cmi1205

Originally Posted by JustNoelle 

 

 

Beautiful pics!!! You look gorgeous and both of you look sooo happy. I'm am glad you enjoyed yourself. Did you choose the ballroom or did it rain so you had to move?

Thank you! No it was the only day that it rained ALL day! The rain only stopped for a couple hours, thank goodness long enough for us to at least have our ceremony on the beach.

TTD

TTD

Sorry for taking so long to post some pics but I am a teacher and have been super busy! I was disappointed with my slideshows that did not include all of my pics. But I will make sure to post pics from our reception and TTD-which we loved!!

Sorry for taking so long to post some pics but I am a teacher and have been super busy! I was disappointed with my slideshows that did not include all of my pics. But I will make sure to post pics from our reception and TTD-which we loved!!

Hi Ladies! We just got back from our wedding on Sunday and although it RAINED ALL day, (the only day it did for that matter) it stopped long enough for our beach ceremony and our reception was moved to the ballroom...it was still AMAZING!!! Lorena let us know last minute, day before wedding that she had a family emergency and had to leave town so therefore would have to leave Gina in charge and I have to say, despite some minor details that were omitted or forgotten in the stress over weather, Gina and Jorge made everything way better than we could have expected! I guess they felt bad, they threw in a few lighting and decor perks and "Mr. Awesome Mauricio" threw in the dance floor as a wedding gift and after seeing nearly all of our 50guests + bartenders and even coordinator Jorge dancing on the sidelines we knew it would be memorable! Mauricio exceeded our expectations with music and even videotaped moments when all of our guests were dancing all over the ballroom! What can I say about Anel, my goodness the girl is good! We only had the 50 photos included in our package plus we did the TTD session with her since a family friend/guest covered most of our other photography. We got 2 photo books and they are beautiful!

I will give a full review soon and post our slideshows just had to let you all know, the resort was awesome, food was magnificent and service was exceptional! Needless to say, all of our guests paid about $1300 per person for only 4 days and they said it was well worth every penny!

Cynthia 

We leave for Mexico in 4 days!!! I'm so overwhelmed I am looking forward to a stiff drink on the beach!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a detailed review! We chose Mauricio and I haven't heard from him and we leave in a few days!

Originally Posted by msykes 

 

Hello future Dreams brides! This has taken me longer than expected but I'll give a quick overview and then send my full review in a few days.

 

I just got married on January 28th, 2013 at Dreams and it was an absolutely amazing wedding day and week! My coordinator was Gina (excellent service and organization). We had a large number of guests travel to Mexico with us (89) so hopefully I'll have some insights to share for those of you who are planning for a large group. It's definitely costly but there are some ways around things!

 

Our wedding day flowed as follows:

 

10:00 am - 11:30 am: Myself and 5 of my bridesmaids had our hair done at the salon and everyone was very happy with their hair. I got a trial two days before but it definitely wasn't necessary. I had a wedding make-up video done at home and we all followed that on the day of the wedding to do our make-up

 

3:00 pm: Wedding ceremony on the North Beach - this location was definitely more private than the gazebo on the south beach BUT there were still a lot of random people laying/standing around watching our ceremony. It's just the way it goes down there so I tried not to let it bother me.

 

6:00 pm to 7:00pm: We reserved a table at the buffet restaurant and they just asked that we tip them well...so we tipped the manager $500 and then our guests all left some tips on the table. This is where we saved a lot of money because if we had made a reservation for all 89 people at $15/person it would have cost a lot more!

 

7:00 pm till 10:00 pm: Reception (just a few speeches and dancing)...our DJ was Jorge and he was fantastic!

 

We brought out own photographer down with us just because she is one of my good friends and I also opted to have silk flowers made at home and brought them down with us too.

 

I have more details to share so I will post a more complete thread in a few days...feel free to send my any questions in the meantime.

 

I've attached a few pictures that our guests took. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to read your review! That's the biggest group I've heard of on here! Congrats, your pics looks great! I love the idea of having the guests around you instead of behind you

Originally Posted by EmilyT 

 

AH i am leaving in one week for DRC and I forgot a few small details LOL

 

1- i didnt get anything for my sand ceremony..... am i supposed to and where can i do this quick and cheap ??

