WPGBride

Thank you so much. The song is by Laura Jansen, it was also our first dance song. The hotel does the slideshow for you for no extra cost and gives you the link to it to share with friends and family.

The hotel itself is great, there's no doubt about that. It's just I think the communication with the Wedding Coordinator that is rocky and therefore stuff gets lost in translation. I don't know if it could be because I was young that I was not listened to very well but I felt that much of what I wanted and expected was tossed to the side. If you feel that you have good communication with your wedding coordinator and she fully understands what you want and expect I would stay with this hotel. If not I would at least try to get that solid communication going and express in an email how you are feeling and then decide from there. It is a shame that things I said I did want and didn't want were blatently ignored, but like I said maybe it was my age and that I was not firm enough. However, that should not matter. If I could do it over again I would spend more time emailing the wedding coordinator and spending more time with her when I got there to make sure everything will be how I want it, and have pictures of exactly what I want and make sure she understands completly

The resort does provide shuttles to Playa del Carmen and Cancun for shopping trips and they are like mon wed fri for one and tues thurs for the other. They have several departure times for these days as well. I'm pretty sure it was like $15 for this shuttle, which is a bargain because taxis were very expensive. However though they did not go into the night, maybe stopped around dinner time.

The slideshow comes free of charge and its just an online link that you can share with friends and family afterwards. They will ask you what song and let you view it before they finish it off so that it is how you want it. The video that I got with my ultimate package was quite disappointing. There was no sound at all, they just played songs (their choices) over everything. They also have like a minute intro on the DVD of the Dreams hotel branding. I would ask them to take that off, absolutly no branding, and that you would like to actually hear what people have to say during the video. As well if you can to choose any music if you like. The video was also poorly edited, using amature skills such as checker fading and other cheesey techniques that anyone could use. We were not involved in any of the video editing process. The video, only 30 minutes long was not all on 1 disc. They split it and it was in 2 parts, and just before we kiss ! So I would also ask to have the video on one disc. I know the ultimate package includes a videographer so I don't know if this is why the quality was low. I would hope the quality would improve if you paid for extra video.

We had 20 guests and with one long table. I anticipated that the table wouldn't take up as much room as it did, so we did not have a dance floor. No problem though because after all of the courses and speaches our time was nearly up anyways. We all just went to Desires lounge and tore up the dancefloor! I did see a set up at Seaside Grill with round table around the perimeter of the restaurant and this allowed for an adequate sized dancefloor in the middle. We did not use a DJ. We made a playlist prior to leaving for Mexico on our Ipod and labeled special songs (ex. 'first dance' 'cutting cake' etc) The technician that comes with the sound system knew when to fade in and out for speaches and cake cutting etc. If your confident in your music choices I would just get the sound system and let the technician play it. No need to pay that ridiculous cost for a DJ. It's funny you brought up chair bows because I did bring down ribbon and it was on some ceremony chairs and totally forgot that it would be in the reception. But from what Gina told me they just use the furniture at the Seaside Grill because it is more convenient and they have no where else to put the furniture. So by looking at the back of the chair I don't know how you would tie a bow to it. I would just double check that you can't bring in the ceremony chairs you want before purchasing the bows. I also think that they stacked the unused furniture along the sides of the resturant so that is something to ask to if you dont want chairs scattered about.

Customs never looked in my bag. It just went through the xray conveyor belt. When you get to Mexico though you have to press this button (decides who randomly to search) I didn't get chosen to be searched but if you do hit it and it turns green they will go through your suitcase and carry on. However, I don't think that they would question fake silk flowers.

I put them in my carry on and was a bit worried, but once we got to our room they were fine. I just rearranged any flowers stems that might have been pushed to the side. So they were fine I wouldn't worry about it at all !

Hmm suprisingly I don't have any good pictures of the reception at Seaside Grill that show off the space, which is not too suprising since I wasn't satisfied with my table set up anyways. This is the best I could find. If any of my guests have one I'll put it up when I get it.

I am pretty sure that they can supply material for the gazebo you just need to know ahead of time what colour, and I think they have a limited selection and they have to order it in. They do have round tablesI think they sat 5, I did not use the round tables since I had my reception in the Seaside Grill I just used there square tables. They do supply white coverings for chairs if you ask. The wind is pretty crazy! I didn't even get to wear my sunhat the whole trip! I agree with you that the prices for guests to eat is crazy thats why we were hoping to be under or around the 20 mark. Especially after the wedding we spent so much money on off resort activities that we wanted to do and that added up quickly

Yes my bouquet was silk. I got it from a store in my city, House of Silk for like $40. The peonies would have been way to expensive to get down in Mexico. The music technician that comes with the sound system was great. All you had to do was have songs labelled on your ipod for certain things and he would cut in and out at the appropriate times no issues. We also had him for our reception and he knew when to cut out for speaches and such so there is really no worrying about the music if you make a great playlist on your ipod and label your songs for special things such as "first dance" "cake cutting" etc. The sound system was adequate very loud and good sound, no issues with it at all.

