BeaBride

Hey TulumBride2013: Thanks so much! I just pasted one of my previous posts to answer your question (in case you didn't see it). I brought: -battery operated votives with mercury glass votive holders for the reception tables (5 per table).I had 6 guest tables, 1 head table, and a welcome/gift table. The DJ also had a table and set up his own lights around it -lantern centrepieces with a battery operated pillar candles inside (lantern is made of black metal and plastic windows instead of glass). We tied ribbon around them and they looked great. -fake flower petals in ivory and dark pink for the reception tables -table number holders with table number cards -menus for each plate -wedding favours which were airplane shaped luggage tags in a box wrapped with ribbon. Each had a guest's name on it as their place holder - card box (looked like a mailbox), decorated - self-standing seating charts for guests to know what table to sit at - star decoration, spray painted paper lanterns, and tissue paper pomanders for the ceiling at the Seaside Grill - "Just Married" banner for the reception - ribbon for the chapel pews and reserved signs for the front pews in the chapel - fake flower petals in pink and ivory for the aisle in the chapel - programs for guests at the chapel I paid to have the wedding staff set everything up. I didn't have time to set anything up, and I didn't want to add stress to anyone in the wedding to run around and set stuff up because the window of opportunity to do so was pretty tight. Plus I wanted people to be around for pictures after the ceremony. I gave Natalia printed instructions on how to set up the chapel and the reception area with a picture of how I wanted the reception tables to look. My sister-in-law to be and friend made sure that the chapel and reception areas were set up properly once the wedding staff did it. Unfortunately, as you probably saw in the pictures, the ribbon for the chapel pews weren't as nicely placed as they were meant to be. They had wire in them and were a bit "krinkly" looking because I had to bring them in a suitcase. It might seem like a small detail but it annoys me every time I see the chapel pictures because I know how pretty they could look.

Hi Gals I just got married at the Dreams Tulum on November 21 this year. If you're considering this property, have you checked out the "New Dreams Tulum" thread? There's lots of info on there. You can also ask me if you have any specific questions.

Hi there! I just married at the Dreams Tulum on November 21st. Have you checked out the NEW DREAMS TULUM thread? Lots of info! Plus, if you have nay specific questions, you can ask me. Happy Planning!

Tulumbride2013, My hair and makeup held up really well. Post sleeping (albeit only about 3 hours) and some wedding night hanky panky, I got up touched up the makeup a little and added a couple of bobby pins before doing our TTD shots at 5:45AM the next morning. I washed my face off after breakfast but didn't wash out my hair until 9:00PM the day after the wedding and the "do" was still in pretty good shape. My hair was mostly up with a bit down and curly to the side. I think if you have a down-do or a partial up/down do, you need to be a bit more concerned about whether it will last, especially if it's curled because of the humidity and dancing. If I wasn't so darn tired and hung over, I would have done my makeup a bit better (foundation, blush, and lips) I don't have many good hair shots or any close-ups but I'm posting some resort photog pics of me so you have an idea of what the hair looked like on the wedding day. Pre-ceremony "Let's get this show on the road!": Dad giving me away: Here's a few sneak peak photos that my photographer sent me of the TTD the morning after the wedding (see hair!): (Resort Photog) Chapel Ceremony: Resort Photog: First Kiss! I'm happy to give you any other info you might need. For our symbolic ceremony, the wedding coordinator forwarded the ceremony script they usually use. You can go with that or create your own. We used the bones of the usual one and added/changed some stuff on it, then emailed the pastor our script. The ceremony was about 20 minutes and Pastor Kiko was the minister. He did a good job but because English isn't his first language, his breaks in the vows when he told us to repeat after him were at odd spots at times. Also, despite having the microphone it was sometimes hard to hear him at the back (not his fault) because it was not loud enough and the mic sometimes cut out. You definitely need a mic though regardless of where the ceremony is and when you say your vows, say them loudly and clearly if you remember in all your nervousness. I'm a bit type A myself so I know what you're feeling. Either way, everything will be great. You can do as much pre-planning as you want, some things are just out of you're control and you're wedding will never be 100% perfect...but almost! Since your ceremony is at 5pm, it'll be really close to sun-down so you definitely will need time before for pictures.You should be safe if you book your hair and makeup for 11am so even if it takes 3 hours, you still have 3 hours before the ceremony....unless of course you don't want that much time before. It also depends on whether you're seeing your groom before or not. I didn't so all our "together" shots are during and after the ceremony.

