kerrimaxwell

Hi! We are getting married this Sunday at Dreams! so exciting! I wanted to know how many of you tipped the wedding planners right off the bat (at initial meeting) and how much money? We are going between $50 and $100 and wondering what everyone else did. Thanks!

Hi Lori! Thank You for the response! I just watched your video and slideshow and I think I will be wearing my hair up! That wind reminds me of the sort of wind we had in Aruba last year it was crazy! Your day looked absolutely beautiful! I cant believe we are leavin in less than 3 weeks now! It sure did come fast!

Hi Ladies, I have a couple of generic questions as my wedding is approaching in 3 weeks! How is the dress code in the restaurants? I know what the website lists but I am wondering how it actually is. Do men have to wear pants, can they wear shorts, kids dress, etc... Also, this may be silly, do you drink the water at the resort? Brush your teeth with it? Is it filtered, bottled? And last, is it extremely windy there? From the pictures I have seen it looks like it is! Is it like this all the time? This will help me with a decision on how to wear my hair! TIA!

Sooo... I have been posting for the last probably 2 months that we could not get in touch with anyone about our July 21st wedding since the departure of Evangelina. Even our travel agent contacted her resort rep who contacted other people at the resort and still nothing. Then, at 3 months to the day we got an email of a wedding packet (most of which we already had) and it assigned us our planner Georgina. Great I thought! Finally! Well.. no such luck. Our confirmation has the time off and also a charge for the Seaside Grill which is not on our original confirmation, So I sent Georgina an email... nothing. My fiance emailed her... nothing. We both have emailed the DJ... nothing. I emailed the spa... nothing. We are 10 weeks out and we have nothing, literally nothing, but the trip booked and times and locations (which are not 100% right). I quickly realized that the packet email we got was received 3 months to the very date of our wedding and it is probably something automatically generated. We started emailing beginning of April and have heard nothing ever again. In fact I have not hear anything since we left our deposit. I am now going to begin calling and I am so out of mind angry at this resort it is not even funny. I haven't even gotten there yet and I don't think I could recommend this place to anyone due to the horrible horrible horrible planning. I am a second time bride. Honestly, I am not obsessed or emailing them over paper lanterns or cake flowers... I know that stuff can be worked out there. But my reception time being wrong..? Charges I didnt know about? A DJ that is not answering? Hair/Makeup appts I cant get made? I have truly had it. It is ruining this whole experience for me.

Soooo after three long weeks we FINALLY got an email assigning us a new planner! Georgina! it came with the whole packet that you get three months prior.... but it says hair needed to be booked SIX months prior! What the heck?!? So now I am scrambling to do that! So I am wondering a timeline... what time did you girls get your hair done at? Our ceremony is at 4:30pm so let me know what you think. This new confirmation letter also stated we would be charged $800 for Seaside Grill. I am fighting that because our original confirmation letter from Evangelina says ZERO about an extra charge nor does any of my correspondence with her. So I sent an email telling them I did not intend to pay that and I attached the original confirmation. Of course...no response yet, LOL!

Thank You SO much Lori, Savannah, and Ashley! I contacted my travel agent today to get a handle on the having no planner thing! I know they are bad about responding...but I really think we might be lost in no mans land! LOL! Since our planner left, I'm just not sure we have been taken over. I am happy to have those other two emails and will try one of them directly and hopefully that will work! I DO have a confirmation letter that our reception with the Ultimate Package is at Seaside Grill... so I will assume it is shut down. I also want to have a buffet... I didn't think I had enough people but hopefully that is something I can request if I ever get a hold of them! We HATE everything on our offered Gold menu. I am wondering... where did everyone else use their Mariachi Trio? I liked the idea of them for the ceremony mainly because I don't want to miss them at the Cocktail Hour. It looks like we will be "forced" to have the cocktail hour since with our small group we can't exchange it for much. it does seem like the perfect place and amount of time for the trio is the cocktail hour.. though I have sen people say they used them for ceremony and loved it. Did anyone use Mariachi for ceremony, sound system for cocktail hour, DJ for reception? Can you get away with no music at all for the cocktail hour since I assume there is a lot going on around you? Ashley... do you feel the dance floor is a necessity in the Seasde Grill? We had no intention of getting it... I just have read SO many positive reviews about it that is making me wonder if we should go for it. It's a lot of money right? Thanks again SO much girls... you've helped me take it down a few notches!

While I am at it... I still have many questions and I would love some input! Especially since who knows if I will ever get answers from a planner or how long that will take! Our ceremony is on the beach and I think we have decided to use our Mariachi Trio for the ceremony. We do need to request a microphone for the ceremony as well right? If you had a sand ceremony (as we are with our 4 kids) who read the script for it? A family member or the officiant? Cocktail Hour... we still have not picked a location or decided if we want to have one or try to swap it for something else. If you had one wher would you recommend the location be? If you didn't have one.. were you happy with that choice? What did you exchange it for? Where did guests hangout in lieux of having one? Here is my biggest gray area.... DJ and reception. Okay, so... we have chosen to have our reception at Seaside Grill, I love that it is sort of indoor/outdoor best of both worlds. What I don't know is if the restaurant is shut down soley for us? Are we right in the restaurant with other people? We have about 20 guests right now including 4 kids. As far as music goes... do we gt a DJ for 20 people or do you think that is overkill? Should we justs it down and have dinner and not even have a reception? If we have do have the reception and they don't give us Seaside Grill to ourselves... how do you have a DJ with a restaurant full of other people. So as you can see I have a MILLION things in my head and no coordinator helping! UGH! Any help would be SO appreciated!!

I am starting to get furious. I posted on here a couple of days ago. Eva was our wedding coordinator and now with her being gone I have no one responding to my emails. It has been TWO weeks not two days. I cannot believe how unprofessional this resort is!! If it wasn't for the glowing reviews of everyone's wedding I probably would have backed out of this place! HORRIBLE with responding! My wedding is in 3 months and I have nothing but a date, ceremony, and reception location. Literally nothing else done! Does anyone have a direct email for one of the other coordinators? I only have the main email from website which is the one I was dealing with Eva at.

Hi All, I am very frustrated! I know Eva is no longer with Dreams... never heard a word though except for this board. I emailed a WEEK ago to ask who my new coordinator was and to confirm my arrangements made with Evangelina. Nothing yet! What the heck?? I am a pretty low maintenance bride since this is my 2nd wedding and we have 4 kids between us... BUT I would like something back! I have NOTHING planned except my date, and locations (July 21st). YIKES! Did anyone else have trouble with this or do you have any suggestions?

Oh Savannah! I think I am going to contact you for those door hangers! I love them!

Hi Daneli... We are also getting married at Dreams on July 21st!! It will be great to be able to compare notes up until then!

Hey ladies, We are having our reception at Seaside Grill in July. The coordinator mentioned nothing about an extra cost for the grill but I have seen people post that there is... does anyone know what the story is with this? I'm wondering why they did not mention it.

More great info! I am going to ask about this. We will definitely have 20 people!

Thank You Savanah, you have so much good info. We finally got our wedding confirmation and contract and I HATE the gold menu! Lol! Waaaay too froofy for us. I really wanted a buffet but I see you need 40 people which I don't think we will have. We need some major substitution!

Another Question... I know the basic wedding package that is $999 is included with the 7 night stay... we are upgrading to the top of the line package..do they give you any sort of credit towards anything since you are foregoing the free one? TIA! This site is so helpful!