Because I used this site for most of my planning, it’s my turn to give back!

Dreams Los Cabos:  This turned out to be the perfect resort for our wedding.  Although it was pricey for everyone to stay and to travel there (a majority of our guests flew from NY and New England) I thought that it was worth it as far as value.  The scene was fun for our friends to party if they wanted to and also for my grandparents who like to take it easy.  The club (Desires) was pretty cheesy but it was so fun to have all your friends there that we didn’t care.  We took cabs into downtown Cabo one night and that was really fun too.  If I had to do it all over again I would definitely choose Dreams!

As for the rooms, our suite was beautiful (we got to upgrade to the Honeymoon suite that is included in the wedding package).  The normal rooms were still pretty nice, but nowhere near as nice as the larger suites.  Some friends of mine were put in a suite that was even nicer than ours, with two bathrooms and a huge balcony!

Food:  Overall we had no complaints but some restaurants were definitely better than others.  We preferred the Seaside Grill pool menu to the main pool menu, but no one was too picky when we were out in the hot sun, swimming, and drinking all day!  Our rehearsal food dinner and wedding meals were definitely a lot better than the normal restaurants.  The Italian restaurant, Portofino, was also really good.

Tipping:  I should mention that we were prepared to tip ahead of time and I feel that it really made a difference with our service.  We would normal spend most days at the pool and either my husband or our friends would give the waiter $20 ahead of time and they would keep coming back.  We also tipped all the waiters and bartenders $20 each for both the rehearsal dinner and reception.

Rehearsal Dinner:  As mentioned above, the food for this was definitely a lot better than the normal dinners.  We had ours at El Patio and they decorated it really cute with a Mexican theme and printed out little menus.  We had a choice of the fish or steak, along with ceviche and some flan for dessert.  It was really fun to have everyone together before the big day and there was even a Mexican dance performance afterwards that happened to be set up in the restaurant.

Wedding Day: Ultimate Dreams Wedding Package

Magda:  Our wedding coordinator was the best!  Yes, it is frustrating when you are thousands of miles away and waiting weeks for answers, but they are dealing with multiple weddings a day and you can tell how hard they work.  Magda was amazing and made sure that everything was perfect for both the rehearsal dinner and wedding.  My suggestion to brides is to be patient with the correspondence and do most of your research on this site, it was the most helpful part of our planning process!

Hair and makeup (Rosa at the Dreams Spa)

I forgot to bring a picture down with me of how I wanted my hair, but I just happened to find a picture I liked in the book in the salon.  I brought my own extensions down with me and I couldn’t be happier with the way my hair turned out.  As for my makeup, I probably should have just let them do the base/foundation and done the rest myself because I wasn’t too thrilled with it, but in the end I didn’t really care.  Overall I was so happy with my hair that I couldn’t be upset about my makeup.

Ceremony: Beach

The setup looked beautiful and I couldn’t be more happy with it.  I didn't buy any extra flowers other than the ones included in our package and I was pleasantly surprised with how beautiful they were.  Reverand Marco was amazing as always and I was so happy that he was going to do our ceremony.  He was really great with correspondence beforehand and you can tell he loves what he does (he did 6 weddings the day of ours!)  We had our DJ set up for music during the ceremony and it couldn’t have been better.  (A little less hot maybe but that’s Cabo for you)

Cocktail Hour: Beach

We didn’t hear much about it from guests other than the live trio that came with the wedding package sounded great.  Some people thought it was a recording and then turned around and they were standing there playing!  We didn’t hear much about the food but I think it was too hot for most people to eat so people drank champagne and stood in the shade.

Reception: Oceana Pool Terrace

Setup:  We brought all of our own decorations and added on the Tiffany chairs and sparklers.  I spent a lot of time stressing out about decor, what I wanted, the cost of flowers, etc, but in the end the simplicity of just having some lanterns and DIY table numbers/menus was exactly what I wanted.  (I was also lucky enough to have my mom make all the decor)  I gave all the girls pashminas and they loved them.  I also meant to have the hanging lanterns over the dance floor but I totally forgot to ask Magda!  In the end all of the luminaries and tea lights were perfect.

Music - DJ Fradal:  He had good communication before hand and reasonable prices so we decided to go with him.  We gave him some songs we wanted and then let him do the rest.  At first he was playing a lot of house music and techno, so I had my friends give him some suggestions and everything turned out great.  We had such a fun party and he even let my friend take the mic and do a whole rendition of “Shoop” (definitely a highlight).  The only thing I was a little confused about was that it was definitely Dj Fradal at my ceremony, but when we got to the reception it was someone else.  I’m not sure if he works for him or what, but I was a little confused afterwards.  I didn’t say anything because he did a great job anyway but just a heads up!

Food:  We had the smoked salmon, field greens, surf and turf, and tres leches cake.  It was all delicious!  I couldn’t get over how good my steak and lobster was.  We didn’t get much wedding cake other than the cutting but I was really happy with how it looked.

Photography:  Tomas Barron

We chose Tomas because his prices were really reasonable and we were recommended his work by our WC.  I loved that he sent us a DVD with all the pictures on it (over 1,200).  Overall I was really happy with our photos and I would choose him again if we had to do it all over again. 

Videography: Carlos Plazola

Carlos did an amazing job with our video and we couldn’t be happier with it.  He posted the 5 minute video and then sent us a DVD with the highlights and our whole ceremony and first dances.  I would 100% recommend Carlos to every bride in the Cabo area.

Here is our 5 min highlight film:

http://carlosplazola.com/670

Overall, this was the best possible wedding experience I could have imagined.  I would recommend Dreams to anyone considering a destination wedding.  The best part by far was jumping in the pool at the end of our wedding.  Here are some non-pro pics of that: