ebernard4985

Quote: Originally Posted by soon2BMrs.Prince I got a message from Ana today regarding the kids policy for the reception. It is as follows: 0 to 3 year old free 3 to 12 year old 50 % as an adult 12 years to up as an adult. Thank you! This is excellent to know. I am so glad they do not charge for the younger kids!

Quote: Originally Posted by soon2BMrs.Prince What are you ladies doing for your invitations? I am making my invitations. I ordered pocket folds from cardsandpockets.com and also invitation mats. I made my own invitations on my computer from plan white cardstock and will cut it to size. (I scrapbook and make cards already so I have a lot of experience doing these things) My inspiration for the invites came from an invitation from the Martha Stewart magazine ad for Envelopments. My favorite thing about the invites is that is reflects our personality. The response cards are really cute..... "Please reserve ____ loungers by the pool" indicates that they are joining us. As my inserts I added one card about the Mexico wedding and also one card as a mini-invite to our reception back home. On the response card they RSVP to the Mexico wedding and Chicago wedding. It makes it much easier since everyone is invited to both (we are inviting 150 people knowing only 40 are coming to Mexico and the rest will be in Chicago... I wanted those that cannot make it to Mexico still feel very much included). The front of our invites has our monogram on it. I really just googled pocketfold invitations and took some ideas from various invites to create ours. For 100 invites it only will cost me $150-200. I am really picky about these things and cannot imagine having someone else make them for me because I want them to be perfect. I will be sending the invites out at the end of March. I have only made one so hopefully I have them done it time!

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 The 6th room free promotion unfortunately does not apply to wedding groups. It does say somewhere on the website in the fine print that this is only for "social" groups not requiring any other event services, or something like that. However, the new "free ride" promotion where you get one room free for every 15 booked I *think* would apply to weddings as it is specifically for event groups. But I think you would have to check with Dreams for sure on that one as I imagine that it is more geared towards business groups (i.e. conferences, meetings) rather than weddings, but really in the fine print it does not say anything about this so I would push for it! I don't know if it's just cause we booked so far in advance or what but we were able to get from Dreams: - every 12th person free - one room upgrade for every 10 rooms booked - a private welcome cocktail for our group Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 Hi and Welcome! I did not get anything like that. I don't have 20 rooms booked though. I have 16 rooms (we will have about 30 people). I think that the promotions on the Dreams site do not include weddings. There was something like that going on when I booked and my TA contacted the resort about it and they said the promotions don't apply to wedding groups I was hoping to be able to get something free too! Quote: Originally Posted by KR2010 Hi there, We are thinking about booking the DRC and wanted to know if anyone out there got any perks for booking 20+ rooms? We are planning on 40-60 people during a slow off peak week Oct 26-Oct 31. Hopefully having the wedding on the 29th. We were hoping with that many people we could get our room for free. The dreams website talks about a buy 5 rooms get the 6th free, and a different promo with 15 rooms and 1 free. Also we wanted a package with ceremony (non-official), cocktail hour, dinner/reception. We plan to just use an ipod for music. Thanks! Hello ladies. I was able to book with Apple Vacations and receive the every 6th room free promotion. I am not sure how but I did receive the promotion and it has allowed us to get 3 free rooms so far. If more people book then we can potentially get even more free rooms. Apple Vacations is also letting us apply to free rooms how ever we want. We have decided to total up the amount saved and apply a discount to all of the rooms. It will only be about $150-$200 per person but it is better than nothing! I thought that this was the only fair way to make sure everyone benefited from the promotion. We are also receiving coupons of some sort... not really sure about those. We booked our rooms in August before the resort opened so maybe that is why we received the promotion? In fact, I originally started inquiring about group rates with Hagen Sommers, the resorts group representative and he was the one who told me about the promotion knowing that I was planning a wedding. Why would the group sales rep offer it to a wedding party if it did not qualify? I believe I still have his original email with this in writing.....

