Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[Stoff]

We are March 4th

[lorijfletcher]

 

 

Originally Posted by LindsayMichelle 

 

For those of you that have gotten married at DRC, I need your advice on something. I'm trying to decide if we should have our cocktail party the night before the wedding, so that we can enjoy it with our guests, and it's a fun added activity on another day. Is there a bar on the beach that they'd be able to go to after the ceremony? I feel like we're at all all-inclusive resort, so it shouldn't be hard to find something to do while we are taking pictures, but I also don't want them to bored. What do you all think? Thanks so much!

 

We didn't do the cocktail hour at all.  We all just me up at the Barracuda bar (the beach bar with swings as stools) after the wedding.  It worked out perfectly!

[lorijfletcher]

That did not happen to us - not sure if it is because we were in the preferred club, or not?  It did happen to several our guests and it was annoying.  I would just "demand" a second key.  Don't let them talk you out of it!
 

Originally Posted by BethAnne 

Ladies..for thoses recently married here..wondering if you can tell all of girls if this happened on your trip--

I heard that you're only given one room key at DRC- which would be really inconvenient since me and FH will be coming and going at different times and such...

 

Let us know if you can! <3

leaving in 25 days!!

[lorijfletcher]

I've never used the travelers check card, so I don't know.  I just used my debit card and it worked perfect. We took very little total cash.   Just $200 in 1 dollar bills for tipping and about $300 more for travel and odds and ends.  Everything at the resort gets charged to your room and you pay at the end.  There is a cash machine at the resort also (though it was broke when we were there).
 

Originally Posted by brookeh68 

Ladies- When you get to the resort, and they want you to pay for the wedding, what is the best currency to use?  Credit Card, Travelers checks...etc.  It seems ridiculous to bring a lot of cash to Mexico.   I have also heard that AAA has a travelers check CARD which you load... Has anyone ever used this? 

[lorijfletcher]

 

Ok ladies, here it is! I was married on November 29th at the Dreams. We did the “Ultimate Wedding Package†and here is my review.

 

1. The rooms.  We only paid for a garden view room but were upgraded to the the “preferred club ocean viewâ€.  The room was amazing but honestly, we were never in it.  I am glad we didn’t pay the extra money for it, but it was beautiful.  However, the “preferred club†portion of the upgrade is something we would definitely consider upgrading.  This gave us access to the bar with top shelf booze, and a more private breakfast and dinner area.  It was nice and depending on the price, it may be well worth the extra money   Andrea was our favorite bartender!

 

** One thing to note on the rooms. It did not affect us, but it did affect several of our guests.  The rooms on the south most side of the resort are right next to their sewage plant/area and there is a VERY strong sewer smell outside of their rooms - not inside though.  Just FYI you might try and not get rooms on that far south side if possible.

 

1. The resort - AMAZING!!  Simply beautiful, well maintained, friendly employee’s, beautiful beach (which they groom twice a day), always lots of chair available by the pool and on the beach.  Fast friendly pool and beach service.  In general, all of the food was amazing.  There were a few things here and there that I wouldn’t try twice but all in all - great food.  The room service cheese burger was a favorite in our crowd!  All the restaurants were great but our favorites were the Oceana (seafood) - try their shrimp/jalapeno cream cheese stuffed wonton’s - OMG! And the Japanese restaurant is wonderful!
2. Wedding Coordinator.  We were lucky enough to have still have Gaby.  Her last day of work there was our last day of vacation.  She was really great, very sweet and everything was beautiful!  Everyone on the wedding event department was very nice and I am sure Gaby has trained everyone well.  All the other brides have said it, but it is true....don’t stress too much, it will all come together beautifully in the end. I tipped Gaby $100 at our initial visit
3. Chuppah & chairs- I took my own fabric for the Chuppah and chair sashes, showed Gaby a couple of pictures and it looked great.
4. We did have a short rehearsal the day before and I’m glad we did.  It was very casual and short but it was nice to get an idea of where everyone should start and stand. It was at 12:00 noon and we all were in our swim suits and cocktails in hand.  It was perfect!
5. We did not due an organized rehearsal dinner (because I didn’t want to have to pay for it).  We all just met at the buffet and then went up to the lobby bar for a “meet & greet†cocktail party.  Here is where we gave out all the bridesmaid/groomsman gifts. It all worked out perfect.
6. OOT bags. We did give awesome OOT bags (if I do say so myself) to all our guests.  They LOVED them!  Hy hubby told me he thought I was crazy for going to so much work and lugging all that stuff down there, but when we started giving them out he got really excited!  It was SUPER fun and I would go to all the work and effort again. 
7. Our wedding was at 2:00.  I think it started a little late, like maybe 2:20 ish?  Ceremony was over by 2:45 ish? Then we did pictures with Juan Navarro until 4:00.  We traded in our mariachi band and cocktail hour to cover more people for the reception.  I was kind of bummed when we made this decision but I am so glad we did in the end.  It saved us about $1000.00.  Everyone just met at the Barracuda (swing) bar and hung out until we could join them at 4:00 for cocktails.  We hung out, took lots of pictures and before you know it, it was 5:00 and time to start the reception.  It flew by.  I was worried about the “flow†of it all with such a big gap of time between the wedding and the reception.  But it was NO issue at all.  A lot of people went back and changed into something more comfortable.  All of the wedding party stayed in their wedding clothes. Everyone felt like it flowed perfectly. 
8. We had our reception on the pool deck - hands down, THE best place for a reception!  It was beautiful!  We had menu option #3 that offered Lamb and Sea Bass as the main entree’s.  It was good, not amazing and very small portions.  We didn’t get a chance to eat it all anyway.  If I had it to do over, I might choose a different menu option, but it was not horrible by any means. 

