Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[Nicole2013]

Question for those that have done the Ultimate package.  For the menu options for the sit down dinner Number 1, 2, etc it gives 2 entree choices and says "or".  Do the guests get to select one of those 2 options there or do I have to select 1 for them to have and they get no choice?

[cmi1205]

Originally Posted by ahall5665 

 

My hubby and I were married November 8^th at Dreams Riviera Cancun, we had 30 guests and this resort was perfect! The resort is beautiful and exactly what we were looking forward. The grounds were nicely kept and the service and food we excellent. The beach was beautiful, its great for long walks, a few of our guests even walked to Puerto Morelos to do some shopping which was about 40 min walk each way. Every night the lobby had live music which all of our guests enjoyed, several nights we went to Desires Lounge which wasnt too exciting but we made it fun. All of the restaurants were great and so was the room service which we used on several occasions.

 

We used Olympus Tours for our guest’s airport transfers and our travel agent prearranged them all beforehand. I definitely recommend doing this as some of our guests had never traveled out of the country and it made their transition to the resort very simple. Olympus was on time and professional.

 

My husband and I had private check in since we booked the Honeymoon Suite…the rest of our guests checked in through the lobby counter and none of them seemed to have any issues. Even though the resort was almost completely full majority of people’s rooms were ready upon check in. Most of our guests booked oceanview rooms, which was definitely worth the upgrade IF the location of the oceanview room is good. A few guests were unhappy with the location of their room and they were quickly changed to a room that provided a better oceanview. The resort was very accommodating to this. The rooms are very nice and all of our guests complimented on our nice and clean they were. We booked the honeymoon suite for ourselves as we wanted to be oceanfront and hoped to get upgraded to the next lever (master suite) for free as most wedding couples do. The honeymoon suite was nice, had a great oceanfront view. After a few days we got upgraded to the master suite which was wonderful and really big. It was perfect for me and all my bridesmaids to get ready in!

 

My hair was done by my sister, shes a hair stylist, but my bridesmaids had their hair done at the resort salon and most of them were happy with it although they used a little too much hairspray. I hired Fernado Fuentes to do my make up, he was recommended on this site. I was worried about having the resort salon do my make up so I gave my hair/makeup included in the ultimate package to my mom which she loved! Fernado was great to work with, he’s a little expensive but it was worth it.

 

We got the Ultimate Package as it made the most sense for us. Lorena our wedding coordinator for the most part was great to work with. We met her for the first time on our site visit in April and although email responses often took a while once we got there for the wedding we were able to meet with her and discuss all the details. We bought our own chair bows and tablecloths as well as some other decorations and gave them all to Lorena, there was no extra charge for them putting these out. Even though they generally don’t allow different style chairs at Seaside Grill for our reception they made an exception and let us have the white garden style chairs which I was extremely happy with! Lorena was great on the wedding day and made sure everything was flawless. We were extremely happy with how everything turned out, it was better than I could of ever imagined!  

 

We had our ceremony on North Beach at 3:30pm as recommend by Anel our photographer as this would provide the best sunlight for pictures. To future brides getting married this time of year, I would recommend doing the ceremony maybe at 3-3:15 instead just to ensure you have enough sunlight and don’t feel rushed, we sort of felt we had to hurry to get all our pictures before it got dark.  Overall Anel was great to work with except she was late getting to my room and then never made it to my husbands room to get pictures of him and his groomsman getting ready, which I had discussed with her before hand and told her we definitely wanted. We are pretty disappointed about this. She also didn’t get any pictures of our ceremony set up until guests were there and all seated, which I would of liked to have. During the wedding she was good to work with and got any pictures we asked for. We got photo package 4…we wanted to do the TTD included with this package a different day than the wedding day which she was very accommodating about! We honeymooned at Zoetry and Anel recommended doing our TTD there as the resort would be a change of scenery. The beach at the Zoetry had TONS of seaweed, the sand by the water was covered and tons of it in the water to the point we didn’t even want to go in the water. But the rest of the sand was beautiful so we took most of the pictures there. Anel did a great job of taking the pictures so the seaweed wasn’t in the pictures. The only thing I wish Anel would of gotten more close up pictures of my husband and I, they are all pretty far away. But I am hoping once we get the cd with the images we can crop them to be a closer up.

 

We used the videographer included with the ultimate package, after hearing some bad reviews of the quality we decided to upgrade the video to HD for about $300. We haven’t gotten our video yet so can’t review the quality.

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi which was perfect, everyone loved the food and the mariachi band! We missed 90% of it as we were busy taking pictures.

