Dreams2011

We didn't bother with the jucuzzi as we were given a non-jacuzzi room upgrade for $70 / night where the jacuzzi upgrade was going to be $160 / night. I really don't think we would have used it more than once maybe anyway and saving the $$ was nicer and still had a beautiful room on the 5th floor with fantastic views!

I was married in January 2011 at Dreams PV and was never charged any additional set up fee for my own decorations (this is the first I've even heard about it). The additional decorations we brought and gave for them to set up were: fake petals to line the ceremony isle; setout guestbook and pen; seashells, napkins, and favor boxes for the reception table; cake topper and cake serving set; podium for MC (resort provided). It wasn't much, but still they never charged us or even mentioned a charge. They really nickel and dime you so can't say I'm surprised......but the fact we were recently married there and not charged I'd question it.

For some reason the same photo was included 2x above...here is the 2nd that should have been there

Here are a few tips from our wedding this past January. Candles: The candles included with the package are very small tea-light holder candles and really not worth the $40 in our opinion. My suggestion would be to see if you can find (either before you leave or down in PV) some inexpensive, nice candles yourself. We did buy some before we left at a dollar store of all places that were really pretty (and $11). They were however glass and a little heavy so we decided to save the space and go with the candles they supply, but if we were to do it again I would have brought the ones from home with us then just left them at the resort when we left to save carrying them home. Napkins: We considered the coloured napkins, but then decided to save the $125 it was going to cost and not bother. Then when I was in the grocery store at home I found some really pretty paper napkins - 60 for $4 - in one of our wedding colours (blue) so we brought these with us and had the coordinator put one at each place setting and the remainder at the cocktail hour...what a savings! Other than our own candles and napkins, we were happy with the rest of the white decor.... personally we liked the white covered chairs better than the Tiffany chairs and didn't have to pay extra. If you have the ultimate wedding package and extra guests over 20 then the price should be around $75 for the cocktail hour and reception and includes the additional table settings. Attached are a couple photos of our table setting (none show the blue napkins very well, but the candles are clearly visible). We also brought some cheap (probably fake) seashells from home...I think we got them at Walmart... to put on the table, as well as some palm tree favour boxes to fill with candies.

It's frustrating I know. Most of the problem is that the resort holds too many weddings per week so the coordinators are run off their feet. Last year they held 250 and this year they are pushing for 300...that's nuts. Good Luck and be persistent!

We finalized our menu about a week before we arrived. The candles are not included. We paid $40 extra for them, however, they are very small, uninteresting candle holders so if you have some space in your luggage I'd suggest finding some cute ones at home and bringing them along. We bought some really nice glass ones just at a dollar store for $11 total, but then decided just to use the resort ones for $40 so we didn't have to carry the extra stuff, but after seeing them we wish we just brought our own (and even left them behind after) as ours were much nicer. Just an idea.

We quite liked the resort photographers. They were very pleasant and accommodating and took good pics. If you really want to spend a ton extra you may get some even better pics, but without spending the extra (we just bought the CD for $500 with all the pics) we were pleased.

Hi Sarah...yes, where do you live in Canada and which travel agency have you gone through? I live in Calgary, Alberta and dealt with Sue at itravel2000 out of Toronto (all via email and telephone)... she was fantastic and very helpful. Let me know if you'd like her personal email and I'll post it. From major airports in Canada there shouldn't be much of a problem getting flights to PV almost year round (ones that I know fly in June are WestJet, CanJet, and Sunwing.... we went with Sunwing as they were the most reasonable for our January 2011 wedding). It will depend however on where you live on what's available (mostly if flying out of smaller airports). Air Canada is usually one of the most expensive of them all.

We didn't have any of the gold menu main courses as we requested more traditional Mexican options instead, however, we did have 5 of the Mexican canapes. We choose the following: Ceviche in Chalupa Gaucamole & salsa with totopas Acapulco shrimp cavishe on tartlets Sopas with Mexican Sausage Chile Popper Boursin cheese canape (this one was not from the Mexican choices, but was really good) These were all super tasty...I liked the last 2 the best from what I remember (I recall others raving about the Boursin cheese as well). The chile poppers were not very hot either if you were worried about that.

We left the deposit on our travel in June as well as providing the resort with the information to charge our credit card for the deposit in June. The remainder of our travel was paid in full in August then the deposit for the wedding was charged 2 weeks or so later.

You aren't raining on anyone's parade in my opinion. Getting married is a huge deal (especially to the bride) and if there are issues then it's important for others to know so they have a heads up and can try to address things preemptively so hopefully they don't have the same issues. I'm sure your wedding will be fabulous! Even with the comedy of errors at our wedding it was still wonderful, beautiful, and full of great memories....now we laugh about the issues and the fact that we saved a chunk of cash on our wedding costs (still would rather it ran more smoothly, but since it didn't we'll take the savings and use it for another honeymoon)!!!!!

