Dreams Tulum Wedding Review- Amy706 w/pics

[amy706]

Amy & Mike Dreams Tulum Wedding Review

December 5th, 2008

 

First of all, I cannot thank BDW and so many of you for all of your help, guidance, knowledge, great ideas, and fabulous templates. Special thanks to Can’t Wait (wouldn’t have made it through the closure debacle without you), Sunbride for not only having the answers but continuing to be such a resource on the DT thread!! And so many others – I’d go on all day! Thank you thank you!

 

DREAMS TULUM- Grade: A

My family, Mike (hubby) and I spent a week at DT and it was perfect! Each day new guests arrived. Everyone had an AMAZING time. We had 70 guests total, 8 children. Dreams Tulum is gorgeous, foods great, activities awesome, wedding coordinators did a great job. And for a great value.

 

ACTIVITIES- Grade: A

There is SO much to do no matter what your age or interest! I peaked my head in on a couple of the shows for a teeny bit but my family took the kids a couple times and really enjoyed them!! Circus night, Mexican fiesta night. We didn’t do a ton of the activities around the resort but my aunts, grandma, step mom laughed their a*s off doing and watching the water aerobics. I did yoga on the beach. Not too difficult but very relaxing and nice. The gym is really quite bad. Really hot and the machines are not so great and not too many of them. As gorgeous as the rest of the place is, it surprises me that the gym is so bad. Oh well – I stopped attempting exercise after the first couple of days!! Watching Mon night football on the big screen on the beach was AWESOME. The kids and my parents watched Shrek one night and loved that too!

 

Also- It is definitely quite chilly at night though to the point of cold at this time of year. I brought pashminas and probably could have worn a sweater too to keep warm! But it was GORGEOUS during the day. Overcast 1 day out of 7. The rest was sun and sun mixed with clouds.

 

SERVICE- Grade: A

Mike & I visited DT last January and the service from all of the staff was beyond my expectations and memory from the site visit! Everyone went above and beyond. You order room service and they say “it is my pleasure to take your order.†Right before we walked down the aisle we broke a champagne glass in the sink. We called. “It would be my pleasure to come and clean up the glass for you.†It was incredible. The pool staff is great- Oscar, Jamie from entertaiment. So much fun. The servers around the pool and beach were fantastic- Francisco, Alberto. They started to know us by name and our drinks choices! I cannot say enough about the service- including the spa (Jennifer the spa concierge, and Carlos- more on them later were WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND amazing). I met Javier the concierge we all speak to- wonderful! Daniel Mellado came to meet me when we arrived since we had spoke so much around the closure. He was magnificent. He also came to say goodbye when we left, gave us his card, if we want to return or go to another AM resorts spot for an anniversary. It was amazing and every one of our guests commented on how great the service was.

 

ROOMS- Grade: A-

My entire immediate family was upgraded free of charge to Dreams Suites. Some of my friends were and some weren’t. Be forewarned though if you pay for an “ocean view†– many of the oceanviews are partial ocean views to the point that you sort of need to crink your neck to see the ocean. Mike and I paid for an oceanview. We spent one night in it – it was fine but you really couldn’t see the ocean. They had upgraded us to Dreams side which was nice but we wanted to go all out so we ended up changing to an ocean FRONT dreams suite. We actually got the room on the ground floor right by the seaside grill which was PERFECT because I was able to walk right out of my room and down the aisle! Room 8139. Oh- also a tip. We found that some of the rooms were hot and some were FREEZING and we all couldn’t figure out how to change it. At one point when Luis (concierge who is adorable and so great) came to help me with my safe which wasn’t working (rings locked in it on the day of the wedding!—batteries were running out so it wouldn’t let me open it!). Anyway he said you have to hold the up/down, on/off button down for SEVERAL seconds or else it doesn’t do anything. Wish we learned that earlier. We froze our butt off all week!! Ha! I did go to a few hacienda rooms of my guests and they are quite charming. Everyone seemed pleased!

