Arrival

We arrived in Cancun at 12pm got our luggae and flew threw customs. It only took about an hour from when we got our luggage to when we arrived at Dreams. Dreams is located in a great location near clubs, malls, restaurants, and flea markets. You could not ask for a better location. I got our wedding favors at the flea markets, but they are very pushy, but was able to talk them down $5 per favor... There tequila apparently was not real and was colored water lol.

Check in
We arrived at the resort and had to wait 4 hrs to check in our room. We booked the Jr. Jacuzzi suite in the tower and is worth the upgrade. You get a panoramic view of the ocean from both sides of the resort.  Worth the extra money.. Upgrade! That is one of my biggest complaints that I had all week was the long wait. Our luggage was taken from us and had to wait several hours in my sweat pants and sneakers with no bathing suit to lay by the pool. We were also not greeted with champagne, hot towel, etc. and no flower arrangement or fruit plate bottle of champagne waiting in our room upon arrival like promised.

Resort

The resort is beautiful and well maintained. The service is great and hotel staff was so friendly. Before you even finish your drink they have another waiting for you. Having the dolphins at the resort was great. My hubby, brother, and sister swam with the dolphins and they loved it! I liked how the resort was not too big. I was worried about communicating with family/friends through out our stay. Needless to say I was running into family and friends all the time lol. The resort also has a great children's program for those bringing children along.

Restaurants

Overall the food is not bad. My  favorite restaurant is the seaside grill. The steaks are pretty good there. The seafood at Oceana did not always seem fresh and I am thinking some if it is frozen.. For lunch they have a great selection of burgers. The buffet is great for breakfast and second rounds for dessert, but not for dinner. I went for Italian night and some of it was inedible. Stick with the restaurants for dinner! We did not go to Paloma Bonita, the Mexican restaurant next door (which you have to pay for). I heard the food is not worth the expensive price. Drinks from the bar did not seem watered down at all.Try the Mango tango! They also have new drink specials everyday.

Rehearsal Dinner/ceremony

I did not want to pay $30 pp to have my rehearsal dinner at one of the restaurants so I booked a private room at La Habichuela Sunset, a Mayan theme steak/seafood restaurant 5 min down the hotel strip. The food/service/views were out of this world. I highly recommend this restaurant. Dreams booked our transportation to get there. The rehearsal for ceremony was not much. She was not very specific at all. You pretty much need to decide who walks with who, the order, etc. She just tells you when to be ready and what side you stand at at the gazebo. My brother who has been in many weddings directed everyone what to do.

Pre wedding

I scheduled an appointment to meet with Claudia. She is so sweet and very busy! Our appoitment took no longer than a half hour or so. She is very organized and had all of my emails printed out. I had already sent her pictures of flowers, cake, etc. I brought chair bows, lanterns for candles, paper lanterns, and starfish for my escort cards. She has a book of linens of all different colors/fabrics so you do not need to bring your own. I just thought this is an area where you can save money.. She also lets you do trade offs with a lot of things. We got the ultimate package. I traded my hair/makeup and gave it to my bridesmaids. (I booked a makeup and hair artist that came to my room). I used Emanuel Bocanegra. He did a good job. It costed $150 for hair/makeup/site visit cost. The hair salon at resort is also great too! My bridesmaid hair only cost $50 and they did a fantastic job. My MOH said her hair turned out better than it did for her wedding. ** I paid extra for flowers in hair with Claudia. Do not do this. The stylists pick flowers from outside for free! Claudia delivered the orchids for the hair with my bouquets after the girls had their done. It was pretty much a waste of money... I just added the extra flowers to my bouquet.

Side note- Anyone who gets the Ultimate package gets eternity package which includes: private dinner for two, 30 min. facial/back&neck massage (In addition to couples massage that comes with Ultimate pckg), bottle of champagne and flowers in room). Don't forget to book dinner and extra spa appointment). If you dont want them you can give them to family members/friends. 

DJ/flowers/cake/food

I used the resort DJ. I emailed him all the songs I wanted to be played. He did a great job, but he only played about half the songs I had specifically wanted. I think he has a set list of songs. I was watching another wedding the next day and they played the same songs in the exact order lol. I was going to ask him why he was not playing my songs, but I was having such a great time that I did not care. Spend the extra money and book a DJ. It makes a difference. The other weddings I watched who did not have a DJ looked so boring and no energy at all.

I was dissapointed at first with my flowers. They looked nothing like my pictures that I sent her. Claudia brought them back to the florist and fixed them and they looked great. I was also able to trade dessert for an upgraded cake. I visually did not like our cake, but it was the best tasting cake I have ever had! It was not too sweet and was very moist. I picked the dreams trilogy and it was fantastic. The food at the wedding was the best meal we had all week long. My hubby does not eat seafood and my friend is a vegetarian and Claudia let them have different entrees. 

Photography

I used Claudia Rodriguez photography. Erick was above and beyond amazing! I used Adventure photography from the resort for our TTD. They came out good, but does not compare to our wedding photos. TTD btw was so much fun! I had my dress dry cleaned immediately after photo session and you can not even tell I went in the water and destroyed it. Here are some pics from both

P.S.- It is very windy there... I had bridesmaids get long flowy dresses. If they had short dresses they would be holding their dresses down all night long. Just something to think about..

We had the best wedding!  I would not change a thing it was perfect. The only thing I would change is I would of liked more days to relax after the wedding. I arrived in Mexico 4 days before my wedding and only had 1 day to unwind and relax. The 4 days before I had a great time, but couldn't seem to relax and was just thinking about the wedding the whole time.

To see all wedding pics visit my wedding website http://shannonandjohnwedding.com