leigh2011

Ladies - I finally put up a resort review with lots of pictures and a bit of commentary.  I really hope that helps future brides get a better idea of the different areas of the resort.  Any past brides, please feel free to add comments if I got anything wrong or if there is anything you would like to add.  I am not sure why, but you may have to scroll past some older reviews to read mine.

I hope to work on my wedding review of the resort before too long.

Courtney

It was so nice to relax this weekend.  Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do with all of the left over wedding and AHR stuff.  At some point I will get up the energy to try and sell some of it.  What are you ladies planning on doing with your dress?  Mine would certainly need to be dry cleaned if I were going to sell it, but that can be pretty pricey so I don't know if it is worth it in case I can't find a buyer.  Thoughts?

So I did have the guts to chop off my hair but it doesn't really look like the picture I took in.  I think I will need to go back in a month or so for a reshaping.  The stylist put so much volumizing stuff in my hair (she even tried to weigh it back down with wax) that when she asked if there was anything I wanted to change I really couldn't tell because it was too poofy.  Here is a picture of what it looked like later last night (after some of the volume had fallen out):

Paul likes it a lot more than I do at this point - we will see if it grows on me.  Pucca - I think most guys prefer longer hair, so I think Paul must be odd.  I think I will be wearing a lot of scarves this winter so I don't feel too exposed....

Originally Posted by Pucca 

Thanks Courtney! We absolutely loved our TTD photos, not that we didn't love our wedding pictures! I forgot about the Happiest Wedding photo thread; will have to check that out again. 

 

Congratulations on being completely done with all your wedding events!! 

 

That Sienna Miller haircut is very chic! I like it! Did you end up cutting it like that? I've actually had long hair for a while - rather than growing it out just for wedding purposes - and my husband would freak out if I chopped it all off. Ha ha ha. He says he likes it long. I used to have short hair for a really really long time like the length in that Sienna Miller picture and he's seen pictures of it; he's told me that he doesn't really like it so I'll probably never cut it that short again. So I guess no lopping of locks for me. 

 

 

Last night was my At Home Party - and I can say I am honestly so happy my wedding events are over

I enjoyed all of them, but I am such a planner (and thus one who stresses) - so it will be nice to not have a constant wedding to do list hanging over my head.

Our party was from 8-midnight last night at a smaller reception hall in the area with appetizer foods, cupcakes, beer, wine, and a DJ.  Apparently the food was great (I didn't get a chance to have any), but we had a lot left over so we might be reheating that for lunch today.  The cupcakes were definitely good - I didn't get a chance to have any of those during the party either, but at 2am when we were back home with the left-overs I had 2 of the different flavors.  There was quite a bit of alcohol left over.  For ~100 people we had 48 bottles of wine and 500 beers (my husband thinks of his friends as significant drinkers).  I bet we probably brought home 10 bottles of wine and ~120 beers.  Seems like Thanksgiving at our house this year might bring out the alcoholics in all of us.

Complete change of topic - are any of you ladies fed up with long hair that you grew out for your wedding?  I was engaged for ~17 months, so my hair got pretty long while waiting for the wedding (it wa already past shoulder length when I got engaged).  Now I am soooo sick of my hair that I have an appointment at 1pm today to chop it off.  If I have the cajones, I will cut it very short like Sienna Miller.  I have heard it is pretty common for brides to chop their locks after the big day.....  I really hope I don't regret this! (Paul is the one that suggested cutting it really short)

http://shorthairstyles.org.uk/sienna_miller_short_hairstyle_photos.htm 

Pucca - I just checked out your planning thread and it was great.  I think you should post that last pic on the planning thread (right after walking back down the aisle) in the Happiest Wedding picture thread. 

I think your wedding pictures posted below are beautiful, but I really love the TTD pictures - esp the black and white one.
 

Originally Posted by Pucca 

Hope y'all are having a good Friday entering into a lovely weekend!

 

I finally posted my planning thread and I got some of our photos back!

 

Here's the link to my thread for those of you who have extra time on your hands.  

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/76794/puccas-post-wedding-planning-thread-with-pics#post_1697838

 

And here are just a few pictures from our wedding and our TTD: 

 

 

Everything looks wonderful!  Congratulations on being a Mrs!  And I love that last picture....you two look soooo happy.

Your dress looks great on you - much better than on the model.

We did the legal wedding with just family and then dinner afterward before we left for our DW.  We will also be having the AHR now that we are back.  My suggestion would be to have a different and far less fancy dress for your legal wedding so it doesn't feel like it is taking away from your DW and big white dress.  I actually wore a red dress (traditional Chinese dress - to honor my husband's heritage) for my legal ceremony, so it was a polar opposite to my DW dress.

Although it seems like too many events to you, if having the separate ceremony and dinner is what will make your family happy (and therefore prevent them from creating other drama) then I think it is worth it.  Best of luck.

