leigh2011

Congratulations!!! So happy that you had an amazing wedding and that you are happy with Juan. You look so happy in the picture you posted And I agree about the flowers, that was the bouquet I chose as well and they are gorgeous....

We all booked our travel through a travel agent and part of that price was transport to and from the hotel with a company called Olympus. This company provides A LOT of transfers to the Cancun hotels - they have many vans and even several buses that they use. Olympus and another company (cannot remember the name of it) have employees that hold office hours in an office just a few doors down from the wedding office to coordinate airport transfers and to sell tours that they provide. http://www.olympus-tours.com/ Here is how Olympus works: you pre-purchase your transfers (either through a travel agent or online through their website) and have a voucher printed out. When you have gone through customs at the airport you walk outside to ground transportation (don't even make eye contact with the people trying to get your attention while you are inside - they are trying to sell you time shares) and you will see a podium with an Olympus guy in an orange polo shirt. This guy will take your voucher and set you off to the side for a minute while he gathers your driver and fills up the van with other travelers. Then you load up and head off for the hotel zone and stop and several different hotels dropping people off. (We were the last ones to get off as is as Dreams Cancun is at the far end of the hotel zone) The guy at the podium will also tell you a time to go and meet your hotel rep for Olympus during the office hours (same day as arrival). During that meeting the hotel rep will take your return flight info and will give you your pick-up time for your return to the airport. The hotel rep will then try and sell you one of their tours, so you can either listen or politely tell him no thanks. On your departure day, you wait outside the lobby at your designated time and when the Olympus van/bus arrives, they check to make sure you are getting on the right van and then take you away. You will notice on your departure day that there are vans arriving every 15-30 minutes...this is a big operation. I am sure there are several companies that provide the same service, this is just the one I am familiar with....hope this info helps!

These pictures were gorgeous! You have a great selection to choose from....congrats!

You are definitely able to mix it up. If you have the gold package you can even choose a course off of the silver menu options.

Congratulations! So glad you were thrilled with your wedding. Fingers crossed you get to see more pictures soon...(because we want to see them too )

The photographer I brought with me said he would take pictures at any time while we were on the trip, so there was no need to use the photographer that came with the package. We traded the photographer for gazebo decor, which at first didn't sound like a very good trade to me. However, we got 4 floral corsages to put on the columns of the gazebo and because we only had 4 reception tables we were able to use them as centerpieces as well....so in essence I got gazebo decor and centerpieces as a trade. Other brides that have hired an outside (local) photographer for their wedding day often use the included photography for their TTD session. Just a thought.

While I was at Dreams getting married there was one bride that had her wedding at Caribe Beach (out of maybe 10 or so). I believe she chose Caribe because she wanted a beach reception, but she had a lot of guests and wouldn't fit on Himitsu beach. Caribe beach is a BIG beach...there is a lot of sand between the Tower builing and the water. To be able to run electricity, the reception was held closer to the Tower, so not near the water. There was one night we ate dinner at the restaurant off of Caribe beach (Seaside Grill - which is very good) and the wind was howling (as it was all over the resort), but all other nights it was nice and breezy like the rest of the resort. The big PRO for Caribe beach is that you will get a bit more privacy for your reception. At worst other guests will be able to look down on the reception from the balconies of their Tower rooms, and they could walk by (maybe 50 ft away) and look. With Himitsu beach the guests eating on the patio part of Himitsu restaurant have a front row seat to your reception. Let's just say there were people on the patio doing the YMCA arm dance during my reception. We went with it and even invited them down to the dance floor to join in... The CON for Caribe beach setup is that it is far from the water (I know you are thinking "how far can it really be, it is a beach?"), so you will have the sand element for the reception but no opportunity to dip your feet in the water or anything. Himitsu beach is much smaller so you definitely get both the sand and water. I really do think you will be happy with Caribe Beach option....it will just have a bit of a different vibe.

Congratulations!!! Everything starts seeming so real once the legal ceremony has happened!!!

Glad my planning thread has helped - that thing took forever I decided to do the menus because I had left-over card stock. They certainly aren't a necessity. Hmmm...the lighting was not an additional cost, but I am not sure if it was part of the reception package or with the DJ. I am guessing it comes with the reception for safety sake. However, the light-up dance floor did cost extra. That is certainly not a necessity, but it was a lot of fun - so if you have room in your budget I recommend it. I did have to rent the sound system and then have the DJ separate. The sound system for the ceremony comes with a technician that will play the ceremony music from a CD. If I am not mistaken, this is considerably cheaper than paying for the DJ for an extra hour for the ceremony.

The reception location is certainly a matter of preference, but I loved having it on Himitsu beach. If you check out my wedding photo album in my signature, you can see some pictures of how the beach is lit when it is dark out. I got married in November, so sunset was just after 5pm (the time change in Mexico was in late October - they change before the US does). My ceremony was at 4:30pm, cocktail hour at 5:30-6:30, and reception after 6:30pm. The wedding reception can be anything you want it to be. They definitely expect for you to have a first dance, father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, toasts, cake cutting, garter & bouquet tosses and dancing. However, you can feel free to add anything you want or omit anything. If you use a Dreams DJ you will have contact with them in the months leading up to your wedding so you can provide them a song list and let them know what you want. For instance, we only had one unmarried female guest over the age of 3 (and she was already engaged) so we omitted the bouquet toss. There were 2 unmarried men (one being the fiance) so we omitted the garter toss as well. Hope that helps.

