amysis

Quote: Originally Posted by Tbasgall Amysis- you said the stuff for the OOT bags were a pain. If you had to do it again would you still? I'm debating on whether or not it's worth the hassle. Thanks for your input. Quote: Originally Posted by Tbasgall I just received an email stating that Fatima will no longer be working at Dreams. It looks like I have been handed off to another wedding coordinator. I'm a little nervous about this. Anyone else have experience working with Eleane? Hi Tbasgall, I would still do the OOT bags, if I were to do it over again. Our guests took their time and money to travel to Mexico for us, and we appreciated it so very much, that this was our way of recognizing them. My friends and family still use the cups and bags we gave them, and I know they went through a lot of the Pepto and Advil while we were at the resorts too. I've heard of other brides giving out the OOT bags before leaving town so each guest carried his/her own to Mexico, but that didn't work for us as most of our guests live in different places than we do. But I would have done that in a heartbeat if I could have! Fatima was our main wedding coordinator (we worked with her throughout the planning process), but I did exchange a few emails with Eleane, and she also handled our day of coordination. I liked her a lot, and she seemed very capable. I think you're in good hands.

I couldn't find any pictures of the dining tables from the reception, but here's one of the cake table. It shows you the lantern. Just imagine it with some shells (and the glow sticks ). Oh, and that sign in the lower left: kind of ugly, but it was great for letting people know that our events were private. It wasn't really needed for the wedding, but we put it up for our bonfire the night before, and we noticed several people starting to wander over, then they noticed the sign and walked away (we still had a few random people sit down and join us anyway!)

Hi Krista! We did a HUGE playlist of songs for dinner music and the reception. We organized it so it could have played straight through, but our guests had a lot of fun choosing songs to play throughout the evening. I brought various sizes of paper lanterns in various shades of aqua (pic attached), little seashells, and mini lanterns as decorations. The wedding coordinators did an amazing job decorating with them! They lined the aisle with the paper lanterns for the ceremony and moved them over to the reception area afterwards. They put the shells on the tables along with the lanterns (and we also brought glow sticks and bracelets as favors for our guests--which were awesome, BTW!--and they put those on the tables too). It was very minimal, but the setting is so beautiful that you don't need too many decorations, IMO. Finally, the stuff for the OOT bags was a pain to get down there. We packed it all in actual boxes, which immigrations went through thoroughly upon our arrival (it was a HUGE pain, but they didn't charge us any import tax or confiscate anything). I had heard some advice from another bride to pack it all in a suitcase, and then to pack your dress in that same suitcase for the trip home, but we had too much stuff for the OOT bags to fit in one suitcase! I had also debated buying a suitcase or two at a thrift shop to pack the OOT stuff in and then just leave at the resort. I hope that helps a little bit!

Hi Michelle, I had a lot of trouble choosing food too, since we weren't able to taste anything! I had Fatima choose for us, with my requests being "guests favorites" and "local flavor". We had the Ultimate Package, so we chose from the Gold Menu. Our appetizers were: ceviche in chalup, guacamole and salsa, Acapulco shrimp ceviche on tartlets, mini tamales, mini tacos, and chile poppers. We did the Mexicano Poblano pepper with tuna for the salad (I don't think this was a guest favorite) and the Poblana Soup (awesome!) Our main courses were the steak and chicken combo and the fish filet Provence. I didn't eat that much during our reception, so I can't give too much of a personal review of the food, but I did have a little of the appetizers and soup, which were both very good! We received good feedback from our guests about the food in general...I heard specifics about the appetizers, soup, and the fish. A quick note about the cake: it was not plated and served, and our guests didn't even know it was there. I'm sure almost all of it was thrown away, which makes me sad (especially considering we paid extra for cake for our extra guests!) We did have the Mexican flan dessert also, so our guests had something sweet, just not cake.

I'm having issues this morning. Please see my reply above.

We did bring down our own docking station. We bought the portable Bose (the one that runs on battery...we bought the package from Amazon that includes an extra battery and a carrying case for about $450 USD. We figured we'd buy the system rather than paying the rental fee! And it wasn't a pain to carry; it fit inside our carryon no problem). The sound was fantastic for the music! The microphone we tried to use (an iphone app) didn't work all that well; people could hear our ceremony, but not all that well.

Oh! And here is our slideshow from Adventure Photo, if anyone is interested. I've said it earlier, but I was very happy working with our photographer, Lili. I do think they have a handful of poses that they use for each couple they photograph, but she also came up with several original poses for us. And to top it off, our wedding day was the hottest day that we were in PV, and there was zero wind. I stopped the photos when sweat started dripping down my face, and we didn't get as many wedding party and family photos as we really wanted (and ended up doing the few we have inside, which didn't provide the most beautiful backdrop). Long story short, if you see anything in those photos you don't like, it was my choosing, not Adventure Photography's. Lili would have happily dealt with the heat and taken lots of shots for us. http://video214.com/play/UWdIrAvi9pbX6q0yulkkHg/s/dark

Hi Ladies! I know I'm way behind on posting a review--we've had 1 AHR already and have another one in 2 weeks (one in the town where we currently live and one in our hometown). It's been wonderful but a little much--we've been married for a month now, and we are still planning! @Tbasgall, we did an iPod reception. I know that's not for everyone, and it is nice to have a DJ so you don't have to worry about a thing. Our guests loved the iPod. I asked everyone to send me song requests prior to the wedding, and we loaded the iPod up with all the requests plus songs we really like. Our guests had a great time selecting songs themselves throughout the night (although I think we ended up dancing to Thrift Shop about 5 times).

Kate, you look stunning! What a beautiful wedding! Fatima was our wedding coordinator. I enjoyed working with her and found her to be extremely attentive. But it was a surprise to have Eleane there during our actual wedding. It was fine, just a surprise. We ended up buying all of our photos from Adventure Photography. It was $800 for about 500 photos (we had a lot more photos than that, but we went through and deleted duplicates and unflattering photos). This also included an upgraded photo book with 100 photos.

Hey Ladies! I just returned from Dreams where we had our wedding this past weekend. We are exhausted but had an absolutely amazing time. Kate, my experience was eerily similar to yours! I am so sorry you had the issues you did. It's such an emotional day, and those hiccups are so stressful! (I also did not receive my flowers in water, the other wedding coordinator came to get us, everything seemed to be late, etc.) I will be working on a full review, but for the time being, I will just say that our entire experience was great. We had a few issues, but overall we were thrilled with everything. My biggest take away is that everything seems to run on what we dubbed "Mexican time" which is about 15 minutes late. I also want to mention that I was very happy with Adventure Photography after we arrived (as I had some frustrations prior to arrival). Our photographer, Lili, found us the day after we arrived and sat down with us to discuss our timeline and shot lists. She was extremely helpful throughout the wedding (she helped with my veil and bustle), our guests loved her, and she fit in perfectly with our group. Feel free to ask any questions that you all may think of while I work on my full review--it will likely take awhile

Hey Ladies! Jenny, thank you so much for confirming that there is a Desires at the resort! @SLetendre & @Kristadawn: We are working with Adventure Photography, and I have also had issues with their communication. I was under the impression that we got the 50 photos on CD--I haven't heard anything about prints. I can tell you that the Love and Ultimate packages only include 50 images--any additional have to be purchased at approximate $10 each. Let me know if they get back to you on prints, please! And I will let you ladies know what I find out--I cannot believe that our wedding is 3 weeks from today! @Kristadawn: The packages all include 20 people for food, drinks, cake, etc. It is a per person charge beyond 20, which I agree is very frustrating given that it's an all inclusive. I've had to think about it as paying for the private service, rather than the food and drinks. And kids do cost less than adults. I have a friend that recently got married at Dreams Cancun, and they did a late morning ceremony, reserved tables at one of the restaurants for lunch, and then they rented a catamaran and took all of their guests sailing for the afternoon. They had a fantastic time! I absolutely love the idea, except that it'd mean I wouldn't wear my dress as long! @futurekcarrera: I did my bridesmaids flowers this afternoon! I am absolutely onboard with fake flowers! I bought flowers at Michaels for $8 for each BM bouquet and some wired ribbon to hold the stems together. They are not as beautiful as those flowers on weddingchicks.com, but I think they look pretty darn good for about $10 each. Even if we don't take them back home with us, it's way cheaper than buying the real flowers at the resort.

