donandcorri

Quote: Originally Posted by SaharaTulumWedding 1. Is is better to choose the Patio Terrace or the Beach? I have never been to the property and I am not sure which would be better, my fiance is leaning toward the Patio because of the hard surface floor and close bathrooms for guests, but I like the idea of the beach with possible tikki tourches and candle light. We will be married at 6PM -We got married on the beach - most of our guests just took their shoes off. You won't actually be that far away from a bathroom if you do get married on the beach - the beach location close to the dive shop may be a teensy bit closer to a bathroom than the one by seaside grill. 2. Did anyone have any guests stay off property? I have about 4 people who will be staying off property and I am wondering if someone could recommend an affordable hotel?I can't really help you here. I think the Bahia is cheaper and is fairly close to Dreams. Maybe check out some non All-Inclusive resorts?? 3. Did anyone use the photographers that were a part of the package? How did the photos turn out and the DVD as well? We did use the resort photographer and the videographer. I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with both. If you look at this post, you'll see my review along with a few pictures taken by the resort photographer (the one of me looking back in the chapel is not the resort photog) http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t12201 The videographer did about a 25 minute edited DVD for us of the ceremony and afterwords. He followed us around with the photographer & filmed our photo shoot. I love this b/c you can see a lot of the little intimate moments my husband & I had in between photos. My only issue is that he used the non-radio edit version of one song so there is a F-bomb right in the middle of my video. It's actually kind of funny - I'll just have to get the earmuffs out when I show it to my children some day. The song selection is also not what I would use but I didn't make any special requests so I can't really complain. 4. Were the activities at the hotel worthwhile for guests? What were some of the things that your guest were able to do together. There are loads of activities available at the resort. You get a sheet every night listing the next days activities (if not there are extra lists at the concierge desk)/ Some of the activities that the staff put on was a little cheesy - but it is what you make of it. There is a dive shop on location and Dreams guests have free access to non-motorized equipment. My husband went snorkelling by himself & had a great time. About 12 of my group decided to borrow the resort bikes which you can do when they aren't using them for a tour. We biked to Tulum (about 25 min each way). It was a hard bike ride with only 1 gear but we did have lots of fun - I wouldn't recommend for everyone. You can also do a bike tour to Tulum on certain mornings with the resort. There is also an evening show of some sort every night - also often cheesy, but we had fun with it. 5. Did anyone have a welcome dinner in the World Cafe? How was that?We did not do a welcome dinner. I think though that the World Cafe would be fine for that. You have to eat the buffet which was fine (the other restaurants are better) but I'm pretty sure they could make your dinner semi-private and it costs a lot less than booking in the restaurants. 6. Communication with the Hotel...I am having a hard time getting prompt responses from the Hotel. Did you have all logistics coordinated before you got to the hotel or was it something they discussed with you when you arrived? We will arrive 2 days before the wedding for coordination. Communication was also a little lacking prior to the wedding - my TA had to step in at one time to get them to respond to me in the beginning. I can tell you that Dec/January is a very busy time though so I would expect that it would be hard to get prompt responses right now. The communication got a lot better closer to my wedding date. Just make sure you bring everything you want to your meeting with Sandra when you get to the resort. I really could have gone there with no planning/communication in advance and my wedding still would have been perfect. 7. How was the music trio? A friend of mine is flying out to play guitar to for the music we request. What type of music did the trio play and at what point in your wedding did they play?We used the music trio for our cocktail hour and loved it! They did a great job. 8. Can you give me any insight as to the structure of your ceremony and dinner afterwards?Is it sort of a play by play of the day that you want After hair & makeup, I waited in my room for the photographer & Sandra. The photographer did a few getting ready shots then Sandra came to get me for the ceremony at 3pm (more like 3:20 - the bride was late). The ceremony took about 15 minutes - we didn't have our own vows, readings or any extras, this was just the judge reading & Landy translating. After the ceremony we did group shots & family shots then all the guests did their own thing while we had photos with just the bride & groom. Our cocktail hour started at 5:00 and was followed by dinner at 6:00. After dinner we cut the cake & had our first dance then went to the Sugar Reef bar for a drink! They have a disco that you can go to but we had a really small group so dancing wouldn't really work. I love this forum already because seeing your writing has enabled me to get more detailed responses from people who have had the experience already. Thanks to anyone who responds.... Sahara If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

Bring your inspiration pics to your meeting with Sandra too - she had some but not all of the pics I had sent her printed out.

