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aschackart

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  1. Hey ladies! I just wanted to let you know that my review of Dreams is up! Long story short, we had about as close to a perfect wedding as you can get. Feel free to PM me with any questions. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/dreams-puerto-vallarta-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/7422 Best of luck! Enjoy your day!
  2. We just got back from Villa Premiere! We were married at Dreams PV, but then DH went to VP to get away from our families for a couple of days, almost like a mini-honeymoon. The food was just off the charts, much better than Dreams. We were treated like royalty the whole time we were there. You made a good decision!
  3. We just got married at the Dreams Resort, and there is no better review I can give other than the wedding exceeded our high expectations. We are just sad that we only get to do it once! Travel Agency: destinationweddings.com (D)- We had such a hard time finding a travel agency. The first two agents we contacted were simply uninterested in helping us find a location. They basically wanted us to pick a spot first, and then they would help with travel arrangements. We were initially very happy with destinationweddings.com because our agent was very helpful in sending us information on resorts that she thought would work for our wedding, which is how we found Dreams PV in the first place. However, after we were locked in, she was a disaster in booking arrangements for our friends and family. Every single person had to send her two or three follow up emails or phone messages in order to get quotes, and those quotes would be inaccurate a significant portion of the time. She was unable to get us any sort of discounted rates, even though we had about 40 people who committed to coming. The final straw was that we originally agreed to a flight that would bring us into PV at 1:40, but then we we got our travel vouchers in the mail, we noticed we weren't arriving in PV until 3:05. We assumed the flight had just been moved, but then two of our other friends managed to get on the 1:40 flight, and they said the flight had several empty seats. Basically, we had a three and a half layover in Phoenix when it should have only been two. Dreams Resort (A+)- The resort is absolutely gorgeous. You are greeted with cooling towels and champagne. Our room was in the preferred tower, which I highly recommend because you will want a balcony. In addition, we got a free upgrade with a jacuzzi, that we actually used. However, I saw the rooms in the family tower, and they were nice as well- every room has a view of the ocean. The resort is nestled in its own private cove, and the beach and pools are clean. The service is excellent, everyone is friendly and will go above and beyond as a matter of course. Other reviews focused on how good the food was- I found it was average. It didn't blow my mind, by any means, but it wasn't disappointing. Honestly, the best food we had there was the food at our cocktail hour, but more on that below. Wedding Vendors- All the vendors I used were the ones from Dreams, and they were all great. Seriously, in my opinion, it's not worth paying for an outside vendor because everyone that Dreams used was excellent and exceeded my expectations. Spa (A-)- Ladies, Angel from the spa is a genius. He did such a fantastic job on my makeup, and I was beyond floored. He did a great job on my hair as well, as well as the hair of one of my bridesmaids. Unfortunately, I had to take some points away because when I got a french tip polish change the day before my wedding, it was pretty much gone by the next day and I had to get it redone right before my wedding. Also, Blanca did my MIL's makeup, and she hated it. She ended up having her daughters redo it, and that made them late for my getting ready pictures. Flowers (B+)- Oh how I wanted to give the flowers an A+! They were so beautiful, and they just pop in my pictures. All of my instructions were followed perfectly. Unfortunately, one of the lillies still had the pollen on it, so I had a dark orange stain on my wedding dress right before the ceremony! Fortunately it didn't show up in any of the pictures or anything, but it was the kind of thing that is obviously very upsetting at the time. DJ (A)- The DJ was very good. We gave him a playlist ahead of time, and he followed it. Also, we had to move the reception indoors, and the DJ provided a seamless transition from outside to inside. He definitely managed to keep the party going! Photographer (A++)- We had Cris from Vallarta Adventures, and she was amazing. She stayed with us the whole day, and worked incredibly hard to get all the shots we wanted. She is also very talented, and also very patient. She was probably the one vendor we gave very little instruction to, and she just ran with it and had us posing all over the place. If anything, she pushed us so that we would get the shots we would want down the line, such as the one of my husband dipping me. Although it required a lot of effort, she ended up getting some really good shots. Food (- Our wedding food was really just kind of blah. The cocktail hour food was great, especially the jalapeno poppers. Our guests literally devoured all of it, and were very happy. I also liked the chile poblano soup. However, my husband had the steak and chicken dish and he said the steak was gamey and the chicken was overcooked. My vegetarian entree was quite good though. Wedding Coordinator: Fatima (A++++++)- I cannot give enough accolades to Fatima. Throughout the whole process, she responded to all of my emails promptly. She was very efficient in organizing everything. For example, she was the first person I actually saw when I arrived at Dreams (not through planning, she just happened to be out there). She greeted me with a big hug and immediately took my wedding dress for steaming. Also, right after the ceremony, she was waiting down the walkway with two pineapple martinis (our signature drink) for my husband and me. Our centerpieces that we brought ourselves required some assembly, she took care of it. She works very hard, and it shows in her attention to detail and customer service. I know some other brides that left reviews had an issue with timing, but for us everything was run smoothly. The only downside, and I don't blame her necessarily, is that our cake topper got lost at some point when we switched from outdoors to indoors because of the rain. And now what you really care about, pics!
