ebernard4985

Quote: Originally Posted by aj42781 Hey ladies! i was wondering who booked through the hotel, and who used travel agent for guests?? I got quotes from Apple and I am not that happy with them. Mostly because the charter plane only lets u travel certain days such as thurs to sun or tues to sat or sun to sun...now what if my guest wants to go thurs til tues....im curious to know what everyone else is doing thanks ladies Hey! I used apple and it has been wonderful. The travel agent I use is through Apple vacations and we were able to get pretty good deals. Our wedding is June 19 and our guests will be staying for 7, 5 or 4 nights. The rate is $155 a night per person in the deluxe room. The good thing about Apple was they let us put down a deposit of only $50 a person and then we had to pay in full 60 days prior. This helped a lot of people! We did not use their charter plane, everyone got their own airfare because it was cheaper that way. I also would recommend Apple because they will give you the extra promotions that some other TAs will not. We ended up getting a total of 12 free nights (2 people per night) when it was all said and done. My fiance and I will not be paying for our room and we were able to split up the other free rooms to our bridal party. Did you call Apple directly? If would recommend going on their website and searching for a travel agent in your area.

Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 How many petals do you get for 22 dollars. This really sucks. I am so freaking tired of not being able to do this or having to buy something for a high price. Oh well I guess it made my life easier. I guess we will just not be throwing anything. Instead of flowers my flower girls will be dropping sea shells (soft ones, no jagged edges). If you go to save-on-crafts.com they have some freeze dried petals on there, but I am not sure how long it would take to get them. Someone else mentioned costco..... that is a good idea. We did that for my sisters wedding here. You can get like 2 dozen roses for $15 and you just cut off the petals, it is very easy. For her wedding we only needed about 6 roses for the girls. You can get a good amount of petals from 2 dozen roses!

I forgot about my music..... I have a list of songs that I will have played while my guests are being seated (Here Comes the Sun, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Better Together and a few more...). The groomsmen and my fiance will all walk down the aisle and take their places to Zac Brown Bands "Toes". We also have the quote from this song on our programs: "I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand, life is good today". It is very fitting for our personalities. My bridesmaids will walk in to the theme from Forrest Gump. It is absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite compositions ever! It is the song in the movie when the feather is falling . I will then walk into an instrumental version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis. I found a piano version on iTunes and I love it. I am not decided on the recessional song yet, we will probably stick with Signed, Sealed, Delivered. For the sand ceremony we are going to do a Dave Matthews song. We are leaning towards You and Me, but are not 100% certain.

Hey ladies.... it took me forever to get through the posts from the past two days.... very active I am bringing my flutes with me on the plane. My sisters bought me the Swarovski crystal flutes and they CANNOT get broken. I did not read the rules on the website about the flutes and went ahead and submitted to receive them, however, you need to wait until after your wedding to do this. It seems a bit backwards to me. You are supposed to use the flutes at the wedding but they don't give them to you until afterwards... hmmm I am still going to get the free set and maybe just give them to one of my friends who are getting married, the are free, so might as well take them

Noonie - I saw on the Dreams website that you need to request the toasting flutes and then they are sent to you. Check under weddings on their site and you should be able to get yours.

Congratulations Leigh! My wedding is a little over a month away and I have decided to just relax about everything and let it all happen when we get there! Thank you for the tips about the DJ, I have been stressing over it and now we are only having about 35 people so I don't think it is worth the extra expense for such a small party. Would you mind sharing your pics from Juan if they are online? He is my photographer too and I would love to see some more of his work

Does anyone know if they have table overlays available for the rectangle tables? Now that I am getting actual RSVPs back it looks like there might be only 30 people, and having 10 of those people at a head table might be goofy. Does anyone know what layout they are using for the reception (head table, round tables, ......)?

Hey ladies! It has been quite some time since I have been on here. I tried to take a break from all the details and crazy wedding planning the last couple of weeks. The final payment from the guests was due last Friday so things got a bit hectic! The good news is, we received a free room!! We actually received 12 free nights (it was an average from what was booked because people are coming for different lengths of time). We ended up taking 7 of the nights for us, and then received a check for the 5 additional nights that we divided up for our wedding party... (which ended up being about $250 a person, not much but was nice for them to get some $$$ back). I know some of you said you did not receive the promotion because you were a wedding .... I am not sure why we received the promotion, but we went with Apple Vacations and they actually own Dreams... If any of you have not picked a travel agent yet, I would suggest contacting Apple and finding an agent to see if you can get this promotion, it is still advertised on their website!

Can you let me know if you have any more left once these ladies get theirs? I would love to have some!

Holy crap!!! Just saw my siggy and realized it is only 2 months away..... for those of you who were on this thread in the beginning... I can't believe all of our weddings are here or almost here!!!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by amberm410 Hey girls! I just returned from my wedding there on the 10th! I will post a full review later in the week but have no fear once you get there everything comes into place! Ana and her assistant Yasmin are on top of it. The best part of my wedding is the awesome pictures. I would highly highly suggest Juan Navarro. His crew did an such a great job capturing every part. I have 3 cd's of pictures. Some are color, some black and white, some black and white with just flowers or somehting in the picture being color and sepia photos. So creative. We had so much fun. Here is a link to a few of the pictures on his site. JEFF & AMBER DREAMS RIVIERA CANCUN 10 APRIL’10 Juan Navarros Blog Also if you just go to his site you can check out his work. www.juanphots.com Full review of the resort and wedding etc.. to come within the next few days! Happy planning! I already confirmed with Juan and was just looking at your pics last week! They are beautiful! The one with the 4 of you running on the beach is AMAZING.... you definitely need to blow that one up How much did the CDs of the pictures cost and how many hours did you have Juan for? CONGRATULATIONS (sorry should have said that first!!)

Quote: Originally Posted by FutureMrsRobart I'm getting the Ultimate Wedding Package - is there somewhere that I am overlooking included centre pieces. The only florals for the tables that I saw that were included in the package were the ones for the ceremony table and the bride and grooms table at the reception. This is why I out sourced for my center pieces for the guests tables at the reception. Just wanted to check if those were the only table arrangements you were referring to for the bouquet trade-off and that i am not overlooking something. Thanks yes those were the ones I was referring too... sorry for the confusion!

I received 2 emails from Ana yesterday.... within minutes of emailing her!!! Maybe it was a fluke, but I was very surprised by it! I wanted to substitute the Mexican trio for the iPOD speakers, however, that is not possible. Ana told me the only substitution they are allowed to do now is flower changes. For example, I am getting 3 bridesmaid bouquets instead of table arrangements because I have my own centerpieces. I have decided to keep my decorations very simple. I was going to do chair sashes, but then decided that it will look great regardless because of the setting so I did not want to stress myself out over who would put them on the chairs. I also thought that having the overlays would be enough at the reception, so I will not be doing chair sashes there either. I received some new pictures from Ana.... one of which I believe is possibly Carina from this forum She also sent me the link to Juan Nevarra's blog, and he still is taking pictures for Dreams. Maybe he is only doing the weddings that were confirmed before the switch to Adventure photos?? I am not sure, but his pictures look really great. Juan Navarros Blog Blog Nina & Yordan <http://web.mac.com/vallarta_adventures/WeddingsDRERC/ARI&CARINAWEDDING/>Ari & Carina Kelly & Patrick Nelli & Ivica

Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 If you are using the photographer that comes with the package, you have to use Adventure Photos. They are the photographers that are located at the resort. You also cannot substitute anything (including video) for the photography included in the package. Ana told me that the resort management wants their photographers only to be used for the packages but that they do not restrict other photographers because they know that photography is important for the brides. So, you could probably hire Juan Navarro on your own for your pictures, but that would be all on you and not included in the package. The Adventure Photos photographers are really great though!! I asked Ana specifically about this because we had already confirmed Juan. She kept sending me pics from Adventure Photos so I was concerned that there was a change, which there obviously was. However, Ana told me that Juan would still be my photographer in June.... I hate to say this but we all know how unreliable Ana's word is!!!! I am getting super frustrated because the communication with this resort SUCKS!!! My wedding is in about two months and you would think they could respond to an email. I don't care how busy Ana is or how many weddings they have booked, they are a resort and they are providing a service, so they need to hire more people to match the demand!!!! (Sorry... I am just tired of being nice about it because it is sooooooo frustrating!!!)

I too received an email from Ana yesterday (only after waiting over a month and finally CALLING her... which I had to wait on hold for about 15 minutes for her) and the email address was [email protected]

Quote: Originally Posted by lstaff thanks! i am looking into switching! i am waiting to hear back from them before i talk to paradise catamarans about a refund:) Ok, so I finally spoke with Ana yesterday and she told me there is a company 15 minutes away from the resort that does the catamaran cruises. She was supposed to include the companies info in her email but surprise surprise, she did not!! My mom is going to call her again today to try and get that info... I am happy with using Marina Cancun, however, I just want to double check with this other company because it is much closer. I will let you know if I find anything out from them!

