We had our wedding at Dreams on June 18th and overall had a wonderful time.  Our guests enjoyed their stay and the food was amazing. The property is beautiful and intimate for a big resort.  They have a private beach so you aren't bothered as much by vendors.

I think personally that the wedding coordinators are overworked and they don't have enough staff to give your wedding personal service.  There was also too much scamming going on with people in lobby trying to sell you excursions and the spa not honoring their coupons and prices. 

Bottomline, I wouldn't change a thing and think that my destination wedding was beautiful and special because you get to share your wedding over many days with your friends and family.

Transportation/Arrival/Check in:

We went with airport transfers that were arranged by our travel agent.  They were a company called Tacori and they also arrange off resort excursions.  We were told by a man at the airport to ignore the people at the resort unless we want to be sold something.  Good tip but doesn't he work at Tacori also???

So we went right to the front desk.  They gave us nice cold towels and a glass of champagne upon arrival.  We got there on a Tuesday which is their slow day.  While we were checking in we asked for a room on a higher floor.  They said that the highest floor we could get would be on the 4th floor or we had to upgrade to a jacuzzi room.  We got a jr. suite in the preferred tower so they changed our room to the 4th floor. 

Our room was beautiful and had a great view of the ocean and pool.  I do have to say that the next morning we got a call bright and early from someone saying we need to come downstairs immediately or our return transfer would be invalid.  I realized that was a scam and we never did go downstairs but many or our guests were fooled only to sit and listed to someone for close to a half hour before they said they needed to go do "wedding stuff".  This is one of the scams to beware of.  (besides the timeshare people in the airport there are timeshare people in the hotel so beware or you could spend 1/2 a day "meeting" with these people.  One of my guests did unfortunately.

Wedding Coordination

I booked my wedding a year in advance and during that time I had 5 wedding coordinators.  In fact Elaine handed me off to a brand new WC Fatima a week and a 1/2 before my wedding.  Fatima was very young and sweet but I had to constantly stay on her for communication.  I would go visit the wedding office and then she would take care of what I asked.  She did have a few screw ups as well.  I was very organized and told her what I wanted.  I had fans that were supposed to go on the chairs at the ceremony but she put them on the chairs at the reception.  We also didn't get the full set up for the floor that we paid for.  No lights on floor..just a small dance floor that looked sorry all out there by itself..but we danced on it anyway. 

Also our cake disappeared right after we posed for pictures and we didn't find it for 2 days after.  It had started sprinkling rain so they took it away without cutting it at all.  The worst mistake was when my husband was checking us out, she had never applied the deposit.  He thought it was more that what I told him but paid it anyway.  When I met up with him, I realized what happened but we couldn't find Fatima.  It was a hectic last half an hour at resort running around trying to find her etc.  She did apply the deposit once we got home and everything was fine.  Just annoying.  There were some other little things as well.

SPA

We got the ultimate package so a massage for couples was included.  Both my husband and I liked our massages.  Good pressure and they used aromatherapy.  We were in 2 separate rooms that were connected in the middle but he was pretty far away.  My first couples massage but we really didn't interact so it was like us getting massaged at the same time. 

I bought spa pedicures for myself, my 2 sisters and my daughter.  That was the weird part.  The girl who did mine was very aggressive with my nails.  She actually cut me twice so it wasn't very relaxing.  She also did my makeup and hair.  I brought pictures and she did a great job with both. I was very happy with that part of the spa.  She also did fake eyelashes one at a time and they looked real.

The worst part was when I was checking out.  I wanted to pay for the pedicures and included in my wedding package was a 15% discount on spa services.  They told me that pedicures are not included because that is a beauty salon service not a spa service.  RIDICULUS!! I said that I walked into the spa, the spa is collecting my money..nowhere does it say that pedicures are not a spa service.  So on my wedding day I was stressing about this crap.  I refused to pay and told him I would be back the next day.  Eventually they did give me the 15% a few days later.  What's funny about that is that I got a coupon from one of my friends who listened to the selling scam the first day and all rooms in the preferred tower got 20% off all spa services and they were fighting me over 15%.  Crazy. 

FOOD/SERVICE

The food was amazing at this resort.  My fav was Oceana and Seaside.  Portofino was ok but Mexicans doing Italian was a little weird.  Besides it was inside like in a basement.  I preferred the ocean view while eating.  World Cafe was excellent for breakfast and lunch.  El Patio was the worst service of all of them.  We waited almost 1 and a 1/2 one night.  The food was just ok there. 

Service was pretty good but very slow for breakfast and lunch.  Sometimes the waiter would not come over at all unless you flagged him down.  The only reason they are there is to give you coffee and water.  Let me serve myself then.  Everyone was very nice though and we did have our favorite waiters that were good and we tipped them.  We also enjoyed going to the Coco Cafe where you could have espresso drinks.  Yum.

Our wedding dinner was the best of all the things I ate there.  I am vegetarian and I negotiated with them to have 3 options at my dinner and we went with mexican options.  It was so good and my guests loved it.  We had chessecake and I had a small bite but it wasn't that good.  I drink white wine and their house wines were decent.  The service for our wedding was great except once it started sprinkling our drink server just left and we all gathered at the pool bar by the preferred tower and there was only one bartender.  He was busy!

PHOTOGRAPHER

Included in our package was adventure photo's.  By far one of the best companies there.  From day one they communicated with us and we got to see samples of their work.  I picked Cristheell and she was awesome.  She took so many pictures and our slideshow was awesome.  Here is a link:http://18_06_11Aimee&Jason - Home-11

She was fun to work with and we bought extra pictures.  Their packages are expensive though.  Anyway we loved her!

Would I recommend this resort to a bride?  Yes, as long as you are aware of some of the challenges and be prepared to show documentation and fight for your rights.  There is a lot more detail in another bride's review regarding some of this. (dreams2011)

This forum helped me so much because previous brides told me what to expect.  Beware also of them charging a whole lot more than what we paid.  Overall it was an amazing experience!.  Let me know if I can help anyone.