 

Our reception was at 6:30pm at the Seaside Grill and we paid an extra $15 pp to extend it an extra hour which my husband didn’t want to do before the wedding but afterward he is SO happy I talked him into it. It was totally worth the extra money, we were having the best time ever and would have been disappointed to have it end at 9:30pm. The Seaside Grill in my opinion is the best location to hold the reception…its covered but still open air so you get a nice breeze but its not too windy.  We weren’t too hot or too cold it was perfect all night! It was a good size for the amount of people we had (32 with my husband and I) but could definitely accommodate a larger group as well. We didn’t pay any extra for having the reception at Seaside Grill. We choose to do the buffet as it offered the best variety of food and would be quicker than a sit down dinner. Everyone complimented on how great the food was! We picked the Caribbean Buffet and made a few changes which was no problem and it turned out great. The wait staff at the reception were excellent!

 

We used the DJ at the resort and he was great! He did our ceremony as well as reception and did a fabulous job. He played the songs we wanted and also made sure not to play the ones I didn’t want. He kept the party going all night it was great! Everything about the reception was perfect, we have a bit of a rowdy crowd of friends and everyone danced the night away. After the reception we all went to Desires Lounge and kept the party going which was a lot of fun!

 

Overall the wedding day was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of and the wedding team at Dreams really made everything perfect! I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone and we will be going back for sure!

 

Below is our slideshow!

 

http://081112carter.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Beautiful! Thanks for all the details and helpful info. Congrats!!

[cmi1205]

Originally Posted by ahall5665 

 

My hubby and I were married November 8^th at Dreams Riviera Cancun, we had 30 guests and this resort was perfect! The resort is beautiful and exactly what we were looking forward. The grounds were nicely kept and the service and food we excellent. The beach was beautiful, its great for long walks, a few of our guests even walked to Puerto Morelos to do some shopping which was about 40 min walk each way. Every night the lobby had live music which all of our guests enjoyed, several nights we went to Desires Lounge which wasnt too exciting but we made it fun. All of the restaurants were great and so was the room service which we used on several occasions.

 

We used Olympus Tours for our guest’s airport transfers and our travel agent prearranged them all beforehand. I definitely recommend doing this as some of our guests had never traveled out of the country and it made their transition to the resort very simple. Olympus was on time and professional.

 

My husband and I had private check in since we booked the Honeymoon Suite…the rest of our guests checked in through the lobby counter and none of them seemed to have any issues. Even though the resort was almost completely full majority of people’s rooms were ready upon check in. Most of our guests booked oceanview rooms, which was definitely worth the upgrade IF the location of the oceanview room is good. A few guests were unhappy with the location of their room and they were quickly changed to a room that provided a better oceanview. The resort was very accommodating to this. The rooms are very nice and all of our guests complimented on our nice and clean they were. We booked the honeymoon suite for ourselves as we wanted to be oceanfront and hoped to get upgraded to the next lever (master suite) for free as most wedding couples do. The honeymoon suite was nice, had a great oceanfront view. After a few days we got upgraded to the master suite which was wonderful and really big. It was perfect for me and all my bridesmaids to get ready in!

 

My hair was done by my sister, shes a hair stylist, but my bridesmaids had their hair done at the resort salon and most of them were happy with it although they used a little too much hairspray. I hired Fernado Fuentes to do my make up, he was recommended on this site. I was worried about having the resort salon do my make up so I gave my hair/makeup included in the ultimate package to my mom which she loved! Fernado was great to work with, he’s a little expensive but it was worth it.

 

We got the Ultimate Package as it made the most sense for us. Lorena our wedding coordinator for the most part was great to work with. We met her for the first time on our site visit in April and although email responses often took a while once we got there for the wedding we were able to meet with her and discuss all the details. We bought our own chair bows and tablecloths as well as some other decorations and gave them all to Lorena, there was no extra charge for them putting these out. Even though they generally don’t allow different style chairs at Seaside Grill for our reception they made an exception and let us have the white garden style chairs which I was extremely happy with! Lorena was great on the wedding day and made sure everything was flawless. We were extremely happy with how everything turned out, it was better than I could of ever imagined!  

 

We had our ceremony on North Beach at 3:30pm as recommend by Anel our photographer as this would provide the best sunlight for pictures. To future brides getting married this time of year, I would recommend doing the ceremony maybe at 3-3:15 instead just to ensure you have enough sunlight and don’t feel rushed, we sort of felt we had to hurry to get all our pictures before it got dark.  Overall Anel was great to work with except she was late getting to my room and then never made it to my husbands room to get pictures of him and his groomsman getting ready, which I had discussed with her before hand and told her we definitely wanted. We are pretty disappointed about this. She also didn’t get any pictures of our ceremony set up until guests were there and all seated, which I would of liked to have. During the wedding she was good to work with and got any pictures we asked for. We got photo package 4…we wanted to do the TTD included with this package a different day than the wedding day which she was very accommodating about! We honeymooned at Zoetry and Anel recommended doing our TTD there as the resort would be a change of scenery. The beach at the Zoetry had TONS of seaweed, the sand by the water was covered and tons of it in the water to the point we didn’t even want to go in the water. But the rest of the sand was beautiful so we took most of the pictures there. Anel did a great job of taking the pictures so the seaweed wasn’t in the pictures. The only thing I wish Anel would of gotten more close up pictures of my husband and I, they are all pretty far away. But I am hoping once we get the cd with the images we can crop them to be a closer up.

 

We used the videographer included with the ultimate package, after hearing some bad reviews of the quality we decided to upgrade the video to HD for about $300. We haven’t gotten our video yet so can’t review the quality.

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi which was perfect, everyone loved the food and the mariachi band! We missed 90% of it as we were busy taking pictures.

 

Our reception was at 6:30pm at the Seaside Grill and we paid an extra $15 pp to extend it an extra hour which my husband didn’t want to do before the wedding but afterward he is SO happy I talked him into it. It was totally worth the extra money, we were having the best time ever and would have been disappointed to have it end at 9:30pm. The Seaside Grill in my opinion is the best location to hold the reception…its covered but still open air so you get a nice breeze but its not too windy.  We weren’t too hot or too cold it was perfect all night! It was a good size for the amount of people we had (32 with my husband and I) but could definitely accommodate a larger group as well. We didn’t pay any extra for having the reception at Seaside Grill. We choose to do the buffet as it offered the best variety of food and would be quicker than a sit down dinner. Everyone complimented on how great the food was! We picked the Caribbean Buffet and made a few changes which was no problem and it turned out great. The wait staff at the reception were excellent!

 

We used the DJ at the resort and he was great! He did our ceremony as well as reception and did a fabulous job. He played the songs we wanted and also made sure not to play the ones I didn’t want. He kept the party going all night it was great! Everything about the reception was perfect, we have a bit of a rowdy crowd of friends and everyone danced the night away. After the reception we all went to Desires Lounge and kept the party going which was a lot of fun!

 

Overall the wedding day was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of and the wedding team at Dreams really made everything perfect! I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone and we will be going back for sure!

 

Below is our slideshow!

 

http://081112carter.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Beautiful! Thanks for all the details and helpful info.! Congrats

[Laurbee03]

Originally Posted by Nicole2013 

 

Question for those that have done the Ultimate package.  For the menu options for the sit down dinner Number 1, 2, etc it gives 2 entree choices and says "or".  Do the guests get to select one of those 2 options there or do I have to select 1 for them to have and they get no choice?

 They first told me that I have to select just one entree and everyone eats the same thing unless someone has a food allgery but I told them I didnt want everyone eating just one entree. Gina finally said I could have my guests pick between 2 different entrees as long as I gave her the final count 30 days prior to my arrival. That ended up being perfect and the selections we choose, the seabass and the provolone stuff chicken were fantastic!

[Jendev]

I'm trying to budget out our wedding... I was wondering if they add on any fees besides the 11% tax on everything. I really need to stay on top of our budget and am curious.

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by Jendev 

 

I'm trying to budget out our wedding... I was wondering if they add on any fees besides the 11% tax on everything. I really need to stay on top of our budget and am curious.

 

There is a 15% service fee on things like dinner, cake, champagne... Things that require a server.

[Jendev]

There is a 15% service fee on things like dinner, cake, champagne... Things that require a server.

Oh ok thanks! Is the 15% on top of the 11% or is the 11% for things like the photographer and dj? Thanks for your help!

[loripanori]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurbee03 

 They first told me that I have to select just one entree and everyone eats the same thing unless someone has a food allgery but I told them I didnt want everyone eating just one entree. Gina finally said I could have my guests pick between 2 different entrees as long as I gave her the final count 30 days prior to my arrival. That ended up being perfect and the selections we choose, the seabass and the provolone stuff chicken were fantastic!

 

Oh this is good to know!  I just assumed everyone would have the choice between the two entrees.  Hopefully we will be able to work this out with the wedding planner like you did, so that our guests have a choice.  We have one strict vegetarian coming as well, so hopefully that is not a problem.  Does anyone know if there is any flexibility in the soup/appetizer/salad that comes with the meals?  My fiance and I don't eat seafood or fish, and there's a whole lot of that on the menus.  If we pick the number we like based on the entree, I think all three appetizer items had seafood in them!  Also, I hear a lot of people talking about the buffet and/or carribean buffet.  Do you need a minimum number of people for this option?    

[loripanori]

For those who opted out of the cocktail hour - what happens to the champagne (sparkling wine) toast that is included in the package?  I had assumed that would be after the ceremony / at the start of the cocktail hour, but maybe it is later during the reception?  Just wondering if you still did this without having a cocktail hour, and if so, when.

Thanks!!    

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by loripanori 

 

For those who opted out of the cocktail hour - what happens to the champagne (sparkling wine) toast that is included in the package?  I had assumed that would be after the ceremony / at the start of the cocktail hour, but maybe it is later during the reception?  Just wondering if you still did this without having a cocktail hour, and if so, when.

Thanks!!    

 

We are not having a formal cocktail hour, but are still having the champagne. They do the champagne at the very end of the ceremony after you walk back down the aisle.