Dreams Puerto Aventuras Brides - POST HERE!

[Lovesnick]

I just got back from my wedding at the Dreams Puerto Aventuras and it was amazing! I would be happy to try and answer any questions you have. We had our ceremony on the gazebo and our reception in El Patio, despite it not being air conditioned, it was very comfortable. There are windows all around the restaurant that can be opened for a bit of a cross breeze, it was perfect. We were much hotter in the Desires sports bar after, I would highly recommend El Patio. It was gorgeous.
 

[Lovesnick]

Dinner at El Patio was nice, I saw a wedding at Oceana, the seafood restaurant, that looked beautiful. It was a big more elegant than El Patio so you can choose what you would like best. There were many receptions on the beach, but it was quite breezy. I wondered if their food was full of sand and got cold quickly. Also, I don't think it was very private on the beach, anyone could watch the entire reception if they walked past. However, it looked beautiful, and everyone looked like they had a blast! The resort is gorgeous.

[ChelseyB]

So included in your package is dinner for 20 people, so you will only have to pay the extra for 14 people. also the $55 a head is for a sit down dinner which if you read back a lot of people don't recommend doing that because it takes up your entire reception time. lots of people recommend doing the buffet option instead. the buffet is only $38 a head so it brings the cost down.  also if you choose to for-go the cocktail  hour, they put $200 towards other expenses you have, which is what i'm going to do. i figured my guests could go to the bar on their own during the cocktail hour scheduled time without me having to pay extra for it.  hope that helps.

chelsey

Originally Posted by sherryro13 

Hi Everyone,

I hope that some brides can give me some input, I am new to this.

I have booked for this upcoming November and have approx 34 guests.  We have purchased the Gold package and I am a bit curious about the additional $55/pp for the meal and additional $29/pp for the cocktail hour over and above the 20 persons included in the package.

Is there anyway to get around this additional cost?

Also, do any brides have any advise on locations for dinner and or if I should bring additional decorations?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated

 

Thank you

 

[sherryro13]

Congratulations Lovesnick!

I have a few questions I hope you can answer for me

Did you have to pre-book El Patio prior to your arrival or did you decide on this once you arrived?  Also, did you have a sit down dinner or buffet?

What kind of decorations did you bring or were the ones provided by the resort sufficient?

I am leaning towards El-Patio because of some pictures that I have seen.  Is there anything that you would recommend or anything that you wish you knew ahead of arrival? 

 

I am thinking of buying mini Patron bottles and maracas when I arrive for the favors instead of hauling them down from Alberta.  My luggage will be weighed down already!

 

Thanks very much!

[sherryro13]

Thanks ChelseyB for your info!

I have also read that the sit down is very long.  Wow, $200 is great if we can forgo the cocktail hour and apply that to other expenses. 

Are you doing any add ons like bonfire or a meet and greet for your guests?

 

We receive the free meet and greet cocktail hour for booking in March which is good for 50 guests and I was thinking of adding in a bonfire.

 

Just an FYI - I have heard that you do not need to pay extra for additional cake for your guests above the persons as the cake is way too large for 20 persons and many people dont eat it anyways!

 

If you have any other tips please let me know.....

Are you doing welcome bags?  We started purchasing items (beachbags, towels etc) but are realizing its going to take up atleast 2 suitcases so now we are reconsidering.

 

What about decorations?  I was going to take my chances with what the hotel has....... I might regret it :S

[ChelseyB]

Originally Posted by sherryro13 

 

Thanks ChelseyB for your info!

I have also read that the sit down is very long.  Wow, $200 is great if we can forgo the cocktail hour and apply that to other expenses. 

Are you doing any add ons like bonfire or a meet and greet for your guests?

 

We receive the free meet and greet cocktail hour for booking in March which is good for 50 guests and I was thinking of adding in a bonfire.

 

Just an FYI - I have heard that you do not need to pay extra for additional cake for your guests above the persons as the cake is way too large for 20 persons and many people dont eat it anyways!

 

If you have any other tips please let me know.....

Are you doing welcome bags?  We started purchasing items (beachbags, towels etc) but are realizing its going to take up atleast 2 suitcases so now we are reconsidering.

 

What about decorations?  I was going to take my chances with what the hotel has....... I might regret it :S

yes we are doing the bonfire.  you can for-go the food option at the bonfire and bring the price of that down as well, which is wha twe are doing.  i figured everyone would have just eaten dinner anyway, so we didn't need to provide food. 

 

we are also doing a private dinner for just our wedding party and family. (we have 71 people coming to our wedding. way more than we expected, so we wanted to have something much smaller for family and wedding party).  the private dinner for 20 of us is $18 a head at one of the restuarants in a private area or room or something which isnt' a bad cost at all. 

 

i leave in 4 days and have not chosen the reception location yet and Jacki says that is completely fine. i'm leaning toward el patio as well. 

 

we are doing welcome bags but kept them pretty small due to exactly what you said about already carrying so much stuff down there. they charge extra if you have the resort deliever the bags for you, so we are going to just hand out the bags to our guests on our own.  and we are not bringing any decorations at all. we are also going to just hope that its pretty enough with what the resort has to offer.  we did buy maracas to bring with us which filled up an entire carry on suitcase, but i convinced one of my friends to bring that down for us.  we got light up maracas to have at the bonfire which we thought would be fun. 

[sherryro13]

Great idea for the bonfire.  Your wedding is coming very soon, you must be so excited and busy!

You will have to let us know when your back all about your experience,  Best of luck and congrats!
 

[Lovesnick]

Originally Posted by sherryro13 

 

Congratulations Lovesnick!

I have a few questions I hope you can answer for me

Did you have to pre-book El Patio prior to your arrival or did you decide on this once you arrived?  Also, did you have a sit down dinner or buffet?

What kind of decorations did you bring or were the ones provided by the resort sufficient?

I am leaning towards El-Patio because of some pictures that I have seen.  Is there anything that you would recommend or anything that you wish you knew ahead of arrival? 

 

I am thinking of buying mini Patron bottles and maracas when I arrive for the favors instead of hauling them down from Alberta.  My luggage will be weighed down already!

 

Thanks very much!

 

I am happy to help! We booked El Patio way in advance, mostly because we wanted it so much. There was another wedding on our wedding day, so it could have been possible they booked the restaurant before us, and we didn't want to take that chance. There are only 2 weddings a day, at 3pm and at 5pm. It seems like a lot of people choose a wedding on the beach.

 

We had a buffet, the Mexican one. It was absolutely spectacular. There were a lot of choices for people, and I knew everyone would find something they liked. We also took out the chicken mole and added the coconut fish from the Carribbean buffet menu, it was pretty much the star of the dinner. I had read a lot of other people said sit down dinner takes awhile, and buffet was pretty quick.

 

I brought down photo frames (large ones, 8x 10) that had the table numbers and photos of my husband and I from each year corresponding to the table number. I brought down tealights and glass candle holders from Ikea as well. Pretty much it, with the exception of the cake topper, guest book. The candles near the front of the restaurant (where the windows are near the ocean) blew out, but the others stayed lit. Honestly though, the ambiance in the restaurant was so nice, I don't think candles would be necessary at all. Jacki took the flowers from the gazebo and split them to the cake table, guest book table, and head table. So we bought little centerpieces for each table, a tall round vase with water and a lily in it. $30 each, kind of steep. They charge so much for everything, if you have something in mind you would really like, I would bring it. I honestly don't think you need much in that restaurant at all, something personal for you and your fiance maybe. The place sells itself.

 

If I could give one piece of advice, pay the extra money to have an extra two hours in the restaurant. We paid for one extra hour and wished we had way more. It seemed like less when we were dancing around and drinking, but I would highly recommend paying for longer, even if you have to cut from somewhere else. We went to the sports club after which was fun, but everyone really enjoyed dancing in the restaurant and having it to ourselves. It is not cheap to do this, but without a doubt the one thing I wish I did. It was an incredible night though, whatever you do will turn out great!

 

I saw you are doing welcome bags, we did too. The towels aren't necessary, they have big beautiful ones that you can take as you please, and leave on your chair when you are done. We got Bubba kegs shipped to the resort, which was great. The glasses they give at the resort are large nice plastic glasses so travel mugs aren't a necessity, but if you want to go that way, Bubba kegs were great. We also added hand sanitizer, spf lip balm. Also, when we got there, we went to the grocery store (Chedraui, quite near the entrance to Puerto Aventuras) and bought big boxes of small bags of chips and cookies. People loved to have those snacks when they arrived, esp since the chips from the gift shop were $10 for a small bag!!!

 

Let me know if you have any more questions, I am happy to help, You will have a great time!

[sherryro13]

Originally Posted by Lovesnick 

 

 

I am happy to help! We booked El Patio way in advance, mostly because we wanted it so much. There was another wedding on our wedding day, so it could have been possible they booked the restaurant before us, and we didn't want to take that chance. There are only 2 weddings a day, at 3pm and at 5pm. It seems like a lot of people choose a wedding on the beach.

 

We had a buffet, the Mexican one. It was absolutely spectacular. There were a lot of choices for people, and I knew everyone would find something they liked. We also took out the chicken mole and added the coconut fish from the Carribbean buffet menu, it was pretty much the star of the dinner. I had read a lot of other people said sit down dinner takes awhile, and buffet was pretty quick.

 

I brought down photo frames (large ones, 8x 10) that had the table numbers and photos of my husband and I from each year corresponding to the table number. I brought down tealights and glass candle holders from Ikea as well. Pretty much it, with the exception of the cake topper, guest book. The candles near the front of the restaurant (where the windows are near the ocean) blew out, but the others stayed lit. Honestly though, the ambiance in the restaurant was so nice, I don't think candles would be necessary at all. Jacki took the flowers from the gazebo and split them to the cake table, guest book table, and head table. So we bought little centerpieces for each table, a tall round vase with water and a lily in it. $30 each, kind of steep. They charge so much for everything, if you have something in mind you would really like, I would bring it. I honestly don't think you need much in that restaurant at all, something personal for you and your fiance maybe. The place sells itself.

 

If I could give one piece of advice, pay the extra money to have an extra two hours in the restaurant. We paid for one extra hour and wished we had way more. It seemed like less when we were dancing around and drinking, but I would highly recommend paying for longer, even if you have to cut from somewhere else. We went to the sports club after which was fun, but everyone really enjoyed dancing in the restaurant and having it to ourselves. It is not cheap to do this, but without a doubt the one thing I wish I did. It was an incredible night though, whatever you do will turn out great!

 

I saw you are doing welcome bags, we did too. The towels aren't necessary, they have big beautiful ones that you can take as you please, and leave on your chair when you are done. We got Bubba kegs shipped to the resort, which was great. The glasses they give at the resort are large nice plastic glasses so travel mugs aren't a necessity, but if you want to go that way, Bubba kegs were great. We also added hand sanitizer, spf lip balm. Also, when we got there, we went to the grocery store (Chedraui, quite near the entrance to Puerto Aventuras) and bought big boxes of small bags of chips and cookies. People loved to have those snacks when they arrived, esp since the chips from the gift shop were $10 for a small bag!!!

 

Let me know if you have any more questions, I am happy to help, You will have a great time!

Thanks for all the great pointers!

What was the cost to extend the time in the restaurant for 1hr?

Also did you go with a dj or just bring your own ipod dock?  I am torn on what to do.

 

I have been searching for the Bubba Kegs but they are all quite expensive when I have to buy 34-40.

Great Idea with the chips and cookies, I was going to make a Costco run before leaving and bring down some goodies.

[jrack]

Originally Posted by sherryro13 

 

Thanks for all the great pointers!

What was the cost to extend the time in the restaurant for 1hr?

Also did you go with a dj or just bring your own ipod dock?  I am torn on what to do.

 

I have been searching for the Bubba Kegs but they are all quite expensive when I have to buy 34-40.

Great Idea with the chips and cookies, I was going to make a Costco run before leaving and bring down some goodies.

I hear there is a Costco in Cancun, we are going there for the bachelorette parties anyways, so I figured I could pick up stuff on the way.