leigh2011

Don't worry about being a sweaty mess for the ceremony! I am definitely a sweater also and the wind up at the gazebo will keep you dry. I had the last wedding of the day (4:00pm) last November, but I saw several earlier weddings and can tell you what they did. One bride actually had an 11am wedding, so she had her cocktail hour directly after the ceremony (12-1pm) inside (okay "under", because it is open) Himitsu restaurant and then had her reception at night. Another bride had a 2pm wedding and she had her cocktail hour directly after the ceremony (3-4pm) in the "garden" and then her reception at night. Both of those options would actually allow you to attend your cocktail hour with your guests and then go take photos before the reception starts.

I signed a contract with Dreams Cancun (it was a spreadsheet with signature lines on the bottom) and in that contract it specified locations for the events. Granted, those locations could be changed, but I think those locations were reserved for me unless otherwise discussed. I think you should definitely contact Claudia and get your locations confirmed ASAP...that is a big item to have hanging out there. As far as the Desires club - it is not a very happening place. But that can be a good thing, because you and your wedding group can kinda take over and request whatever music you would like from the DJ. So just try and convince as many people to go as possible and you will have a blast.

Here is a picture taken from the gazebo back towards the tower (on the left) and the end of the pyramid building (on the right). The "garden" is the grassy area right in front of the pyramid building. As for which beach...Himitsu beach is right next to Himitsu restaurant - so anyone eating out on the patio will be watching your reception. However, no guest rooms overlook that beach. On the Tower beach, people may walk by your reception at a distance to go to the Seaside Grill and those in the Tower can watch your reception from above. My reception was on Himitsu and there was a great group on the restaurant terrace - we even invited a few of them down to dance with us! Another difference, the Himitsu Beach is more narrow so you are close to the water's edge - which I liked. Tower beach is ridiculously deep (literally a several minute walk to the water's edge) so there is a lot of space. However, I found the sand on the Tower beach up near the resort to have shells in it - so I am not sure if that would impact your guests going barefoot. Picture of Himitsu Beach from Himitsu restaurant. The dance floor would be about where those people are laying out in the chairs. Picture of Tower Beach from the gazebo back toward the resort. Sorry that I don't have a picture out towards the water. If you check out the pictures in my wedding album (icon in my signature), there are several pictures near the end of the reception on Himitsu Beach.

Carrying it with you is definitely the safest thing to do...so there is no chance of not having ti on your wedding day. My dress bag pretty much had to be smushed up to fit in the overhead bin because there wasn't much space left. I wasn't worried about it because I knew that steaming of the dress was part of the wedding package. They did a great job of steaming it, so no worries if it gets wrinkled on the way down. One warning with the steaming: You will be given a time at which you need to have your dress and the groom's attire laid out on your bed (for us it was 10am the day before the ceremony) - make sure you have it out early, because they are on time to pick it up. We laid out my dress (in it's white bag so the fiance couldn't see), but when it was returned (we were out of the room) it was hung up in the closet in clear bags! (the white bag was folded and left on a chair in the room) Luckily my now husband can be very unobservant and he didn't see the dress when he went into the closet to get into the safe (or at least that is what he tells me). So just try to be aware that you need to be the first one back into the room after the dress is returned so you can survey the situation and make sure your fiance doesn't see the dress before the ceremony.

Claudia and Cecilia work together and share an office. I believe Claudia is mroe senior as she has been there longer, but Cecilia had been there for well over a year (based on posts from this forum while I was waiting for my wedding) - so either one of them will do a great job for you. If you tell us a bit about what you have planned - we can probably offer some suggestions or at least give you some info about past experiences. Courtney

I didn't use the photographer in the package (I brought mine with me from home as a guest) and Claudia gave me gazebo decor as my trade. I did have this in an email from her before I got to Cancun (though I didn't negotiate for it, that was her reply to my travel agent). "Gazebo decor" turned out to be 4 of the floral corsages (see below for a picture of 1) with the tall wooden sticks in the front 2. If you look through my wedding picture album (in my signature) there is a picture of the gazebo before the ceremony and you can see what was there (not able to link it right now for some reason). What worked out perfectly was that I had 4 reception tables (other than the sweetheart table) and the Dreams staff moved the corsages from the gazebo to be the centerpieces for the tables. So it not only saved me $250-$500 on gazebo decor, but it also saved me ~$300 in centerpeices that I was planning on buying. Note that the flowers I had selected for my bouquet were a mix of bright-colored roses. For the floral corsages and the "natural floral centerpiece"s for the ceremony table and sweetheart table, they will mix in lilies and filler flowers along with your chosen flowers to make the pieces look more full.

I don't think I can help with this one. We went with the Dreams Trilogy which had steak (I believe it was a piece of filet mignon) along with fish and shrimp. I thought the trilogy was a nice option because you aren't able to give people the traditional steak, chicken, or fish options for a reception meal. But, as the filet is part of other meals they offer (duo and trilogy), I would think it shouldn't be a problem to make it easier on the cooks and have just steak.

Claudia gave the videographer my CD of ceremony music and he used that for the video. From what I remember, they chose one of my guests seating songs for the intro to the DVD (the part where you select Play), a second guest seating song for the canned Dreams Cancun shots, the details shots and the video of the guests actually getting seated, and then used the correct songs for bridal party entry, bride's entrance, and recessional. The recessional song was played through the end of the video. So you don't need to select additional songs if you don't want to - just make sure you like your choices for the ceremony.

When I arrived I went to the Concierge desk and they called Claudia for me to set up our pre-wedding meeting. I had attempted to set up the meeting over email the week before my trip and Claudia wanted to wait until I got there to set it up. I think hte reason is they were always running around working on a wedding, so they didn't want to commit to a time too far in advance. In the pool area (next to the volleyball court) there is a hut where the club promoters set up shop to sell the writst bands. We only talked to the Coco Bongo promoter, so I am not sure what other clubs sent a rep. For those of you that haven't been to Cancun before - Coco Bongo is THE place to go. It isn't a great place for dancing because it can get very crowded, but there are so many show/numbers they put on that are a complete and utter spectacle. I had gone to Coco Bongo back in 2004 and told my younger guests they should check it out. A group of 8 of us went out one night and everyone was AMAZED! Side note: Coco Bongo is walk-able from Dreams Cancun as long as you aren't wearing super heels (I wore flat sandals that night). http://www.cocobongo.com.mx/coco2010/inter/main/1/

Try and have as many receipts as you can. If you have enough (and they are low enough in value) you will overwhelm the customs agent and they will eventually let you pass out of frustration and having better things to do. Also, if the customs agent initially asks you the value of what you have with you - have a clear answer in mind. I think this is what got me in trouble (and thus sent to an inspection table), I was fumbling trying to do math in my head. When the agent asked for the value of the wedding items he wasn't clear about wedding dress was part of the total or not - so a good response would have been something like, "Between the two of us, we have approximately ~$450 worth of wedding decorations and gifts for our guests and my dress is worth about $xxx". They won't care about the value of your dress, but it will look like you are being very forthcoming with information if you are giving out extra info.

When I traveled through customs with ~100 small starfish & shells (laid out around floral centerpieces) they didn't say a word about them. However, I did get pulled to the side by customs to serch my bags to make sure we were under the $300 per person limit for non-clothing items. The customs official saw my wedding dress bag and all of the luggage we took and probably thought we would be easy pickings to pay the tax if you are >$300/pp (for non-personal/clothing items, like OOT bags and wedding decor). So it is important to take receipts for all of your wedding items to prove you are under the $300/pp. The second customs official eventually got frustrated with looking through the bags and comparing them to the receipts and eventually let us go without paying any tax.

Here is the spa email address that worked for me. [email protected] If I remember correctly, it took about 2.5 hours to do my hair and makeup! It took that long because the stylist did a lot of re-curling of the same sections to make sure it looked good. I think estimating 1.5-2 hours would be smart. My hair was up (you can check the pictures in my signature to see what style I had) and it did not move all day/night as the hair spray they use is some serious stuff. I was done at the salon around 11:30am and my hair was no different when I took out all the pins at ~1:30am. If you want a style with your hair down and curls, then you may have more issues with the curls falling out. As for when to schedule your appointment - make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get ready (dressed) so you aren't stressing. You may think you would hate to be sitting around twiddling your thumbs waiting for the ceremony, but let me assure you it doesn't happen this way. There is always something or someone that will take up that extra time.

Thanks ladies. Wishing you all the best for your upcoming weddings!

That second picture is defintely not from Dreams Cancun. I just checked out the Blue Lens website and it is from Dreams Riviera Cancun. Regardless, the photos are very nice.

Married life is great - but to be honest things are just as they were before the wedding (we moved in together after the engagement). I guess the only thing different is Paul having to hear my complain about how big of a pain it is to change my name with every little tiny company out there. I had completely forgotten about little things like airline miles programs and hotel rewards programs until a recent business trip and the names didn't match up. Is anyone missing the wedding hoopla yet? I had my AHR immediately after Mexico, so I have been in withdrawal for over 2 months now. I don't miss planning yet, but I sure wish there was a reason to search for and buy a new wedding dress :-) And I think a 1-year vow renewal might be a bit much. I sometimes see "Say Yes to the Dress" on TV when I am at the gym and I get jealous....

There were 2 nights during my 8-night trip that the wind was a problem. One night there was a passing storm and there was wind associated with that (but there was also a quick rain shower), so you would have been moved inside for the rain anway. The other night it was just plain windy all around. We were eating dinner at the Seaside Grill which is directly off the sand from the large beach near the Tower. The wind was blowing in strong enough that at times sand got picked up and you could feel it. Not that anyone was bothered enough to get up and leave the restaurant. That night was a Monday so they had planned to put up a large screen at the lagoon and show Monday Night Football, but that had to be moved inside because the screen would not have stayed upright. But then my reception on the Himitsu beach had perfect weather. I am sure there was a bit of a breeze, but nothing that I took notice of. As long as it is not gale force winds, the beach at Himitsu is protected because you are next to the restaurant and beach bar which are built into a hill/rocks. Not sure how to explain this, but I will try. If you walk down the sidewalk from the gazebo to the lighthouse (along the length of the ocean side of the pyramid building) you have to take a left and head downhill to get to Himitsu restaurant and Himitsu beach. That change in elevation makes a difference in the wind.

It definitely seems that this rule about guests having to book tower rooms in order to use the patio for the reception is quite new. I wonder if tower guests have been complaining that receptions are keeping them up at night? Regardless of the reason, if your contract says the terrace then I think you will be able to force them into allowing you to use it. (Just like when they switched the photographer but had to allow brides who had already booked to have Juan Navarro) I would sit here and tell you how wonderful Himitsu beach was for the reception, but that doesn't matter when you have your heart set on the terrace. Let us know how it turns out.

Congratulations!!!! You looked beautiful!

Thank you so much. I have so many pictures and I just don't know what to do with them all. So to this point we have unfortunately not done anything with them!

Thanks. There were definitely treats involved with getting the dog to sit still. I even got a couple of "out-take" shots that I printed and put inside the card. In one the dog was licking his chops, and in the other his eyes were shut but he had his tongue sticking out a little bit. Very cute - and Paul laughed & cried because of the card (the photog got some great shots). Paul also loved the cake topper. At first (from a distance) he thought the cake topper was just a generic couple until I told him to take a closer look. Then he was so excited he went to each table to tell all of the guests to go and check it out up close. That reaction made the expense and effort worth it.