Dreams Cancun Wedding Review

Wedding Date: January 22, 2011

Colors: Orange & Cuppuccino

 

TRAVEL

Trip Booking:We booked our travel on Expedia…absolutely no problems with our reservation.

 

Continental Airlines:Our flight was pretty standard.  Their coat closets are pretty small and are only about 3 feet tall or so.  They were full on all legs of our round-trip flight, so I folded my dress bag in half and stored it in the overhead bin…plenty of room.

 

Transportation: We have always taken a taxi when we’ve traveled to Mexico.  If you’re traveling to Cancun for the first time and have not pre-arranged a shuttle, make sure after you have gotten your bags and cleared all customs and security checkpoints you proceed all the way outside to the curb and you’ll find guys wearing “Taxi by Hertz” shirts.  DO NOT talk to the guys just inside the doors offering you a free ride to your hotel or free excursions…they will also set you up with a timeshare presentation!  A taxi ride to your hotel is always more expensive than what you pay returning to the airport.  Our taxi ride to Dreams Cancun was about 20 minutes and was $60 USD (we paid in pesos and he charged us $600 pesos..a bit of a savings since the rate we got on the pesos was $1 US=$12 pesos).  Our taxi ride back to the airport was $300 pesos or about $30.

 

DREAMS CANCUN RESORT & SPA

 

Check In: Check in was super fast.  We booked an oceanfront room in the tower so we were immediately escorted to the tower concierge for VIP check in.  We were promptly given water and champagne when we got there too! The oceanfront rooms in the tower are exactly the same as the oceanfront rooms in the pyramid, however the tower room bathroom did have a tub, but the tile surrounding it was a light yellow color and looked more outdated.  We’ve stayed in the pyramid before during a previous stay nearly 3 years ago and we like the walk-in shower in those rooms better, more updated looking. 

 

My hubby’s family all arrived the same day, about 90 minutes after we arrived.  They had booked 3 rooms and had made a request at booking for 3 rooms together or near each other on the same floor.  The hotel was pretty booked and could only get 2 rooms together.  In a moment of confusion, my hubby’s aunt asked “why can’t we get 3 rooms together?”, and the lady at the front desk immediately offered them 2 nights in the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE until they could get 3 rooms together!  We all went up to check out the suite so they could decide if they wanted it.  The suite is on the top/17^th floor of the tower and takes up the whole floor!  It was HUGE!  2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a huge living room, huge dining room, big balcony with heated pool, kitchen, office with free internet…AMAZING! They took it immediately!  We got online on the Dreams Cancun website and found out that suite goes for over $6600 a night…no, that is not a typo, over $6600 a night!  It worked out perfectly that they had that suite our first full day in Cancun because the weather was gray/cloudy and a little cool, so we partied in the suite all day and ordered room service.  It was also my hubby’s nephews 3rd birthday (our ring bearer) and he thought it was just the greatest thing to have this huge suite for his birthday party.  We had a personal-size birthday cake delivered to the room for him free of charge and they even wrote “Happy Birthday Tristen” in chocolate on the plate.

 

 

 

 

Restaurants: During our last stay at Dreams Cancun back in Spring 2008, our favorite restaurant was The Seaside Grill and our least favorite was the Japanese restaurant, Himitsu.  Wow how things have changed for the better! The Seaside Grill still has pretty excellent beef choices and we were pleased with the seafood at Oceana (Especially the Grouper! Better than Mahi-Mahi…try it!)  But we were blown away by the improvement on the sushi at Himitsu! It was pretty awful before…but I would now rate it right up there with some of the best sushi I have ever had.  I tried a couple rolls that our friends/family ordered, but we primarily got nigiri and sashimi.  The salmon and tuna were amazing and I tend to be pretty picky about my sushi.  Oh, and make sure you hit the Coco Café coffee shop at the resort, located by the spa, for a frozen Bailey’s (A Bailey’s frappucino)…delicious!!!

 

Meeting with Our Wedding Coordinator: Our WC was Cecilia and through our whole planning process she was great to work with!  We kept our wedding pretty simple, so I didn’t email her too much, maybe 10 times or so before we got to the resort, and I think the longest I ever waited for a response was 5 days.  We had many of the details figured out before we got there.  We did the legal ceremony, she had us pick our menu selections and appetizers for the cocktail hour about 2 weeks before the wedding. When we checked-in to our room, there was a bottle of champagne and a letter from Cecilia with the date and time of our meeting with her as well as the appt time for our blood test (required for the legal ceremony).  When we met with her she went through the contract we had so far and showed us pictures of cakes and flowers for us to pick.  It seriously took about 25 minutes and we were done!  We tipped her $100, and boy did that pay off!  More on that later!…  Oh, and make sure when you get your final contract that they take off the $500 deposit you already paid to hold your date...we had to remind our WC to take that off the price.