  4. We just got married at the Dreams Resort, and there is no better review I can give other than the wedding exceeded our high expectations. We are just sad that we only get to do it once! Travel Agency: destinationweddings.com (D)- We had such a hard time finding a travel agency. The first two agents we contacted were simply uninterested in helping us find a location. They basically wanted us to pick a spot first, and then they would help with travel arrangements. We were initially very happy with destinationweddings.com because our agent was very helpful in sending us information on resorts that she thought would work for our wedding, which is how we found Dreams PV in the first place. However, after we were locked in, she was a disaster in booking arrangements for our friends and family. Every single person had to send her two or three follow up emails or phone messages in order to get quotes, and those quotes would be inaccurate a significant portion of the time. She was unable to get us any sort of discounted rates, even though we had about 40 people who committed to coming. The final straw was that we originally agreed to a flight that would bring us into PV at 1:40, but then we we got our travel vouchers in the mail, we noticed we weren't arriving in PV until 3:05. We assumed the flight had just been moved, but then two of our other friends managed to get on the 1:40 flight, and they said the flight had several empty seats. Basically, we had a three and a half layover in Phoenix when it should have only been two. Dreams Resort (A+)- The resort is absolutely gorgeous. You are greeted with cooling towels and champagne. Our room was in the preferred tower, which I highly recommend because you will want a balcony. In addition, we got a free upgrade with a jacuzzi, that we actually used. However, I saw the rooms in the family tower, and they were nice as well- every room has a view of the ocean. The resort is nestled in its own private cove, and the beach and pools are clean. The service is excellent, everyone is friendly and will go above and beyond as a matter of course. Other reviews focused on how good the food was- I found it was average. It didn't blow my mind, by any means, but it wasn't disappointing. Honestly, the best food we had there was the food at our cocktail hour, but more on that below. Wedding Vendors- All the vendors I used were the ones from Dreams, and they were all great. Seriously, in my opinion, it's not worth paying for an outside vendor because everyone that Dreams used was excellent and exceeded my expectations. Spa (A-)- Ladies, Angel from the spa is a genius. He did such a fantastic job on my makeup, and I was beyond floored. He did a great job on my hair as well, as well as the hair of one of my bridesmaids. Unfortunately, I had to take some points away because when I got a french tip polish change the day before my wedding, it was pretty much gone by the next day and I had to get it redone right before my wedding. Also, Blanca did my MIL's makeup, and she hated it. She ended up having her daughters redo it, and that made them late for my getting ready pictures. Flowers (B+)- Oh how I wanted to give the flowers an A+! They were so beautiful, and they just pop in my pictures. All of my instructions were followed perfectly. Unfortunately, one of the lillies still had the pollen on it, so I had a dark orange stain on my wedding dress right before the ceremony! Fortunately it didn't show up in any of the pictures or anything, but it was the kind of thing that is obviously very upsetting at the time. DJ (A)- The DJ was very good. We gave him a playlist ahead of time, and he followed it. Also, we had to move the reception indoors, and the DJ provided a seamless transition from outside to inside. He definitely managed to keep the party going! Photographer (A++)- We had Cris from Vallarta Adventures, and she was amazing. She stayed with us the whole day, and worked incredibly hard to get all the shots we wanted. She is also very talented, and also very patient. She was probably the one vendor we gave very little instruction to, and she just ran with it and had us posing all over the place. If anything, she pushed us so that we would get the shots we would want down the line, such as the one of my husband dipping me. Although it required a lot of effort, she ended up getting some really good shots. Food (- Our wedding food was really just kind of blah. The cocktail hour food was great, especially the jalapeno poppers. Our guests literally devoured all of it, and were very happy. I also liked the chile poblano soup. However, my husband had the steak and chicken dish and he said the steak was gamey and the chicken was overcooked. My vegetarian entree was quite good though. Wedding Coordinator: Fatima (A++++++)- I cannot give enough accolades to Fatima. Throughout the whole process, she responded to all of my emails promptly. She was very efficient in organizing everything. For example, she was the first person I actually saw when I arrived at Dreams (not through planning, she just happened to be out there). She greeted me with a big hug and immediately took my wedding dress for steaming. Also, right after the ceremony, she was waiting down the walkway with two pineapple martinis (our signature drink) for my husband and me. Our centerpieces that we brought ourselves required some assembly, she took care of it. She works very hard, and it shows in her attention to detail and customer service. I know some other brides that left reviews had an issue with timing, but for us everything was run smoothly. The only downside, and I don't blame her necessarily, is that our cake topper got lost at some point when we switched from outdoors to indoors because of the rain. And now what you really care about, pics!
  5. Hey Kate! Sorry things didn't go perfectly What is unfortunate is you can spend all this time doing all this research and thinking your are prepared for everything, and then something you couldn't have expected happens. Nonetheless, I'm sure your wedding was still gorgeous and your guests had an awesome time. Post pictures when you get a chance!
  6. I just finished planning this, so I'll share what we decided to do. Since each hair and makeup appointment takes about an hour, and there are three spa personnel at a time to do each thing, I am having my bridesmaids hair done starting at noon. So three bridesmaids done from noon to one. My mom, grandma, and I, are getting our hair done from 1 to 2. My makeup and my MOH's hair will be done from 2-3, along with my MIL's makeup. So everyone should be done around 3, except for actually getting dressed, and I figure from 3-4 we can do some getting ready pictures and bridesmaids group photos done. Then ceremony from 4-4:30. We left two hours for pictures- one hour for family and group photos, and one hour for personal photos of just him and I. Cocktail hour from 6:30-7:30, reception from 7:30-10:30. Starting at 7:30, we are doing in order: toasts, then first dance, then cake cutting, and that's it. I don't anticipate it taking more than an hour, hour and a half. Hope this helps!
  7. If you find out the answer to this (about whether the resort allows you to bring your own) let us know! I found some really cheap online (like $2 a bag), so if they do allow you to bring your own, it might be worth it. Also, I don't know if the other brides on here have seen the ceremony script that Dreams provides. Obviously, this is an intensely personal decision, but for us, we've decided to rewrite the script because it was a little too traditional for us- with sayings like a woman's greatest attributes are her beauty and intuition, and a man's greatest attributes are strength and courage. Again, not for us, and I thought I would put it out here in case anyone felt similarly.
  8. Hi ladies! We are getting married June 21st at Dreams PV and couldn't be more excited. So far the wedding planning process has been as easy as could be expected. Fatima has just been amazing, really, she has always responded promptly to every email I've sent. For those of you having trouble getting ahold of Aventura photography, I just sent up a follow-up email saying I hadn't heard from them in (x) amount of weeks, and ever since then they've been very prompt with me. We did the package for $999 which includes the full day of shooting and 100 pictures. Honestly, I would have liked more pictures, but as crunch time approaches, apathy is setting in and I just want decisions to be made. We're not dealing with outside vendors at all. All of the resort vendors received pretty good reviews on this site, so we're basically trusting them. Plus, you know, the apathy I mentioned above. The pricing has been what I've expected so far...no terribly expensive but not a bargain. The most impressive thing so far was that the florist isn't charging us extra for hydrangeas, which I thought was pretty decent of them. I agree that $75 per person at an all-inclusive was not thrilling for me (really $85 with the extra cake and sparkling wine), but since we're only having 40ish guests total, it's not really that big of a deal. We did a lot of things DIY- invitations, centerpieces, OOT bags, and instead of bridesmaid's bouquets, my mom is making fans for the bridesmaids to carry that will be decorated with flowers and ribbon and stuff. For the rehearsal/welcome dinner, we're doing the bonfire like pretty much everyone else. Since the restaurants don't take reservations, I thought it would be too stressful to try and get all 40+ guests in the same restaurant at the same time. For the day after activity, we're taking everyone ziplining. Unfortunately canopy tours, which we've decided to go with, only allows 15 people per tour, so I think we're going to have to separate people into two groups since it seems like most people want to go.
  9. Oh my gosh, your slideshow is gorgeous! I definitely teared up a bit, when I see that raw emotion on other people I can't help put get a little misty-eyed myself. Question: the decorations that you used for the gazebo, did you purchase them yourself or were they provided by the resort? I loved the elegant simplicity of them so I'm thinking of doing something similar.
  10. Thanks so much for your advice! We were originally thinking about having the reception on the beach, but changed our mind after reading your post. Thanks again for the heads up. We made it official as of yesterday- June 21, 2013 will make me a Dreams PV bride!
  11. Hi ladies! After three long months of looking at dozens of resorts, we have finally settled on Dreams Puerto Vallarta! I am so ridiculously excited. Before we make it official, I wanted to ask all past and current dreams PV brides what is one thing they wish they had known prior to booking? I already know not to expect too much from the WCs, but is there any other major "con" I'm overlooking? Thanks!
  12. Hi ladies! After three long months of looking at literally dozens of resorts, we've finally settled on Dreams PV for June 2013! I am so ridiculously excited. Before we make it "official" I thought I would do one last double check to see if there was anything I was missing. I already know not to expect too much from the wedding coordinators, but is there any serious "con" that I'm overlooking? So, former or current Dreams PV brides, what would be the one thing you wish you had known before booking? Thanks!
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