DREAMS PUERTO VALLARTA "thread"

[gowiththeflow]

 

 

Originally Posted by Dreams2011 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

 

So sorry for all the stress Dreams2011! I'm glad you fought for the discount- you deserved it! That is my biggest nightmare at this point!

 

I have been a stress case this past week - we are getting married in 10 weeks and I feel like we have so much to do! That review did not calm my nerves! 

 

One question for you - how did you have such a detailed set-up all ready, as far as tables and such? I have no idea the set-up (well other than pics) to make such a detailed plan! Any advice is appreciated!

 

How many people are you having at your wedding? I can give you some good ideas for sure, but let me know how many people as that is helpful.

Thanks! Right now we only have 36, counting Brett and I. Did you have the reception at Las Palmas? I think I just read it was at Seaside beach, so not sure if you have an idea the layout!

 

 

 

Originally Posted by KarenM 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sascolo 

 

Anyone have an email address for Louise? Also, past brides..... Anyone rained out in late May/early June? And if so, where did the move you or what did you do?

 

We weren't rained out (5/29), but they say rainy season starts early June & sure enough we saw a wedding rained out on June 1st. They were setting up on the las palmas terrace until it started raining (fairly hard) and then they moved the reception to the seaside grill (which was closed for the wedding). We walked over there & it was set up beautifully!

There was a theme night as well and that was moved to the ballroom near the preferred tower.

 

 

Originally Posted by Dreams2011 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

 

Oh and by the way, I was quoted $250 for the bonfire last year. I did confirm with Louise. Not sure if the price went up since then?

 

We just had ours about 10 days ago and it was $300.

 

I'm pretty sure they';; honor whatever price you were quoted (prices do seem to change on pretty much everything yearly) - just remind your WC. Ours was also $250 in May.

 

 

 

To help with table layouts for the reception, I used weddingmapper.com to do a seating chart & then printed it out to give to the WC - just to show them how many tables we needed & how many people per table.

http://www.weddingmapper.com/guests/demo_seating

 

 

Thanks Karen. I have all my emails, so Im sure I will "remind" Louise when we get there. That's a great site! Do you know where the dance floor is in relation to the tables and pool at Las Palmas? 

[Dreams2011]

We had 23 including ourselves, but ours was at the seaside beach so this wouldn't work for the terrace, but for anyone else with a smallish wedding here's my suggestion. We put our tables in a U shape with the head table at the bottom of the U. This way everyone was in sight, then we put the dance floor in the middle, again so everyone was in sight. Highly recommend! Our ceremony setup is in the background.

 

 

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreams2011 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

So sorry for all the stress Dreams2011! I'm glad you fought for the discount- you deserved it! That is my biggest nightmare at this point!

 

I have been a stress case this past week - we are getting married in 10 weeks and I feel like we have so much to do! That review did not calm my nerves! 

 

One question for you - how did you have such a detailed set-up all ready, as far as tables and such? I have no idea the set-up (well other than pics) to make such a detailed plan! Any advice is appreciated!

How many people are you having at your wedding? I can give you some good ideas for sure, but let me know how many people as that is helpful.

Thanks! Right now we only have 36, counting Brett and I. Did you have the reception at Las Palmas? I think I just read it was at Seaside beach, so not sure if you have an idea the layout!
 

 

[KarenM]

 

 

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

 

 

 

Thanks Karen. I have all my emails, so Im sure I will "remind" Louise when we get there. That's a great site! Do you know where the dance floor is in relation to the tables and pool at Las Palmas? 

 

 

 

 

This won't mean anything until you get there, (& may change with the new WC?) but when you walk up the stairs to the pool terrace, the dinner tables will be to the right along the length of the pool, cake table immediately to your left, a little farther in on the left is the appetizer/buffet set-up, and then straight back is the dance floor & bar.

 

 

Here's a couple pictures of the las palmas set-up Rebeca sent me like a year & a half ago.

 

 

The dance floor is straight back in the photo, behind the lounge furniture, in front of the bar (which is the farthest white table set up in back). The dinner set-up is just to the right of the lounge furniture (I also have a couple pics on the previous page)

 

from this angle the dance floor would be to the left, around the far left of the terrace

 

 

[Crystal1880]

Hello all. Has anybody had any trouble contacting Louise lately? I haven't heard back to any of my e-mails in about 3 weeks. She was doing really well at responding for a bit, but I haven't heard anything from her lately.

[autjo]

Our reception at Las Palmas was set up just like Karen's. But we did not have the lounge furniture, we were supposed to have high tables for the cocktail, but that didn't happen.

 

I would have done 2 things differently:

1) hired a DJ that I picked out (the resort one was terrible and I talked about it in my review)

2) hired a coordinator (at least for the day).

 

The DJ was the only thing I complained about because I paid way too much for him to suck.

 

I didn't complain about the resort WC because you get what you pay for, and you basically get their services for free with any wedding package. Even though I was OCD organized, and the coordinator made comments on how organized I was, and we walked through every diagram and detail beforehand, you just can't expect a meeting organizer (what Dreams calls their WC) to be one of those Style Me Pretty wedding planners.

 

IMHO if you are a go with the flow kinda person and don't care about the details, then use the resort WC. You are guaranteed a great wedding and party that all of your guests will rave about. But if you are a details kinda gal, hire a pro to do it magazine perfect. Just my 2 cents...

[PalapaGirl]

First, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread--it has been incredibly helpful to me in my planning (I'm getting married at Dreams on Seaside Beach in May).  It's time for me to start contributing!  I was nervous about not having my own personal wedding coordinator because there is another wedding the same night as mine, so I hired Tamara and Patty from Chic Concepts (http://www.chicconcepts.com.mx/index.html), who Kristen at Dazzling Details recommended to me (she was booked my night).  Tamara and Patty have been extremely helpful so far, and are very familiar with Dreams weddings, so if anyone is thinking about hiring an outside coordinator, based on my experience with them so far, I would totally recommend them. 

[autjo]

Welcome PalapaGirl and congrats on you upcoming wedding!

[gowiththeflow]

Thanks Karen and autjo! That helps me at least visualize a bit! You know, I didn't even know you could hire a WC just for the day. It might be worth looking into. Does anyone know if this is common enough to get quotes on?

 

Dreams2011, your setup looked awesome! I have been dead-set against a beach reception, but that looks so nice, I may have reconsider! Was it super windy with sand flying everywhere? That's my main concern!

 

I have not heard back from Louise either. Everyone has been like "oh the close to your wedding, the more contact you get" but ours is in 10 weeks! She is being slow lately and Im just getting stressed. Brett keeps telling me to relax, it will all be ok, but I can't help! One positive is that I get "stomach aches" when Im stressed, so a little weight loss is a result! Gotta look at the brightside right??

[Dreams2011]

Hey... see my responses below in blue

 

Originally Posted by gowiththeflow 

Thanks Karen and autjo! That helps me at least visualize a bit! You know, I didn't even know you could hire a WC just for the day. It might be worth looking into. Does anyone know if this is common enough to get quotes on?

 

Dreams2011, your setup looked awesome! I have been dead-set against a beach reception, but that looks so nice, I may have reconsider! Was it super windy with sand flying everywhere? That's my main concern!
 

**There was a slight breeze, but that was it and I actually only remember the breeze during the ceremony so it wasn't very noticeable at all. I'd still go beach if we were to do it over again. Very romantic. The Las Palmas Terrace is right up close to the old tower and in my opinion isn't as conducive for playing music up to 10:30-45 if that's what you wish to do. I have to say that any of the receptions at that sight when we were there seemed to end pretty early and not sure how it goes for people who have rooms right near there complaining. Others however have held receptions there and give it a thumbs up so it's up to you really... I'd still go beach from our experience and what we thought of both locations upon arrival. FYI the Seaside beach is a nicer setting than the Oceana (again in our opinion).

 

I have not heard back from Louise either. Everyone has been like "oh the close to your wedding, the more contact you get" but ours is in 10 weeks! She is being slow lately and Im just getting stressed. Brett keeps telling me to relax, it will all be ok, but I can't help! One positive is that I get "stomach aches" when Im stressed, so a little weight loss is a result! Gotta look at the brightside right??
 

**Communication will increase as the day gets slower. Sucks to say, but in the resorts mind 10 weeks is still a long ways off... we didn't start getting consistent communication till about 2-3 weeks prior to arrival.... and yes it is stressful but it'll be fine... just do as much pre-planning and decision making you can while you're waiting and if you have any questions on menu options etc let me know (I actually requested a selection of Mexican options appose to what they offer on the regular wedding menus). If we were to do it again, we'd look in to hiring an outside coordinator... just "food for thought".

[Dreams2011]

I agree with autjo... the DJ wasn't that great and we'd hire outside as well. We weren't even going to bother with the DJ but then found out that it would only be an extra $50 for the DJ if we were already renting the sound system and dance floor so went ahead. If we were paying full choke just for the DJ we wouldn't have bothered. He was handy for when it came to starting and stopping the music, but for the amount of times that occurred someone in our group could have easily done. We brought an ipod with our song selections, which he followed for the first dance, father /daughter dance, etc, but then kept playing his own music selections during our dance time (and his choices weren't that good most of the time) so we'd keep asking him to play our music.

 

I wouldn't say that you are getting the resort WC's free, this service is part of the package you pay for (well unless you are getting the free package included with your stay).

 

Originally Posted by autjo 

Our reception at Las Palmas was set up just like Karen's. But we did not have the lounge furniture, we were supposed to have high tables for the cocktail, but that didn't happen.

 

I would have done 2 things differently:

1) hired a DJ that I picked out (the resort one was terrible and I talked about it in my review)

2) hired a coordinator (at least for the day).

 

The DJ was the only thing I complained about because I paid way too much for him to suck.

 

I didn't complain about the resort WC because you get what you pay for, and you basically get their services for free with any wedding package. Even though I was OCD organized, and the coordinator made comments on how organized I was, and we walked through every diagram and detail beforehand, you just can't expect a meeting organizer (what Dreams calls their WC) to be one of those Style Me Pretty wedding planners.

 

IMHO if you are a go with the flow kinda person and don't care about the details, then use the resort WC. You are guaranteed a great wedding and party that all of your guests will rave about. But if you are a details kinda gal, hire a pro to do it magazine perfect. Just my 2 cents...