They steamed his suit and my dress and delivered them.  My bouquet and my bridesmaids’ bouquets were delivered as well.  I had a makeup/hair girl so she did everything in my room. The Gazebo looked so perfect, the beach in the background makes it all look amazing! The officiate was a nice looking young lady but, her vows were very long. They had us sign the wedding certificate with a bic pen (I had asked Esman to bring our guest book pen over but, he forgot!) When the ceremony was over, they had 2 servers waiting at the reception with weird pink and blue drinks for everyone. They were really good and no one really expected that! The reception area looked amazing, the centerpieces I had made were dolled up even more by Esman and it really made them look better. We paid for the sound system and that was totally worth it, having a microphone came in handy for the speeches.  The reception food was better than the restaurant food there! We had dessert, then wedding cake which seems weird but, I ate both! Our music was jamming but, I think we should have had drinks served BEFORE the ceremony because no one was dancing and getting into it till 10PM. Then they cut us off at 10:30pm on the dot!

REGRETS: I know the OOT is like a nice thought but, our guests didn’t seem to care about them. If I could go back I wouldn’t have made them. They took too much time and weren’t really worth it.

My flowers were un-impressive. I went with the cheaper ones and I do regret it. I asked for pink roses and white gerber daises and I got some pink, some lilac and ivory/almost yellow gerber daisies! They looked like grocery store bouquets L However no one noticed this but me, my mom especially loved them.

We booked Kirsten from Elizabethl Lloyd photography(www.elfoto.org). We had told Esman that she was our “friend†and he did not charge us to have an outside photographer. But, we didn’t get the one that came with the wedding package either. So I guess that was our compromise. Kirsten arrived with food poisoning from the night before and informed us that she would be leaving after the ceremony and Jillian from Jillian Mitchell photography (www.jillianmitchell.net) would be filling in for the reception. Kirsten was a little too quiet for what we were expecting; she was having trouble directing our loud crowd. I could barely hear her when she was telling me to pose. Jillian is really into action shots, so the reception pictures look totally different and I liked her better. We got the website link after one month and the pictures look great but, all they offered for the double photographers and the long wait was a “free slide showâ€, which we got just last week. And we still haven’t gotten the Disc with the images sent to us. Overall I would not recommend them because I expect more when spending that kind of money.   

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

Walking down the “aisle†to the gazebo random people were walking back from the beach, a guy almost walked right into me! Dreams really needs to block that area off or something. During our reception at the (Las palmas terrace pool area) people kept walking up the stairs to see what was going on. The bathrooms are right below the terrace level, complete with little kids running around dripping wet. Again, should be reserved totally for the occasion!  

OVERALL: I married my dream man and we had a great time, that’s all that matters! We may go back to Dreams sometime but, probably not till we visit some other resorts first. 

@gowiththeflow - We also booked Kiersten for our wedding on 4-16!

So I am still talking with Samantha and wondering if she's just going to be our planner? She has never mentioned just being the group planner. Everyone on here mentions Rebecca- has anyone worked with Samantha for their whole wedding?

I just finally placed my order at Gianinar! I had been waiting and waiting and trying to decide who to go with and I finally picked them. I'm getting this dress  http://www.jennyyoo.com/wedding_alternatives01d.html

It's a fairly simple design so I'm crossing my fingers they have no problem! and the $120 I'm paying is a lot better than the $825 designer one!

I will post pics as soon as I get them!

-Mel

@ Marzm - I log on here everyday too just to check out the new dresses! They are all so lovely ladies!

 

@ Westxgrly - I also couldn't find anything I liked at David's bridal but, just found out Vera Wang will be having 7 or 8 designs sold exclusively there in February! (saw it on Oprah

Sorry to all that are reading this again!  I tried to update this with pictures of my invite but I don't think I have enough posts to do it. Thanks for looking and commenting and being so nice anyway!

DOH! I have to post more before I can read attachments. Thank you though!

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

We got our STDs today! They are pretty nice, the colors were brighter online, but overall I am happy!

 

SO our deposit was charged. It's 100% official.

 

For anyone who had booked when the outside vendor fee was already in place ($500 for 50 people plus $500 deposit, etc), did they charge it? What if we fly our photog in and they are a guest? I know we have all discussed thes ad nauseum....but it seems most brides who recently brought someone in booked before that rule was in set in stone, so the fee got waived. We are just trying to figure out what is most economical (as far as not using the resort's photog).

 

Anyone have any exciting news of their own?

I am also looking for an outside-vendor photographer and trying to figure this out! If the photographer is an invited guest but, doesn't stay at our hotel, then we have to pay a non-hotel guest fee, right?
 

For all those that loved our STD here is the front of our Invite!

Made in the same style- this is a real pic of our cats- Batman and Nibbler (brother and sister!)

Thanks for all the kind comments! I love this forum

*I've tried to post this a couple of times- sorry if it keeps showing up!

For all those wonderful people that loved our STD- here is the cover of our Invite!

This was made in the same way as the STD, using a real picture of our cats, Batman and Nibbler (they are brother and sister!) I did end up going with the tri-fold, with a perforated RSVP card and it turned out great. Everyone kept raving about how easy it was to tear off the postcard and less wasteful than a regular invite. Thankfully we didn't have to pay to print these either! So total cost for our STD's and Invites = less than $60 (all postage!)

Thanks for all the kind comments, Congrats on all your engagements ladies!

Thank you ladies, I am being impatient but, I was under the impression that I needed to do much more planning wise. I guess this is what the resort coordinator is for! And just another reason why doing a destination wedding was a good idea!

This was in May,that she said I should get back to her in August- So I've been waiting... and I'm impatient!

Hey ladies! I'm booked at Dreams PV for April 16, 2011 so I figured I would need to do some sort of planning now. When I talked with Samantha she said it was too soon and I should get back with her in August... doesn't that seem a little odd? I know they do tons of weddings but, my invites are out and people are starting to book and we haven't done anything except pick a place (gazebo, las palmas terrace) and time! I feel like I should be doing more. Should I go over her head and talk with Rebecca?

Thanks so much to the girls who posted pics of the gazebo and beach wedding set up. I've been trying to decide! I think we're going to go gazebo.

I want to do seafoam green, pink, gray, black and white!

Do you think it's too many colors? I really love the seafoam green and pink (FI actually likes it too!) but, its so hard to find things that are truly seafoam and not mint, and I really like the way the gray looks with them, then white and black made sense... someone stop me before I continue adding colors..

Hey all,

Anyone know of a place that has BM dresses in a seafoam green color? Even if they aren't real BM dresses it may work. I wanted those convertible ones but, all my ladies have very large busts and I'm thinking those may not be too supportive.

I had this vision for my wedding colors, now I am having a hard time finding things in them! (grey, black, seafoam green, and light pink) DOH!

Hello Ladies! I found this thread after looking at lightinthebox.com for a dress. They have a great selection but, I haven't seen much of the dresses IRL. Since all the great reviews for gianiar bridal, I decided to email them, just to get a quote for some of the dresses they already had on their site. SO CHEAP! I haven't decided what I want yet but, they seem like decent quality. Has anyone gotten the "fabric samples" they advertise? After reading about the poly satin/taffeta being hot and some not shiny and all that; I'm thinking I should check out the fabric first.

I'm a 2011 bride too! April 16, 2011 at Dreams in PV!

whoops! just realized I probably should of posted this in the DIY forum, sorry mods!

After looking at lots of STD's and invites, I knew what I didn't want but, couldn't figure out what I really wanted! We were running out of time (wanted to send them 1 year in advanced), so my fiancé and I being the hip-artsy types we are(but, I’m not an artist! I can’t stress that enough!) I just couldn’t see us doing anything embossed and wordy. I wanted something simple and a little more “usâ€. We are both huge fans of comic art and wanted to try to achieve that in our STDs.

I checked out you tube for “cartoon tutorials†and basically taught myself how to use a photograph in Photoshop, and trace over it to create a cartoon. There are several ways of doing this, I did the not-so-perfect way because I liked the way it looked better. Then with the magic of layers, my fiancé made the original photo disappear and made the background striped with our wedding colors (I didn’t really know how to do that). We downloaded “futuristic†fonts from dafont.com, and used those as our wording. The little drunk Mexican guy on my fiancés shirt is actually the letter K from some random font we found on this site! If you are making your own STDs/Invites I highly recommend checking them out!

The finished postcard is 4x6 with color on the front, and just b/w text on the back with the date again, where we’re having it, and a space to write the addresses. The fiancé has a print shop owner friend so he printed them for us for FREE! Our STD’s cost us 1 hour of labor and $0.00! (well, not including the postage Here is the front!

The only negative feedback I’ve gotten so far is that my fiancé “looks like Santa†(He’s blond!) and that I “look like a zombieâ€. HAHA! Whatever, can’t please everyone! I think they look great! Although my nose looks a bit weird and we have no pupils…

I am going to do our invitations the same way, so we have a theme. I was thinking of having those be long and skinny with a tri-fold, the response card could actually be attached at the bottom with a perforation, so then people could tear it off then mail it. Does that seem cheesy to anyone? I would LOVE some feedback!

PS. Everyone is really great on this forum!

March 2010

April 2010

*Bethany68 (Beth) ~ April 17, 2010

Staying ?

May 2010

*Future Mrs. Griffith (Jessica) ~ May 14, 2010

Staying 5/11-5/21

*KarenM – May 29, 2010

Staying 5/24-6/2

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

*mercypharmd ~ October 15, 2010

*Tiffaneyh ~ Oct 21, 2010

November 2010

*cdvecera (Crystal) ~ November 4, 2010

*AprilMay (April) ~ November 16,2010

Staying - Nov. 6-20?

*Simplnsweet (Jennifer) ~ November 17, 2010

*JenDen ~ November 22, 2010

*racer320 (Merv & Joy) ~ November 26, 2010

Staying

December 2010

*marcia18stein - Dec 21, 2010

~2011~

January 2011

*January2011bride

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

~*coolashellmel - April 16th, 2011!~

May 2011

*Rus - May 28th, 2011

Thanks Everyone!

Hi all!

My name is Mel, I live in Los Angeles

Getting married 4-16-2011

Dreams in Puerto Vallarta

I joined because I'm not really the best at planning things and this forum has already helped me so much!

I designed and printed my own STD's and hope to post them on here soon!

Thanks!