 

FOOD- Grade: A-

Staff at restaurants- Grade: A for servers, C for hostesses/people that seat you

they were slow to seat you even when tables were available and they were not very accommodating for large parties

 

Again, every one of our guests commented on how good the food was. My dad and step mom travel a lot and they were quite impressed with the food. They vacationed at the Moon Palace a few years ago and said they got sick of the food in 2 days and that the food here was hands down MUCH better. And so many options that they never got sick of it. We loved all of the restaurants. They all had great dishes. Here are some of our favorites:

Portofino: portabello appetizer, filet, scallops, red snapper, gnocchi, risotto.

El Patio: lime soup (its kind of like a tortilla soup; chicken broth, chicken, tortillas- YUM), mahi mahi quite good here.

Himitsu: spring rolls were FANTASTIC. All the main dishes were great. The noodles were the only ones that were just okay. It was like a thai noodle or something. I cant remember. I never ate at Gohan but I had several guests say it was good. Not great but pretty good.

World Café: ate there every day for breakfast and twice for lunch. The breakfasts are perfect. Something for everyone. I loved the fresh fruit, the fresh fruit juice & smoothie bar. Smoked salmon and nutellaJ not eaten together of course. The eggs, fresh break and pastries, etc. All big hits. I hadn’t planned on eating lunch there but Mike and I were late to meet Landy so we ran in real quickly. It was DELICIOUS. Again something for everone. Freshly grilled meat, chicken and shrimp (you can see them grill it right there). So tasty. I actually loved the mini cheeseburger I scammed from the kids table! J Fried plantains. Oh and the ceviche is incredible!! Of course guacamole, pica de gallo, etc etc. My family ate there with the kids 2 nights for dinner. They said one night was okay and one night was awesome. Not sure what was different- I guess just the selection.

 

APPLE VACATIONS- Grade: C

While we got good rates through apple and the transfers (non-private, non-direct) included. Apple messed up a LOT of our transfers. Mike and I were originally supposed to fly in on 11/30. We ended up having to change to 11/29 b/c of some flight changes. Daniel gave us a free night at DT (guilt over the closings? But we were VERY grateful) and my TA made the changes through apple. Of course when we got there they didn’t have us on for 11/29 so we had to spend literally an hour at the cancun airport while literally about 12 apple reps ran around on the phone trying to figure it out. It took a good hour. So the next day my family was supposed to arrive. 13 people flying on the same flight from Detroit and 5 from Denver. Well one of the kids from Denver was recorded as staying in one of the rooms from one of the adults coming from Detroit. As a result they had the numbers all wrong. Plus they had me and mike on their list for 11/30 (even though we came in on 11/29) and someone did not have my dad. It was all screwed up. And they had to spend almost 2 hours trying to sort it out. And this is with 5 kids, 2 of which are under 3 years old and after spending the day flying. And then of course face the bus ride. Anyway same song and dance with my brother and his fam flying in from Denver. Just ridiculous. After all of that travel plus then the long bus ride- it was just too much. They also messed up on the people that were sharing a room but flying in on different flights. Thankfully everyone made it in the end but I’m pretty pissed about all of the problems everyone had. I emailed my TA from DT and she was surprised. She had given apple eeryone’s flight information. It seemed they went by room reservaton, not flight info. Weird. And really frustrating.

 

More coming...

[amy706]

DEEP SEA FISHING – Grade: C (was fun, caught 6 fish in 4 hours, and 2 out of 6 people got sick)

We hung out with our guests each day as they arrived. Tuesday Mike took my brothers, dad, step dad, and his dad on a deep sea fishing trip. He organized this the day before through one of the reps located on site at DT. It was $525 and tipped 100 bucks + transport of 70 bucks for 7 people. They had a great time and caught fish. Only downside my step dad was sea sick the entire time! Mike got sick too – threw up and then was okay the rest of the time. Ugh. Captain said last 8 boats that went out caught nothing and they were lucky to catch what they did. Guess Dec is a slow month for fishing…

 

TULUM RUINS- Grade A-

(only because trekking to the ruins and beach with small kids is a pain… but everyone agreed worth it!)

We had everyone meet in the lobby and we took taxis to the Tulum ruins. About 50 people attended and I pre-organized envelopes with the exact money needed for cabs there and back (cab fare is $7 each way). I had one of the GM go ahead with Mike ahead of time. BTW – you need to use pesos for the entrance fee. Its 48 pesos. There is an exchange place right there at the ruins but I’m guessing it’s a pretty bad rate. My FI at the time went to reserve some space at the beach cove and the GM bought the tickets for everyone and handed them out to people as they arrived. We had everyone do their own thing with regards to the ruins and then meet us all down on the beach for swimming, champagne toast, and snacks. Mike and I took a taxi into town the day before and bought champagne (cash only) at a liquor/vino store and snacks (at market called San Franciscan right in Tulum town)- credit cards accepted. There was a security guard of some sorts at the beach who told us we couldn’t drink on the beach (meanwhile there were loads of other people drinking) so we gave him $15 and said we’re dong a wedding toast and he said okay just be discreet and he walked away. Hilarious. We didn’t stay discreet at all. We had a BLAST. This was a big hit with everyone that made it. Great pictures at a beautiful spot. Pretty cheap to do as well all in all. We looked into shuttles at the resort – both the apple rep and the bell man and it was more expensive than just taking individual taxis. Plus since we had kids in the group we wanted to give people flexibility to leave when they wanted to leave. This worked great! Plus we had people arriving that day who were a tad later so they ended up just taking taxis and meeting us there. So everyone could come/go as they pleased.

 

 

REHEARSAL- Grade: A

We met at the Seaside Grill for a quick rehearsal. Landy was on time and was great. We did a quick run through- although I pretty much conducted the whole thing. We had 8 BMs and 8 GMs so I had to tell everyone the order, etc, etc. I wrote the whole ceremony so had to tell the readers when their cue was to read, etc. It went great though!

 

SUNSET WELCOME CRUISE (post-rehearsal)- Grade: A+

I organized a sunset catamaran cruise through Cancun Discounts.

 

Cancun discounts: Cancun Discounts - Cheap Cancun Tours, Hotels, Activities, More.

Email for cancun discounts (Johann was who I worked with): [email protected]

Actual boat operator email: (Damien was who I worked with) [email protected]

 

We thought we had 60 people so we went with a 100 person boat. We ended up with 50 so could have done the smaller one but it worked. We had plenty of room. The staff was GREAT. We brought CDs and Ipod and both worked. They really enjoyed us and we enjoyed them! They had someone taking pictures the whole time with a really nice camera and then sold the cd for $100. Not sure it was worth it but one of our aunts bought it for us-which was nice. He did do a great job of capturing everyone. We had tuna croissant sandwiches that were great although would have liked more variety or a better set up. They were just passed around in a big bowl. Drinks included beer, rum or tequila drinks. People did a lot of shots. The staff was great. Everyone had an amazing time!! TOTALLY worth it. Here’s the pricing (again this is for the huge boat)

 

Catamaran - $1,800

Package # 1 - $16.25 per person (Includes Open Bar, Snacks, Tip) – we tipped on top of that as well because we had such a great time.

Transportation - $7 per person (we left out of Puerto Adventuras- about 30 minutes away)

 

 

[amy706]

SPA – Grade: A+

I didn’t have a lot of girls getting stuff done, Cant Wait warned them not to mess anything up with my group, I made good friends with Jennifer, the spa concierge, and between Mike and I bought 11 massages for parents, people in our wedding party, etc. The end result is that my spa experience was PERFECT. And they gave all of my guests a really good discount on massages as well if they said they were with my party (so a 50 min massage was $85 instead of $125). I had a hair trial with Trinidad a few days prior (she did it the day of as well). She did a great job. I brought pictures and what she created was incredible. We went to the disco on the night of my trial and my hair fell out so the day of I asked for more bobby pins. It held a bit better but still loosened by the end of the night. Be insistent for lots of bobby pins!! BUT – she did a FANTASTIC job. Seriously. Loved it. Also, I prearranged with Carlos to do a little champagne, cheese, chocolate covered strawberries for 4 people. They had it set up 10 minutes early and was waiting when my BMs arrived. We ended up having the rest of the BMs not getting hair done stop by and they brought another bottle of champagne, and didn’t charge any more for it. FYI this was $12 per person. It was a nice surprise for the girls and well worth it. They also let my step mom set up her make up there so she could do my makeup in the spa. FYI- the lighting in the rooms is really bad. My stepmom needed natural sunlight so we set up by the window at the spa and it worked great. Everyone there was so nice and accommodating. Again, I had my hair done there, 1 BM hair, and 1 BM makeup (I gave her mine since my stepmom did mine). And it all went smoothly.

 

 

Also and this was huge. Jennifer, the spa concierge, was amazing. Not only did she give my group great discounts but she was so sweet and answered so many questions I had. My pepto bismol exploded in my bag despite being in a Ziploc and got all over my white dress I planned to use for my TTD. I asked her about where to buy detergent. She went out and bought some for me and gave it to me the next day!!! She really went above and beyond all week. THEN she helped us get tequila at a good rate for our tequila tasting and helped us look into cigars too we ended up getting these on our own but she was SOOO helpful – seriously above and beyond. She ALSO offered to do a tequila history for us free of charge. We took her up on it and she was fantastic! We of course gave her a huge tip. She deserved it!! She was a super nice person too. Her mom is actually a member on the DT forum. I read some of her posts during the closing. Anyway, Jennifer rocks and anyone that meets her. Tell her Amy & Mike say hello!

 

See – look how happy my brother looks!

 

 

PHOTOGRAPHER: CITALLI FROM CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ:

She was sweet but I haven’t seen the pics yet so a grade to follow! She was on time, even a few minutes early. Waiting at my room when I got back from the spa. We took pics beforehand first with my fam and BM then I hid in my room and she did the GM and grooms’fam. More details and pics to come when I get them…

 

LANDY AND HER STAFF – Grade: A+ (Anabel, Lizette, & Mitzi helped)

Okay you guys must start to think I’m an easy grader. Seriously I loved everything about the wedding and wedding week and am so grateful to the people that made it possible!

Mike, my mom and I met with Landy on Monday (wedding was on Friday) and went over all of the details. She is very accommodating and on top of it. She seemed real organized with her excel spreadsheet and print outs of everything I had ever sent her- very comforting!! We met her again on Thursday to give her all of our decorations we brought and pay her. Mike and I wanted to do the cocktail hour on the lobby deck and she had told us over email and again live that she thought it wasn’t good. We had too large a group and its not private. When she could tell we were really wanting it she said we could do it. But as we thought about it we changed our minds (and glad we did)- more on cocktail hour later. ANYWAY – she’s willing to do what she can for you. She did an excellent job of orchestrating everything we gave her!! I was truly amazed!

 

The day before the wedding Mike and I walked into our rooms and holy cannoli my dress was hanging on our bed in all its glory. Mike immediately turned and ran when he caught a glimpse BUT STILL. I was irritated. It was supposed to arrive the following day, not that day. ADVICE: PLEASE PLEASE remember to ask Landy to have them put the dress BACK in the bag. I don’t even know what happened to the bag the dress was in. would have been nice to have to take the dress home. Anyway, when I saw Landy at our little rehearsal shortly after I told her. And she immediately had it removed from our room and returned the following day. I’m not sure why the laundry/pressing service doesn’t return the damn thing with a bag around it. Also, my MOH said she saw them bringing it to my room and almost had a hard attack b/c at that time it was overcast and very well could have started to rain. It all worked out. This was probably the biggest hiccup I had… so let’s put this in perspective. Not a big deal but please do write it down now to remember to ask Landy when you meet with her there before your wedding. BAG FOR GOWN after its pressed!

