Casi

Here's a helpful thread about photographers: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/83975/i-need-a-photographer-videographer#post_1854231 You'll also find my review of Adventure Photos, which is the in house photography company at Dreams Los Cabos. Good luck!!

no problem! Congrats and have the best time! Our Dreams Los Cabos wedding and the entire trip was absolutely amazing! You're going to have such a great time

My husband and I used the in-house photographer (Elizabeth was our photographer), Adventure Photos. They did a great job prepping us a few days before and showed us all the pics a few days later at the end of our trip. We picked our favorites and they were edited and sent to us (full files) within a month after the wedding. The only issue I had was with the photo book that comes with the package. I ended up making my own through photobin.com for my parents and I liked the one I made better. But it came with the package so it wasn't that big of a deal. We paid an additional $1100 (I think) to add more time and photos. Overall, it was a great experience with them. Here is a link to our pictures: -Casi

yes, they said it would be $95 for guests not staying at the resort (rather than the $60 something it costs for additional guests over 20).

We were originally working with Magda, but just recently got switched over to work with Mariana. I'm really happy for the switch because Mariana has been great! I was nervous at first because we only have a month to go and we had gone over so much with Magda. But Mariana eased our worries right away and gave us a call to go over everything! She has been very responsive with emails too, which I love. Our reception is going to be pretty simple. We are bringing some chalk boards and mini name tab chalkboards for seating. The tables and chairs will be what comes with the package (white linens covering both), but we decided to go with under table lighting. We also got flower centerpieces that match my bouquet and my maid of honors bouquet. So we were able to get one less bouquet and use the two for one of the tables. Our other expense was at the ceremony we are paying for a simple arch with some soft fabric draping like this: http://pinterest.com/pin/177188566559233653/ (we would have to bring the string shells decoration). The little decorations do add up...which is why we are keeping it relatively simple (I'm not much of a DIY'er). For us it's the big things like extra guests, photography, DJ, and transportation that are hitting our budget hard.

Thank you so much for all the advice and kind words. One mistake we definitely made was not going through a TA. We realized this after everyone had booked their rooms and flights (which has been a lot of work to coordinate ourselves), and if I could go back in time I definitely would have worked with a TA. Especially since they seem to have connections with more deals. My parents still have a time share and work with a TA specifically for their visits (not the wedding guests), so I'll check with their TA to see if there is anything they can do for transportation. Plus, I love the first look suggestions! Thank you so much!!

Another thing I was hoping to get advice on is a good first look spot at Dreams Los Cabos. Has anyone done this? Where did you do it? How much time should we allot for this with our photographer.

My fiance and I are getting married next month (!!!!!!) at Dreams Los Cabos and we are so excited! We started the planning for our wedding in San Francisco where we currently live and realized it was going to be so far out of our budget we started pursuing other options. Then we thought about Dreams, which my family has had a timeshare at since I was a kid. It fit in our budget and we got to go on an amazing vacation with our family and friends. Can't beat that! Now that it's getting closer to the wedding and we are ironing out all the last details we are realizing that this is turning out to be a lot more expensive then we hoped (although still much cheaper than a wedding in SF + the whole getting a vacation thing). Here are some of our big expenses and I was hoping to get a bit of advice on ways we could possibly save on these things. Or just some words of encouragement to help us ease our minds. 1. Bonfire - we decided to go with a bonfire party the night before the wedding as a welcome party for all our guests. My future FIL is paying for this so it is the least worrisome expense for us. Except for the fact that we have guests who are not staying at the hotel who will be coming but it's going to be $65 per person (7 outside guests) which goes over the allotted amount my FIL gave us for the party. 2. Extra guests - the packages come with 20 people, which I was hoping to stick to, but that totally didn't work out and we now have almost double that. I'm not so worried about this...but it does add up. Especially with the outside guests which are an additional $95! 3. Transportation - we are arranging transportation right now for our guests from the airport to the hotel (and back at the end of the trip), and it's turning out to be about $1,000. We got a quote for $19 a head, plus group rate of $100 flat fee for 5-10 people in one car. Unfortunately, our guests are arriving at all different days and times so we can't take too much advantage of the group rate. 4. Photography - This has been a major sore spot for us because when we looked at the packages before booking it simply says that it comes with photography. This was probably our fault, but we didn't think to ask for how much photography, and just assumed it covered the whole wedding (ceremony, photo session with family, entire reception, plus extras like getting ready in the room). The packages come with 1 hour, which just isn't enough. The quote we got from the suggested photographer, Adventure Photos, isn't so bad. But it's just an added expense we didn't realize we were going to have. 5. DJ - We knew the DJ was going to be pricey, which is why we were just going to go with a sound system and bring our own music. But the more I read this forum the more I realized a DJ is really needed to keep things fun and moving. We are still waiting for a quote for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception, but I'm sure it will end up being more than we hoped and we may just stick with having the DJ only for the reception. If anyone has any advice or recommendations I am totally open, but I mostly just wanted to vent a little bit about our last minute stress points. Thanks for listening!

