Laura22610

Quote: Originally Posted by 2010 Bride! Hi Laura, I was wondering...when you have the reception on the deck, can you dance on the deck or do you still have to pay for a dancefloor to be set up? I was thinking of moving my reception from the beach to the deck so that I could save a little on the cost for the dancefloor...and people would probably be happier not to have to walk in the sand during the reception. Yes, there is plenty of room for dancing on the deck - it's pretty big! That's what we did! I didn't think there was any need for a dance floor to be set up,.

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Does Ana have a rehearsal with you the day before your ceremony? Yes. We had our rehearsal the day before the wedding. We could have had it anytime but all of our guests came the day before the wedding so we had to have it that day.

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Laura, I am just curious why doesn't the chairs have the white fabric on them? Just personal preference I didn't want the white fabric on the ceremony chairs. At the reception, there were white chair covers on the chairs and then the same blue chair sashes.

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 After they take your pictures do they give you the pictures or are they on a disc? They give you the pictures on a disc with the copyright release. They will make books for you but it is extra, of course Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 Does anyone know how much extra it would cost do something like this on the huppa? http://blog.miamorwedding.com/wp-con...en-fabric1.jpg I wonder if this will be a outrageous price to put over the huppa instead of doing flowers? I guess I could bring my own decor but then I have to worry about paying for extra luggage flying there. Geez I thought it was supposed to be cheaper to get married in Mexico. lol It is not extra to have the white fabric on the huppah and they tie it on all of the posts with starfish. The flowers to decorate it are extra money but I am not sure how much. I am not sure how much extra colored fabric would be to decorate it but if you brought your own and a picture of what you wanted, I am sure they would put it on for you. It can get crazy expensive when you see all of these beautiful ideas online!! :)This isn't a great picture especially because the wind was blowing everything around, but you can see how the white fabric looks...

Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 I am in the same situation except the people we know just booked at another resort. Now we are in a position were we feel like we have to pay for the pass for them to attend the wedding. What would you girls do pay for there pass or not? I wouldn't pay for their pass! If they chose to go to another resort, that was totally up to them and not your responsibility. I think they will be disappointed though when they see Dreams and how beautiful it is! What resort did they book at?

Thanks again everyone I didn't plan on having the videographer for the extra hour and he asked me after the ceremony and I decided then. In all, I ended up paying $320. $70 for 3 copies of the video and $250 for the extra hour. Totally worth it! Quote: Originally Posted by MaR Laura!!! Thank you for taking the time to do the review and answer all the questions..... I have another question, how much did you pay the videographer for the extra hour?

Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 Laura: how long was your ceremony? Did you do the symbolic ceremony? Did you get to meet the person who said the ceremony before the wedding day? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks again! My ceremony was about 20 minutes long. It was a symbolic ceremony. We got married legally a week before we left for Mexico. I had my cousin do the ceremony so I didn't use the resort's minister.

Thank you everyone for the kind comments! The card with the times and dates for everything was something that I put together at home and took with me. Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 Laura you do not know how much you have eased my mind. I want to thank you so much for taking the time to do the review and amazing one at that. You had a beautiful wedding and I hope mine will be the same at DRC in May. One question on one of the photos you had a card with all the times and different events for the day before and of the wedding. Is this something you put together before you got to the resort or did they do it for you and your guest when you got there? I love it. I want to make my own but if they provide it then one less thing to worry about. Thank you again!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Ashlynn039 Laura - how much did it cost per chair when you bring your own sashes if you don't mind me asking? Also do you have to bring enough sashes for the ceremony chairs as well as the chairs for the reception or do they re-use them after the ceremony for the reception? Thanks for answering all of our questions! It did not cost me any extra to have the sashes put on the chairs. I am not sure about the second question...I had enough sashes for both. I think, though, that there would be enough time for them to re-use them for the reception. They would have at least an hour if you are having a cocktail hour. We had about 2 hours (maybe a little less) between the ceremony and reception.