 

2- i never got a pillow for my ring boy!! ( going to look in a local store )

 

3- I didnt put photos on a CD yet for my slideshow, but i am still not sure if i just bring the photos and dreams puts it together, or i bring them on a CD. . . still not sure...

 

it is getting to the point where if it is not done- its not happening LOL i cant wait to be in that pool not caring about any of this!!!!!!!!!  LOL

Emily! Oh my how time flies! We'll be there in about 3 weeks! So excited! If there is a Michael's or Hobby Lobby in your neck of the woods, try them, they usually have 40% coupons online

I am also using a large seashell I found at the same Michael's and filling with sand to hold our rings. Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by Rach0636 

 

Finally got my slideshow back. For some reason, they combined the wedding photos and the trash the dress into one...

 

http://280113wahl.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/#/wahl1/

Another beautiful ceremony! Congratulations! May I ask where you found your TTD?

Originally Posted by ashley822 

 

Hey girls! We just got our slideshow link from Adventure Photos! I know some people have been asking about other photographers with Adventure (other than Anel) and I wanted to share our slideshow because we had Francisco as our photographer. He was awesome, really nice, and I think the pics turned out great - even though it rained as our ceremony was supposed to be starting!

 

Here's the link: http://100113papp.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

I know I was curious while we were waiting for our photos so in case anyone else wants to know about timing...we didn't have time to go through and choose our photos while we were there because they told us it would take a few hours and we couldn't fit it it. So after we got home, they sent us a link about 1 1/2 weeks after our wedding date. From there, we sent in the selection and had our slideshow 4 days later. They said our CD will be here within 2 weeks and the photo book within 6 weeks

 

Our locations in the slideshow are the North Beach (ceremony), terrace outside entrance of Desires (cocktail hour), and Seaside Grill (reception). 

Beautiful pics Ashley! Congratulations! loved your dress!

Originally Posted by Savs1027 

 

I also forgot to add that if you add me on facebook there is an album that I uploaded all of our pictures from our regular camera so you can see some of the restaurants, the rooms, the lobby, etc.  I know that might help some of you decide on locations for things. 

I love the lanterns hanging on the poles! Did you bring these or get them from the resort? If from resort, can you give me an idea of cost for all of those?

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Savs1027 

 

Thanks!! Yup, in Houston!! Where in Houston are you?? 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your review! Sooo helpful! We live on the south side, near Pearland.

Originally Posted by Savs1027 

 

Ok ladies!!! 

Here is my slideshow!! 

http://171212ryan.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx

 

Once I get all of the pictures Anel took uploaded to facebook I will make it public and post the link for y'all to see everything. Seriously, this slideshow doesn't do everything justice! I will write a full review very very soon. I'm still overwhelmed with unpacking and getting everything back in order from the holidays! 

 

I am planning on selling the table covers and chair sashes if teal is any of your colors. There are 40 chair sashes and 6 table overlays. If you are interested let me know and i'll let you know the price. 

 

I also left all the pink lanterns at the resort because I didn't feel like wrapping them back up and packing them. So, if any of y'all are interested in using them, they are there for anyones use! There are 25 of them! 

 

If you have any questions before I write my review just let me know  

Beautiful!! I would've never known there were hiccups!

Originally Posted by Savs1027 

 

Before I recap everything, I wanted to share the blog post I wrote on our OOT bags! Lots of pictures and details about where I got everything!! All of our guests loved them and actually used everything in them! 

 

http://www.savanahsmiles.com/2012/12/wedding-wednesday-welcome-to-mexico.html

I loved your blog and OOT bags! Just noticed you are from Houston too! Congrats!

Originally Posted by EmilyT 

 

are there any march brides out there ? i am getting married march 1st and i went from stressing to not stressing, and now back to stressing. with the holidays here now and the hurricane here in ny i feel like i lost a lot of valuable time with planning and its really catching up to me.

 

i am not even sure what exactly should be my main focus now and im starting to panic i emailed lorena 3 weeks ago and have not heard back lol i feel like i started out very organized and now im a lost puppy lol i am grateful for the positive reviews however because i am trying to follow your advice of not stressing LOL thanx girls

Emily,

We get married March 12th! I think I'm the only bride crazy enough to get married during Spring Break! Trips were obviously pricey but we still have about 70 ppl coming! I'm the same way, on the roller coaster of calm & stress. I haven't heard from Lorena in months but keeping myself busy with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. We still have a lot to do and it seems like time is flying! How long will you be there?

Originally Posted by ahall5665 

 

My hubby and I were married November 8^th at Dreams Riviera Cancun, we had 30 guests and this resort was perfect! The resort is beautiful and exactly what we were looking forward. The grounds were nicely kept and the service and food we excellent. The beach was beautiful, its great for long walks, a few of our guests even walked to Puerto Morelos to do some shopping which was about 40 min walk each way. Every night the lobby had live music which all of our guests enjoyed, several nights we went to Desires Lounge which wasnt too exciting but we made it fun. All of the restaurants were great and so was the room service which we used on several occasions.

 

We used Olympus Tours for our guest’s airport transfers and our travel agent prearranged them all beforehand. I definitely recommend doing this as some of our guests had never traveled out of the country and it made their transition to the resort very simple. Olympus was on time and professional.

 

My husband and I had private check in since we booked the Honeymoon Suite…the rest of our guests checked in through the lobby counter and none of them seemed to have any issues. Even though the resort was almost completely full majority of people’s rooms were ready upon check in. Most of our guests booked oceanview rooms, which was definitely worth the upgrade IF the location of the oceanview room is good. A few guests were unhappy with the location of their room and they were quickly changed to a room that provided a better oceanview. The resort was very accommodating to this. The rooms are very nice and all of our guests complimented on our nice and clean they were. We booked the honeymoon suite for ourselves as we wanted to be oceanfront and hoped to get upgraded to the next lever (master suite) for free as most wedding couples do. The honeymoon suite was nice, had a great oceanfront view. After a few days we got upgraded to the master suite which was wonderful and really big. It was perfect for me and all my bridesmaids to get ready in!

 

My hair was done by my sister, shes a hair stylist, but my bridesmaids had their hair done at the resort salon and most of them were happy with it although they used a little too much hairspray. I hired Fernado Fuentes to do my make up, he was recommended on this site. I was worried about having the resort salon do my make up so I gave my hair/makeup included in the ultimate package to my mom which she loved! Fernado was great to work with, he’s a little expensive but it was worth it.

 

We got the Ultimate Package as it made the most sense for us. Lorena our wedding coordinator for the most part was great to work with. We met her for the first time on our site visit in April and although email responses often took a while once we got there for the wedding we were able to meet with her and discuss all the details. We bought our own chair bows and tablecloths as well as some other decorations and gave them all to Lorena, there was no extra charge for them putting these out. Even though they generally don’t allow different style chairs at Seaside Grill for our reception they made an exception and let us have the white garden style chairs which I was extremely happy with! Lorena was great on the wedding day and made sure everything was flawless. We were extremely happy with how everything turned out, it was better than I could of ever imagined!  

 

We had our ceremony on North Beach at 3:30pm as recommend by Anel our photographer as this would provide the best sunlight for pictures. To future brides getting married this time of year, I would recommend doing the ceremony maybe at 3-3:15 instead just to ensure you have enough sunlight and don’t feel rushed, we sort of felt we had to hurry to get all our pictures before it got dark.  Overall Anel was great to work with except she was late getting to my room and then never made it to my husbands room to get pictures of him and his groomsman getting ready, which I had discussed with her before hand and told her we definitely wanted. We are pretty disappointed about this. She also didn’t get any pictures of our ceremony set up until guests were there and all seated, which I would of liked to have. During the wedding she was good to work with and got any pictures we asked for. We got photo package 4…we wanted to do the TTD included with this package a different day than the wedding day which she was very accommodating about! We honeymooned at Zoetry and Anel recommended doing our TTD there as the resort would be a change of scenery. The beach at the Zoetry had TONS of seaweed, the sand by the water was covered and tons of it in the water to the point we didn’t even want to go in the water. But the rest of the sand was beautiful so we took most of the pictures there. Anel did a great job of taking the pictures so the seaweed wasn’t in the pictures. The only thing I wish Anel would of gotten more close up pictures of my husband and I, they are all pretty far away. But I am hoping once we get the cd with the images we can crop them to be a closer up.

 

We used the videographer included with the ultimate package, after hearing some bad reviews of the quality we decided to upgrade the video to HD for about $300. We haven’t gotten our video yet so can’t review the quality.

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi which was perfect, everyone loved the food and the mariachi band! We missed 90% of it as we were busy taking pictures.

 

Our reception was at 6:30pm at the Seaside Grill and we paid an extra $15 pp to extend it an extra hour which my husband didn’t want to do before the wedding but afterward he is SO happy I talked him into it. It was totally worth the extra money, we were having the best time ever and would have been disappointed to have it end at 9:30pm. The Seaside Grill in my opinion is the best location to hold the reception…its covered but still open air so you get a nice breeze but its not too windy.  We weren’t too hot or too cold it was perfect all night! It was a good size for the amount of people we had (32 with my husband and I) but could definitely accommodate a larger group as well. We didn’t pay any extra for having the reception at Seaside Grill. We choose to do the buffet as it offered the best variety of food and would be quicker than a sit down dinner. Everyone complimented on how great the food was! We picked the Caribbean Buffet and made a few changes which was no problem and it turned out great. The wait staff at the reception were excellent!

 

We used the DJ at the resort and he was great! He did our ceremony as well as reception and did a fabulous job. He played the songs we wanted and also made sure not to play the ones I didn’t want. He kept the party going all night it was great! Everything about the reception was perfect, we have a bit of a rowdy crowd of friends and everyone danced the night away. After the reception we all went to Desires Lounge and kept the party going which was a lot of fun!

 

Overall the wedding day was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of and the wedding team at Dreams really made everything perfect! I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone and we will be going back for sure!

 

Below is our slideshow!

 

http://081112carter.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

Beautiful! Thanks for all the details and helpful info.! Congrats

Originally Posted by ahall5665 

 

My hubby and I were married November 8^th at Dreams Riviera Cancun, we had 30 guests and this resort was perfect! The resort is beautiful and exactly what we were looking forward. The grounds were nicely kept and the service and food we excellent. The beach was beautiful, its great for long walks, a few of our guests even walked to Puerto Morelos to do some shopping which was about 40 min walk each way. Every night the lobby had live music which all of our guests enjoyed, several nights we went to Desires Lounge which wasnt too exciting but we made it fun. All of the restaurants were great and so was the room service which we used on several occasions.

 

We used Olympus Tours for our guest’s airport transfers and our travel agent prearranged them all beforehand. I definitely recommend doing this as some of our guests had never traveled out of the country and it made their transition to the resort very simple. Olympus was on time and professional.

 

My husband and I had private check in since we booked the Honeymoon Suite…the rest of our guests checked in through the lobby counter and none of them seemed to have any issues. Even though the resort was almost completely full majority of people’s rooms were ready upon check in. Most of our guests booked oceanview rooms, which was definitely worth the upgrade IF the location of the oceanview room is good. A few guests were unhappy with the location of their room and they were quickly changed to a room that provided a better oceanview. The resort was very accommodating to this. The rooms are very nice and all of our guests complimented on our nice and clean they were. We booked the honeymoon suite for ourselves as we wanted to be oceanfront and hoped to get upgraded to the next lever (master suite) for free as most wedding couples do. The honeymoon suite was nice, had a great oceanfront view. After a few days we got upgraded to the master suite which was wonderful and really big. It was perfect for me and all my bridesmaids to get ready in!

 

My hair was done by my sister, shes a hair stylist, but my bridesmaids had their hair done at the resort salon and most of them were happy with it although they used a little too much hairspray. I hired Fernado Fuentes to do my make up, he was recommended on this site. I was worried about having the resort salon do my make up so I gave my hair/makeup included in the ultimate package to my mom which she loved! Fernado was great to work with, he’s a little expensive but it was worth it.

