SunBride

wow, lots of questions in the past few days. Here are my answers: Quote: Originally Posted by Melissa24 Does anyone know the price of using your IPOD? Does the resort provide the docking station or do I need to bring mine from home? Do they provide speakers etc. I remember seeing it some where on the forum but now that I am looking for it I can't find it. Any help as usual is much appreciated! There is an ipod dock in each room. If you bring your own batteries (likely C or Ds) you could take it out of the room and use it. But since it’s just one small speaker it wouldn’t be that great for a reception. You can rent the hotel’s large speaker. For the ceremony it’s free and for the reception it’s 150$ (this info is on page 1 of this thread). I know they can play CDs on this speaker (as that is what I did) and I think other ladies have connected their ipod to this but I’m not 100% sure. Quote: Originally Posted by bah9358 I'm a moment away from booking my June 2009 wedding with Dreams Tulum. My only concern is, does it make anyone uncomfortable that there are so many weddings booked at this resort that it will feel like a wedding factory?? Maybe it's not that noticeable that these weddings whip through there and take over? My wedding will be on a Monday, and I'm worried about seeing all these weddings (especially that the weekend prior is all booked) and feeling like my special day is one of many you will see in a one week stay. But I guess maybe it comes with the territory, I'm finding a lot of hotels in the area have multiple weddings per day and I really like the affordability of this resort. Can anybody calm my only concern? (... and sorry, I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes, I've already checked my wedd. date avail. with Landy/Lizette, so I'm super interested in this resort)... thanks!! Many other brides have said that they didn’t even notice the other weddings that take place on the same day as them. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, it hasn’t really bothered anyone in the past. Of course if you wanting a secluded wedding on a desserted island, then you would definitely be disappointed as that is not what you’re getting here J Your wedding experience is what you make of it. Who cares if the guests see other weddings that week – only yours will be special to them. Quote: Originally Posted by bah9358 And, what time does the disco close (or any other night life for that matter). What is there to do there around the evenings after dinner? How late do the bars stay open? Can you go on the beach after dark? I guess I'm wondering if the resort is like dead at night. Thanks. I can’t remember the exact closing time, I think it wasn’t all that late, like between midnight and 1am. When I was there there was nobody in the disco (other brides have said the same, I think one bride said it was busier). If you have a big crowd you can make your own party – almost like a private event! Other than that there is the nightly show, I forgot what time, probably like 9pm. And there is also a movie on the beach (shown with a big projector screen) every evening. One night there was a bonfire. So there are definitely lots of activities in the evening but things are pretty dead by like 11pm unless you want to go get a party going in the disco. You could also sit around the lawn chairs at the beach. Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany Please help!!! ok so, the wedding guide i think says the dance floor for the beach reception is $600 is this correct? even if you have the ultimate wedding package? OMG this is really an outragous price!!! if this is the case is the seaside grill a better choice? i really wanted the beach reception but i dont want to pay $600 for a floor!! Well, depending on where your dinner in set-up, and how many people you have, you could just dance next to the pool. I imagine it’s a lot of work for them to set-up a dance floor in the sand which is why it’s so expensive (although yes, the price seems crazy – half of that price would seem more appropriate!) Quote: Originally Posted by Lauren & JT Hello everyone. It was suggested that I introduce myself to everyone in this forum, so hello! To be honest, I have never joined a forum, and I'm not even sure if I'm posting this in the right place; I don't want to leave any clutter. I've mostly been trying to read as much as I possibly can before posting any questions and it is taking me a LONG time. For as little as I have read, this forum has been extremely helpful. Thank you to everyone who set this up and organized all of these threads! I hope that after my wedding in January that I can be of some help to other Dreams brides. Thanks again. Welcome to the forum. You posted that in exactly the right place. Don’t be scared of making mistakes, a lot of us didn’t really know how this worked in the beginning. I’ll add you to our bride list.

can we ask the mods to do the editing too, or are you the only one with that function?

Well according to what Tammy Host says above, we just need to contact her (or can the mods do this too?) to ask to have something edited after the 60 minute edit period expires. I think this is pretty normal for forums, there is always some "expiry date" for editing posts. I really enjoyed not having a time limit on this forum (in particularly because I work on continuously updating the Dreams Tulum thread).

Quote: Originally Posted by WisconsinBride Branda and Jesse April 15, 2009 We have let this thread die because we have a new one here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t25646 I'll go add you there now

Quote: Originally Posted by alin & mako Customs question Those of you who brought stuff for your OOT bags, did customs give you a hard time and want to charge you taxes on it? I have seen this question asked before in either the general forum or mayan riviera forum. I specifically remember one girl saying she forged receipts (like using a receipt book at the dollar store!) and that it worked adn she was glad she did because they asked her for them and this way she was able to mark the value as being a lot less.