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 CONGRATS, CONGRATS!!! Laura my heart is doing a little pitter patter reading your review - I'm so happy that everything turned out so well, and you are making me so excited for my own wedding there! I cannot wait to see your pro pics!!! I imagine this may come with pro-pics, but is there any chance you can post a close-up of your boquet? From what I can see it looks gorgeous and is the colors I am hoping for. I'd love to just be able to tell Ana "I'll have the same as Laura"! Thank you!! I have a picture that Ana sent me of the same bouquet. I don't have one of mine but it looked almost exactly like this without the green in it...

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Thanks for all the help. Question: Who put the sashes on the chairs? I gave them to Ana and she took care of it. She did the same for the reception!

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Who put the sashes on the chairs for you? I gave them to Ana (wedding coordinator) and she took care of it. She did it for the reception too!

I finally got my review written...hope it helps everyone!! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-review-56703/ Oh and something else I wanted to let everyone know...I put insulated travel mugs in my OOT bags. Nobody used them...the drinks at the resort come in nice big glasses so there wasn't really a need for them. They took up a lot of room in the suitcase to get them there and probably, if I had to do it all over, I might not have gotten them. Everyone really liked them though and I've seen them being used since we got home.

Quote: Originally Posted by rdsjcr Laura- thank you SO SO SO much... You are so helpful and I know putting a lot of our minds at ease Can I ask one more question... what did you do for your reception? (DJ or IPOD) and where did you have it? Thanks You're welcome I had a DJ for the reception. I used DJ Doremixx (Ivan). I had originally planned on using an ipod but then I got stressed trying to put together music and made the decision to get a DJ. This was one of the best decisions I made! Ivan is awesome and made the reception so much fun! I had my reception on the pool deck. That is the one that is between the infinity pool and the beach.

Videographer A++++ The videographer came with the package for 1 hour. The company DRC uses is Cancun Wedding Video. Alejandro Gonzalez was our videographer and he was terrific. I cannot say enough good things about him. I didn’t even notice he was there. He took video of our ceremony and got there early so that there was video of our ceremony set-up before everyone got there. He got everyone walking to the ceremony and then the whole ceremony. All of the songs we used during the ceremony, he found and put into the video so that it would sound nice and it is perfect! He was also filming while we were doing our pictures after the ceremony and it is soooo nice to have all of that on video. I paid extra to have him at the reception for an hour too and I am so glad that I did. I love having our first dance on video and he went around and had people talk on video. He asked what songs I wanted played on the video and I told him to choose them. He picked great songs!! Alejandro delivered our video to us while we were still in Mexico a few days after the wedding. He brought a portable DVD player to show it to us. I LOVE my video. I cried when I saw it...he captured my wedding perfectly. The video is beautiful. Their website is www.cancunweddingvideo.com Photographer - Claudia Rodriguez I will come back to this because I haven’t gotten my pictures yet. However, I can say that Claudia is so nice!! The email communication I had with her prior to the wedding was all positive. During the wedding, she was very professional and very helpful! I have no doubt that my pictures won't be anything less than great!! Maracas - Mishka Designs - A++ Mishka is so nice and her maracas are beautiful! She is so responsive and easy to communicate with! I sent her my logo and asked if she could make the maracas to match. I loved them and they were perfect! Here are pictures from her blog (mine are the blue ones)... Mishka Designs' Blog: A Tale of Two Maracas.... Spa - B+ The spa is really, really, really nice!! I didn’t have my hair and make-up done at the spa because I had a friend at the wedding who is a hairstylist, so she did my hair and make-up (and did a great job!). My bridesmaids and my mom had their hair and make-up done there. They did a great job with make-up for everyone. They did a great job with my mom’s hair and with my one bridesmaid’s hair. They did an okay job with my sister’s hair. She has really thick hair and she wanted it curled and half up. They did a good job putting it half up but they didn’t really curl all of it...it looked like they got tired of curling and just stopped. Haha! My friend was able to fix it and in the end it looked really nice!! We had the couples massage that came with the wedding package and it was fabulous! After your spa treatment, they have hydrotherapy pools and a jacuzzi which are really nice. There is also a juice bar and lounge chairs you can lay in to relax. The whole atmosphere is very relaxing! Flowers - A+ I got a tropical bouquet that came with the package...it was gorgeous. I loved it. My bridesmaids’ bouquets were orange roses and they were also gorgeous. The guys had an orange rose for a boutonierre. I loved the flowers and they looked great on the beach! Favors - A+ We got our favors from Ah Cacao in Playa del Carmen. It was a package of 3 chocolates. They were so good! I contacted Ah Cacao before I left for Mexico via email. I paid for the chocolates by paypal and then they delivered them for me the day before the wedding. The delivery charge was only $8 - way cheaper than a taxi ride to PDC!! They delivered them to the resort concierge and then they were delivered right to my room. So easy! I think that is it! Sorry this was soooo long! I was trying not to forget anything! If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me and I will be happy to answer! As soon as I get my wedding pictures, I will post them!

Ceremony A+ We chose to have our ceremony on the beach. I had read some reviews about the ceremony location not being private and people would be sitting practically at your wedding. This was not true for us at all! Ana allowed us to choose which part of the beach we wanted to have the ceremony. We chose to have it near where they have all of the kayaks and catamarans (they put these all out of sight before the ceremony). This is kind of out of the way of all of the activity that goes on at the beach and on the opposite side of the beach from the beach bar. There are palapas right near there (about 3 rows of them) but they started reserving those around 1pm so that there wouldn’t be people sitting there and there was not one person sitting at any of the palapas behind our ceremony. They had me waiting to go down the aisle in the presidential suite, which is on the bottom floor, facing the ocean (and our ceremony site). Because of the palapas, nobody could see me. I decided to use their sound system and had given my music to Ana on a CD. The music was played at all the right times and sounded great! I am so glad that we used this because it was extremely windy the day of my wedding and the ceremony was very close to the water. If our officiant hadn’t been using a microphone, I am not sure anyone would have been able to hear any of the ceremony. The ceremony set-up looked beautiful! They have a huppah (sp?) with white cloth on it, tied on each post with a starfish. The aisle was lined with starfish and conch shells. There was a table underneath the huppah with a beautiful flower arrangement on it. The guest chairs were white and I had brought light aqua chair sashes to tie on them. It was everything I wanted...beautiful and simple! Some non-pro pics... Cocktail Hour We decided to have the cocktail hour on the Desires terrace. There is lounge furniture on there that is really nice and it is a nice big area. We had the Mexican appetizers and had the Mexican trio playing during the cocktail hour. Unfortunately, I missed most of the cocktail hour because we were getting our pictures taken however, our guests raved about it. They loved the Mexican trio. They had all of the appetizers set-up outside and the set-up looked great! The appetizers were soooooo good. For the rest of the weekend, everyone was talking about how good the food was at the cocktail hour! I saw a few other weddings during my stay at DRC and the other cocktail hour locations are very public. We don’t really like being at the center of attention and we wanted as private a location as possible for our events. This was completely private and really nice too! Reception SO MUCH FUN!!!! We had the reception on the pool deck. I think there were some concerns about there not being enough light....there was definitely plenty of light. The palm trees surrounding the deck all have lights wrapped around them and then there are spotlights in them too. We were supposed to have tiki torches on the beach but it was too windy and they weren’t able to light them. Our centerpieces also had candles in them and we weren’t able to light those either because of the wind. I saw a couple of other receptions where the tiki torches were lit and they looked great! The chairs at the reception had white chair covers and the light aqua chair sashes I had brought were tied around them. We also had table numbers that were supposed to stand up with holders but they had to just be laid on the table because of the wind. We went with the Caribbean buffet and it was really good! They had the buffet decorated with some of those light up stars and it looked really pretty. All of the food was labeled so that everyone knew what they were eating. There was also a station with ribs and bbq chicken (I think?)...again, everyone loved the food! We didn’t upgrade the cake since there were desserts on the buffet. It was just a plain white 1 layer cake and was decorated nicely. We cut the cake for the videographer before he had to leave before dinner and we were supposed to finish cutting it later. For some reason we never got around to doing that so I have no idea what kind of cake it was or how it tasted. Haha The desserts on the buffet were really good. I had gone back and forth about whether or not to use a DJ or my ipod. In the end, picking out all of that music was too stressful and I decided to use a DJ. Best decision ever!!!! We used DJ Dorremixx. He was awesome!!! Here is a review that I wrote for him... http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ml#post1215617 I really had the best time at my reception and was so sad for it to end! We went to Desires afterwards and had a lot of fun there too! MORE TO COME...

