Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[jcksiano]

Hey everyone! I have a question? We are booked at oceana for reception but when we get there and see the resort and if we change our minds like wanting it in a ballroom can we change our minds last minute? If yes how many ballrooms are there?

Hi! Quick question when you booked at Oceana did they charge an additional charge? We are on our 3rd wedding coordinator and she just sent us reception locations offering only the beach or ballroom included in our ultimate package. We were thinking the pool terrace and there are no other weddings booked on our date September 7 2013 I don't understand this new rule. She said the pool terrace is not available Wednesday or Saturday. We are 4 weeks away and they keep changing our options. Does anyone have advice or have the same problem? Thanks

[ariadnav]

Hey everyone! I have a question? We are booked at oceana for reception but when we get there and see the resort and if we change our minds like wanting it in a ballroom can we change our minds last minute? If yes how many ballrooms are there?

Hi there! We are actually having our wedding in a ballroom because we want more privacy, we want it to.end later and are having over 70 guests, you can always change it depending on availability. I think there are 4 ballrooms the one closest to the desires bar can give you problems because of the music there, and the one farthest from the club has a different layout, with a big stage on the.side so we chose one in the middle. hope that helps!!

[Wedding2014]

Oceana

Hi! Quick question when you booked at Oceana did they charge an additional charge? We are on our 3rd wedding coordinator and she just sent us reception locations offering only the beach or ballroom included in our ultimate package. We were thinking the pool terrace and there are no other weddings booked on our date September 7 2013 I don't understand this new rule. She said the pool terrace is not available Wednesday or Saturday. We are 4 weeks away and they keep changing our options. Does anyone have advice or have the same problem? Thanks

having oceana is 800 fee now

[ZachJess2013]

Hi everyone! We just had our wedding at Dreams last Thursday, August 1 and it was absolutely amazing! We literally had ZERO issues. I am so happy we chose not to get married on a weekend, we were the only wedding that day which made me completely relax. We could pick any of the venues and did not have to worry about any other weddings or minimum number of guests. We were also the only wedding getting hair and make up so we didn't have to worry about running behind schedule (and there were 14 of us!). I had the trial run for my hair which I am glad I did, I ended up making some adjustments and it turned out fabulous day of the wedding. Piece of advice if you are picky like me, I had them use my own makeup mainly for foundation, powder, and mascara. I also brought my own hairspray.

 

If you are not sure on the ceremony location, 100% for sure go with North beach. The Saturday we arrived there were three weddings lined up on the beach so we got to see our options. The south beach in my opinion is not the best choice, it is right next to the children's play ground and the swing bar so there were people and children everywhere, you literally walk right down the middle of all the chaos! This is not to take anything away from any of the weddings, every single one we saw was absolutely gorgeous. We made a lot of friends around the hotel and they ended up all coming to the ceremony, they actually created a wall with their beach chairs blocking us from the rest of the beach, it felt incredibly private. After that first night we almost changed our reception to the beach terrace bc the set up was stunning (I am not a fan of the pool terrace). However we stayed with our original plan which was seaside grill and I was so so so happy with that location. We did not have to pay anything extra, I was prepared to fight that but it never even came up. I made them include seaside grill in our original contract before we even paid the deposit. We also hired outside vendors for photo and for video and did not pay any fees, I was also prepared to fight that, never came up.

 

We used the photo and video from the ultimate package Adventure Photo for the rehearsal which was great. Claudia was our coordinator, she was our third coordinator. When we arrived we were taken right to VIP checkin, we were upgraded to a master suite, we had booked an ocean room. The master suite was perfect, plenty of space, we had so much stuff !! my very large bridal party hung out there and got ready there. They would not let us use the presidential suite to get ready (we asked) but they did let us walk out from there which was nice because we were all able to stay inside. For the rehearsal we went to oceana grill which is close to the north beach. I had let the hostess know we would be coming earlier that day, they of course don't take reservations but she said for us to arrive 15 min prior to opening and we would be the first seating, worked out perfectly.