 

We got the Ultimate Package as it made the most sense for us. Lorena our wedding coordinator for the most part was great to work with. We met her for the first time on our site visit in April and although email responses often took a while once we got there for the wedding we were able to meet with her and discuss all the details. We bought our own chair bows and tablecloths as well as some other decorations and gave them all to Lorena, there was no extra charge for them putting these out. Even though they generally don’t allow different style chairs at Seaside Grill for our reception they made an exception and let us have the white garden style chairs which I was extremely happy with! Lorena was great on the wedding day and made sure everything was flawless. We were extremely happy with how everything turned out, it was better than I could of ever imagined!  

 

We had our ceremony on North Beach at 3:30pm as recommend by Anel our photographer as this would provide the best sunlight for pictures. To future brides getting married this time of year, I would recommend doing the ceremony maybe at 3-3:15 instead just to ensure you have enough sunlight and don’t feel rushed, we sort of felt we had to hurry to get all our pictures before it got dark.  Overall Anel was great to work with except she was late getting to my room and then never made it to my husbands room to get pictures of him and his groomsman getting ready, which I had discussed with her before hand and told her we definitely wanted. We are pretty disappointed about this. She also didn’t get any pictures of our ceremony set up until guests were there and all seated, which I would of liked to have. During the wedding she was good to work with and got any pictures we asked for. We got photo package 4…we wanted to do the TTD included with this package a different day than the wedding day which she was very accommodating about! We honeymooned at Zoetry and Anel recommended doing our TTD there as the resort would be a change of scenery. The beach at the Zoetry had TONS of seaweed, the sand by the water was covered and tons of it in the water to the point we didn’t even want to go in the water. But the rest of the sand was beautiful so we took most of the pictures there. Anel did a great job of taking the pictures so the seaweed wasn’t in the pictures. The only thing I wish Anel would of gotten more close up pictures of my husband and I, they are all pretty far away. But I am hoping once we get the cd with the images we can crop them to be a closer up.

 

We used the videographer included with the ultimate package, after hearing some bad reviews of the quality we decided to upgrade the video to HD for about $300. We haven’t gotten our video yet so can’t review the quality.

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi which was perfect, everyone loved the food and the mariachi band! We missed 90% of it as we were busy taking pictures.

 

Our reception was at 6:30pm at the Seaside Grill and we paid an extra $15 pp to extend it an extra hour which my husband didn’t want to do before the wedding but afterward he is SO happy I talked him into it. It was totally worth the extra money, we were having the best time ever and would have been disappointed to have it end at 9:30pm. The Seaside Grill in my opinion is the best location to hold the reception…its covered but still open air so you get a nice breeze but its not too windy.  We weren’t too hot or too cold it was perfect all night! It was a good size for the amount of people we had (32 with my husband and I) but could definitely accommodate a larger group as well. We didn’t pay any extra for having the reception at Seaside Grill. We choose to do the buffet as it offered the best variety of food and would be quicker than a sit down dinner. Everyone complimented on how great the food was! We picked the Caribbean Buffet and made a few changes which was no problem and it turned out great. The wait staff at the reception were excellent!

 

We used the DJ at the resort and he was great! He did our ceremony as well as reception and did a fabulous job. He played the songs we wanted and also made sure not to play the ones I didn’t want. He kept the party going all night it was great! Everything about the reception was perfect, we have a bit of a rowdy crowd of friends and everyone danced the night away. After the reception we all went to Desires Lounge and kept the party going which was a lot of fun!

 

Overall the wedding day was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of and the wedding team at Dreams really made everything perfect! I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone and we will be going back for sure!

 

Below is our slideshow!

 

http://081112carter.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

Beautiful! Thanks for all the details and helpful info. Congrats!!

Originally Posted by yacki62 

 

Sorry not sure what you are looking for me to email you?

Sorry, wrong person, I got what I needed from Judany.

Hi Yacki, could you please email those to me? [email protected]

Thanks so much for the helpful info!

Originally Posted by yacki62 

 

Savs and Upcoming Brides and Future Brides:

 

So I just got back from our wedding and I know there was a couple things I told you that after having our wedding there I would let you know. However, I'm drawing a blank right now. But I know your wedding and other December 2012 brides are right around the corner so any questions you may have please let me know.

 

Here are a couple things for upcoming brides to think about in terms of timing:

-Sun sets at 5:30 sharp, but the pool is more or less shaded around 4:30 pm

 -Our ceremony was at 3pm with cocktail 5pm and dinner 6pm- I thought these were great times and left us picture time in between with lighting and the sunset

 

-We had the cocktail at the North Jacuzzi- Great Spot

-Reception- Pool Deck- loved the ambiance but the only complaint I have is that it was extremely windy on our day and all the sand from the beach was blowing up and getting all over us and in our eyes. If they would put up some sort of clear shield thing in between it would help but after some drinks people didn't mind at all.

 

-Rehearsal Dinner- We reserved 10 ppl at Bourdex, but to be honest its not that necessary unless the resort is super packed as we were able to sit 12 people another night at the Portofino with no problem.

 

-Food: All the restaurants on the resort were GREAT, our favorite was Portofino as there are just sooo many choices on the menu and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

 

Photographer- We had Anel- she is absolutely amazing to work with and her pictures turned out well. Will post slide show once I have it.

 

DJ- Cesar- he got the party started and we didn't sit down the whole night. This was money well spent!!

 

Spa- My hair and make-up turned out great, I did take a picture with me for my hair and they did it exactly like the picture. However, some of the others in my group did not and just described to the girls what they wanted and they all turned out awesome.

 

Overall- The DREAMS Riviera is by far the best All Inclusive Resort in terms of food, service, cleanliness and just everything all together that I have every been to. I'm soo happy I choose to have our wedding here. The only downfall is that the resort is very Family oriented (more kids then expected) but you get used to it after a day or so.

 

So, those of you who have choosen this resort for your upcoming wedding and are stressing about the non responses from the wedding coordinators, TRUST ME AND DON'T WORRY!! They are extremely busy and will have everything organized once you meet with them and it will all turn out perfectly I'm type A and had to trust past reviews that the coordinators had it together and stop stressing and I'm so glad I did as they really do have all your info in a folder ready to go and make your day come true!

 

Best of Luck to all future Brides out there and CONGRATS!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR DETAILED REVIEW! My wedding isn't until March but I needed some "updated" peace of mind!

Originally Posted by LindseyM 

 

Our Dreams Riviera Cancun Wedding

 

I am not exactly sure how to organize this review.  I guess I will start by saying that we always knew we wanted a destination wedding.  Multiple friends of ours had one and we loved them.  We didn’t know we were going to go to DRC, though.

 

My husband plans huge events for a living yet he left the research and planning up to me.  We were going away to Riviera Maya last year and planned to look at various resorts.  DRC was one.  The resort we were staying at, Ocean Coral & Turquesa [horrible!!] was another.  We also planned to see The Royal Cancun and Azul Sensatori.  Once we got to Mexico last year we knew immediately that OCT was awful but we made the best of it.  A few days in we decided to go check out DRC.

 

We had set up an appointment with the then-manager, Ana.  When we arrived Ana greeted us with Jorge and introduced herself.  Jorge took us on a guided tour which we video taped.  If you missed it, here are the videos:

 

www.youtube.com/belcantoragazza

 

Immediately we knew that DRC was the right choice.  It was head and shoulders above the resort we were at and everyone looked like they were having a blast.  We reserved our date in person immediately.

 

Fast-forward a year to the day we arrived at Dreams.  I will say I was panicky a few days before leaving because my coordinator had changed from Yamina to Lorena and I hadn’t had any communication with Lorena.  When we arrived we were with 10 other people.  They whisked us away from them to the preferred club area to check in.  We had been booked in the honeymoon suite because we reserved 20 rooms for our guests.  When we arrived though, Dennys in the preferred club upgraded us to a Master Suite!!  Our bags were brought to our room immediately and we were given our first drinks and a cool towel.  It was heavenly after traveling from 3 AM.

 

We went up to our room, unpacked, changed and went down to the pool for some drinks.  Overall, it was a very easy and relaxing travel day.

 

Wednesday morning we had plans to meet with Lorena.  As soon as I met her I knew she would make our wedding a DREAM!    We brought all of our welcome bags to her and they were distributed later that afternoon.  One thing I wish the resort did better was delivering the bags in the morning instead of waiting until people checked in.  We had important information for that night in the bags and some of our guests didn’t get it right when they should have.  That would be one thing I would stress.  They say they don’t deliver before check in because sometimes people change rooms, etc.  Anyway, we went through all of the details with my parents and paid for the wedding right then.  Lorena said we could bring back all of the supplies Thursday morning for them to set up on Friday.  Afterward we just went and hung out by the pool until our guests arrived.

 

Wednesday afternoon I did a hair and make up trial in the salon.  I 100% recommend this and if you need an appointment I would make it ASAP.  I think I saw the email address for the spa floating around somewhere.  I had Rosa do my hair and make up.  I showed her a picture and while it looked nice, my hair looked nothing like the picture.  By the end of the night I decided I didn’t want this for my wedding hair because it was way too teased on top and did not feel beachy at all.  My make up on the other hand was PERFECT!  She did exactly what I asked and I felt like I was glowing!

 

Wednesday night we planned a welcome cocktail.  Really, it was very informal.  We put in our welcome packets for people to meet in the lobby at 7:00 PM to mix and mingle.  We all had some drinks, my husband made a toast, and then we dispersed for dinner.  A bunch of us ate at the Seaside Grill and others went to Portofino.  Having it informally was no problem.  The lobby wasn’t crowded at that time and when people did start to come we had already taken up a lot of the space around the bar so it worked for us.  We had Kevin’s sister whistle loudly when we wanted to make the toast.

 

Thursday was awesome!  We hung out by the pool all day, played volleyball, and relaxed.  We arranged a 4:00 rehearsal with Lorena, Jorge, and Linda the minister.  We were very nervous at the rehearsal because Linda hadn’t looked at our script yet.  We also had Kevin’s dad play guitar for our ceremony and we couldn’t hear it so it was hard to get our cues.  I will say Jorge was amazing at this!  He cued all of my girls and signaled us out when it was needed.  I do feel pretty confident that even without the rehearsal, the wedding would’ve gone perfectly! 

 

We planned the semi-private rehearsal dinner for El Patio right when they opened at 6:00.  The servers were not quite ready for us at 6:00 so we were all congregated in the lobby when Lorena and Evangelina came to find us.  Instantly, I was worried but for no reason!  They came to tell us that they were upgrading us from the Master Suite to the Presidential Suite!!  That meant I could walk down the aisle from our room!!!  It was an awesome surprise.  They asked us not to say anything because there were A LOT of other brides at the resort [including another one on our day] who were not upgraded.  There is more than one presidential suite though, and I found out one of the FOUR [yes, four] brides from Saturday’s wedding ended up in the one next to us.  Ours was the one where the stairs go straight down though.  The others have side stairs.  We were told we’d be moved the morning of the wedding.

 

Friday was like a dream.  I was a little upset in the morning because the people communicating with us about the moving of rooms were not the wedding people so there was some mixed communication.  They did not want to move our room until 1:00 PM, which was completely unacceptable.  My husband called and they moved us at 11:00 AM but not before I had a heart attack.  Haha.  So they moved us down there and all of the girls hung out at the plunge pool until the spa.  We had spa appointments for 1:00 and 3:00.  I went first along with my maid of honor, mom, and mother in law.  The other three girls went when we finished.  The same girl does your hair and make up and they have a book to choose styles from.  I told Rosa I changed my mind about my hair and pointed out a bridesmaid’s hair from the other wedding and told her I wanted that.  She did just that and I ended up loving my hair!  All of my girls were thrilled with how they looked at the wedding!

 

The actual wedding itself was incredible.  We got ready in the room, ordered room services and champagne.  I am not sure what my husband did because he was with the guys but we did not walk down the aisle until 6:00.  At 4:30 Mike Cantarell from Cancun Wedding Video came to see us!  He began by first filming things around the suite, then me opening my wedding gift from Kevin, then my mom opening a gift from me.  Anel arrived around 5:00 and took photos of me getting ready, my dress, my lingerie, etc.  They worked so well together!  Mike is not a resort vendor and he worked so well with Anel and vice versa!!