That is not a bad price at all considering the number of photos! Do you also know if there is a late night bar at the resort? I keep reading about the "sports bar", but I can't find anything more concrete about it. I've also heard about Desires at a lot of Dreams resorts, but it doesn't seem to be in PV?

Jenny, Photoshoots is $200 for the entire day?! Wow...I'm kicking myself for not working with them. How many photos do they include?

Oh, and the Adventure Photo will sell you as many photos as you want beyond the 50 included in the package at approximately $10/photo.

Hi Krista! Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I cannot believe it, but my wedding is 3 1/2 weeks away at Dreams! We leave 3 weeks from today! Phew! Jenny is right on with all her answers. The wedding coordinators at Dreams are amazing and have been on top of their communication, which I appreciate a ton, but they are not flexible with changes to the wedding packages, and everything has additional cost. We are doing our best to keep costs low by DIYing as much as possible and bringing things with us (bridesmaids flowers, which are fake, centerpieces, sound system, etc) but we've gotten to the point where additional cost is just a number, and if we pay for it the stress goes away (I know that's not the best thing, but we've just gotten to that point). I've also thought long and hard about the things that are important to me, and we are putting extra money into those things. The things that are not priority are not getting any additional money (for example, linens are not priority for us, so we are using the white linens included in our wedding package). Ok, I feel like I'm just blabbing here! Please let me know if you have specific questions, and I'll do my best to help!

Hi Ladies! I'm working on our detailed schedule for our wedding day, and I will post it when it's completed, however our basic schedule is similar to aild's, except that we are doing photos before the ceremony. So we have: 6pm ceremony 6:30-7:30 cocktail hour 7:30-10:30 reception I really wanted to keep everything going. I hope we don't feel rushed, but I also wanted to get pictures done earlier in the day. Hopefully we also don't get too hot doing photos in the afternoon! I also received the ceremony script from Fatima (I can't get it to attach here, and it's a PDF so I can't copy and paste it--let me know if anyone would like me to send it directly). I was surprised--I didn't think I would want to edit their script, but after reading it, we are going to write our own. We are not overly religious, but I at least want a prayer in our ceremony, and their script feels really generic to me (which makes sense and all). Has anyone given thought to how many photos you are planning on purchasing? I'm just going to stick with Adventure Photo, and the Ultimate package only includes the 50 photos. I know we want more than that, but I'm not sure how many are too few and how many are too many...

Hi Ladies! I'm working on our detailed schedule for our wedding day, and I will post it when it's completed, however our basic schedule is similar to aild's, except that we are doing photos before the ceremony. So we have: 6pm ceremony 6:30-7:30 cocktail hour 7:30-10:30 reception I really wanted to keep everything going. I hope we don't feel rushed, but I also wanted to get pictures done earlier in the day. Hopefully we also don't get too hot doing photos in the afternoon! I also received the ceremony script from Fatima (I can't get it to attach here, and it's a PDF so I can't copy and paste it--let me know if anyone would like me to send it directly). I was surprised--I didn't think I would want to edit their script, but after reading it, we are going to write our own. We are not overly religious, but I at least want a prayer in our ceremony, and their script feels really generic to me (which makes sense and all). Has anyone given thought to how many photos you are planning on purchasing? I'm just going to stick with Adventure Photo, and the Ultimate package only includes the 50 photos. I know we want more than that, but I'm not sure how many are too few and how many are too many...

Hi Jenny, I thought about rose petals for a second, but I figured they'd just blow away (real or fake). I'm sure Eleane or whoever your point of contact is at the resort will be more than happy to give you info on the rose petals and answer your questions. I will say, throughout the entire planning process, the wedding coordinators at Dreams have been amazing. I send Fatima several emails a week, and she usually gets back to me in just a few hours. We'll see how the onsite stuff goes, but so far, I'm extremely happy with the team at Dreams.

Hey Ladies! I'm so excited to see so many new messages (it's been awhile since I've hopped on here...too many wedding details that have needed attention!) @KateG our weddings are just a week apart! I'm so excited for you! When do you leave the resort? Would you be willing to give me a rundown after your big day? And we are doing the Bonfire as our "rehearsal dinner". I completely agree that it's pricey, but I didn't want to risk getting everyone together at a restaurant, and past brides at Dreams all say the bonfire is awesome. @SLetendre I'll also give you an update on the weather this May @Jenny2014 would you be willing to PM me the Photoshoots Vallarta info? We are getting our details together and have pretty much everything under control other than the final guest count (common...people know by now if they're able to make the trip or not, but I still can't get commitments or declines from some people!) and a few details with the resort. Thought I'd let you ladies know (since I really struggled with this) that we are going to bring our own sound system (a portable Bose) and use a microphone app for both the ceremony and reception, which I am praying will be loud enough, but sounds great in my open back yard (and I live near an interstate, and we can still hear the system very well with the interstate background noise). Have you ladies given any thought into a dance floor? I hate to spend so much money on one (we will be having our reception on the beach), but I'm not sure people will be too excited to dance on the sand.

As of right now, we have about 40 people that will be joining us in PV. We still have a few stragglers that keep saying they may make the trip, but I'm guessing that if they haven't committed by now--2 months out--they won't actually be joining us. As much as it pains me to pay $75 pp for the additional 20 people (don't get me wrong--$75pp is nothing for a wedding, but I hate paying it when we're at an all inclusive and we could all go eat at one of the resort restaurants for no additional cost!), we feel so blessed that these people are joining us for our special day. We are also doing the bonfire the night before our wedding. I still need to get in touch with Fatima about this, as I recently learned that the resort's Mexican fiestas are on Friday nights, and I hope that we'll be able to participate in that before the bonfire. I'm DIYing as much as possible. I'm planning on checking a suitcase with all the DIYs (decorations, OOT bags, programs, etc) and then using that same suitcase to pack my gown in for the flight home. I'm also going to have all my BM's hold pomanders that we will be bringing down and then using as centerpieces (I know pomanders are debatable--people either love or hate 'em. I like them, and I love that they can also serve as centerpieces.) Because, like you said, the flowers at the resort are ridiculously expensive. I thought about looking at outside florists, but I'm trying so hard to cut down on any extra "worry", that I didn't want to have to coordinate anything else on our wedding day. I did read some good reviews of local florists on this forum. I don't remember the names of the shops, but check around. I had some communication with Adventure Photo via email, because like you, I'd like more than 50 photos. But I haven't been able to get anyone to email me back in the past few weeks. I guess I'll just have to be more persistent on that, but it's frustrating. I hope that helps a little bit. I'm easy going to a fault, and I really just want things to be as stress free as possible, thus I'm foregoing a lot of details.

Great idea, Jenny! I'm getting married at Dreams in May, and I'd so appreciate more recent information. So far, I've had a great experience with both Eleane and Fatima at the resort--they are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. We are going with the Ultimate package, but we are trying to keep it pretty low key beyond that and aren't getting into outside vendors. That's about all I have to report so far, but I will keep you posted throughout the rest of the process.

Hi Ladies! I have been searching through this thread for specific info on this an I just can't find anything. Can any past Dreams PV brides help?! I'm getting married on May 25th at Dreams with our ceremony and reception on the beach. My FI and I are planning on bringing a portable Bose systems and using an ipod for music, but it isn't compatible with a microphone. I'm guessing we will need a microphone for the ceremony and for the reception. Any thoughts on how to work this out, other than paying the big bucks to rent the resorts sound system? Thanks to you all!