Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[TIGERLILYODP]

Are you sure you can go inside? I asked Lorena the opposite (if we used desires lounge could guests also go outside on the terrace), and she said its normally closed off. Our date is April 6th and coming up fast!

hi yes I asked via email if we could have it on the terrace and we were told yes

[EmilyT]

Originally Posted by tiffany0613 

 

 

Lorena sent me these pictures. Does anyone know what the names of the locations are?

 

this is so funny because this was driving me crazy for a while and i actually posted the same pics a while back and asked Lorena and unfortunetly I can't find the exact email right now because i am at work but I will search my emails later to help u guys out. From what I remember......

 

. The 1st picture is outside of Desire's .... i remember sitting out there when I went. It is right up the steps where u can walk in to desires and other restaurants. The second picture is what is actually called "Desires Terrace" i went through all of this with her because i realllly wanted my cocktail hour at the 2nd location, but i realized people had different views of which was Desires Terrace and which wasnt. After confirmation with Lorena- the 2nd location is the actual "Desire's Terrace". The confusion is because the first picture is actually right outside of desires so everyone assumes thats what it is called ( silly on part of the hotel). LOL so make sure if u want one of these locations u confirm where they are. The 2nd picture is above the kids club so they really dont like to do coktail hours there anymore incase drinks spills. I am having it there because i confirmed it a long time ago & promised my guests would behave.

 

hopefully i find th email and if so ill copy and paste it so u guys can see because this also drove me nuts lol

[EmilyT]

also i hope i find it because i want to put on my program where the cokctail hour is & im pretty sure its outside of the french restaurant but im not positive so i dont know what to put on my program card lol im afraid if i put desires terrace my guests will go to the other location lol

[tiffany0613]

Is anyone planning on doing a welcome get together? I really wanted to have all of our guests gather at the same bar just to meet the rest of our group. I don't want to pay an extra fee to close down a location. Does anyone have a suggestion for a location? We thought it would be nice for everyone to have other friendly faces from our group during their stay.

[TIGERLILYODP]

thanks savs

[EmilyT]

Originally Posted by tiffany0613 

 

Is anyone planning on doing a welcome get together? I really wanted to have all of our guests gather at the same bar just to meet the rest of our group. I don't want to pay an extra fee to close down a location. Does anyone have a suggestion for a location? We thought it would be nice for everyone to have other friendly faces from our group during their stay.

Hi! I decided not to do the welcome dinner either because we have 50 guests and it was really adding up.... I think if you are spending a nice amount on the wedding like we are dreams should offer something better for the welcome dinner ( a better deal overall ). It would have ended up costing me about 1000 for dinner everyone already paid for lol. so anyway i am putting on my programs "Welcome Cocktails at the Lobby Bar" and I am going to pick a time that would be right around when most people would be done with dinner. I also think it gives the guests a chance to try whatever restaurant they choose since the next day will be the wedding. I reallly wanted a welcome dinner at first but I am pretty content with this now. You also could do it at Desire's Lounge.. they have a DJ and chairs and tables. I figure we will end up moving over to there but we have 4 kids coming so we are starting at the lobby bar.

[EmilyT]

Hey girls, I am trying to wrap up all my final plans since I am leaving for Mexico Feb 26th!!! I just sent Lorena emails with pretty much all my final thoughts and requests & she was very kind to email me out of the blue yesterday asking if i needed anything else which i REALLY appreciate! ... a few things I am curious about that maybe someone here could give me an idea on:

 

Centerpieces: Is it possible to somehow use the bridesmaids bouquets towards the centerpieces.... can they arrange this? I have 4 bridesmaids and i know right after the ceremony the bouquets are going to lay somewhere and never be used again lol also they are about 75$ each so i want to get more use out of them. any ideas ?

 

Lights under table: I see a price listed for 30$ and one for 50$. Maybe it increased ? I am going to do this regardless just curious what others have paid.

 

Lanterns: I decided to use the resorts instead of bringing my own. I want the one long string just not sure exactly how much it is.. i assume about 200? I think its 20 lights and they are $10 each ?

 

Decorating the Hoopa: I know I read somewhere that someone used the floral arrangement from the bride/groom table to decorate the hoopa, is anyone familiar with this ? Lorena told me it is fine, but that the dimensions are different. So if it is going to look silly I will purchase flowers for it, but if i can get away with it- than thats what i'll do!

 

Boutineers: I see the ultimate package offers 2 boutineers and 2 corsages. I was wondering if I could have 3 boutineers instead and one corsage. Only mom needs a corsage. In this case I would only have to purchase 4 boutineers.

 

Flower Girl: I asked for one bag of rose petals. Do you think I should bring some of my own fakes ones ? Is one bag enough from the suit to the hoopa ?

 

Dinner: I am trying to stress to Lorena that although we are doing the sit down I want more time for dancing and less for eating. Does anyone have a good idea of how to explain the meal times so that dinner doesnt take up 90% of the reception. I also am paying for the extra hour so that might help.

 

Video: I really want a nice wedding video that includes the ceremony a little of the cocktail hour and some key points of the reception like the first dance, father daughter dance, cake cutting. When I look at the video packages it seems like none of them include this exceprt the final package which is 5000. Well i have been to weddings here in NY where they get AMAZING wedding videos and spend much less. I reviewed some outside vendors and then decided I would just use their videographers and now i am not so sure again. If they are a lot more expensive and lower quality- it is worth the outside vendor fee. Is this something I can worry about when I get there, or should i really make up my mind now? I emailed them and have not heard back & some sort of video is really important to me.

 

Alcohol: What kind of liquor is included..... my fiance wants to know if we should upgrade or if pretty much everything is included lol

 

SORRY FOR MY LONG RANT LOL THESE ARE MY FINAL WRAP UP QUESTIONS SO I FIGURED WHILE LORENA IS BUSY IF ANYONE HAS ANY ANSWERS TO THEM I COULD GET A MOVE ON

[ashley822]

Originally Posted by EmilyT 

 

Hey girls, I am trying to wrap up all my final plans since I am leaving for Mexico Feb 26th!!! I just sent Lorena emails with pretty much all my final thoughts and requests & she was very kind to email me out of the blue yesterday asking if i needed anything else which i REALLY appreciate! ... a few things I am curious about that maybe someone here could give me an idea on:

 

Centerpieces: Is it possible to somehow use the bridesmaids bouquets towards the centerpieces.... can they arrange this? I have 4 bridesmaids and i know right after the ceremony the bouquets are going to lay somewhere and never be used again lol also they are about 75$ each so i want to get more use out of them. any ideas ?

 

Lights under table: I see a price listed for 30$ and one for 50$. Maybe it increased ? I am going to do this regardless just curious what others have paid.

 

Lanterns: I decided to use the resorts instead of bringing my own. I want the one long string just not sure exactly how much it is.. i assume about 200? I think its 20 lights and they are $10 each ?

 

Decorating the Hoopa: I know I read somewhere that someone used the floral arrangement from the bride/groom table to decorate the hoopa, is anyone familiar with this ? Lorena told me it is fine, but that the dimensions are different. So if it is going to look silly I will purchase flowers for it, but if i can get away with it- than thats what i'll do!

 

Boutineers: I see the ultimate package offers 2 boutineers and 2 corsages. I was wondering if I could have 3 boutineers instead and one corsage. Only mom needs a corsage. In this case I would only have to purchase 4 boutineers.

 

Flower Girl: I asked for one bag of rose petals. Do you think I should bring some of my own fakes ones ? Is one bag enough from the suit to the hoopa ?

 

Dinner: I am trying to stress to Lorena that although we are doing the sit down I want more time for dancing and less for eating. Does anyone have a good idea of how to explain the meal times so that dinner doesnt take up 90% of the reception. I also am paying for the extra hour so that might help.

 

Video: I really want a nice wedding video that includes the ceremony a little of the cocktail hour and some key points of the reception like the first dance, father daughter dance, cake cutting. When I look at the video packages it seems like none of them include this exceprt the final package which is 5000. Well i have been to weddings here in NY where they get AMAZING wedding videos and spend much less. I reviewed some outside vendors and then decided I would just use their videographers and now i am not so sure again. If they are a lot more expensive and lower quality- it is worth the outside vendor fee. Is this something I can worry about when I get there, or should i really make up my mind now? I emailed them and have not heard back & some sort of video is really important to me.

 

Alcohol: What kind of liquor is included..... my fiance wants to know if we should upgrade or if pretty much everything is included lol

 

SORRY FOR MY LONG RANT LOL THESE ARE MY FINAL WRAP UP QUESTIONS SO I FIGURED WHILE LORENA IS BUSY IF ANYONE HAS ANY ANSWERS TO THEM I COULD GET A MOVE ON

Hey Emily - so soon! You're going to have so much fun! We were just there in the beginning of Jan so hopefully some of the answers Lorena gives you will be the same ones Gina gave us while we were there!

 

Centerpieces: Yes, you can use the same flowers from your bridesmaids as centerpieces if you'd like. I would tell Lorena during your meeting - write it down, put it on an excel that you're bringing, anything to remember because during the meeting you go over EVERYTHING and it's easy to forget little details . Then I would try to remember after the ceremony or group pictures with the wedding party if the bouquets are going to be a part of the pics, to just ask Lorena or Jorge to wait the few minutes and then give the bouquets to either one of them. Even if the girls give the flowers to Jorge at the cocktail hour (he will be there the whole time - he's awesome), I'm sure they could still get it all set up the way you want - they are really good and Jorge is on top of everything!

 

Lanterns: They are $10 each - I knew exactly how many I wanted from counting in other pictures I had seen and told my coordinator at the meeting. Otherwise, they will probably just quote you a price based on the amount the usually put on a the long strand so if the number is 20 it will be $200. 

 

Bouts: Yes, you can trade out one of the corsages for another bout. As long as they are in the same "category," they will let you trade stuff. For example, flowers can be traded for flowers but say you didn't want the massages and you wanted extra pictures, that's not possible since they are all different vendors/categories. Hope that makes sense! haha

 

Flower girl: One bag is plenty. They are big bags. My flower girl was dumping them the minute she left the room we walked out of and she had enough. Don't bring fake ones unless you want to show them for a color match because the fake ones are not allowed due to the nature/protected area that resort is located. What Gina told us is that the little fake petals are bad for the birds - they eat them off the ground and then die so I guess they don't want to be cleaning up dead birds  

 

Dinner: For the timeline you make and give to them, just stress that would like the most time for dancing. We wanted the same thing. We had less people and we did the buffet to make it go quicker, but we did not add the extra hour. I think you will be fine. Are you getting the DJ? He really helps keep everything in order when it comes to the timeline of the reception and acts as the MC. If you are having him, make sure you print out a copy of the timeline you decide on or you can even change it there when you go over it with him - he knows what's on it and what not to leave off  

We started our speeches RIGHT when the last table sat down from getting their food so people could eat and listen to speeches and it would conserve time. I'm not sure about the plated dinners but I'm sure if you ask when you could fit things in, they will have suggestions. 

Also, we had the DJ fade out the father/daughter and mother/son dance songs when the songs hit 3 min because some slow songs are long and we wanted to have the nice dances but we didn't think we needed to be up there for 10 min when everyone else could be dancing! haha It sounded great and he did an awesome job. 

Our photographer actually gave us some suggestions on how to get the most party time and he said that some people do their first dance right away because everyone is already sitting down and that's when you get introduced anyway. I thought this sounded like a good idea but my groom wasn't too into it so we did our first dance after the speeches, then we cut the cake right after that and as the waiters were passing out cake and everyone was eating dessert, we put in the father/daughter and mother/son dance. That way, there was still a little break from 3 individual, slow dances in a row. 

 

Alcohol: Everything is included here. They have the nicer selection of alcohol underneath the bars rather than on the top shelf - we discovered this like day 3 into our trip - after the wedding haha so just be sure to ask!

For example, our group has some vodka drinkers and they have just about every flavor of Absolute out in view but they have Grey Goose underneath. I thought their selection was pretty good and our group likes to party some I was nervous since we have never been to an all inclusive before and had heard stories like it's just well liquor included and everything else is more but that's not the case here. Some of the things they had were Bacardi, another good spiced rum in place of Captain Morgan's, Jack Daniels, Ketel One, Jose, 1800, Beefeater, CC. For beer they have Corona, Corona Light, Bud Light, Budweiser (I think), Modela Especial. If you ask if they have something, they will tell you if they have it or offer you things. 

 

Hope this helps somewhat! I only answered what I had experience from your questions (we didn't get lights under the table or extra flowers on the hoopa). Everything will be great when you get there and it seems like you are pretty much ready with still a few weeks left! 

[LeashAC]

I've just reserved Dreams riviera cancun for May 5, 2014!! I'm a little confused though as we reserved the beach for the ceremony & pool deck for the reception. As it is so far away we don't have a count yet (we put estimation 40). After reading some Comments I'm just a little worried that Evangelina (she is the one I've been in contact with so far) is going to say down the line I don't have enough people For the pool deck. Anyone else have any experience with this?

[EmilyT]

Wow thank you so much ASHLEY that really is a huge help and yes we are having the DJ