SunBride

Quote: Originally Posted by niels408 will have it by 7pm Tues night! I leave at 5am Wed morning! wow, that's insane! Try not to worry, it will all work out, it always does Good luck and write us a big long review when you get back!

Um, that information is completely contrary to what myself and many others have done. I got married 6 months ago in the Mayan Riviera, and all I had to do was bring our passports (didn't even need birth certificate never mind the long version) and have a blood test done in mexico (was done at the resort, the resort organized it all), and be in the area for 4 days before our ceremony. We signed a legal marriage certificate and had 4 witnesses sign (if you don't have witnesses that have been there for 4 days the resort will provide them). I contacted the gov't of Ontario and they confirmed that my marriage is legal seeing as it's considered legal in Mexico. There is no registry for out of province or out of country marriages, so I don't have to do anything extra to make my marriage legal here. Once again, the only documentation I needed was my passport, and I did not need to have anything translated.

Hum, would be nice to get confirmation from DT that Natalia and Anabel are new (and permanent, not just part of the closure transition) coordinators with the resort. If anyone gets an official email stating who they are / their role can you let me know so I can update page 1?

Happy to hear everything worked out well. I want to see pictures of your suite! Especially since I didn't think that the honeymoon suite at Dreams was all that exciting (don't get me wrong, it was very nice, but just not as special as I expected. Detailed info in my review for anyone who is curious).

Quote: Originally Posted by BC Bride2be Thanks for the info. I was just getting worried that it was too easy. Do we need to bring out birth certificates? Neither one of us can find ours so we will need to order. Not a big deal, just another thing to do! In regards to the menu question, I don't think there is a typo. I said the same thing but my sister said that is a common way to serve filet. But I doubt anyone will know the difference, we didn't! I know, it really is easy! I was also worried that is seemed too easy and that I would get there and find out I missed something! All you need is your passports (and witnesses but you don't even need those since they'll provide them). The only 2 inconvenience is the blood test (really, hardly a factor at all, they do all the work for you!) and the fact that you have to be there 4 days in advance (okay, this one is highly annoying!). There is a form to fill out before and email them, it just has parents names and addreses, occupations etc. Make sure you've sent them that like a month before so they can get the paperwork started.

use a leave in conditioner daily (I am using Joico, some sort of a mouse like foam, and I like it seeing as what I don't like about the sprays is that they make your het wetter which is counterproductive to the blow-drying) and a mask once a week (I had an amazing one but can't remember the name). For the masks, I've been told by several stylists that the longer you leave it in the better (i.e. 1 hour, or even overnight). Cover your head with a shower cap to keep the humidity in. Even better, wrap a small towel wet with super hot water around your head (after the shower cap). The more heat there is the more the mask / deep conditioner will have effect.

Quote: Originally Posted by sgbrown I just need to vent for one quick second... My IT guy came to repair a program on my work computer and by complete accident, he permanently deleted all of my desktop files... including my "Wedding" folder! I know, I know, I shouldn't be working on my wedding stuff at work... I guess this is my punishment!!! I had my wedding vows, seating chart, inspiration pictures that I downloaded from this site, etc etc... ALL DELETED! Oh well, I know it was an accident but geez, that was months of hard work! Looks like I need to start over. Good thing my wedding isn't until May. The poor IT guy though... he seemed like he was going to die of humiliation. Serenity now...! Do you have at least some of the stuff saved elsewhere? Your home computer, email (I personally use my work and personal email accounts to send stuff back and forth to myself all the time), photobucket, printed copies etc. Hopefully you can find at least some of it. Quote: Originally Posted by Blkatz so weird...I think that Natalia was the WC at Dreams Puerto Aventuras and they brought her on DT during the closure to help out... Can somebody write back to Natalia and ask her if she is a new coordinator working at Dreams? It would be usefull to find out who she is and this is the type of thing that DT isn't very good at communicating with their brides.

I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind, but I'm showing you what I did for mine. I simply used a glue gun to glue a pin to the back of the starfish. For the large ones that I had a bit of a void in the middle of the back, I put a piece of felt between the starfish and the pins The picture below is actually of my boutonniers, but it shows the types of pins that I used for the chair starfish

Quote: Originally Posted by TrishB12 Hi!! Thank you so much for your replies. It seems like you guys are getting way better deals than I've been able to get quoted for. The WC from Dreams gave me an address for group rates but it's not working, does anyone else have one that works? The travel agent we were working with quoted me over $1800 from Vancouver for a week's vacation!! Which seems crazy to me. I think 1800$ is pretty normal (is that + tax or with tax?) It's always more expensive from Vancouver than from Ottawa/Toronto since you are travelling much farther (west coast to east coast Mexico). On a side note I paid 1600$ (including tax) from Ottawa but I only booked 2.5 months before so you can't really compare with that. All what rooms are you getting? I know I reserved a "deluxe gardenview" (the cheapest room) and just got a free upgrade. You will pay a lot more for the Dreams Suite. There are many many factors that influence the price, so I wouldn't necessarily jump to the conclusion that you are being ripped off. Maybe you are but maybe you aren't! I can't believe Rachel got 1400$+taxes (1700$) for March break. If I could have gotten that I would have waited so that more people could have come.

Quote: Originally Posted by amy706 Random question- I guess probably for Sunbride, but the rest of you may know this as well. I'm assuming you can pay DT for wedding stuff with a credit card, right? Also- can you cash travellers checks at DT. Does anybody know? THANKS! I'm leaving on Saturday early and trying to get all my payments to all my vendors organized!!! yahoo!! Yes to payment by CC. But note that they will charge you in mexican pesos (so they take the quoted American amount, convert to pesos, and then your credit card converts it back from pesos to American dollars. So you may get charged more with the double conversions) Yes to travellers cheques. You can use them directly for the package in US$. If you want to exchange them for cash, you can only get pesos, not US cash for them at the front desk (well likely anywhere for that matter. If they gave you US$ they would have to give it to you at par and would make no profit, which is why they insist on giving it to you in pesos so they can make a bit of money off the exchange rate). Quote: Originally Posted by MsSunshine Hi, I was wondering how far away is Playa Del Carmen's 5th Ave. from DT? I haven't decided on a resort yet but wanted to know if the resort offered transportation or would I have to take a taxi to get to 5th Ave. Thanks Approx 45 mins. You can take the collectivo (public van/bus) for 2$ which will take longer obviously, or a cab (I forget the cost but I think may have quoted it in my review, otherwise it's in my newsletter) or one of the tour companies' organized party bus nightly trips which will be more expensive since it includes cover at the bars.

yeah the man made beach is what made me rule out this resort when I was deciding. Not only that it was man made but also looked small and crowded.

Quote: Originally Posted by Michelle i just had my colon removed so i have problems digesting and am on a low residue diet...sorry i didnt mention that earlier... . Anyone who did feel jealous of your situation I think just totally got over those feelings. So sorry to hear what you are going through. I imagine that is pretty serious surgery. Best of luck in getting healthy again.

Hum, well first off I would say what you are going through is pretty normal. My husband and I have been together for 6 years now (only married 6 months but have been living together for 4.5 years, 2 1/4 years in an appartment and then 2 1/4 years living in the house we bought together). So for us there was no "newlywed" or "honeymoon" phase whatsever after the wedding. Sometimes this makes me sad that we didn't experience this. I guess it's one of the downsides to waiting so long to get married. Anyways, my advice is two-fold: (1) You need to start accepting that it's normal for your relationship to be more boring. The early dating phase can't last forever. But don't worry, it's not something you will necessarily be able to accept right away. I know for me it's something I've very slowly accepted more and more through the years, but even now after 6 years it still makes me sad a bit that we aren't all lovey-dovey and super nice to eachother like we use to be. But the more accepting you can be about it, the more you can focus on the stuff you can change (i.e. spending quality time together) and let go the stuff you can't (i.e. the new-relationship butterflies in your stomach feeling). Try not to compare your relationship to the relationship of other people (I personally have a problem with that. It's something I really need to work on. You can't judge other peoples' relationship just by what you see on the outside) Realize that it's normal to get mad at eachother or be rude to eachother. You're not living in a fairy tale. This is really life and sometimes you are grouchy and it's not abnormal to take it out on the closest person. Doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, but I think it is normal. (2) You both need to make a bigger effort to spend quality time together. This may require a lot of effort but it's worth it. This is also something I am currently doing. My husband and I are computer addicts so we often spend the entire evening after work on our respective computers until it's time for bed. But we realize that's not good and so are making an effort to spend quality time together. Here are things we do: - eat dinner together with t.v. off (talk about the day at work, and other normal everyday life stuff) - watch our favorite shows together every week (sometimes cuddling, but not always!) - play sports together (both individual sports just the two of us, and an organized team sport) - Play board games (I know, it sounds geeky, but when we do get around to doing it we really enjoy it. I find it's really good quality time. Right now it's a pretty rare occurance but I'm hoping we can turn it into a ritual that we do almost every sunday night). - walk the dog together - cook together (this is a rare one as my husband doesn't like to cook. But lately I've tried to get him involved a few times and it's fun. Since it's not something he enjoys a lot, I won't make him do it regularly, only about once a month. Since we don't do it that much he does actually enjoy it when we do. Usually I get him to help for his favorite meals, or for a super yummy dessert, that way he has motivation to help). So again, to reiterate, I would say that what you are going through is completely normal, but to keep the relationship healthy I do think it's important to find ways to spend quality time together. I don't think it's possible to go back to the way things were at the beginning, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for a bit of improvement in the current situation.

More, more!

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! haha, just joking, I know great editing takes lot of work. I've been anxious to see these, but I'm sure the brides much more. I want to see more TTD ones!

Quote: Originally Posted by ashjanbro Hey girls, I am having a symbolic ceremony, and getting married at the courthouse at home before I go to RM. I know that Dreams allows you to bring your own minister if you like, but I was wondering if the person performing the ceremony has to be a minister? For instance, I have a girlfriend who is responsible for FH and I meeting, and I would love her to be able to perform the ceremony, however she is not a minister. She doesn't want to go through the hassle of paying to do it online. Does anyone know how this works? If it's a symbolic ceremony, there aren't really any rules since it's a not a real legal ceremony. So anybody can perform the ceremony.

Hi ladies, Since reading my review and through discussion on this thread, many of you have taking my wedding set-up, newletter, and other things and have used them for your own wedding (either as inspiration for your own ideas, or doing exactly the same thing). I am more than happy to have helped you out in this way, as it is part of the purpose of the forum. However when it comes to reviews, that is where I feel a bit differently. If you really enjoyed my review and want to write one equally as good, I am fine if you copy the organizational style of my review, however it makes me a bit uncomfortable to have somebody use my review and simply change the parts that are different, leaving many sentences, and in fact entire paragraphs unchanged. The way I felt about my wedding day was a very personal thing, so it seems strange to read that somebody has used my words as their own. So if you do want to do a review similar to mine, I would suggest copying all the headings, but then erase all the content and start from scratch so that you are writing about your own experiences and feelings. I have talked to the Jodylynn007 about this, but I just wanted to mention it here because I wouldn't want it to start a trend of people doing the same thing. I know we are all just trying to help each other out and that nobody has bad intentions, but I just wanted to make my feelings clear on this matter.

I had 2000 on cd, but that was overboard. Many of them are repeats of the same photo (the wonder of digital photography). Many photographers will sort through them for you and only give you the best ones. My photographer just deleted the ones with closed eyes or other obvious problems and gave us all the rest, letting us choose our favorites out of the ones that are the same. If I only had photos that were different, then I think 500 would do. I actually sorted them and put together a folder with my top 700 favorite. So I guess anywhere between 400-700 and I would be happy. But that is with having a photographer all day. If I was using your photographer with those packages, I would probably go with 200.

wow, at first I was very flattered that you copied exactly the same format as me, then as I was reading it I kept noticing you left several of my sentences in your review! So that was a bit weird to read since you took parts of my review as your own (especially that you left my paragraph in your conclusion in terms of how I felt on the wedding day, which was obviously a very personal thing). Anyways, what is important is that you wrote an awesome and super detailed review which will be very helpful for future brides. I know how much work is involved in writing such a long review, so good for you for taking the time to do it to help out the other brides!

Yeah, you are right that in general prices should be going down, people should be charging less for their goods and services to encourage people to buy them seeing as people have less money to spend. BUT, like the other girls said, if demand has not changed for wedding products/services as a result of the economic conditions, then they will increase their price if that is what have done anyways

don't worry, you're not the only one NOT living the fairytale newlywed period. In my case it's really different, we were together 5 1/2 years before getting married, 4 years of that living together, 2 years of that living in our house we bought together. So really, we got married, and obviously NOTHING CHANGED. We are such a boring old married couple. There was no honeymoon / newlywed phase AT ALL. But then again, I never expected their to be. I knew that the wedding wasn't going to change anything, it just confirmed our commitment. So even though my situation is different, just want to let you know you're not alone. Sometimes I'm sad we never got our "newlywed/honeymoon" period because I hear other people say they did have that (they were in a different situation that us though, i.e. not dating as long or not living together)

Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany thanx cant wait, i want to write my own vows, but i would get really emotional and dont know if i would get to finish saying them!! there would be tears everywhere!! I wrote ours, but instead of getting stressed out each writing our own secretly, I came up with some standard ones and we both said the same thing. I looked online for inspiration and came up with a few lines that I thought were relevant and true to us. We practiced them a lot as we didn't want to do the "repeat after me" thing with the minister. Because we practiced them a lot we didn't get very emotional saying them. I'm very happy we did it, the words were special. I really liked our vows.

Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany thanx sunbride, you cleared up something for me. i thought if over 10 @ ala carte you would have to pay $20 including the 10. so the first 10 people are free and you only pay for each additional guest thats over 10. thats better then i thought!! Yeah, imagine if you had 11 people and so you had to pay 11*20$ just because you were one person over the limit!!! But remember if you want to upgrade to silver or gold menu you'd have to pay 55$ or 65$ for all 14 people, as those menus are not included for the first 10 people with the free package.

Quote: Originally Posted by Callie I was wondering- when did you guys make appointments for the spa/salon to get your hair and make-up done? I didn't see any contact info for the spa- Is it too last minute to just wait until I get down there to make an appt? The wedding coordinator can make the appointment for you after your meeting with them, or you can make it yourself when you arrive. However if you have a very strict wedding day schedule and worried about not getting the exact time you want and you have several people who want their hair done at the same time (like me!) then you can book it in advance by email: [email protected] (Got that email address from in my review. I will add it to the info on page 1)

Hum, I don't know as I have never been to Puerto Vallarta, but I would be interested in going for a future vacation so I look forward to some of the answers. I know the main thing I would want to know is how do the beaches compare? The beaches in the Mayan Riviera are not the best (very rocky).