leigh2011

Friday night is our AHP (At Home Party - DJ, beer, wine, cupcakes, slide show) and I can't wait until it is over so I can stop planning! I really do think it will be fun, but I am so tired of all of the to-do lists....grrrrr. I am taking Friday off of work so I can go to the Social Security Administration to start changing my name, then I will spend the rest of the day prepping for the party that will run from 8pm until midnight. On Saturday I have an appointment to chop off my hair. I have been growing my hair since we got engaged and it is now mid way down my back and I can't wait to get rid of it. I think that is going to be my symbolic moment of no longer being a bride.... Anyone else having a party/reception back home?

Here are my happiest... 1. After walking back down the aisle where my husband dipped me for a kiss, the whole time having a big handful of booty. I was laughing because I knew that "squeeze" was caught by the photog and the videographer 2. My 3-year old niece was so excited to dance with the "snow princess" - apparently all brides are snow princesses :-) 3. The photog asked my husband to pick me up during our TTD. After that, I said let me try....

I am so glad you ladies were able to get some "hot" TTD pictures - mine are luke warm to say the least! We started with a sunrise TTD to get some beautiful pictures with the light and by the time we got to the beach it was ~7am. As soon and my husband and I started laying on the sand, this couple (complete stragers) came and stood maybe 5 feet behind the photographer and were intently watching and whispering to each other. If it weren't awkward enough rolling around in the sand making out in front of the photographer and his wife, these two people made it impossbile. Oh - not to mention the crew of Quinceanera teenagers (about 6 kids dressed up like a bright blue wedding party) that were walking by and staring. After just a few shots, my husband and I called it quits and just went into the water for some fun pictures. This is what we got before throwing in the towel:

Welcome back - glad you had such a good time that you didn't want to return. And of course, Congratulations on being a Mrs. for the second time! Fingers crossed you will get to see all of your pictures soon.

Allure 8705: The model: And me on my wedding day (I just went through every single one of my wedding day photos and this is the only one I could find with a full length front view of the complete dress without my bouquet in the way - and it is cropped out of a first look photo): (I made the dress sweetheart and cut off the flower at the side)

Congratulations! I am so glad that you too were able to overcome any issues (which I am interested in hearing) and enjoy your wedding. I saw several brides checking out their photos at the photo station and I don't think I saw any that weren't fantastic. I am not sure how many photographers they have (assuming Daniel has a bit of help), but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

Taryn - So happy for you that you are finally on the way!!! Woohoo. Being a bride and having a freak-out moment can help you get what you want...useful lesson to learn. I hope everything goes smoothly when you get to the resort. We will look forward to hearing from you in Mexico. Hope everything is perfect for you....

Thank you We took our photographer with us and he knew that we needed pics for our AHR on Friday. But, part of the reason he can do them so quickly is that these photos have been through Lightroom (to adjust any exposure issues with the pictures) but they have not gone through Photoshop, which would be much more time consuming. So we get DVDs of all of the images after Lightroom editing, but to get the Photoshop editing we will need to order prints from him. Paul certainly didn't want to take the TTD pictures either - he said he was tired of posing for pictures. But I reminded him that he had previously agreed to do a sunrise TTD (probably in one of those moments he was 1/2 tuning me out - but in this instance that worked in my favor) and that after paying for the photog's trip, we need to get our money's worth!

Thanks ladies. There are a lot of beautiful and unique places to take pictures around the resort - which is one of the reasons for choosing Dreams Cancun. So definitely take some time before your wedding to both look at pictures other brides have posted as well as walk around the resort once you get there and see what you like and make sure you get there with your photographer. I did order the cake topper from a seller on ebay and it was made to look like my husband and I (and our dog). It was pricey - a total of about $150 (including the dog). However, now the cake topper will keep the sand ceremony frame company on the mantle at home. Let me find a picture of the front of the cake topper. For some reason I just loved the picture of the cake topper watching the reception :-) Quote: Originally Posted by K Martinez78 Wow! Your pictures are beautiful!

