DREAMS PUERTO VALLARTA "thread"

[1elephant]

hey girls! i've been so so so busy lately, but you can always pm me. i'll answer any ?s to the best of my ability, but remember that my wedding was 2008, and i worked w/ gaby. i also had a private function...however, you can always try to manoeuvre diana by saying you know a bride who yadda yadda. you can also tell them that they still have my decorations and stuff......but anyway...

 

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Originally Posted by janellepo Well I will be getting married at Dreams in less than 2 months as well! AHHH!! Over the past month I have been trying and trying to get in touch with WC Diana, but of course she has only gotten back to me now (after I sent 3 follow up emails!)   It seems that when Gaby was the WC she told me some things that are not apparently true...ARGH! We are also trying to keep the cost of the wedding down (which is why we are going to Mexico in the first place), and Gaby had said that she would be able to get us a CD player for the ceremony and now Diana is telling me that I have to rent the sound system. this was true for me; i had the cd player and microphone for free during the ceremony. if you have it in writing from gaby, then diana has to give it to youBesides that, we have decided to just take our 25 guests to the restaurant in the hotel for our reception dinner (even if there are no reservations) since we are ALL staying there, and then book a dj for 2 hours after. Diana had given me the fee which is fine, but now she is telling me that we cannot book the dj without paying for a private function!!! i would assume it's b/c they need a place to set up the dj booth. however, if you get the wedding package, free or otherwise, it should be a private function. that being said, if you do use the wedding package, you'd be paying for the guests to eat. I don't know how to handle this? Does anyone have any ideas what we could do after the restaurant dinner (so that we can have our dance)? Someone was saying that they go to PV often? Should we take our group elsewhere after? Or do you think we should just mingle in the bar after dinner? My sister told me that I could take her laptop along...so maybe I should purchase some speakers?   BTW, has anyone filled out the judge form? There is a part about occupation and monthly income...why do they need to know this?! I don't think I'm going to put it on the form. What are you ladies doing?

i only had a spiritual wedding there, so i can't really help you w/ that.....but i'm sure you can ask someone else who was married in mexico - shouldn't the paperwork be similar?

 

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Originally Posted by Jenn6603 We were hoping to go the CD player (or laptop or iPod with good speakers) and were told that we could not do that as well... I found out that the reason for this is that the speakers that people generally bring do not fare well in the outdoors (they are not loud enough - they may be fine for indoors, but outdoors, where sound travels, its a completely different story)... That may be why they are suggesting that a DJ is important...you're right - the sound definitely wouldn't carry outside. the waves alone are so loud   As far as the private function part, I am wondering if they are saying that because they need a specific area for the DJ to set up? Not sure...   I know someone had mentioned that there is a bar in the resort (if I recall its downstairs or something) and apparently not all that busy - if that is the case, why not just have your crew go there for the dance?? I am sure that whoever is playing the music there could play a special song for you... Lauren may know more about that - she was married there earlier this year...   there are several bars at the resort. the sports bar, which is downstairs (and it smells bad on the way down there, but not inside) is usually pretty empty. we went there after our rehearsal dinner and we were the only ones. we were pretty much the only ones there each night, w/ the exception of a couple here or there. most people hang out at the cigar bar, which is probably a better spot atmosphere-wise, but it'll probably be too crowded and idk if there's music. the music in the sports bar was ok...pretty much a cd on repeat. idk if it's worth chancing it, but there's a possibility that you could hand one of the bartenders a few cds (and a few bucks) and ask them to play them for you.... you could also ask diana if this is a possibility - if she says no, you could ask her if she can play your wedding song there, and then go back to the normal cds, and THEN see if you can bribe the bartender. ALSO - find out if it's open b/c of the renovations!!   Jenn

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Originally Posted by janellepo Hi Heather, So, are you having a reception? Or are you just showing up at a restaurant as a group? Where were you planning to play your music afterward? I think I will just have to PM Lauren and find out what would work out best I think we are both really disappointed right now and I think we need to have a deep breath and do some positive thinking!!! It's not the wedding it's the marriage...even though a really nice wedding would be a HUGE bonus!!! At least, that is what I keep telling myself. I have to say that I am so grateful for this forum, otherwise I don't think I would have any hair left!! LOL

idk if i've said it elsewhere, but if you show up at the restaurant as a group during peak hours (6-10, pretty much), odds are, it'll take awhile to seat you, you won't be seated together and you may not get great service, depending on who your servers are. they don't really like big groups. the first night everyone was there, the adults (lol, b/c i'm not one) decided to go to portofino, which is where we wound up. at 9:30, there were 22 of us altogether, sitting at 4 tables (4, 4, 6, 8 ppl) all over the restaurant. we didn't care if we sat together, but it wasn't my wedding night. w/o meaning to be, we were loud - what group wouldn't be?! the manager was annoyed w/ us and brought out food as fast as possible. we didn't care, and by the time we left, most other people had as well.

if you ask why they won't seat you together, they'll tell you something along the lines of how big groups demand so much more work, it's hard for the wait staff, and difficult to explain to other paying patrons.

 

my own opinion - if you can swing it, go private. my whole wedding wound up being just a little more $ than i really wanted - mostly b/c of the travel costs and diy stuff that i took it upon myself to do - but it's your wedding...it's not worth the hassle of chancing things like music and seating. if you can't swing private, just bring bribe money with you and hope that all goes your way!

[sarahLambert08]

ok, so get a private function, have a D.j. got It!