 

Legal Ceremony Blood Test: For those of you doing the legal ceremony, the blood test was a breeze.  A member of the hotel staff escorts the nurse to your room the morning of your appt, it took about 10 minutes and we were done. Here’s a tip…if you have small veins like me and require a butterfly needle for blood draws, learn how to ask for that in Spanish! Haha!  When I sat down I pointed to my veins and pinched my fingers together telling her “very small, I need a small needle”.  She smiled and I thought she understood, then she proceeded to poke me with the regular needle and my veins just do not give blood with those.  She kinda see-sawed the needle back and forth (not too comfy!) trying to get it to work then finally took it out. I kept looking in her kit for the butterfly needle to point to it, but didn’t see one.  Then she dug one out and showed it to me.  I quickly exclaimed “Si Si Si!!!”.  It worked like a charm!  Later that afternoon, my sis-in-law informed me the Spanish word for butterfly is mariposa…wish I had known!  J

 

Dreams Spa: 2 days before our wedding I scheduled a “family ladies” day at the spa for myself, my mother, my mother-in-law, my step-mother-in-law and her sister, and my sis-in-law.  I had made the appts with the spa 2 weeks prior via email and I was promptly scheduled and emailed back by Adrian Dong, the spa manager, not to be confused with Adriana who works the front desk at the spa.  The moms had massages and facials and absolutely loved it! My sis-in-law and I had mani-pedis. I had a French mani-pedi done and it looked good on my toes, because toes are far away and you can’t see the detail as well, but the French manicure was just ok.  I get better French manicures here at home, so if you have them do your nails, maybe go with a plain color or do it yourself.  If you do have a French manicure done there, I’m sure your pictures would turn out fine, but looking down at your nails you’ll likely notice the slight imperfections, mainly with how straight/even the white line is on the French manicure.  Also, Adrian, the spa manager, told me that if I needed any touch-up to my nails when I came back for the bridal hair/make-up appt, they would do that free of charge. Everyone at the spa is so gracious and nice and they really work hard to make your spa experience relaxing and enjoyable.  The hubby and I had our couples massage that came with the wedding package out on the beach in one of the tiki huts.  It was soooooo relaxing and the massage was very good.  You can tell them if you want more or less pressure.  It was a 50 minute full-body massage and it was so nice to hear the waves…as well as the occasional jet-ski, haha!...there is a jet-ski rental place on the beach right next to the massage huts! 

 

 

Bridal Hair/Make-Up at the Dreams Spa: It took just over 1.5 hours for my hair and make-up.  Mareya at the Spa did both and when I saw that she was going to be doing my hair/make-up I was thrilled since I have read some very good things on the message boards about her.  I think she may be their primary bridal stylist because I saw her doing another bride’s hair the next day too. Maybe when you make your appt, request Mareya, because she did an amazing job!!!  She was using hairspray while doing my hair, then at the end she grabbed another can that looked like hairspray and she said “this is like glue”.  She sprayed several applications of it on and let me tell you, my hair looked amazing!  And I know everybody says it is windy at the gazebo, and yes, it is a bit breezy, but during our ceremony and pictures there was literally a windstorm going on…but thankfully no rain!!!  Nobody was out on the beach, the typically calm waves at Dreams were totally choppy and they put out the red flag for the ocean rating…however…except for the few shorter bang pieces I have that aren’t long enough to clip to the side with the others…MY HAIR DID NOT MOVE!!!  (Luckily after our pictures were done, we rejoined our party to start the reception on the terrace and the clouds immediately parted, the sun came out and the wind totally died down to a nice gentle breeze…it was perfect! And everybody was commenting on how great my hair still looked after battling the windstorm!)  I tipped Mareya $20, but wished I had  brought more with me to give her!

 

My make-up was just as beautiful! Mareya asked me before she started what colors I wanted.  I told her a more natural look since we were having a day wedding...I picked some browns and champagne colors for my eyes.  She did great, I loved it!  Here’s a tip…if you have sensitive skin, have a friend or family member pack a Benadryl to the wedding.  My skin can be sensitive at times…for example…I wear Bare Minerals make-up, and they state it’s so good for your skin you can sleep in it…well, if I sleep in it, I get a few zits 2 days later!  During our reception, a couple of my friends came up to me asking me if I ate something I was allergic to…I don’t have any food allergies, but I was developing some bumps (hives???) on my face and neck area where Mareya had also applied a sparkly powder.  Luckily, one of my friends who has a lot of allergies had a Benadryl on her, I took one, and 20 minutes later the bumps were going away.  I think I was having some sort of reaction to the make-up.  I’ve been known to develop a rash from certain brands of sunscreen as well.

