SunBride

Wow, you are so generous! You could have made a decent pile of money selling the stuff. Very very generous of you. i think you deserve a BDW award

in Canada they sell them at Dollarama, not sure if you have that in the U.S. (5 for 1$)

Oh yeah and I can't believe you got a 4 hour meeting - CRAZY! And lucky. Hopefully Neen gets a nice long meeting to get all those questions answered!

Sisterofthebrideerica - it's been a while since we saw you on here. Looking forward to reading your site visit review! (even though I'm already married it's still fun to be involved in all this stuff and hear about how other peoples' experiences were compared to mine, that's why I love reading reviews and seeing pictures!)

Quote: Originally Posted by julieanddonnie The woman that did my hair and make- up was named Trinidad. I hope that helps! Trinidad did mine too and she did a very good job, not exactly what I wanted but still very nice (and much better than both the styles I got for both my at home receptions). I would rate her a 9/10. Perhaps Trinidad is the best and always does the brides? Or maybe it's just a coincidence. There were two other ladies that did my two bridesmaids.

For me the legal part only cost the 150$ (for both of us) for the blood test (the charge has since increased to 175$ I think). Dreams Tulum doesn't charge you any different for the the legal or symbolic ceremony (i.e. for the judge and paperwork). So for me it was definitely worth doing the legal thing down there. Some other resorts charge exorbitant amounts though just for the judge and marriage certificate.

Quote: Originally Posted by amyc Hi ladies! My fiancee and I have decided to get married at wedding at Dreams Tulum and are hoping to book a June 2009 date. I submitted the online form last week but haven't heard anything. I've tried to call a couple of times but I always get voicemail...I left a message earlier today and then followed up with an email. I'm anxious to get booked because everyone keeps asking us for a date. All your posts have been so helpful during the selection process. Any tips on getting a response from the wedding coordinator? How long does it usually take to get the date confirmed? Maybe I'm just being impatient. keep trying to call them until they actually answer, I wouldn't really expect them to return your call unless it was extremely urgent. You may have to call like 3-10 times before somebody finally answers but when they do answer you should be able to get an answer in a minute or two.

just added you and also Theresa08. Now that Theresa is getting married in just over a month we won't have to wait until October for the next wedding!

I just googled it to see some pics and the waves look really nice, I wonder how realistic the photos are though (i.e. are those typical results or not). Is this only done in asian hair?

Some resort photographers can be pretty good for that type of thing - we got some beach shots of us at a resort the day we got engaged (before I'd ever heard of TTD or anything) and I love them and they are pretty steamy, totally could have been TTD if we had been wearing our wedding clothes and not our bathing suits. Anyways, I thought that resort photographer was really good (I was at the Punta Cana Princess in case anyone is wondering). I paid 10$ per print that I bought (I only bought 5). The CD was more expensive. They changed like 200$ for an actual longer photo session (this was only like a 10 minute session because I told him I only planned on buying like 2-3 pics) I think you should plan on the resort photographer charging like 200-400$, hopefully at the lower end of the scale (many of them only charge like 500$ for wedding pictures and TTD takes less long). Of course if you don't want to take a risk with quality and price it would be better to get in touch with somebody externally who actually answers your emails! But if all their prices are too high (I expect that most would be higher than the resort photogrpaher) than you can just take a chance and wait and see for the resort photographer and as a back-up, get a friend to do it. Just show that friend lots of great ideas from pictures on here. I think with TTD it's slightly less important to have an awesome photographer and amazing quality prints since you are less likely to blow up the photo and hang it in your living room and all the other stuff that you do with wedding photos. (Don't get me wrong, I think it's worth splurging on TTD photos, but I'm just saying if I had to cut back on either the wedding photos or the TTD photos I would cut back my budget for TTD because you'll get lots more use out of your wedding photos).

