Meahgan's Wedding & Dreams Resort Review

We paid $550 for our Mariachi (booked through Maye). I believe we had 7 (one was sick). They did a great job. My husband did request a song (and he sang along with them - what a ham). I noticed that a number of the guests took pictures in front of them so I think that the novelty of the mariachi was a good thing to have during the cocktail hour which can be a bit scattered (while the bride and groom take photos). If you're deciding between a trio (for $300 to $350) or a mariachi for $550 - go with the mariachi as you and your guests won't remember the mariachi.

Tip from the field: The ceremony isn't very long (20 minutes max) and then you're right into the cocktail hour. Hire the mariachi for 1 1/2 hours and see if they will give you a discount (maybe pay $350 and hour) to have three of them play for the ceremony. The whole band has to be there before the wedding anyway, so you and they might as well get some kind of payment for the 45 minutes that they're just standing around waiting for their time to play. I didn't do this (I had a trio that I LOVED), but it could be a way for you to make logistics a bit easier.

Congrats Meahgan it sounds like things went really well! I was also thinking about the mariachi band during cocktail hour, the only thing I'm thinking is what did everyone do about pics, did you wait until after cocktail hour to do the pics or did you just miss cocktail hour, (I didn't really want to miss it)

Great review Meahgan, that really sucks how you were treated at Dreams....I hope I don't run into any problems while I'm there cause i think I'll start to cry..

 

Thanks for all the great vendors list I am definately going to look into the Mariachi band...if it's $500/hr I would totally get them

Here's what happens relative to pictures. It depends on what time you have your wedding (and when in the year). Our wedding started at 4. The ceremony was done by 4:30. The ceremony itself was about 7 minutes, but adding in the processional, recessional, and group photo that gets us to about 4:30.

SO - why does this matter? Lighting.

Dino told us to go off and enjoy a bit of the cocktail hour while he waited for the sun to get to just the right spot. About half way through the cocktail hour, he pulled us and the wedding party and family members aside and started shooting. The lighting REALLY made a difference. If you look at our photos - the ones everyone loves are from that period.

Great review. Its so nice to read these when you are planning a wedding at the same resort. Ofcourse I'm not but, this is exactly what I would want a review at my wedding resort to be like. Good job on the details. Sounds like everything turned out wonderfull!

Oh Good!!! I sent her a really nice one and she said she was going to forward it to management. I also mentioned they need to have their wedding catering chefs give some tips to the restaurants.

I agree with Natasha that to have a mariachi band would be great for the guests while you're getting photos taken. I used the Trio for cocktail hour and everyone LOVED them. Do the Mariachi's sing? I believe that Maye told me that The trio sings and palys while the mariachis just play music? That is why I chose the trio.

Also, I started my ceremony at 4:30 and we lost the light fast! I would say plan your ceremont to start an hour before sunset.

Oh good, another succesfull November wedding!

We don't have any December weddings, do we?

What are we going to do without the reviews and pictures until the next one!?

 

Same thing that happened to Rebecca regarding lighting, happened to me. We started the ceremony very late, around 4:45 PM, and we lost light FAST during the sunset. We took the wedding party down to the beach to take pics, etc... and by the time we got them in the pictures, it was almost dark. So I have about 5 pictures with our wedding party. My advice is to start the ceremony early and if necessary, do what Natasha did and just hang out and enjoy your guests until the light is right to take the rest of your pictures.

Same problem here with our 4:30 ceremony. Except I have tons of great wedding party pics, hardly any great pics of just the two of us. oh well, right? I wish we had a 4:00 ceremony.

Good to know ladies. This actually helps me relax about trying to figure out the real sunset time & schedule our ceremony for 5 pm in March.