I can’t believe I’m now writing a review! I want to go back and do it all over again! We just got back from spending 2 weeks in Mexico the first week at Dreams which was fabulous from the moment we got there. Here it goes...

Travel – C

            We used a local travel agent and he was awful! The worst experience ever the only thing that made it worth it was that we got $50 off our cost for each guest that booked 7 nights.  Other than that he was horrible at responding, he was not organized, and I ended up doing most of his job for him so he relieved no stress from me whatsoever.  Honestly, I don’t think it’s really necessary to even use a TA at all, if I had to re-do that I would have just skipped it. 

Airline - A

We flew American Airlines and everything was smooth sailing.  They were very sweet and made room for my dress in the first class cabin.  I was lucky there was another bride on our flight from Chicago to Cancun and I just happen to get on first so I didn’t have to be the one to put it overhead.  Carrying a dress around in an airport was not fun though, that sucker was heavy.  Which is why I sent it back with my mom! J

            We were really fortunate as far as customs went both on our way to Cancun and back home.  Everyone in our group got green lights in Cancun so no troubles there.  Also I took down my centerpieces and bouquets.  I myself never once got flagged or taken aside for this, however, my MIL, BIL, mom, and BM all got stopped so they could take a look but it was no biggie.  We also carried on our sand ceremony, literally carried it on because Anabel emptied too much sand from where my husband over poured it and the cork does not come out so if it isn’t held upright at all times it moves around a lot so I was trying to save it.  They never said anything to me about it….probably because it was green and orange and had our names on it who knows. 

Transfers - A

 Our transfers were through Olympus Tours and they were great. Our driver drove super fast which was great since Tulum is the farthest away from the airport.  Six people from our group were in our van and 2 other people we had to drop off at Barcelo, and I think it took about 1hr and 15 maybe 30 minutes altogether. Jiaro the representative at Dreams that we met with to confirm returning transfers was amazing. He helped out our group many times and was such a nice guy, he remembered all of us and seemed to know everything about everyone, it was crazy.  He gave us an even better deal on our Xel-Ha trip as well and the van that was supposed to wait for us left without us, and Jiaro took care of everything (including yelling at the people he told to wait).

The Resort

Check-In - A

Driving up to the resort I started to get really excited. It is absolutely gorgeous! Our check-in was pretty quick but our room and one of the other rooms for our guests weren’t quite ready yet which was no big deal for us since we were starving so we just went down to the SSG  to grab a bite to eat.  We stopped by my MIL’s room on our way to eat to check it out since it was ready.  They had a hacienda room and it was quite nice you really can’t go wrong with any of the rooms. 

Rooms – A-

Hubby and I had an ocean view room number 6302, I loved our room it was great, and I loved just walking downstairs and being at the pool. The only reason I’m giving it an A- is because our AC wasn’t working properly so it was a little stuffy but never that bad. It wasn’t even that noticeable until the day of the wedding which was super hot and we were getting ready in there, we called to have someone look at it but I’m sure by the time they got there we were already out.

Majority of our guests stayed in the Hacienda section and as I said above those rooms are great too.  The only complaint anyone had with rooms was my MIL because her room had so many bugs and mosquito’s in it, we had to have the staff come and spray her room. My MOH got an upgrade since she came with her 4month old and needed to be on the ground level with the stroller.  The resort was at 100% capacity while we were there so we didn’t get the complimentary room for the groom the night before which wasn’t a big deal.  Also even though it was 100% capacity it didn’t feel that way. 

Staff – A+

The staff at Dreams is AMAZING! They really do go above and beyond for you.  Everyone is such a hard worker and will do anything for you.  We got to know the activity staff really well while we were there.  One of our groomsmen even made a pen-pal with one of them!  They are truly great and so energized and they really make it wonderful.  The guys in our group were constantly picked on for contests so we had a lot of entertainment for our group! In fact we have the hula-hoop champion! Haha

Carlos did our turn-down service every night and he is so sweet we definitely tipped him a lot and got to know about his life outside of work, since I was normally getting ready for dinner when he came in. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the staff it’s hard to really get everyone but just know you are in good hands and will be taken care of. The housemaids were great, our room was always cleaned up and they organized all of our toiletries in the cutest way. They will never let your glass go dry and are on top of everything.  If you need anything at all just speak up and it’ll be taken care of. 

Grounds & Beach - B

The grounds are impeccably clean and I loved all the gardens and the wildlife you saw while walking around (which we didn’t get at our honeymoon resort).  The beach is not the greatest at DT because the sand is brought in so about 2-3” below the sand is all limestone making sand volleyball somewhat painful.  The line of rocks to get into the ocean is a bit tricky but once you get over them it’s great and soft and sandy.  I suggest water shoes for going into the ocean.  The beach is beautiful though and it’s so nice that there are no resorts very close by making it very private.

Restaurants – B+

With our schedule and some of the restaurants being long waits we only ate at World Café, Himitsu, El Patio, and SSG.  Our rehearsal dinner was in the Wine Cellar which I will go into more detail on shortly.  The food was great we never had any complaints.  The only thing I did not like (I didn’t like it at the other resort we went to either) and that’s the mousse, the consistency is not great.  You definitely won’t have any trouble finding something to eat though.

Rehearsal Dinner A+

Huge thank you to the past bride who gave me the tip about Fernando! We originally were going to do our rehearsal/welcome dinner in the World Café which would have actually been a couple tables at the Mexican Fiesta that night since it was Cinco de Mayo.

We were a group of 14 so not huge definitely a great fit for the Wine Cellar. The day before our rehearsal dinner I went in to see Fernando (I emailed him before we left home to let him know what I wanted to do).  This was the best decision we made and probably one of the easiest.  We walked into the wine cellar with Fernando he showed us what he would do for the set-up, told us a couple of wines he would probably pick and said he would take care of the menu all we needed to do was show up.  I let our guests know after our meeting with him the final rehearsal dinner plans and then FIL told us he was going to meet Fernando and take care of the wine, since you have to buy a bottle of wine per couple.  So not only did we get an amazing rehearsal dinner, but we also ended up not having to pay for any of it! The only downfall to the wine cellar is it was a little hot in there, we kept asking them to turn it down but you can always ask Fernando to check out the wines and it’s a good way to cool off. 

            The food was amazing, I just felt bad that my mom couldn’t eat most of it since she’s allergic to fish.  We started out with sushi and a few apps of the spring rolls and I don’t even remember what else.  For our salad and our main entrée they had each of us order something from the French restaurant.  Then dessert was from the Portofino.  We started dinner at 7 and had the room until 11:30 it was definitely a great decision.  I recommend it to everyone. Fernando will take good care of you!

Wedding Day – A+++

I just want start by saying that my wedding day was perfect! I would do it all over again and again if I could.  There were a few hiccups on timing but if you think everything will go exactly the way you thought you are nuts as long as you are happy and in the moment I promise you nothing will matter.  I was nervous about a lot of wedding details until I got to the resort, once we got there I no longer cared about any of it I was in paradise and I was marrying my best friend, nothing else matters.  We got the Ultimate Package and it was perfect since it had everything we needed.

Spa - A

Myself, my mom, MIL, and my 2 BM’s all got our hair done at the Spa the day of the wedding.  I did not get a trial and fretted over using the hair and makeup included in my package or getting someone outside the resort…please do not stress about this and do not waste your money just get what’s included, you’ll be happy.  Then again I don’t really get that picky about my hair so I’m pretty easy to please.  I printed out a mosaic of how I wanted both my hair and make-up and loved the end result!  Everyone else picked out something from the books they had in the spa and everyone looked wonderful.  Rosalee did my hair and make-up and she did a wonderful job. She didn’t speak a whole lot of English but we did a lot of hand signals back and forth and it was perfect.  I was very happy with the outcome.  I can’t remember the name of the woman who did my mom and BM’s hair but they all looked great.  The woman who did my mom’s spoke really good English and my mom being the little social butterfly she is and getting to know the woman ended up with not just 15% off but 25% off on a couple of products she bought.  The woman convinced her to get her make-up done and that her face would not fall off and she was right, the makeup looked great and lasted all night. 

Wedding Coordinator – A

Aurora was who I emailed with for almost 2 years.  In that time frame I learned to stop asking questions.  If I asked too many questions prices kept going up, so I just started doing what I wanted.  I highly recommend you to do this and just tell them what you are doing, don’t ask.  I never saw Aurora though but I didn’t figure I would. 

Anabel – This is who our on-site coordinator was.  She did a great job, when we met with her I brought a suitcase full of all of our décor items.  I told her what I wanted where she took notes and on the day of it was perfect.  We didn’t have any problems dealing with her at all she was very sweet and took care of everything.  She even allowed us to by-pass the fee for fabric set-up since we didn’t have too many decorations for the ceremony.  I showed her the fabric but told her that my DH was going to put it up himself, and then she said they would take care of and to not worry about it.  I left the suitcase with her after our meeting so that she could put everything back in it after the wedding.

When it came time to pay our bill I looked it over and saw that they were charging me the 2011 pricing.  I booked our wedding in November 2009 but agreed to the 2010 pricing, I told her this she went back in to talk to Aurora and came back out and it was changed.  I had printed out emails and stuff but never once had to use them on anything, which is good since I had left them in the room. 

Ceremony -A

Couldn’t have been happier with this. I wrote our ceremony word for word including the prayer and our minister did a perfect job with it.  I emailed him a copy before we left and then printed 3 copies to take with me.  The only thing was that DH and I couldn’t really hear him, but all of our guests had no trouble hearing him at all.  Even though I wrote it there was one part where we had to repeat after him and we both screwed up the same word because he wasn’t saying it correctly.  It was funny and we just laughed it off.  We  spent majority of the ceremony laughing because if we hadn’t we would have been crying, which we still did. 

The set-up was gorgeous.  I originally wanted rose petals to line the aisle, but after talking to Anabel and experiencing the wind decided against it and to just do the flowers in the sand.  Again this is a point where I no longer cared I was just happy to be there.  Before leaving I would have said no way it has to be petals, lol.  Things change when you are in the moment.  It still looked beautiful, the canopy looked just the way I imagined it would.

I had asked for there to be champagne handed out immediately after the ceremony after the recessional.  I said we would use the champagne included in the cocktail hour.  However, they also brought champagne out during the cocktail hour, so score for us!

After the toast we did our  shell ceremony and headed out for cocktail hour and pictures. 

They kind of hurried us a long so they could set-up another wedding. This was the only thing that really bothered me.  Mostly because when I booked our wedding so far in advance I said I wanted to be the very last wedding of the day and she promised me that I would be, and then they are rushing us a long for someone else.  That didn’t set well with me.

Flowers – A+++

I was pretty adamant about the types of flowers we had.  I didn’t want any roses on our arrangements and I love orchids and lilies so green cymbidium orchids and orange calla lilies it was.  However, when I went to inquire about these through the resort the prices were outrageous.  So since flowers are important to me I started looking for alternatives.  I found Angel’s Accents and cannot even tell you how amazing this woman is.  She did a wonderful job our flowers were incredible.  My mom who knew that I ordered real touch flowers took the bouts and so I’m in her room and say, oh give me those and I’ll take them back to my room now where are they….she tells me they are in the fridge because she thought they were real! Everyone thought they were real and I couldn’t have been happier.  They were exactly what I wanted and Angel was amazing to work with. 

I went ahead and got the white calla lily bouquet that was included in our package to use for the bouquet toss it was very pretty and they wrapped it in orange ribbon.  I don’t think I have any pictures of it but it was pretty and simple and served it’s purpose for me. 

Reception – A

We had our reception by the Dolphin Pool.  I was a little worried after being there a few days about people, but I don’t remember noticing anyone at the resort during our whole wedding. It was a perfect spot and very intimate.  We brought down lanterns to hand and some table decorations.  They did a great job with the set-up everything was where I wanted it.  I also brought cake boxes down and told them to fill them up and make people take them with them, which they did.  I wanted an extra hour since we had the DJ for 4 hours and we basically got it and no one said anything to us.  We just kept dancing.  I figured we would just play it by ear and if we needed it we’d let them know during the reception, but no one said anything to us.  At the end of the reception we had our DJ play us out and everyone ended up in the pool – except me since I was doing a TTD in the morning I needed it to be dry for the beginning of it!

DJ Bijan – B

We had Dj Bijan from Mayan Vibes DJ for the ceremony and reception.  He was great to work with, great pricing, and replied very quickly to emails.  We were also running a little behind on timing of things so he was great at working with our improves and was on top of it.  However, the only reason he doesn’t have an A is because of some of the music choices.  I gave him the main songs and a few must haves and do not play songs.  He said he had a good idea of our taste – well not sure what idea I gave him but it was so wrong.  It was quickly fixed though he started playing songs I did not know and did not like so I just walked up and said umm could we please play some new songs to get us really dancing.  We did dance the night away, our group likes to dance and I don’t think I left the dance floor once after dinner.

Resort Photographer - A

Most of the pics in this review are done by the resort photographer.  He’s not bad at all.  We brought our own photog but since they wouldn’t allow me to switch it out for extra video we told him to just come to the cocktail hour.  Since our photog wanted us to enjoy the cocktail hour and didn’t want to do a lot of photos since it was still pretty hot and bright out he did quite a few shots of us and got some great ones of our friends and family. 

Resort Videographer

We paid an extra $295 to have the videographer come to the reception.  Which is why we kinda changed things up and did our first dance in the middle of dinner since we had him for a limited time and were running behind.  I don’t have the video yet since we left for Playa del Carmen the day after the wedding they are mailing it to us.  I’m just happy we’ll have all the key points on film to show our family at our AHR next month.  He apparently got in our photogs way during the ceremony though and she told him off, which I think is awesome.

Photographer – Jillian Mitchell – A+

I have not seen any of these pictures yet but I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. Jillian is awesome, I contacted her in a pinch after a bad situation and she was luckily available and more than willing to help out.  She is super nice and super talented.  I am a little worried I may not have gotten a few pictures I had hoped for since she didn’t want to keep us in the sun for too long after the ceremony, but I’m sure I’ll have more than I’ll know what to do with.  We did a great TTD session the morning after the wedding and she was great.  Very patient with me as I was drowning in the cenote in my dress! We did shots all around Tulum, on Paradise Beach, and at the Grand Cenote.  I cannot wait to see all of these pictures!

Mishka Designs

I entered Mishka’s WIN WIN contest for 20 of her hand painted maracas and with the help of a lot of awesome friends and their friends and families….I won!! I loved these maracas they are so great, if you can do it….do it! They were beautiful and I picked out 2 separate designs to do. Mishka is so sweet and the artist do a wonderful job!

I feel like I might be missing something but this is 6 pages in word and I really don’t want to consume any more time for anyone.  If you have any questions or concerns about anything before your big day and want some comforting words feel free to pm me.