I chose having a photo attached to my bouquet as a more discreet way of having my grandmother with me at my wedding. My Dad would have been too emotional had I done anything else (also, at the time I was looking into this, my grandpa was planning on coming and he has a new wife). Here's a pic of my bouquet. I also had my grandmother's ring and my great grandmother's brooch attached as my something old & borrowed.

I had the "Ultimate Wedding Pkg" which provides an upgraded bouquet. I wasn't really into any of the bouquet samples provided so I sent Sandra a couple of pictures ahead of time & she let me know what she could/couldn't do. Here's the Inspiration Pic for my bouquet: Here's the actual bouquet - pretty close to what I had asked for! My white lilies did wilt a bit but that's to be expected with lilies in the heat...... Just a side note: If you have your heart set on something that you don't find in the book, send pictures. Sandra will let you know if it can/can't be done and if there are any extra costs involved. I did this with my cake, flowers & ceremony decoration as I didn't see what I wanted in the wedding guide.

Here's the link to my review along with a few pictures from the resort photographer (2nd pic is not from resort photog). http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t12201

We got married on November 23, 2007 at Dreams Tulum....... ~Did you use the resort photographer or are you planning on it? We did use the resort photographer and as pp mentioned, he did a very good job for a "resort photographer" - we were more than satisfied with our pictures. That being said - the coverage provided in the package is only a couple of hours - he did a few before ceremony shots, the ceremony & then a few posed shots after the ceremony. We ended up with 200 pics (which we bought on CD for about $350USD). If you are considering paying for extra coverage, you might as well look at outside photographers in my opinion. ~Did you have a private reception? is it worth spending extra $ on? We did not pay for a private reception - we were supposed to have our reception on the beach but due to the weather conditions, we were moved to the wine cellar in Portofino which ended up being completely private. ~Did you stay in the honeymoon suite or a regular room? is it worth the extra $ for the honeymoon suite? We ended up being upgraded to a Junior Suite for free - it was in the Dreams section (newer) and it was beautiful! We were in the building closest to our ceremony location which was an added bonus! Other guests stayed in Garden View Rooms in the Hacienda section and they were maybe a little older but still very nice in my opinion. ~Did you/are you planning on getting married on the beach or in the chapel ~If you have gotten married there already and you were married on the beach is it right infront of everyone at the resort or semi-private? Can you request it semi-private? maybe move it down the beach a little? We got married on the beach by Seaside Grill. They did move the beach chairs back a bit but we still had a full audience of people eating at the Seaside Grill & people in bathing suits on beach chairs. It did bother me a little but I didn't specifically request a private/semi-private ceremony so I can't really complain.

Quote: Originally Posted by neen Really helpful review - thanks! (and i echo that your pics are gorgeous!). Question - did you get the impression that they would have honored your requests had you known, ie setting up an actual bar and actually passing the hor d'oeurves during the cocktail hour? Just curious if it would be a battle... I got married at Dreams Tulum in November. We had our cocktail hour in Portofino before it opened for the evening (between 5 & 6pm). They had a bartender there for us & servers wandered around passing out our hors d'oeuvres. This wasn't something that we discussed with Sandra or Landy and we didn't have to pay extra either. I would say that if you are concerned about it, bring it up with Sandra & Landy. Ask how the bar is set up & if they provide servers for the cocktail hour.

Quote: Originally Posted by amy706 This is so helpful. Thanks all. We just decided on Dreams Tulum as well after much diliberation. SO excited! Are any of you guys doing any organized events with your guests? We were thinking of doing a group trip to the ruins. Has anyone done that? Recommend any places to go through?!? Dreams actually does a bike tour to the Tulum ruins a few times a week. On the days that they don't do the tour or if you wait until after the tour comes back, you can take the bikes on your own. We just took the bikes on our own - it's about a 25 minute ride each way and then you pay about $1 to park the bikes and $4 entrance fee to the ruins.

Quote: Originally Posted by ccarmany23 Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing the information. I have not decided on location yet and have seen a lot of information on Dreams Cancun but not the Tulum one. I was wondering how big your group was and if you saw an area that would allow for DJ/Music or had heard of a nearby disco that could be rented out? Thanks and congrats! Thanks! Our group was only 17 - we just used our IPOD for dinner music & the first dance. There is a disco at the resort but I'm not sure if you can rent it out. I do know that the charge for DJ services is $150/hour though. As of Feb/08 they will have a Special Events Ballroom that has room for a reception of up to 590 (cocktail) or 450 (sitdown). The special events centre will also have a number of different sized rooms for smaller events.

Hello everyone, I got back Monday morning from two fabulous weeks at Dreams Tulum! I'm going to try to be as detailed as I can but if you have any questions just ask - I'm more than happy to help if I can......... We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and I met Sandra for the first time the next day. She had all of the details we had previously discussed printed out & ready for review. I would suggest bringing your 4 witnesses to your scheduled meeting as Sandra requires copies of their tourist card & passport. We didn't bring our witnesses & it was a little difficult trying to coordinate getting them together after our meeting. We made arrangements for the blood test, dress steaming, rehersal etc and also reviewed & confirmed all details of the wedding including what time the photographer was to show up & what time the Carribean trio was to play. We chose the Ultimate Wedding Pkg for $2400 USD Hair & Make-up: They did a pretty good job on my hair & make-up though it wasn't exactly what I wanted. My sister's hair looked great but her make-up was a little off (it made her look older). My suggestion would be to bring pictures for both hair & make-up and speak up while they're working on you. Flowers: The flowers were fantastic!!! I had brought pictures of what I wanted for my bouquet, BM bouquet & the boutonnieres. They all looked exactly like the pictures. For the corsages & ceremony/reception decor I just requested that they use the same flowers as my bouquet and they turned out beautifully! Ceremony: We got married at the gazebo located by the Seaside Grill which seemed to be the most popular location. I think I saw a wedding there almost every day. I had also brought a picture of what I wanted the ceremony set-up to look like and it ended up exactly like the picture. We had a female judge who did the ceremony in Spanish & then Landy translated. They have a sound system that you can use @ no charge for the ceremony so we brought a CD with the processional, recessional & a song to play during the signing of marriage docs. I was a little disorganized & gave Landy the CD about 5 minutes before the ceremony along with our bubbles & fans and it was all taken care of - absolutely no problems! Photographer: I had some worries about using the resort photographer however, by the time I got my *husband* to agree to booking an outside photographer, we couldn't locate one in our price-range that we liked and was available. The resort photographer did a really nice job - I was very pleasantly surprised. He took photos from about 1/2 hour before the wedding for "getting ready" shots to about 1 hour after the wedding doing shots around the resort. We definitely have some cheesy shots but there are still lots of great shots. We got an album with 36 prints with our package and then paid $350 to get all the shots (just over 200) on cd - this was cheaper than paying for additional shots. We had our photos & CD the day after the wedding. Videographer: A videographer (Oscar's Video) and 15 minute edited DVD was also included in our package. I thought we were just getting the ceremony but he stayed after the ceremony and followed us around with the photographer. We ended up with a video of the ceremony along with a sort of slideshow to music. It's a little hokey but I still really enjoyed watching it. Cocktail Hour & Reception: We had planned on having both the Cocktail Hour & Reception on the beach but it got really windy & a bit rainy after the ceremony so we were given the choice of moving indoors to the wine cellar. We decided to move indoors. The staff were very quick and efficient about moving everything from the beach to the wine cellar in Portofino. We had the Cocktail Hour with Caribbean band playing in Portofino as it wasn't opened yet then moved to the wine cellar for dinner. Our wait staff was fantastic - very efficient and friendly. The food was delicious - we were all stuffed after!! We barely managed to get a bite of cake down after. And Finally... Sandra & Landy: I had some concerns based on our email communication (or lack of) prior to the wedding. They managed everything wonderfully! You really could go down there having planned only what you're going to wear and Sandra & Landy would still put together a fantastic wedding for you. Alright, I think I've rambled on long enough. Let me know if you have any questions. I'll try & post some pictures later on.

