Wedding: January 10, 2013; Coordinator: Gina

Welcome Cocktail Hour (Private): Barracuda Beach; 6:30pm (Jan 9 - night before wedding)

Ceremony (symbolic): North Beach, 3:30pm

Cocktail Hour: Desires Terrace, 5:00pm

Reception: Seaside Grill, 6:30pm

Ultimate Wedding Package & Extra Photo Package using Adventure Photos (on-site photographers)

Guests: 23 adults, 1 infant (2 yr old)

 

We had the best time at DRC and wish we could go back or had spent more time there! My review is long so if anyone has any specific questions, just let me know! This site helped me so much to get ready for our wedding so I’m glad to help anyone else!

It’s hard not to stress beforehand but once you get there the coordinators and Jose are always available by your room phone if you have a quick question or in their office! We didn’t decide on Dreams until August and we knew we wanted a winter getaway wedding and I refused to risk going during hurricane season so there were only a few select dates available when we finally decided on DRC. It ended up working our perfectly and we were even the only wedding on our day! On a Saturday, we did see 3 weddings and 2 were at the same time on the beach – just in different sections, so if this is something you are worried about, you might want to ask about other weddings/locations before setting a date.

After finally deciding on the resort, we did all of our planning in 5 months which included the holidays! Not the best time to plan a wedding J but it all worked out and I am hoping to post a planning blog shortly. Again, feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

 

Travel Agent

We worked with Vacations For Less – I had sent an inquiry through this website looking for travel agent help and they wrote back right away and were the most helpful/best rates we had compared. I’m SO glad we went with them because they were great and helped all our guests whenever needed! My emails were answered sometimes within minutes and she even helped booked a last minute guest about a week before the trip! She also suggested the transfer company to use and we were able to book and pay for all our guests since we didn’t want them to worry about it since they were spending so much already to come down.

 

Flight – Travelling with wedding dress

Our flight ended up being delayed and very full (so much as they were making people check their carry-ons which obv made me nervous since mine was my dress). I had gone up to the counter to ask about space in the flight attendant closet about an hour before our flight and ending up talking to a rude lady who told me there was nothing she could do since we somehow ended up in boarding group 7 (last people on the plane). But as soon as they started boarding priority seating/first class, we both went up and asked a different lady explaining it was a wedding dress and she took us right up to the door, scanned our tickets and we were one of the first ones on the flight. The flight attendant let me put my dress in the closet, and then a woman in 1^st class even said I could put it above her and she wouldn’t let anyone else put stuff there! It ended up being fine in the closet!

We did get stopped in customs when we got there because it was just the 2 of us and my FI had 3 large

 

Transfers

We used private transfers through Cancun Transfers after they were recommended by our travel agent and everything worked out great! They even called the hotel (our room since we booked everyone) to confirm in the morning how many people were getting picked up and when. If anyone else it using this company, it might be helpful to know that they wear red/maroon shirts – it was difficult to spot the first guy since there are about 50 guys in white shirts waiting to pick up people at the airport but after we sent an email home, everyone found them easily!

 

Check-In

We arrived on Monday (3 days before our wedding on Thursday) and had booked a Preferred Club Ocean View. When we got out of our transfer, we were immediately greeted, bags taken, and escorted through the lobby and given a mini-tour on the way to the preferred club for check-in. We didn’t have to wait at all to check in and our travel agent (we think!) had upgraded us to an oceanfront Honeymoon Suite! When Natalia (guest services) showed us our room on the map we were so excited it was on the very end of the building actually looking over the North Beach where our ceremony was going to be! After going through the paper work, she told us someone would be down in a few minutes to take us to our room so she showed us to the preferred club bar and we got to sit down and relax with a drink for about 3 min before someone was there to show us to our room. He continued our tour and when we got to our room, all of our bags were waiting for us!

 

Guest Check-Ins

None of our guests had to wait to check in, even though most were not in the preferred rooms. All received champagne and towels upon arrival and most luggage was at the rooms immediately (only two had to call for it). And almost all of our guests got upgraded and all received at least ocean-view rooms or preferred ocean-view, even if they booked garden view! We think this may have happened due to a large company event arriving the Friday after our wedding, but it worked out great for our group!

We met almost all of our guests in the lobby when they arrived since most days there were 6-8 people arriving at one time. The lobby was nice to hang out and we were also able to give them their OOT bags right away – I was worried about having them delivered to the rooms because we had an itinerary that included an event for Wednesday night and some guests didn’t arrive until Wed afternoon.

 

Meeting with Gina (our coordinator)

We arrived on Monday afternoon and had previously set up a meeting time with Gina for 9:30am on Tuesday. On Monday, we ate lunch at the Seaside Grill to check it out in person since this is where we were having our reception. I had wanted 2 lanterns in each opening since Seaside is a circle and we counted the openings so we could budget in how much the extra cost was going to be! There are 12 openings if anyone is a spaz like me J so they cost us $240 ($10/lantern).

We went to our meeting and brought with chair sashes (efavormart.com), table runners (efavormart.com), maracas we used for place cards/favors (amols.com), and ribbon for the cake (JoAnn Fabrics). The only pictures I had printed out were the cake, centerpieces, and an example photo I found of the Seaside Grill using the white covered chairs because I was previously told we had to use the brown ones in the restaurant. Eva (weddings manager) was actually in the office at the time of our meeting and Gina asked her if we could use the white chairs and told her how many people we had, Gina ended up telling us maybe and that she would see what she could do.

I didn’t bring a flower girl basket and was going to call home to have someone pick one up, but Gina showed me a little wicker basket and said she would decorate it with our color ribbon – it turned out cute and was delivered to the room we were getting ready in with the flowers in it before the ceremony!

We ended up upgrading to the Ultimate Package for the mariachi band at our wedding day cocktail hour and for the 50 extra photos.

After we met with Gina, we were going to meet with DJ Mauricio but he was with another couple who seemed like they were going to take quite a while so we asked if we could come back the next day and we planned to meet with him at 3pm on Wednesday.

When we left the wedding office, we walked down to the photography place and had not set up a meeting time or specific photographer. We were greeted by Frank (Francisco) who told us he would be our photographer and went over the details of the day with us. He is super nice and we didn’t know yet at this time where the groom was going to be getting ready so he said we could just give him a call. Gina called him the next day for us and he was at the right place at the right time J

They have one computer in the office (that we saw) and sometimes an entire wall of items that brides bring down so they have a ton of stuff to do which I think is a reason the email responses sometime take a long time. They also have to coordinate with every single department or vendor (guest services if you are getting upgrades, the flower company they order from, food & beverage department for locations and times, etc…). It is frustrating sometimes during planning but once you are there, you and your wedding and events are their number one priority.

 

The Bad Part…

Everything about our trip and wedding was absolutely amazing! But there was one (ok, two) things that went wrong with one major hiccup and that was the steaming service at the hotel which put me in a terrible mood for one of the nights we were there. I believe the wedding packages come with service for the gown and groom outfits – either way, when we met with Gina, we had said no to the service since the guys were just going to iron their own clothes and my dress was not supposed to be steamed because of the material and I was VERY careful bringing it down there. It looked perfect when we got there so I hung it in a closet in the 2 bags my bridal shop had given me. On Tuesday night, we got back to our room with some family and the closet with my dress in it was open – and my dress was GONE! I had not let this thing out of my sight since I left my house so you can imagine how I felt! As I was calling down to whoever I could get on the phone, my sister found the dress hanging/wrapped in the white curtains around the bed – right in the middle of the room – but the groom didn’t see so no big deal. But when we took a closer look, the smooth front of my dress had a huge crease in it and there were actual black numbers on the front of my dress! It looked like they had rubbed off of something else but there was a clear 456 on my dress in two spots right on the front! SO DO NOT USE THE STEAMING SERVICE WHATEVER YOU DO!!! In the end, I had 4 workers & 3 family members in my room the next morning, and after them telling me they would wash my dress with soap and water (don’t think so – thought it would get worse), I tried it on and luckily the numbers were faint enough and below the boob line so they were kind of tucked under and the crease we were able to kind of work out… Gina told me someone had to request the service and since she did not and we did not, she thought MAYBE room service had seen the dress and called. We don’t know what happened but whatever you do, I wouldn’t recommend the steaming service there. We ended up getting some extras like the Presidential Suite the day of the wedding to get ready in and walk out from, the white chairs in the Seaside, an extra 30 min on our cocktail hour, and free anniversary nights even though we only stayed 6 nights…but I had a heart attack for one entire night so I would just have your dress prepared before you go and put some do not disturb signs on the closet it’s in or something haha

 

Welcome Cocktail Hour (Private)

We had a private cocktail hour at the Barracuda Beach (next to beach bar) the night before the wedding. It was important for my MIL to have some sort of rehearsal/welcome party/get-together so Gina gave me a list of options including a private dinner ($35/pp), dinner reservations ($15/pp), or private cocktail hour ($20/pp). We wanted something more informal where everyone could socialize so we decided on the cocktail hour. Our options were limited since there was a conference in some of the bar areas we would have liked to have it and also El Patio was closed that night due to it being “Mexican Night” by the pool – if you are interested in a restaurant for an event, I HIGHLY suggest contacting them beforehand because Gina knew weeks in advance that El Patio would not be open this specific Wednesday.

We ended up choosing a beach location which they assured would be well lit since it would be completely dark by 6:30pm in January. And it was! For no extra charge, there were light up posts in the beach and stand up mini-lantern type lights along with flameless candles on all the tables. There were also lights under the tall tables which we happened to notice while we were hanging out at the beach bar earlier in the day while they were setting up. We saw them digging holes in the sand and then realized later that they were connecting electricity to all the tables. It was very lit up and very nice – everyone loved it.  We also rented the sound system for this and emailed one of our friends to make a wedding/beachy playlist at the last minute – it worked great! She also only ended up charging us $15/pp and the price of the sound system which included a technician.

Note: it was very windy on the beach, VERY windy – they said it was unusual and because of a storm further north but everyone had a great time! Our servers were Luis and Ricardo and they were AMAZING! They were our same servers for our reception and they were awesome!

We literally planned everything about this event (other than the location) after arriving and during our meeting with Gina. She suggested the sound system for music which we are so happy we got, they decorated the tables and appetizer buffet area in our colors and used little centerpieces, and they even had trays of fun drinks waiting to hand out as everyone arrived! Here's some pics to try and help show the lighting and setup - it is directly next to the beach bar which you can see in one of the pics:

 

 

 

Wedding Day

 

Spa

My 2 bridesmaids and I all had hair and make-up appointments at the spa at 11:30am. This was plenty of time and we were all done by 1pm. There are only 3 chairs in one room so if you have more people and/or you all want to go together, you might want to start earlier. I could not find any prices before the spa confirmed with me so if anyone is curious, my hair & make-up was included in the package but each girl was $120 which we didn’t think was bad for both hair styling and make-up. I had Ana and she was awesome! I brought a pic for my hair and she did it exactly the same. I forgot to tell Gina I had wanted real flowers for my hair during our meeting, but luckily we were using flowers for our cake topper and Ana called Gina who came down to the spa right away with an orchid branch she had ordered for the cake and took a few off for my hair! They are available for whatever you need while you are there!

 

Getting Ready

We were upgraded to the Presidential Suite only for the day of the wedding to get ready in and walk directly down the stairs of the suite to the ceremony – it was AMAZING!! The room was incredible and we ordered some room service and just hung out until the photographer came at 2:30pm. We were even able to watch them set up the ceremony because it was literally right outside the room!

 

Photography

We used Adventure Photos (the on-site resort photography company and our photographer was Frank (Francisco). He was awesome! So nice and the pictures we have seen so far have looked awesome! He went to the groom’s room/party first at 2pm, then came to the girls at 2:30pm to capture the dress, jewelry, getting ready, etc..

We had the Ultimate Package and also upgraded for day-long coverage including 6 hours and 100 more photos. We ended up paying $150 extra for one additional hour because I wanted the events spaced out some so we had the photographer from 2pm-9pm and 150 pics included in our packages combined, along with the slideshow and photo book. I have a list of all the photo upgrade packages available (through Adventure Photo) if anyone would like it!

Here is the link to our slideshow: http://100113papp.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Ceremony

Our ceremony was on the North Beach at 3:30pm. I was in the bedroom of the suite taking photos about 5 minutes before the ceremony when I looked out the window and it was POURING! It had been the nicest, clearest, sunniest day so far before this. All of our guests were able to gather in the suite/on the covered patio since it came out of nowhere and the staff was able to move fast enough to cover all the chairs. Gina and Jorge came into the room and told us we were going to wait for the ceremony because they thought it would pass. But since both our cocktail hour and reception were planned to be outside, they suggested we make some decisions. I obv didn’t want to do this without the groom so they said I could wait for the reception decision until after the ceremony.

It stopped raining so the ceremony started then a huge surge of water came up from the ocean high enough to reach everyone! Luckily it was right before I was going to come down, but it did knock out the DJ’s electricity for a min – they were able to move fast enough and everything was up and running right away! They really plan for everything haha. Mauricio did come to our ceremony and run the sound system for us.

 

Cocktail Hour

Before the ceremony, Gina & Jorge suggested we move the cocktail hour since it was supposed to start at 5pm. I had no problem with this since my heart wasn’t set on the North Jacuzzi where we had planned. They moved us to Desires Terrace and I was so happy because this is where I had wanted it but it wasn’t offered! It was awesome! We had a long break in between the ceremony at 3:30pm and cocktail hour at 5pm because I wanted time for photos but also wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour and most people said they had missed it while they were taking photos. It worked out great since our ceremony was delayed a few minutes and we ended up joining everyone around 5:10pm. Our guests went to the lobby bar in between and Gina was there to direct them where to go since our itineraries had the Jacuzzi location on them. We upgraded to the Ultimate Package for the mariachi band but around 5:30pm, we noticed there was no music whatsoever! I guess they had already told the groom the band was late but we were still a little upset because we had upgraded mostly for them! Turns out they were stuck in Cancun because it was down-pouring there so it could have been worse J They showed up around 5:50pm but they let our cocktail hour go until 6:30 and they played the entire time! It worked out great since our reception wasn’t supposed to start until 6:30pm anyway because they needed time to set EVERYTHING up in the Seaside after clearing it from lunch.

 

Reception

We decided to keep our reception in the Seaside Grill even after Gina and Jorge told us there was a 40% chance of rain and explained that they wouldn’t be able to move the food, DJ, or dance floor quickly if it did start raining. I am SO glad my FI decided to risk it because my heart was set on Seaside Grill and it was perfect! It didn’t rain at all, there was still some wind from the ocean so it wasn’t too hot in there and we fit perfectly! They even had the white covered chairs like I really wanted! There isn’t any room to put the furniture from the restaurant like they said, especially with the buffet, DJ, dance floor, etc…but they moved it all out for us & it was perfect! They still used the tables but had the white linens with our table runners over them so they looked fine!

 

 

Gina had told me our reception couldn’t start until 7pm in Seaside because they need enough time to clear out everyone and everything from lunch (I believe it is open until 5 or 5:30pm). She finally said they could probably have it ready around 6:30pm but it might be 6:45pm…not a big deal to us. But this was another reason I had wanted to space out the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception a little bit more and it worked perfectly! As soon as Seaside was ready, Gina & Jorge came up to the Desires terrace and led everyone down to the restaurant. Jorge even helped everyone find their place cards – he was awesome!! He stayed the entire reception and made sure everyone was good. He was there for all parts of our wedding and even the cocktail hour the night before.

I was contemplating on whether to spend the extra money on the dance floor, and I’m so glad we did! It was awesome! Everyone was dancing and the lights on it were so cool! The flower girl LOVED the lights haha. You could have the middle of the seaside grill just open but the plain floor just wouldn’t have been the same for us. We only had 24 guests including the 2 year and literally every person was on that dance floor! It was well worth it.

 

Food & Cake

Like I said earlier, our servers were awesome! We had Luis & Ricardo for our private cocktail hour the night before, our wedding day cocktail, and our reception and they were on top of everything! Everyone always had drinks and shots and cake and everything they could have needed! We did choose the BBQ Buffet because we thought there was more variety and we wanted a shorter dinner so there would be more time for dancing. The food was awesome and there was so much of it! Def something for everyone! We only had 24 people total and getting the buffet was no problem – we just asked and Gina said yes right away via email.

We got the Mexican Tres Leche Cake and everyone was raving about it – even when we got home yesterday! I brought a picture and the specific ribbon color I wanted to Gina at our meeting and our cake turned out beautiful! Since I brought real touch bouquets, she ordered white orchids for our cake (and hair) at no extra cost since you can trade out within the same category.

 

DJ

Mauricio was AMAZING!!!! He is sooo worth the cost. We met with him on Wednesday afternoon, mostly because we had ZERO music picked out for our ceremony and Gina said he could give us some suggestions. He did! He played a ton of suggestions and let us choose, made a list to make sure we covered the entire ceremony and then showed up to manage the sound system for the ceremony with all the suggestions we had picked out with him!

I hadn’t sent him a list of our reception songs until about 1 ½ weeks before our wedding and when we met with him, he had our 3 songs all downloaded (first dance, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance). Those were the only songs we brought with us and we didn’t even need to! We also had a list of some artists and songs we liked for dinner/dancing and the music at the reception was awesome! He had EVERYONE dancing! From the 2 yr old to the 65 yr olds…it was so much fun! He took some requests we had told him we liked and then some requests from the bridesmaids – he even asks if you want to take requests! Haha I guess if you want to stick to a strict playlist you can say no? He was incredible – one of our friends even said she wondered if he would come up to Chicago to do her wedding this summer!

We went through our reception timeline when we met with him and he did everything right on key – it was perfect! He kept the party going and even faded out the father/daughter and mother/son dances after 2 minutes each because we wanted more time for the party music! Haha

 

After Party

We did not add any time onto our reception, but we had checked out Desires the night before so we knew we would have fun if we went there. Maybe it was the time of year, but the Desires Club was packed! I know some reviews have said it was never busy but it was jammed the night of our wedding – it got so crowded later in the night that we left and went to the suite to party. Also, the websites and brochures say Desires closes at 1pm, but that place never closed when we were there. We were sometimes there until 2 or 3am and it was still going so I guess if it is a busy time of year or busy night, they stay open?

Justo the bartender is awesome & the rainbow shots are so fun! The DJ in the club even downloaded songs we requested if he didn’t have them! We thought about getting a party bus/van to Cancun or Playa one night to go out since we had read some reviews about the lacking nightlife at the hotel, but I am glad we didn’t!

 

Restaurants

El Patio: The only restaurant we ate dinner at was El Patio because as more and more of our guests arrived, they all wanted to try it because of the fun atmosphere! The waiters are so much fun and will put sombreros on you, give you crazy tequila shots, and even put on a fire show for a coffee dessert! We went there one night with a group of 9 and were able to be seated right away around 7pm.

Oceana: We ate here a couple times for breakfast and lunch. They have mostly seafood or French toast/pancakes for breakfast but you can ask them for almost anything or substitutions on menu items and they’re happy to do it. Since you can literally walk down into the pool from this restaurant and see the infinity pool overlooking the beach, it really gets you ready and excited for the day!

 

 

Lunch here is good – they have good fish tacos or little chicken or beef and pepper roll ups which they call burritos J

Seaside: Only ate here once for lunch and they have a selection of sandwiches, nachos, less seafood type food than the Oceana side but I’m pretty sure you can order from either menu at the restaurants since they share a kitchen.

Room Service: Nice selection, quick service, and again, if you ask them for something, I’m pretty sure they will make it and bring it up to you. The wedding night, they brought us all a bunch of nachos, rolled up tacos, and sandwiches with beers and whatever else we wanted at 1am! They are always very nice, too!

 

Bars

Lobby Bar: nice place to meet and hang out – day or night. Very open with a nice breeze coming through and live music on most nights. This is the only place I ever saw a drink menu if anyone is interested in some of the fun drinks they have there.

Swim-up Bar: was very busy one day due to a huge work group arriving but otherwise usually fairly easy to get a drink.

Pool Bar: a couple days we were there they brought out some tables with coconuts and cut them open right there and served “Coco Locos” in them with whatever alcohol you wanted. Everyone in our group loved this!

Beach Bar: Really fun place to hang out with funny bartenders! Only open until 6pm and it would be awesome if it was open later – looks like maybe in the summer it is or it used to be because there are lights in it but they never turn them on L

Desires: Fun place to hang out late night, weekend nights were REALLY busy. We went here to keep the party going after our reception. Has a good size dance floor, pool table, places to sit, and TV’s.

Preferred Club lounge: Seemed really hot inside but had nice TV’s to watch sports (there were NFL playoffs on while we were there). Never a lot of people in it so easy to get a drink and grab a small snack.

 

I’m sure I left stuff out so again, just let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to answer them if I can! I will also post the link to my slideshow when I get it!