Finally time for my review....I haven't even done my planning thread yet!

Thank you to all you former brides, future brides, moderators etc for the posts on this site. I got so many ideas, inspirations and encouragement from you all. It really was a site where I spent large parts of my day.

Here goes!

We just arrived back from our 2 week vacation, which began with our wedding at the DT resort. I have to say, I had a growing amount of anxiety in the weeks leading up to our departure. I had read a few not-so heartening reviews from other brides, plus I started to feel the anxiety from the responsibility of having chosen the resort for 41 guests. Well.... the wedding turned out AMAZING. There were certainly a few things that were not perfect, but I can handle that! The following is my review... I hope that it helps some of you other brides-to-be make your final decisions a little easier!

*Travel

Westjet- Prince George to Vancouver. They made space for my wedding dress with no problems at all.

We stayed at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport that evening as our flight did not leave until the following morning. Somehow our reservation had been mixed up and we were booked at the downtown Fairmont, but the staff was quick to remedy the issue and had us up in our room quite quickly.

When a group of us went down to the restaurant for dinner, the chef found out that we were getting married and sent out a complimentary amuse bouche for all of us at the table. Very nice and unexpected! We finished our dinner decided to head to the lounge for a few drinks before bed. The staff there brought us our drinks and then surprised us with a plate of delicious chocolate covered strawberries and a congratulations banner on a piece of marzipan. What a great way to start our trip!

On the way home we were upgraded to a deluxe room at the Fairmont, a card from the staff congratulating us on our wedding and more chocolate covered strawberries.

Air Canada Vacations– Vancouver to Cancun – Awesome service. My husband Jand I were given upgrades to Executive class. 1^st row, so we had loads of room. I had lots of space for my dress, and we had a brilliant flight of pampering over to Mexico. Part way through the flight the flight attendants made an announcement to the plane that we were heading to Mx to get married and everyone cheered. Pretty funny!

Once we got into the airport, we made it through immigration and customs quickly. No problems with any of the decorations, etc that we brought along with us. We made it out to the transfer bus they had included in our package and the guys were very organized and had us and our luggage all on the bus without delay. We made 3 stops on the way to the resort. 1 to drop some guests off at their resort...and  2 to pick up more beer J

Check in

The last few miles before the resort I started to feel really nervous that maybe the resort wouldn’t live up to all of our expectations. I needn’t have worried, we arrived at the DT lobby and were all met with cold glasses of sparkling wine. Check-in was really quick and painless. We all decided to meet at the World buffet for dinner since we figured that would be easiest for all of us to find seats and get our food quickly.  After a quick dinner we  went back to rooms to check things out. All the luggage had been brought to the rooms for us and the rooms were sparkling clean.

Rooms

Out of our group we had a wide range of room types, some Garden view, some Ocean view, some Junior suites, some Ocean front, etc. Because everyone had booked different types of rooms we did not expect to be in the same buildings. It really does not matter. The resort is very well laid out and you can walk anywhere in a matter of minutes.

My friend had an issue with the sheets in her room being stained on one of the beds and called housekeeping. They were in her room in a flash, changed all the bedding, and she was very happy with their service. The following morning, the front desk called and offered them a complimentary upgraded room for the trouble. They took it, because they ended up with a MUCH better view.... plus it was free J

Housekeeping

All of our rooms were cleaned on time each day, and had turn down service every evening with chocolates and the next days weather report and activity schedule in a newsletter. The kids loved the towel animals in the room as well. Our bathroom toiletries were always well stocked...the only thing I would suggest is to bring CONDITIONER for your hair!! I forgot mine, and there is none in the room.

Resort and staff

Loved the staff, and the resort was beautiful. Never a speck of garbage anywhere, it seems like they maintain the grounds and buildings 24hrs a day. All the staff that we encountered always made us feel welcome and catered to our every need or wish. I would suggest tipping... they do not ever expect it, but work SO hard for such long hours, and I know that they are not paid what they are worth. Loved the pool and beach drink and food service. Entertainment staff was always getting things going. Some of the activities were a bit cheesy and silly, but we certainly laughed alot!

Restaurants

I wish I could give more info here, but we were always so busy.... or drinking so much that I can’t give a play by play on the Restaurants. I know we never had a bad meal... the fish dishes were usually fantastic. The food is not 5 star, but is good nonetheless.

Spa

We had the couples massage and it was fabulous. We have gone to a few world class spas since we have been together, and the massage ranked up there. The spa is decent to look at, but I can honestly say that I didn’t leave the cold at home to go sit inside a building during my holiday JQuite a few of our guests booked various spa treatments and all of them were happy with their experiences. More on the wedding day spa experience in a bit.

WEDDING

First and foremost.... My wedding day was PERFECT! I would do it all over again in a second!

Like most every other bride, I found that communication between the wedding department/coordinator and myself slow and vague alot of the time. All of the details were confirmed in good time, but it felt a little odd to feel so removed from the actual planning process.

Most of my communication was done through Aurora until the last month when I began communicating with my actual wedding day coordinator Anabel. She is very nice, works very hard. For example. The day I got married I heard there were 2 other wedding. For the record I did not see either of them happen, the Dreams wedding department is quite well organized . All of my decorations and instructions were handed in during our meeting and it was put up exactly as I had requested.

Spa– I had a French polish done the morning of the wedding and my nails looked spectacular JSorry, I cannot remember the name of the technician who did them.

I also had my hair and make-up done at the spa. I was very leary as I never have had my make-up done and been happy with it. I really like a natural look and always feel like they load up the face like a mask. Well... I loved my make-up. Rosly did it according to a photo that I brought. I wiped off the lipstick she applied though, and just put on some lip gloss instead. I don’t know what she did to my eyelashes.... but they looked MILES long. AWESOME!! Rosly also did my hair, an amalgamation of 2 photos that I brought, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. My 12 yr old daughter, and my best friend also had their hair done and both turned out lovely.

Flowers– Loved my bouquet. It was precisely what I requested. I wanted one pink rose in the center to symbolize the baby girl that my FI and I had miscarried a year ago. It was done perfectly. I then felt like I had all my kids with me on this special day.

The MOH and jr bridesmaid bouquet were very pretty as well. Much smaller than the photos made them look, but not an issue in my mind.

The flower girl basket was nothing more than a decorated easter basket. I HATED it JBut, one of my sisters came to the rescue! We found a white fabric bag that I had brought with some toiletries, took the flowers and ribbons and flowers off the basket and made a new petal bag for the flower girl. It was perfect! It is a funny story for all of us now...phew!

DJ– we had DJ Bijan from Mayan Vibes do the ceremony and reception. He was fabulous. All the songs I wanted he made sure he had, his response to emails, etc was immediate. Prices were great, and he was very professional. The reception was the best time ever. We danced the whole time.

Ceremony – it was a lot more religious than I realized it would be. Not an issue for me, but my FI (husband) does not believe in God, so it would have been nice if it could have been a bit less church-y...but not a big deal. It was beautiful. We had flowers for the path to the canopy and it looked very pretty.

Photographers-  Just used the resort photographer, and very happy with them. We had almost 400 photos taken. My dad ended up buying the whole package because he was so happy with them. We also had so many guests taking photos that we knew we would end up with more than we could possibly handle.

Cocktail hour and reception– Because it was threatening rain that day (still was a gorgeous day) Anabel offered us the Himitsu restaurant for our reception, and the ‘courtyard/bar area’ between Himitsu and Gohan for our cocktail hour. SO HAPPY! It was perfect. The Mariachi band played during the cocktail hour, hors d’ouvres were delicious. We had 2 signature cocktails that were passed around...yummy! plus the regular bar service.

Reception room looked awesome. The crew did a super job with the decorations we brought. I loved having the private space! I stole the idea of having tequila bottles and shot glasses for our centerpieces. Best idea EVER. What a fun, fun, fun party!

Food was great.  I have no idea what the cake tasted like Jbut it looked pretty.

All in all, the wedding was perfect. Dreams really does weddings well and it is such a great resort for all ages.

The things that annoyed me

- how the resort (all resorts in Mexico) nickel and dime you for everything.

- the exorbitant prices that they charge for various items because it is for a wedding

- inflexibility to extend reception time without paying huge extra fees

- only allowing 1 choice for each course in the meal

At the end of the day, for me, those are not things that I will remember. My friends and family all had such a fabulous time, and cannot stop talking about the fun. That for me is worth every single penny.