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl That's a good question. So far, we only have 2 but I have been counting them this whole time. We should clarify that with Ana. I emailed Ana today about this. I am going to have a 6 month old, 3 year old and 9 year old at the wedding and I want to see what their policy is regarding children. Most wedding venues make it half off the adult price but I am not sure what Dreams does. I will let you know what I find out when she emails me back.

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl For those of you doing a sunset wedding, how much time prior to sunset are you giving yourself. The sun is supposed to set at 7:15 at the time I am getting married (May). I was going to get married at 5:30 (20 min wedding) which would leave over 1 hour of photos before sun sets. Ana said that she usually would suggest a 6pm wedding. I'm just wondering if that leaves enough time. What is everyone's opinion on this? I just want to make sure that we leave enough time for photos. This is kinda funny... I originally had my wedding set for 6pm and then Ana suggested that I change it to 5pm to make sure that the pictures after the wedding turn out. She said if I wait until 6pm for the ceremony there would not be enough time to get good pictures of the two of us after the ceremony. I read this from Del Sol Photography's website and thought it was useful: del Sol Photographers have experienced just about every lighting condition with more than 600+ weddings. This section will introduce you to some of our thoughts about the seasons here in the Rivera Maya. If you want to consider the OPTIMAL light for photography in the evening, 30 minutes before sunset and 30 minutes after sunset, so called the "golden hour") For planning the start time of your ceremony, we would like you to consider a few things: If your ceremony time will be under 15 minutes, we recommend starting the wedding 50-60 minutes before the scheduled sunset.If your ceremony time will be 20-30 min, we recommend starting the wedding 55-65 minutes before the scheduled sunset. We will always work with any time variance outside our suggested timeframes. As photojournalists, we are prepared to handle any situation at any time. Our style is to go with the flow, no matter what the conditions.

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl What are you all doing for decorations and centerpieces at the reception? What are you using for lighting? I saw some new pictures on Facebook and it looks really dark. We will use the lights under the tables and tiki torches, but those were both used in the photos on FB and it still looks dark. I am not sure what I am doing for lighting.... I kind of like the dark atmosphere, it is more romantic. I think I will use the lights under the table. I am having my reception on the pool deck and from the pictures Ana sent me it does not seem to dark. I am hoping the light from the pool area helps as well. I am using rectangular tables for the reception, they will be set up in a large square with the dance floor in the middle and guests all sitting facing the dance floor. For "centerpieces" I am using a long organza table runner and decorating it with starfish, seashells, candles, sea glass, ect. I am also doing small square vases with limes in them and bright pink flowers. There is a costco in Cancun where I plan to buy some bulk flowers and make the vases myself.

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl She just quoted me $6 for the table overlays (I think that is what she called them). They are organza (Turquoise). I will then put lights underneith the tables...I think. That was exactly what I was going to get... in turquoise as well! They are $6 to order so I might as well just rent them and save myself the trouble of bringing them down there! Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl If anyone is doing turquoise I think it was $10 per table. She had a couple of colors. I'm doing turquoise so thought this was a good option. I will look at this website though too, just in case. Are the table cloths $10 per table? On the price list it said more than that... I think it said $18-25 I am having rectangle tables set up in a square/rectangle with the dance floor in the middle so I am not sure if the table cloths would be more for larger ones

Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 Great site! Thanks! I was going to do this too. I also had found this site where I was thinking of ordering from.... Organza Sash I love the site you found!! They seemed to have a better selection of colors!! Good thing I only ordered samples from the first place!! I think I will go with these, and right now they are on sale!!! Thank you!!!

