Karen and Jason's Dreams Tulum Wedding Review

[Karen]

We were married in an intimate beach ceremony for two on 7/4/07. Things weren’t too complicated in the planning of our wedding since we eloped. We arrived at Dreams on 6/30/07 and stayed there until 7/8/07, at which point we moved the honeymoon to the Grand Oasis Playa in Cancun until 7/12/07. Here is a summary of our wedding experience at Dreams.

Dreams Tulum Resort & Spa:

Overall this place was wonderful!!! The grounds were beautiful and clean as was our room. The staff were so friendly and appeared to actually love their work. I don’t think we were ever not greeted with a smile by any of the staff. The food was great. We dined at all but one of the restaurants. There is 24 hour room service. No wrist bands or towel cards!!! This was nice. The liquor was all top shelf. We received a room upgrade to a Jr. Suite with an ocean view. The room was gorgeous and outfitted with minibar, free safe, spacious bathroom complete with large shower area, twin sink vanity area, and jacuzzi tub. We had a large terrace and the room decor was tasteful. We received turndown service every other night or so. Not sure about why this was not every night. After we returned from dinner on the night we arrived, we were greeted with a bottle of champagne, a plate of fruit, and a welcome letter from the general manager. The only downside to our room was that it was right over the disco so techno music was our lullaby almost every night.

There were a lot of families here and a lot of Americans. The atmosphere was pretty wholesome and laid back. Almost everyone we talked to was there for a wedding or getting married there! There was entertainment nightly and by the pool during the day which was petty standard resort stuff. We loved that there was not a timeshare salesman in sight. The beach was very pretty and clean. We didn’t usually have a problem finding a palapa with lounge chairs if we saved them on our way to breakfast. It is rocky under the water so bring water shoes! Servers were very attentive when bringing beach side drinks. I recommend the Miami Vice (half strawberry daquiri and half pina colada).

Spa (Hair & Makeup):

Since the ceremony was at 10 a.m., my appointment was at 7:30 a.m. Victor was my stylist & makeup artist. He has worked on various television shows and has 20 years experience. His resume included working for the show Temptation Island and for Playboy. I brought a picture of a simple chignon, thinking this would best compliment the dress and be simple enough for anyone regardless of skill to replicate. What I loved about Victor is that he was sweet and listened to what I wanted but also advised me according to his expertise and took his own spin on the chignon style. I was so pleased on how I looked on the big day.

Sandra (WC):

Sandra met with us the night we arrived and we liked her right away. She was friendly and accommodating. During our meeting we picked out flowers, cake, and planned or wedding schedule including a wedding luncheon on the beach. I was so relieved and just felt so pampered after meeting with her. Sandra worked her bootie off for us and made herself available to us night and day. My only criticism of the wedding planning team at Dreams is that there is just not enough staff to accommodate all their weddings. There is just Sandra and her assistant Landy. There were usually multiple weddings every day. S & L would be there every day morning til 1 a.m. on average. I don’t care how good you are, balls will be dropped when there is under staffing. Our wedding went pretty smoothly and Sandra was very detailed oriented. She arranged for breakfast to be delivered to my room at 7 a.m. and for me to have mimosas while I got ready. My dressing assistant never showed so our photographer, Vanessa, was nice enough to zip me up. Other than that all our needs and requests were tended to. I was also very pleased that Sandra arranged for our blood tests (required per Mexican marriage requirements) to take place at her office. The med tech was professional, accurate with a needle, and left no bruises!! Sandra arranged for Jay to have his own room the night before. This turned out to be great as it afforded us the opportunity to reflect and chain smoke (lol) privately before the biggest day of our lives.


Wedding Day:

Our ceremony was scheduled for 10 a.m. but did not occur until 10:30 a.m. due to the flowers arriving late. I was transported to the wedding site via golf cart. The site on the beach was beautiful, relatively quiet, and secluded. The canopy was decorated in white fabric and pink and white flowers to coordinate with my bouquet of pink roses. I was very pleased with the flowers. Jason and I did not want processional music as we only wanted to hear the crashing of waves and birds chirping when we saw each other. Our Judge was English speaking and truly wonderful. Our ceremony was very religious (Christian references everywhere) despite the fact it was civil. I loved this but I’m not sure every one would especially if you are not Christian. Our Judge was very sweet and seem to really care that our marriage started off right and that it be a lasting union. Our song (Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis) played while we had our first kiss. Just beautiful!! Bystanders applauded and cheered. We had champagne and tequila toasts immediately after the ceremony. We then cut the cake, a mini two tier tres leche cake (so cute and yummy!). After that was photography and a private luncheon on the beach. I had surf and turf. Jay just had turf. We then called our family and hung out on the beach for a while then got ready for dinner...YEP I’m talking about the highly anticipated much discussed Lambert Wedding dinner.

Jay arranged for us to have a private candlelit dinner at sunset on the beach in Akumal. The dinner was provided by the restaurant Lol-Ha which was near the dinner area. The dinner took place under a palapa that had crisp white cotton draping the four sides of the structure. An aisle of Tiki torches led to our dinner site. It looked like something described in a romance novel. There was live Flamenco guitar and dancing in the restaurant which we could hear from our table along with crashing waves. A stray kitty came to visit us and to taste my Mahi Mahi. The food was amazing and the whole experience was just so romantic. I was just brought to tears and could not stop smiling at my incredible husband. I must have done something good in my life to deserve this truly beautiful man. We had to leave this little piece of paradise to go in the restaurant to have Mayan Coffee after dinner since fire is involved in the table side preparation of this yummy after dinner drink! When we returned to our room, we found we had a very special turn down service. I won’t go into detail as it’s a nice surprise for any potential Dreams Tulum couple. The whole day exceeded my expectations and was truly the best and most romantic day of my life.

Photographer:

Vanessa Vargas was our photographer. She is an amazing artist who listened to our requests and exercised her artistic vision as well. Our photos were a mix of candids and poses with varied effects. She is very fun, sweet, and professional. The resulting photos have brought tears to my eyes, they are so beautiful. Vanessa also helped me get dressed and helped to keep me calm before walking down the aisle. We highly recommend her.

Videographer:

Juan Alfredo Salcedo did our video. He also was professional, kind, and fun. He got us to do things that we are usually too cool for such as twirling each other around. The editing, format, and packaging of the video are top quality. The video included our ceremony as well as cake cutting, toast, and spontaneous posing and playing around. We highly recommend him as well.

We just had an overall wonderful time and couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful wedding day. If there is anything we missed or any other questions let us know.

Follow the link to our pics!

jnklambert - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[AnnR]

awww - beautiful! you two are clearly so in love - and it just shines through! congratulations again!!

[TA Jill]

congratulations, jason & karen!! It looks and sounds like you had a beautiful day!

[foxytv]

Great review!! Love the pictures! Fabulous! Congratulations!!!!

[SusanK]

Originally Posted by foxytv

Great review!! Love the pictures! Fabulous! Congratulations!!!!

Ditto! I couldn't have said it better myself! Best wishes for married life!!!

[cessyboston]

congrats im so happy you had the wedding you wanted

[laura b]

Karen-
Awesome pics! My photographer got the one of us between the cacti, too!

Hope you guys had a great time in Phase 2 of Project Honeymoon.

[TammyB]

Great pics and great review, you two look so happy.. Congrats again

[Tammy Host]

great review karen!

I was just brought to tears and could not stop smiling at my incredible husband. I must have done something good in my life to deserve this truly beautiful man.

~ i think marrying your soulmate will make you feel that way. you are both very lucky to have foudn each other.

[Jackie]

Congratulations, your wedding sounded so buetifull!!!