WEDDING - overall A+++++++ We went with the Ultimate Package and I think that this was a good choice! Besides the stuff for the wedding, it came with a couples massage, which was fantastic!! Also, because of the room we booked and because we were staying for a week, we got a honeymoon package, which included a private dinner on the beach, 2 facials and salt body scrubs and breakfast in bed. We did all of this, except the body scrubs, and we loved it!! Coordinator at DRC B+ Ana is very nice but I think that she is extremely over-worked. She is the only wedding coordinator at the resort and they definitely need to hire help for her. Emailing with her prior to the wedding was a little bit frustrating - most of the time, it would take almost a week, sometimes longer, to get responses, even close to the wedding. I know now that this is because she gets a ridiculous amount of emails per day along with having to do the weddings and site visits and there are a lot of weddings booked and being booked here. Anyway, we met with her on Tuesday (our wedding was Friday) and went over all of the details of the wedding. She had most of our choices written down and some of the stuff we had to tell her again. I wish I had everything written down because there were a couple of things that I forgot. In the end, however, it really didn’t matter because I loved my wedding. At this time, we also chose the spot for our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. We gave Ana the music for our ceremony also. Because my mom was not arriving until Thursday and she had most of our wedding decorations, I had to give these to Ana at a different time. When I gave the decorations to her I told her how I wanted it all set-up but I should have written down specific instructions of how I wanted things set-up because it wasn’t exactly how I wanted. I only noticed this stuff because I knew how is was supposed to be. Nobody else noticed and it didn’t make the day any less perfect or special!! And also, Ana was a little late meeting everyone in the lobby to take them to the ceremony (which is how she wanted everyone to go to the ceremony) so the ceremony started at 5 instead of 4:30. Ana is very nice though and does try hard to please you! Welcome Dinner at El Patio A+ We weren’t sure we were going to be able to have a welcome dinner because the restaurants do not accept reservations and we didn’t really have the budget to have a private welcome dinner. When we met with Ana, we asked her if it was possible to arrange for our group of 28 to sit in the same area of a restaurant at the same time. She said El Patio would be our best option and said we would have to talk to the manager of that restaurant. We talked to him on Wednesday and he said that he could accommodate us at 6pm on Thursday, right when the restaurant opened. We got there early on Thurdsday, around 5:45 and talked with the manager and he asked if we could just choose a couple of entrees for our guests to choose from and if they could stagger the dinner orders, as not to overwhelm the kitchen. That was fine with us! They brought out frozen margaritas for everyone and then brought a few different appetizers, all which were fantastic. Then, they took everyone’s orders. Everyone was served around the same time in a timely manner. The dinners were also fantastic. They also served desserts which were good also. In that restaurant they have a trio of women who sing and play guitar at all of the tables. They came to our section and everyone loved it! Also, we did not use the photographer who comes with the wedding package for the wedding but we were able to use her for the welcome dinner. Anel, from Adventure Photography (located at the resort) was WONDERFUL. She took some great pictures for us and she is super sweet! We got our pictures on a CD a couple of days after the wedding and she also posted a slideshow online for us! This dinner went way above our expectations. We loved it! MORE TO COME...