 

More...

[amy706]

FOOD AT THE WEDDING- Grade: A

We did the buffet. Originally we thought we had to because we had 70 people and then we learned we could do sit down if we wanted but upon thinking about it decided to do a buffet anyway. We didn’t want dinner to drag on too long, especially since the DJ had to stop by 10:30. we wanted time to dance and party! Anyway, everyone I spoke to said they thought the food was great. We had the ultimate package so we had the gold menu. We chose items from the gold menu and some from the silver. Here’s what we had. I tried to have a bite of each thing and everything I tried was quite good. I don’t recall it all (too much champagne plus it was dark in there so I couldn’t always tell what I was actually eating). Here’s what we had and comments where I recall.

 

2 appetizers

Bruschetta with prosciutto, tomato, and fresh basil --- THIS WAS AWESOME!!! LOVE LOVE

SHRIMP FRIED QUESADILLA – don’t remember

 

1 soup

Tortilla Soup – didn’t eat

 

2 salads

GRILLED VEGETABLES WITH AGED BALSAMIC

Caesar salad with blackened chicken – this was actually REALLY good. I was surprised by how good the chicken was.

3 entrees

Surf & Turf, Mignon and Shrimp with a

gravy sauce and malted butter --- the filet was actually delicious!

Fresh Salmon in a puff pastry with a delicious peppers sauce – kind of blah

Chicken Breast filled with a creamed

spinach with peppers sauce – I don’t remember this but I had several people comment about how good it was.

 

1 dessert

Fruit tart with amaretto mouse

** this is what I ordered but I noticed they also had tiramisu out there for dessert. That was nice of them! J

 

OHH!! I also wanted to say that I was SOO impressed with the set up for the buffet as well. It was beautifully done. I havne’t seen any photos of it yet but will post some when I get it. Beautiful!

 

RECEPTION SET UP- Grade: A

We changed to the Seaside Grill (from the beach- original plan) as it was really windy the first 2 days we were there. It ended up not being that windy so we could have done it on the beach but the transformation of the Seaside thanks to Karla letting me use her chiffon material to drape around the ceiling- was gorgeous. Obviously we brought down the paper lanterns, we brought LED candles they placed all around, etc. Looked great- I thought. HUGE thanks to Karla for letting me use the material. Landy just charged me the $150 set up fee. THANK YOU KARLA

 

 

CAKE- Grade B

I only had the one token bite of cake and it tasted great. I went with the GOLDEN 03 (WITH FLOWERS THAT MATCH OUR BOUQETS) Flavor : VANILLA Filling: STRAWBERRY. I wish I would have eaten a whole piece of packed a piece for later. I heard from people that it was great. In my opinion it didn’t look exactly like the picture but it was still pretty. I wasn’t terribly picky about this. I do wish that I saved some to eat though. I was too busy dancing at this point!

 

MINI-MOON- The MEZZANINE (small boutique hotel in Tulum)- Grade: A

The day after the wedding, we went to the Mezzanine. It was exactly what we needed. Only about 9 rooms. Completely solar and wind powered but very chic and cool. Gorgeous beaches, incredible rooms. 1-4pm every day 2 for 1 margaritas. HIGHLY recommend it! It was sort of expensive (we had the master suite for 450 bucks a night- but the regular rooms are much less!) Oh and they have delicious food. The breakfasts were AMAZING. And fabulous organic thai food!

http://www.mezzanine.com.mx/home.html

 

 

 

I would do it all over again exactly the same a million times over! You all were such a support and help to me so feel free to ask me any questions! PM if I can help with anything!!!

