Los Cabos~site visit 5/12-5/17

It's my turn ladies! Take a seat, and make sure you have a drink in hand.

 

It all started Saturday, May 9th. My FI received a call from Expedia.com, Mexicana cancelled our flight because of not enough passengers due to the swine flu, and we had to wait till Monday, May 11th to find anything out. Long story short. While we were patiently waiting in limbo, I decided to get my hair done. =) At 4:30pm my FI calls me while my head is in the sink getting rinsed, Mexicana has us on a flight to fly out that same night at 10:00pm. At this point, we were only half packed because #1 we didn't even know if the trip was a still go, and #2, I am only working with 1 arm because of my cast on my left wrist. After a whirlwind of rushing, we get to SF airport with no itinerary. Just our flight time. Come to find out, Mexicana put us on 2 connecting flights! Our supposed to be a "2 hour flight" ended up being a flight tour of Mexico! From SFO we went to Mexico City for a 5 hour lay-over, to Guadalajara to p/u more passengers, then finally to Los Cabos 16 hours later! We arrived and zipped through customs in 10 minutes! Which was great cause we just about had it for airports! We walked past the sliding doors, and that's when the encounters with the hustling began, and never ended till we left Mexico. TIMESHARE AFTER TIMESHARE AFTER TIMESHARE. Just people up in your grill trying to lure you in with gifts after gifts, AND IF YOU DIDN'T CAVE IN, it's the guilt trip of "I need to feed my family" It became overbearing at times. But, we got through it.

 

In booking our resort visit back in January, We were up in the air between 2 resorts, Presidente Intercontinental and the Dream's Resort. We stayed at the Presidente. We checked in, and went straight to the pool for some lunch and margaritas!

 

The next day, We met with our photographer-Dino Gomez and Rev. Marco Arechiga at the Dream's resort. Instantly we fell in love with the Dream's resort, and so glad we went with our original choice!

 

Dino Gomez

We cannot thank Dino enough for all the help he has given us! He is a very laxed and laid back kind of guy, just like us. Other than being our photographer, he has been our source of information and "go-to" guy for getting in contact with Yesica. He was even nice enough to call Rev. Marco on his cell phone for us to see if he can meet with us sooner than our scheduled time. We can't wait for our wedding and TTD shoot!

 

we had 1 hour to kill before our meet with the Rev. so, we laid out by the beach under the hut and just let everything soak in, AND to jot down our random questions.

 

Rev. Marco Arechiga

Let me start by saying this guy had me at "Hello!" We agreed to meet at the rendezvous bar, and he would be wearing a white shirt. Prior to meeting him, i saw a pic of him on his website. I walk up to a guy which i thought was him and with a big grin on my face, I say hi to him and introduce myself, he gives me a puzzled look, so i asked if he was a Reverend, He says No, he was meeting someone for fishing! I felt so moded and embarrassed, I apologize and say "wrong guy". and then he just laughs and introduces himself! The guy had jokes! And we are always the ones with the jokes!! Our meet was great, it wasn't even our wedding day, and he had me in tears. Other than being a jokester, he is deep and very passionate for what he does. I've gone to so many weddings, and not once have i seen an officiant so into the couple like he is, and this was just our 1st meet!! He explained in depth and detail, the meaning of all of the traditions we plan on incorporating into our ceremony. Words can't explain how glad we are to have him be the one to marry us. Even though our wedding in Mexico will not be legal, his words and prayer is binding enough. No court judge can ever bind us together like he can.

 

After our meet we headed back to downtown San Jose, only a 15 minute walk way from our hotel.

 

Wedding Coord.~Yesica

Thursday was our meet with Yesica back at Dream's. She is the sweetest person and there for all of her brides! She is there to make sure that your dream wedding comes true! I had a spiral notebook full of questions, and she patiently answered each and everyone one of them even during her busy day! She gave us the tour of the property and gave her honest opinions on everything i asked. Straight to the point, which is what i like and very organized.

 

 

NOT FINISHED.. MORE TO COME

melette,

 

you poor thing with the layover...i hate flying through mexico city. for your wedding website you should warn your guests about the timeshare people...i did and it really helped.

 

i'll send you some of my wedding website stuff when you are ready.

 

ok, waiting part 2

the SPREAD

From the Canapes, we can choose 5 cold and 4 hot. They all sound really good and can't make up our mind. We still have quite a bit of time, so we don't have to tell her our definite choices till 4 weeks prior to our wedding. But we did choose our appetizer and main courses

 

Appetizer-Puffed pastry filled with Salmon and wild mushroom served with white wine sauce or Snow crab cake served with avocado and tomato dressing. We chose the puffed pastry salmon! It was so good i wanted to finish the whole thing, but i had that dang ol' spiral notebook of questions!

 

Soup-Mediterranean fish soup. The soup was good! It reminded me of Cioppino! (sorry no pic, we finished it before we remembered to take a pic! LOL!)

 

Main Course-We're giving our guest a choice of Beef Tenderloin or Fish-Sea Bass, only because there are a hand full of our guest that do not eat red meat. Yesica expresses concern about having 2 main courses only because it can get confusing to the wait staff to deliver the correct meal to each guest, especially when we are having approximately 85 guest. So she only asks to make it clear and easy for them-We plan on having our 2 motif ribbon colors on the guest placecard as an easy way for them to not get confused. Final #'s for the diner choices should be sent to her no later than 3 weeks prior to our wedding. The Coral ribbon for Beef and the Aqua for the Sea Bass. My favorite of the 2 is the Sea Bass, I loved the mashed potatoes! Really creamy! My FI liked the Beef.

 

Dessert- This is where we could not make up our minds. We tried 2:

the Mille Feuille of wild berries served with Irish Cream

and the Tulip of strawberry and Vanilla ice cream

They were both really good!

 

Cake- Tres Leches or Chocolate. This was a no bainer for us. We both HEART tres leches cake. The chocolate was good too and really moist!

 

I asked Yesica about having a signature drink for our wedding. I showed her our color swatches and with a snap Francisco the bartender brought us drinks with our colors! They were both so good we couldn't make up our minds which one we wanted, and Yesica saved us and said we can have both!!

Aqua- Sea of Love & Coral- Cabo Dream

 

Ceremony- We chose the beach for our ceremony. This is the approximate location of the beach where it will be held. More to the right, on the other end of the wooden path-way.

 

 

STILL MORE COMING....

Reception-The Cascada Terrace is the best place for our approx. 85 guest. This is where we chose to have our cocktail hour and reception. It's right in the middle of the resort, beachfront, but Yesica explained that it will be blocked off and also said what Ana has told me, the guest are usually respectful when wedding are in progress.

Both levels are considered the Cascada Terrace.

Upper level- Guest tables. Maximum 8 tables of 10 people can fit comfortable on the upper level. We may be 1 table short, but we'll figure it out.

Lower level-we plan on having the guest sign, cake?, cocktail hour, our sweetheart table in the middle, which later will be moved to transform to the dance floor once that starts!

 

Sunrider Sunset boat cruise A

FUN FUN FUN! The crew was awesome and funny! I highly recommend the Sunrider! We plan on going on it again with our wedding party, possibly after our rehearsal. Like the cast? LOL! Here's the sunset

 

Pueblo Bonito Spa A++

Honestly, we did get duped into attending 1 timeshare meeting. BUT, it was only to get the free SPA! LOL! And boy was it worth sitting there for 1 1/2 hours to get the free spa certificate!! We both got facials! My face has never been so smooth and clear!! We loved the pampering!

 

Mango Deck A

After our spa we walked along the beach and had a late lunch at Mango deck,and to also check out DJ Paco. Not sure if he was the DJ that day, but whoever it was, was playing great music! The food was good, and who doesn't take advantage of the 2 for 1 deal?! 4 rounds later, and the bill is the one that takes advantage of you! LOL! The entertainment was fun and had us laughing the whole entire time!

 

 

Well, That was our quick 5 days of R&R, and so much fun and well worth it!

great review...i am so glad you met with yesica. she is so sweet...

 

i think your guests will really enjoy dreams.

 

ps. out of sfo alaska usually has the best non-stop rates...sometimes united are lower...but i usually fly alaska.

Thank you so much for your review, and for all the pictures too! I am hungry just looking at them!!!!! Dreams is one of my top choices right now and the only reason I am hesitant is because of the cost for our guests and the proximity to Cabo San Lucas (further than I'd like to be) but ...I had no idea it was only a 15 minute walk to San Jose Del Cabo so ...that is a definite bonus!

 

Thanks again!

I'm so glad we were able to squeeze our resort visit in our wedding budget. I highly recommend it if the wedding couple is able to. My only regret is not getting in contact with you sooner to organize and schedule it with you! I'm sure all of what we went through would have been avoided. But, with the swine flu mumbo jumbo. Who knows!

I definitely know my guest will love Dreams!

We stayed at the Presidente Intercontinental which is a 15 min walk to downtown San Jose. 10 min. if you are a sprinter! LOL! from presidente to dreams is 10 min cab ride. Dreams is a 13 min cab ride to the hustle and bustle of Cabo (yes, i kept track of the clock! LOL!)

To tell you the truth. We were hanging out at the Pueblo Bonito Rose, which is right dab smack in the middle of everything going on! But, at the beach, The ambiance is totally different! It was a lot more busy and a lot more street vendors on the beach and just totally, a lot more noise! I couldn't even shut my eyes for 5 minutes before i heard "Mam, i have necklace, bracelet, anklet. Good price, almost free" I heard it so much, it's become a montage in my head that keeps repeating itself!! LOL!
Don't get me wrong.. There is nothing wrong with that, BUT for R&R, it's not my cup of tea? But it's a great place to hang out and have fun!

Melette - thanks for the review. We are using Sunrider for our rehearsal dinner (next week!!). I'll let everyone know how it goes. We leave this Saturday - hoping we don't have your flight issues, I don't think I could handle that with my dress in tow! : )

Melette- your review is amazing, thank you for all the details and the food pics. sooooo helpful.

 

I am sure I will come up with more questions later but for now... THANK YOU!!!