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I'm posting questions I've gotten and my answers. Hopefully they will help other brides. I know this forum helped me a lot. QUESTION: Your review says you went back and forth a lot with the coordinator and vendors....was this in regard to decorations? The information I've received from DRC so far regarding table settings and everything isn't very clear to me and I was hoping you could help me understand some things (regarding centerpieces etc). Thanks so much! ANSWER: I went back and forth about everything. Decorations, flowers, Chandelier etc. So this is how it worked for me. I sent her my Pinterest pictures and asked her, I want this amount of these and she would get me a quote. They have vendor partnerships that bring in everything. We are not allowed to contract vendors because they use the ones they have agreements with. So once I agree on the price, style, color, she adds it to the budget planner and voila, it just shows up the day of the wedding. I sent her my ideas and she made them come true after I approve the price, colors, etc. They even threw a few extras in there as a gift. But you won’t really know till you show up. Trust them; they will make everything look beautiful. You can back out of pretty much anything up until like 1-2months before your wedding I think. I changed my mind a lot. All deadlines are on your contract. For example, there is a certain timeframe to finalize your food and flowers. My recommendation is DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK. If you think of it and consider it reasonable to ask, do so. They will most likely allow anything. Like the menu tasting is not something I read of other brides doing, but when I asked they said yes and scheduled it. It made it easier selecting a menu after tasting the food. It's hard to know if you like it from the descriptions. QUESTION: Who did your photography? I used Hideki Falcon he has his own business Button up photography. http://www.buttonupmx.com/ He was really nice and easy to work with. The only thing I would recommend if you work with him is to be adamant on the turn-around time for your pictures. It took him 10 weeks to give me the pictures. The contract said approximately 6-8 weeks. So I thought 10 weeks was too long, but I've heard other photographers take longer so it varies. I didn’t complain because I didn’t want to rush him so he would do a good job editing. And he did! We love our pictures. QUESTION: Did they charge a set-up fee? ANSWER: yes it’s 100 plus tax for everything. I think that’s reasonable considering the amount of stuff I took down. It's not worth it if you only have like 5 things. QUESTION: I'm having a cocktail hour on beach... Did you have to pay any extra for chairs tables etc on beach what was free? ANSWER: cocktail hour on the beach sounds beautiful! The cocktails only include the high tables with plain white covers. All other items cost to rent. Ask them for the "budget planner" sheet. It has all the pricing. Food wise, the tempura shrimp with the dip that comes with it was a big hit for us. QUESTIONS: When did you schedule your rehearsal dinner( before you got there ?) ANSWER: We reserved our rehearsal dinner about 1-2 months in advance, can’t remember exactly. Claudia told us what time was available at our place of selection (el patio) on Friday and she booked it for us. QUESTION: Where did you get the sparklers ? Such a great idea!! Everything looked gorgeous! ANSWER: I asked Claudia for the sparklers (another custom request), she got them from a vendor...they were $85 for 50 large sparklers. CONCERN: The initial communication with the resort has been pretty frustrating with the delayed and very short responses. ADVICE: They won’t really make your event planning and communication a priority until like 4-5 months before the event. Our wedding was in March and she began communicating promptly around the end of October/November.

1. Did you bring additional decorations? Yes. If so do you believe it was necessary? This is personal preference, but bringing my own things made my wedding more personal and unique. My guests noticed the little things I brought and keep talking about it. 2. Did you purchase decor from the local area? Nope, tourist prices are way too high for me even in large amounts. I bought everything off Amazon for way cheap. 3. What package did you get and what's the per person cost over 20 persons? Ultimate, $65/per person above the 20 included in the package. Plus $7 for cake per person above the 20. These prices include the 16% tax and 15% service for 2014. 4. Also what's the cost of bringing an outside vendor for pictures and dj? $150 per person. Some outside photographers require an assistant, so you would pay $300 for both.

deck is better. But pool deck will still be beautiful bc there are lots of lights around the pool that reflect off the water it will still be private...we saw a reception while we were there and it still looked pretty. 5 each side---10 per row. girl bring anything and everything you want and are ok with carrying . I had 5 suitcases plus our attire. Cash is the only thing you have to report...10k and over. I took sea shells and star fish and no one said a thing. yeah they have wash cloths and towels. My husband used the shampoo, body wash, sunscreen etc and he liked it...they even have a mending kit for sewing, q-tips, sponges etc.