Quote: Originally Posted by Theresa08 2. I booked when the old wedding guide was available and I was confirmed for the Seaside Grill, outdoors, private event (because I want a DJ, which means they have to close the restuarant) and I am just trying to find out of they honor that. I did read in one of these threads that the are not allowing any new bookings to close the restuarant, but if confirmed prior, can I still get it? Another bride (sorry, can't remember who, there are so many of us on here!)posted a few pages ago saying that she talked to Lizzette (Landy's new assistant) and was told that because she had booked when the old policies were in place that they were going to honor that. I highly doubt you will have any problem because the new guide just came out and your wedding is only a month away, so likely everybody getting married around this time are still working off the old policies. However is somebody is getting married a year or more from now, I think they'll have to be careful to make sure they still honor the old policies (I'm sure they will, just bring a dated email as proof or something, and check with them about it beforehand, like maybe now and again a month before your wedding). Quote: Originally Posted by Theresa08 Sun Bride, My wedding is 8/18. Very excited. I saw your site and everything looks beautiful. I posted a few questions to you about the gazebo. I really liked it and may do the same. Do you know who much tulle you used? Were the flowers in the sand and on the gazibo real? Wow, your wedding is only a month away! If you check out my review and the Qs&As that follow there is lots of info about the gazebo decoration and aisle flowers.

wow, you'd think he's be interested in making some more money and willing to give you the info! This type of sh*t is so frustrating!

I wore mine and it was fine, but it was chiffon, you might not have the same result with silk or satin. Mine was actually cleaner after going in the ocean, I just washed it in the shower after. Saved me a dry cleaning bill! And I wore it to two AHRs after that!

Here are a few of my favorites And a link to all of them SunBride's TTD photos

was just updating this with Julie and Monika's reviews. Any new brides out there? I'll add Teresa08 as soon as I find out the date. Looks like we have a long wait before the next wedding...3 months!

Hi Theresa, welcome to the group of Dreams Tulum brides, there are lots of us here. When is your wedding date?

Quote: Originally Posted by zorlack76 Well, I just got off the phone with him and he put it to me like this, "I'm going to have my camera with me regardless." So I guess that answers my question. Yikes, if it was me I'd want clarification. Is he just going to take the odd picture and give you those, or will he actually do all your getting ready, group and reception shots? You say you love his photography, you don't want to be disappointed if you don't end up with what you want. As for a contract, I don't think you should ask him to sign one if he's offering his services completely free (no travel fees or anything). I would think that is a bit rude.

Dreams Tulum does require 4 days (not counting arrival but counting your wedding day, although in my case I convinced them to count my arrival day, otherwise I would have had to get married the night before leaving since all vacation packages from canada are exactly one week, and weekends don't count in the 4 days). One other DT bride has mentioned in the other big thread that she is getting married after only 2 days, but she is the only one out of the large number of us who was successful with this. So if it's important to you, it wouldn't hurt to try pushing for just the 2 days.

Are you planning on having the bridal party stand with you? For many destination weddings (not the majority, but some) the wedding party doesn't stand, they just sit in the front row. This is what we did since we had a small amount of guests, and because the bridal party didn't really have a role during the ceremony so I didn't see the point of having them stand, I prefered having them sit so they could have a perfect view. All this to say, if your bridal party doesn't stand with you, then it wouldn't be difficult at all for this guy to be groomsman and photographer. The only thing missing would be pictures of the guy portion of the wedding party, and pictures of the whole wedding party, but maybe you could just get a family member to do those (but obviously they wouldn't be as good). Even if the bridal party is standing in front, I think it would be possible to have him be both photographer and groomsmen, as long as he is okay with not standing in the front during the ceremony (i.e. he would be acting like a photog during the ceremony, but would be recognized, for symbolic purposes, as being one of the groomsmen). If he is a good friend of the groom, he would likely appreciate being officially recognized as being a groomsmen, even if only in title and attire. Keep in mind that for DWs the role of the bridal party is usually smaller I think than regular weddings, it's more about standing there and looking pretty (and obvioulsy the symbolic support and stuff, but I'm talking from a physical point of view). Finally, if the guy really wants to stand in the front with the other groomsmen, than like the pp suggested I would ask him to do your getting ready shots, groups shots, shots of you and groom, and reception and get the resort photographer to do the ceremony and bridal party pictures. In terms of a gift if he doesn't charge you, I would say the value is completely up to you but just make a nice gift (i.e. either inexpensive but thoughful, or something more expensive he'll appreciate). If it were me, and I couldn't think of a more cheap/thoughtful gift, I would probably get him something with 100-500$ value. I know it's not much compared to what he probably normally charges, but he did offer to do it for free. I'd also INSIST that it count as his wedding gift to you.

I don't think things like bonfires or lounge furniture would be on their spreadsheet anyways, since they are not things that are normally done. I don't have a copy of the spreadsheet, but I did see Landy filling mine out during the meeting. It's just a one page document and she will go over each element (ceremony location, reception location, flowers, music, cake, etc) with you during your meeting when you arrive at the resort. Quote: Originally Posted by dreamstbride ^ SunBride FH and I's colours are the same! Turquoise/blue. I love the idea of putting the tulle around the chairs. Your set up looked really amazing! Where abouts did you pick up your tulle I ordered mine from idearibbon.com. I ordered the 6" wide spool for like 3$. One spool was enough for 10 chair ribbons (although really, the ends of the ribbon were super long, they could have cut them shorter and made maybe like 12-15 chair bows).

I didn't use the table linens so I can't help you, sorry! But I did want to use their chairbows and they didn't have turquoise, luckily I had happened to bring a role of small turquoise tulle for the gazebo and they just used it for the chairs instead. If I didn't have that I would ahve been disappointed about the bows. Neen - Could you get a list of what colors are available for both chair bows and table linens? This question has come up before a few times so I think this would be really helpful. If ever you were able to see them and take pictures that would be AWESOME but if not I'm sure future ladies would really appreciate a list of colors.

I'm not sure if your budget includes your travel expenses, that makes a huge difference as it will take up almost half that amount. But it's still definitely do-able. Here was our approx budget: travel fees: 3000$ photographer: 2300$ videographer: 800$ bride and groom clothes: 1600$ Wedding package: FREE! But had to pay 200$ for blood test and judge's transportation and then a few hundred dollars on decorations and accessories and other stuff. So if you cut down on the photography and videography cost you can definitely do it. I think most resort photographers under 1000$ You will likely have to pay a service fee for your reception (at my resort, it was 18$ service fee for above 10 guests, for the normal restaurant menu, or 45-55$ for a special menu). For cocktails, it might be better to just let people go to the bars and take advantage of the free alcohol as part of the all-inclusive package, rather than getting a special cocktail hour with personalized waiter, because that can be expensive. My resort was Dreams Tulum, I think all the Dreams resorts in mexico offer a free wedding package. The Riu chain also offers free packages (outside of mexico only, so DR or Jamaica)

the AA peonies are HUGE! I had 3 of them in my bridesmaid bouquet (it was basically just the 3 peonies) and it made a nice full medium size bouquet. For a brides's bouquet I would think 3-4 is enough, especially if you have roses in there too. For the roses, I don't really know as I haven't seen them but I would guess 8 large and 8 small. All this was for the bridal bouquet. I think you can order about 1/2 or 2/3 for the bridesmaid bouquets so that they are smaller. On a site note, I had the calla lilies from AA and I really liked them, I totally thought they looked real! They were huge though, too big for corsages (which I wanted them for) but perfect for my bouquet. They do come in different sizes though so I should have ordered smaller ones for the corsages.

Quote: Originally Posted by can't wait! Neen, when are you going down?! Was wondering if there was still time to add some questions. I've noticed lots of brides are taking down the table linens for the wedding. I was just planning on "renting" theirs. You would have to check with them to make sure they have the exact color you want (if you are picky). That's probably why some people bring their own. Brining overlays wouldn't be too bad, the material is very light and they are much smaller than tablecloths. And if you bring your own stuff, DT doesn't usually charge you to set it up (although it might cost you more to buy the linens than just rent the DT stuff).

Many resorts have their own wedding coordinators and won't work with outside coordinators & vendors. If you want to continue working with an outside coordinator, you may want to consider getting married somewhere off the resort, many ladies here have done this because they wanted a more private and flexible wedding than what the resort offers. It seems that almost all resort coordinators are very slow in responding, so again, going off resort would help with this, but it won't be cheap.