Dreams Cancun Wedding Review

SusanK · October 23, 2007

Ok, I'm back. I have a few minutes before I need to get to the gym.

The Big Day (Part 1)

The girls and I started the day with breakfast, followed by about an hour of sun and pool time. We didn't have to worry about running into any of the guys because we were on the Tower side of the resort (and they were strictly banned from this area!). The guys started their day parasailing and then playing water hoops at the main pool. At about 11:30 we headed to the spa to get beautiful!

The Spa!

I thought all the girls' hair turned out great! I had gone for a test run a few days before, so I knew what I was getting into. I had requested Christian awhile back after reading Brenda's review and seeing her pictures. Well it turns out Christian had scheduled a vacation unbeknownst to the WC and me. Well I guess when WC found out he was on vacation, she called him at home and begged him to come in just for my trial and wedding day hair and make-up... and he did! I only found out later, when the other stylists were asking him why he was around when he was suppose to be on vacation. I thought that was Awesome of him to come in just for me. I explained that I wanted something natural and not stiff. I had a few pics, and he nailed it. I wear very little make-up so I was even more worried about that part. I had had my make-up done at a Clinique counter before I left...and HATED it. So, I did a trial make-up run a few days before too, and I actually like it. On our wedding day my make-up seemed a little darker than on the trial day. I think probably because there was a brief shower and it got kinda dark in the spa when he was doing it. Anyways, when I saw myself later in the room, with bright light again, I kinda freaked out. My sister came to the rescue though and removed some of the blush and eye liner. I always think I look weird with make-up, so I'm not a good judge, but I got lots of compliments on how nice I looked, and in the pictures I've seen so far it doesn't look like too much, so I'm sure it's probably necessary to do just a tad bit more than you normaly would think looks good.

Anyway, all the stylist did a great job. I would definitely suggest bringing in some pics! They speak English, but not all that well. If you have pics, less will get lost in translation. I ended up doing a lot of translation for my BMs that didn't have a picture example. In the end, everything turned out perfect. I highly recommend requesting Christian. He lived up to the hype. If you read the Comment Book at the Spa, almost all the entries are raves about him.

The massage (a few days later)

Part of our wedding day package was a Couple's Massage. We opted to do it after the wedding, when all our guests had left. We scheduled it for about 1/2 hour after sunset so that it would be dark. We got to the spa a couple of hours before our appointment and enjoyed all that it had to offer (a wonderful jacuzzi and roman-style baths, sweedish shower, massage shower, cabanas, etc.) We decided to have our massage outside in one of the cabanas. YOU MUST DO THIS. It was INCREDIBLE! It was the best massage ever. I have never been so relaxed. It was dark, warm, and you are literally jutting over the ocean in your private cabana. All you hear is the crashing of the waves. OMG! I would go back to Dreams, just for that! I wish I could remember the name of our massuses (sp?)!

Ok, gotta run. I promise I'll get everything written up. I'm just trying to be as thorough as possible, in hopes that it will be helpful to someone. But WOW, is this time consuming

SusanK · October 25, 2007

The flowers- Vanessa Jaimes!

We decided to use an outside vendor for flowers. My older sister owns a floral market, so I've been around beautiful flowers for a long time. My first choice would have been to have the flowers done here, but I realized that was very impractical if not impossible, so the next best thing (and she was GREAT) was Vanessa Jaimes. Dreams usually does the flowers for their weddings, and in fact I was told that outside vendors were not allowed for flowers, but when I talked to Daniela (WC) and informed her (as opposed to asking her) that we would be using Vanessa for flowers, she didn't have any problem with it.

Vanessa was so easy to work with. She is very responsive and very professional. I e-mailed her a PPT of pictures and ideas of what I wanted, and she nailed it. My bouquet was a mix of pink and white cymbidium and dendrobium orchids, and pink lisianthus. My six bridesmaids each carried a posey bouquet of 6 white cymbidiums (white pink throats) and my MOH had the same, but with pink cymbidiums. Vanessa provided an adorable basket with petals for our flower girl. The 7 GM, 2 readers, parents and grandparents all had cymbidium orchid boutineers (for a total of 12). The guys had white and the ladies, pink. We had two different centerpieces for the reception (unfortuneatly I don't have any pics yet, but I hope the photog got some!). One centerpiece consisted of a single square vase filled with all white orchids, tulips, and hydrangeas. The other centerpieces were a composite arrangment (three different vases). The tall vase had a branch of dendorbium orchids, another had some drowned tulips, and another a floating cymbidum orchid. Both centerpieces also included floating candles. Vanessa incorporated the turqouise sea glass I had brought from home into the bottom of the vases. At the head table there was a vase for each of the BMs bouquets and more floating candles. She also provided all the flowers for our hair (I had four mini orchids, the BMs each had 2, and the flower girl had dendrodiums).

Everything turned out just how I envisioned it. I give Vanessa an A+. She was fabulous and professional all around.

It was so great to have all the flowers figured out and in place before I got there (one less thing to worry about). I met with Vanessa very briefly when we arrived. No more than 10 minutes. She had already been in contact with Daniela (WC) and had worked out all the logistics for delivery and set-up. I didn't have to worry about a thing. Vanessa had her people do all the set-up and take-down.

Having been around a floral shop, I know how expensive quality flowers can be. Our total cost on flowers was about $2300-2500. It probably would have been at least double around here.

Like I mentioned, I don't have any really good shots of the flowers at this point, but here's a few candids.

OK, nevermind... I'm having problems viewing the pics with Snapfish right now. I'll try again in a little bit and post!

Ok...I've edited it some pics.

starchild · October 25, 2007

I'm sorry I missed this before, but outstanding review!! The honeymoon banner brought me back to Dreams..well PV Dreams, but it's the same banner. Love your pics of everything, your suite was gorgeous! Congrats on a beautiful wedding )

Sarah · October 25, 2007

Umm, how did I miss this review before? Probably because I don't spend much time in the RM/Cancun area. Anyway, WOW Susan- this is an A++++++ review! I love seeing it all "play by play". When do we get more?

Fantastic job. One of the best reviews so far.

starchild · October 25, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah

Fantastic job. One of the best reviews so far.

Definitely!

PaulaV · October 26, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah

Fantastic job. One of the best reviews so far.

I know, excellent job... the suspense is killing me for the next piece though!!!

*JillD* · October 27, 2007

Great Job Susan!!

We just got back late last night, I have my pictures & video and will get them up later. You're doing a great job with your review!!

SusanK · November 1, 2007

The DJ-PSAV Presentation Services:

Claudia and Daniela (WCs) put me in contact with Lola from PSAV for our DJ needs. Communication was great. I was able to e-mail them a complete list of songs that we wanted for our reception. I also sent an "agenda". We had a lot going on: first dance, bridal party dance, father-daughter, mother-son, bouquet toss, garter toss, cake cutting, etc. So the "agenda" outlined the time and the song I wanted for each "event". I then met with Lola once I got to Dreams. The MC did not come. In retrospect, that would have probably made things a little smoother. So if you go with PSAV, request to meet with the DJ and MC prior to if you have any specific requests. Lola was very nice and assured me that they had all the songs we requested (I had them all backed-up on CD just in case). Because she assured me that they had all the songs, I did not bring my back-up CDs to the reception. It turned out that a few of the songs, they did not have (or they did not have the right version of the song). That was slightly annoying. But I will say they had a large selection, and the guests were able to request several songs.

Overall, I think it went pretty well. Again, it was nice to have everything set up and arranged prior to arriving. On the day of, I really didn't have to do anything concerning the music except let the MC know when we wanted to do the "tosses".

I guess some of the hotel guests in the Tower started complaining about the noise at about 10:00, and the DJ turned the music down, and which point I made it VERY CLEAR that our reception was scheduled to end at 11:00 (per Dreams policy) and they WOULD play music LOUD until then. They got my point and turned it back up.

We had so much fun dancing. The whole Terrace became our dance floor, which was perfect (and saves you money from renting a dance floor), and the Terrace has a raised ledge surrounding it, so as the night went on we were dancing on the ledge! Some of the guys got so hot and sweaty that they jumped in the pool with all of their clothes on at the end of the night!

Here are a few pics!

Dancing with Dad: