wkbroome

Hey Ladies: We were married in July of 2007. We handled all payments via a wire transfer from our bank to an account used by Dreams. Simply email them and ask for this method of payment. It was super easy, done in fifteen minutes and secure. I emailed Claudia and stated that payment had been made via wire transfer and asked her to respond via email when they received payment. She did just that. Remember, they will not respond to email quickly until the month of your actual wedding. They do a wedding almost everday. Daniella stated to me when we got there that they receive about 80-110 emails everyday from brides and those inquiring about Dreams. Trust...everything will be handled and your wedding will be absolutely beautiful!!!! Mail is extremely slow so I would not recommend sending anything by mail unless it is DHL and they are sometimes slow as well. We sent a color swatch 8 months in advance and they never received the package. Luckily, they had that color for our chair decor.

Congratulations and Best Wishes! We were married in July at Dreams Cancun and the experience was truly a Dream.

Awesome Review! I'm so happy for you guys. I knew your wedding would be perfect!!!!!

We did bring the sand back. We simply sealed the containers with saran wrap and carried it on the plane.

I believe you have to put down 50% to secure the date! This is what we were told which is why we put the $1200 at the close of our site visit. Dreams cannot guarantee the date in less the money is be secured. For all the Dreams Cancun Ladies, please check on this immediately.

In regards to the centerpieces used for the cocktail reception, Dreams provided those. Jilly...Daniella simply designed a centerpiece based off the bouquet I chose. This was how they created the boutinnere and corsages as well.

******Naughie Please pm your email address again. I made a mistake and deleted it by accident. I would love to share my pics.

Hey Ladies: It is taking entirely too long to load pictures. Email me at [email protected] or pm on this site with your email address and I will send you our shutterfly link. Our photographer, Erick Rodriguez of Claudia Rodriguez Photography, was awesome! He was totally professional and spoke perfect English. I copied and pasted several photos for everyone to view. The picture of the gazebo will show you exactly how it will look when it is completely set. Again, feel free to pm if you have any questions. We are in the process of planning for a formal reception at home to accommodate 150 people. However, I am still addicted to the forum....so I will be checking frequently. Peace... :-)

Centerpieces: We did bring additonal coral votives and holders. I also found sea animal tea light holders that we scattered throughout the table as well. Personalized napkins and white fingered starfish were the other things on the table. ********I just received my professional photographs. Erick Rodriguez of Claudia Rodriquez Studios Rocks!!!!!!!!! I'm super pumped about my photos. I will try to post them tomorrow. Of course, I'm challenged with posting photos...they always come out ridiculously large. I will probably copy and paste them into a word document.

The cocktail hour started about 10 minutes after the actual ceremony. We had an outside photographer so this worked out perfect. While guests were seated at the cocktail hour, we went to the beach and lighthouse for additional pictures/footage. Our wedding began a 6:30 p.m. and we were done with everthing by 10:45.

Hey Paula V: Here are the answers to your questions: You mentioned you were sent a final contract 2 weeks before your wedding date. Did you have to put down a certain percentage deposit at that time? *We went on a site visit the year before so we put a deposit of $1200 down then. In April, I had the additional $1200 wired to the account that was given to me for Dreams. Claudia confirmed via email that she received final payment. The contract seems to always be a work in progress because they simply cross things off and add. (Not quite like we do in the states) For the meet and greet, did you have any problems finding tables for 30 guests or did you need to make reservations? I really like your idea. *We actually chose a time when we know the World Cafe (largest restaurant on the resort that is a buffet) and simply went in together. Since Dreams is a non wristband resort, you simply give them your room number and you are seated. Where did you buy the handwoven OOT bags? I love them! Here is the vendor...Welcome to Ailana Kai Ailana Kai The rental of the stereo equipment, is that $180 per hour? No...it was $180 for the ceremony and $180 for the reception. Did you have a DJ? Band? iPod? We burned our cd's from our Itunes library before we left. Several couples used their Ipod's and it drained the batteries rather quickly. Did you hand out any tip envelopes on top of the charges, tax and tip they already charge or did Daniella handle everything for you? I tipped the workers on my own. They don't really make any money and the service at Dreams is outstanding.

2 pictures of cocktail reception from my wedding - setup 2007 video prices Cocktail reception pics.doc VIDEO_PACKAGES_Dreams_Cancun.doc

Hey Susan: No problem. Feel free to ask many more questions if needed. :-) Did you have a rehersal of the ceremony the day before? If so, who ran it and how did it go? *We actually conducted our own rehearsal. I believe that if you want a formal one, Daniella will set that up for you. Many people do an actual rehearsal. I believe that they need to know this in advance. I was trying to get this done quickly because I did not want to be rude to the other couple who was getting ready to utilize the gazebo for their ceremony. We only had two people in our wedding party so this was relatively simple for us to conduct on our own. We emailed Daniella our wording for the sand ceremony and also informed her in advance that we would be writing our own vows. I loved the white organza w/o the ivy! Were you charged for this, or was it part of the "additional gazebo decorations" included in the Ultimate ($2400) package? No, I was really happy to discover that this was a part of the Ultimate Package - No additional charge. Yeah! :-) How was you cocktail hour set up? Do you remember approx. how many cockail tables there were? Were the tables decorated at all? *This was interesting. There was actually a few long tables set up with food and the chairs for the guests were in a semi-circle in the garden area. The Caribbean Trio was on the side. I actually saw this setup several ways so you probably can let them know what you would like. What was set for us worked our perfectly. One of the pictures are blurry but this will sort of give you an idea of the long table and where the Caribbean Trio sets up. The wedding after mine had the Mariachi Band and they stood here as well. The second picture will give you a better idea of the semi-circle. -What appetizers, soup, and salad did you choose for you dinner? How were they? Appetizers - mexican appetizers Soup - Minestrone; the other two choices had seafood and some people have allergies. The minestrone soup was good, similar to what we can get here in the states. If was definitely a safe choice. :-) Salad - The Dreams Salad -this was simply a caesar salad with shrip on top. Tasty. Last question (for now...smile do you know what the cost was for the basic video package included in the Ultimate package... I am using an independent vendor for videography and am looking for an approx. dollar amount so I know how much to ask for in credit toward flowers or something else! I'm sorry about this one...I didn't think to ask. I'm pretty sure it is the basic video package that is included in the file that Claudia sends out. I will attach those prices just in case as well so that you will have something to barter with. ******Although I was married in 2007 and many of you are 2008, there was no additional charge for linens. I only paid for chair bows and the same ones were used for the reception. There should be no additional charge for this. You may want to inquire more about this and get them to put it in writing - email. I took all correspondence with me just in case there were problems - We were fortunate. I hope this helps. Please post again if you think of anything else. See attachments.