Well it seems that Landy & Sandra don't really communicate with each other. Before I had a chance to send an email expressing my concerns, I received another email from Sandra saying that the wedding was booked for 5:00 but did I want her to reschedule to 3:00?... So that's fine - drama's over - we're switching back to 3:00. But just a heads up to the Dreams Tulum brides - make sure you save all your emails from both Sandra & Landy. It doesn't seem that things discussed with Landy are getting back to Sandra & vice versa. Landy emailed me a Planning form that I needed to fill out with our choices for flowers, cake & menu etc. 2 days later, Sandra emailed me the exact same form. I also get duplicate (and sometimes different) responses to my questions.

Quote: Originally Posted by DreamsTulumBride When is your wedding at Dreams Tulum? November 23rd - less than one month!

Can't wait to hear all about it and see lots of pics!!!!! I think I'm the next Dreams Tulum Bride.........

We do the same thing in Manitoba only it's called a social. They're held for weddings or charitable causes. It's actually sort of expected where I'm from. The first thing out of a lot of people's mouths when I told them I was having a destination wedding was "You're still having a social right??". I had a lot of fun at my social & got to celebrate with a lot of people who aren't able to join us in Mexico. I say - go for it! You won't be offending anybody as it sounds like a stag & doe/jack & jill is as much of a tradition/expectation as socials in Manitoba.

I'm going to email both Sandra & Landy tomorrow to get clarification - I just needed to calm down/vent a little before I do that. Hopefully they get back to me ASAP - it generally takes 2-3 weeks and we don't exactly have that amount of time to deal with changes that might need to be made. I'm not sure if we can do much to change the time at this point - it's only 1 month away - I'll see what our options are. From the way that the email was worded, it seems like this was the time that the judge was available. If we have to, we'll just do pictures before the ceremony - I'll just have to suck it up. I can't let one small detail ruin our wedding!

Hi there, I need some help/reassurance before I reply to the email I just received from Landy. I had requested 3:00pm as my ceremony time and had received confirmation that this was booked. I just received a response to my request for help on the days timeline from Landy and she advised that the judge was booked for 5:00pm. From what I've been able to find online, the sun sets at 5:05pm on November 23rd. I can only find approx sunset times for Cancun and I'm assuming that this will be approximately the same in Tulum. This means that we won't be able to do pics in daylight unless we do them before the ceremony but I like the idea of not seeing FH until the ceremony. Any reassurance, tips, input would be greatly appreciated - I need some calming down here!

Hi there, Check out the weddings section on the Dreams Tulum Website Dreams Resorts & Spas for the full package details. The Dreams Ultimate wedding pkg includes some photo & video as well as a reception for up to 20 people. I'm not getting married until this November so I can't say how it was quite yet. There are some other people on this forum who have already been married. Just do a search for Dreams Tulum & you'll find lots of info.