 

 

 

 

The Big Day!: I just have to start by saying that we could not have asked for a more perfect wedding! The hubby and I vacationed at Dreams Cancun nearly 3 years ago, it was our first vacation together and we had been together about 4 months at the time.  We saw a couple weddings going on during our stay and compared to other Mexico resorts we’ve stayed at, we always knew that when the day came, we would return to Dreams Cancun for our wedding, and we are so glad we did!

 

Our ceremony was at noon.  I was at the Spa from 9-10:45am.  Cecilia came by and delivered my bouquet while I was there…it was beautiful! And she told me all the preparations were underway and everything was going smoothly.  I got back to my room with 1 hour to change and hang out with family and friends, the perfect amount of time to keep busy and not get too anxious/nervous before the ceremony.  J

 

 

The ceremony went smoothly. We brought our music for the entire wedding on our iPod. I titled playlists on it: 1 Guests Seated, 2 Walk Down the Aisle, 3 Signing the Documents, 4 Reception.  The technician played everything with perfect timing.  Here’s a tip…if you are having a legal ceremony, you and your 4 witnesses will sign 4 documents, it takes a little time.  We only had 1 song to be played for this part, but it took longer so our music technician played the song twice.  I think we’re the only ones that noticed, but pick 2 songs for that part of the ceremony.

 

Juan Navarro Photography: Our photographers were Tony and Alex with Juan Navarro Photography.  They were super-nice, especially for having to deal with the windstorm!  They were really working hard to get good shots despite the wind, they took over 900 pics total of the ceremony and our pictures!  We didn’t pay extra to have them photograph the reception.  He would pose us and take a bunch of shots trying to get a good one despite the wind, and when they’d finally get a good one, they’d give us a thumbs-up and say “amazing, we got it”.  We left Dreams 2 days after the wedding, so we left before we could see the pics.  9 days after the wedding, we got an email of the proofs to pick from.  We picked 50 for our album that was included in our wedding package.  He also offered to provide a cd of all the pics for an extra fee.  From reading other Dreams brides reviews on this site I knew our target price, other couples were able to get the cd for $300, so when they first offered $400, I countered with $300 and they accepted!  They had us leave $50 USD with our WC to cover the cost of them shipping everything to us via FedEx.  We can’t wait for them to arrive! Here’s a tip… a friend of ours was able to borrow a really high quality camera from a friend of hers to bring to the wedding, so we had her take some “getting ready” shots before the ceremony and she took a bunch of pics during the reception.  A real money saver!

 

Here’s a tip… Now I’m no dainty bride, haha! I’m gonna give you the real scoop…  You may want to have one of your guests or MOH/Bridesmaids carry with them some of those Wet Ones Wipes and some deodorant.  After the little bit of pre-ceremony anxiousness/excitement, and the humidity during the ceremony and pictures, we arrived back to our group for the reception, and my pits were pretty ripe! Haha! Would’ve been nice to have been able to quickly jet into the bathroom to wipe down and reapply some fresh deodorant J

 

We chose the Mariachi Band and our guests thought it was such a great touch to the wedding. We had the Mariachi Band begin playing after we were announced husband and wife and they played as we walked back down the aisle together.  They then did a set during the cocktail hour for our guests. Our guests told us the cocktail hour was good..we arrived back from pictures at the end of it and took our seats out on the terrace for meal service to begin.  This is when I started noticing the extras that we got!  We had brought our own chair sashes and napkins.  There were a few extras, so I had told Cecilia during our meeting that maybe she could tie some of the extras sashes on the pillars of the gazebo.  She did, but we also had flower arrangements on the gazebo pillars that she threw in for free! There were also extra centerpieces! We had a group of 23 of us and we didn’t want a sweetheart table, we wanted to be seated with our guests, so we did 1 long table and sat in the center on one side, so I figured the 2 centerpieces that came with the package would be enough, but she also put out bowls filled with sand and shells on the table…it all looked great!  She also placed groupings of round paper lanterns in clusters on the floor around the terrace area.  They were held down with a sand-filled water bottle inside them. After the wedding, the floral centerpieces were delivered to our room.

 

 

 

For dinner we had the Two Hearts Salad, Parmantier Soup (potato-leek soup), Dreams Trilogy entrée and the Peach Tartlet.  Everybody loved the food and the presentation was beautiful.  We had one child at our wedding, a 3 year old.  The kids' menu choices were a burger, chicken fingers or mac 'n cheese.  He went for the mac 'n cheese, but don't order this.  It was literally a plate full of penne pasta topped with nacho cheese...yes, the kind of cheese that comes on nachos at a sporting event or carnival.  He ate of his parents' plates and didn't touch the mac 'n cheese.  I had read other reviews stating that vanilla wedding cake was a bit too sweet, so I switched to the Mexican Tres de Leche (three milk cake) and it was amazing!!!  Super moist and not too sweet.