 

I was super nervous because up until 20 minutes before the ceremony they decorations they had our for our set up were pink!!!  I was panicking because our colors were green and blue.  My maid of honor called and nothing got fixed so my mom called and the fixed it last minute.  It was a miscommunication for the other wedding.  It made me nervous but then again, I had a ton of nerves anyway just because of the fact that it was our wedding day!  Once they fixed it everything was perfect.

 

I could see the guests getting seated from all of the windows in our room.  I could see Kevin standing with the guys, checking his watch, etc.  It was great.  I kept peeking out and then at 5:55, Lorena lined came in and lined up our mothers, brothers, bridesmaids, and finally me and my dad.  Kevin’s dad played guitar and it was SO GOOD that we got the sound system!!  We needed it.  Jorge cued Lorena by radio and she told the moms and girls when to start walking.  When it was our turn she said, “Take a deep breath, smile, this is your moment, walk slowly!† My dad and I walked down the steps from the presidential suite.  When we got to the bottom step we looked at each other, smiled, and jumped off of the last step.  I hope someone recorded that because it was one of my favorite moments.

 

From then on, things were a blur.  The ceremony was light hearted.  Linda was great!  She is an amazing speaker.  The crowd laughed, we laughed, everything was perfect.  It was windy though and my maid of honor had to hold my veil a lot of the time.  After the ceremony, everyone got champagne and took a big photo on the beach.  We took portraits while our guests were lead to the cocktail hour.  We missed almost the entire cocktail hour but everyone loved the mariachi trio and food.  We had welcome cocktails passed which were blue mojitos to match our colors! 

 

I will say for as windy as it was on the beach, we chose the hottest night of the year!  Perfectly sunny and beautiful but we were SWEATING in the Seaside Grill.  So much that we made an announcement for people to go change if they wanted.  No one did though.  The three hour reception flew by but it was a blast!!  A huge dance party.  I cannot say enough about the staff and vendors.  They took great care of us!  DJ Mauricio played all of our songs and kept the party going.  He was wonderful. 

 

Saturday night a family member rented the wine room at Bordeaux for us.  It was AWESOME!!!  Awesome food and service and we were thrilled with that too.

 

Everything was amazing!!!  We loved every minute of our trip and wish we could go back to Dreams this instant!  The resort has so much to offer and being there with your closest friends and family is a dream come true.   2013 brides, if you are worried about lack of response from coordinators try to relax.  This place is a wedding factory and they run it like a well-oiled machine.  Once you arrive, everything gets taken care of.  They treat you like gold and you truly feel like a VIP guest.  My husband and I joke that we will never have it that good on vacation again and that is probably true.  Dreams was truly a DREAM and we don’t regret any bit of our decision to have our wedding there.  Our guests cannot stop raving about it.  We can’t stop missing it!!  It was everything we imagined and so much more.  The little hiccups along the way were totally forgotten when we saw each other on that day at the foot of the sea. 

 

 

Anyway, I apologize if this is jumbled or confusing!  I wanted to tell it like a story.  It was the best trip of our lives!  If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them and I should have my slideshow this week from Anel in time for our at-home wedding so I will be sure to share that too!

 

Thanks for all of the love and support for the past year!!

Lindsey, congrats & thank you so much for your detailed and so helpful review! I am a 2013 bride & You have put many nerves at ease! So glad it was everything you expected! Now the only bad thing is it made me more anxious! Were you able to request DJ Mauricio & any other key people way in advance? If so how was communication, if any with them prior to your arrival? Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Rach0636 

 

We made our deposit about 2 months ago and our wedding is in January. You pretty much just tell her along the way all the things that you want, and then from what I know, once you get down there, you go over everything and you dont pay for any of the wedding stuff until you are down there and have everything written out a few days before the wedding.

I see, and here I am getting frustrated for nothing. I just wish she would've explained that. Thank you!

Originally Posted by Rach0636 

 

We made our deposit about 2 months ago and our wedding is in January. You pretty much just tell her along the way all the things that you want, and then from what I know, once you get down there, you go over everything and you dont pay for any of the wedding stuff until you are down there and have everything written out a few days before the wedding.

 I see, I'm just stressing over everything! Thank you!