Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[Liz Bower65]

Hello everyone, I got married at the DRC in June. The wedding went perfect, but there were some glitches once we got there, but I am not going to get into it on here.I just wanted to highlight one point that nobody really talks about that I think is important. The minister the DRC uses is Linda Aguilera, her email is: aguilera07_50@hotmail.com. She grew up in the united states and speaks perfect English. When we arrived we set up a meeting with her, which I am glad we did. At this meeting we were able to customize our ceremony. She has a template she goes off of, but she is more than wiling to adjust it to meet the needs of the bride and groom. She gave us a print out of different forms of ceremony messages. Each one was beautiful and well put together. She took notes along the way and added whatever we wanted. She also coordinated her colors so that she would not stand out during the wedding. I definitely recommend her and would suggest you take full advantage of her services!

[JustNoelle]

It was great meeting you too Jessica!! As I told you when we met, we actually watched your ceremony (absolutely beautiful) and saw/heard your reception at Seaside Grill from our balcony. You guys can really party!! Lol. I am actually in the process of writing our review and you are definitely right on the money... Dreams was AMAZING!!! Stay tuned for our looooong Peacock Beach Wedding Planning Thread as well.

 

Originally Posted by ZachJess2013 

Hi everyone! We just had our wedding at Dreams last Thursday, August 1 and it was absolutely amazing! We literally had ZERO issues. I am so happy we chose not to get married on a weekend, we were the only wedding that day which made me completely relax. We could pick any of the venues and did not have to worry about any other weddings or minimum number of guests. We were also the only wedding getting hair and make up so we didn't have to worry about running behind schedule (and there were 14 of us!). I had the trial run for my hair which I am glad I did, I ended up making some adjustments and it turned out fabulous day of the wedding. Piece of advice if you are picky like me, I had them use my own makeup mainly for foundation, powder, and mascara. I also brought my own hairspray.

 

If you are not sure on the ceremony location, 100% for sure go with North beach. The Saturday we arrived there were three weddings lined up on the beach so we got to see our options. The south beach in my opinion is not the best choice, it is right next to the children's play ground and the swing bar so there were people and children everywhere, you literally walk right down the middle of all the chaos! This is not to take anything away from any of the weddings, every single one we saw was absolutely gorgeous. We made a lot of friends around the hotel and they ended up all coming to the ceremony, they actually created a wall with their beach chairs blocking us from the rest of the beach, it felt incredibly private. After that first night we almost changed our reception to the beach terrace bc the set up was stunning (I am not a fan of the pool terrace). However we stayed with our original plan which was seaside grill and I was so so so happy with that location. We did not have to pay anything extra, I was prepared to fight that but it never even came up. I made them include seaside grill in our original contract before we even paid the deposit. We also hired outside vendors for photo and for video and did not pay any fees, I was also prepared to fight that, never came up.

 

We used the photo and video from the ultimate package Adventure Photo for the rehearsal which was great. Claudia was our coordinator, she was our third coordinator. When we arrived we were taken right to VIP checkin, we were upgraded to a master suite, we had booked an ocean room. The master suite was perfect, plenty of space, we had so much stuff !! my very large bridal party hung out there and got ready there. They would not let us use the presidential suite to get ready (we asked) but they did let us walk out from there which was nice because we were all able to stay inside. For the rehearsal we went to oceana grill which is close to the north beach. I had let the hostess know we would be coming earlier that day, they of course don't take reservations but she said for us to arrive 15 min prior to opening and we would be the first seating, worked out perfectly.

 

We did have some issues with our guests getting sick, seemed to hit everyone in our group at one point or another, not sure if it was the food or the water or the alcohol (might have been all the crazy shots we took). The layout and size of the resort I thought was great, never really had any trouble finding one another. Desires nightclub was our hang out spot pretty much every night. I have learned that the riviera maya is basically a swamp, so there are no waves, the water is bath warm, and I have a million bug bites even with tons of bug spray. We are up at Live Aqua now in cancun area and not one bite, the water is much cooler, and the ocean has clear blue waves. Also on a side note we booked a group excursion on the Dancer Cruise (instead of paying for a rehearsal dinner) and that was a ton of fun. Anyway I could go on for days! All I can really say which is what every bride says after a wedding at DREAMS is AMAZING, it was absolutely perfect, best decision EVER. Dreams really does cater to weddings, the service during our reception was above my expectations. The DJ which we had Mauricio was spectacular, I am glad he was there to keep us on schedule bc once our group hit the dance floor that was it LOL. Enjoy your day, it will be perfect, like a DREAM honestly. 

 

Jess and Zach -> P.S. Great meeting you Noelle :-) 

[JustNoelle]

Hi DRC brides!! Its me again.

 

I finally finished my very DETAILED review. I think I covered about everything. Hopefully, my review helps other brides as previous reviews has helped me.

 

Here's is the link:

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/dreams-rivera-cancun-resorts-and-spa/reviews/7593

 

Pros: Wedding coordinator; Stunning resort; Great food; Great Staff

Cons: Try to “nickel and dime†for everything; Beach is not that great

First, let me say that our wedding at Dreams was absolutely AMAZING!!

 

Email Communication:

Our wedding coordinator was Lorena and to be honest with you, I did not have any issues with not getting email responses like the other brides. Maybe it’s because I only emailed her 5-6 times. But when I did email her, I would email her a long list of questions/comments that I’d accumulate over weeks/months. The longest response time was about 3 weeks which was expected because she does have to speak to different vendors. I rather her do research, then for her to answer my questions with, “I’ll have to get back to you†or “I’ll send you a quote when I get itâ€. So, the email communication was fine for me. I also took about 4 months to complete my ‘Wedding Planning Form’ to make sure I was sure about everything and included tons of photo examples.

 

Travel/Airport:

About 2 years ago, a bride on the site recommended Jill Demers for a travel agent. She was amazing and very patient. Jill organized all of our guests travel arrangements.  My guests had a bumpy start with her response time but we squared that up immediately. Most of my procrastinating family booked at the very (and I mean very) last minute. And she definitely handled it well and was very attentive to their every need. We all received travel packets in the mail a few weeks before with a cute little travel pouch and a booklet with every information we needed. Our transportation was very well organized and we definitely felt safe and secure as soon as we stepped outside the airport.

 

My BIL took a photo of this airport sign that she arranged for us… I thought this was pretty neat!! J

 

 

Arrival (Wednesday):

I was disappointed with the preferred club (VIP) check-in.  We had to wait quite awhile to be seen and during that time, we were not greeted with champagne or anything. We actually saw the waiter hand family champagne (they came in after us) and I asked my husband to go to the bar and order us some. Our room was not ready until after 3:00 pm; which was disappointing because I had planned to make our welcome bags as soon as we got there, so we could hand them out at our welcome dinner. Anyway, we had booked the Preferred Club Master suite and it was amazing. I realize that the next upgrade is the Presidential Suite but we had 42 guests stay at the resort, they could’ve at least offered us an upgrade.

 

Meetings (still Wednesday):

We met with our officiant Linda first. She is such a doll; very prepared and professional. We confirmed all of our ceremony script pretty swiftly and easily.

 

Our next meeting was with DJ Mauricio. That was also pretty easy. He SEEMED to know what we wanted and expected (I’ll get to that later).

 

Lastly, we met with our wedding coordinator, Lorena. She is so efficient! She had all of our emails already printed and ready to go. We had our suitcase filled with wedding décor ready for her as well. The flowers were ridiculously priced. So we ended up putting up a little bit of a haggle for that. As well as, our photographer. We booked Melissa from Del Sol and Debora was her assistant. They wanted to charge us for (2) external vendor fees + (2) dinners. Crazy… I know! Anyway, we ended having to cut our meeting short (which was already 2 hours long) to get ready for the Welcome Dinner.

 

Welcome Dinner:

We had our Welcome Dinner at Portofino’s Restaurant at 6:00 pm. It was a bit of confusion and miscommunication because all of my guests were already informed that the dinner will be at 7:00 pm. During our meeting with Lorena, she informed us that we had to move it up to 6:00 pm in order to reserve the restaurant. I thought that was B.S. because we actually paid for our guests (28 of us) and we could at least have been able to pick our time. For all that, I should’ve just told my guests to meet at the restaurant before it opened… It would’ve definitely saved us $$$. Anyway, by the time we left her office and attempted to spread the word (we literally had to pull some of our guests out of the pool/beach to tell them to get ready); I already knew that this was not going to be a good night. Majority of my guests got there an hour late. However, the manager was very accommodating and understanding but after 7 he told us he had to pull apart one of the long tables. So, as my tardy guests were strolling in, they had to be seated elsewhere because there was no room for them at our tables. The food was not that good to me there either. It could’ve been my nerves or the whole crazy situation but we definitely did not go back to Portofino’s our entire stay. Also, because we were using Del Sol, we requested to have photos taken at the dinner. Anel from Adventure Photos came to take our photos. She also asked Phil and I to step outside to take some intimate couple shots I thought that was neat J. I looked tried as heck in the photos with huge bags under my eyes but I definitely LOVED the photographs.

 

Wedding Day (Getting Ready):

My hair appointment was at 2:00 pm at the spa. It went pretty well. The only thing I didn’t like was that I had to come to the spa with my hair washed and blown. Apparently, they only style the hair. I wanted loose curls but by the time I arrived at the ceremony, all of my curls dropped (that dawn humidity). My cousin/bridesmaid is a makeup artist so she did mine and my mother’s makeup. She did an AMAZING job J.

Lorena and another wedding coordinator came into my room to drop off our bouquets. They both had huge smiles on their faces and she explained that everyone was going crazy over our bouquets (we had a peacock themed wedding). I was uber excited when I saw that she got me the flowers that I wanted… I actually jumped up and gave her a hug (I guess the fighting I explained earlier really worked lol).

 

Ceremony (North Beach):

Our ceremony was at North Beach at 6:00 pm. Of course, due to my tardy family, the ceremony didn’t start until about 6:20. I definitely had about 3 breakdowns on the way to the ceremony because of that. Anyway, I was in awe with how BEAUTIFUL the ceremony set up was!! I had brought the fabric for the chuppah, the program cards and had our maracas delivered and everything was placed perfectly. The ceremony went off without a hitch. We did not have a rehearsal but Linda and Lorena was there to very discreetly tell us what to do. It did help that we had PERFECT weather (40% chance of thunderstorms my butt lol). It was not too hot and not too cloudy. I am so grateful. The next day it poured on someone’s wedding on the beach… I was so sad for them L.

 

 

Cocktail Hour (North Jacuzzi):

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi. We missed most of it taking photos and wrapping up our video but we got to enjoy the last 10 minutes. Our guests seemed to enjoy it and also the mariachi band. I also requested to have a signature drink, our “Something Blueâ€. Everyone said that was the best drink at the resort lol. We didn’t get to try any of the food but I also heard they were good.

 

Reception (Pool Deck):

We had our reception on the Pool Deck. My mouth nearly dropped when we saw the space. Everything was PERFECT!! They did everything and more that we had asked for. We brought our own table overlays, napkins, table numbers, tented menu cards and escort cards (thanks Rebecca from Rebecca Allurements), sand tray, Map guestbook,  peacock feathers, lanterns… Etsy was definitely my best friend. The set up was beyond our expectations. Everyone can’t stop complementing us on the décor and creativeness. Lol It’s funny because when we told our guests that our reception was on the pool deck, they looked at us like we had two heads and were crazy. It showed them huh?! Lol.

Any who, we went right into our first dance after being announced.  We danced to Adorn by Miguel J. The only thing that I am kicking myself for, is forgetting to ask for the fireworks around our dance floor during our first dance. That is something I really wanted so I can’t believe I forgot to ask. Oh well… I hope all the brides reading this put that on their checklist if they want it.

The wait staff was amazing. I was very clear that I did not want the dinner take up the majority of our party time (especially being that we were a ½ hour behind schedule. They really worked hard to have all courses out and taken back swiftly. The food  was great! I think it was the best food at the resort. We chose the stuffed ravioli for our appetizer… So tasty. And we gave our guests (3) options of chicken, beef or fish. I had the chicken which was finger-licking good and my husband had the fish which was also good. The strawberry tulip ice cream desert was so good. I was disappointed that they took it away so quickly when we stepped away from our table. (Oh well… we did asked them to rush the dinner lol). We had a 3-tier tres leche wedding cake… Also good. We had one whole layer left and I was also disappointed they did not send any of it back to our room. Yes… I am a greedy! JLol

 

P.S.

We got back to our room with a trail of rose petals leading up to our bed and on our bed. There was also roses, candles and in scents surrounding our Jacuzzi. Yes… Very romantic!! We loved it!

 

DJ:

As stated above, DJ Mauricio sat with us to discuss our expectations and music choices. I actually had my sisters/MOHs create a detail song and playlist of the type of music we wanted to hear and dance to.

 

Side note: My family is of Jamaican decent. You may be wondering… Why’d we choose Mexico? Because two of my cousins already had destination weddings in Jamaica and we wanted to be “differentâ€. Besides, we have always wanted to visit Mexico and so did our families.

 

Any who, so we had very specific genre of music requests (i.e. Reggae, Dancehall, Soca, Hip Hop, R&B, Pop, Dance). He definitely got the Pop, Dance and some Hip Hop correct but definitely did not know how to mix the reggae and dancehall. He played a Bob Marley in the middle of the dance segment. Disappointed was not even the word. Our guests kept sitting back down so he will play something like the Cha Cha Slide to get everyone back up. I had guests tell me that they kept on going up to him to requests songs but he did not take their requests. Of course, my biggest critics aka my sisters were frustrated. Anyway, we made the best of it and continued to dance even though it was not the best. I definitely did not let that stress me or ruin my night.

 

Day After Wedding:

We scheduled our “romantic breakfast in bed†(which came with our wedding package but was the same as regular room service). Oh well… the thought that count.

 

After we ate, we headed to the spa for our 80 min Swedish massage and a 25 min exfoliating treatment. OMG amazing!!!... The most relaxed and refreshed I’ve been in about a year and a half (since wedding planning). We definitely enjoyed our spa treatments. The spa itself is gorgeous. We did not want to go back to the “general population†lol.

 

Later, we were scheduled to have our “romantic dinner on the beachâ€. We arrived at Oceana and were seated by our personal hostess. We literally sat down, got 3 photos together and next thing you know is that we heard loud thunder. Then in a split second, it poured down on us…no fair warning (Again… I felt so bad for that other wedding). Our hostess ran back to help us get off the beach. But it was too late… We were soaked in a matter of seconds. So everyone was crammed in Oceana waiting for the rain to let up. Our hostess asked if we wanted to be moved to the lounge chair area (they also set up private dinners there at night); we said okay and it worked out perfectly. We were dry and we still had our romantic private dinner. It also helped that our waiter was hilarious.

 

The Resort:

We definitely had an amazing 11 days at the resort. We visited every restaurant (Himitsu, Oceana and Bordeaux were our favorites). Housekeeping was great and the turn-down service was also good. Room service was also very good. Hubby and I were definitely taking advantage of the 24-hour room service. The nightly entertainment was pretty good. We especially loved the drum/fire show. The beach is not the best. There were plenty of seaweed but the resort really made an effort to try to clean it up every few hours.

P.S.

I ended up meeting the General Manager of the hotel and he was so nice. He kissed and hugged us goodbye when we were leaving.

 

Excursions:

We rented a van to go shopping in Playa Del Carmen for 3 hours on Sunday ($180… I know, ridiculous!) but we had a blast on the 5^th avenue strip. Monday, we booked a group excursion to Tulum (Mayan Ruins) & Xel-Ha. It was blazing hot but everyone enjoyed themselves. Tuesday, we met with our Del Sol photographer, Debora, to shoot our Cenote + Beach TTD. The cenote they took us to was amazing! And we had a ball with Debora, Ruben and Duncan (the assistants) and Alberto (the driver). Definitely a great experience! Hubby and I also booked Xplor Fuego (Its Xplor but at night… 5:30 – 11:00 pm) and Dolphin Discovery in Isla Mujeres. Both were excellent!

 

We think we had the best honeymoon ever… We just can’t stop talking about all that we did and experienced.

 

*Overall, we had a FANTASTIC wedding and the best time of our lives at Dreams Riviera. I call it our Dreams dream wedding and honeymoon! We don’t regret anything and would do it again in a heartbeat. I’ll definitely recommend Dreams Riviera Cancun resort to anyone.

 

4 THUMBS US FROM US!! J

[LeashAC]

Hello everyone, I got married at the DRC in June. The wedding went perfect, but there were some glitches once we got there, but I am not going to get into it on here.I just wanted to highlight one point that nobody really talks about that I think is important. The minister the DRC uses is Linda Aguilera, her email is:  aguilera07_50@hotmail.com . She grew up in the united states and speaks perfect English. When we arrived we set up a meeting with her, which I am glad we did. At this meeting we were able to customize our ceremony. She has a template she goes off of, but she is more than wiling to adjust it to meet the needs of the bride and groom. She gave us a print out of different forms of ceremony messages. Each one was beautiful and well put together. She took notes along the way and added whatever we wanted. She also coordinated her colors so that she would not stand out during the wedding. I definitely recommend her and would suggest you take full advantage of her services!

Was this for the legal ceremony?

[Wedding2014]

Wow

Hi DRC brides!! Its me again. I finally finished my very DETAILED review. I think I covered about everything. Hopefully, my review helps other brides as previous reviews has helped me. Here's is the link: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/dreams-rivera-cancun-resorts-and-spa/reviews/7593

Pros: Wedding coordinator; Stunning resort; Great food; Great Staff

Cons: Try to “nickel and dime†for everything; Beach is not that great

First, let me say that our wedding at Dreams was absolutely AMAZING!! Email Communication: Our wedding coordinator was Lorena and to be honest with you, I did not have any issues with not getting email responses like the other brides. Maybe it’s because I only emailed her 5-6 times. But when I did email her, I would email her a long list of questions/comments that I’d accumulate over weeks/months. The longest response time was about 3 weeks which was expected because she does have to speak to different vendors. I rather her do research, then for her to answer my questions with, “I’ll have to get back to you†or “I’ll send you a quote when I get itâ€. So, the email communication was fine for me. I also took about 4 months to complete my ‘Wedding Planning Form’ to make sure I was sure about everything and included tons of photo examples. Travel/Airport: About 2 years ago, a bride on the site recommended Jill Demers for a travel agent. She was amazing and very patient. Jill organized all of our guests travel arrangements.  My guests had a bumpy start with her response time but we squared that up immediately. Most of my procrastinating family booked at the very (and I mean very) last minute. And she definitely handled it well and was very attentive to their every need. We all received travel packets in the mail a few weeks before with a cute little travel pouch and a booklet with every information we needed. Our transportation was very well organized and we definitely felt safe and secure as soon as we stepped outside the airport. My BIL took a photo of this airport sign that she arranged for us… I thought this was pretty neat!! J Arrival (Wednesday): I was disappointed with the preferred club (VIP) check-in.  We had to wait quite awhile to be seen and during that time, we were not greeted with champagne or anything. We actually saw the waiter hand family champagne (they came in after us) and I asked my husband to go to the bar and order us some. Our room was not ready until after 3:00 pm; which was disappointing because I had planned to make our welcome bags as soon as we got there, so we could hand them out at our welcome dinner. Anyway, we had booked the Preferred Club Master suite and it was amazing. I realize that the next upgrade is the Presidential Suite but we had 42 guests stay at the resort, they could’ve at least offered us an upgrade. Meetings (still Wednesday): We met with our officiant Linda first. She is such a doll; very prepared and professional. We confirmed all of our ceremony script pretty swiftly and easily. Our next meeting was with DJ Mauricio. That was also pretty easy. He SEEMED to know what we wanted and expected (I’ll get to that later). Lastly, we met with our wedding coordinator, Lorena. She is so efficient! She had all of our emails already printed and ready to go. We had our suitcase filled with wedding décor ready for her as well. The flowers were ridiculously priced. So we ended up putting up a little bit of a haggle for that. As well as, our photographer. We booked Melissa from Del Sol and Debora was her assistant. They wanted to charge us for (2) external vendor fees + (2) dinners. Crazy… I know! Anyway, we ended having to cut our meeting short (which was already 2 hours long) to get ready for the Welcome Dinner. Welcome Dinner: We had our Welcome Dinner at Portofino’s Restaurant at 6:00 pm. It was a bit of confusion and miscommunication because all of my guests were already informed that the dinner will be at 7:00 pm. During our meeting with Lorena, she informed us that we had to move it up to 6:00 pm in order to reserve the restaurant. I thought that was B.S. because we actually paid for our guests (28 of us) and we could at least have been able to pick our time. For all that, I should’ve just told my guests to meet at the restaurant before it opened… It would’ve definitely saved us $$$. Anyway, by the time we left her office and attempted to spread the word (we literally had to pull some of our guests out of the pool/beach to tell them to get ready); I already knew that this was not going to be a good night. Majority of my guests got there an hour late. However, the manager was very accommodating and understanding but after 7 he told us he had to pull apart one of the long tables. So, as my tardy guests were strolling in, they had to be seated elsewhere because there was no room for them at our tables. The food was not that good to me there either. It could’ve been my nerves or the whole crazy situation but we definitely did not go back to Portofino’s our entire stay. Also, because we were using Del Sol, we requested to have photos taken at the dinner. Anel from Adventure Photos came to take our photos. She also asked Phil and I to step outside to take some intimate couple shots I thought that was neat J . I looked tried as heck in the photos with huge bags under my eyes but I definitely LOVED the photographs. Wedding Day (Getting Ready): My hair appointment was at 2:00 pm at the spa. It went pretty well. The only thing I didn’t like was that I had to come to the spa with my hair washed and blown. Apparently, they only style the hair. I wanted loose curls but by the time I arrived at the ceremony, all of my curls dropped (that dawn humidity). My cousin/bridesmaid is a makeup artist so she did mine and my mother’s makeup. She did an AMAZING job J . Lorena and another wedding coordinator came into my room to drop off our bouquets. They both had huge smiles on their faces and she explained that everyone was going crazy over our bouquets (we had a peacock themed wedding). I was uber excited when I saw that she got me the flowers that I wanted… I actually jumped up and gave her a hug (I guess the fighting I explained earlier really worked lol). Ceremony (North Beach): Our ceremony was at North Beach at 6:00 pm. Of course, due to my tardy family, the ceremony didn’t start until about 6:20. I definitely had about 3 breakdowns on the way to the ceremony because of that. Anyway, I was in awe with how BEAUTIFUL the ceremony set up was!! I had brought the fabric for the chuppah, the program cards and had our maracas delivered and everything was placed perfectly. The ceremony went off without a hitch. We did not have a rehearsal but Linda and Lorena was there to very discreetly tell us what to do. It did help that we had PERFECT weather (40% chance of thunderstorms my butt lol). It was not too hot and not too cloudy. I am so grateful. The next day it poured on someone’s wedding on the beach… I was so sad for them L . Cocktail Hour (North Jacuzzi): We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi. We missed most of it taking photos and wrapping up our video but we got to enjoy the last 10 minutes. Our guests seemed to enjoy it and also the mariachi band. I also requested to have a signature drink, our “Something Blueâ€. Everyone said that was the best drink at the resort lol. We didn’t get to try any of the food but I also heard they were good. Reception (Pool Deck): We had our reception on the Pool Deck. My mouth nearly dropped when we saw the space. Everything was PERFECT!! They did everything and more that we had asked for. We brought our own table overlays, napkins, table numbers, tented menu cards and escort cards (thanks Rebecca from Rebecca Allurements), sand tray, Map guestbook,  peacock feathers, lanterns… Etsy was definitely my best friend. The set up was beyond our expectations. Everyone can’t stop complementing us on the décor and creativeness. Lol It’s funny because when we told our guests that our reception was on the pool deck, they looked at us like we had two heads and were crazy. It showed them huh?! Lol. Any who, we went right into our first dance after being announced.  We danced to Adorn by Miguel J . The only thing that I am kicking myself for, is forgetting to ask for the fireworks around our dance floor during our first dance. That is something I really wanted so I can’t believe I forgot to ask. Oh well… I hope all the brides reading this put that on their checklist if they want it. The wait staff was amazing. I was very clear that I did not want the dinner take up the majority of our party time (especially being that we were a ½ hour behind schedule. They really worked hard to have all courses out and taken back swiftly. The food  was great! I think it was the best food at the resort. We chose the stuffed ravioli for our appetizer… So tasty. And we gave our guests (3) options of chicken, beef or fish. I had the chicken which was finger-licking good and my husband had the fish which was also good. The strawberry tulip ice cream desert was so good. I was disappointed that they took it away so quickly when we stepped away from our table. (Oh well… we did asked them to rush the dinner lol). We had a 3-tier tres leche wedding cake… Also good. We had one whole layer left and I was also disappointed they did not send any of it back to our room. Yes… I am a greedy! J Lol P.S. We got back to our room with a trail of rose petals leading up to our bed and on our bed. There was also roses, candles and in scents surrounding our Jacuzzi. Yes… Very romantic!! We loved it! DJ: As stated above, DJ Mauricio sat with us to discuss our expectations and music choices. I actually had my sisters/MOHs create a detail song and playlist of the type of music we wanted to hear and dance to. Side note: My family is of Jamaican decent. You may be wondering… Why’d we choose Mexico? Because two of my cousins already had destination weddings in Jamaica and we wanted to be “differentâ€. Besides, we have always wanted to visit Mexico and so did our families. Any who, so we had very specific genre of music requests (i.e. Reggae, Dancehall, Soca, Hip Hop, R&B, Pop, Dance). He definitely got the Pop, Dance and some Hip Hop correct but definitely did not know how to mix the reggae and dancehall. He played a Bob Marley in the middle of the dance segment. Disappointed was not even the word. Our guests kept sitting back down so he will play something like the Cha Cha Slide to get everyone back up. I had guests tell me that they kept on going up to him to requests songs but he did not take their requests. Of course, my biggest critics aka my sisters were frustrated. Anyway, we made the best of it and continued to dance even though it was not the best. I definitely did not let that stress me or ruin my night. Day After Wedding: We scheduled our “romantic breakfast in bed†(which came with our wedding package but was the same as regular room service). Oh well… the thought that count. After we ate, we headed to the spa for our 80 min Swedish massage and a 25 min exfoliating treatment. OMG amazing!!!... The most relaxed and refreshed I’ve been in about a year and a half (since wedding planning). We definitely enjoyed our spa treatments. The spa itself is gorgeous. We did not want to go back to the “general population†lol. Later, we were scheduled to have our “romantic dinner on the beachâ€. We arrived at Oceana and were seated by our personal hostess. We literally sat down, got 3 photos together and next thing you know is that we heard loud thunder. Then in a split second, it poured down on us…no fair warning (Again… I felt so bad for that other wedding). Our hostess ran back to help us get off the beach. But it was too late… We were soaked in a matter of seconds. So everyone was crammed in Oceana waiting for the rain to let up. Our hostess asked if we wanted to be moved to the lounge chair area (they also set up private dinners there at night); we said okay and it worked out perfectly. We were dry and we still had our romantic private dinner. It also helped that our waiter was hilarious. The Resort: We definitely had an amazing 11 days at the resort. We visited every restaurant (Himitsu, Oceana and Bordeaux were our favorites). Housekeeping was great and the turn-down service was also good. Room service was also very good. Hubby and I were definitely taking advantage of the 24-hour room service. The nightly entertainment was pretty good. We especially loved the drum/fire show. The beach is not the best. There were plenty of seaweed but the resort really made an effort to try to clean it up every few hours. P.S. I ended up meeting the General Manager of the hotel and he was so nice. He kissed and hugged us goodbye when we were leaving. Excursions: We rented a van to go shopping in Playa Del Carmen for 3 hours on Sunday ($180… I know, ridiculous!) but we had a blast on the 5^th avenue strip. Monday, we booked a group excursion to Tulum (Mayan Ruins) & Xel-Ha. It was blazing hot but everyone enjoyed themselves. Tuesday, we met with our Del Sol photographer, Debora, to shoot our Cenote + Beach TTD. The cenote they took us to was amazing! And we had a ball with Debora, Ruben and Duncan (the assistants) and Alberto (the driver). Definitely a great experience! Hubby and I also booked Xplor Fuego (Its Xplor but at night… 5:30 – 11:00 pm) and Dolphin Discovery in Isla Mujeres. Both were excellent! We think we had the best honeymoon ever… We just can’t stop talking about all that we did and experienced. *Overall, we had a FANTASTIC wedding and the best time of our lives at Dreams Riviera. I call it our Dreams dream wedding and honeymoon! We don’t regret anything and would do it again in a heartbeat. I’ll definitely recommend Dreams Riviera Cancun resort to anyone. 4 THUMBS US FROM US!! J

wow! Thank you for this amazing review!!! Btw what menu did you have for the reception ? If you have it can you email it to me? Thank you!!!! Can't wait we are not until November 2014! I will definately be on etsy!! Lol

[loripanori]

Originally Posted by LeashAC 

 

 

Was this for the legal ceremony?

 

For the legal ceremony we had a man named Pedro.  I'm not sure if he does all of the legal ceremonies, but during the week we were there we saw him doing some weddings, and Linda doing some, so I assumed Linda did all of the symbolic ceremonies and Pedro did the legal ceremonies.  But I could be wrong!  His english was also very good, I don't think anyone had trouble understanding him...  You can hear him doing our legal ceremony in our video, starting around 06:30, if you're interested:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRv6MIAelSc

 

For the person wondering about the extra charges for the legal ceremony...  I forget the specifics, but it ends up totaling $500 plus 11% tax, so $555 total.  This was the total for everything required for the legal marriage (the blood tests, marriage license, translation of the license, etc.).

[lynseyloo0812]

I'll be getting married here in January and I was wondering what the best way to get my decor/favors/welcome kits down there. Shipping?? Or Luggage?? Advice please!!

[JustNoelle]

Wedding2014

 

We had the Ultimate package so we had more flexibility with choosing our menu options. We had a sit-down dinner and gave our guests (3) options. We chose the Beef Tenderloin and Chicken Breast from the Gold Menu and the Sea Bass Fillet from the Silver Menu.

 

I'm attaching both menus as well as our menu card template.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner Menu Ultimate Pkg.pdf

Silver Appetizers.pdf

Menu.docx

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by Sabrina26 

 

Also anyone have any comments on the makeup artists at resort? Or photos of your makeup?

 

I actually have a lot of hair and makeup photos lol I was pretty happy with the turnout of our group-my husband's mom wasn't super happy with her makeup, we had them redo hers, it was just too thick and heavy. I was really glad I had them use my own makeup and told them to keep mine very natural and light. My sister also thought her makeup was a little over the top and had to tone it down a little. You just have to be very clear and tell them how you want it. The make up artists are the same girls who do your hair. I recommend water proof mascara too :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by JustNoelle 

 

It was great meeting you too Jessica!! As I told you when we met, we actually watched your ceremony (absolutely beautiful) and saw/heard your reception at Seaside Grill from our balcony. You guys can really party!! Lol. I am actually in the process of writing our review and you are definitely right on the money... Dreams was AMAZING!!! Stay tuned for our looooong Peacock Beach Wedding Planning Thread as well.

 

Aw thank you! We actually were waiting to watch yours, and now it makes sense you were running late, we waited and waited and gave up haha our wedding was a crazy party, I can't believe how much we danced and how much fun we all had !