Hmm...no cheat sheet but I can tell you what I know of and maybe other brides can add onto my list based on the Ultimate Package: - I switched photographer for gazebo decor (4 floral corsages) which can then be used as reception centerpieces - I switched 2x corsages + 2x bouts (because our ceremony wasn't formal enough for that) for my MOH's bouquet - I have heard several times that you can swap out the cocktail hour (for 20 ppl) for an extra 10 ppl at the reception

Try to remain calm - deep breaths. In the days leading up to my wedding (10 day forecast), the weather went from perfect to stormy back to perfect. Don't even trust the forecast until 2-3 days out. You know how much your local forecast can change, so you can imagine a tropical forecast is even more variable.

I would choose the Rendezvous Bar. The Barracuda Bar is an outdoor bar in the shape of a square with counter all the way around, so it would be hard to get a group to mingle. http://www.bestday.com/Cancun/Hotels/Dreams_Cancun/Gallery/ picture #26 The Rendezvous Bar is the indoor lobby bar that has good seating and space for mingling and has an outdoor patio area that would be perfect if you could take that space over. Indoor seating pic #29 http://www.bestday.com/Cancun/Hotels/Dreams_Cancun/Gallery/ Outside patio area of Rendezvous:

I didn't have any issues with flying bugs at all during my entire stay at the resort - including during the reception. I think the key is that the resort has enough of a breeze at all times that flying bugs cannot settle in. I even put bug spray wipes in my OOT bags - no one used them at all. The reception area at Himitsu beach is right next to Himitsu restaurant, so your guests can walk off the sand and into the restaurant to use that bathroom.

Wow - congrats! That is a lot of good news and excitement in a short period of time. Sounds like married life is agreeing with the two of you

I have written in my final budget that I spent $289 for hair and makeup for 3 women (MOH, MOB, MOG). Note that you get a 15% discount on spa services with the wedding package, so I used that on all of the services.

I am sorry you did not get what you wanted. I too had a few things that did not go right, but luckily the guests still enjoyed everything. Hopefully everything else went well enough that in time you can forget what went wrong and only have good memories. I have to say that it took me a few months to get over a few of the things that went wrong with mine....but the pictures I have are exactly how I wanted them to be and they are the memories I will take forward. (Looking forward to seeing your pictures!!!) and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

For our non-legal ceremony we arrived on a Wednesday and got married on Saturday. I think the 2-day requirement is simply so the Dreams staff has time to order the flowers you want and be prepared with the food and cake. I think it is standard that on the day you arrive to set up your meeting with your WC for the next day. So I was quite surprised when Claudia wanted to meet just a few hours after we arrived at the resort. Later, seeing how many weddings there were the day before mine and on my day, I realize she had to squeeze me in before things got even more hectic. At that meeting we talked about what I wanted and I gave her pictures of what I wanted (if at all possible, give your WC pictures so there is no confusion! - they truly do want to give you what you want, so a picture will prevent any unfortunate miscommunications). The day before the wedding I dropped off my bags of wedding items (chair ribbons, table runners, programs, etc.) I had packed a few of those reusable shopping totes to give Cladia the items in, knowing there was a good chance I wouldn't get them back. I think I got one of the 3 back.

I am so sorry that happened - BUT it sounds like it might be for the best if you found one you actually love more. Maybe it was meant to be....

Just so everyone knows, if you are doing the symbolic ceremony, you can give them any ceremony script you would like. I wrote my own and emailed it ahead of time (I also took a hard copy with me just in case).

Did the picture not show up in post #6081 for you? If not, the same picture is the 3rd from last picture in my "Dreams Cancun Wedding" album - in my post signature. Courtney

I think the key to mine not being so bad was that it was all white with the exception of the flowers. With white on white you can't really see any mistakes - and they always choose beautiful flowers. (I think the flowers on mine would have been more colorful and plentiful if they had gotten my cake right the first time around. They had to stretch the flowers they mistakenly put on a 1-tier cake to decorate the correct 3-tier cake.) I believe I paid an extra $150 to upgrade to a 3-tier cake. Hardly anyone touched the wedding cake (after the dessert that came with the meal) because they were all on the dance floor - so it wasn't necessarily a good investment. However, I wanted a bigger cake in my wedding photos and that is what I got.... Quote: Originally Posted by K Martinez78 I could live with the cake you had. I saw a picture of a cake that was under the review forum that was really bad! So I guess I will keep my fingers crossed that I get a decent cake. I know in the end the cake won't really matter. I'm just freaking out now that my day is approaching lol

Oh wow!!!! Congratulations! Such exciting news....

To be honest - I certainly was not impressed with my cake, but it was good enough for me. I am sure there is the option of having an outside vendor make your cake and bringing to the resort, but you will have to pay an outside vendor fee on top of the cost of the cake. Every bride has different ideas as to what is most important and therefore worth spending extra money on. Here is a picture of my cake...