I had two bridesmaids and myself booked for hair at 12:00 and my brother's girlfriend had her hair booking at 1:00. Myself and my 2 bridesmaids then had our makeup bookings at 1:00 for two of us and 1:30 for one person. I had 4 nail appointments all for the same time. My sister-in-law completely forgot to do her nails at home so I booked her mani/pedi appointment the day before at the resort and was lucky enough that the spa could accommodate. I pre-booked my 3 other nail appointments by email from Canada and made all the appointments for the evening before my wedding at 5:30pm. I'm so glad I did because it was one less thing to worry about on the day of the wedding. My sister-in-law had a French manicure and pedicure, I had a French manicure, and my mom & family friend both had a basic manicure. The nails turned out really nice and no one had any complaints. They are really sweet and good at what they do AND they took a reasonable amount of time to do it. FYI: My MOH decided to have acrylics done because she chews her nails so she did them before heading to Mexico since they don't do them at the resort. My bridesmaid decided to have both her manicure and pedicure done at home to simplify things for her. Myself, my MOH, my mom, a family friend, and my brother's girlfriend all decided to do our pedicures before leaving Canada since they last long enough to still be nice for the wedding. Myself and my MOH did gel pedicures at home while the rest just had regular polish. I really wanted a gel pedicure and they don't do them at the resort. I did a gel French manicure test run at home to see if the polish would last long enough (4-5 days) to be nice for the wedding and they probably would have been fine if I we weren't doing hand/ring shots, but I didn't want to take the chance since the French tips weren't as nice a few days later. That's why I decided to do our manicures at the resort. I did not want acrylics, but if you want to do all your nails at home and don't mind acrylics, that is the way to go for a lasting manicure. As for pedicures, it seems that no matter what kind of pedicure you get (basic polish, gel, acrylic), it will still look beautiful 4-5 days later. We all had our pedicures done on Saturday in Canada, left on Sunday, and the wedding was on Wednesday.

Glad to help! If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them as best as I can.

Hi DT Brides! I had a great wedding all in all. Of course, there will always be things that didn't go smoothly. I will be posting a review and some pics eventually, but for now, I just wanted to share a few things that I wish I had known before. 1. SPA: I knew from a previous bride that I needed to give myself plenty of time to get ready so I booked my hair for 12:00 and makeup for 1:00pm. My ceremony was at 4:00pm. When I booked the appointments for hair and makeup months before, the spa concierge Adriana assured me by email that everyone would be finished by 2:00pm. I got to the spa at 11:45, and they didn't start my hair until about 12:30. The lady that did my hair, Rosely, was very good at her job but took FOREVER. She started my makeup around 2:30 (half an hour after I was supposed to have been finished completely) and it was also nice but not exactly what I wanted. I would have been able to fix it if I had enough time to get ready in my room, but I did not get back to my room to get dressed until 3:10pm!! That left me 50 minutes to get dressed, eat, take pictures and be at the chapel. I lost my cool. That last thing you want is to be rushing to your room from the spa and getting ready in a frenzy! This was hands down the most disappointing thing of the entire day for me. The spa opens at 9:00am, so I actually called them at 9:15 on my wedding day to ask if I could come in any earlier. It wasn't possible. I guess I had a gut feeling that I might not have enough time. Plus I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time for pictures pre-ceremony. FYI: Bring pictures of exactly what you want done with your hair and makeup. The ladies at the spa speak little to no English. I brought a picture of my hair that I took after my hair trial at home in Canada, and she copied it and made it look even nicer! However, I wanted a different bang than in the picture, so I showed her a picture of the bang that I wanted but it didn't end up looking like the photo that I brought. I forgot to take a picture of the makeup that I wanted but either way, it was pretty darn close. The only thing I would have changed is black eyeliner instead of brown, which she suggested and maybe a bit more blush. ***Also, I would suggest taking your own makeup. I took all of my own makeup so I wouldn't be stressed about choosing colours, and thank God I did because who knows when I would have returned to my room if I had to choose the makeup! 2. SUNLIGHT: Sunset begins at about 5:00-5:15 which I knew before going there but I was continually assured by Dreams staff, brides on the forum, and my travel agent that I would have plenty of light for pictures. It was too rushed. The entire afternoon, I felt stressed because I felt as if we were chasing the light. (ie. I wanted to finish my hair and makeup with plenty of time for pre-ceremony pictures because I knew we wouldn't have much light after the ceremony. Also, I wanted the ceremony to start on time because I knew that we only had about an hour of sunlight after the ceremony for pictures with 55 people.) Had I known, I would have booked my wedding for 2:00pm and booked the spa at 9:00am. We actually did ask to have the wedding moved earlier than 4:00pm the day before but the wedding coordinator said it couldn't be accommodated. 3. PHOTOGRAPHY: The photographer we hired arrived the evening before and almost immediately asked if we could have an earlier ceremony due to daylight. He also suggested later in the evening that I get an earlier spa appointment just in case so we could have plenty of picture time before the ceremony. I wish I had received the request earlier because by the time I got it, we were eating dinner and the spa was closed. If I could change things, I think it may have helped to have him at the resort a day earlier. He's an old friend of my husband's, and we live in different cities so I never actually communicated with him. My husband arranged the photography but I wish I had been more involved. Having said that, I think the photographer was probably one of the best decisions we made throughout the planning process. He was efficient, very professional, and pretty much ran the rehearsal the evening before while the wedding planner stood by and took notes. We are so glad that we hired someone because although the pictures we received with the package are nice, we would not have been satisfied with having only those. We used those shots only for ceremony pictures and a few right after the ceremony. The vast majority of pics like getting ready, bride/groom before ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, family pics, reception, trash the dress were all done by our photographer. I REALLY want to see them, but he said that it would take about 3 weeks to edit etc. since he also has a full-time job along with shooting weddings.

TexasMandy: Thanks!! I took all of it with me as I was told by various Dreams staff that shipping could be problematic. I didn't have to pay for any additional bags as my family was nice enough to take stuff along for us. We all used little carry-on suitcases; I think we had 5 little carry-on suitcases with wedding stuff and the rest we just spread amongst our regular luggage. I forgot to mention that we also had programs at the chapel.

Hi AppKate I just got back from DT last night and had a fantastic wedding! Everything will be fine! I brought: -battery operated votives with mercury glass votive holders for the reception tables (5 per table).I had 6 guest tables, 1 head table, and a welcome/gift table. The DJ also had a table and set up his own lights around it -lantern centrepieces with a battery operated pillar candles inside (lantern is made of black metal and plastic windows instead of glass). We tied ribbon around them and they looked great. -fake flower petals in ivory and dark pink -table number holders with table number cards -menus for each plate -wedding favours which were airplane shaped luggage tags in a box wrapped with ribbon. Each had a guest's name on it as their place holder - card box - self-standing seating cards for guests to know what table to sit at - star decoration, spray painted paper lanterns, and tissue paper pomanders for the ceiling at the Seaside Grill - "Just Married" banner for the reception - ribbon for the chapel pews and reserved signs for the front pews in the chapel - fake flower petals in pink and ivory for the aisle I paid to have the wedding staff set everything up. I didn't have time to set anything up, and I didn't want to add stress to anyone in the wedding to run around and set stuff up because the window of opportunity to do so was pretty tight. Plus I wanted people to be around for pictures after the ceremony. I gave Natalia printed instructions on how to set up the chapel and the reception area with a picture of how I wanted the reception tables to look. My sister-in-law to be and friend made sure that the chapel and reception areas were set up properly once the wedding staff did it.

Hi Vanessa I'll be getting married at the Dreams Tulum next week! I booked an external DJ. His name is DJ Bijan from Mayanvibes. So far, all the communication with him has been great. Let me know if you need any more info.

