Samantha S

Good luck on finding a resort!!

I would talk to your wedding coordinator and demand that they at least get you in. That would be extremely frustrating because I tried booking my appts a few months ahead of time and Gaby told me to do it when I got to Dreams - that is insane!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kate82 thanks for the pictures! You guys looked gorgeous and I love your pictures! Now, it's harder to choose between Cecilia and Claudia. hahah...it's so stressful trying to find the right photographer... How did you guy your free room upgrade? Did you have ask the front desk? And did you get the free upgrade when you first checked in? Thanks so much! It was easy for us to choose - significant price differences!! They just give you the room upgrade. It wasn't great but we did book the lowest room. They'll upgrade your whole guest list if they have the rooms available.

Thanks so much everyone!! I still love looking at my pics. :-) Quote: Originally Posted by Kate82 Samantha, I love your dress! Your wedding is very beautiful! And I really like your pictures. I'm thinking about using Cecilia too. Can you please email me your other pics? And how many hours did you hire her for? Does her packages include album? [email protected] Thank you so much! HI Kate - pretty sure I emailed you the pics, let me know if you don't get them. I used her for two hours but wish I had done at least 3. Her package includes 200 prints that weren't in an album but I didn't mind about that. I also bought the CD which is a must - there were more than 500 pictures on it! Quote: Originally Posted by Michelle613 Omg WOW! Beautiful! I loved your review and CANNOT wait til next year. Exactly one year and 3 months to go! Where did you find Cecilia? I keep hearing about Claudia Rodriguez and Moments That Matter and now I see that your pics are fantastic... What should I do How much did Cecilia charge? What's her website? Also, you said : "Flowers – A+ We picked when we got there and told her the colors and they were stunning! --Did you go to the florist or did Claudia just show you pics? My wedding is soo far away, but I'm kinda going crazy with things like flowers and centerpieces. I want to actually go to the florist and see what arrangements he/she has done before. What did you do? I found out about Cecilia on the forum. She was amazing and I'm so so glad we went with her. WE LOVE OUR PICS! The photogs you mention are spectacular too but Cecilia is extremely more affordable. Her prices might change yearly or something so just email her for a price list - she is usually responsive and you can find her via google. As for flowers: we picked from pictures when we got there. This is one thing bride after bride that has been married at Dreams Cancun will tell you not to worry about and now I am with them. It's totally okay if these things are really important to you but it was something that was less important to me because they do a beautiful job on flowers. You will be in Mexico with one of the most beautiful wedding settings in Cancun AND a wedding coordinator who worries about everything - it was truly the way to go! Good luck with your wedding! Quote: Originally Posted by girlkin You looked so pretty. Loved your dress. Are those satin friggin pink shoes, you must tell me where you snagged those? Gorgeous! Ha ha, thank you! They are Christian Louboutin and they are the only thing I truly splurged on with the ''it's my wedding day'' rationalization. Thankfully I got them on sale at Neiman Marcus.

Quote: Originally Posted by mc5363 This is such a great review and everyone looked amazing! Wheredid you guys do the father daughter and first dance? Is there a dance floor in the tower lobby? We did it on the Towers Terrace. You can make it in to a dance floor, works great! Jennifer, I emailed you the pics!

Hi Everyone, I wanted to let you know about the groomsmen shirts we found for our wedding from Haband. They were SO nice and sharp-looking and were unbelievably $12.99. We got a slate grey color but there are several other colors. Here is the link: Haband Guayberra Here are a couple of pics of our guys in them:

I lied! The Guayberra shirts are still there for $12.99. If this link doesn't work, just do a search for Guayberra on the haband website. They are pretty much the deal of the century for Groomsmen attire. Haband Guayberra

Quote: Originally Posted by bbpacco Samantha, you can open an account and upload your video to Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket. After the file is done, they will give you links which you can send to people to share. If you have a google account, picasa has similar function that you can set your file private, and people can't access to your file unless you give them the link. Thanks for the tips! Well, I have a photobucket account but the instructions say it can only upload 5 or 10 minute videos and I think mine is about 30 minutes or so. Looking in to the Picasa one. I can probably pay to have it done at my work and its not that much-- I'll look in to it-- its worth it. :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by cancunbride Sammie, post your video pls.. Im dying to see it. I was thinking of opting out of it and changing it for the gazebo draping but now Im thinking about this. Also, FI saw your Hubbys suit and he is in love with it. Who designed it or where was it purchased from. P.S. Sylvia- I looked at your wed-site... so pretty! Since you listed nearby hotel options I thought I'd let you and others know that the Hyatt Regency is RIGHT next door to Dreams Cancun. It is a stunning hotel and had great rates (at the time we were there it was $85/night per room). Just an FYI because that is a question I had before the wedding.

Thanks everybody-- my head's getting too big to fit through the door! :-) Quote: Originally Posted by soon2bePowers Wow! Everything looks amazing. I really like your groomsmen attire, where did you get their shirts?? We got the groomsmen shirts from Haband. They were awesome and only $12.99!!!! We couldn't believe it!! Here is the bad news, I looked recently and couldn't find them on there. You could try calling and asking about them. They were perfect and almost free. Quote: Originally Posted by cancunbride Sammie, post your video pls.. Im dying to see it. I was thinking of opting out of it and changing it for the gazebo draping but now Im thinking about this. Also, FI saw your Hubbys suit and he is in love with it. Who designed it or where was it purchased from. Hi Sylvia! Your hair looks smokin hott!! I don't know how to post the video!!! Its too private to post on youtube-- any ideas? I would definitely get the video over the gazebo drapery- you'll have the video your whole life. I still cry every time I watch it-- you will not even remember the drapery. The suit was a steal too-- he got it on Amazon for $152 after shipping and it looks like its cheaper now-- good news, apparently you'll save $1,104 on the suit and get it for $95. Amazon.com: Beautiful & Brand New Italian Linen Mens Suit in White ~~ Hand Tailored for Perfect Fit 3 Button Suits ~~ Perfect for Cruise , Wedding , Summer: Apparel. It looks a little cheese-y in the pic online but it looked great when he got it. He had the shirt already, it was from Saks but a year or two ago. Quote: Originally Posted by bbpacco BTW, just to confirm, the video guy you had, is he the one included in the package?? Can't wait to see your video! Yes, he was the one included in the package, i.e. the resort hired him-- however, we had the dreams of love and swapped the photog for the videographer. I really will send it out if there is some techie on here who can tell me how.

Thanks everyone!!!! Jennifer (phillybride), don't let the reception thing freak you out-- if you designate some one to kind of 'act' like the DJ-- it will be great and like you said- rally your BMs to get things going. It was awesome to have a private dinner and a place to do the father/daughter and first dance. But, there were two weddings on Friday while we were there and both wedding parties ended up in the lobby bar relatively early and were wooping it up. That's actually the nice thing if you're not feeling it in the reception- head to the bar! It really feels like the whole week is your reception- I swear! P.S.-- make sure they turn off the lobby music. We were listening to a train wreck for a minute before we realized it was on and asked Gaby to turn it off. Weird.

Quote: Originally Posted by mummergirl well, i'm very lucky that they are all definitely *coming* now (except maybe tom's aunt ... she keeps insisting she is, but i don't see how it's possible), i was just considering telling them they don't have to be *bridesmaids* if they'd rather not. i don't really have a problem with the bridal party being uneven, but i'll feel kinda bad if tom has only a best man, and i have 5 girls, ya know? there are two other guys who are going who he could ask to stand for him, but i'd really like to get it settled before the girls order their dresses. We had 2 drop from my husband's side and I really didn't care about the uneven thing either but we ended up asking my two brothers to be groomsmen and it was really nice. I think its great to let everyone know that it is okay if they can't afford it, we did that from the get-go, but I would ask more to step in before I'd risk making it sound like I was TOO okay with BM's stepping down. Does that make sense? I just wouldn't want to catch the drift from a bride that it would be quasi-convenient for me to step down-- which you are totally not going for!