**See attachment for additional pictures of things used for wedding. Professional pictures still to come as promised. :-) I know how we are about our pictures. LOL! **This was a tremendous undertaking. Eighteen of our guests had never been out of the state of Oklahoma and definitely not out the country. Whew....talk about resistance! It all worked out terrific and 11 have already book a vacation for the upcoming year. As Tom would say...Mission Accomplished. :-) **Theme: Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much! **Total of 30 guests – 32 including us..... We arrived at Dreams Cancun on Monday, July 23rd and had lunch. Our room was not quite ready (check in is at 3:00 p.m.) regardless of room type. The hotel arranged for our bags to be taken to our rooms and we had Daniella Castillo paged to finalize everything for the wedding. Two weeks before, Daniella emailed with a final contract. I simply made corrections where needed and added our menu selection, etc. As it became closer to the wedding date, email correspondence was within 24 hours. Daniella handled everything while we were in Cancun. I will definitely say that handling everything in advance made life so much easier; we only met with her for 10 minutes and we were done. I couldn’t believe it! We had originally said we would get married in Cancun but later changed our minds. We were legally married in Illinois on the date that Warren actually proposed the year before. Our travel arrangements had already been made to get to Cancun the required 4 days in advance to establish residency. I was a little bummed at first because I wanted to stay after the wedding but it totally worked in our favor. If you can get there in advance, this will be very beneficial. Not only were we completely done with everything, this allowed time in case anything came up. It was really nice to relax with my hubby before everyone came knowing that there was nothing else to do but “get married”. :-) Later that evening, we met with Erick Rodriquez and his wife Citlalli of Claudia Rodriquez Photography. They were extremely nice and professional. I gave Erick a list of photos that we definitely wanted and a few sample photos that I had found on various websites to recreate. He was able to capture almost the same thing, but with a new and exciting twist. He was very professional and spoke perfect English. We were very happy with our choice of photographer. Our wedding album and picture cd will be sent via FedEx tomorrow. I will be sure to post those when they come. If you are not using items included in your package, be sure to negotiate other things instead. We did not utilize the photo package or the bride’s hairstyle/makeup. We were able to upgrade to a larger edited video and a manicure/pedicure at the spa. In my email correspondence in advance with Daniella, I gave her the date and time that we wanted our spa services and she arranged everything. All we had to do was show up. Bonus! :-) One less that I would have to do. The spa is beautiful, but very expensive. I’m a spa girl and I would even think twice. We took advantage of what was included in our package and what we negotiated in advance. I had my nails done before we left for Cancun (gel nails/French manicure). On the actual wedding day, I did get another pedicure just so everything looked nice for the pictures. Meet and Greet: The night before the wedding, everyone met in the main lobby and we introduced everyone. Warren and I thanked everyone, passed out OOT bags, and we later invited everyone to join us for dinner in the World Cafe. We kept emphasizing that this is also a vacation for them and we would not be tying up their entire time. This was important too so that we could have some time to ourselves as well. All guests were very appreciative of this. Everyone mingled for about 20 minutes and took pictures. We all then headed over to the World Cafe. OOT Bags: Hand woven bags, personalized tags, Bath and Body Works lotion, shower gel, scented room spray, welcome note created with KodakGallery, postcards. We asked all guests to send back the postcard letting us know what the highlight of the weekend was for them. Our guests think we spent a ton of money on the OOT bags, but I caught all the contents during the semi-annual clearance sale in January. All items in the bags were wrapped with coral colored tissue paper. All bags were given to guests by room. Additional Gifts: Starfish refrigerator magnets in brown envelopes from Michael’s. They were all stamped with our theme. Room: The junior jacuzzi suite was off the chain! :-) This simply means that is was super nice. :-) It helps that the tower overlooks the wedding gazebo. I could simply look down and see the progress of the wedding setup. When it was time for the ceremony, Daniella simply called the room and stated “It’s Showtime”. :-) I have already posted pictures for the room. Feel free to pm if you have any additional questions. **Rooms have Sharper Image Clocks. Your Ipod can hook up to this. I was able to listen to my music as I got dressed. *****Important for everyone – the rooms do not have bright lights. I found this to be difficult when trying to apply makeup. This is artificial lighting so your makeup will definitely look different. Luckily, I had my mom bring another vanity mirror (they have them at Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, etc.) and I placed it on the windowsill, utilizing natural light and this worked great. Flowers: As a result of being at Dreams 4 days in advance, I saw a wedding everyday. Everyone had the prettiest