SunBride

I'm contemplating getting a Dyson, but don't know which one. The Animal seems like the obvious choice, because I have a dog that sheds (although not an extremely heavy sheeder, but medium amounts) but really I want the most compact and lightest one possible because we have lots of stairs. The more compact and light it is, the greater the chance I will bother taking it out even for small jobs. Right now we have a central vac and so often I just can't be bothered to pull it out because of the hose and everything. What about vacuuming stairs? I guess there is just a hose attachment like every other vacuum? Does that work amazing too? Our stairs are always disgustingly filled with hair and dirt because they are right at the entrance and we have a split level so you have to go up the stairs as soon as you enter the house, so the stairs get used a lot more than for a regular house with just a basement and 2nd floor.

I would only send out AHRs if the event is really far away, like 6 months or more. I don't think there is much point if you are only sending them out like 2 months before the invites, people might find that silly. Personally, I just sent a mass email to warn people about the date and stuff in advance and told them a formal invite would follow. But people in our families and friends don't do STDs, I actually never heard of them before joining the forums!

we tried to get into the Tulum ruins as we did't know it wasn't allowed. So we ended up just doing it at the resort. If you go that route, make sure to do it early morning or evening when the beach is less busy.

We have a new review! Babycow was married in May and just posted a review (poor girl as I have been begging her for one because she had mentioned when she got back that she's had had some problems). Here's her post from when she got back http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t21939 and here is the review she just posted http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t27334

Yay, finally your review! Sorry for haslting you so much for it but obviously it was worth it, haha I'm happy to hear that many of the problems you had were not related to the resort, although the thing about them not holding your parents' room is not good at all. Can't wait to see your professional pics.

Quote: Originally Posted by sisterofthebrideerica Here is the response I got: Dear Lisa In this mail will hopefully answer all your questions. The service that we give does usually cover from one to two hours, we don't charge per hours. I suggest you to come and visit us in ours shop the day before for check timing and occasions. The CD with all the photos is about 385usd and is a special price thats come only if you bought a package, wich I understand you did. The size of the 50 pictures that are include in the package is 6*8 inch but we also provide two other differents sizes of printing, 8*10 and 10*16. The picture will not be re-tuched in anyway. we can operate just few setting and that's it. In the CD the photos will be upload in full frame in full size. Please, don't esitate to contact me for other question. Greetings Andrea I re-asked the question regarding extra time and I will see what they say! sounds like the response is much more complete than the one I got, but once again they say they only include 1-2 hours of photos, but then they don't tell us how much it costs for more hours! It sounds like we are the first people ever to ask this question and they just don't know what to say! They are really used to charging by number of photos rather than by time. LisaG used the resort photographer (and a few other ladies did too) you could email her (or one of the others) and ask them the size of the photos they got on CD. Because one person's "full size files" can be a lot different than another's!

Of course. I'll send you a PM so that we can make arrangements.

I thought that the symbolic ceremony was performed by the wedding coordinator unless you wanted a religious ceremony in which case they get a priest or religious minister, but I guess not. Maybe this explains why somebody said in their review they wanted a non religious ceremony but that there were still several mentions of God. Resort photographer On another note, I have been emailing the photographer to get info for you ladies about the cost of extra hours and the cost of a trash the dress session. I'm pretty annoyed with him as I have emailed him 4 times and have not been getting complete responses. He has not answered the question about how much it costs for extra hours. He said 2 hours is normally included with the ultimate wedding package. I asked how much extra to have 5 hours (one hour before, two hours for ceremony and group/couple pictures, 2 hours for reception) and he basically just brushed off the question. He made it sound like they don't charge by the hour, so there is no extra charge, yet he said you get 2 hours maximum. So I really don't know what to tell you ladies. I asked him to clarify twice, and I thought my question was really clear but I got a really vague answer. I guess they aren't used to getting this request. In terms of trash the dress, they are going to charge you the same packages as the wedding photographer packages! I think that's crazy because it's super expensive. I told him it would be a one hour session and on a day after the wedding, but he said the price is the same! So it would be 30 pictures and digital cd $440.00 50 pictures and digital cd $650.00 80 pictures and digital cd $890.00 I think that's crazy expensive. Maybe you can try to negotiate with him in person, especially if you are already using him for your wedding photography. The other option would be to skip out on the CD and just buy prints individually. It would be a way to save money but you would end up with less pictures and no CD which sucks. Anyways, I had hoped to get better info from him. What a frustrating experience!

I just added hair/make-up etc info to the "unofficial guide". I hadn't realized I had forgot that. The attachments were always there but now there is a brief summary of the services with some comments based on what I have put in my reivew and what I read in the review of many other brides (may not be 100% accurate as I'm going by memory of what I read but my memory is pretty good. Also I always put my comments with "*" so you know the difference between the official resort info and 3rd party info)

There are many good local photographers. Claudia Photo is the one I was planning on using (before I found one to fly in for cheap). But she might be about the same price (I was quoted 2200$ for I think 5 hours so for 8 hours it might be close to your price, or maybe at least a few hundred dollars less). You can also look into flying somebody in. Look for a photogrpaher who hasn't done destination weddings who is willing to do it for free, only travel fees, many of them offer that. (In fact, see the add for Sweet Memories Photography in the column on the right!) Alternatively, can you reduce the number of hours you need the photographer somewhat? Maybe 6 hours would be sufficient? It depends how much time is in between your ceremony and dinner, but maybe do like 1.5 hours before (getting ready, plus some alone shots and shots each with your bridal parties), half hour ceremony, one hour group shots, 1 hour couple alone, 2 hours dinner & reception or something like that. You can always ask family and friends to take a bunch of photos of later in the reception. Just a suggestion.

I think a good recommendation is to stay away from the rooms in the main building (lobby & disco)!

you probably need to have a thin cloth between the bag and iron to avoid melting, but then your transfer likely wouldn't transfer over. I think when I did rhinestones transfers I had to put a cloth between. Maybe you could find some cute little rhinestone designs? Not as good as having your logo but maybe better than nothing.

Quote: Originally Posted by rachelannmartin Just wondering what your thoughts are for the large glass urns...they wont be easy to transport on the plane, any suggestions or similar alternatives? There is a Wal-Mart in Playa del Carmen (which is about 30-45 mins away, basically halfway from Cancun to Dreams, 45$ taxi) and you could likely find similar vases there.

Quote: Originally Posted by trisha0612 I was told by Tammy the resort works really well with wedding guests and based on availability will upgrade your entire party once you arrive. I'm praying for that, but so far I know of like 4 brides that week... so I guess we'll see! Just as a reminder (it's in my review but I know you can't remember everything) when I was there the resort was not full, and they knew we were a wedding group, I had communicated with Raul (or whatever his name is) and requested the upgrade, and none of my guests got it. I was at the front desk a bit longer waiting for the honeymoon suite upgrade and other guests after our family got free upgrades without even asking! I was annoyed that they would offer a free upgrade to people who didn't ask (I mean I guess I don't know for sure they didn'T request in advance but they sounded very surprised) but wouldn't do it for wedding group (only 4 rooms other than ours). It was not that big of a deal for my family, but it seems to me if anyone should be getting free room upgrades it should be wedding groups (especially mine with all the business I am getting them on this site! haha)

Well I am a C34 cup. The top was filled out nice but It was not tight or anything and there is plenty of material on the sites, like under the armpits, so I'm sure a larger C cup or a mid size D cup could fit, there would just obviously be more cleavage showing (which if you have a D cup you are probably used to that!) There are thin foam cups, for me they didn't really provide much support, more just like covering nipples. But if the dress was tighter it would probably provide more support. You could also always wear a halter style bra (but it would have to be one of the low cut style ones in the front & back)

You can definitely reserve your reception site now. Just tell Landy you want to book it to make sure that another bride doesn't reserve it first. You could do the beach reception and then go to the disco for dancing. Many people do that. And the disco is usually dead so you'd likely have it all to yourselves. LisaG emailed me a bigger version of the mariachi pic so I reposted it in my post above

Found the pics! Here is the caribbean trio (posted by Donandcorri in the old thread) And here is a pic of the Mariachi that LisaG has posted (this stuff was on page 7-8 of the old forum!) I'm adding these pics to the front section

Quote: Originally Posted by jodylynn007 I have a few questions that could perhaps be answered by yourself or someone else: 1. I booked under the old pricing, so what would be a great "rain" option for my cocktail hour and reception dinner? I am having 20 guests approx. and currently have the deck beside the adult pool booked. If it rains, I will need another location. Is the Seaside Grill under cover? I could possibly use that as a "rain" alternative. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 2. What is the difference between the Mexican Trio and the Carribean Trio? How do I know which one to choose for my cocktail hour? Any thoughts? 3. Signature drink for cocktail hour - perhaps any of the members would have a suggestion of something suitable? I like fruity drinks (like martinis made with juice) but something appropriate to Mexico would be good. Any suggestions? Thanks for the compliments! 1) If you aren't doing dinner at the seaside grill, then cocktail hour there would be great (if dinner is there they will probably be busy setting it up) but they may not allow it as they have to be able to serve the other guests! So I would expect they wouldn't allow it. I guess it would depend on the time of your cocktail hour. Other indoor options would be the lobby bar (better for small to medium size group I think) or the Veranda Bar (in the same area as all the restaurants and chapel etc). The veranda bar is more rustic, less modern but it is huge. 2) Caribbean trio is like the one you can see in a couple of my pics (not that we got them for the wedding, but they happened to be playing at the resort shortly before so you can see my husband and family with them), more relaxed, wearing caribbean shirts. One of the 2007 brides (LisaG maybe?) posted pics of the Mexican trio (aka mariachi) a long time ago in the old thread. Something more like this: http://www.alivenetwork.com/images/e...achi3large.jpg (just a random image I googled, not actual image) For the Mariachi, you have the choice between the trio (same price as the caribbean trio) or the full 7 person mariachi (approx double the price) In terms of the music, I can't really say what the different style is like. The instruments are different. The Mariachi is more of a Mexican thing where as the Caribbean is, well, for lack of better words, Caribbean (i.e. not just Mexico) 3) My suggestion would be a mango daiquari, yum! I had several while I was there. Strawberry daiquaries are good too, but they are quite sweet, mango ones are less so. They also have a drink called Mayan Riviera which is a bunch of funky colors layered. I didn't like the taste personally but it looked really cool! EDIT: just remembered, I think it was DonandCorri who posted a pic of the mariachi back in the old thread.

I am in Ottawa but can ship at your cost. I bought it for TTD but ended up wearing my actual wedding dress. Only wore this for 2 hours at the end of my AHR for doing a waltz. Two layers, top is a sheer chiffon. Size Medium (I normally wear dress size 7 and it fit me perfect but could also be for somebody one size larger) Although the bottom looks like it's not straight, it actually is, it's just the way it's hanging on teh hanger. The sheer chiffon layer is slightly longer than the under layer though. Would be suitable for a tall person. I am 5'5" but I just pinned it up a few inches because I didn't want to pay to have it shortned. So it would be good for somebody several inches taller than me (or if you are shorter and cheap like me you could just pin it too). (don't mind the hanger string on the left which I forgot to tuck in!)

Quote: Originally Posted by Seahagamy Sunbride - You have mentioned January room upgrades may be difficult. Is this something we can arrange ahead of time with getting a free room upgrade included in the free wedding package? Should we contact Raul and request this as soon as we have our trip booked? I don't think I'm the one who specifically mentioned about January, I don't actually know which months are the most busy. I know among Canadians March is the busiest month of the year and for us January packages are actually cheaper than February and much cheaper than March. Back to the question - there is no way to guarantee a free upgrade. But if you want to pay for the upgrade, at the discounted rate (20$ night) directly with the resort, I think they do let you do that, they did for my photographer (I don't know if it's something they normally do though or if they just made a special exception for her). Yes I would contact Raul (I don't think that's exactly his name, I think I'm missing a letter... )

I would only do it before if you are wearing a different dress and if you only have one day after your wedding before you left. We left 2 mornings after the wedding, so we did the TTD the morning after which really sucked as we got up at 6am! I knew it would suck but felt like we had no choice. To the bride you said she wanted to wear her dress again for the AHR, you realize most brides dresses don't actually get trashed right? I bought a different dress too, but after seeing how my dress handled the water (when it got a little wet and sandy on the wedding day) I decided to wear it and it came out in better shape, totally clean! All brides I've heard who have done TTD have said the same except one who said sand got stuck in teh lace and wouldn't come out. So it obviously depends on the material of the dress and what exactly you'll be doing but if you are just playing in the water most dresses will be totally fine and you can re-wear it to your AHR

At Dreams Tulum they will set up whatever you bring for free! Then again, they are known for being lenient about extra charges and stuff like that. I think it's reasonable for them to charge you if they are doing the work, but not if one of your guests is doing the set-up for you and it doesn't affect the wedding coordinator at all.

Quote: Originally Posted by can't wait! Sunbride, in your review you talked about upgrades. I am trying to see if we can get a special group rate from the resort and have emailed Daniel. Is that who you dealt with when it came to your guests rooms? Also, how long did he take to respond? I have a feeling he's just like the wedding planners because it's been days and I have yet to hear from him. This gets old. No I didn't deal with the resort at all for rooms, we booked vacation packages with Air Canada Vacations (in Canada we do things differently than you guys because everybody books hotel & flight packages rather than booking flight and hotel separetly. Flights alone are really expensive in Canada). When it came to asking the price for the upgrades I emailed the room manager (Raul or something like that? His name and email is in my review) and he is the one who told me about the special price, and he is the one that got me the honeymoon suite when we arrived.

Quote: Originally Posted by Madbride2009 Happy Wednesday wonderful brides! I'm looking for maracas carved with our name and wedding date. Does anyone know where I can find them? I've researched the party favor ones and they are a little cheesy... I've seen some on other destination wedding planner sites but I'm looking for a direct contact. Any ideas? I have no idea, but I just wanted to suggest that you may get better response asking this question in one of the general planning forums since it's not really specific to Dreams Tulum, and by doing so you will have hundreds of brides see your question, whereas here you have only the Dreams Tulum brides. Hopefully somebody is able to help you!

as mentioned in my review, my guests stayed in the hacienda section (3 different rooms, all in the area next to the lobby, not the ones near north side of the beach) and they all thought it was very basic (not luxurious like you'd expect at a 5 star resort) but totally fine (no mold or other problems. My parents' first patio door didn't lock so they got moved next door. no big deal. They even sent a bellboy to move the luggage although my parents could have easily done it themselves). They didn't bother upgrading even though it was only 20$ per night (half off the regular price because it was a wedding group) and could have easily afforded it (well the two sets of parents at least). I think I'd just provide clear information to your guests and let them decide. The truth is, even the dreams suites aren't that amazing in my opinion. I mean they are better but the furniture is a bit old, again just not something luxious like you'd expect (although for many of the resorts I've stayed at the rooms haven't been as nice as I expected)