I'm glad to here that a few of you are making a stand...good for you! I sure hope Esman is better than Louise. We didn't deal with him much although he was there when we met with Louise. Just an FYI that he is hard to understand (accent is super thick and English is so-so).

For sure...I would rather ours have gone smoothly and paid full price, but since it did not the discount we demanded at least made us feel better. It's your day...don't let anyone get away with messing it up!

Yes, especially if you have emails with quotes say that is the price you want and be firm about it. Not your problem if the old WC gave you prices that have now changed. If that was the cost when you started planning (especially once you've paid your deposit) then that is the price you should pay. I printed off probably 100 pages of emails to bring just in case there was any issues. We had one issue where I asked Louise via email that if we rent DJ, sound system, and dance floor for $850 (as shown in the 2011 price list) does that give us the sound system for the ceremony as well and she wrote back confirming that it did, but when we got there she was oblivious that she had said it was so I said I had the email where she said yes so she included it in that price (I guess it should have been extra for the ceremony time, but too bad...that's what she quoted me so that's what we got). Good luck

Good for you to say something.... your deposit should be a confirmation of the prices as they are at that time. How are you suppose to plan costs when you don't know what prices will be x number of months down the road?? That's ridiculous and bad business practices. Stick to your guns! Good luck!

Gastronomic refers to food of a high quality so its probably just a fancy way of saying they have a new menu.

They do want your business so I'd suggest negotiating the prices. If you don't feel something is worth the increase discuss it with them and see if they'll give you a better price...especially since you started planning in 2010...if they don't have their prices worked out by mid-2010 for 2011 so as to let you know their costs I say that's poor business planning and you shouldn't have to suffer.... give it a try... I always negotiate things and it usually works to some degree!

I know and you would think considering the economy that prices would not have been raised that much, but if more and more people are just going to keep getting married there then they'll just keep raising the prices. Ridiculous I know... We paid 2010 prices for the bridesmaids bouquets, which was $35 each, but would not have paid $55 each (especially for what you get as they aren't very big...but were fine for what we wanted at $35 each). An option, at least for bridesmaid bouquets, is to just order 2 or 3 individual flowers per person then bring some decorate wrap and wrap them yourselves. I believe an individual flower is $9 so 3 / bouquet would be $27 then just a couple $ worth of ribbon and you save $25 / bouquet. This is what we were going to do, but then were offered the 2010 price for the bouquet so paid the little extra to not do the work ourselves, but if we had to pay the $55 we would have. Also, if you want rose petals done the isle, instead of paying $55/ bag for real petals we went to a dollar store and picked some up there to bring in the colours we wanted (paid like $5 total) and did the same for the petals our flower girl dropped as she went along. Also instead of paying over $100 for colour napkins (the white ones however are included) we bought some nice paper napkins in a pretty colour that matched our wedding colours and had them put those at each setting ($6 instead of $125 I think it was going to be). Just some ideas...

Yes, the drinks are all included

Unless they are synthetic of course....was thinking about live flowers.

Not sure about the vases, however, (in case you haven't thought about it) make sure you check to ensure you can bring your flowers from the US into Mexico before you leave.

No kidding aprilmay, they should have made you aware when booking that was the latest (a good thing for future brides to confirm if they want their reception to carry on later)...can't say I'm surprised that they didn't however. We didn't see any that were at the Las Palmas go on very late either. That area is so close to the building that people probably complain like mad as 9 or so nears. If you would like to go till the 10:30 cut off then definitely go beach (and 10:30 is still too early...we could have easily gone till mid-night or later) If you really want to party the night away then an adults only resort probably has a better chance of that, providing there aren't any kids coming that you need to accommodate!

As per the email I received on December 12, 2010 from the Dreams PV spa the cost for Hair Styling is $55 USD and make up is $45 USD.

m1984... I'm not sure about the vendor fee, but as far as makeup goes I had mine done by the same person in the spa that did my hair (Bianca I believe her name was) and it was the best makeup job I've had. I would suggest her unless you really want to go outside. She did a great job of my hair as well...

I agree with autjo... the DJ wasn't that great and we'd hire outside as well. We weren't even going to bother with the DJ but then found out that it would only be an extra $50 for the DJ if we were already renting the sound system and dance floor so went ahead. If we were paying full choke just for the DJ we wouldn't have bothered. He was handy for when it came to starting and stopping the music, but for the amount of times that occurred someone in our group could have easily done. We brought an ipod with our song selections, which he followed for the first dance, father /daughter dance, etc, but then kept playing his own music selections during our dance time (and his choices weren't that good most of the time) so we'd keep asking him to play our music. I wouldn't say that you are getting the resort WC's free, this service is part of the package you pay for (well unless you are getting the free package included with your stay).