Congratulations! I hope you have a wonderful rest of you trip - and we look forward to seeing your pics when you return.

In your shoes, I would feel like I needed to have a ceremony for the guests that couldn't make it to Mexico (especially his parents and the wedding party). In order to keep the costs down, I do like the idea of just inviting those that were already booked for Mexico. With the winter approaching, which is typically a slow time of year for weddings, you may be able to negotiate some inexpensive rates for a ceremony and reception (of whatever sort you choose).

Here are a few of mine that I grabbed with screen shots from my photographer's client gallery. Can you tell I am not getting much done at work?! Pre-ceremony pics (including one from first look): Ceremony pics: Post-ceremony pics: Reception pics: TTD pics:

Here are a few of mine that I grabbed with screen shots from my photographer's client gallery. Can you tell I am not getting much done at work?! Pre-ceremony pics (including one from first look): Ceremony pics: Post-ceremony pics: Reception pics: TTD pics:

Your pictures are beautiful! That smile on your face shows how happy you were... And that ceremony location is fantastic. Congratulations!

I felt such a sense of relief when I got to the airport and checked my bags - because I could finally stop stressing about the packing and lists. It was too late at that point! There was still lots of work to be done once we get to Mexico to get the OOT bags ready to hand out and get the bags of wedding gear for the coordinator. But there was no stress related to that work because I could only work with what I had.

All of my pictures have come in from my photographer (he has them all - over 1700!! - posted on his website, so PM me if are interested in the link), so I have been a bit distracted from starting my review. Because it will be a bit longer before I get that review up, I wanted to let the future brides know what went wrong with my wedding and what was done to resolve it - so you will know what can happen. First, I think all of my problems with my wedding are due to the fact that there were 3 (yes 3!) weddings on my day. I believe the ceremonies were scheduled for 11am, 3pm, and mine at 4:30pm. I saw both of the other brides at the salon that morning. I think the 11am ceremony went off as planned - they actually held the reception at Himitsu restaurant. I suppose that is an option as I don't think I ever saw Himitsu open for lunch (but Oceana and Seaside Grill are open for lunch most days). Problem 1: The 3pm bride started her ceremony late (per my mother who could overlook from her Tower room), so the coordinators had less time than expected to get the ceremony site switched over. They also had scheduled a rehearsal in between the 3pm and 4:30pm ceremonies. So at 4:30pm I look out my window (which overlooked the line-up area for the bridal parties) and I notice that my guests have not been allowed to sit down and there is a rehearsal starting! And the worst part is that there was no communication from the wedding coordinators - I only knew to not come out of my room because I could see from my window what was going on. My fiance was running around trying to find out when we could get started. So my ceremony was 20 minutes late - by all means not the end of the world, but a bit of communication would have been appreciated. I will add that I was stressing about the timing because the sun set at 5:10pm so any later and our ceremony wouldn't have had much light for photos. Problem 2: The Mariachi Trio didn't show up to my cocktail hour until one of my guests called someone to find out where they were. Apparently there were at the reception location - another miscommunication of some sort. I had a DJ for the reception, so I definitely didn't want to have both at the same time. The Trio eventually showed up at the cocktail hour and played for the last 20 mintues - so I lost out on 25 mintues of the 45-minute set that was included in my package. Problem 3: I ordered a 3-tier cake at our meeting with Claudia and we paid the extra $150 for it. The cake was delivered during the meal and it was only a 1-tier cake. The cake was decorated with the right flowers (to match my bouquet) and the cake topper I had provided. I was honestly blinking back tears at this point as it seemed like nothing was going right (I know, in hind-sight it was an over reaction). I had my husband go talk to Claudia when she stopped by the reception - my intent was for her to see the issue so we could get our 150 back. Instead she talked to the DJ and the cake cutting was moved to later in the reception. At some point (while we were dancing) the 1-tier cake disappeared and a 3-tier cake (also decorated in our flowers and with my cake topper) was put in its place. The flavors of the layers weren't what we ordered, but at that point I didn't care because I got my "big" wedding cake. To make up for the problems, our reception was extended for an extra 45 minutes or so for free. We really had such a good time dancing that I can overlook the problems and say that I enjoyed my wedding. However, I really do wish that they would not schedule 3 weddings on the same day as they apparently aren't always able to keep all of the details straight. I hate to tell any bride that things might not be perfect - as I know that isn't what we want to hear. But I wanted to let you know that the coordinators will try and fix your problem and will try and make up for it.

