Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[soon2BMrs.Prince]

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Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl You don't have to rent the furniture but you have to pay for the labor of moving it. I don't know what that price is. I'm sure it varies. Where are you thinking of having the cocktail hour?

I have no clue, originally when i saw the DRC website I really liked the beach location and the set up on there. The only problem with this is space on the beach. It already looks a little tight with all the palapas and chairs. I plan on having a beach ceremony so a change of scenery would be nice. Did Ana suggest where the cocktail hour could take place?

[soon2BMrs.Prince]

Oh btw, does anyone know if kids are included in the head count? They clearly don't eat as much as adults and will not partake in the international bar :-) Just curious.

[soon2BMrs.Prince]

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Originally Posted by Laura22610 The suit is really nice. In fact,when we took it to get altered, the person doing the alterations commented on how it was good material and that the sewing was really good. It took about a week to arrive. I think the company (MisterShop) is in Chicago because when I sent it back to exchange, I sent it to Chicago.

So you did have to take it to get altered? I saw on the website where it asks for your measurements. Did your FI know his or did you estimate and buy it a little bigger?

What are you having the groomsmen wear?

[SDbeachgirl]

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Originally Posted by soon2BMrs.Prince Oh btw, does anyone know if kids are included in the head count? They clearly don't eat as much as adults and will not partake in the international bar :-) Just curious.

That's a good question. So far, we only have 2 but I have been counting them this whole time. We should clarify that with Ana.

[SDbeachgirl]

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Originally Posted by soon2BMrs.Prince I have no clue, originally when i saw the DRC website I really liked the beach location and the set up on there. The only problem with this is space on the beach. It already looks a little tight with all the palapas and chairs. I plan on having a beach ceremony so a change of scenery would be nice. Did Ana suggest where the cocktail hour could take place?

Yes, there were quite a few options. Basically anywhere on the resort that you are interested in would most likely work. The areas that we discussed were:

-The deck that is next to the pool deck (actually part of the Oceana restaurant) can be used. This is a very pretty option, but decided since I am using the pool deck for the reception it would be nice to have a change in scenery.

- The jacuzzi deck. Supposedly they can put some type of glass over the jacuzzi and the lights in the jacuzzi will shine through it. This would be pretty at night. I figure that most of the cocktail hour will take place while the sun is still out.

- The garden area. I may choose this option for a change of scenery. I would like to see photos of other parties that take place on the grass. It's not very private but the greenery is really pretty.

- The desires lounge terrace. Again this would be prettier at night. It is rather private though.

- There are various decks/patios on the corners of the buildings but these are pretty small and would only work for very small parties.

I haven't seen any photos of cocktail hours. It seems like all of the weddings that have taken place (or at least those which have shared the photos) are very small. I can't wait to see more photos!!!

[SDbeachgirl]

For those of you doing a sunset wedding, how much time prior to sunset are you giving yourself. The sun is supposed to set at 7:15 at the time I am getting married (May). I was going to get married at 5:30 (20 min wedding) which would leave over 1 hour of photos before sun sets. Ana said that she usually would suggest a 6pm wedding. I'm just wondering if that leaves enough time. What is everyone's opinion on this? I just want to make sure that we leave enough time for photos.

[normajeane77]

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Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl For those of you doing a sunset wedding, how much time prior to sunset are you giving yourself. The sun is supposed to set at 7:15 at the time I am getting married (May). I was going to get married at 5:30 (20 min wedding) which would leave over 1 hour of photos before sun sets. Ana said that she usually would suggest a 6pm wedding. I'm just wondering if that leaves enough time. What is everyone's opinion on this? I just want to make sure that we leave enough time for photos.

I wish I could tell you, but I am struggling with the same decision...ours is also at 5:30. I don't think I'm going to make it any later though, because I want to have good lighting for the ceremony photos..

[ebernard4985]

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Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl For those of you doing a sunset wedding, how much time prior to sunset are you giving yourself. The sun is supposed to set at 7:15 at the time I am getting married (May). I was going to get married at 5:30 (20 min wedding) which would leave over 1 hour of photos before sun sets. Ana said that she usually would suggest a 6pm wedding. I'm just wondering if that leaves enough time. What is everyone's opinion on this? I just want to make sure that we leave enough time for photos.

This is kinda funny... I originally had my wedding set for 6pm and then Ana suggested that I change it to 5pm to make sure that the pictures after the wedding turn out. She said if I wait until 6pm for the ceremony there would not be enough time to get good pictures of the two of us after the ceremony.

I read this from Del Sol Photography's website and thought it was useful:

del Sol Photographers have experienced just about every lighting condition with more than 600+ weddings. This section will introduce you to some of our thoughts about the seasons here in the Rivera Maya. If you want to consider the OPTIMAL light for photography in the evening, 30 minutes before sunset and 30 minutes after sunset, so called the "golden hour")

For planning the start time of your ceremony, we would like you to consider a few things:
If your ceremony time will be under 15 minutes, we recommend starting the wedding 50-60 minutes before the scheduled sunset.If your ceremony time will be 20-30 min, we recommend starting the wedding 55-65 minutes before the scheduled sunset. We will always work with any time variance outside our suggested timeframes. As photojournalists, we are prepared to handle any situation at any time. Our style is to go with the flow, no matter what the conditions.

[ebernard4985]

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Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl That's a good question. So far, we only have 2 but I have been counting them this whole time. We should clarify that with Ana.

I emailed Ana today about this. I am going to have a 6 month old, 3 year old and 9 year old at the wedding and I want to see what their policy is regarding children. Most wedding venues make it half off the adult price but I am not sure what Dreams does. I will let you know what I find out when she emails me back.

[ebernard4985]

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Originally Posted by Princess402 The 6th room free promotion unfortunately does not apply to wedding groups. It does say somewhere on the website in the fine print that this is only for "social" groups not requiring any other event services, or something like that. However, the new "free ride" promotion where you get one room free for every 15 booked I *think* would apply to weddings as it is specifically for event groups. But I think you would have to check with Dreams for sure on that one as I imagine that it is more geared towards business groups (i.e. conferences, meetings) rather than weddings, but really in the fine print it does not say anything about this so I would push for it! I don't know if it's just cause we booked so far in advance or what but we were able to get from Dreams: - every 12th person free - one room upgrade for every 10 rooms booked - a private welcome cocktail for our group

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Originally Posted by Laura22610 Hi and Welcome! I did not get anything like that. I don't have 20 rooms booked though. I have 16 rooms (we will have about 30 people). I think that the promotions on the Dreams site do not include weddings. There was something like that going on when I booked and my TA contacted the resort about it and they said the promotions don't apply to wedding groups I was hoping to be able to get something free too!

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Originally Posted by KR2010 Hi there, We are thinking about booking the DRC and wanted to know if anyone out there got any perks for booking 20+ rooms? We are planning on 40-60 people during a slow off peak week Oct 26-Oct 31. Hopefully having the wedding on the 29th. We were hoping with that many people we could get our room for free. The dreams website talks about a buy 5 rooms get the 6th free, and a different promo with 15 rooms and 1 free. Also we wanted a package with ceremony (non-official), cocktail hour, dinner/reception. We plan to just use an ipod for music. Thanks!

Hello ladies. I was able to book with Apple Vacations and receive the every 6th room free promotion. I am not sure how but I did receive the promotion and it has allowed us to get 3 free rooms so far. If more people book then we can potentially get even more free rooms. Apple Vacations is also letting us apply to free rooms how ever we want. We have decided to total up the amount saved and apply a discount to all of the rooms. It will only be about $150-$200 per person but it is better than nothing! I thought that this was the only fair way to make sure everyone benefited from the promotion. We are also receiving coupons of some sort... not really sure about those. We booked our rooms in August before the resort opened so maybe that is why we received the promotion?

In fact, I originally started inquiring about group rates with Hagen Sommers, the resorts group representative and he was the one who told me about the promotion knowing that I was planning a wedding. Why would the group sales rep offer it to a wedding party if it did not qualify? I believe I still have his original email with this in writing.....