I spoke to Ana about tablecloths and decorations and the prices are RIDICULOUS! I cannot imagine paying $25 to rent a tablecloth and $5 for a bow on the chair! I would much rather spend that money on my guests excursions! So, I found this website and have decided to buy these items and they are really cheap, then maybe after the wedding I can sell them to another DB! I already got them in the mail and they fold up really small so they will not take up a lot of room in your luggage! tablecloths-chair covers- table linens-sashes wholesaler Bows were $0.79-0.99 Tablecloths were $5.99-13.99

Quote: Originally Posted by chirorach I am curious why there isn't any place off to the side on the beach to have the ceremony more private... is there another resort right next door or something?? or is the beach area just really small?? I have not been there yet, but it looks to be a pretty large beach. All of the hotels along the Riviera Maya have larger beaches, which is one reason why I picked DRC. It is not like the hotel zone in Cancun where there are very small beaches! Dreams Cancun has a much smaller beach but still manage to make the ceremony private.... so let's just hope Ana can make things work in our favor!

Hello ladies! Today is the first time I questioned my decision to have my wedding at DRC. After reading the reviews I too have decided to not let what others have to say effect me. I am from a large family with a lot of kids so I do not think that will bother me or my guests. My only main concern continues to be the ceremony location, but I guess we all knew that it would not be private when we decided to have a destination wedding. So here is my thoughts about it...... I am getting there 5 days before my wedding and hopefully will see a few weddings set up on those days. If there is anything I dislike about those weddings you better believe Ana will hear about it and I will make sure that my wedding is just they way I want it, not the way some resort says it has to be! (Ha I just sounded like the worlds biggest bridezilla!!!). But seriously, Ana is new to Dreams and maybe she just needs some more practice at this, I am determined to be persistent about everything and hopefully that pays off in the end. If I need to reserve the palapas in front of the beach location at midnight the night before, so be it. I will pile that bad boy with random belongings so no one can sit there all day if the resort will not allow you to move them. I think if every bride continues to express their concerns and make suggestions Dreams will eventually get the hint and find a better solution (removing the palapas from a more secluded location maybe?) My best advice for all of you is to be honest and upfront with Ana, do not be shy! When she told me that the music rental was $198 per hour I told her that it was unacceptable and way too much for renting some speakers... she told me she would see about what they can do to make it cheaper, so we shall see what they say. If there is anything you are not sure about or uncomfortable about just let them know and see where it goes!!! If all else fails just drink a few too many margaritas and have the best time of your life!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl I met with Ana last week while at the resort. She told me that the bouquet can be changed up from what they look like in the photos but that the flowers that are pictured are the options we have. You can mix and match the flowers that are pictured in different bouquets. If it is not in any of the pictures you would have to pay extra. So for instance, the white calla lilie is included but you would have to pay extra for a different color that is not pictured. I haven't decided what I want yet either. I thought I wanted white calla lilies but then saw some photos with bright orange bouquets that just really popped out and looked so pretty. I guess I will have to keep looking at photos to make my decision. I sent Ana a picture of hot pink calla lilies for my bouquet and she said they can do that, but there will be an extra charge. For each additional bridesmaid bouquet (same hot pink callas) it would be $100 each. She sent me a document of the additional charge bouquets, I believe I attached it on here earlier... I will try to find it and attach it again.

SDBeachgirl...... THANK YOU SO MUCH for the thorough review!!! I really appreciate it and I am sure everyone else does too! I am still hoping that the beach ceremony location will improve by June! I really want the ceremony on the beach.... can anyone reserve the palapas? I was thinking I could wake up super early in the morning to reserve those that will be directly in front of the ceremony.... I don't mind them in the pictures as long as they are empty! Somehow I think the resort should be able to work with the bride and groom to make sure these are empty during the ceremony!

Welcome!!! I too am from the Chicago area and I am getting married at DRC in June! Did you use a travel agent? If you need a suggestion for one in the area let me know! I am using one and those that are coming were only required to put down a $50 deposit! Let me know if you need more info!

There is a picture of a beach setup on Dreams' website! Look in the photo gallery... it is the last picture! It is only a single table but you can get an idea of what a beach reception might look like!

One more thing.... is anyone using the resort photographer? All of the packages are for 1.5hrs, definitely not enough time! I was thinking about going with Juan just to save money but it is $250 per hour extra. When that starts to add up I might as well get another photographer.... any thoughts?

