JessicaM Dreams Cabo Wedding Review w/Pictures!!

JessicaM · June 26, 2008

I am sorry this took me so long to get upâ€¦but we had so much laundry and stuff to when we came home after two weeks it was crazy!! I hope this review is detailed enough to ensure that all of your Dreams brides are reassured that you made the best decision to have your wedding there because it was the best thing I had even done! We had the most fantastic time in Cabo and at Dreams especially.

Dates: June 11th â€“ June 20th

Wedding Date: June 14th!

Travel:

1. Flights: Grade A. We flew US Airways from Reno through Phoenix to Cabo. The flights were all on time and no one really had any issues (most of our guests flew US Airways). They did not have any available space to hang my dress but it was okay because they made sure they had an overhead bin just for my dress. Since we had 2 bags each they tried to make us pay but thankfully we bought out tickets before that went into place so we didnâ€™t have to pay an additional $50.

2. Customs: Grade A. I was so worried about this because we were bringing in so much stuff. I few in with my mom a day before everyone else so we walked through and the lady screening the bags looked and brought someone over after seeing all my stuff. They just asked if I was getting married and I said yes, and that I had receipts. They wanted to know how much I had and $200 just flew out of my mouth. He had me push the button and of course I got red, but my mom grabbed the bag with all the OOT bag stuff in it and took off..it was hysterical. They just looked though my clothes bag and that was it. Adam didnâ€™t have much of an issue the next day eitherâ€¦they just asked him if he was getting married and he pushed the button and got green and he was off. I had receipts for everything just in case but they never made us get them out.

3. Transfers: Epic Grade B (but not really their fault). Everyone was on the list when they landed and were quickly taken to the hotel which was fabulous. It was nice especially since most of my guests had never been out of the country before and were worried about how all of this was going to work. Adamâ€™s parents flight was canceled and they came in 6 hours late and epic was still there for them too. My grade comes from the fact (well its not really their fault I guess) but when my guests started to leave we were informed that they were no longer able to pick up guests at the hotel that now we were supposed to pay a taxi to get to the airport..due to some new Mexican law that was in place this month. Everyone again was thrown off that now they needed to pay again to get to the airport after they already paid for the transfer. I called Tammy who was so nice and called up back at the hotel and told us they would refund us the money to just pay the taxi to the airport. Good thing Dreams has a ATM now because a lot of my friends had not expected to pay for that and had to get money out to pay for itâ€¦yeah we had too much fun in town!! The taxi was right there and off to the airport everyone went.

4. Wright Travel Agency. Grade A+++++ When I first started thinking about a destination wedding and found this siteâ€¦I instantly contacted Tammy about helping me. She answered all of crazy questions, helped me with the room block that was constantly changing with the number of rooms and my guests bugging her. She was so great at replying to my emails and giving me a phone call just to confirm things. She was amazing and so helpful through the whole process, I know my family and I would have had huge fights if we had done this ourselvesâ€¦so THANK YOU TAMMY!!! I would recommend her to anyone and I defiantly plan on using her in the future for other vacations!!

Dreams Hotel.

1. Rooms. Grade A+. Our room was fabulous. They are all updated and we were in #606 on the top floor with huge ceilings, a walk-in closet, separate living room and bedroom, it was fantastic. It was perfect in the morning to just go out and look at the beautiful view. A few of our guests were upgraded too, I guess they overbooked the hotel and they were given honeymoon suites which was fabulous for them. Everyone was amazed at how nice everything was.

View from our room:

2. Food. Grade B. The food was pretty good this timeâ€¦but I was defiantly ready for something new by day 10. After coming home we saw on the news about the tomato issues maybe coming from Mexico which could have explained some things. Adam got sick on Friday night, missed the welcome dinner because he was in the room all night. The best man was sick in bed up until an hour before the ceremony, we were thinking he wasnâ€™t going to be able to make it through it. I was fine and so were most of the guests but those who did get sick they were sick for a while. So maybe that was caused from thatâ€¦other than those few things everything was okay. My drink of choice for the week was defiantly the frozen mojitoâ€¦holy cow it was delicious!! That will defiantly be my drink this summer!!

3. Yesica (Wedding Coordinator) Grade A+. Yesica has been so good throughout the entire planning process. Occasionally she was slow to respond to emails but after seeing how hard she works everyday down there, I donâ€™t know how she keeps up with everything. My mom and I met with her on Wednesday to just go over the outline and she was ready with everything. She showed me some of the flowers available and made sure I was happy. I was pretty low key about some things and just let her pick some of the stuff which I think made her life a little easier. She was available all day of the wedding helping organize where we needed to be and that things were set up. Everything turned out perfectly and she was so nice. I gave her $100 because she made everything so easy and I did not have to worry about a thing. She was the only WC I used and for the 35 guests we had. She also came up a few days before we left and went over the bill just to make sure everything was okay and that she charged the right prices. I did have her emails and confirmed a few things but other than that everything was as she priced to me before.

Picture of me and her at the reception:

4. Overall Grade A+: Adam and I had a fantastic time at Dreams and canâ€™t wait to go back next year. The employees are so fantastic and make sure you are happy the entire time we were there. I could not have asked for a better place to get married and have a honeymoon. For all of you who are getting ready to be married there, you will be so happy with your choice and there is nothing to worry about, they take care of everything. Plus they are adding a really cool sports bar there at the end of the summer!!

OOT Bags. Grade A+

1. I beaded 17 bags for the ladies for each room. I brought them down to the lobby each morning the guests arrived and they passed them out. Yesica said they would charge me $1 a bag but I was never charged for them. The lady at the lobby was in shock that I beaded them..got that a lot. All of my guests loved them and all the stuff in them too. The cards, sunscreen, chapstick, gum/mints were all used and loved!! Everyone used them at the pool each day..it was nice to see everyone used them and liked them after a year of beading all of them!!

Picture of them all done...(sorry not such a great picture!!)

JessicaM · June 26, 2008

Wedding Day:

1. Ceremony/Cocktail Hour. Grade A+

a.Setup: We had our ceremony on the beach in front of the gazebo on Saturday. We had a simple white huppa set up with white fabric and 35 chairs set up with just the white chair covers with our fans on the chairs. (Yesica charged me $200 for the arch) It was so simple but so beautiful against the ocean. The weather all week was so weird, even the local were saying how cold and windy it was, but Saturday could not have been more perfect. Walking down through the hotel was so funny with everyone wishing you good luck and watching, normally I hate people watching me do anything but you are so in the moment I didnâ€™t even bother me it was almost surreal. My dad met me at the lobby and we walked downâ€¦I gave him the speech to walk slow because I was so afraid of falling on the wood path with my shoes!! My BMâ€™s were planning on walking on the sand but as they started to Juan told them they needed to be on the wood part so we all threw our shoes off in order to do so because we all had heels on! It was hard because my dress was a little too long without my shoes but thankfully I never fell..not until a little later at least (see the photographer part).

Pictures of the ceremony site:

b. Food: Everyone enjoyed the cocktail hourâ€¦Adam and I were taking pictures so I have no idea how the food was but everyone said it was great. The waiters were great about passing out water to the guests before the ceremony and meeting everyone with champagne after the ceremony. (We paid $24/pp for those who were seated)

c. Flowers: My bouquet was gorgeous (24 coral roses) and I added a shell coral to it that I made and also had a crystal starfish (which somehow disappeared). I did smuggle it home too with my dress which I was so excited about!! The BMâ€™s had white lilies the coral roses which were the perfect size. (Yesica gave me their two bouquet instead of the one included in the package and then charged me $90 for mine)

My Bouquet:

Only picture I can find of the BM's Flowers:

2. Reception: Grade A+ We arrived late at the reception, Juan took so many pictures my parents actually came looking for us because they were worried. But everyone enjoyed themselves with the music and drinks so it was fine. We have 5 tables with 37 people (including Juan and his assistant).

a. Tables: The table turned out just like the picture I provided to Yesica I loved them!! Hurricanes with candles, leaves, and seashells. (She charged us $20 for the hurricanes and $10 for the leaves) We also had brown chair ties. ($1 per chair)

Tables:

b. Lanterns: The lanterns were hung and made the area so special. (We brought the lanterns so they charged $60 to hang themâ€¦now that I think about it I donâ€™t think they even charged me for them)

c. Speakers: We rented speaker with a microphone for the speeches and used our i-pod for the music. It was perfect. We could play whatever we wanted and some of our friends brought their ipods down and played some of their music. ($150 for the speakers & the microphone)

d. Food: The food was greatâ€¦Adam and I didnâ€™t really eat because we felt bad being late so we walked around a lot talking to everyone. The cake was fabulous and deliciousâ€¦a lot of people ate it which is good because the cake was huge. We had people use the cake boxes too and take some back to their room too. They gave us the top too and we ate it the last night there!!

e. Other: I surprised Adam with cigars and the matches I had ordered. The guy at the bar went around and passed them all out to the guys who wanted them and it was so fun to see them all enjoying them. I had gone into town on Wednesday and bought a box of them. Adam loved them and was so surprised. It went by so fast though, at 10:30 a security guy came down and took the music down. We didnâ€™t want to bed so we went up and changed and went back down to the lobby bar and hung out with everyone. It was such a great night!!

Wedding Vendors:

1. Photographer: Juan Carlos Tapia. Grade so far A+ When I first joined this forum I saw a few of the ladies photos from him and I was hooked. Adam and saved to hire him because we wanted amazing photos of our wedding, something that we could look back on forever, so were willing to pay. We paid for 5 hours for $3,000 and it was so much fun with him. We met with him on Friday to just go over some details (we have a very broken family and were concerned with getting the right people in pictures), he came to the hotel and he was great. So personable and nice and so energetic about the whole process. On Saturday he started with Adam and the guys and the came up to our room. You can see him walking through each photo in his head and was fun to watch. He took us all over the hotel and beach for our pictures. Here comes the falling partâ€¦.Juan tried to surprise me with Adam running up behind me and picking me up on the beach right after the ceremony but adamâ€™s shoes sunk in the sand and we went crashing down! It was so funny, everyone didnâ€™t know whether to laugh or be worried. I cant wait to see that picture..I think I might use it as the thank you!! I saw a few on his camera and cannot wait to see the final pictures. He said I would not have them for about 3 months but hopefully he will send me a few for our AHR and I will be sure to share them!!

2. Suzanne Morel Hair/Make-up. Grade A++ I was a little worried about paying $400 for my hair/make-up and hair for my two BMâ€™s but after seeing the final result I would do it in a heartbeat again. Paulina was so great from the first email up until the final phone confirmation on Friday afternoon. Two ladies came to our room at 11:30am and started with my BMâ€™s first. They showed her one photo and she started working. It was absolutely amazing how she recreated the picture to them so perfectly. She had the two of them done in less than 90 minutes. I showed them two pictures of the hair I liked and the make-up and it took them about a hour and a half to do my hair but it was freaking amazing how it turned out. I have no idea how she did it but I almost started crying because it looked so good. My make up was so natural and lasted the whole day and night. I would recommend them to anyone, they were amazing and well worth the extra money!!! Juan commented several times about how great my make-up looked too so hopefully it came out great on the photos!!

My hair:

tlomlad · June 26, 2008

looks just amazing i hope mine is as nice at dreams cancun!

JessicaM · June 26, 2008

We also had an informal dinner at the patio one night...the waiters were awesome and put together 5 or 6 tables so we could all eat there....we didn't want this before because we though no one would want to do it but we ended up doing without having to pay the set up fee!

Outside Activities:

1. Red Rum Fishing. Grade A. Six of our guests went fishing on Friday and caught two fish. Not great but they had a great time. Adam and I paid for our dadâ€™s as part of their fathers day present and they said they had a great time. The company sent us pictures of the boat and everything seemed to be great for the guys. No one got sick either which was great. Dreams cooked the fish for them at the Italian restaurant a few days later too.

2. Cabo Rey Snorkeling: Grade A. We did this on Wednesday and it was so fun. It was very relaxing and a great way to see all the sights. The water was SO cold though that it was hard to enjoy the snorkeling though. They served chips and salsa on the boat and all the alcohol was included for $29 per person.

3. The Office. Grade A We desperately wanted some other food than what was at Dreams and we took a water taxi over to the office and had lunch there one day. The tables are on the beach, the food, the beer was all great. The vendors are all over the place but it was so much fun to see everyone and the downtown scene.

I cannot say thank you enough to all of you ladies on here with all of your great ideas and support. I truly can say that if I had not found this website I never would have gone through with a DW because I would have chickened out. The entire day was so special and so memorable that I cannot believe it is already over. It all went by so fast but it was so special to have all of our family and friends down there with us. Surprisingly though our families all behaved themselves and with all of our divorced parents that is a miracleâ€¦.adam and I mentioned that hell froze over somewhere during those three days everyone was together!! It made the whole weekend so special though. Here are a few pictures..I will be sure to share more if you want someâ€¦.we have a TON!!!