I really recommend paying for a dj so your family or friends don't have to be monitoring the ipod. We had the Dreams DJ Mauricio. I included my review about him on this forum. I think the outside vendor fee is $150 per person. So if your DJ has an assistant, it would be $300. The dance floor is extra, not a must. The deck and beach are still perfect to dance on. Since music matters more to you, spend more on your DJ and forego the dance floor.

yes you could. A lot of my guests were actually dancing just on the deck because the younger crowd took over the dance floor.

Review of wedding coordinator and event staff at Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa - Puerto Morelos. Wedding date: March 22, 2014 Package: Ultimate Wedding Package Guest Count: 54 Rehearsal Dinner: El Patio (beautiful setting, great food, and great service) Ceremony: North Beach (very private, highly recommend it) Ceremony time: 4pm was perfect for a March wedding. Cocktail hour: Jacuzzi Reception: Deck Reservations: Third party travel agency Claudia Solis was our wedding coordinator. She made the wedding planning and executing process seamless and more enjoyable. She was very professional, quick to respond, and fair when it came to negotiations. She has a ton of experience and works with hundreds of brides every year, yet she made sure I felt like I was her only client. She took notice of every detail and request I sent her through screenshots and pictures. She was patient and answered all of my questions for a period of about 5 months. Even on the weekends. She was wonderful at giving me her professional advice on wedding logistics, decorations, favors etc. When we booked our wedding with Dreams, I sent Claudia my wedding vision of everything I wanted and the end result was more than I ever imagined. She found vendors that could provide what I was asking for and would send me pictures of the different options and prices. There was a lot of trial and error - or me changing my mind back and forth. But she was always understanding and flexible. One thing I really appreciated of her is that she is honest and sets the right expectations. She communicates every detail that you need to know. There are no hidden fees you are not aware of. She scheduled our first meeting with her and the staff involved on Tuesday before the Saturday wedding. Unbelievably, in about 3-4 hours we tasted and finalized the rehearsal dinner menu, cocktail Hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and reception menu. We also met our cake chef and food chef assigned to our wedding. This was done at the World Café in between meals. We selected the Mexican Buffet and everyone loved it. After that, we finalized all the wedding details with her in her office. We went over decorations, logistics, timing etc. I took two suitcases full of stuff from the U.S. Without fail, Claudia made sure everything was set up as requested the day of the wedding. That included chair sashes, table runners, table names, favors, place settings, signs, flutes, etc. After our meeting with Claudia, we met with the video staff for the slide show played at the reception. They asked for the drive to download it to their laptop. Don’t rely on wifi at Dreams, it barely works. We also met with Mauricio our DJ. Claudia was with us the whole time reminding us of the order of events and when things were scheduled to happen. I’m glad she was in charge because by the time we got to México I had forgotten most of the details I sent her. Later we met with Adventures Photos to sign the form for the rehearsal dinner pictures and wedding videography. The day before the wedding, Claudia scheduled an actual rehearsal on the beach where the ceremony was going to be held at. She was punctual and patient with my guests. She told us what to do, where to go, and when. It made the ceremony flow smoothly. Everyone commented on how much the rehearsal helped them feel better about their role and what to expect. I highly recommend it! Especially if you have kids in your bridal party. The day of the wedding, she was checking up on me making sure everything was going on time. She brought our bouquets and took the boutonnieres to my husband’s room. She had champagne delivered to our rooms while we were getting ready. (The champagne was included in the package) I’m sure she did a whole lot more that I didn’t see. All I know is that everything was taken care of; our guests were seated and everything was ready for me to just walk down the aisle. After the ceremony she helped guide the guests to the cocktail hour. I also saw her help set up for the reception while we were taking pictures on the beach. She stayed through the whole event until the very end. She made sure all my stuff was sent to our room before she left. I would like to mention Gorge. He is part of the Dreams wedding team. He was very nice and helpful as well. They all carry walkie-talkies and communicate among themselves throughout the event. When Claudia was with me and my dad in my room before we walked to the ceremony, Gorge was on the beach guiding my guests. The Dreams wedding team is very well coordinated and extremely good at what they do. I think I read somewhere that Dreams holds around 450 weddings a year; this converts them into a wedding factory. They set up, pick up, serve, and carry everything in minutes. Claudia and her team made our dream wedding come true in so many ways. I definitely recommend this resort to have your wedding at. The event staff was very professional, courteous, and polite. They all did a wonderful job. I will post a separate review of our experience during our stay at Dreams on Trip advisor. I will point out; this resort was perfect to hold our wedding. The service outside of the event, didn’t meet our expectations. The resort landscape is beautiful and everywhere you look is clean. DJ Review: The reviews about Mauricio in the forums are pretty accurate. He does seem a little bit disengaged and not interested in meeting with you. He kept checking his phone during our meeting with him. We didn’t have a set list of songs to play. The reason we were paying for a DJ is so that he could handle all the music based on the genres and artists we gave him. We did list a few "do not play" songs, yet he still played them at the reception. Overall he did okay. I will give him credit for following the timeline to the dot (or maybe it was because Claudia, our coordinator, was next to him the whole time). He made the toast, speeches, dances and other announcements when asked to do so. My brothers commented that he wouldn’t play their song requests unless they got ok from me. Over all he played good songs. My guests were on that light up dance floor pretty quickly when the music started. And the old song I asked him not to play got the older folks off their seats so at the end of the day it all turned out okay. To me it was worth it having him MC and DJ than assigning a guest to the task. If the resort didn’t charge a fee for having external vendors, I definitely would have contracted one of those outside DJ’s that bring props and balloons for the same price or less. Food: All of the food Dreams served at our events was delicious. Everyone loved El Patio, the seafood Hors d'oeuvres at the Cocktail hour, and Mexican buffet at the reception. Cake and Dessert: The cake didn’t look well-made. We paid extra to have colored icing, but it still looked white. The decorations on the cake looked like they just threw them on last minute. The candy pearls were falling off and overall, just didn’t look good. The tres leches wasn’t as moist and delicious as the tres leches they serve at the coffee shop onsite. I will note, the cake they display at the reception is not the cake that will be served. It is a fake cake made of styrofoam covered in icing. They do this to prevent it from melting or having sand, bugs, leaves or whatever else the wind blows. They serve cake from the kitchen after you cut the small piece that’s real (For picture’s sake).The dessert items that come with the Mexican buffet menu were cold and chewy. I recommend going with desserts that require refrigeration until they are served. The pastries like the churros got dried out pretty quickly by the wind. Adventure Photos Review: We used Adventure Photos for the rehearsal dinner (photos) and Wedding day (video). We hired an external photographer for wedding day pictures. I am extremely impressed with Adventure Photos’ work, level of professionalism, and speed in getting the pictures/video to us after the events. Claudia Labastida was fun to work with on our wedding day. She is great at what she does; she captured the most important moments and details. I continue to get compliments from friends and family about how professional the video looks. Make sure you give her your preferred songs to play as background music on your video or they will select them for you. Other services we used: · Preparation and ironing of our wedding day attire. My dress and his suit were delivered the morning of the event. They were careful and perfectly ironed. · Complimentary room for the groom the night before the wedding. He checked in at 3pm the night before wedding. We reserved it with Claudia, not the front desk. Note: For anything that has to do with wedding, go through your coordinator. Front desk has no idea why you are there. Or at least that’s the impression we got. · Bridal Hairstyling. They did my hair for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. I liked my hair both days. The spa has a private bridal room for the bride only. It was relaxing being away from everyone for that hour. The beauticians are personable and know how to work with all types of hair. All the girls got their hair and nails done there. Only my step mom got her make up done and I think it looked good. · Live Mexican music trio (1 set, during cocktail hour) – my family and friends enjoyed them and said it definitely made the cocktail hour more entertaining while they waited for us to get our pictures taken. Feel free to send me a message with any questions you may have. I can also e-mail you the link to our rehearsal dinner and wedding day pictures. This forum was definitely helpful for me when I was going through the planning process. Warm wishes for you and remember to enjoy every minute of wedding planning! You only get to do it once.

wow you just go me even more excited! Can't wait to hear all about it and see pictures. Thank you for the positive posts...it really makes a difference for all of us planning this ambiguous destination wedding.

My wedding is March 2014...coming up quick! I wanted to ask any future brides or past brides if the DJ is worth it. We were thinking of just renting the sound system and using our ipod...but I worry that we will need a DJ to be like MC and guide the party. What are you guys doing?

Hey! ours is 03/22/14! Right after yours

Hi ladies, I am wanting to get married there next March. Do any of you have 2014 available dates from the resort? I have e-mailed the weddings coordinator twice and haven't heard back. I am kind off anxious to know if I will even be able to have it there.

can you send me pics of your event? [email protected]

Hi, Did you end up having your wedding in Playacar Palace in March? I am wanting to have a March wedding 2014 and was wondering how your experience was. Were there a lot of spring breakers? I hope to hear from you soon!