Hi Ladies! I finally got my review up last night. I missed you all, I haven't gone a month without logging on since January! Here's my review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33868 Looking forward to the upcoming weddings!

Hi Sunita, thank you for the compliments!! We told Gaby we didn't want a cake. Husband doesn't like cake and three dessert options come with dinner so some of the reviews from past brides had been that not a lot of people had cake. We just weren't planning on doing the cake cutting and feeding from the beginning so I can't help you on this one! As for the rooms, there are pics of the Junior Jacuzzi Suite-- I think in Dawn's review. Hers is in the Cancun forum and her name is dmarie (and I think some numbers) if you want so search for it. It is an awesome room!

THank you everyone!!! You all are too sweet! My dress is Pronovias from the 2007 collection and is called Oasis. Pretty much had it picked out long before the proposal after seeing it in a pic... The BM dresses were from Anthropologie and I really lucked out coming across them! Does anyone know how I can upload the DVD?? This is probably the best I've got for a hair shot-- in the other close ups, its all over the place. It was tich too prom-y for me like I said but nothing to go home over. I have weird, thin hair and not a lot of options- definietely couldn't have worn it down. She put in one strip of clip in hair extensions and then pinned curls up. It was pretty but looked like S by the end of the night because of the wind so I brushed it out and pulled it back.

Some of the crew in the lobby bar: Hmmm, as far as tips-- we tipped throughout the week to servers-- my husband is a tip-aholic. We gave Gaby about $70, the two bartenders and two servers at the reception $25 each and the videographer $20. I can’t think of anything else so let me know if you have questions. In short, it was spectacular and my only lessons learned for you future DC brides is: don't over hairspray your hair (bangs in particular) , start your photography and wedding early enough and maybe make a few tweaks to get the reception vibe to match your group vibe. My last word of advice, don't be sad if losers Heidi and Spencer from the hills have their fake wedding on the same day as yours! Ha! Thanks everyone SO much for helping me plan—there is no way we would have had the perfect time we had without the forum. I am very indebted. Happy Holidays!!

Pictures We went over to the lighthouse which is a hike over rocks and such so be prepared to have a dirty dress by the end of the night. It was totally worth it. We wanted to take a few on the dock and ran over there too. The reason I wanted to mention pics again here is because a lot of gals have gone back and forth on sunset pictures and such. Here’s my opinion about that at Dreams: shoot for a few but otherwise, try and get daylight shots. The pics from the daytime are SO much more beautiful. The sun doesn’t set over the beach so you can’t really get the shots you are probably imagining. Like I said, our group pics were in the dark and I would have MUCH RATHER had them in the daytime. If I could go back, I would have had the photog come for pics at 2:00, wedding at 3:00, pics for at least an hour and a half to two hours after the ceremony and then the reception. We were rushing, rushing, rushing with the group shots because it was so dark. (This was in Nov, these times all shift based on time of year of course.). I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't try and get sunset shots at the expense of other shots (such as group) because in my opinion, a few are good but not that spectacular given the way the sun sets at Dreams Cancun. Here’s an example of sunset—this is probably no later than 4:30 and this is us walking back down the aisle after the ceremony took place. Here’s another sunset one: Bridal party 'in the dark' Reception – A- then A+ We swapped the cocktail hour for more people covered for dinner. Because there is a bar right there in the towers lobby, the only thing missing was appetizers. The reception is hard to give a review on because I don’t want any of it to sound negative but here goes: we had our reception in the tower lobby as opposed to out on the terrace because we thought it would be too windy to eat on. The food was fantastic. We had Rum Butter Jerk Chicken (Delicious), filet mignon (don’t eat steak but everyone raved), and salmon (delicious). We didn’t order centerpieces but there were vases with sand and shells in them—they were pretty, glad we didn’t pay for anything. Everything was really, really good. Our waiters were awesome, especially Luis. Here we are taking a shot (the rest of these pics are non-pro): Here is why the reception starts with a A-. It was tricky to get the right vibe going. We tried to quasi-move out to the terrace with our ipod docking station but some people left to change and people were just slow to start (I think because the majority were severely hung over). I can see how you can have a grand ol time but for some reason, it just wasn’t completely working for us there. It wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t as fun as it could have been—or actually, we just couldn’t stay there all night and it was time to move on. The major thing that would have helped with the vibe was if we had a DJ. We opted not to because they are insanely expensive and I can’t say I’d have one if we were to do it over again because we had such a fun time. But, if there is any one on the fence and you can afford it, I’d go for the DJ (if you have a bigger, party-prone group). Also, if you are worried about the wind like we were, I would do dinner inside the lobby but with the doors open and have the reception kind of half out/half in. Have the DJ set up outside. Anyhoo, we moved to the hotel lobby bar and it was off the chain fun. We had a blast all night. They had live music but our friend had his little docking station he took everywhere and we had that out on the patio and had our own dance party. For some reason, the bar/more people thing helped the reception to be what we expected. By the end of the night we were partying in my brothers room with gallons of room service, then to the ocean until the safari hunters kicked us out (the staff wear little safari hats and were always out to get us when we were getting in to trouble so that’s what we named them) and then back to the hot tub. SO FUN. This is when we moved to the lobby patio. I had lots of gals in the crowd that need to get hitched so I threw five of the bridesmaid bouquets strategically—okay, I actually threw fast pitches straight for their heads. These were the lucky winners (I changed at this point in to a black hussie dress, I wasn’t hot but I was ready to be comfortable): Bridesmaid booty- just a super cute pic:

THE WEDDING! Wedding Coordinator: Gaby – A Gaby was amazing and nailed EVERYTHING. The whole wedding went off with out a hitch and she was great to work with, not to mention cute as a button. We met with her twice briefly and went over things and it was a cinch- Husband thought it was the greatest thing in the world to plan our wedding in about 20 minutes (from his perspective!!). They had way more to choose from in regards to bouquets and centerpieces and such- I was surprised. I am excited to let you guys know that Gaby did a fantastic job though because there have been some hit or miss reviews about her. Given this, I do think they need to seriously work on the communication prior to the wedding. Yes, you can work out most when you get there but I was ticked that I hadn’t heard back from Gaby when I was emailing 3, 2 and 1 week before my wedding—that’s not acceptable so they do need to work on it. Flowers – A+ We picked when we got there and told her the colors and they were stunning! I loved them so much. My bouquet was even prettier in person and after the wedding, whenever I was in the room I would keep it around me because it smelled so good. Photography: Cecilia Dumas – A+ She was a rock star and we loved her! She did a fantastic job and is really reasonably priced. We are very in love with our pictures and happy we decided to go with Cecilia. She is this tiny, hott little thing from Argentina. Some of the pro pics are posted throughout (all but the pre-wedding and reception photos are pro) but PM me your email address if you want to see all the pics. It was really nice to have a photographer that had good energy and that we vibed with. Videographer: Cancunweddingvideo.com – A+ YOU MUST DO THIS! He did such an amazing job—the video is so awesome to have (I’m sorry Kat!!)!! I think our videographer was named Harry but I can’t be certain about that. The video is just plain great but its so nice to have to show to people who couldn’t make it. I love, love, love it. Btw, we had the Dreams of Love package and swapped the photography for this. If I can get a streaming video of it, I’ll post it. Ceremony – A+ It surpassed both of our expectations. Things started a little chaotic because my husband got wasted with half our wedding party in the grooms room the night before and woke up throwing up (he pretty much never throws up). Half my family took part in this fiasco and were all hung over and running late but that all came together fine. The minister was 30 minutes late due to traffic apparently. The ceremony was supposed to start at 3:30 and got started a bit after 4:00. I wasn’t stressing about it at all at the time because Cecilia came at 3:00 and was taking pics of the bridesmaids and I and it took a bit longer than expected. It did end up not being so great later because we had to take the group pics in the dark and they just aren’t as pretty as they would have been in daylight. One quick funny thing that happened while we were getting ready—my Mom came in and immediately started crying—make that sobbing. I was determined to not be a blubbering mess on my wedding day and was fighting the tears as hard as I could until my dear bridesmaids started yelling obscenities at me (insert references to female and male genitalia, a few STDs, telling me I looked ugly, etc) and one showed me her butt. That got me to stop. It was just truly funny, sweet and one of my favorite moments. But anyways, on to the ceremony—once we had everyone together and the minister was there, Gaby called us down. The wedding party could see us from afar when we were walking over so my bridesmaids (all 7 of them) made a fuchsia shield so no one could see me, it was cute. My Dad started crying right away. I was a little concerned that the sound equipment person wouldn’t get the music right but they nailed that too. The minister, late as she was, had a very beautiful ceremony script- it was way better than I expected and didn’t follow the ones that we had posted in the Dreams Cancun thread. We could understand her reasonably well. She kept calling us 'Simones' and it's Simmons so everyone would try not to giggle when she said that and we are know known as the Simones to our friends who were there. Not much else to say here other than when we walked away, husband and I were both so blown away about how beautiful and touching it was. I used to be one to say I didn’t need to get married, a.k.a. Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn but I take it back now that I’ve done it—it was spiritual and very meaningful. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. P.S.- it was windy but not too terrible. Be careful with the hairspray. One of my BM's did my hair and because it was such an up-do, it was a little bit prom-y and my bangs and the hair around my face were too stiff and crunchy so in all my pics its flying weird. Not a huge deal but its better to have natural hair flying around than stiff hair.