** I did not have this issue but another bride did.  Apparently at the end of her reception she could tell the wait staff was standing around waiting for a tip.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO TIP THE WAIT STAFF AT THE RECEPTION  - unless you want to!  I had checked with Gaby prior to the reception and you have already paid the gratuity in that 15% “service charge†you are paying PER head!  That other bride was pretty annoyed and I don’t blame her. I do think a lot of our guests left tips at the bar as they got drinks.

 

1. We hired Doremixx and this was THE best decision I could have made.  We extended our reception/DJ an hour (I had planned to do this ahead of time).  I was kind of stressed because the DJ is $300 + we had to pay for the extended reception time to cover wait staff and the bar ($15/hd + 11% tax + 15% service charge).  Our reception was SOOOOO much fun the night of the event, I extended it ANOTHER hour. TOTALLY worth it.  He made our party.  Once he brought out the balloons and party masks it “turned into a rave†as my brother likes to say-LOL!  I just can’t say enough about this. We tipped him $100.

**We saw some other receptions while we were there that had a different DJ or did the ipod thing.  They definitely didn’t have as much fun as we did.  But, that all depends on your crowd.

 

1. Juan Navarro - He is the best!  Such a kind man and very professional.  We loved working with him and his pictures are amazing and the price is GREAT! He only did our getting ready, wedding and post wedding (posed) photo’s.
2. Resort photographer - did our reception and TTD pics.  They did an awesome job!  Great photographers.  You will not be disappointed if you choose them as your photographer.  We couldn’t pick just 50 pics (that we got free with the Ultimate package) so we ended up buying all 224 pictures that they took and we paid $900.00- totally worth it!
3. Tipping - We did ALOT of tipping.  It was getting pretty annoying at the end.  It started to feel like it was “expectedâ€.  I actually did have one room service guy roll his eyes at me when I only tipped him 2 dollars for bringing the room service (for the 3rd time the day of the wedding).  That kind of ticked me off but this was an isolated incident.  Most were nice about it but there certainly is a “feeling†that you should tip - even though you have already paid in advance for gratuity.  But, those people only make about $4/day in wages, sooooo, it makes you not feel so bad about extra tipping. 
4. The Spa.  The spa is beautiful.  I LOVED me hair.  It was gorgeous.  I took in some pictures and she just made it happen.  However, I did have several issues with them not having the correct times down for me.  This happened on 3 different occasions.  I made of my appointments before I left, one for my hair and one for our couples salt body scrub.  They didn’t have my hair appointment down at all - though she did find the e-mail with the confirmation #.- so I had to wait for an hour to get my hair done.  Which wasn’t the end of the world but it certainly turned everything into a bit of a rush once my hair was done! 