 

 

I had 1.5 hours of “dinner music” on our iPod followed by 1.5 hours of dance music, all the technician had to do was press play.  The dinner music ended at the perfect time just after we had cut and served the cake, and the first 2 songs of our dance music started…that’s when I noticed our best freebie!!!  The songs were being mixed together and a few extras that weren’t on my playlist were being played… I think we got a free DJ!!!  Here’s why I think we got him…  our reception was on the terrace from about 2-5pm.  We noticed they were setting up the gazebo for a 4pm wedding and I immediately went over to Cecilia and told her we could turn down/off our music for their ceremony.  She said she would have him turn it down but that they wouldn’t be able to hear it at the gazebo, but I insisted.  I would’ve felt bad if that bride was hearing the Black Eyed Peas and people hootin’ and hollerin’ during her vows  J  So I think that they paid for a DJ and Cecilia may have just had him come early and cover our reception! I think he was looking at what we had on our playlist and was playing them from his system.  It really made a difference and sounded a lot better than if we had just used the iPod.  We watched the other wedding ceremony and cheered for them as they walked down the aisle, then our party got re-started…nobody minded the short pause at all!  Everybody was in such a happy celebration mode that we thought it was fun to celebrate another wedding, and I am not one of those brides that thinks it is all about “MY day”. Since we put our party on hold for 20 minutes or so, they gave us that extra time and our reception went until past 5:30  J

 

--Small sidenote… I actually passed by that other bride later that evening at the resort and she immediately pointed at me and yelled “most gracious bride ever!”  I went up to her and she thanked me and said it was soooo nice of me to turn off my music for her ceremony and she felt bad we had to stop our party.  I told her I was the one that felt bad because I didn’t know there was going to be another wedding going on nearby.  It was a happy/funny moment with 2 brides in their wedding dresses! We hugged and congratulated each other! It was a pretty awesome moment as our girlfriends watched us!--

 

When the dance music came on, a friend of ours asked one of the waiters for a round of shots for everybody...he’s kind of our “get the party started” friend.  And the waiters kept the shots coming! Everybody was dancing and having a blast!  Then a guy came out with a big black garbage bag and started handing out long skinny balloons to everyone.  We all must’ve been happily drunk because I have never seen grown adults get so excited over balloons…just another surprise Cecilia added in!  We were all waving them around as we danced, people were making hats with them…even an impromptu limbo line got created out of balloons! 

 

Here’s a tip…If you are hiring a DJ, you may want to ask them if they have the edited versions of the songs you want played.  My friend loves the song “Tipsy” by J-Kwon, so I went to ask the DJ if he had it and he said he did…all of a sudden it begins playing and rather than hearing “everybody in this club getting tipsy”, we hear “everybody in this b*#ch getting tipsy”.  It was near the end of the reception so our older family members were too drunk to notice and they don’t know the song, so they didn’t know the words anyways…but if that would’ve been played early on, I’m sure someone would’ve noticed J

 

We had a bartender and 2 waiters.  We gave them a little over $30 each for tip and gave the DJ $50 since we hadn’t even paid for him.  They were all very grateful and happy with those amounts.

 

After the reception we gathered at Rendez-vous, the lobby bar.  Some people went to get a little dinner and then we continued the party that night at Desires, the bar/music lounge that is next door to Dreams and is part of the all-inclusive.  They have a DJ nightly that starts around 10pm or so.  By that time, our family members were tired and called it a night, but us and our friends headed over there and danced and sang every song until past midnight.  I had so much fun singing every lyric as we danced that I sort of lost my voice the next day...it was pretty hoarse! But totally worth it!  All day everybody was telling us it was the best wedding ever and they were so glad they were able to make it.  We completely agreed. For us, it couldn’t have been a better day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXTRAS

Ring Bearer Bowl:I thought a small wood bowl seemed more fitting than a lacy pillow.  I found the bowl at Cost Plus World Market and I actually brought orange ribbon to tie the rings together in case our ring bearer dropped them, but I ended up tying them together with the orange ribbon with shells on it from the room! Housekeeping ties your washcloths together with this ribbon and ties it around the toilet paper roll too…kinda funny that I used that..but it looked perfect! Haha!

 

 

Chair Sashes and Napkins: Ordered from www.weddinglinensdirect.com…they were cheaper than paying the Dreams price for them and they arrived in flat packaging that took barely any room to pack in my suitcase.

 

Menus:Ordered from www.Minted.com…they have a great selection and I plan to order our Thank-You cards from them as well.

 

 

Wedding Favors:We ordered customized shot glasses for our guests from www.DiscountMugs.com.

 

 

BikiniBottoms: www.customizedgirl.com