Hi Ladies, I have finally had time to do my review!!! I’ll start by saying that everything was amazing, spectacular, wonderful and glorious! But here is a breakdown: Flights to Mexico: American Airlines – A+ First off, they were great about letting me put my dress in the first class closet--- no problems there. Our first leg to Dallas was normal and uneventful but Dallas to Cancun was AWESOME. We were flying with two friends and the flight attendants offered to move my husband and I up to first class but we didn’t want to leave our friends behind. So we all moved to the very back of the plane where the last three rows were empty and took it over. They were showering us with free booze and food, it was glorious. We called it last class the whole time, soooooo fun. The flight home was uneventful but after 8 days, we needed that. Dreams Cancun Resort – A The resort is amazing and beautiful. The service was great all around. The weather was fair to excellent the whole week. The rooms were nice and most people got upgraded. We booked a dolphin view room knowing we would get upgraded and we did get upgraded to an ocean view room but we were honestly expecting more. That said, my husband was happy to be in the pyramid however because all of our guests were there and didn’t want to move over to the towers. Just wished we would have had a bigger room—other than that—great! We didn’t miss the private beach because we loved the beach by Himitsu and pretty much declared it our territory. Dreams had great activities—the guys played beach volleyball pretty much everyday and were all thrashed up by the end of the week. We didn’t swim with the dolphins because we felt sorry for them but it was awesome to watch—they were beautiful. I can’t believe how gorgeous the ocean was!!!!! White sand beaches and aqua water and a bar.= Heaven. We had a ton of fun in the bars each night and the entertainment was great. We also took over the resort hot tub more than once—well we called it the warm tub because it was only hot in the middle of the night. We would know. Our friends are true characters and these two guys put on fake mustaches and speedos. OOT Bags These went over really well. We hung out in the lobby bar each afternoon when people were coming in and greeted them with them. The staff will hand them out but we wanted to greet people and say hello. The bags had ibuprofen, immodium AD, alka-seltzer, Emergen-C, shout wipes, antibacterial wipes, Kleenex and chapstick with SPF. Everyone loved them and used most of the things as well as the bag itself for a beach bag. We had every intention of going to Walmart to put snacks in and I wish we had because they would have been handy for everyone when they got the munchies but we just were too busy. Food – B Overall the food was great—delicious shrimp tacos, guacamole, good buffet for all meals, steak and so on. We liked the World Café, Oceana and the Seaside Grill but Himitsu didn’t hit the spot for anyone—sushi snobs I guess. The restaurants all had something good to eat but we were beyond sick of the food by the last two days or so. Don’t get me wrong, the food and service were great but you could find just a few things that you really liked at each one and ended up eating the same thing the whole week. A lot of people got sick in one way or another—whether it was diarrhea or just plain backed up. Only two people in our group got full blown Montezuma’s revenge and it happened to be on the plane ride home for both of them…. No bueno!! Our Group – A+ of course We had a total of 37 people including us but not including the random friends we picked up through out the week. An awesome couple from Texas and a whole crew of couples from Mexico City to name a few. It was crazy partying the whole week—I can’t believe I survived. Rehearsal Dinner – A+ We had dinner at the Seaside Grill on one of the few nights it was open due to wind closures. We had a big group and couldn’t have had one table all together but all of our tables were right next to each other. Its not that big of a place. The food was awesome here and it was a nice dinner. We didn’t make reservations, just showed up. We partied in the lobby bar for awhile and then I went to bed to get some beauty sleep and most people went to the salsa club next door. They had a blast so I highly recommend it. On that note, a few nights later most people went to a club on ‘the strip’ called Daddio’s and had a blast there too. My Dad was the most popular guy in Cancun at the time because he is this adorable cowboy but totally loud and hilarious. He had the ‘shot girls’ chasing him all over the club, over furniture, trying to get him to take a shot—hilarious. Make Up Trial with Marisol - C I swapped the hair preparation for a make up trial because my BM did my hair. Sorry, she was sweet and did okay but it was not what I was looking for-- it was extremely average- nothing breathtaking. Word is Mareya does a great job so I'd try her out. I meant to ask for her but forgot and didn't want to be rude when I showed up. I'm super picky about my make up so don't base your future plans solely on my review.