Here is a word document with all the information about Aqua World as it applies to DRC. I have emailed all of you that asked, so this is for everyone else . I was trying to figure out how to get all the information on here, since it was an email, and then a light bulb went off and I thought "duh, put it in a word doc".... sometime we miss the easy stuff AquaWorld Information.doc

Quote: Originally Posted by lstaff we decided to make the trip to puerto adventuras... i suppose i should have looked into this further! i did put my deposit down, but i am definitely going to look into Marina Cancun- do they have a website? i must be overlooking it because i couldnt find it for some reason! i think paradise catamarans will refund my money, but cross your fingers for me. i need to save all the money i can!!! Here is the website Catamaran Tours in Cancun sailing to Isla Mujeres they do not have a lot of info on the website but email them and they will get back to you. Tell them exactly what you are looking for and they will help. They have been pretty good so far!

If anyone wants a list of water activities I can email it to you. The resort uses Aqua World for snorkeling, dolphins, ect and I have an email with prices and transportation options. If you give me your email I will forward it to you!

Quote: Originally Posted by lstaff i am putting together a brochure for our guests so I asked Ana the same thing- she said "YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GET MORE INFORMATION FROM OUR TOUR DESK: [email protected]". i chose to go with paradise catamaran for a sunset sail saturday evening (our wedding is friday)- kind of a way to say thank you and peace out- we need to begin our honeymoon! she also said at the resort "USUALLY WE HAVE: MEXICAN DINNER.- WEDNESDAY CARIBBEAN DINNER.- SUNDAY" she also told me that to put our chair sashes on for us they would charge 1 USD per chair which I think is completely ridiculous. i was thinking about tipping her when all is said and done (even though we are just having the ceremony, not a reception there)- highly unlikely now... seems like they charge for everything they can think of... Did you already book with Paradise Catamarans? I have been looking into this for the rehearsal dinner and have contacted several different companies. Are you departing out of Puerto Morelos for your cruise or Puerto Adventuras? If I remember correctly the reason why I did not go with Paradise was because of the travel to Puerto Adventuras. He then told me they could go out of Puerto Morelos but that if the water is too rough they would have to cancel (too much of a risk for me). I just wanted to let you know about another company I found in Cancun. It is Marina Cancun and the sunset sail is $275 an hour for 3 hours. This INCLUDES open bar. They can also provide transportation for $350. My quote is based on 40 people, but they were by far the best price!

For those already married... did you have say over the ceremony script and the order in which things would happen. I am putting mine together and I was wondering if there was a set order to do things... I was hoping to just hand the officiant the paper and they would go with it..

I am still undecided about the DJ dilemma!!!!!!!! I cannot justify the amount of money they are upcharging with the DJ!!! It makes me feel like I am getting ripped off (oh wait... I am getting ripped off.. ha ha). I was at Sam's Club this weekend and they have the BOSE iPOD player for $259. I turned it up pretty loud in the warehouse and made John go to the next aisle to make sure it was clear and loud... HOLY CRAP WAS IT LOUD!!! It made me think that I can just use this for the reception..... I don't know if a DJ is necessary.... any thoughts Why are some of you going with a DJ or not using one?

Laura.... I read in your review that you had rose bouts and bouquets. Were these through Ana? How much did they cost you? I have been waiting for a response from her to make sure everything is still in my budget and no response!! It has been three weeks now!!!

Hey girls! It has been over 3 weeks now since I emailed Ana.... she has never been this slow at returning my emails! It is VERY annoying. I know that many people on here say give her some time, but I am so frustrated now. I get it, she has other weddings and on the day of my wedding I would not want her emailing other brides instead of helping me, HOWEVER, I am still paying a good amount of money to go down there and at the very least I expect some professionalism working with a large chain that has thousands of weddings a year! They need to get it together down there and higher this girl an assistant!!! We all know they have enough money (where else is the extra $$$ from the DJ services, photography, ect going? ha ha). I think I have decided to give up on planning all of this. I am going to just wing it and show up in Mexico with my fingers crossed! At the end of the day it does not matter about the decorations or music, right? As long as you are happy and marrying the man of your dreams! (yes, that is my attempt at justifying the situation and making light of everything ).

My TA spoke with his Dreams rep today and was told that the original golf course pulled out of the contract, so that is why golf is not included. However, they are looking to find another golf promotion. He suggested that we wait it out to see what happens (if they do in fact find another golf course) and if they don't have the golf we will throw a stink closer to the time of the trip. He think we need to pick our battles and wait this one out.