Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[dec2012ms]

I can't believe how many different answers they are giving everyone! They told us we had to have 40 people to reserve the pool deck, not 60. We may be a few people under the 40 & they have never clearly said yet wether or not we will have to make up the difference. Do you guys know if the price per person for the reception is cheaper if you use the seaside grill vs using the pool deck or the beach? Does anyone have any pictures of the "ugly" chairs that they use that no one seems to want? Also does anyone know if the tablecloth rentals are really $35? That is what they are quoting me but on the 2012 wedding guide it says $18. One last question- any other input on wether the cocktail hour is worth it? We have been debating on wether or not to cash it in to apply to our additional guest dinners. We are considering sending everyone to the beach bar in between the ceremony & reception & having the mariachi band perform at the beach bar. I've heard other brides that are considering the same thing, but I'm wondering if it will work out with 40 of us. Thanks for all of your help!

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by dec2012ms 

 

Thank you for such a great review! I've got a question regarding the seaside grill... We currently have the pool deck reserved for 40 people. Do you know if they charge you less to reserve seaside grill than the pool deck per person? I don't have much info on seaside grill so if you guys have any other pictures or info you could tell me I would appreciate it. It may already be reserved so I may not have the option to switch. Also have any of you rented a car while you are down there? We are considering renting one for a couple if days to run errands & possibly to visit tulum. Just curious if anyone else has rented one & how safe it is. Thanks!

 

Just from my previous trips to Mexico, I wouldn't recommend renting a car. They drive CRAZY!!!! And with the safety concerns in Mexico, I just wouldn't leave the resort unless you are in a tour group.

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by dec2012ms 

 

I can't believe how many different answers they are giving everyone! They told us we had to have 40 people to reserve the pool deck, not 60. We may be a few people under the 40 & they have never clearly said yet wether or not we will have to make up the difference. Do you guys know if the price per person for the reception is cheaper if you use the seaside grill vs using the pool deck or the beach? Does anyone have any pictures of the "ugly" chairs that they use that no one seems to want? Also does anyone know if the tablecloth rentals are really $35? That is what they are quoting me but on the 2012 wedding guide it says $18. One last question- any other input on wether the cocktail hour is worth it? We have been debating on wether or not to cash it in to apply to our additional guest dinners. We are considering sending everyone to the beach bar in between the ceremony & reception & having the mariachi band perform at the beach bar. I've heard other brides that are considering the same thing, but I'm wondering if it will work out with 40 of us. Thanks for all of your help!

 

I am on the pool deck and we only have 35 people including my fiance and I. The per person price for the reception is the same no matter where you have it unless you close down one of the restaurants and in that case it's more. (which is supposed to be the case for the Seaside grill but I've heard of several brides getting to use it for the same price as the other locations).  If you find LindseyM on here, she had her reception in the Seaside Grill and used the standard chairs/tables that come with it. I thought they looked fine!

 

I'm not sure on the price of the tablecloths. We ordered ours from weddinglinensdirect.com and are bringing them and chair sashes with us for MUCH cheaper. But, if you are interested in Seaside grill, I would verify which chairs/tables you are going to have, because they might be different in there than the standard round tables.

 

We are not having a cocktail hour. We are using the credit towards dinner and are having everyone congregate at the Beach Bar  while we are taking pictures. I honestly don't know if it will work, but it was OK'd by Evangelina and I imagine if it weren't going to work, she would have said something. I just didn't want to pay for it when not everyone will go. I'm sure some people will go back up to their room, etc during that time so why pay for it? We leave next week so I can tell you how it went when we return!

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by ahall5665 

 

My hubby and I were married November 8^th at Dreams Riviera Cancun, we had 30 guests and this resort was perfect! The resort is beautiful and exactly what we were looking forward. The grounds were nicely kept and the service and food we excellent. The beach was beautiful, its great for long walks, a few of our guests even walked to Puerto Morelos to do some shopping which was about 40 min walk each way. Every night the lobby had live music which all of our guests enjoyed, several nights we went to Desires Lounge which wasnt too exciting but we made it fun. All of the restaurants were great and so was the room service which we used on several occasions.

