SunBride

completely depends on what you want photographed, and also your time line (amount of time between ceremony and reception). If you just want the ceremony and group/family/bride&groom shots than probably 2 1/2 hours or so is enough. If you want the reception too then it depends on your timeline, if there is a 3 hour break between your ceremony and reception obviously you have to pay to have the photographer there that whole time, plus the amount of time for the reception. Do you want photos of your first dance & cake cutting? If so then think about how long after the reception starts you'll be doing those things so that the photographer is still there then. Then there is the question of getting ready photos. If you want photos of you getting dressed etc then you have to have the photographer there an hour or a few hours before.

I think your letter is very good so far. I would suggest giving some examples and additional details about the other problems you mention when you say "He also seems to change his story and is very inconsistent; I have the emails to back this up."

Quote: Originally Posted by neen so we almost 30 people for the rehearsal dinner and i really don't want to pay an extra fee. i'm going to ask Landy when I visit if its possible to make 3 seperate reservations of 10 or fewer at the same restaurant at the same time...maybe we can get around it that way. otherwise i think we may just do it in the buffet if they can block off a quieter section for us and will let us decorate just a little bit...has anyone does this? I would also recommend the buffet as a good option. We ate there with our group, no special occasion, we just ate dinner together several times that week, and it was great. There are no seperate rooms, but the way it is designed there is a part on the left that is kinda seperate, and you could ask to have that section to yourselves and ask them to set you up either 2 or 3 long tables. We got excellent service the night we were at the buffet. I talk about it in my review (link below).

congrats! Can't wait to see your professional pictures. You should post a link in the Dreams Tulum thread so that all the future DT brides see your review - I would have missed it if Can't Wait hadn't pointed out that it existed.

no problem, I'm always happy to help

Quote: Originally Posted by Turtlebaybride I'm sorry, I did not mean FONT, I used the wrong term. I meant monogram thingy, with the palm tree and your names. It didn't come up on the template. Was it supposed to? I'm new to this, so please excuse my "newness". Or am I to create that myself? Thanks so much for your help! If you open up the background image in photoshop (or other similar software), then you can very easily add your own text.

to answer a few recent questions MAP The interactive map on the resort website is available here: Dreams Tulum Resorts & Spas: Resort Map I recently posted a map I made up (aerial view) here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-79#post416951 ROOM UPGRADES As posted in my review it's 20$ per night (regular price 40$ per night but half price for wedding groups/guests) to upgrade from hacienda room to dreams suite gardenview. See my review for more details about upgrades for the other categories. GROUPS of 10 (or less) You can have your wedding dinner without charge in any restaurant. I had mine at the seaside grill, but we also had dinner as a group at almost all the other restaurants on other nights without problems. More than 10 is considered a group by the resort and then extra fees apply (even if just ordering off the regular menu).

Good for you for taking him the vet. This happened to my previous dog when I was a teenager, my parents didn't take her to the vet because they never took her to vet after her initial vaccinations (she was about 8 when she was bitten). It's not that they were cruel or didn't love her, but it's just they didn't believe in spending money on a dog beyond the basics (i.e. food). Also we thought it ws just a little surface bite, it wasn't bleeding much. Anyways, about a week later the dog is smelling really bad so we took her to the vet and it turned out it was badly infected and her flesh was rotting, they had to cut out chunks of her flesh! The surgery was 500$. Then, a week later they had to do the same opperation over again becuase it wasn't healing well even with the first surgery and antibiotics. At this point my parents considered putting her down but since they had already paid 500$ for the first surgery they figured that would be wasted money until they dished out another 300$ for the 2nd surgery.

there isn't usually a rehersal done, but if you reallly want one it is possible, you'll have to work out the details with your coordinator. I'm sure it can wait till you get there, but you'll probably want to give them a heads up that you want to do one (when you get the wedding form a month before that asks questions about all the details, you could put a note in there that you want a rehearsal).

Quote: Originally Posted by can't wait! OKAY. Good news. I just got off the phone with Lizette who apparently is Landy's assistant now that Sandra is gone. She told me the old prices will apply to those who booked before the new guide was distributed. I also asked about the Seaside Grill and she said it has already been reserved for me on my wedding day. Soooo, I think you should be okay if you made arrangements BEFORE they drew up their new wedding guide. Hope that helps release some stress! AWESOME NEWS! I'm happy you managed to get a hold of them to confirm this. I am not surprised they are respecting previous reservations, that's just the type of place they are in my experience, very fair. Quote: Originally Posted by neen on the claudia rodriguez question, we're paying $3300 for the 5 hour package wow, that's a huge price increase (in just a few months) for the 5 hour package. Is that just the basic 5 hour package or does it include some extras?

Quote: Originally Posted by trisha0612 They should keep everything the SAME for those booked, and only start the changes with brides who have yet to book! Have you actually confirmed with Landy that the new policies apply to you even though you were already confirmed? I would explain to her that it's extremely important that you have the seaside grill and that you would not have booked at this resort if you had known that you might have to have your reception elsewhere. Quote: Originally Posted by Blkatz has anyone gotten a price from Claudia Rodriguez for the photography? When I got the price list at the beginning of 2008 it was 1800$ for 3 hours (I think ), 2250$ for 5 hours, and I forget the price of the larger package. EDITED: I am pretty sure it was 1800$ for 3 hours, not 1500$ as initially posted. I think 1500$ was the old price some other brides got (I specially remember 5 hours was approx 2200$ and so it would not have made sense for 3 hours to be 1500$)

oops, didn't mean to scare anybody, yes I meant to type 1 MONTH before! I hour would be crazy!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by amdecker I love your beach wedding! The pictures turned out so well, that is exactly why I want to have my wedding on the beach. I also love your bridesmaid dresses, I really like the color and the length. Did you enjoy the resort? The pictures of the water are so gorgeous that I'm considering staying there now! Is there much to do in the area? Check out my review (link below) for answers to your questions. Also check out the big Dreams Tulum Brides thread. But the quick answer is yes, I did enjoy, and my family all loved it. The drawbacks though are that the beach isn't the greatest (as is the case at many resorts in the Mayan Riviera) and that there is no big city nearby for shopping and other activities (Playa Del Carmen is 45 minutes away, cancun 1.5 hours away, tulum is only 10 minutes away but not much there). The only really close activities (and cheap cab ride) are the Tulum Ruins, Xel-Ha, and several cenotes. If this is enough for you than definitely consider the resort but if you want more you might want to go elsewhere. A few of our family members got really badly sunburned on day 1 and would have liked to be closer to a city to do some shopping and stuff since they were staying out of the sun for 3 days.

Quote: Originally Posted by B&J2008 So its kinda open, not really closed in? So by using it as half tables and half dance floor, you wouldn't really have to rent the dance floor It's COMPLETELY OPEN, winds, bugs and all, so really I guess it should be considered as an outdoor option. but there is a roof so you are okay if it rains. There are tons of pictures posted if you go back a bit. Or go to my review (link below) and in the review there is a link for "resort photos" and I took tons of photos of the resort, there are some of the seaside grill. No you would not have to rent the dance floor, as there is a floor in the restaurant. So as long as your group's dinner tables didn't take up the entire restaurant you could dance, BUT you have to rent the restaurant privately for that. Also the new dinner policy is that you can only reserve this restaurant if capacity is less than 70% and this can only be confirmed 1 hour before your wedding. If you eat elsewhere, you could do your first dance next to the pool, or outside of the disco (just bring the ipod dock from your room, but you'll need batteries). This isn't really officially allowed (but not not allowed either!) but as long as it was like semi impromptu and you weren't blarring music and it only takes 5 minutes I'm sure it would be fine. If you want a full out night of dancing you could go to the disco.

Quote: Originally Posted by amesharpe Question ladies. When I booked back in back in April I could have sworn the price per extra person over 20 in the Ultimate Wedding Package was $17. Now it's $55? The 17$ (actually I think it used to be 18$) and is now 20$ charge is for each person over 20 to have the regular menu, i.e. it's just a service charge for having a large group. This charge is the same for any package (free, dreams, ultimate). Alternatively, if you don't want to use the normal restaurant menu, the charge is 65$ if you want the gold dinner, and 55$ if you want the silver dinner The ultimate package includes 20 gold dinners. If you have more than 20 people, you could choose for everyone to have a normal menu dinner ("wasting" your 20 gold dinners and you would pay 20$ for each person above 20. Or you could go with the gold dinner and pay 65$ for each person above 20. Same idea with the dreams of love except that it includes 20 silver dinners.

yeah, I don't understand mexico weather forecaststs and statistics. When they forecast rain, they mean for ten minutes, not all day. Also the statistics will say for example, average high temperature for march is like 26 (just making this up) but in reality it's like above 30 every single day. Don't worry about it. Can't wait - email Landy and ask her to confirm that you will pay the old prices seeing as you booked before the price increase. They should honour old prices for people previously confirmed (I would hope anyways, although I know that not all local venues here don't either).

if these people haven't yet been unofficially invited by word of mouth, they are just assuming they are invited, and there is no stopping you from not inviting them. How about just inviting immediate family and closest friends? Taht would keep it to about 20 people. However if you've already given the impression to everyone (verbally) that they are invited, then that would be difficult. I always thought we would invite everyone to our DW, but when we found out our best man and maid of honour couldn't come, we decided not to invite any extended family, just parents and sisters (would have been too sad to have everyone and their dog but not our closest friends). People were very surprised and disapointed (when we told them we were engaged and getting married down south, several people responded "we'll be there!" and I had to nicely say we were thinking about only inviting family. So when it was officially confirmed we were only inviting family a month later, nobody was too surprised). Although some people were disappointed, they were all very respectful. Why are you wanting to limit it to 20 people? Cost reasons only? Large DW can be so much fun! If the only reason is cost, then you could just go with a cheaper reception for your DW (i.e. dinner at the buffet, they will usually set aside a section for your group, and then head over to the disco) and save your money for a fancy at home reception. Just some ideas.

Quote: Originally Posted by amy706 Sunbride, I think one or two of the new shots in the guide are from your wedding!!! yay! Your famous! Yep, there is one of my ceremony set-up! And we are off on the corner, you can see our videographer with the camera on his unipod and we are all standing in a group (too small to actually recognize anyone though) Quote: Originally Posted by amodew I also just received a new wedding guide from Sandra - new pictures have been included and the guide seems to be a little more informative. Hope this info helps everyone. Finally they have improved the information! I think the dinner policy is much much clearer now. So the only options for indoor dinner are (1) buffet (obviously not private but the only free option for more than 10 people (free package) or 20 people (ultimate or dreams of love package)) (2) ballroom (obviously private) (3) wine celar at portofino (small, although they don't specify the exact maximum number. I would guess, from having been there, something like 35-40 max) (4) any of the restaurants if your group is under 25 people (5) seaside grill / el patio if occupancy is less than 70% (can only be confirmed one month in advance). It's also nice that they have put more info about the outside options (1) Terrace of El Patio restaurant (2) beach (3) next to the activity pool (between bridge and pool bar) (4) at the end of the quiet/adults pool Also interesting they are now saying max 2 weddings per day when it was previously 3 I notice some of the prices increased but nothing dramatic. Okay, happy to hear everyone likes the idea of starting a new thread. I will try to start compiling all the info, but I have my second AHR next weekend and am flying back to my home town for 10 days with only very slow dial-up so I won't be able to work on it then. So it may take a few weeks. I'll do a first draft and then you ladies can make suggestions for what info I should add to the first page.

Hi DT ladies, I have an idea I've been thinking about for a while that I want to throw out there. I was thinking of starting a new Dreams Tulum thread (if everyone agrees to let this one die and the new one will be the main one) and on the first page of the thread having all the most frequently asked questions. So often on here we have the brides asking the same questions over and over, which is quite reasonable considering our thread is over 80 pages long and it's hard to find the information, and the thread has existed for so long now (over 6 months!) and so many brides have come and gone and we can't expect the new ones to know all this stuff. Also there is a lot of little discussions that would be pretty boring for a new person to have to shift through to find the info (don't get me wrong, I love the little discussions, hellos, "thank yous", "you look beautiful" type comments, etc, but the most important information is getting lost in the midst of all that. So what do you think of the idea of starting a new thread where all the most FAQs are on the first page, as well as links to everone's reviews and pictures (i.e. we wouldn't have to have the seperate thread "list of Dreams Tulum brides") I will take responsibility for continually updating the first page as people ask new questions and answers in the thread. So the new thread would look exactly like this one (i.e. we can continue with all our semi-useless little discussions) but would have a super helpful and informative first page. So hopefully this would cut down on a lot of the repetitive questions. Let me know what you think. I don't want to see this thread die before reaching 100 pages though, and it will take a little while to compile all the info to start the new thread, so it could be done sometime in the next few weeks. Alternatively, if we don't like the idea of starting a new thread (it would be sad to see this one die, especially since it's probably the longest thread on BDW!!!!) I could just do a seperate thread called "Dreams Tulum FAQ" and we could refer new brides there, but they are much less likely to see it, as it will be way in the back of the forum. We'd have to keep re-posting the link in this thread. As much as I hate to see this thread die, I think it would be better to have everything all in one place. Let me know what you think! (oops, said that already, haha)

momentville is free and has lots of great options like RSVPs (which many other sites require you to upgrade and pay for). I like that you can totally create your own pages, it's way more flexible than some of the other sites I tried. For example I'm having 3 AHRs and was able to create a seperate page for each (sounds simple but many sites I tried I couldn't do it!)

Quote: Originally Posted by DreamsTulumBride Can anyone post pictures of the Convention center on this thread? I would love to see how it looks now (inside + out)... When I was there (in Dec) it was barely finished (still in cement on the outside) There were some posted a while back, shortly after I came back from my wedding, so I would say mid April. If you browse back to then maybe you can find them. Whoever posted tehm (I can't remember) did a great job of taking lots of pics and explaining the set-up.

another option, for those planning on making some, is to buy the little "kits" at dollarama. They look pretty similar than these, although instead of a slip in badge tag, it's a little laminating thing (basically just like a sticker that covers each side of the tag). You get 5 for 1$! They are so easy to use and cheap! Final product Not trying to steal your attention, but just give another idea.

Hi Gina! What a coincidence to find you here - you just photographed my friend Megan's wedding this past weekend! I wasn't able to make it to the wedding, but am so looking forward to seeing their pictures. Their engagement pictures are great.

aww, I feel so bad for anyone who doesn't find this forum, but at least you found it now! I organized my entire wedding in 3 months, so you definitely have lots of time to do stuff in the few weeks you have left.

I got white ones for our female guests and a pink one for me. I love your idea! They pack really well, I had 5 and they were in a small (but long) box. I got mine from asianideas.