Wow, lots of stuff DEPOSITS We've never had to put them down before, I think this is something new. If you weren't asked for one, I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure it's clear that your date is confirmed. FLOWERS I used artificial flowers, I talk about it in my review. If you want more info about flowers go to the general wedding section as lot of other brides do this too. MEALS You ALWAYS have to pay when you are a group more than 20 people. The ONLY EXCEPTION is the BUFFET restaurant. But if you want a buffet at one of the a-la-carte restaurants, or on the beach or by the pool, you have to pay. There are 3 different menu options, the prices are 20/55/65$. The prices are the same for buffet, it just depends on the menu you choose. Please read the info on page 1, that's what it's there for becuase we get teh same questions repeated a lot. But if you still don't understand after reading it, let us know what you don't understand and we'll clarify. PHONING THE COORDINATORS I don't know if you will be successful in setting up a phone "meeting". They are really busy and might have trouble adhering to a meeting time. But you can try doing this, cendcar said it worked for her. Otherwise just phone them without an appointment, and if they aren't there I personally would not bother leaving a message, just keep trying till you get one of them (sometimes I had to try like 5 times!) and then ask your questions. This is especially effective for confirmation date & time of ceremony

Quote: Originally Posted by beachformeplease Thanks for the headsup. I think I am stuck with the March 20th date now. I really wanted the weekend after or some time in April, but they were full for friday or saturday weddings during that timeframe. She said May is closed and all of the weekends in April are as well. There was only one Thursday in April available, but I'm sure mon-wed has some openings. Anyway, I wonder if some of the spots she's holding do not have deposits down. ?? My FH's birthday is two days after our date...which he really didn't want. Well, either way, we are stuck with late March....so...how was the weather when you were there How about the crowd? Did it feel like you were on top of each other, or is the resort pretty seperated? I wanted a smaller more relaxed place, but I'm not sure if I want to be running into everyone I know the whole time I'm there. I love my down time on the beach with a pina colada!! It was not overly crowded the last week of March / first week of April, but it definitely wasn't dead either. It's easy enough to find your crowd on the beach if you are looking, but not overly easy either, sometimes it took me a several walks up and down the beach to find them. So I'd say it's in the middle on that respect. Definitely not like a huge massive resort complexe (like the Bahia, one of my other choices) where it would be almost impossible to find anyone.

Quote: Originally Posted by jennyjean7 Yes, at first Lizette told me that there was only a 2pm time open for that date and then I argued the fact that the website states there must be a deposit to "hold" that date (and the 5pm reservation did not have a deposit in place). Well, long story-short, she argued with me about the no-deposit "rule", laughed IN my face when I asked to talk to her manager (b/c I called down there), and then my fiancee became involved and we got what we wanted (b/c he's more ruthless than I am). Needless to say, I don't deal with Lizette anymore and I got my sunset wedding time! Now I'm worried about photo's (being that my wedding time is sunset), but then I learned about the "Trash the Dress" photo-shoot! Please excuse me as I'm new to all this and have never heard of that before! You should come introduce yourself in the Dreams Tulum thread (in the Mayan Riviera sub-forum). And if you are doing a sunset ceremony I would suggest doing as much pics as possible before the ceremony (if you don't want to see your husband before, at least do photos with family and bridal parties individually).

Quote: Originally Posted by LALA It looks like a weird pubic toupee. HAHAHAHAHA this is the best comment so far out of all of them! Much better than my pantyliner comparison

if you haven't done so yet, check out the Dreams Tulum thread (which coincidentally I created!), it will answer so many of your questions. It's a sticky in this forum (Mayan riviera forum) so it's at the top. Yes they cater to bigger weddings. If you go to the Bride List on page one of the Dreams Tulum thread, you can see how many guests the other brides are having. Many are having more than 40. You pay a fee dinner if you have more than 20 (the first 20 are free). Depending on the dinner option it would be 20$ (to eat off regular menu), 55$ (special silver menu) or 65$ (special gold menu). I personally only booked my date 3 months ahead of time and had no problem, as things were pretty open for end of March and first week of April. It all depends on the season. There appears to be tons of weddings in November and May. People are having trouble booking May 2009, the whole entire month is almost full! As stated in my review it cost my family members 1500$ from Ottawa or 1600$ from Halifax with Air Canada Vacations. This was booked semi-last minute (approx 3 months before). I likely would have paid maybe 200$ more to book a year or so in advance. Also since you are in Vancouver the price for you would likely be higher. But it also depends on what time of year you go - November is a popular month for weddings but it's also a pretty cheap time for package prices from Canada.