Bye ladies!!! Taking off in the AM, I'll report back as soon as I can with hopefully a glowing review! Thanks so much for everything, seriously. Kat, if you're in Houston, we have a SIX hour layover at noon-- come get wasted with us! :-)

Yay, yay, yay!!! Everything seemed great and you looked stunning. Following in your foot steps next week, I leave tomorrow!!!!

Amy, I love your stuff! It looks like on your iron-on for your OOT bags, the text is 'clear', i.e. it is the OOT bag color. If that is true, how did you do that? Thank you!!

Flygirl-- what a great review!! THANK YOU for the detail! I am so sorry that your guests got sick and your flowers weren't as expected. Everything else sounded wonderful. So happy to hear Gaby did a great job. She is super sweet, the email thing is just beyond frustrating when it is urgent. I'm leaving on Sunday so I will probably come up with more questions but are you saying that the tower terrace was windy too? I was hoping it would be less so there. Who did you use for transportation to and from the resort and did you like them? I'm surprised you were able to make salon appointments that late in the game. Gaby told me to wait until we meet with her but if there are only two people in the salon-- I could see that being tricky. What time did you start getting ready and did you have adequate time? THANK YOU!!!

Aww, thanks ladies! I will try more kinds in the future but not before the wedding (NEXT WEEK!!!). There are worse problems to have! ) I will be on the hunt in the future though so I am glad you ladies keep us all posted on the goods!

Thanks Highheels for the review, it was great! I am glad to know that Gaby is still around, I am EXTREMELY frustrated with her right now. As you can see in my ticker, my wedding is next week and she has now not returned TWO of my emails, one of them dated more than a week and a half ago. I've been super patient this whole past year, never getting on their case for taking weeks to respond but I sure as heck do expect timely responses to very important matters a week before my wedding and four days before I leave. Grrrrrr! Sorry, I really had to vent. Highheels, did Gaby do a good job the day of your wedding? She has gotten a few poor reviews but she told me not to believe everything I read on the internet (when I wrote to confirm that she had scheduled the videographer-- sure, Kat is suuuccchhh a liar).