The presidential suite is 2885 sq/ft heres where it describes it on the website. ( http://www.dreamsresorts.com/drerc/preferred-rooms.html ) The room has 1 half bath and one full bath. A dining room that I think seats 8 and a living room with two sofas and a flat screen tv. The kitchen has bar seating and a full sized fridge stocked with premium sodas, waters, and little bottles of alcohol, there is also a microwave. The bathroom has a large vanity and a very large circular jacuzzi tub, a bigger shower than the regular suites and double sinks. The water closet has a toilet and a beday (spelling) there is a walk in closet with his and hers sides. The master is large (the photo on the website) it has a couch and seperate sitting table. The deck has 2 luxury lawn chairs, a patio set for 4 and a large jacuzzi tub. There are two walk out stairs to the beach and for mine the Barracuda bar was 4 ft from the bottom of the staircase. On the other side of the deck there is a very large plunge pool and then a couple more chairs for seating facing the ocean. The stay in the suite was amazing, it was just a shame that we didn't have any of our guests still there to entertain them in there. I asked how much it was a night and I was told that it depends on season and they don't really rent it out (it could be a time share) but if they do it is about $800 a night.

I walked down the aisle to ave maria the Beyonce instrumental version.

I dont have any really clear photos of my dress but here are a couple. It is Alma by Pronovias

Thanks so much I had the resort do my hair and makeup. She did my hair well based on the picture that I had, she spoke little english so it was hard to get across the changes that I wanted, but overall the hair was good. The makeup however I did not have a picture and told her just a light smokey eye and she made me look like a barbie doll, so I just said thank you tipped her and fixed my makeup myself in my own room the way I like it. I did bring some of my own makeup because I felt she might not have my skin tone and colours I liked. They also are not the most sanitary when it comes to makeup, the brushes might have been cleaned but she just dipped them back in the makeup after putting them on my face. So if your one of those people who cares about hygiene I would bring your own makeup. I used Anel from the resort photo centre as recommended on here. She was great to work with lots of good shots. I got shots for the whole ceremony and of our guests and us. I think in total an hour. I'm not sure if it was cut short or not by me passing out from the heat in my dress or not. It was really hot like 38C Haha ya I wanted to cry so much while walking but I held it in because I knew once I let it go I wouldn't be able to stop and maybe my makeup would run. A few people cried, I know my mom definatly did and a friend. You will probably while walking down the aisle, I think thats a for sure!

It might be private but during my stay at the resort I found that the resort staff were very reluctant to quiet down rowdy guests. There was even one ceremony that was going on and drunken men were screaming and yelling during the ceremony and once it ended walked through the guests in their wet bathing suits to get to the beach bar. And the hotel staff did not say anything to them or redirect them to go in a different direction. If it is a nice day out aI can say that people will be walking around poolside and in swimsuits and possibly even in that pool. We did not have to pay extra for the Seaside Grill because of the location confusion. She just had to make sure that the resturant would be closed that night and available to use. I'm not sure about how private the beach is for a ceremony as I dont think I saw any receptions there. It was extremely windy the whole time I was there and the wind did not die down at night. Questions are no problem This is the pool terrace where all the circus event stuff is set up. Sorry I cant find my picture of a wedding that was set up at the time.

A couple photos from my TTD session with Anel from Dreams Riviera Resorts. Please forgive the ample boobage, those puppies did not want to stay in my dress the whole shoot with my dress being weighed down from the water.

Here is my wedding slideshow! http://web.mac.com/vallarta_adventure2/SlideshowsDRERC/MARKOWSKIWED/

My suggestion would be to be ontop of everything before you leave for Mexico. At the time of planning I was in school full time and held a full time job as well as prepping our house to be put on the market for when we leave. Just way to much going on! but I felt reassured by hearing that everything would be fine from other brides and that a lot of everything you can plan down there as well as having the coordinator assure me the same thing. However I also think it would help to be firm and clear on what you expect and to double check that they understand what it is you want. I originally wanted my reception on the pool deck which I think is the best place to have it, the pool terrace is not private at all from guests and if you have your reception earlier on that means that people will be walking around in and out of the pool since it does not close till 8:00pm. However Seaside Grill was a great place to hold the reception, very private and a bit more sheltered from the wind. As well the washrooms were close by for the guests to access. What are your locations that you have chosen ?

I looked online since I keep forgetting to check my dress but it says that it is Torino Taffeta. As for how they did it, when I spoke with Gina she said they put it in a big closet type thing and I guess that would be steaming it, and they don't have any handheld steamers. At the time of when I told Gina about this she was just concerned about rushing me out of the room to stay on scheduale and really had no answers to my questions and was definatly not comforting me in any way, just concerend about staying on scheduale.

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them. I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony. The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day. Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days. We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling. We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us. We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long. After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

We did our trash the dress in the morning because there are very little people up and about at that time and the light is nice. However, not the day after the wedding. We just picked a day while we were still at the resort and got dressed up again to trash the dress. It was a great experience and wonderful photos.

Hi ladies, Well I'm still on vacation at the hotel and probably shouldn't be online during our honeymoon, but we've had a lot of down time. The weather was great up until 3 days ago and then it started raining everyday and always overcast. It hasn't stopped us from doing our activities but more reluctant to hang out pool/beach side. I will give a full review of the hotel and wedding day when I get back. My wedding day did not go as smoothly or as planned as everyone else's unfortunatly, I don't want to scare anyone because it seems like my experience is one that does not happen often. Good luck to all the upcoming weddings and congratulations to all the brides who have already been married.

Leaving today! Getting married on the 10th, wont be back till the 21 and then I'll give a review

Do you get to pick your own music for the slideshow or do they have choices that you pick from?

Okay I sent you a friend request, my facebook name is, Ferris Foster. I think I leave on the 19 or 20. haha can't you tell I'm soo organized. Which day is your wedding? Because we can meet up before or after whichever you prefer.