Savs1027

I don't think I ever shared these on here, but wanted to share my blog posts about the days at the resort before and after the wedding. You can see the master suite, the pools, some of the restaurants, the spa etc! http://www.savanahsmiles.com/2012/12/cancun-day-before-day-1-and-day-2.html http://www.savanahsmiles.com/2013/01/cancun-day-3-and-4.html http://www.savanahsmiles.com/2013/01/cancun-day-5-and-6.html http://www.savanahsmiles.com/2013/01/cancun-day-7-10.html If you have any questions let me know!

yay! so glad! Lorena is very sweet and really works to make sure you have everything you want/need!! Desires Terrace I believe is the area right outside of Desires. It's upstairs and it's right by the ballrooms and the wedding office too. The italian restaurant and the japanese restaurant are up those steps as well. (someone who's been correct me if I'm wrong)

no problem! I would have been lost without everyones help on here so I'm trying to give back! The next 5 weeks are going to fly! Y'all will have so much fun and I promise, even if everything doesn't go exactly as planned, it will still be amazing!!

They ended up putting the tall glass vases on our guestbook/cake table without even asking for it. They put them there so we could put our bouquets in it. There was no charge.

We didn't have assigned seating and my husband and I sat with my mom, dad, brother, sister and grandmother. The only reserved tables we had were for our table and then a table for my husbands family. There were more of them that needed to sit together so that's why we ended up sitting with my family. The tables sit 8 very comfortably and I think 10 is still doable. I wanted the deck to be filled up so I did 5 tables of 8 chairs but they weren't all full.

We must have a different lighting document because I just checked and mine doesn't say anything about $700. It just says paper lanterns - $10 each. You can pretty much decide everything there. But I would have an idea of what you want. I knew what kind of flowers I wanted and I had already told her ahead of time. If I wanted to change, I could have. BUT, Lorena had NO examples to show me of anything! Luckily I had already seen the lighting options ahead of time so I was pretty sure I wanted the bamboo poles, but I was just expecting some sort of book with all of the options when we arrived. I had thought I might want the flowers for the gazebo and just planned on asking about that when I got there. I was overwhelmed and forgot to ask about it, and because there was no list or book or anything to look at I forgot. But, literally everything you can decide when you get there... just have a list written down of everything you want to go over with her so you dont forget anything like I did. If you can't get in touch with the videographer, I would tell Lorena that you possibly want to hire them for the entire night and that you HAVE to meet with them before the wedding. She could probably get in touch with them for you. If you sent the DJ your song list, he will have everything downloaded for you and let you listen to it to make sure he has the songs right. And you can meet with the minister once you are there too to pick all the readings and vows. I know it's stressful with no responses. But I promise they make everything wonderful. And they all go out of their way to make you happy. Not just the wedding staff, everyone at the resort.

With tax, BM hair is $65.49 and $54.39 for above the shoulder hair. Even with all the drama with the DJ for me and a few mess ups, whoever he had there since he left did keep the party going. They did a great job with the song list I provided and took requests. I don't think you have anything to worry about with the music.

Emily, Did you get the document with the lighting options? I think I still have it somewhere in my email from Lorena if you don't have it. I could email it to you. Those lanterns are $10 each. Or you can do the option like I did and have them hanging from the bamboo poles. I felt like our reception was lit up really well with that, the dance floor, and the lights under the tables. I'm not sure where the $700 came from though. I have no idea about the party bus... I'm not even sure they have that?? I think that's an "excursion" you would have to book through one of the people they have there on site. But again, I'm not sure about that. I never saw anything about it though when we were there. You could ask that on the DRC facebook page. They have someone on there answering questions that could probably help more than a wedding coordinator could.

We did the Mexican buffet and it was SO good! Everyone said it was the best food they had had they whole trip!

That's how I felt about the menu too. I asked about the buffet and they told me they could do a minimum of 20 people so it worked for us!

Nope, no credit! But you really are getting so much more for you money if you upgrade. If you calculate everything you get it's well over the $3000 you're paying. I calculated everything out before deciding which package to go with.

We did! We got married on the saturday before we left at our church and then left for Mexico on Thursday. I think most people do it like this from what I hear. Most of our guests knew that it we did that, but if we didn't tell them, they probably wouldn't have known. The officiant is a minister and you even sign a document there during the ceremony.

Hello! We got married at DRC last month and we opted for the "fake" cocktail hour and used the money towards our dinner. It worked out great because all of our guests were on the beach anyway watching us take pictures. We took pictures really close to the beach bar so everyone stood there and drank and watched us take pics. We had our reception on the deck so I cant really speak for seaside grill, but I don't think the dance floor is needed anywhere escept if you were to have your reception on the beach. We had it only because I liked the way it looked in pictures. I saw a reception while we were there on the pool terrace that didn't have a dance floor and everyone was still having a blast! The 1 kid at our reception who was 11 did not count towards our number.

Yup, you get to add that 50 on! If you have Anel as your photographer, get ready to have a VERY hard time picking pictures though!! She took 600 of us and we had to narrow it down to 250 because we got the $1500 package plus the 50 with the ultimate package. We ended up paying for 50 extra pictures because we couldn't pick just 250!