 

We did have some issues with our guests getting sick, seemed to hit everyone in our group at one point or another, not sure if it was the food or the water or the alcohol (might have been all the crazy shots we took). The layout and size of the resort I thought was great, never really had any trouble finding one another. Desires nightclub was our hang out spot pretty much every night. I have learned that the riviera maya is basically a swamp, so there are no waves, the water is bath warm, and I have a million bug bites even with tons of bug spray. We are up at Live Aqua now in cancun area and not one bite, the water is much cooler, and the ocean has clear blue waves. Also on a side note we booked a group excursion on the Dancer Cruise (instead of paying for a rehearsal dinner) and that was a ton of fun. Anyway I could go on for days! All I can really say which is what every bride says after a wedding at DREAMS is AMAZING, it was absolutely perfect, best decision EVER. Dreams really does cater to weddings, the service during our reception was above my expectations. The DJ which we had Mauricio was spectacular, I am glad he was there to keep us on schedule bc once our group hit the dance floor that was it LOL. Enjoy your day, it will be perfect, like a DREAM honestly. 

 

Jess and Zach -> P.S. Great meeting you Noelle :-) 

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by Jaimee Weiss 

 

Hi everyone! I'm new here - heading to Dreams on Monday for a site visit - although I haven't put down my deposit yet as we're going to check out the occidental grand xcaret as well but DRC is our top contender. I'm meeting with Claudia next Wednesday - great to read all the tips you guys have on here! If anyone can answer any of these questions, I'd truly appreciate it!

 

- What does the reception and ceremony look like on the beach? Anyone have pictures?

 

- Will they let you send off Chinese Wish Lanterns? (heard some resorts say no because of fire hazard)

 

- What does the reception look like on the pool deck? Is it private?

 

- Differences between gold and silver menus?

 

Claudia wrote me down for August 2, 2014 - anyone else get married there in August? How's the weather??

 

Thanks in advance!! Congrats to all this weekends brides - see ya Monday

August is HOT, we just got married August 1 but honestly we didn't care !! we were all sweaty messes !! It does cool down a bit.. I was worried about the heat but it was totally fine, you are in mexico :-)

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by loripanori 

 

 

One option to keep in mind is that you can rent the sound system and play your own music during the first hour of the reception to save a bit on the cost of the DJ.  We did this because I figured we didn't really need a DJ while we were eating dinner, and it worked out quite well.  Our dinner actually ran quite long - closer to 2 hours - so in the end I was kind of annoyed that we had payed for 3 hours of DJing, when we could have easily played our own music for the full dinner time (2 hours) and had the DJ for 2 hours of dancing.  We had a seated (non-buffet) dinner on the beach, and I'm not sure if that's why ours ran so long, but I did find it awfully slow.  Especially since I had stressed to Lorena in our meeting that I wanted dinner to move as fast as possible, and she said it wouldn't be a problem to do it in an hour.    

 

Desires is very hit or miss depending on the night.  On our wedding night everyone ended up going there afterwards, and there were two other weddings on that same day, so it was quite busy with lots of people drinking and dancing.  But other nights during that week we went in and there was hardly anyone there.  If a group of people from your wedding all decide to go together after the reception, you can kind of make your own party and it should be a good time!

We did the buffet, planned 45 minutes for dinner, definitely stuck pretty close with 31 guests. I wouldn't pay for the extra hour to DJ, we went to Desires afterwards, we owned that place LOL

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by emmyss 

 

Does anyone happen to know how many hair stylist are at the hair salon? I was hoping I would be able to get my hair done at the same time as my mom and my little girl

 

Thanks, 

 

Emmy 

we had 14 get hair and makeup - they allowed 4 girls at a time - 4 9a, 4 11a, 4 1p, and 2 3p - shouldn't be an issue !

[ZachJess2013]

Originally Posted by Dominique 161 

 

 

Well I brought lots of LED tea lights and LED pillar candles from home because I didn't want to pay for extra lighting..

But I got to the reception on the wedding day and they put up loads of lanterns and set up the light up dance floor for free!

I think the dance floor is normally $580 and the lanterns are $10 each.

I'm not 100% sure how many lanterns you will need. I'm guessing 24

the lanterns you need 25, yeah I think it was $250, we also paid for the lights under the tables, we had 3 tables of 10 and did 2 lights per table plus 1 for the cake table, 7 total

[ZachJess2013]

I definitely recommend up-dos if you want your hair to last, our group turned out pretty good, I have pics up on facebook if you want to see .. Jessica Rogo (or Rubidoux) .. I had them use my make up, hair spray and bobby pins, but only because I am super picky loll

[emmyss]

Originally Posted by ZachJess2013 

 

we had 14 get hair and makeup - they allowed 4 girls at a time - 4 9a, 4 11a, 4 1p, and 2 3p - shouldn't be an issue !

Thanks ZachJess2013! 

 

I can't wait to see your pictures!

 

Emmy