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Quote: Originally Posted by lolosmama Thanks so much for posting your review! Congratulations! Do they have the same nightly entertainment schedule all year long? What night did the Carribean Night Party fall? Do they post this schedule somewhere? They have Mexican Fiesta nights on Tuesdays and the Caribbean Night party is always on Friday night. The other activities and entertainment vary from day to day. Every night they would do a turn down service and leave the schedule of events for the next day on the bed.

Quote: Originally Posted by clinicalgal Hi Ladies I am excited to share that our date (June 28, 2010) and time (6pm) are booked! Now the real planning begins, though from reading this forum it seems like there isn't too too much i can do before i get there? The advice i keep reading over and over is to not stress out b/c when you get there everything falls into place. As much as i'd like to follow that advice, i'm not so good with the wait it out and it will fall into place stuff hahaha. I have a question to those brides that did (or are planning on doing) their reception on the beach: is it usually in the same stop as your ceremony (so are they breaking down the ceremony set up and putting up reception stuff during your cocktail hour?) And if you had a DJ, did you put down a dance floor on the beach? If so, how expensive is that? I can't imagine dancing in the sand so it may make sense to put down the dance floor but i don't want to break the bank either! Did many of you hire the DJ from the resort? Thanks in advance!! Mil Besos They setup our beach reception pretty close to the ceremony site....it was located behind it and a little to the right. They didn't really break down the ceremony site...they already had the reception tables setup so all they had to do was move the chairs from the ceremony site to the reception tables. They had separate chairs setup for the cocktail hour so the guests always had a place to sit but most of them stood and mingled. As far as the music and dance floor...we just used our IPod and thought it worked out great. We just shuffled the songs and turned it off for speeches and toasts. We skipped the dance floor too. It's not that easy to dance in the sand but it was fun! Everyone already had their shoes off so it wasn't a big deal. We didn't have a ton of people dancing though...if that's important to you then it might not be a bad idea to rent the dance floor. I can't remember the exact amount but I think it's in the $600-800 range.

Hi ladies! I've posted my review... http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t46526 Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be posting pics soon!

Okay, so here's my review! We were married at Dreams Tulum on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM. We had 38 people in our group and everyone seemed to have a great time! There were a few hiccups but overall we were very happy with the wedding. Resort : Overall (8/10) Food (8/10) I thought the food was really good for an all-inclusive. We ate breakfast at World Cafe almost every day and thought they had a good selection. We ate at Seaside Grill a couple of days for lunch and then El Patio once for lunch. Our favorite for dinner was Portofino. I do wish they had a better selection of beers...if you don't like Corona, Bud Light, or Bud you are out of luck. Rooms (8/10) We had an Oceanfront room ( #8238 ) and were really happy with the location. I liked it because it overlooked the wedding site next to the Seaside Grill so I was able to see a couple of other weddings from my balcony. The room was very clean and nice but not particularly spacious. The bed was a little uncomfortable but not too bad. The maid service seemed to come very early...around 8:30 in the morning which I thought was strange. Location (7/10) The resort was definitely more remote than I expected. It took us about an hour and 30 minutes to get there. Most of our guests were from Texas or Oklahoma so they had pretty short flights. I can't imagine having a really long flight and then having such a long shuttle ride. Even though it's a long way from the airport there are some advantages to the location. We were really close the Tulum ruins so we were able to get there early and beat the crowds and heat. Also, Xel-Ha is just a few miles away. Beach (7/10) The beach was very pretty to look at but kinda hard on the feet. It was very rocky in areas so I recommend taking water shoes. If you walk south of the resort for about 20 minutes the beach is much better and very private. Service (7/10) This is a tough one...the service was really bad when we first arrived but seemed to get better the closer we got to the weekend. I'm not sure if they staff up for the weekends or what. We tipped everywhere we went but that didn't really seem to help. I got REALLY annoyed one morning because we had to be at Xel-Ha at 9:00 AM to swim with the dolphins (which was awesome btw!). I ordered room service a little before 8:00 AM thinking we would have plenty of time to eat but it never came. I talked to the concierge as we were leaving and expressed my disappoint with the service. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence but things seemed to improve after that discussion. Entertainment/Activities (9/10) The resort did a good job of catering to all ages and interests. We had 5 children in our group and they all seemed to enjoy it. They liked the Explorers Club and the ocean trampoline. One of the best nights was the Caribbean night party the night before the wedding. They let us reserve tables in the first row and everyone loved the fire dancers. They also had a children’s program which was entertaining. I thought some of the entertainment was a little cheesy but it's a fun place, especially if you are with a large group. Wedding : Overall (9/10) Wedding Coordinator (9/10) Natalia was our wedding coordinator and I thought she did an excellent job. There were a few requests I made after our initial meeting that I thought she would forget about because she didn't write them down on my planning form but she executed everything like I requested. There were some issues getting my welcome bags delivered to the correct rooms but I don't think that was anything she had control over. Flowers (8/10) I was really nervous about the flowers because I couldn't find anything I liked in the wedding guide. I gave them pictures of bouquets I liked and although they didn't look quite as nice as the pics they got pretty close. I had kinda low expectations going in but was pleasantly surprised. Cake (8/10) We picked the Golden 01 cake from the guide but it didn't really look that much like the picture. It didn't look bad...just not the most beautiful cake I've ever seen. Again, I had kinda low expectations on the cake like the flowers. It tasted really good so what it lacked in beauty it made up for in taste. One suggestion...our package included cake for 20 people but since we had 38 guests we paid an additional $5 per person ($90 total) to make sure that we would have enough cake for everyone. We had way too much cake...since dessert was served with our meal no one really ate the cake. Music (9/10) I'm relying on what others said on this one. The only song I heard was the song they played when I walked down to the aisle. We rented the sound system for the ceremony and reception and I just told Natalia that I wanted traditional songs played for the ceremony. I'm not sure what they played when the guests were seated but one guest commented on how beautiful the music I selected was. We also had the Mariachi band for cocktail hour. We were taking pictures so unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy them but I heard they were great. Photographer/Videographer (Not sure yet) We used the resort photographer (Ruben) and videographer. I've only had a chance to look at a few of the pictures so far so I can't really rate his work. We moved to another resort the day after the wedding so we were really rushed and just bought the CD with all the pics. I'm a little nervous about the pictures because he seemed to just do very posed pics and some of the poses were a little ridiculous I thought. At one point he was trying to make my husband do some silly pose and my husband said "oh no...I'm not doing that". Luckily we had a guest that is an excellent photographer with a very fancy camera. He took some great pictures at our couples shower so I asked him to get more candid shots at the wedding. I felt better about our choice to use the resort photographer because he was there. He told me after the wedding that the lighting was perfect and he got some beautiful shots so I can't wait to see them! As for the video, we have to wait 20 days for it so I'll updated my review later. I'll also post some pictures a little later. Hair (7/10) I thought my hair was okay but I didn't love it. I brought a picture with me and it didn't really turn out like the picture but it didn't look bad. There were supposed to be two stylists available so my sister could get her hair done at the same time but there was only one girl there to do my hair and my two bridesmaids...kind of irritating. I'm weird about other people doing my makeup so I did my own. Another thing that irritated me is that I asked them if they would repaint my toes since I wasn't using the makeup application in my package. I didn't want a full pedicure...just a new coat of paint because the sand was so hard on the pedicure that I got before I left. They wouldn't do it without charging me extra so I just went back to my room and did it myself. Ceremony Setup (10/10) I thought the ceremony setup was beautiful. The wedding was on the beach to the right of the Seaside Grill. My bridesmaids' dresses were a blue-green color that was really hard to match so I just went with all white flowers and tulle. I thought it looked so pretty! I had watched a couple of weddings from my balcony the day before so I made some last minute requests based on my observations. I asked Natalia to make sure the music at the pool was off because at one wedding I watched you could hear the annoying techno music in the background. I also asked her to pull down the shades at the Seaside Grill so we had a little more privacy. Not sure that helped...we had a lot of people peeking around the Seaside Grill and watching but everyone was very respectful. My worst fear was that an overweight man in a Speedo would walk by on the beach in the middle of the ceremony but that didn't happen! The minister was okay. Her English was very good and most of what she said was really nice but every once in a while she would say something a little off and my fiancée and I would just look at each other and smile. Reception Setup (8/10) We had the reception on the beach and they setup the tables behind and to the right of the ceremony site. We rented the sound system for the reception and just plugged in our IPod for the music. Dinner was delicious...we selected the Golden Menu. One thing I thought was kind of weird was that our table was served last for every course. I think some of the guests were trying to wait until we received our food to start eating but I told them to go ahead and eat. Service definitely could have been a little faster for dinner but it wasn't awful. The thing I was most disappointed with at the reception was the lighting. When I met with Natalia and we talked about setting up the reception on the beach I asked her about lighting. She said that there were lights on the Seaside Grill that they turn on so there would be plenty of lighting. I asked her if we needed the Tiki Torches and she said they were more for decoration and we would have sufficient light without them. Well once the sun went down it got really dark. They had candles on the tables but it wasn't nearly enough light. When I saw Natalia I asked her if we could get more light and she was able to make it better. Apparently there was some miscommunication and all the lights were not turned on and directed towards the reception site. It was still dark after they "fixed" it but much better. Also, the mosquitoes were big and brutal! Once it gets dark they come out in full force and they aren't messing around! They were biting my new husband through his shirt. Luckily, I had put Off Wipes in the Welcome Bags and I had brought some extra bags to the reception in case anyone had not received one yet. The lighting and mosquitoes kind of put a damper on the reception but we still had a great time! So overall it was a positive experience! We had a great time and lots of our guests told us that it was the most fun they've ever had at a wedding. SUCCESS! One more funny thing to share...after the reception our friends helped us take some things back to our room. When I got to the room my friends and new husband were just cracking up outside the room. When I walked into the room there were two Swan towel animals on the bed with rose petals everywhere...rose petals on the floor...champagne chilling next to the bed...and a bubble bath with rose petals in the shape of a heart on top of the water. It was a little cheesy but I thought it was nice that they tried so hard to make our wedding night as romantic as possible!

Hola chicas! I'm still in Mexico enjoying my honeymoon but I wanted to give you all a quick review of the wedding. I'll do a more detailed review when I get back. We arrived last Tuesday and the first couple of days at the resort were kinda rough...the service was not good and I was getting really nervous. The service greatly improved after our guests arrived but it was still just okay. We moved to Excellence Riviera Cancun for our honeymoon and their service blows Dreams Tulum away. We did the Caribbean Night party for our welcome dinner on Friday and everyone loved it! The wedding was on Saturday at 5:00 PM. All the guests had a great time and the wedding turned out beautiful. Natalia was our wedding coordinator and did an excellent job. We had our ceremony and reception on the beach next to the Sea Side Grill. The only issue we really had were the mosquitos that came out after dark...obviously nothing the resort can do about that though. We just went and got some Off Wipes from our welcome bags and continued the party! We had a positive experience overall although we did have some issues. We were the only wedding on Saturday which I think helped. We get back on Thursday so I can give a more detailed review when I return!

Yay...I FINALLY heard back from Aurora. She only answered three of the ten questions I asked her but it's a start! She setup an appointment with Natalia the day after we arrive. She says that there is a $750 private event fee for Seaside Grill and your group has to be 50 people. I thought that the $750 fee didn't apply if you purchase the Ultimate Package? And I've never heard the 50 person rule before. She said that I can discuss the request with Natalia when I get there so we'll see. AND she said that my wedding is the only one booked that day which is very good news!