Hi Amyspiel My wedding date is November 21st, so I'll be leaving this Sunday the 18th. I booked my resort in early January and then sent an email save-the-date to everyone at the same time. It turns out that I didn't have time to mail save-the-dates (even though I think they are really cute) as the booking deadline to book as a group (with the group price we were initially quoted) was at the end of January. I could have requested a new group quote to extend the deadline but the quote would have been a bit more expensive. The short notice ended up not making a difference anyway because more than half of our 53 guests who knew they wanted to come including ourselves booked with the group in early January anyway. The standard room (gardenview) sold out pretty quickly with all the carriers. I would guess that it probably sold out by the sometime in the early summer as I don't remember exactly. Also, our Air Canada flight for the same dates ended up also selling out as well, so my two additional guests that booked in early October (which I feel is too late for a guest to book for a destination wedding due to cost/flight and room availability) had to travel 1. with another carrier, 2. on separate dates as the carrier also no longer had our exact travel dates available, 3. for less than a week because they no longer had a room available for seven days, 4. they had to get an upgraded room because the standard one was sold out long ago, and 5. they are flying out of a different city to save on cost. All in all, I would say that there is a good chance that the standard room will sell out. I think that November is probably a slower month for destination weddings, and it happened to me. Also, I think that eventually your flight/dates will sell out, so if it's important that your guests are there for the exact time you will be, tell them not to wait until the last minute to book. Some guests will wait looking for a "deal" closer to your wedding date. In my opinion, this will not happen. We actually had 8 American guests from 2 different cities who previously RSVP'd (including the best man) who ended up cancelling their RSVP in September because they waited too long to book so the prices were ridiculously high. The price that most of my guests paid with my group rate was fair in comparison to what it would have cost them to book separate from the group. It actually ended up costing my travel group guests less than average because my fiance and I split our "group savings" with all of our guests instead of using it to pay for our trip. As for my formal wedding invitations, I sent them in early May. I sent them to to various places in Europe, the US, and Canada, but like I mentioned previously, all of my guests were made aware in January by an email save-the-date. My RSVP deadline on the formal invitation was June 30. I made my RSVP date early because knowing my guests, I knew that I would have stragglers. I didn't have a final number for my wedding until 5 weeks before my wedding. Many of my guests never responded to the RSVP. The resort asks you to send the final revised spreadsheet of guests 2 weeks before the wedding. I hope that helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

Hi Ladies Attached are the AMSTAR tours available at the resort. They don't tell you the cost on the attachment but the average is 120 usd (80 thru 159). Most of them are not available Sundays. I asked about a few of them and below is the response I got: jungle tour. Daily but Sundays pick up 9:05am. the activity is at cancun lagoon starts at 12:00 finish 2:30pm so you will be back to the resort by 4pm. 65usd per person 10usd transfers and 6 usd tax. the tax must be paid cash at the pier. Columbus dinner cruise. Daily pick up 2:00pm. the activity starts at 5:00pm finish at 8:00pm is the sunset. 89usd per person 10 usd transfer and 6usd tax. the tax must be paid cash at the pier. xel ha. Daily but sundays pick up 8:30am. starts at 9:00am finish 4:30pm, back to the resort 5:00pm. 119usd per person all inclusive. any of the three tours will be a 10% off when booked in group. we can charter a catamaran at 96usd all inclusive, with at least 30 pax. The marina is 30 minutes from the resort we will be sailing 4hrs, lunch is lobter or steak, open bar on board and snorkel gear. pick up 2:00pm and the activity from 3pm to 7pm be back by 8pm.Amstartours.pdf

Taegan: Wow! You look stunning and it sounds like you had an amazing time! Congrats!! I'm leaving in 2 weeks and you're review is making it even more exciting. For anyone interested in the excursions, I emailed one of the AMSTAR reps at the resort and he emailed me an attachment with all the available tours. I then emailed that to all my guests to help them to plan their week. I'd like to do 1-2 of them if I get a chance!

Does anyone know what is served as the side or sides of the flank steak entree option?

Hi Ladies!! I haven't really been following the round table discussion but I do know that according to Natalia, the round tables are able to seat 6-10 people. I just emailed her yesterday to ask her about this as I am about to purchase the last few decor items for the reception. I also was able to finalize our seating chart for the reception. APRIL 2013: The DJ is coming alone and setting up his own audio equipment. He will be doing the sound for our ceremony as well as for the reception. He has lights available that he could set up but we didn't opt for that. We have DJ Bijan from Mayanvibes and found him after researching online and on this forum. HIs reviews by the brides on here were good, plus he's actually a Canadian living in Mexico which worked out really well because I was able to email transfer him our deposit in Canadian dollars. The remaining balance will be paid in Mexico in USD. As for the the vendor fee..... A few months ago I was reading a bride's review on her florist because I was thinking about hiring an outside florist. She paid two vendors fees for her florist because her assistant went with her to set up. In hindsight, the bride would not have paid for the assistant to come as she felt the florist was easily able to set everything up on her own. Other brides on this forum have just had their outside florist drop off the stuff and the wedding team at Dreams did the setup. As for myself, we chose not to hire a florist to save on cost as we currently have a party of 62 people. We are bringing the majority of our church and reception decorations with us.

April2013: As far as I know, you pay the vendor fee per person. I have an oustide DJ (one person only) so I will have to pay vendor fee of $120 I believe. Hope that helps.