I did not know there was a Costco in Cancun! That is excellent! I was planning on buying several snacks from there and bringing them with in the luggage for the OOT bags. This will make things much easier! The $300 is additional to your personal belongings so I plan on splitting a lot of the OOT bag contents throughout my luggage and my families. I am putting flip flops in the bags so they will pass as personal items. Anyone start their OOT bags yet... any good ideas?

Have any of you talked to Ana about shipping stuff to the resort? I was just reading another thread about customs and I did not even know about the $300 limit. My OOT bag contents are well over $300 and my toasting flutes were $390. I was thinking if I could ship them I would not need to worry about this at customs.

Hey ladies. Ana has sent me some pictures of possible reception locations and I think I have decided on the pool deck. There are several reasons why I selected this area. 1. My original choice was the beach, however I feel that the food and the sand might not mix well so I have decided to change the location. 2. The infinity pool at night with the lights looks amazing. I have pictures but I am having trouble adding them to this post. I don't know if they are the same as Megans but if anyone wants them I can email them to you. 3. The pool area is too spread out for my taste. I want my guests next to each other because I want a private, intimate reception and I think this area would work well. Has anyone else decided on a location? Let us know why.... maybe I am missing an important aspect from other locations !

Hey girls. I am making my BMs starfish necklaces. Swarovski crystals have starfish beads and also sand dollar beads. If you make jewelry then I would recommend it. The necklaces I am making will average to about $25 each with the crystals and nice silver hooks ect. I am also trying to figure something out for a gift for them, the necklace just does not seem like enough when I have asked them to come so far for my wedding. My sister gave all of her girls cute coach coin purses that we all still use. I was thinking about going to the coach outlet to see if there is any cute bag I can find them. I would like to keep it under $150 though. I only have 3 BMs so I want to do something nice for them. As for the guys, I am completely lost. I thought about watches but they all have several of them already. Again, it is our 3 brothers as the groomsmen and I want to do something nice. I thought about doing a fishing charter for them in Mexico but then that is a one day and it's done kind of gift, should it be something they can keep? HELP!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl With the Ultimate package you get 1 hour free of Mariachi or Carbinean trio. I am going to use one for the cocktail hour. I just don't know what the difference is. I will have to ask ana during my visit. I was probably going to use an ipod for the ceremony music as I don't think I will play the traditional wedding song. I haven't figured it all out yet though. Maybe I will have someone play during dinner too. Is anyone getting a DJ? I was planning on it, but wondered if that seems weird with only 30 people. What is everyone else doing? I am also just using my IPOD. If you do this make sure you have a back up plan just in case something happens to the IPOD. There are 4 IPODS I am bringing with a playlist for the reception, just is case! Ana told me you can rent a sound system for the IPOD for $198. I too am only having 30-35 people so I figured an IPOD would be just fine, plus I would rather not waste money on a DJ and spend it on other things, like photography.

Hey everyone! I just received an email from Ana about the beach location. I expressed my concern about the privacy issues and she said that when I get there I can pick the location to have it set up, this is good news! Hopefully there will be a spot on the beach quiet enough for a wedding without random people in the background!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Is anyone going to use the resort's hairdresser to style your hair? Unless my hairdresser decides to make a trip out there, I will be using the hairdresser at the resort. Do you think that the current hair dresser will be working in May? I'm trying to decide if I should schedule a consultation while I am down there this month. I would just hate it if I spent the money for a trial hairstyle and then it turns out that I will have someone different. On facebook there was a review from the first DRC bride. She said she should have brought a picture because the hairdresser did not speak English. I would suggest that you do this to make sure you get what you want. I wouldn't do a test now, if you really want to do the test I would do it when you get there before the wedding, that way you know FOR SURE what it will look like and the hairdresser has a better chance of remembering how she did it For me, my best friend is a stylist and will be at the wedding, this is the one thing I lucked out on!