Dreams Riviera Cancun, Mexico February 2010 First, let me start by saying my wedding was completely perfect and fantastic! I loved every minute of my stay at DRC and my wedding!! I don’t have many pictures yet but I will post them as soon as I do!! This is pretty long...I wanted to give a review of the resort also, since I think that there is only one other on the forum. FLIGHTS We flew on Continental out of Newark airport in NJ. We left on Monday, February 22nd and had absolutely no issues with our flight. When we boarded the plane, I didn’t even say anything about my dress to the flight attendant and when she saw it she immediately told me that the flight was full and there would be no room for them to hold my dress so I would have to put it in the overhead compartment. Well, the flight was not full, we saw a bunch of empty seats. I did put my dress in the overhead compartment and luckily, no one put anything on top of it!! One lady did ask if she could put her suitcase on top of it and a guy a couple of rows back offered to help her put her suitcase in the compartment above his seat (thank you, thank you!!). Traveling through the airport with the dress was a pain but it made it there fine and didn’t even need to be pressed! The majority of our guest flew out of Newark on Thursday, February 25th. There was a big snowstorm here that day and they all made the last flight out of Newark before flights started getting cancelled...Yay!! The only issues we had with flights was our friends who flew on Delta from Rochester airport in NY. Their flight actually made national news because it was cancelled due to the flight attendants getting in a fight with each other! Crazy. They made it to Mexico 16 hours after they left their house! They were definitely happy to get to Mexico and it was an added bonus that they got a GREAT upgraded room when they got there! They also had some bad luck on their flight home...Delta again...the steering mechanism on the wheels of the plane was broken so they had an emergency crash landing at Rochester airport. Luckily, everything worked out fine and nobody was hurt! We had tons of luggage...4 suitcases to check! We had all of our OOT bags stuff and decorations for the wedding. My mom also brought an extra suitcase with our centerpieces. None of us had any trouble in customs with the extra luggage. When one of my suitcases went through the xray machine, the airport employee asked me if I had notebooks in it, which I did for my OOT bags. I told her that they were favors for my wedding and she did not ask anymore questions. When we pushed the button, both of us got a green light!! I was so relieved because I was very worried about our bags getting searched! On the advice of lots of people, we did not talk to anyone in the airport, so we made it out very quickly! Our transportation was there when we got outside and the ride to DRC was about 15-20 minutes! DREAMS RIVIERA CANCUN - THE RESORT A+++++ I LOVED this resort!!!!! And all of our guests loved it too...in fact, a couple of our guest are already trying to plan a trip back! I had read lots and lots of reviews before we went, and honestly, I was very nervous that I made the wrong decision in choosing this resort. I was wrong to be so nervous...the resort is beautiful. It is brand new, just opened in October 2009, so everything is very clean and neat. The resort was at full capacity when we were there and this did not effect the service at all! Check-In Check-in was very easy for us. We got to the resort around 12:00 pm and our room was ready! They provided us with cool towels and champagne upon arrival to the resort. Some of our guest had to wait until after 3 for their rooms to be ready. They had a pager, which lit up and vibrated when their rooms were ready. Mostly everybody ate lunch and hung out by the pool while they waited for their rooms so this was not a big deal. Beach The beach at the resort is beautiful too. I had read in reviews that it was rocky and we did not find that at all. The sand is so soft and white! There was seaweed on the beach but they cleaned it a couple of times a day. The seaweed didn’t bother me...it’s nature and not the resort’s fault!! There were tons of chairs available for the beach and there were also palapas. The palapas were reserved early though. Pools There are 3 pools at the resort. The infinity pool is gorgeous. It is heated and has a swim up bar. There are floats at the resort that you can use in the pool. It was a little cool while we were there (70’s during the day and 60’s at night) and we were in this pool ALOT. The bartenders at the swim up bar were really funny too! There is also an activities pool where they have a small basketball net and also organized water volleyball a couple of times a day. This pool was not heated and was a little cool but we still played volleyball and it was so much fun! The other pool was a kids pool and was only about 2 feet deep. They had a couple of ping pong tables