2227 replies to this topic

[cristina2011]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all your posts and info!! This site is unreal!!!

I'm a newbie--just checking out the reviews on Dreams PV. We had hoped to get married in Punta Cana, where my fiance proposed this past April, but the price is astronomical so we're shifting our focus to the Pacific!!

I'm hoping to find some pics of beach weddings at Dreams. I've seen the gazebo set up, but not many pics of those actually on the beach. Also, does anyone know what the town surrounding the resort is like?? I would like for some wedding shots with a little more character, in addition to the beachy ones.

Thanks all!

[KarenM]

Thanks Aut!!

Cristina, we got married on the beach just over a week ago. Here are some non-pro pics.

basic beach set-up (not totally finished - they finished tying the side panels to the chuppah poles and we had rose petals on the aisle runner)



We brought aqua capiz shell curtains that Rebeca hung up for the ceremony.



I left my shoes optional sign there with Rebeca for future brides & a couple brushes, though some were stolen, & I think the beach mat might've been taken too.



And the city of Puerto Vallarta is really beautiful & so much fun! We went into town for the first 1/2 of our TTD session the next day & while I don't have pics back from that yet I'll post some I took while walking around earlier in the week.






The Banderas News site also has a bunch of pics of town to scroll through.
Photo Gallery - Pictures of Puerto Vallarta Mexico

Hope that helps!

[allyson779]

Karen- you looked so beautiful!!!! Loved looking at your photos... gets me so excited. I am also having my ceremony on the beach in front of Oceana.

On a side note:
I was curious from past brides... did you set up a rehearsal with Rebeca (or your coordinator) to go over the ceremony?

Also, I know there are tons of general time lines throughout the forum, but I was wondering if any past brides had one that went over specific times for the ceremony and reception? For example at what time to start playing the music for the ceremony, walking down the aisle, cocktail hour,serving dinner, cutting the cake, first dance, toasts, etc?

Thanks so much for all your help

[mzbmbastic]

I found this statment on the dreams website. Is this true? How hard was it to request a English speaking officate. Also overall how did you think the officiate did?

from dreams website
Is it performed in English or Spanish?
•Most ceremonies are performed in Spanish however, if you are lucky, the officiate may speak English.

[allyson779]

I don't think it's too hard to find someone to perform the ceremony in English. If you are worried about it you can do what we are doing.... have our legal ceremony in the states and have a close friend or family member perform the ceremony.

[simplnsweet]

Thanks Autumn and Karen for the suggestions. Karen the pics so far look great. I look forward to your review.

[autjo]

Welcome mzbmbastic: The lady who performed our ceremony spoke perfect English. She was sooo nice and everyone thought we had hired her ourselves. Shoot an email to your coordinator to see who would be assigned to your ceremony.

Allyson: I put my timeline in the OOT booklet and here's the thread. We ended up modifying a bit due to weather so I listed what we actually did below.
http://bestdestinati....booklet-59470/

3:45-4 - seating of parents, entrance of attendants
4 - groom entrance
4:05 - bride entrance
4:10-4:30 - ceremony
4:35 - group pic at gazebo
4:40-5 - family pics on the beach, cocktail hour for other guests
5-6 - cocktail hour, we joined our guests from 5-5:30
5:30-6:30 - ttd style pics on the beach, cocktail hour for other guests
6:30 - bride and groom entrance to the party
6:30-7:30 - dinner
7:15 - tequila toast by groom
7:20 - champagne toast by bride
7:30-8 - cake
8-8:15 - first dance, father/bride, mother/groom
8:15-9:15 - dancing
9:15 - garter and bouqeut toss
9:15 - 10:30 - dancing
10 - got complaints that we were too loud
10:30 - Dreams is pretty strict about ending parties at 10:30... the entertainment team actually showed up and offered to take everyone to the bars. they do this every night, but it was nice that they knew we were done partying and come over to the terrace
10:45 - exited down the stairs
10:46 - ran back up the stairs hi fiving the guests and then jumped in the pool
10:47-11 - a bunch of guests jumped in the pool too and security showed up
11-11:30 - went back to our room for some "alone" time and to change
11:30-12 - partied at the lobby bar until they kicked us out
12-1 - partied at the sports bar until they kicked us out
1-2 - hung outside the sports bar until everyone went to their rooms and crashed

[KarenM]

Autumn, you guys are hilarious! I love the blow-by-blow with jumping in pools, security showing up & you guys closing all the bars. Too funny.


We had Lucie Aubert perform our ceremony. She is super sweet, her English is perfect & she did a wonderful job. We were both thrilled! I had emailed our ceremony script to Rebeca a couple weeks before we went and asked if it'd be OK for the officiant to use it & she said that was fine, but we didn't actually know who we were having until Tuesday when we met with Rebeca. They also have a couple stock ceremonies in case you don't want to write your own.

Allyson, Rebeca asked if we wanted to do a rehearsal/run-through the day before, but we passed. We didn't think it was necessary and we figured it'd all work out fine. If you want one, though, Rebeca's happy to accommodate you.

As far as our timeline, when we met with Rebeca we just gave her a general idea of what we wanted when and she took it from there. Although we knew we would be pressed for time, we were pretty laid back about it and everything worked out perfectly.

Our ceremony was scheduled for 6.
5:45 - DJ started prelude music while guests got seated.
5:45ish - P & the groomsmen came out.
6:00, or maybe 5 after, the bridesmaids walked down, then our 3 flower children, then me & my parents. The ceremony lasted maybe 25-30 minutes & then we had everyone stay for a group photo.
6:30-6:45 - families & bridal party stayed for more pics while the rest of the guests went to the cocktail hour.
We did pics for like 1/2 hr - 45 min & then around 7:15 we went to the end of the cocktail hour.
7:30-45 - dinner started. Sometime during dinner P's brother & 2 of my bridesmaids made speeches.
8:30ish - cake cutting, which Rebeca announced for us (totally recommend asking her to do this).
8:45ish - first dance (Rebeca let the DJ know to transition from the cake-cutting song to first dance song)
After the 1st dance we sat down for a minute to eat some cake (delish!!), then the dancing started and we ended just after 10:30.
Autumn's not joking - the DJ played the last song at like 10:30 and that was it.

(we didn't do father-daughter / mother-son dances or bouquet/garter tosses)

Afterward P & I went down to the beach & shared a cigar with a couple friends & then met everyone at the sports bar (which really is more of a dance club). A couple people had their ipods so we used the bar's hookup to play tons of different dance music and we were there til around 1:30.

[tlc9b]

I just joined this site and am getting married at Dreams, PV on May 21, 2011. I'm using Dazzling Details as my wedding coordinator and am trying to decide on a photographer. Does anyone have any suggestions? We don't necessarily need to keep it super cheap but don't want to spend an extraordinary amount either. Maybe somewhere in-between? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

Tyler

[allyson779]

Thank you so much Autumn and Karen... you guys are the best! This was exactly what I was looking for. thanks again =)