Dreams Tulum wedding - 18 people $6400 CAD - 2 weeks All-Inclusive Dreams Tulum in a Junior Suite (incl all taxes & connector flights) $2400 USD Dreams Ultimate Wedding Pkg $35 USD Add BM bouquet to Pkg $350 USD Blood Test, Judge Travel Fee & Legalization of Marriage Cert $420 CAD Favours/OOT Bags (bought for 24 people) $110 CAD Invites $24 CAD Fans & Bubbles for Ceremony $433 CAD Immunizations & legalization of Birth Certificates $215 CAD Miscellaneous Crafting Supplies $136 CAD Grooms Attire $1275 CAD Brides Attire (Incl shoes, hair flower, dress&alterations & bra) $68 CAD Best Man Attire $130 CAD MOH Gift $200 CAD BM Gift, parents Gifts (still to purchase) **keep in mind that I overbought on the OOT bags and the supplies include reusable items like scrapbooking tools used for invites, thank-you cards & welcome booklets. Doesn't include lingerie, clothing flipflops for honeymoon/trip or wedding rings. Estimated total CAD to be $12500 approx.

Alright - got my Oriental Trading Co order today! - so that's approx 2 1/2 weeks from order date to delivery.

Quote: Originally Posted by babycow Hi. Just wondering, do you get responses back from both Sandra and Landy? I started off emailing Sandra and now I'm only getting info from Landy. Plus how do you get such detailed answers from them? I really want to know everything about my wedding, like what flowers I'll have to choose from, and what the cake will look like... getting antsy about the details! Thanks. I went through a period a few months back where I was getting no responses at all so I asked my TA if she could help me out. I ended up getting a response back from Landy so from then on, I sent any questions I had to both Sandra & Landy. Up until I got my response from Sandra yesterday, I was only getting responses from Landy with maybe one or two lines from Sandra in a separate email. I'm told though that Sandra is extremely overworked and it has been the busier wedding months that I've been trying to communicate with them. It seems to have slowed down now as I'm getting better and more detailed responses. I find that asking very specific questions in a numbered format gets the best & most concise response from both Sandra & Landy. I suspect that they've had lots of experience with brides changing their minds so they're hesitant to plan the fine details with you until closer to the date. They will send you pics of ceremony sites, reception sites/setup, flowers, cakes and menus for the reception & cocktail hour if you ask. I didn't really like the cake & flower options though so I sent pics of what I had in mind to see if they could do that for me. As mentioned in my previous post - I'm still working on the flowers ($350USD on top of the pkg is a little out of my budget).

Just an update on my original question....... I emailed Sandra & Landy back & explained that I had no problem waiting to choose the exact location of everything but I wanted to ensure that we had an outdoor reception. I got a response back saying that I am the only wedding booked that day so far and they then gave me the option to start making my choices (realizing that I am the worrying type who doesn't like to leave things to chance.....). They have assured me that I will get an outdoor ceremony & reception & have given confirmation that they can do the ceremony set up that I liked and the cake that I liked. Just a heads up though for anyone who has their heart set on a certain type of flowers. I sent a pic of a bouquet with green orchids (can't remember the exact name) and got a quote of $350 for the bride's bouquet plus $46 for each boutonniere. I've already selected the Ultimate Wedding Pkg which includes the bride's bouquet, and 4 boutonnieres or corsages. While I was expecting to probably have to pay some sort of upgrade fee for the type of flowers I was asking for, I wasn't expecting THAT much!!! Needless to say, I'll be looking at some different options. Oh well - it was worth a try!!

I placed an order on Aug 23rd and received a shipping confirmation on Sept 4. I'll let you know when they come. If you order now, it should come in time for your wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by mexico2007 I was thinking about doing OOT bags too but just was wondering a couple of things. First would I be able to fit them into all my luggage? Or is it going to take up too much space? And finally how could I have them already set up in everyone's rooms ready for them when they check in? What do you ladies think? Most resorts will help you with delivering the bags to your guests rooms but you'd probably have to ship the bags and then pay the resort to do the delivery (most charge a set fee per bag). I'm just making sure that what I order will fit into my luggage. If I have to, I will ask my parents to leave me some space.

I checked out the site too & want to buy a few things but I'm concerned that I'd get dinged a whole lot when it comes through customs. Any Canadian brides out there who have bought from this site??