SDbeachgirl

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Congrats! We got married on 5/7 this year and the weather was absolutely PERFECT!!! We were also happy that the resort was not at full capacity and did not seem overly crowded. I believe this is because it was right after spring break. So good choice on your wedding date! sunkisseddreams - It just dawned on me that I may be there during your wedding too. We get those 2 or 3 nights free on our anniversary. So we are hoping to take advantage of that next year. I can't wait! The resort is gorgeous!

Quote: Originally Posted by sunkisseddreams WE HAVE A WEDDING DATE!! My TA got verbal confirmation that we have May 6th 2011 booked.. YAY!! Now to get the contract to put my mind at ease Congrats! We got married on 5/7 this year and the weather was absolutely PERFECT!!! We were also happy that the resort was not at full capacity and did not seem overly crowded. I believe this is because it was right after spring break. So good choice on your wedding date!

Quote: Originally Posted by jstock311 I don't think white napkins will look bad. I'm planning on just ordering overlays and then the matching chair sashes. Someone else on here (can't remember who) said they didn't order colored napkins and the white looked fine. The other thing you could do if you have enough time is wait until you get your overlays and then if you find fuschia napkins on another site, you could just order a sample to see if it matches your overlay? I don't really remember, but I think we had white napkins. The table cloth under the overlay is white, so it matches just fine.

Quote: Originally Posted by AlisonJimmy Beach Girl...did your husband get a free room the night before the wedding? Yes and no. They would not tell me until that evening. I don't know why it took that long for them to know. Anyhow, we found out right as we were getting ready to go on our sunset catamaran excursion. When we came back we were too tired and drank too much to care about moving him into his room. So we didn't even use it. We figured we would see each other in the morning anyway. Although this was very important to me prior to that. I don't know why I changed my mind at the last minute. Anyhow, to answer your question, it depends on availability and they won't be able to tell you until the day before your wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 I actually emailed Ana about this a couple of weeks ago because we've booked a preferred oceanview room, because it was the room we wanted and because we wanted to get the honeymoon package. But now I see on the website that it says you need to book a preferred oceanFRONT room to get the package for free I'm sure it used to say oceanVIEW... I'm hoping maybe she'll be nice and give it to us anyways. So I would also be interested to know what, if anything, other brides have received! I believe it was if you had a preferred oceanfront OR if you have a certain number of guests staying at the resort. I forget exactly what it was, but we stayed in the cheapest room (got upgraded to oceanview) and still got the honeymoon package.

Quote: Originally Posted by reaganlane Ok, for the brides who have married and stayed @ dreams...did you get all that was included with your honeymoon package like the private dinner on the beach and spa services? We didn't have a chance to use everything that was included with the honeymoon package. We used the spa service (massage/facial) but left for another resort so we ran out to time to use the dinner on the beach and the breakfast in bed. Bummer! We wanted to spend time with our guests during the week we were there. In hindsite, I think we would liked to have stayed at our resort for our honeymoon and make use of these things. We didn't get this at the new resort...of course because we didn't have our wedding there.

Quote: Originally Posted by cathyandchin Are all of the officiants women? I too, put together our own script and I'd like to get it to the officiant a week before we get down there. When did you know who your officiant would be? Did you have some type of rehearsal with Ana since you didn't see the officiant until THE moment? I bugged Ana for about 1 month for her contact info. I think it was during a really busy time. I didn't know how to put together a script so I really wanted to talk with the officiant. Ana took so long to get back to me that I decided to write my own. Anyhow, I believe I finally got ahold of the officiant about 1.5 weeks prior to me leaving. We had a rehearsal with Ana. But like I said, the rehearsal wasn't much. I would like to have run through the sand ceremony to see how that was going to go. When we stood up there, I forgot when we were supposed to pour the sand. I couldn't remember if I had actually scripted the directions.

Quote: Originally Posted by AlisonJimmy I was wondering about this. I am not sure if I should find my own script or use theirs? How was the script they provided? Did it include a sand ceremony? How did you end up finding the script that you used for your ceremony? Their script was fine, but by the time I had gotten it, I had already put mine together. I created it by taking bits and pieces from other scripts (on this forum and other websites). There's a great thread on this site that was very helpful. Winston_Cesaro - Ceremony Script FINAL.doc

Quote: Originally Posted by dee414 We just got married on Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 6:00 pm at the gazebo. Here is my review: The Good- We arrived on Tuesday, June 8th and met with Ana in the evening. She is very friendly an she took us around the property to show us all of the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception locations. We had our ceremony at the gazebo, cocktail hour at the jacuzzi and reception on the deck. I gave Ana written instructions on how I wanted everything that I brought down to be laid out for the ceremony & the reception. Here I thought that this would make things easier. The resort is very pretty and clean. All my guests were really happy that we chose this resort. The Bad: Rehearsal was set for the morning of the wedding day at 9:00 am. We are a group of late 20's to early 30's. Ana was a whole hour late to rehearsal. Needless to say, that really pissed me off. She did not even bother to call to let me know, we had to go to the front desk to hunt her down. She told me on the phone that she would be 20 minutes late. 20 minutes later we had the front desk call her again and she said another 15 minutes. She did not start my day off well. It also set back the rest of my wedding party for their hair/makeup appointments at the spa. Ana finally met us up at rehearsal and apologized many times, she had to knock off the price of the flowers and let all of my guests coming from other properties with no day pass fees. The ceremony was beautiful and cocktail hour went smooth. Here is what made my day bad again...when I got to the reception, and the emcee announced that we were going to cut the cake. The cake was not even at the reception, they were literally rolling it in and that was embarassing. After we cut the cake, they never brought it back out. We rented the sound system and the technician or whoever lost my cd. Thank god my husband (now) had all our songs backed up on his Iphone. And the tech refused to turn up the music. The contract states that music has to be turned off at 11pm. It was not even close to the time. My uncle had to go and confront him. The spa messed up all my aunt's appointment times at the spa. That was not needed. I'm was really fortunate to have my friend who is an makeup artist and hair stylist come down to get me ready for the wedding day. All my aunts and my mom were not happy with the results with hair and makeup from the spa. Ladies, be warned, they do not do a good job. Overall, the wedding events looked really pretty, but I was not happy with all the things that went wrong. Ana did what she could to make things better. DRC has over 388 weddings scheduled this year and this should be second nature to them. And they still do not have it down and that was really stressful. They picked the wrong bride to mess with! I'm sorry you had so many bad experiences. I have to say that I experienced the same thing with the rehearsal. Mine, luckily, was the day before the wedding, but I had scheduled massage appts for the bridesmaids and myself. We were late to the appointments because Ana was late. That made me mad, because instead of taking our time at the spa and getting in our robes and lounging around with cucumber water...they took us straight to the rooms. It was just really poor planning. And Ana didn't really explain much at the rehearsal. Just a note to those planning a rehearsal, you may want to choose something later than 9am. Apparently Ana does not get there that early. I would try for 10am or 11am.

Quote: Originally Posted by cathyandchin For those that had their hair and make-up done... or will be getting theirs done: Are you using your own make-up and tools and having them do it or do they have supplies? I use bare minerals because I normally sweat my makeup off (I live in Texas) but I'm not sure if I should have them use my own make-up or not. When I was a BM in Hawaii (much less humidity than Texas) the make up artist used liquid and I was shiny all night. It's pretty humid in Puerto Morelos, right? I had my make up done and she used her own makeup. I loved it! I didn't sweat much though. I'm sure you could give her your makeup if you prefer. I just wanted to make sure that she used something that stayed on. I thnk mine stayed on all day. I got it done at 2pm and it was still on by the time I went to bed (probably midnight)

Quote: Originally Posted by Kat&Dan Oh it does! thank you so much! BTW I loved your personalized tote idea! One quick question did you have a hard time in the beginning getting in touch with the WC? Also did you go through a TA? Howmany days before did you arrive? SOrry for all the questions! No worries about the questions! I feel like I owe it to the forum to answer questions. I had so many questions answered pre-wedding. I actually didn't have a difficult time getting ahold of Ana in the beginning because I think I was one of the first brides to book. I booked about 3 months before the resort opened. However, a few months into it I had a hard time getting answers and actually even towards the end I had to get my travel agent involved. I think she might be getting better because she now has some help. When I was there, there was no problem getting ahold of them. I did go through a TA. TA Jill, who is also on this website, was very helpful in helping me find the location. We didn't do a group rate though. We arrived on Sunday and got married on Friday. You don't need to get there that early, but we chose to. We met with Ana on Sunday night and then I saw her just about every day for additional questions.

Quote: Originally Posted by t1219 My wedding is right after thanksgiving! I hope it's not too crowded. Can you tell me what the weather was like when you where there in Nov? Also were the pools warm then? Thanks! The weather was very nice when we were down there. The infinity pool was heated. It was ok, but I would have preferred it warmer. The ocean water was not very warm. It was NOT freezing. In fact, I'm from San Diego and the water was about as warm as our water gets in the middle of summer. It was probably mid 70s. That's not bad. However, in May, it was like bath water!

Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 A question for anyone who has already been married at Dreams. We are doing a symbolic ceremony, but none of our guests are aware that we are getting married in the States legally first. Did you have to write out your whole ceremony? If not was it very personalized? We are planning on writing out our own vows but I just want it to be personalized also. I asked Ana if we could meet the person who would be officating our ceremony a few days before but she told me no. We can't meet them until the wedding day. Just wondering how this went for everyone else? Thanks I also wanted to meet with the officiant, but she told me that she didn't usually meet with the bride and groom prior to the wedding. I had her contact info and we exchanged emails. She actually said that she would be at the resort the night before for a wedding and we could have met then. However, I was busy with my catamaran trip. So I didn't even see her until I walked down the aisle. It was ok, but I would have liked to have met her first. I put together our script but she also had a script that we could have used if I prefered. Do you know who your officiant is? If it is Rosa, I have her script and can probably share it with you.

Quote: Originally Posted by rdsjcr great pics!! Did you order and bring your own overlays for the tables? Also for your chairs-did you bring ties for those? (do the use diff. chairs for the ceremony and the reception?) Thanks!! I rented the overlays and chair sashes from the resort. It just seemed easier. I had so many other things to remember to bring. They used the same chairs for the ceremony and reception.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mon&Tad Hi all! Question for those who have visited or gotten married at DRC. Is there anywhere to have the ceremony that is in a garden area or private area other than on the beach or the Gazebo by the pool? I love everything about the resort, but I want the ceremony to be more private and off the beaten path. Thanks! I haven't heard of a ceremony in the garden area. It is pretty small. I guess it would depend on the size of your wedding. However, I would say that the garden is not all that private. The hotel rooms all face the garden area. It is a nice change for the cocktail hour, but not sure if you would want the ceremony there. The beach area (off to the side of the resort) is actually really private.