Quote: Originally Posted by cendcar Okay, I cannot figure out how to post pictures so I am just sending the attachment. Also, if there is an easy way to do this please let me know. Added this info to page 1 "member contributions" section too. ****If anyone else had stuff like this (i.e. contact info for tours or whatever) post it here and I will put it in page 1 under member contributions (but please provide sufficient info like prices, contact information, etc).

Quote: Originally Posted by rabbitnow Based on the interest that has been shown in getting the car rental info as well as the transportation I just thought I would post it here and have it available for all to use: Car rental Info: e-mail - [email protected] phone - (99 892-7017 y (99 898-0537 Transportation - e-mail [email protected] Let me know if anyone needs more info and I will be glad to help. I will add this info to page 1 under "member contributions" in case people are looking for it later and can't find it (seeing as our thread gets so many posts this stuff gets pushed to the back fast!!!)

Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany Does anyone have the flower catalog that the planning form spoke of? The flower "catalogue" is in the attachments section on page 1

Hi ladies, For those of you who did not receive the Wedding Planning Form from the coordinators 1 month in advance, I would not worry about it too much, they go over everything in their meeting with you anyways. But seeing as somebody provided us the form you could always fill it out and send it to them. I'll add the form to the attachments section on page 1.

Okay, I'm sorry, but that's stupid. Looks like a panty liner!

Even if it's not a typical spring breaker (party) hotel, I do think you are right that there will be more people there than usual. But April should be good, I think May you will have a tough time getting a date, there are so many weddings booked already for May. I got married April 1 and had no trouble getting that day with only 3 months notice. The last week of March and first week of April were very open. When I got there Landy told me busy season started early/mid April. So you may want to try very early April. But avoid Easter (not sure when it falls next year...) because travel will be expensive and the resort will be full.

I just tie the halter straps of my halter bikini behind by back while tanning, then while walkign around, swimming (and if anyone takes a pic!) I put the straps back up teh normal way. Sure, it doesn't look so sexy with the straps tied that way but it works and is efficient. I do this all the time (not just before my wedding) as I hate tan lines

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan the only time I really enjoy tipping is in mexico. it doesn't feel so expected there & I know how little the staff are making. I agree, tipping in Mexico is the best! I love how you can leave just 2-3$ and for them that is a lot!!! We always leave tips. Where else can you tip for meals, drinks, room cleaning etc every day and have it only cost you like 100$ after a week!

So some of you read about the drama from last night that had me so upset. Well, when I got off here at midnight I had some baking to do. I had planned on spending the evening baking but had gotten distracted by the problem and then next thing I know it's midnight. The thing is, the baking was to bring to work to raise money for the walk we are doing this sunday for the Humane Society. So although it was already pretty late, I was thinking to myself "I can't let this be worse by ruining a great opportunity to do some fundraising for needy cats and dogs". It couldn't wait as today was friday and the walk is Sunday. So although my husband thought I was crazy I started baking and make 3 different batches of muffins and 2 double batches of cookies! It took until 3am!!!!!!! It was totally insane as I was working so fast, but it worked great to get my mind off things and within an hour I didn't get about my problem at all (although the words of support some of you gave me helped a lot too!) Today my husband and I brought the cookies and muffins to work, and our co-workers generously donated 150$ in exchange for the treats. All the money is going to the Ottawa Humane Society. We are doing their Wiggle Waggle Walkathon on Sunday and I am SO excited because we have never done it and it will be great to see insane amounts of dogs and I think Charlie will have a blast (assuming he doesn't get overwhelmed, which he may a little in the beginning). Anyways, just wanted to share my story. So next time your mother in law drives you nuts, your family is complaining that you are having a destination wedding or your bridesmaid informs you she can no longer afford to travel to your wedding, bake some cookies! And even better, bring them to work and raise some money for a cause you believe in. It worked for me. Okay, off to bed as I only slept 3 hours last night!!!!