thanks! a lot of great information!

I found this honeymoon registry site from one of my favorite wedding sites (Offbeat Bride). Check out the sample registries here: http://www.buy-our-honeymoon.com/usa/about/samples. I haven't made my own yet, but from what I can see of the samples and the great reference from Offbeat Bride, I think this is the one I'm going to use for our registry. They only charge a one time fee rather than taking a percentage of each gift that is bought (although if you use PayPal they have their own fees). Offbeat Bride also reviewed a similar site, Traveler's Joy, but I don't really like how they charge a percentage per gift. There is a lot of debate on whether honeymoon registry is "tacky" or not (see comments in the OBB article for buy-our-honeymoon). I personally think it's a great idea, especially since these days more and more couples live together for several years before they get married and have already established a home and don't need anything. This is the case with my fiance and I, and we weren't going to register at all. But we keep getting asked from friends and family about where we are going to register because they want to give us gifts. Luckily we discovered this honeymoon registry idea because we almost broke down and registered at Macy's for a bunch of stuff we don't need or want. What do you think about honeymoon registry?

This is great! I have been working with Magda so far on our wedding planning at Dreams Los Cabos. She's been great. I can't wait to get more info during this seminar. Our wedding is in 4 months! It's coming up so fast!

I have the same situation going on. We expected no more than 25 people to come and we are up to 40! From what I see in our wedding package information, up to 20 guests are part of the package, beyond that each person can be an additional $62-75. I'm kinda hoping we can work something out for a better deal since that's pretty much two weddings worth of people according to the packages they offer. The worst part is some of our guests have a timeshare at a nearby hotel and they have opted not to stay at our hotel and their entrance fee to the hotel/wedding is $95!! I'm with ya on worrying about budget. I had no idea so many people would be this excited to travel to another country! But I'm happy they can come and I'm sure everything will work out in the end.

thanks so much for answering! I really appreciate it. If I have any other questions later on, I hope you don't mind me bugging you again. Happy New Year! -Casi

Thanks for your review Tammy! My fiance and I are getting married at Dreams Los Cabos in late June. I see your profile says you are a Dreams specialist, would you mind answering a few questions I have? I would go to our wedding coordinator, but it's pretty tough to get answers since I'm sure she is super busy and our wedding isn't for 6 months. - Does the wedding reception include a bar or do you have to pay extra for that? This was a bit unclear in the package write-up. - You say you had a spa party, I would love to do this with my girl friends the morning of the wedding. How much was this? I know you're wedding was in 2006, but I just would like to get an idea. Is it priced per person? Did you get a better deal since you had several people? - When did you begin picking out your menu, flowers, cake, etc. before the wedding? I think I saw you say in another thread about one month before, but just want to double check. Hope you don't mind all the questions. Thanks!! -Casi

We are getting married at Dreams Los Cabos in late June, 2012. I'm so excited. I don't have any questions just yet, but I love hearing all the great ideas everyone has. If I have any questions down the road I will definitely come back here and ask.