Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[GCR2011]

ok so I'm finallygetting around to writing my review...if there is one thing I would do differently it would be to not worry about Gina getting back to me. They are crazy busy and extremely good at what they do.We couldn't have imagined it or planned it better, there wasn't a single hitch.

 

We got there on Saturday our wedding was Wednesday.Our room was automatically upgraded, it ws beautiful!!

 

 We met with Gina on Monday she had a file with everything we had discussed. She asked to clarify anything we hadn't thought of or things she wasn't clear on. She was thorough and completely on the ball.  At that time we gave her our chair bows, knapkins and center pieces. We are fairly easy going so anything that may not have worked we told her to do what she thought was best, they are the experts and we aren't overly creative, artsy people.

 

We were concerned about the DJ, we met with Mauricio on Tuesday. He was friendly, professional and went through the entire reception for what we wanted, didn't want etc. We also went to the spa for our included treatments, they gave us a couples massage that was excellent.

 

The day of I went to get my hair and make up done at 12pm, she did a great job! It was raining in the morning but it cleared up by the time my hair was done. My husband and his son were swimming until just before 2pm. Anel met them in their room at 230pm for photos before coming to my room.

 

The ceremony at the Gazebo was amazing, our daughters danced down the aisle so they caused more people to watch. The person doing to the music for the ceremony had great pre ceremony music and faded the music at all the right times. Our ceremony was 330-4pm.

 

Our bouquets were gorgeous. Originally I had asked for calla lillies but they are out of season so Gina suggested alcatraz, which look like calla lillies to me. The bouquets and table arrangements were exactly like the pictures I had emailed her.

 

Anel was efficient, friendly and professional with our photos, I'll rave about her after. The mariachi band played from 430-530pm at the Barracuda bar while we took photos. We didn't have  a cocktail hour. They were a huge hit with out guests.  Anel asked if we had any other photos we wanted taken before she left to download them before the reception. She came back at about 545pm for the reception.

 

We had our reception on the pool terrace. It waws like our own private party. Thre is a sheet that comes out every day with the next days activities. It had said there was going to be a Mexican buffet on the pool deck the night of our wedding. When I asked Gina about she said they move it into the buffet if there is wedding, so nothing to worry about. , better than I described to them. The tables were set up beautifully We had multiple guests comment on how glad they were that we had our reception there instead of on the pool deck or beach. It had been windy all week but our night was perfect.  They gave us the light up dance floor, our colour was blue and the dance floor matched when we got there. The only negative was the dance floor is squares so it was raised on some of the edges which made it difficult to do our dance, we took dance lessons. It was still great for regular dancing.

 

We had a sit down dinner, the food was excellent everyone raved about how good it was. The staff was unbelievable. I definitely had my concerns about the DJ, Mauricio was awesome!! He put on a song that cleared the dance floor so he immediately mixed it with another song and got everyone up again. Everyone danced non-stop and we had added an extra hour on to our reception, we should've added two. The wait staff, Anel, Mauricio they were all amazing. I can't say enough positive things about them.

 

The next day we met Anel at 1030am for our trash the dress. Originally we weren't that into it but we had fun doing it and the pictures are amazing.  Anel was busy when we went back to look at our photos. The man that was there tried to upsell us to buy our extra photos, when Anel came back she was great to  deal with. She was always happy and friendly. There were so many great photos it was hard to choose only 250 of them. 

 

Our dvd was just emailed and our photo book should be here in a month or so.

 

I almost forgot we gave OOT bags, people loved them. It was great to see them around on the beach so you knew where the group was. We liked that the resort was small enough that we could always run into people.

 

All the staff at Dreams were fantastic. We went to the Excellence resort after, there was no comparison. At Dreams we felt like royalty, even though there were so many weddings we felt completely special. I won't go on about Excellence but I would go to dreams over Excellence any day.

 

I'm sure I've missed stuff so send me your questions. Like I mentioned at the beginning don't spend time worrying about the WC getting back to you, these people are amazing at what they do!!!!!  It's been a bit hectic coming back a week before Christmas since we weren't organized before we left but well worth it.

 

Relax, enjoy we had lots of people say it was by far the best wedding and the best way to have a wedding. Happy planning!!!!

 

 

[daizee0808]

 

 

Originally Posted by Kmarch85 

 

Does anyone have the dimensions of the Gazebo - I wanted to buy the material to decorate it.

I remember seeing some one post about it but I can't find it.

 

Thanks!

This is what I saw from another post on here:

The gazebo is about 3 meters high (to the beginning of the arch) x  4.30 meters from side to side.

 

I'm not sure how much fabric to buy so if you find out, please let me know.  I'm looking to do the same.

 

[Keine Dennis]

Gina and Yamina are still there, I believe there has been a re-shuffle and communication will start improving from this week

[jkhowell]

Sooo....I am 8 weeks away from our wedding today, and with all the holiday stress added, I definetly didnt need Yamina not responding to my emails for weeks. Finally the other night after several emails, I get a phone call from Yamina! Which was so suprising because I never thought I would be able to talk to her over the phone (because I dont have an int. phone). Anyway, I'm glad I got to talk to her because 9 months ago when I first started planning this wedding with my original WC at DRC Ana, she had told me I could only have plated dinners if everyone got the same thing. (i.e. everyone would have to get chicken) So of course this whole time I'm thinking Im settling for the buffett when Yamina tells me that I can do a plated dinner and that she would just need a head count of who wants what ahead of time!! What?! Well thanks for telling me this now, after my invites have already been out and sent back!! WTH? So now I'm debating on whether I should bother all the 45 people that are coming to ask what they would like to eat or just do buffett?