flowers I have ever seen! I was stressing big time about the flowers because I did not know what flowers were native to that part of the country. Originally I wanted calla lilies, but I remember Claudia saying that if Cancun did not have a true rainy season, they would not look healthy. I found a picture of a bouquet I really liked on a website and emailed it to Daniella. She said it would be no problem to recreate at no additional charge. I opted for a bouquet of bright pink and orange roses (wedding color was coral). I had a starfish in my bouquet as well. Absolutely beautiful! Roses are plentiful in Cancun.....I also saw a bride with fuscia pink calla lilies....I have never seen these before in the states. Signature Drink: Coral Chill Ceremony: Everything went better than I ever imagined. We went with an all white wedding; simply put...all guests wore white. I can honestly say that this was amazing! So many people complimented us on our choice to ask everyone to wear white. In Chicago, “all white parties” are popular so most of our guests already had something to wear. Everyone dressed in all attire white against the turquoise water looks amazing on our photographs. Ceremony Time: Please make sure you are aware of sunset for the particular time of year you are getting married. If you are getting married in July, anything after 5:30 p.m. is too late if you want sunset pictures. Anything before 4:00 pm. is too hot. Centerpieces: We took coral colored candles, candle holders, white fingered starfish, and custom printed napkins with us to decorate the tables. I told Daniella how I wanted everything decorated and it was perfect. Instead of a head table, she sat us with our guests which worked out better for us. The centerpiece that was used for the ceremony was simply moved to the table, so we actually had two centerpieces on the table for dinner. If you decide to sit with your guests, you will not need to purchase centerpieces. This can help save you money. *Be very specific with what decor you want on the gazebo. We chose the white organza without the flowers on the post. If you are choosing to have the ivy as well, be sure they use fresh ivy. Two wedding before us used ivy and organza and the ivy was not replaced. When you look at it carefully, some of it started to wilt. Honestly, the white organza alone is the most elegant. (Just my opinion) The flowers on the post move with the wind. *I cannot state this enough...it is extremely breezy at the wedding gazebo. I am so glad that I did not wear a veil. When you get to the resort, I would advice everyone to stand in the gazebo in advance and see what I am describing. Food for thought...you may want to have a backup plan. *You definitely need the stereo equipment for the ceremony. I believe it was $180 to rent. We barely heard the ceremony because of the waves crashing against the rocks. ***If you are planning on having music during dinner/reception (this is probably everyone), you must also rent the stereo equipment for this as well. Yes, that’s right...another $180 fee for that as well. Cocktail reception: We chose the Caribbean Trio....very good. This was held in the garden area. Everyone thought this was a very nice touch. We simply went with the appetizers that came with our package - $2400 package. Reception: We partied like we were ROCK STARS! LOL...Simply stated, it was awesome. We held the reception in the terrace and danced there as well. Plenty of room. Do not rent the dance floor if you do not have to because you can use the terrace and part of the lobby area. The dance floor is not very big. I have already posted two pictures of this as well. We chose surf and turf as our option and it was tasty. All our guests like the food chosen. We opted not to have the dessert that came with the meal and simply have cake as dessert. As a result of this, Daniella did not charge us extra for the cake to feed more people; she just gave us a dessert credit. Bill: The day after the wedding, we received a call that simply asked us to close out our bill for the wedding....additional charges – sound equipment, etc. No problem. Wedding Coordinators: I cannot say enough about what a pleasant experience it was to work with Daniella and Claudia. Our wedding was truly a “Dream”! I couldn’t be more pleased with their hard work and effort. We were very fortunate to have perfect weather. I actually saw 2 weddings get rained out....the staff at the resort moved promptly to get everything secured. Both couples were able to get married at the gazebo, but had to delay an hour or so. It was amazing to see the attention that was given to every couple throughout the week. I know it gets frustrating when we want answers like “Now”...but, the closer it gets to your special day, you will get the undivided attention that you definitely deserve. This will end my rather lengthy review...I hope this will help someone..... Dreams is Awesome and it is my hope that everyone has such a blessed day as we did! Remember, during this journey, if you do things with the right spirit...everything will work out for you. Peace and many blessings... Kimiko More Pics for forum.doc

Yes, we had ours in the terrace. The beach area is lovely, but extremely breezy. We could barely hear the ceremony in the gazebo. We had to watch it on the camcorder later to actually hear what the minister was saying. Again the beach is beautiful, but you may want to consider your guests and the sand. If you choose the garden area, it still is very breezy, but you don't have to deal with the sand. The air is not cold, but a warm breeze.