Congratulations - I am glad you are happy with your wedding! I probably saw you and your reception, but I didn't have a picture of you so I didn't want to just walk up and say hi!

Meghan - I will start my review tomorrow, but I let's just say my wedding was far from perfect but I still had a wonderful time. The weather during my 8 nights was pratically perfect. It sprinkled rain one night while we were at dinner and then it started drizzling on our way to the airport on our last day. Other than that we had nothing but passing clouds. There was one evening where it was VERY windy as I guess there was some sort of front passing through. To all of the future brides, make sure to take a few cardigans and maybe even a couple of pairs of pants/capris. I took only dresses and I was definitely a bit chilly some evenings due to the wind.

Meghan - I can definitely imagine that the weather caused some extra meetings with you and the wedding staff. I can't imagine the ball of nerves I would have been in your position. Did you get to have all of your events where you had planned? The tower definitely has a cute pool - which I think is supposed to be for tower guests only, but they certainly don't monitor that...and the beach near the tower is for everyone. The beach at the tower is great for laying out or staying in the water, but not switching back and forth between a chair and the water. The beach beside the tower is HUGE - and it is a LONG walk from the chairs to the water over some rough (ground up shells) sand. But once you make it to the water, it is so pretty and calm (that is where we did the ocean part of our TTD session). So few people actually go to the beach near the Tower that a lot of my guests didn't realize one of the resort restaurants (Seaside Grill) is located there - and that was our favorite restaurant (steaks at Seaside vs seafood at Oceana and Asian/sushi at Himitsu). So all of you future brides - make sure you search out Seaside Grill !!! Paul and I only paid for an oceanview room so we got upgraded to a Honeymoon Suite in the Pyramid - which I am sure isn't as nice as the suites in the Tower. Basically our room had a different layout than a standard room, so it had a lot of extra space but no extra rooms (like a 2nd bathroom). However, all of our guests (with the exception of my parents) were in the Pyramid, so it was convenient for us to be there. We did the symbolic ceremony as well just to make sure there were no legal issues back in the US. One question I have about making it legal in Mexico and having to wait for the paperwork, is whether that will mess up anything with "life event" changes at your work. Let me explain. After our legal ceremony here in the US, I worked with my HR department to get Paul added to my health insurance. Well, it turns out that both my company and his give you a 30 day window from the marriage itself to get things taken care of. Luckily I had my marriage license back in a matter of 3-4 business days here at home. How would that work if it took longer than 30 days to get your paperwork from Mexico? My HR rep required a copy of the marriage license to file with the insurance change request.

Looking at my 10-day forecast was depressing as well (60% chance of rain for every day on the forecast), but as the days get to be 5 days or less the forecast gets a little more realistic. So just take a deep breath - it won't be as bad as it looks.