set up on one side of this pool and there were lots of adults playing this too! There are plenty of chairs to sit in around the pools. People do go out early and reserve chairs with towels (this was a common complaint in a lot of reviews I read). This wasn’t an issue for us, we always found a place to sit. The resort does pick up towels that are left unattended for a while. Honestly, I think this happens at most resorts. We were at a different resort for our honeymoon and there was chair reserving there too. There are also a couple of jacuzzis and there are great!! We loved sitting in these! I read lots of reviews on trip advisor about kids at the resort taking over the pools and jacuzzis. The resort was at full capacity when we were there and we didn’t find this to be the case at all. The kids at the resort were very well behaved and there was plenty of room in the pools and jacuzzis for everyone! Rooms The rooms at DRC are beautiful!! They are clean and spacious. They clean the floors there with something that smells like cinnamon, so the rooms always smelled good! We were in room 2304, which is a “preferred club†room. This just means that you have a separate concierge and place to check-in and there is a private bar and computers you can use in the preferred club lounge. We brought a laptop and we also got free wi-fi. You just had to call the concierge everyday to get the code. We had a jacuzzi tub in the room that we never used and a bigger jacuzzi tub on the balcony which we used a couple of times and it was great!! The view from our room was great! We could easily see the ocean and overlooked the pools. The bed was really comfortable and so were the pillows. There was a flat screen TV in the room (we didn’t watch TV at all though). There was also a desk and a small couch and a huge mirror that takes up half a wall. The sink area was really nice, although the lighting wasn’t great. They give you sunscreen (spf 15), shampoo, lotion, bodywash, a toothbrush, a shower cap, and a sewing kit and they replenish what you used everyday. The shower is great...it is pretty big. The shower and the toilet both have frosted glass doors on them, which makes them a little less private but we had no issues with this. My sister and her husband stayed with my nephew, who is 8, and they didn’t have any problems with this either. There is a closet in the room with plenty of space to hang things. In the closet, there is also some shelves and a safe. There is not a dresser in the room, so you kind of have to live out of your suitcase while there. They come and stock the mini bar refrigerator everyday. It has corona, soda, and juice. We also had a small bottle of vodka and of tequila. They also leave pringles and M&M’s everyday. Room service is 24 hours. We didn’t use it that much but when we did, it came within 30 min and everything was good! Some of our guest had rooms with pretty crappy views but the inside of the rooms was so nice and they were in the rooms so little, that it wasn’t a big deal. Food Everything we ate at this resort was delicious. I am laughing as I write this because I was teasing my husband when we were there because he must have said “delicious†at least 3 times every time we ate! Our favorite restaurant was El Patio (Mexican). Our favorite place to go for lunch was the Seaside Grill (great chicken caesar salad, nachos, and crab won-tons!) For dinner, there were waits for dinner if you went a little later. They give you a pager while you are waiting. We weren’t prepared for this the first night we were there and had to wait an hour for dinner when we were starving but after that, we started eating lunch a little later (1:30 or 2) and then waiting wasn’t an issue. They also have, during the day, a little grill where you can get burgers, fries, poppers (yum!), etc. We would get little snacks here Bars During the day, the swim up bar and the Barracuda bar (on the beach with swings around the bar) are great! The bartenders are all so friendly! The lobby bar is open all day and until 1 am. This seems to be the hang-out spot at night. There are couches and chairs and tables in the lobby. The lobby, by the way, is also beautiful and very open and airy. At night, they have people singing for entertainment and everyone we heard was very good! They also have a night club called Desires. The Olympics were going on while we were there and there were lots of hockey fans watching the games there on the big flat screen TV’s. They also have a DJ there every night. It was not very crowded there when there wasn’t a game but we had some good times there! Service Everyone who works here goes above and beyond to please you!! We received prompt and friendly service everywhere at the resort. During the day, there is always someone out by the pools to take a drink order. The waiters at the restaurants are very attentive you can tell that they truly want to make you happy. I have not one complaint about the service at this resort!!

