Arrival

There were 20 people in our group and coming from all across Canada.  The shuttle from the airport felt long as Dreams Tulum was the last stop. Upon arrival we were greeted with champagne and my mother excitedly screaming for us. Check in went smoothly. We got upgraded to an ocean view. 

Rooms

Most of my guests were staying in the Garden View rooms which are back of the resort.  All the rooms were fairly big. Some of my guests could smell a musty smell in their rooms from the humidity. It was not too bad though. Our ocean front room was great. Huge bathroom and main room. We were close to the relaxation pool and beach.  We did have an issue in the room as one night my husband came back to the room after dinner and found our door wide open. Of course he panicked but nothing was taken. It appeared that the maids came in for turn down service. We called security but they took quite a long time to come and then wouldn’t really tell us who was the last to access our room. My husband then went to the concierge to complain and they also gave us a bit of a run around.  They said they needed to check who was the last to access the room if it was a maid or possibly us.  Once it was finally confirmed that it was a maid we still were not given an apology or anything. Upon a few more complaints to the head concierge he finally apologized and gave us a discount on our stay. It was a little frustrating how staff treated us until we had to continue to complain. We did not let it ruin our week as all other staff were very pleasant and accommodating.

Food

World Café- I only went here once for lunch and found it had a good selection. Others in my group went here for breakfast and really enjoyed. They had a lot of different options.

Seaside Grill- This would be my top pick of the trip for dinner. Steaks are delicious. This restaurant is closest to the beach. Very quick service. It is also open for breakfast and lunch. I enjoyed coming here for both as you are right outside with the view of the beach. Both breakfast and lunch options were delicious. You can also get guacamole and chips here.

Portofino- One of the fancier restaurants on the resort. Food was delicious and had lots of options. I had a great salad and risotto here.

Himitsu- Went here a couple of times. First night we arrived we had about 14 of us and they were able to accommodate us right away. We all enjoyed our meals and the atmosphere.  They keep filling up your wine glass so enjoy!

Gohan- Had some sushi before heading to Himitsu one night. Sushi was pretty good but was not full so that is why we headed to Himitsu after.

El Patio- I really enjoyed coming here for lunch. The ceviche and tacos were really tasty. I loved the waitstaff here. One day at lunch they made us a special cheese fondue type of appetizer you eat with pita. 

Bordeux- I ate here on my last night at the resort and wasn’t the biggest fan. I do have to say I think my stomach was done eating all this rich food so probably would have enjoyed more on another night. Everyone I was with enjoyed there meals and there was a lot of options. They are picky about footwear here so be careful to not be wearing flip flops or beach shoes.

Room Service- Amazing!! Late night burgers and fries were the best. Also on the day of the wedding when I was getting ready we ordered macaroni and cheese and loved it. The breakfast we received the night after our wedding was also amazing. Eggs benedict with bacon, sausage and fruit. Sometimes would take 30-45min.

Barefoot Grill- I didn’t eat here at all but everyone was raving about the pizzas which are made to order. They also had hot dogs and hamburgers during the day.

I will mention some of us had stomach issues on the trip but I really think it was just from overeating and drinking.  No serious issues but the stomach did hurt a little near the end of the trip.

Bars- All the bars had quick and friendly service. We handed out plastic to-go cups to everyone and all the bars would fill them up without any problems.

Entertainment/Disco- The entertainment team was really great. Different activities happened during the day and they would walk around getting people involved. The nightly shows were enjoyable.  There really was no disco the week I was there. Some nights they would say a DJ was going to playing but didn’t ever see them except for one night in this small room close to the World Café. They did have some live music a few nights but didn’t last too long. I was disappointed there wasn’t anywhere to dance later in the night but we all enjoyed sitting out at the one bar in the evening which was always pretty lively.

Beach/Ocean- So beautiful! You really feel like you are on your own private beach as just resort guests can access the beach. Enjoyed swimming in the ocean and walking on the beach.

Spa- I had a massage on the beach and it was great. They would walk around during the day offering daily discounts so I would recommend looking out for that. Some of our group had a massage in the spa and really enjoyed the atmosphere. Day of the wedding my mother had a manicure which was good but they were running behind so she was a little frustrated. They tried to make it up to her for waiting by adding a hand massage but she just wanted to get her manicure and come help me dress. I passed on my hair appointment to my maid of honor  the day of my wedding and they did a great job. Mother  in law got  her make-up done and thought they put way to much makeup on. She had to get them to change it a few times.

Wedding

Wedding co-coordinator- I worked with Nayeli and Natalia. I found there communication through email to  be pretty prompt. I was for sure a more laid back bride who didn’t want a lot of bells and whistles so I didn’t have to many questions throughout the process. When I met with Natalia for our wedding meeting I did not realize I needed all my witnesses there. We were having a legal marriage and she needed all their signatures that day. One of my witnesses was on a day trip. She told me I should pick a new witness but I was not prepared to do that. I told her the witness would be back later that day and then she was fine with having her come down later to get her signature. So just a heads up might be easier to have your witnesses come to the meeting to get that done. Once all the signatures were done she took us to the office. Everything was in order and she made me feel very relaxed. We did site visits of the beach which is where we had planned to get married and have our reception. Since we were the only wedding that day we could make up our schedule for the reception which was great. When the wedding day rolled around Natalia was great. The rain had come in but I wanted to keep holding out until the last  possible moment before switching locations. She was happy to do this and said we could make the switch very last minute. In the end I did have to switch to the chapel but it was beautiful.

Chapel/Ceremony- Even though this was not my original choice for the ceremony it was really beautiful and intimate. I would recommend taking a look at it. We had a legal ceremony which was really nice. A judge performed the ceremony with Natalia translating. I was able to make additions to the readings that were performed. We had a warming of the rings ceremony and wrote personal vows to each other.  The ceremony was about 20min and was very lovely.

Flowers- I used the resort flowers and they were stunning. Everything I had was in white. My bouquet was made up of lilies and they just were so beautiful. I also had two centerpieces at dinner which were white with some greenery and I loved them.

Resort photographer- We decided to just go with the resort photographer that we had with our package. Teo was our photographer and he did a great job. I asked to take some photos on the beach as the rain had stopped and he took some great shots. He also offered to take more photos the next day if we wanted to get dressed up again. We were able to view the photos the day after the wedding. He had about 200 photos and we walked away with 45. I was really happy with some of the poses he had us do. At the time I thought they were silly but seeing how they turned out made me really happy. He printed out the photos right away for us. I would say some of the photos were not as sharp as you may get with other professional photographers but we are really happy with them. Also they give you a cd with the raw photos so you can edit them at home.

Videographer- We decided to add on the video and I am so happy we made this decision. He took footage of the ceremony and some additional footage of us on the beach. Some of our guests didn’t know the video was happening so when he went around they were waiting for the photo to be taken. We recommended they let people know they are shooting video. The edited video we got the day after the wedding. It was about 30min. They added some music in the background so you miss out on a bit of ceremony but it was still really lovely. We ended up not using our microphones for our vows so you can’t really hear them at all so be careful of that.

Reception- We ended up having to switch our dinner on the beach to inside. Natalia had us in this private room just beside Coco’s Café. It was pretty nice but I have to admit I was a little disappointed I couldn’t be outside. Dinner was really good. We had the silver menu. The steaks were not as good as you have at Seaside Grill but were still tasty. Wedding cake was delicious though I only had a small taste. My only complaint was that I had ordered tikki torches and Chinese lanterns for the beach and they just automatically used them for the inside venue. The lanterns looked good in the room but I didn’t really see the tikki torches. I wish they would have asked if I still wanted the decorations.  They didn’t charge anything extra for the decorations I brought which were only a few small items which was nice. We had rented the sound system and the technician came in around 10:00 to shut us down. After we just went to the bar for more drinks.

Wedding extras- We had our room decorated with rose petals a few nights which was very sweet. The night of the wedding they went all out and had a bottle of champagne in the room.

We planned the tequila tasting for a meet and greet night early in the week. It was really nice and they had a large table set up upstairs at Coco Café. We tasted quite a few different types of tequila. Most of us were not big fans of tequila but everyone had fun and it was a good way to get everything together.

Our time at Dreams was really wonderful. The resort is huge and beautiful kept. Our wedding day despite the rain and change of plans was special and beautiful. They really do know what they are doing so do not fret to much over the planning process. Wishing you all the best!

Above photos taken by resort photographer.