Here is a picture of my escort cards and table numbers.  My husband is Chinese, so we incorporated his heritage with the Chinese characters (the tables were "double happiness", "family", "love", and friends").  Because we used a symbol, we were able to make that a focal point of the escort cards.  I think you could do the same thing with a photo.  I had planned to tie my escort cards to starfish and place them in sand, but honestly I didn't have the energy left to worry about the starfish breaking on the way to Mexico.  Instead I used a starfish punch and the wedding coordinator still had the cards upright in sand.  FYI - that frame is actually quite small (less than 4x6" opening) and was quite cheap at Michaels.

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.

Originally Posted by Pucca 

I am back, quite reluctantly, from our wedding.  Heh heh. We had a blast and were tempted to stay an extra day when the airline asked us if we wanted to give up our seats for the following day. 

 

Courtney and Alysa, your pictures are beautiful!! It's so exciting to see all the planning and craziness culminate into a beautiful occasion! 

 

I can't wait to see ours. The photographer is sending the digital versions soon but he handed us an album with about 50 prints that we could carry home. We were thrilled with them and can't wait to see the rest! We did a TTD session two days after our wedding because my husband wanted to do it so we had a lot of fun with that. 

 

Taryn, that picture of you in the dufflebag is hilarious! Hope you are enjoying yourself!! 

 

 

Now I have to post my planning thread which I failed to do prior to leaving. 

 

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.

 

Originally Posted by hairdos11 

I'm back ladies, I will try to write a good review this week when I get time.  Leigh I too had a great time at Dreams but mistakes were certainly made at my wedding.  I did do the legal cermony and everything went well. They come to your room for the blood tests, it's really easy. The resort is perfect especially for a wedding but ladies just know that mistakes can happen. I had a few but overall the trip was great. I was told that they had 40 weddings in 30 days so it is busy there. It was really hard for me to come back home to say the least.  Staff was great! The photographer from the resort  is really good. You won't be dissappointed if you use Daniel.  I cannot say enough good things about him. I will write some more tomorrow. 

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....
 

Originally Posted by sxcT 

Beautiful pictures!!
So...I am at the airport. Went thru a bit of stress and a bitch fit when they said I couldn't take my carryon on full of vases, toasting flutes and sand ceremony vase on the plane with me. OMG I was about to lose it...even teared up a bit. Not a fun way to start vacation. But the lady at the counter saw how upset I was she asked her manager if she could let us go and she took us up the service elevator to avoid the lady checking the size of the bags. What a relief!!
So we r sitting here just waiting to board at 11:50. Didn't get to finish my planning thread so I'll have to do it when I get back.
Hope all u married brides r enjoying married life!!
I plan to post from Mexico!!!
XOXO

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!
 

Originally Posted by alysam4785 

Leigh you looked gorgeous! I'm jealous that you've seen your photographer's pictures already! I don't get mine until at least next month! And I really wish James would have done a TTD...but he hates getting his picture taken! Amazing pictures!

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 :-)

Originally Posted by Sasha030412 

These pictures are really nice. I LOVE your cake topper, did you get it custom made?

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.

 

Originally Posted by JBean 

Hi ladies!! I am here in the beautiful Mayan- just wanted to pop in and see what´s been happening. Everyone who is back and posted pics looks amazing!!

With regards to the weather, it has been cloudy/rainy most days here, but only for a few hours. We were lucky it didn´t rain on the big day, but it threatened and did rain on 11/11/11 (the next day). The good thing is that it usually comes and goes quickly, and it hasn,t been too hot (I was 100% comfortable in my big dress).

 

All the best to those still to get married!

 

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! 
 

Originally Posted by alysam4785 

 

 

 

here's a few teasers for you ladies 

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.
 

Originally Posted by sxcT 

Hey girl!!  I am kind of feeling the same way.  And I have highs where I am really excited and lows where everyone and every little friggin thing is irritating to me.  So weird.  Haven't been sleeping well for the past week.  I hope it all changes tomorrow night once we are at the airport.
 

I am pretty much ready to go.  Just some very simple things to do tomorrow and that is it.  I kind of don't care about much else at this point.  I just want to get there already.  If anything is missing or not done or left behind...who the F cares LOL.  I just want to relax and stop thinking and stressing about packing, checklists, to-do lists, errands and all that not so fun stuff.  I want a mai tai in my hand and the sun beaming down on me!!

 

 

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.

Originally Posted by jana297 

I'm sad to hear that your wedding was far from perfect. Not good! I'm glad u had a good time though!!
 

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!

 

Originally Posted by bnwedding2011 

We just got back! Our wedding was Tuesday and it was amazing!!!! Cecilia was WONDERFUL! She put our centerpieces out and everything looked perfect. We had our reception on the terrace and I loved it! Luis was our DJ and did a great job! I will be working on my review next week!

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.

 

Originally Posted by mgl27 

Welcome back!!!  I am dying to hear all about it!!! How was the weather??