If that is going to be your "reception" I would absolutely make a reservation. When we ate at the restaurants, we always had to split up. There were about 13 of us that ate together most nights and we always had to do 9 and 4. They put us at tables close together, but it was still split and you couldn't talk to everyone.

I didn't have mine there, but we ate there twice and I loved the way it looked. It's very "mexian" themed and festive. I loved all the mexican flags hanging from the ceiling. I remember seeing some pictures of a reception there, but I have no idea where I found them. Google Dreams Riviera Cancun wedding photos and you will have so many options come up! Also, if you are using the resort photographers, they may be able to tell you their opinion on it and show you pictures if they have any. I love our pictures from the pool deck, but having to move inside halfway through because of a downpour was stressful. I think El Patio is a great idea!

They probaby have several the same day. Luckily there were no others on my day, but the saturday before there were 3 ceremonys going on at the same time and then 2 receptions. And the same day there was one earlier in the day so there were 4 total that day.

The closest bar that's open is probably the lobby bar, but it's quite a hike to get there. The swim up bar and beach bar are the closest, but I think they close at 6pm. Are you having dinner for your guests?? I thought the price of the bar was included with the dinner. $48 per person.

They were $15 each I believe.

yes that's correct. And it only includes 50 photos. You have to buy a separate photo package. The photo packages for adventure photos are pretty cheap in my opinion for what you get. For the coverage we got and the quality of the photos we got, we would have paid alot more in the US. Here is a link to our slideshow that Anel did for us a few weeks ago. http://171212ryan.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx They don't let you switch out between things in the package unless it's the same type of thing. Like you can use cocktail hour money towards dinner, and bouquet money towards centerpieces, but not photographry to food.

Quote:Originally Posted by bbbride Great thank you so so much!!! Couple more questions.. how many hours come with the Ultimate Package? Will I get to pick Anel for my wedding? (its not til sept 2014 -- I'm assuming they're not too booked yet) You should be able to book Anel. If you email the company she is the one who responds and you can just request her. She will let you know if she is available. I don't know the exact amount of time you get with the ultimate package, but I don't think it's very much. Maybe just the ceremony? They have separate photography packages where you get more time, more prints, albums, TTD sessions, etc.

Quote:Originally Posted by Rach0636 Savs, I am so worried about the DJ now after hearing about your experience. I just sent him (Cesar Mauricio) my song list this past weekend and havent heard back as of yet. We leave in 2 weeks :/ Â Question about using the microphone for the ceremony at the gazebo... did you think it was loud enough so that all the other guests as the pool can hear you? I want to make sure that im not broadcasting over the entire pool area! Â I know you said you decided to use the poles with the lanterns and LOVED them. Did you decide this while you were down there, or did you have to give them a heads up before you left? Â I am also not doing a cocktail hour and hoping that everyone will gather at the beach bar. The only thing I am worried about is that there are two other weddings going on that day, including one with 90 guests! and im hoping that they dont have the same idea :/ Did you notice any other weddings going on while yours was? If you have the microphones, people will be able to hear you. The gazebo isn't private at all. I'm not sure if you can see in the pictures, but there are people all around watching you. They will block people from walking through the ceremony, but there are definitely people around. But if you don't have the mic, your guests won't hear you. The beach bar is right behind the gazebo and they have music playing and people splashing in the pool, etc... I had told Lorena I wanted the bamboo poles ahead of time, but I"m not sure she got the email because it wasn't on our invoice she sent. So we told her there and it was fine. I don't think it's an issue if you decide on it there. We were lucky and had no other weddings on our day. But since there are others on your day, I would ask Lorena where their cocktail hour is. If their ceremony is at the North beach, this is pretty far from the beach bar so I wouldn't think they would do it there, but if it's at the south beach, it's right next to the beach bar so there's a chance they could be doing it there. I would just ask your wedding coordinator. Hopefully they wouldn't mind telling you.

No, they don't personalize them. But for that price, I couldn't turn them down. I'm sure you could write on them with a pretty sharpie or something if you wanted them personalized. I really think something is going on with the DJ..... he used to post pictures on his facebook page every day of the weddings he was doing and he doesn't anymore. And all the weddings he used to post were at Dreams and I looked the other day and he posted 2 weddings at Secrets. And that's all he's posted recently. I emailed him our song list for the ceremony and the reception a few weeks ahead of time and he downloaded all the music for us. That's why I was so nervous before we left... We hadn't heard from him at all so I had no idea if we needed to bring our music with us or if he was still taking care of it. He finally wrote me back 2 days before we left and said not to worry. If you don't hear from him, I'd have a back up ready... either on your ipod or a CD. I would still recommend getting the sound system for the ceremony.... I really liked that we had a microphone to say our vows. You can hear is so clearly on the video. With the wind and everything else going on I don't think people will be able to hear you if you don't have the mic.

I would definietly recommend the sound system. Atleast at the gazebo, there are alot of other things going on and your guests probably won't hear you or the minister.

You can only put the money towards food. So if you don't have 20 guests then I would do the cocktail hour or downgrade your package. For some reason you can only do "exchanges" within the same category. Food with food, flowers for flowers, etc.