      

      They had my salt scrub time down 1/2 hour later than what I had confirmed. They    

      still got us in (with some cajoling) but it was a joke!  They gave us the 50 minute 

      treatment in 30 minutes - it was very disappointing

 

      Then we bought our maid of honor and best man couples massages and planned   

      some spa time with them.  They had those appointments all confused and messed 

      up too.  

 

      So, my advice, get confirmation #’s and double check appointment times the day 

      before your appointments!

 

I am sure I am forgetting something so please PM me if I can help you at all. This forum was SO much help to me and I want to give back if I can.

 

It was all an amazing experience.  You won’t be disappointed.  

 

Thanks ladies!

Mrs. Mercer!! 

[lorijfletcher]

Sorry my numbering is all messed up!  
 

Originally Posted by lorijfletcher 

 

Ok ladies, here it is! I was married on November 29th at the Dreams. We did the “Ultimate Wedding Package†and here is my review.

 

1. The rooms.  We only paid for a garden view room but were upgraded to the the “preferred club ocean viewâ€.  The room was amazing but honestly, we were never in it.  I am glad we didn’t pay the extra money for it, but it was beautiful.  However, the “preferred club†portion of the upgrade is something we would definitely consider upgrading.  This gave us access to the bar with top shelf booze, and a more private breakfast and dinner area.  It was nice and depending on the price, it may be well worth the extra money   Andrea was our favorite bartender!

 

** One thing to note on the rooms. It did not affect us, but it did affect several of our guests.  The rooms on the south most side of the resort are right next to their sewage plant/area and there is a VERY strong sewer smell outside of their rooms - not inside though.  Just FYI you might try and not get rooms on that far south side if possible.

 

1. The resort - AMAZING!!  Simply beautiful, well maintained, friendly employee’s, beautiful beach (which they groom twice a day), always lots of chair available by the pool and on the beach.  Fast friendly pool and beach service.  In general, all of the food was amazing.  There were a few things here and there that I wouldn’t try twice but all in all - great food.  The room service cheese burger was a favorite in our crowd!  All the restaurants were great but our favorites were the Oceana (seafood) - try their shrimp/jalapeno cream cheese stuffed wonton’s - OMG! And the Japanese restaurant is wonderful!
2. Wedding Coordinator.  We were lucky enough to have still have Gaby.  Her last day of work there was our last day of vacation.  She was really great, very sweet and everything was beautiful!  Everyone on the wedding event department was very nice and I am sure Gaby has trained everyone well.  All the other brides have said it, but it is true....don’t stress too much, it will all come together beautifully in the end. I tipped Gaby $100 at our initial visit
3. Chuppah & chairs- I took my own fabric for the Chuppah and chair sashes, showed Gaby a couple of pictures and it looked great.
4. We did have a short rehearsal the day before and I’m glad we did.  It was very casual and short but it was nice to get an idea of where everyone should start and stand. It was at 12:00 noon and we all were in our swim suits and cocktails in hand.  It was perfect!
5. We did not due an organized rehearsal dinner (because I didn’t want to have to pay for it).  We all just met at the buffet and then went up to the lobby bar for a “meet & greet†cocktail party.  Here is where we gave out all the bridesmaid/groomsman gifts. It all worked out perfect.
6. OOT bags. We did give awesome OOT bags (if I do say so myself) to all our guests.  They LOVED them!  Hy hubby told me he thought I was crazy for going to so much work and lugging all that stuff down there, but when we started giving them out he got really excited!  It was SUPER fun and I would go to all the work and effort again. 
7. Our wedding was at 2:00.  I think it started a little late, like maybe 2:20 ish?  Ceremony was over by 2:45 ish? Then we did pictures with Juan Navarro until 4:00.  We traded in our mariachi band and cocktail hour to cover more people for the reception.  I was kind of bummed when we made this decision but I am so glad we did in the end.  It saved us about $1000.00.  Everyone just met at the Barracuda (swing) bar and hung out until we could join them at 4:00 for cocktails.  We hung out, took lots of pictures and before you know it, it was 5:00 and time to start the reception.  It flew by.  I was worried about the “flow†of it all with such a big gap of time between the wedding and the reception.  But it was NO issue at all.  A lot of people went back and changed into something more comfortable.  All of the wedding party stayed in their wedding clothes. Everyone felt like it flowed perfectly. 
8. We had our reception on the pool deck - hands down, THE best place for a reception!  It was beautiful!  We had menu option #3 that offered Lamb and Sea Bass as the main entree’s.  It was good, not amazing and very small portions.  We didn’t get a chance to eat it all anyway.  If I had it to do over, I might choose a different menu option, but it was not horrible by any means. 

** I did not have this issue but another bride did.  Apparently at the end of her reception she could tell the wait staff was standing around waiting for a tip.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO TIP THE WAIT STAFF AT THE RECEPTION  - unless you want to!  I had checked with Gaby prior to the reception and you have already paid the gratuity in that 15% “service charge†you are paying PER head!  That other bride was pretty annoyed and I don’t blame her. I do think a lot of our guests left tips at the bar as they got drinks.

 

1. We hired Doremixx and this was THE best decision I could have made.  We extended our reception/DJ an hour (I had planned to do this ahead of time).  I was kind of stressed because the DJ is $300 + we had to pay for the extended reception time to cover wait staff and the bar ($15/hd + 11% tax + 15% service charge).  Our reception was SOOOOO much fun the night of the event, I extended it ANOTHER hour. TOTALLY worth it.  He made our party.  Once he brought out the balloons and party masks it “turned into a rave†as my brother likes to say-LOL!  I just can’t say enough about this. We tipped him $100.

**We saw some other receptions while we were there that had a different DJ or did the ipod thing.  They definitely didn’t have as much fun as we did.  But, that all depends on your crowd.

 

1. Juan Navarro - He is the best!  Such a kind man and very professional.  We loved working with him and his pictures are amazing and the price is GREAT! He only did our getting ready, wedding and post wedding (posed) photo’s.
2. Resort photographer - did our reception and TTD pics.  They did an awesome job!  Great photographers.  You will not be disappointed if you choose them as your photographer.  We couldn’t pick just 50 pics (that we got free with the Ultimate package) so we ended up buying all 224 pictures that they took and we paid $900.00- totally worth it!
3. Tipping - We did ALOT of tipping.  It was getting pretty annoying at the end.  It started to feel like it was “expectedâ€.  I actually did have one room service guy roll his eyes at me when I only tipped him 2 dollars for bringing the room service (for the 3rd time the day of the wedding).  That kind of ticked me off but this was an isolated incident.  Most were nice about it but there certainly is a “feeling†that you should tip - even though you have already paid in advance for gratuity.  But, those people only make about $4/day in wages, sooooo, it makes you not feel so bad about extra tipping. 
4. The Spa.  The spa is beautiful.  I LOVED me hair.  It was gorgeous.  I took in some pictures and she just made it happen.  However, I did have several issues with them not having the correct times down for me.  This happened on 3 different occasions.  I made of my appointments before I left, one for my hair and one for our couples salt body scrub.  They didn’t have my hair appointment down at all - though she did find the e-mail with the confirmation #.- so I had to wait for an hour to get my hair done.  Which wasn’t the end of the world but it certainly turned everything into a bit of a rush once my hair was done! 

      

      They had my salt scrub time down 1/2 hour later than what I had confirmed. They    

      still got us in (with some cajoling) but it was a joke!  They gave us the 50 minute 

      treatment in 30 minutes - it was very disappointing

 

      Then we bought our maid of honor and best man couples massages and planned   

      some spa time with them.  They had those appointments all confused and messed 

      up too.  

 

      So, my advice, get confirmation #’s and double check appointment times the day 

      before your appointments!

 

I am sure I am forgetting something so please PM me if I can help you at all. This forum was SO much help to me and I want to give back if I can.

 

It was all an amazing experience.  You won’t be disappointed.  

 

Thanks ladies!

Mrs. Mercer!! 

[allegraapple]

We got two keys. I also locked myself out of our room by accident one night....went to the front desk and they made another key for me.

[allegraapple]

We used credit card.

[donna73]

when we checked in they gave us 2 keys so sure it wont be a problem

[LindsayMichelle]

Great review Lori and congrats! Sounds like things went well! I'm really glad to hear you liked Juan Navarro - I booked him too!

 

Few questions for you -

 

1) Do you know what time the beach bar closes? Our wedding at is at 6 pm and I'm wondering if it will be open when the ceremony is over.

 

2) How much material did you bring for the chuppah and chair sashes? Did you get that at linens direct?

 

Thanks!!