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Question: I am undecided between having a beach or gazebo ceremony. it appears that the beach would be a little more private than the gazebo. What is your opinion? The beach is DEFINITELY more private than the gazebo. I always planned to have my ceremony on the beach, so I never thought about the gazebo but while I was there, I saw a couple of weddings at the gazebo. Although they looked very pretty, they weren't private. They do move a lot of the pool lounge chairs out of the way but the gazebo is pretty close to the infinity pool. Also, people can stand on the balcony of their room and watch your ceremony. I think it also depends on what time of day your ceremony is and how many people are out at the pool. The good thing about the gazebo is nobody can walk directly behind your ceremony like they can on the beach. I don't know if this will help, but here is a picture I took while they were setting up a ceremony at the gazebo. I was sitting in a lounge chair at the pool.

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 For the ladies who have gotten married at DRC. If you rent the sound system for the ceremony is there someone there that will handle playing the ipod or the cds? Does the resort provide someone? Yes, there is someone the resort provides to operate the sound system. I had 2 different CD's of music - one with music for when the guests were being seated and one with the ceremony music. Everything was played exactly as I had planned without any problems! The sound system also comes with the microphone for the officiant to use.

Quote: Originally Posted by allegraapple Hi Laura - Thanks for all the info! Looking forward to seeing some of your photos if you're able to post them. How many guests did you have? What did you guys do for the Welcome Dinner? Did you have it in a private room or did you do something private after everyone ate dinner? thanks, Allegra We had 26 guests. We had our Welcome Dinner at El Patio. It wasn't private but we were all in the same section of the restaurant. It was great! We had to speak with the restaurant manager to set this up. Ana couldn't help us with it. Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 Hi Laura: I'm super excited to see some of your photos. We have chosen the Ultimate package for our wedding in October also. Where did you order your chair shashs from? I'm glad you loved your wedding. It makes me more excited for ours to come!! I ordered the chair sashes from Ebay. I think they ended up being about $1 each! Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 You pictures were amazing but we are bring our own photographer and Ana told us we could supplement the photography for the videography. I wish I would have known this before or I would not be paying so much for our photography to come and stay. I wonder since I have a email from her stating that she would honor it if that would change anything? She told me the same about the videographer but then when we got there and met with her, she said that management wouldn't allow her to do that anymore. I didn't make a big deal about it...I had it in an email too. I am so happy that we decided to use the photographer for our welcome dinner. I think Carina said that she had her own photographer too but used the resort photographer for extra pictures. You might get some really nice pictures from them because they know the resort really well! Quote: Originally Posted by Megan24 What has everyone decided to do about music while walking down the aisle? Are you renting a speaker or bringing your own? Because I am going with the love package and it does not say anything about music for the ceremony. None of the packages come with music for the ceremony. I put music on a CD and gave it to Ana. Actually I had 2 CD's...one with music to be played while guests were being seated and then one with the ceremony songs. There is a technician that operates the sound system. The sound system also comes with a microphone for the officiant to use and I am so glad we had this because it was really windy and I don't think anyone would have heard the ceremony without the microphone. Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Laura, Thanks for all the information! Questions for you: How far is Desiress from the resort? Is it extra to have the cocktail hour at Desires? Did you have the cocktail hour the day before your wedding? Desires is the club at the resort. It is located up near the lobby. It didn't cost extra to have the cocktail hour here. We had it right before the reception. Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Is anyone playing music to walk down the aisle? Or what are you doing? Looking for ideas please. I had the sound system. It is $180 for the ceremony and comes with a technician to operate it. It was totally worth it for me. I had the bridal party walk down the aisle to Israel's Somewhere over the Rainbow. I walked down to Canon in D played by an acoustic guitar (I found it on itunes and it sounded really beachy!). Our recessional song was UB40's Can't help falling in love.

Quote: Originally Posted by jfazzina We went down Jan 31st.... I am a BIT STRESSED! Did Ana tell any of you that they were moving the wedding site to the opposite side of the beach where the kayacks were She told us they were and NOW she just wrote an email saying mgmt didnt approve the change WHAT? She told us that it was already in the works! I would have never booked if we knew this? I have already had people starting to book ... Please tell me she told you all the same thing HELP! im so fustrated! I dont want to get married on a beach RIGHT NEXT TO A BAR AND SWINGS! She even went as far to say that they were cleaning up the space that had shrubs that were on the side of the hotel. She is saying we MISUNDERSTOOD HER! I was with a another bride and our Fiance's and we ALL didnt make it up!? I am PRAYING that this will be cleared up with an email to the manager of the resort. Clearly there is a HUGE Misunderstanding!! My wedding was on the side of the beach where the kayaks are. When we met with Ana, she took us down to the beach and told us we could choose our location.