 

We used Olympus Tours for our guest’s airport transfers and our travel agent prearranged them all beforehand. I definitely recommend doing this as some of our guests had never traveled out of the country and it made their transition to the resort very simple. Olympus was on time and professional.

 

My husband and I had private check in since we booked the Honeymoon Suite…the rest of our guests checked in through the lobby counter and none of them seemed to have any issues. Even though the resort was almost completely full majority of people’s rooms were ready upon check in. Most of our guests booked oceanview rooms, which was definitely worth the upgrade IF the location of the oceanview room is good. A few guests were unhappy with the location of their room and they were quickly changed to a room that provided a better oceanview. The resort was very accommodating to this. The rooms are very nice and all of our guests complimented on our nice and clean they were. We booked the honeymoon suite for ourselves as we wanted to be oceanfront and hoped to get upgraded to the next lever (master suite) for free as most wedding couples do. The honeymoon suite was nice, had a great oceanfront view. After a few days we got upgraded to the master suite which was wonderful and really big. It was perfect for me and all my bridesmaids to get ready in!

 

My hair was done by my sister, shes a hair stylist, but my bridesmaids had their hair done at the resort salon and most of them were happy with it although they used a little too much hairspray. I hired Fernado Fuentes to do my make up, he was recommended on this site. I was worried about having the resort salon do my make up so I gave my hair/makeup included in the ultimate package to my mom which she loved! Fernado was great to work with, he’s a little expensive but it was worth it.

 

We got the Ultimate Package as it made the most sense for us. Lorena our wedding coordinator for the most part was great to work with. We met her for the first time on our site visit in April and although email responses often took a while once we got there for the wedding we were able to meet with her and discuss all the details. We bought our own chair bows and tablecloths as well as some other decorations and gave them all to Lorena, there was no extra charge for them putting these out. Even though they generally don’t allow different style chairs at Seaside Grill for our reception they made an exception and let us have the white garden style chairs which I was extremely happy with! Lorena was great on the wedding day and made sure everything was flawless. We were extremely happy with how everything turned out, it was better than I could of ever imagined!  

 

We had our ceremony on North Beach at 3:30pm as recommend by Anel our photographer as this would provide the best sunlight for pictures. To future brides getting married this time of year, I would recommend doing the ceremony maybe at 3-3:15 instead just to ensure you have enough sunlight and don’t feel rushed, we sort of felt we had to hurry to get all our pictures before it got dark.  Overall Anel was great to work with except she was late getting to my room and then never made it to my husbands room to get pictures of him and his groomsman getting ready, which I had discussed with her before hand and told her we definitely wanted. We are pretty disappointed about this. She also didn’t get any pictures of our ceremony set up until guests were there and all seated, which I would of liked to have. During the wedding she was good to work with and got any pictures we asked for. We got photo package 4…we wanted to do the TTD included with this package a different day than the wedding day which she was very accommodating about! We honeymooned at Zoetry and Anel recommended doing our TTD there as the resort would be a change of scenery. The beach at the Zoetry had TONS of seaweed, the sand by the water was covered and tons of it in the water to the point we didn’t even want to go in the water. But the rest of the sand was beautiful so we took most of the pictures there. Anel did a great job of taking the pictures so the seaweed wasn’t in the pictures. The only thing I wish Anel would of gotten more close up pictures of my husband and I, they are all pretty far away. But I am hoping once we get the cd with the images we can crop them to be a closer up.

 

We used the videographer included with the ultimate package, after hearing some bad reviews of the quality we decided to upgrade the video to HD for about $300. We haven’t gotten our video yet so can’t review the quality.

We had our cocktail hour at North Jacuzzi which was perfect, everyone loved the food and the mariachi band! We missed 90% of it as we were busy taking pictures.

 

Our reception was at 6:30pm at the Seaside Grill and we paid an extra $15 pp to extend it an extra hour which my husband didn’t want to do before the wedding but afterward he is SO happy I talked him into it. It was totally worth the extra money, we were having the best time ever and would have been disappointed to have it end at 9:30pm. The Seaside Grill in my opinion is the best location to hold the reception…its covered but still open air so you get a nice breeze but its not too windy.  We weren’t too hot or too cold it was perfect all night! It was a good size for the amount of people we had (32 with my husband and I) but could definitely accommodate a larger group as well. We didn’t pay any extra for having the reception at Seaside Grill. We choose to do the buffet as it offered the best variety of food and would be quicker than a sit down dinner. Everyone complimented on how great the food was! We picked the Caribbean Buffet and made a few changes which was no problem and it turned out great. The wait staff at the reception were excellent!

 

We used the DJ at the resort and he was great! He did our ceremony as well as reception and did a fabulous job. He played the songs we wanted and also made sure not to play the ones I didn’t want. He kept the party going all night it was great! Everything about the reception was perfect, we have a bit of a rowdy crowd of friends and everyone danced the night away. After the reception we all went to Desires Lounge and kept the party going which was a lot of fun!

 

Overall the wedding day was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of and the wedding team at Dreams really made everything perfect! I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone and we will be going back for sure!

 

Below is our slideshow!

 

http://081112carter.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

beautiful pictures!!!! Thanks for the review! We leave next week

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by dec2012ms 

 

I can't believe how many different answers they are giving everyone! They told us we had to have 40 people to reserve the pool deck, not 60. We may be a few people under the 40 & they have never clearly said yet wether or not we will have to make up the difference. Do you guys know if the price per person for the reception is cheaper if you use the seaside grill vs using the pool deck or the beach? Does anyone have any pictures of the "ugly" chairs that they use that no one seems to want? Also does anyone know if the tablecloth rentals are really $35? That is what they are quoting me but on the 2012 wedding guide it says $18. One last question- any other input on wether the cocktail hour is worth it? We have been debating on wether or not to cash it in to apply to our additional guest dinners. We are considering sending everyone to the beach bar in between the ceremony & reception & having the mariachi band perform at the beach bar. I've heard other brides that are considering the same thing, but I'm wondering if it will work out with 40 of us. Thanks for all of your help!

 

 

Originally Posted by Savs1027 

 

 

I am on the pool deck and we only have 35 people including my fiance and I. The per person price for the reception is the same no matter where you have it unless you close down one of the restaurants and in that case it's more. (which is supposed to be the case for the Seaside grill but I've heard of several brides getting to use it for the same price as the other locations).  If you find LindseyM on here, she had her reception in the Seaside Grill and used the standard chairs/tables that come with it. I thought they looked fine!

 

I'm not sure on the price of the tablecloths. We ordered ours from weddinglinensdirect.com and are bringing them and chair sashes with us for MUCH cheaper. But, if you are interested in Seaside grill, I would verify which chairs/tables you are going to have, because they might be different in there than the standard round tables.

 

We are not having a cocktail hour. We are using the credit towards dinner and are having everyone congregate at the Beach Bar  while we are taking pictures. I honestly don't know if it will work, but it was OK'd by Evangelina and I imagine if it weren't going to work, she would have said something. I just didn't want to pay for it when not everyone will go. I'm sure some people will go back up to their room, etc during that time so why pay for it? We leave next week so I can tell you how it went when we return!

 

HAHA, I just saw that your name is DEC2012ms so that means you'll probably be there before me! So if you decide on the cocktail hour, you'll have to let me know how it goes!

When do you leave???

[ashley822]

Originally Posted by dec2012ms 

 

I can't believe how many different answers they are giving everyone! They told us we had to have 40 people to reserve the pool deck, not 60. We may be a few people under the 40 & they have never clearly said yet wether or not we will have to make up the difference. Do you guys know if the price per person for the reception is cheaper if you use the seaside grill vs using the pool deck or the beach? Does anyone have any pictures of the "ugly" chairs that they use that no one seems to want? Also does anyone know if the tablecloth rentals are really $35? That is what they are quoting me but on the 2012 wedding guide it says $18. One last question- any other input on wether the cocktail hour is worth it? We have been debating on wether or not to cash it in to apply to our additional guest dinners. We are considering sending everyone to the beach bar in between the ceremony & reception & having the mariachi band perform at the beach bar. I've heard other brides that are considering the same thing, but I'm wondering if it will work out with 40 of us. Thanks for all of your help!

 

Here is picture of the Seaside chairs that Gina sent to me. The backs are rounded and there would be no way to include a chair sash on them because of their shape.

 

[yacki62]

Originally Posted by dec2012ms 

 

I can't believe how many different answers they are giving everyone! They told us we had to have 40 people to reserve the pool deck, not 60. We may be a few people under the 40 & they have never clearly said yet wether or not we will have to make up the difference. Do you guys know if the price per person for the reception is cheaper if you use the seaside grill vs using the pool deck or the beach? Does anyone have any pictures of the "ugly" chairs that they use that no one seems to want? Also does anyone know if the tablecloth rentals are really $35? That is what they are quoting me but on the 2012 wedding guide it says $18. One last question- any other input on wether the cocktail hour is worth it? We have been debating on wether or not to cash it in to apply to our additional guest dinners. We are considering sending everyone to the beach bar in between the ceremony & reception & having the mariachi band perform at the beach bar. I've heard other brides that are considering the same thing, but I'm wondering if it will work out with 40 of us. Thanks for all of your help!

I don't believe the additional price per guest is different depending on the location you choose, I think it's all the same for the "wedding" reception dinner. And Yes, the tablecloth rentals start at $18 per table but the ones I choose which were just a plain gathered type turquoise color were $35 a piece. 

 

I would say the cocktail hour was a great time and a different change of scenery as most of your guests will have probably already been do the beach or lobby bar. I had a break between the wedding and cocktail hour and most ppl went to the lobby bar but they were definitely hungry for apps and ready for the drinks. It was a great time. Also, with the cocktail hour you will have a more intimate feel and like its a private party as other people will be around at the beach bar. These are just my opinions though and I totally understand wanting to cash it in to put it toward something else.

[yacki62]

I finally got my slideshow back from Anel for my wedding that took place on 11/11/2012; I posted a review a while back. However, the thing I did notice was that she made the slideshow out of several pictures we choose NOT to keep and I thought it was going to be of the 150 we choose. Either way not a big deal, but the only bummer is you can't download any pictures from the slideshow

 

http://111112moloney.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Also, our timing on the days events just in case anyone is curious so you know how much sunlight you are working with:

 

Ceremony 3pm

Cocktail 5pm

Reception 6-9pm

[Kthorpe]

Could you please clarify when you say that the DJ for the ceremony isnt extra.  I was told it is 300 per hour, which seems a bit pricy!

[Savs1027]

Originally Posted by yacki62 

 

I finally got my slideshow back from Anel for my wedding that took place on 11/11/2012; I posted a review a while back. However, the thing I did notice was that she made the slideshow out of several pictures we choose NOT to keep and I thought it was going to be of the 150 we choose. Either way not a big deal, but the only bummer is you can't download any pictures from the slideshow

 

http://111112moloney.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/

 

Also, our timing on the days events just in case anyone is curious so you know how much sunlight you are working with:

 

Ceremony 3pm

Cocktail 5pm

Reception 6-9pm

beautiful pictures!!! Anel did great! 

It seems like it took a long time to get your slideshow! Did you atleast get your disk with your pictures on it before this?