[ashjanbro]

Amy,

 

I have been waiting so patiently for your review and pics, and you definitely didn't disappoint! You looked stunning, and everything seemed to be very elegant and pretty. Thank you for such a very detailed review. I want more pics!!!! Especially of your beach set-up. I think I'm doing a combination of everybody's set-up for my own.

 

I'm so excited everything turned out wonderfully, especially post DT closure. I'm sure it was exciting to have such a big group to celebrate with, and it also seems like you planned a lot of fun adventures for everyone.

 

You mentioned that you led the rehearsal. Did you write your own ceremony? Who was the officiant? Were you impressed with him/her? Who did you use for a DJ? If it was the resorts DJ, do you have any suggestions?

[MsSunshine]

Amy, thank you for the review and congrats to you and Mike!

[amy706]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashjanbro Amy, You mentioned that you led the rehearsal. Did you write your own ceremony? Who was the officiant? Were you impressed with him/her? Who did you use for a DJ? If it was the resorts DJ, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks thanks thanks! I 'wrote' the whole ceremony (borrowed from bits and pieces that I found on bdw and online). So I knew the flow of the ceremony and who i wanted to walk with who and the order,etc. So i pretty much ran it. Although Landy helped guide us with a few things I didn't know. You know i dont even know the officiant's name. We did a symbolic ceremony. he did a great job. Had perfect English and everyone understood him. We sent the ceremony to Landy in advance so she could give it to him to practice:) We used DJ Mannia. he was great and for a great price, I thought. So I cant help on the DJ at DT although I heard he doesn't really announce things like you'd want- which is why we went with Mannia. Plus he had GREAT reviews! Let me know if I can answer anything else!!!

[sgbrown]

What an excellent review! Thank-you sooooo much for taking the time to write it - we all really appreciate it. Your reception set-up looks so beautiful. I'm so glad you had such an amazing experience. It sounds like your guests loved everything, too.

 

I am really excited to see Citlalli's pics. I originally tried to book her, but there was a scheduling mix-up so I had to choose Freddy from Claudia Rodriguez' team instead. It seems like everyone from Claudia's team is amazing though. How many hours did you book Citlalli for? I've asked for 3 hours, but please let me know if you think I need 5 hours. I'm not very keen on having reception pictures taken. I just want some pics before the ceremony while we're getting ready (like you did), during the ceremony, and then pics of our families, wedding party, and of Mike and I (of course!). Do you think we'll be too rushed in your opinion?

 

Thanks again! I can't wait to see more of your pictures when you receive them.

[amy706]

Just realized I didn't post any pics of the ceremony set up. Here you go!

 

 

 

flowers lining the aisle

 

[amy706]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgbrown What an excellent review! Thank-you sooooo much for taking the time to write it - we all really appreciate it. Your reception set-up looks so beautiful. I'm so glad you had such an amazing experience. It sounds like your guests loved everything, too. I am really excited to see Citlalli's pics. I originally tried to book her, but there was a scheduling mix-up so I had to choose Freddy from Claudia Rodriguez' team instead. It seems like everyone from Claudia's team is amazing though. How many hours did you book Citlalli for? I've asked for 3 hours, but please let me know if you think I need 5 hours. I'm not very keen on having reception pictures taken. I just want some pics before the ceremony while we're getting ready (like you did), during the ceremony, and then pics of our families, wedding party, and of Mike and I (of course!). Do you think we'll be too rushed in your opinion? Thanks again! I can't wait to see more of your pictures when you receive them.

I think 3 hours might be pushing it. we had her come 2 hours before the wedding for each of us individually with our fams and bridal party. then we took a bunch during cocktail hour. You need time for him to take pics of the details etc. I think the 5 hour package would be well worth it!!! I dont think you'll regret it! That whole team does amazing work. i can't wait to see our proc pics!