Starlitk, I just checked out your planning thread...LOVE your welcome bags and the setup! Everything looked beautiful! For my flowers I want a similar look...all white mixed flower bouquets with green accents. I emailed Aurora to find out if they can do green cymbidium orchids but of course I haven't heard back...grrrr! I sent her pictures of bouquets I like but am nervous that I'm not going to like the flowers. Did you send her pics before? Did they turn out similar to your pics? They look really pretty in the pics!

I emailed Aurora AGAIN about finalizing the wedding and reception locations. I also asked her how many weddings were scheduled on the day of my wedding and said "when I booked my wedding I was told there would be a maximum of 2 weddings per day". We'll see how she responds to that. Bleh...I think the stress is starting to get to me! Only 1 week and 1 day till we leave so I'm sure I'm gonna be a lil nuts until we leave. If it wasn't for this forum I would be even crazier so thank all of you so much for your input! So tonight my fiancee and I were talking about wedding expenses and how much we'll owe when we get to the resort. We requested the Ultimate Package which seems like a pretty good value but we are concerned about the cost of the add ons. I was thinking that we would do the Gold Dinner but we have 38 guests so at $65 a head (18 over the 20 that are included) that's gonna get kinda pricey. If we opt for the "regular menu" for $20 what does that mean? What do they serve? Do you think it's worth it to go with the Gold Dinner?

Wow...thanks for the honest reviews. Definitely not what I want to hear but at least I have a heads up before I go. My wedding is in 13 days and I still don't have confirmation on the wedding or reception site...grrrrrr! I emailed Aurora over a week ago trying to get things finalized and still haven't heard back. I told her I needed the information so I could include it in the itinerary I am printing for the guests. I had to go ahead and print it so I hope it's correct!

Suzanne, I'm praying that the weather is beautiful in Tulum today! Congrats! I leave two weeks from today and can't wait! My wedding is on Saturday, July 18th but I'll be there from Tuesday to Sunday. Will anyone else be there then?

Thanks for the info on the welcome cocktail hour! I'm wondering if maybe that'll turn into more of a rehearsal dinner now. It seems like some brides had a rehearsal before the wedding but some didn't. Would you recommend a rehearsal? Is this something I need to request or do they just assume that there will be one? Amy

Honestly I don't think favors or an OOT bag are REQUIRED but I do think it's a nice gesture considering your guests are traveling so far to attend the wedding. If it's not in your budget I seriously wouldn't worry about it! If you can include it in the budget I think having one bag per room is acceptable...that should cut down on costs. Having your guests scattered in different resorts definitely makes it more complicated so it sounds like providing favors at the reception might be the way to go!

Hey girls! I'm 7 weeks out now...I can't believe it's coming up so soon! I have most items checked off my list but I wish more details were finalized at the resort. I'm wanting to have a welcome happy hour for my guests the day before the wedding (Friday night welcome party and Saturday evening wedding). Does anyone have suggestions for a suitable place? Maybe the Lobby Bar? It doesn't really need to be a private event. I just want to include a location in the intinerary for my guests so we have a common meeting place. Any suggestions are appreciated! Do you think I need to make a reservation and provide hors' doeurves for this sort of thing or should I just include it in the itinerary so everyone shows up? Thanks! Amy

I can't decide whether I want to do favors since I'm getting really carried away with my OOT bags. I would still love to do these cute Starfish Wine Stoppers as favors. Starfish Wine Stopper SO cute and reasonably priced!

Hi there! My wedding date is getting closer now...just 5 months away! I'm trying to figure out some of the details like the flowers and cake. I've looked at the flower options offered in the guide and didn't really find anything I liked. Does anyone know what flowers will be available in July or how I can find out this info? I'd like green Orchids if possible but I have no idea what the choices or cost would be? Any advice is appreciated!