Like Meghan said, you definitely don't need a dance floor on the Terrace - I think that is one big bonus for that location. I also used the DJ service through the resort, but my DJ was named Luis. He did a really good job of playing my music but noting the mood on the dance floor and skipping some of the songs. My dinner ran a bit long so he had to fill in with some extra slow songs there and thus compensated by pulling the slow songs out of the dancing portion of the reception since we had less time. I think it was a really good move as throwing slow songs in the middle would have brought the energy down a bit. To be honest, no matter where you have your cocktail hour (I even saw one on Himitsu beach a couple of days before I had my reception there) you are never very far from a bar. So worse case that your family/friends had to walk to get their own drinks, it would be fine. A few weeks before my wedding I sent Claudia an email with the run down of the major expenses I knew would be on my bill (number of guests for extra charges, rehearsal dinner, sound system, DJ, dance floor) and she sent me a revised wedding contract (all of my info from when I booked my date had been a complete guess) that had a price on it. Once there I met with her and we discussed flowers, upgrading the cake, a bag of rose petals, an extra bottle of champagne, etc. and those things were also added to the contract to get the final price. If my fiance and I had taken our credit card to that meeting then I believe we could have paid then. As it was we had to come back and meet her the day before the wedding to pay the bill. There was absolutely no expectation that we paid before we arrived because of the number of things that can change at the meeting. I think there are definitely two different "levels" of what you get when you don't use a service. If you are looking for a straight credit, then you get a lesser value compared to when you try and trade for another one of their services. I traded the photographer in my Ultimate package for gazebo decor. I ended up with 4 floral "corsages" (the big arrangements you see tied to the pillars in pictures) with the sticks in the front ones. Looking at the planning document online, that was definitely >$240 value (the price of just 2 corsages). But you know that didn't "cost" the resort that much money where as a credit is straight money out of their pocket. The fantastic thing about my trade was that I only had 4 round tables at my reception (for 28 guests) and when I tried to tell Claudia that I wanted to buy centerpieces, she told me that they would just move the gazebo decor. That saved me at least $300 because the centerpieces I was looking at were ~$75 each. I am not sure if this is the case that you are talking about, but the photographer outside vendor fee might be conditional as well. I didn't pay an outside vendor fee for my photog, but that is because we brought him from home and he was staying as a guest. I think the vendor fee is required for someone local to Mexico that is just coming on the property for the day. I thought the vendor fee used to be $100, but I wouldn't doubt that it has been raised to $150. Side note: another trade that I made was to get 1 BM bouquet instead of the 2 corsages and 3 bout's. All of my guys (including Dad's) wore linen shirts, so the bout's would have been to heavy and pulled the shirts down. And the corsages for the moms would have been too formal for our attire.

I brought a dress for every single night and didn't end up wearing a couple of them. My resort was very breezy (it is on a point with water on 3 sides), so I found myself quite chilly at times. The only pants I had with me were yoga pants that I had brought for the plane. So if your resort is known for being windy, then I would definitely take along some pants. Because I didn't have pants, I was grateful for my cardigan. If you do pants/capris, then you could certainly take different tops and rewear the bottoms with no problem. I did rewear one long jersey-type dress because I wore it once with friends/family and once when just Paul & I (and of course he wouldn't even notice such a thing, much less care).

I actually couldn't tell much difference in the inside of the rooms on the dolphin or ocean sides of the Pyramid when compared with the regular rooms in the Tower. From what I could tell, they were the same size and had the same furniture. I can't recall if the bathrooms were identical or not. I didn't realize before I went that the pyramid was open in the middle with a lot of trees and other plants. It was actually pretty cool...

Taryn - Believe me, I would have taken today off if I had the vacation days to spare. I switched jobs this spring, so I only have my pro-rated number of days to work with.... Also, I have to take next Friday off for my AHR. So although I would really like to sleep in and be lazy this weekend, I will have to be productive. My photographer said he will get me the DVD of pictures next week - I don't know if I am patient enough to wait that long. Random travel tip that I got off of the what to pack thread that was great: bring an over-the-door shoe organizer (preferably with clear pockets - I got mine at Walmart for $5-7) to keep all of your toiletries out of the way. Not only did this keep Paul & I from going nuts with the mess, but it helped keep the room looking neater for the getting ready pics.

One thing I just thought of - I got my wedding video from Claudia before I left (they take 3 business days to edit, and will mail it to you if you have already left the resort). If anyone knows of a good way to upload a 30-minute video online, I would be willing to share so you all can see what the video that is included in the Ultimate Package ends up looking like.