Thanks, I just wanted to ask ya'll what your doing for wedding favors and table deco?? how were the flowers there? I still haven't choosen a wedding color cuz I'm just not sure what to expect? :{

 

i am really worried about not being in the new tower, my TA said they can request it but it's never a guarentee. WTF!! I want confirmation! LOL, Really though how did it work out for you in the new tower? was it just a request for you or did they GUARENTEE it??

K, also, why is Promovision so cheap? Too good to be true...Please Help! Sarah

[1elephant]

i asked for gerber daisies and got beautiful ones. i didn't want anything elaborate.

we paid for a jr. suite, so were guaranteed the new tower b/c those rooms don't exist in the old tower. if you're bringing a lot of guests w/ you, you should be able to get them to guarantee your room in the new tower.

[Jenn6603]

Hey Sarah,

 

We are in the same boat as you - our tour operator will not guarantee us rooms in the preferred tower... who are you going through? Signature? With Signature they could not offer us jr. suites, only request them (I think it really is a crock but that is a whole other post!)

 

I have contacted the resort about upgrading but they want about $125 a night to upgrade - again, I think that is ridiculous...

 

From the reading I have done, if the resort does have availability in the club tower, they will offer an upgrade at check-in (possibly for nothing to the bridge and groom)... I have heard that they will make the offer... if you hum and hah about it, they will drop their per night price - I have heard that some folks have received the upgrade for $50 per night...

 

We have just decided to chance it and hope we get an upgrade...

 

As far as the flowers go, I have see Lauren's pics and they are gorgeous! Diana also sent me a bunch of pics of the bouquet choices - they are very nice but the gerbers are my fave... feel free to pm me if you want any further info...

 

For favors, I am going to get stuff when I get to PV - since we only have about 30 people, I can easily find something fun in the market...

 

Its tough to relax when there are so many things that you are uncertain about - I had my major panics about a month or so ago! I just realized that I am going there to get married... my guests are going there to see me get married... in the end, nobody is really going to care what the flowers looked like, what the centrepieces were, etc...

 

Jenn

[1elephant]

jenn, i paid for the jr. suite upgrade. our ta upgraded us to a jr. suite w/ jacuzzi and they still gave us a hard time. so my assumption is that unless you pay for it, you won't be upgraded from a reg. deluxe room to a jr. suite.

[Jenn6603]

Hey Lauren,

 

Thanks for the info...

 

The problem we ran into was our tour operator (Signature Vacations Canada) would not even offer us a choice... it was deluxe room only - even if we had wanted to pay for the fanciest room at the resort, they would not do it for us... unfortunately, this information was not clearly provided to our travel agent from the operator... we were told that the jr suite could be requested but once we had the booking done, we were advised that this was not the case... (I have a feeling Sarah has run into a similar situation). Our TA had requested the jr suite but has told us it is not guaranteed...

 

I am totally willing to pay for an upgrade but will wait until we arrive at the resort - it is too hard to negotiate with them via email

 

My problem does not lie with the resort, it is with the tour operator - they have been the least favourite part of my whole planning process!

 

Jenn

[janellepo]

We are also with Signature and our flight times are atrocious!!! We don't leave the saturday until 5:30pm, and get in at midnight...going home on the sunday are okay times, but when you look at it all together people are paying for a 7 day holiday and only actually getting 6 days. This ticked me off about Signature.

 

Anyway, with all of this construction at dreams and getting a new WC half way through...Diana is the new coordinator, (she doesn't even get back to me), we were literally on the verge of switching hotels altogether.

I spoke with my TA and she assured us that because we are with Signature our rooms will be there for us and we don't have to worry about getting bumped (which is what I have been hearing, due to the construction on the club tower). She also told us that we could switch to the Grand Marival with no penalty, but after alot of searching on the net, apparently their WC isn't any better... however in their free package they include dinner reservations for your group, which is what I wanted at Dreams but they won't allow it.

 

After much thought we decided to stay at dreams and just have our reception dinner at LeKliff.

 

Has anyone been there?

[J&MWedding]

Hi Kathy,

I would love Teresa's info. We will probably have 40-50 people and I'm almost positive everyone will want to stay at the same place, so I'm assuming we will need about 30 rooms or so.

You said if you book 30 rooms, the bride/grooms room is free? That is for the whole week? Just curious.

When it comes down to it, I'm not worried about us, I just want to make it as easy as possible for all the guests so they come!

 

Thanks!

Jill

[Nitnylyin1]

hey ladies,

just a thought but maybe the reason you are having difficulty getting quotes and reservations or room blocks on the new tower is because it is currently closed. Undergoing renovations and not expected to be open til end of Nov. By the way, as a soon to be Dreams bride I have had most difficulty contacting people at Dreams, my TA has also. Diana has just recently started emailing me back in a prompt fashion. I am pretty skeptical about these people right now. I am praying things go OK for my wedding in a month.

[janellepo]

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Originally Posted by Nitnylyin1 hey ladies, just a thought but maybe the reason you are having difficulty getting quotes and reservations or room blocks on the new tower is because it is currently closed. Undergoing renovations and not expected to be open til end of Nov. By the way, as a soon to be Dreams bride I have had most difficulty contacting people at Dreams, my TA has also. Diana has just recently started emailing me back in a prompt fashion. I am pretty skeptical about these people right now. I am praying things go OK for my wedding in a month.

I am in the same boat as you! I have yet to hear any definitive answers from Diana so I have emailed the hotel manager to voice our concerns, and to verify that we in-fact have rooms to go to. Hopefully I will hear something soon. We decided to have our wedding reception dinner at Le Kliff, with every email I have sent to him I have gotten an answer the very next day, I almost wish we just got married there instead! Oh well, the important part will be walking down to my FH whether we have the right flowers and music!! It's just sooo frustrating!!