Quote: Originally Posted by Laura22610 Carina...your pictures are beautiful!! It was nice meeting you! By the way, the resort photographers (Adventure Photographers) are amazing! They are so nice and they take beautiful pictures. We had already booked a photographer, so we didn't use them for the wedding. Originally, Ana had told me that I could get extra video instead of using the photographers. When we sat down to meet with her, she said that was not possible anymore. Since the resort has their own photographers, the management will not allow her to substitute anything for photos. So, we decided to use them for our Welcome Dinner. I am so glad that we did because we got great pictures!! We got 50 pictures, which is what is included in the Ultimate Package...I love every single one of them!! We also decided to have them take our pictures a few days after the wedding and we have some great pictures from that too!! Anel was the one who took the pictures of our welcome dinner and Jorge took our other pictures. They both did a fantastic job and they are super nice people. If you are using them for your wedding photos, I think that you will be very happy!!

I am trying to go through some of the posts I missed and answer any questions that I can...there is a lot though so I only went through a few pages!! Quote: Originally Posted by Ashlynn039 Carina (or any of you other ladies who may know) - Is the white fabric on the wedding arch included in the packages (I have the ultimate package) or is that an extra cost? I had the Ultimate Package also and I did not pay extra for the fabric. They tie is with starfish..it looks so pretty!! Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 Can't wait for your full review Carina!!! Your pictures are beautiful Love your dress especially - who's the designer? It looks like you came out to the wedding from the Governor Suite - did you just get to use it for the day, or did you stay in that room? My wedding was on the opposite side of the resort from Carina's. I came out of the Presidential Suite (I think?) and I was not staying in that room. It was great because Don wasn't able to see me at all until right before I was at the aisle. The palapas kept me hidden Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 I tried calling the resort . Oh my goodness. I think they sent me to Ana, I had to leave her a message. Will she call you back? Does anyone know what her hours are? I think that she told me she works 9-6, unless there is a wedding. If there's a wedding, she will be there later. Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Love it!! Beautiful wedding. I think I am wearing the same dress! Is it Demetrios? I would be very interested in seeing what your reception and cocktail hour look like. Where did you have your cocktail hour? I have yet to see photos of these locations and am having a hard time deciding where to have it. Did you bring your decorations from home? I was going to use the resorts turquoise for the chair decorations but my colors are turquoise and chocolate. I wonder if I should use both colors like you did. This part is hard for me I had my cocktail hour at the Desires terrace. I was completely surprised that this was our decision because before I went, I thought that I would have it on the beach or by the jacuzzi. We ended up choosing Desires because it was more private and we don't really like a lot of attention I was so happy with my decision!! Our guests loved it there and there was lots of room for everyone to sit comfortably if they wanted. We had the Mariachi trio and they were fabulous! We chose the Mexican appetizers and everyone raved about them the next few days after te wedding! Also, I brought my chair sashes from home. They were a light aqua blue color. Actually, I never got them back from Ana. I should ask her if she still has them Quote: Originally Posted by rscherle Carina- Congratulations and thanks for your review! It's both comforting and unnerving to know that most things will be done in the few days before the wedding...but I guess it's a great incentive to go in knowing exactly what you want. Research, research, research, ladies! I would suggest writing down everything that you want so that when you go to meet with Ana a few days before your wedding, you won't forget anything! I wish I had done that. Quote: Originally Posted by volosikj Carina- For saying you planned most of your wedding only a few short days before, you hit a home run. It looks amazing! I have been anxiously awaiting a review from a DRC bride. I would love to see cocktail hour, and reception photos also and any insight into the menu you chose! I have been struggling with what package and menu and location to finalize!! I chose the Mexican appetizers and they were soooo good. For the dinner, I chose the Caribbean buffet....also unbelievably good!! For the cocktail hour we chose the Desires terrace and for the reception, we were on the pool deck. We loved the locations that we chose!