For the Canadian girls If you are not members of Weddingbells forum, I just wanted to post this here for you to see. I personally have nothing for or against her (I didn't use her, and all I know is what other brides post) however I feel so bad for the brides who are upset and who wished they had known this stuff before booking, so I thought I would post this. It sad that most brides don't hear about these bad experience while researching agents. On the forums most of the referrals are good (people are to scared to post bad stuff) and then people are shocked when something like this pops up months later. thread from this week: WEDDINGBELLS Message Board Community: Weddings by Ocean's/Megan Crouse? old thread from a few months ago: WEDDINGBELLS Message Board Community: Problems with your Travel Agent? Again, I just want to re-iterate that I am providing this for info only, to help brides and not to harm Megan's reputation or business. I know there are many happy brides who have used her services. You will easily find those stories on the forum, along with positive recommendations, it's usually the bad stuff that is kept quiet.

you've checked out all local options? That's too bad. My loblaws grocery store was clearing out the floating loungers (the long chair styles ones, not the tubes) for 75 cents so I bought 2 Tuesday night but there were tons more. If you don't mind having the chairs instead you may want to check atlantic superstore (same company as loblaws). Just an idea. Or do you think you can make a stop at Wal-Mart in Playa Del Carmen? I'm sure they would have them there! Not trying to distract from your original request but just trying to be helpful

There have been a couple posts commenting on my comments regarding tipping, so I thought I would just add a few things: In Canada minimum wage in all provinces is about 8$ an hour or more, so our restaurant staff have to make that plus tips (they are not allowed to pay only 3$ an hour). I was basing it on that when I was saying that servers make a lot of money (my friends, sister etc all made like 100$ tips in 5 hours working at an average restaurant, not even a fancy place) When I say I sometimes tip not by percentage, I am talking about when I go to a restaurant just my husband and I, and our bill will be like 120$ (because we had steak rather than chicken!) but I won't leave a 24$ (20%) tip. I may leave like 10-12$. While that is cheap in percentage terms (as standard is 15-20%) it's not like I'm leaving nothing or 2$. Servers do have to tip out (to cooks, hostess, dishwashers etc) , but when I server tells you they tip out 15% I highly doubt they mean 15% of their food sales (as then they would make almost nothing!) they probably mean 15% of their tips. Usually the tip out is a small fraction of the tips they make (less than half for sure). At the restaurant I worked at we had to tip out 4% of our food sales, seeing as people are suppose to tip 15-20% of food sales (but in reality we only averaged like 11% because a lot of people don't tip at all) so we ended up sharing like a third of our tips. So although it's a very good point that by not tiping anything you are costing that server money, as they likely still have to tip out (depending on how tip out is calculated) but I don't think that by tipping only 10-15% rather than 15-20% means it's costing them money. But yes, people who leave nothing are costing the server money, which sucks unless you got really bad service.

Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany what time does the sun set in may? is 5pm wedding to late for pics? Here is one of many website that provides sunrise/sunset statistics for cancun (it will be pretty much the same for tulum) Sunrise and Sunset for Mexico РQuintana Roo РCanc̼n Рcoming days For May it's around 7:15-7:25 Quote: Originally Posted by ERnurse Hey girls... I just wanted to know if the resort provides the music for the ceremony or if we have to bring our own.... If any of you used the resorts music, is it nice? And if any of you came up with your own do you mind sharing what you chose to walk down the aisle to and what played after you were pronounced husband and wife... and of course any suggestions you might have.. Yes the resort can provide the music but they probably don't have much selection. They provided Canon in D for me (I was going to get the Caribbean trio but after watching another wedding that just used the speaker with Canon in D I decided to do the same) to walk down the aisle (and back with my husband after). I burned them a CD for a song for the signing of the certificate and 2 songs to play in the background during the toast and brief chatting afterwards before we started to take pics.

Go to this section of the forum, you'll find so much helpful info there Music & Entertainment You can also click "new thread" at the top on the left if you want to ask your own question.

Quote: Originally Posted by alin & mako .....The sunset on Nov 8 is at 5:08 pm.... Just want to clarify for anyone noticing that I stated the sun set after 6pm in Oct is because Daylight Savings Time ends on Nov 2 and the sunset time will jump forward by one hour at that time. So sunset times in October are around 6:15-6:30 but sunset times in November are around 5:05-5:10pm. These are the times for Cancun, it will be slightly different in Tulum but not much. I got screwed by DST at my wedding, because I had been looking at the sunset time from my date last year (assuming it would be pretty much the same this year) but last year April 1st was the first sunday in april (the fule for the start of daylight savings time) this year daylight savings time started a few days after my wedding and so my sunset time was an hour earlier (if we had gone a week later sunset would have been an hour later and we would have had longer beach days seeing as we like to sleep in!) I had to change my whole wedding day schedule when I found this out a week before leaving! Quote: Originally Posted by alin & mako I'm just worried about running out of sunlight before I take pictures with my hubby.. Just try to do as much as you can of the other stuff before the ceremony. If you allow yourself one hour for just the two of you after the ceremony that will be enough. That is about how much time we had for just the two of us, and it was plenty of time to do the beach as well as the staircase.