 

Tigerlily, (or any other past bride with plated dinners)-what plated food for dinner did you go with or recommend??

 

 

[CKNMVS]

Hi Lindsay,

I ran into a similar issue and I have an email from Gina saying as long as your photographer or who ever is a guest they can be used. You would probably just need to rent a room for the day.. I am using an outside photographer and that is my plan. I hope this helps:

 

Enviado el: Lunes, 10 de Octubre de 2011 10:01 a.m.
Para: Gerente de Bodas
Asunto:

Hi Gina,

 

If the photographer and DJ are guests, I would assume there would be no vendor fee? Exactly if they are your guest and stay in the resort you can used. Can you confirm that there would be no additonal fees from hotel if I use my own photographer and DJ. we charge and extra fee when the vendors comes from outside the resort, but  if is part of your guest and stay and another resort they need to pay a day pass per person is 80 usd.

 

Thank you,

 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Gerente de Bodas <[email protected]> wrote:

Hola ,

 

I hope this email finds you doing great!

 

If your photographer is staying at the hotel, that would be fine.

 

Please let me know if you need any other information.

 

Have a nice evening!

 

Originally Posted by LindseyM 

I'm really annoyed right now!!!  I know some girls on here have used and are using outside vendors.  We want Cancun Wedding Video to come in and do a cinematography type video for us since our wedding is OUR DAY.  Yamina said no.  No outside vendors.  I'm sorry.  I love Dreams.  I loved it when I visited... but I think it's complete garbage that you cannot use the vendor of your choice.  In the states you could!!!  I just said this to her:

 

Yamina,

  With all due respect, I read the message board on BestDestinationWeddings.com and many, many other brides have used outside vendors.  In fact, I know of one right now who is using an outside DJ.  I know that Mike Cantarell has done weddings there before as well. We really, really like Dreams, but it would be a shame to have to take our wedding to another resort because we can't use the videographer we want.  This is our dream wedding and we want everything to be perfect.  If you can't negotiate letting us use Mike Cantarell then we might have to consider another resort.  Thanks in advance.   Lindsey   FI says I sounded a little snotty but I don't care.  I think it's a stupid policy and there are way of working around it.  What would they do if one of my guests was a videographer?  I asked if Mike could be a guest and pay for a room for him and she said no.  I am really aggravated.  Jerks.   </end rant>

 

[mrskatieperry]

JKHowell,

 

Does the buffet cost more per person, and did you apply the cocktail hour to your dinners or are you having the cocktail hour.

 

FOR EVERYONE:

 

What have you "traded out" or not used and ogtten credit for in your package?  We are thinking we will do the Dreams of Love package now beacuse it seems like things can't be traded out and we don't care for the mexical trio, but definately want the photo package.

 

We are trying to keep the wedding cost as close to the package price as possible, knowing that we will end up having to pay for extra people.  Any suggestions from past brides or current planning brides on budgets?

 

Thanks:)

[LindseyM]

Thanks!  I will have to keep working on them.  I'd really like to use him.
 

Originally Posted by CKNMVS 

Hi Lindsay,

I ran into a similar issue and I have an email from Gina saying as long as your photographer or who ever is a guest they can be used. You would probably just need to rent a room for the day.. I am using an outside photographer and that is my plan. I hope this helps:

 

Enviado el: Lunes, 10 de Octubre de 2011 10:01 a.m.
Para: Gerente de Bodas
Asunto:

Hi Gina,

 

If the photographer and DJ are guests, I would assume there would be no vendor fee? Exactly if they are your guest and stay in the resort you can used. Can you confirm that there would be no additonal fees from hotel if I use my own photographer and DJ. we charge and extra fee when the vendors comes from outside the resort, but  if is part of your guest and stay and another resort they need to pay a day pass per person is 80 usd.

 

Thank you,

 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Gerente de Bodas <[email protected]> wrote:

Hola ,

 

I hope this email finds you doing great!

 

If your photographer is staying at the hotel, that would be fine.

 

Please let me know if you need any other information.

 

Have a nice evening!

 

 

 

[jkhowell]

mrskatieperry: I am not doing the cocktail hour and therefore they are just giving me a lump sum to credit towards the whole wedding bill. Also, the buffet and plated dinners I believe are the same price. But as I was looking over it, it is so hard to choose plated because we havent tried any of it. We are just going to go with the buffett because I do not feel like adding extra stress on asking all the people what their choice was in food. And the buffett has so much on it, I feel more comfortable for guests to have more options on the buffett than just a selected few on plated that I have never tried my self.

[GCR2011]

We did the plated dinner the main was chicken or beef. Our guests raved about the food. I don't think people were expecting good food since they were feeding so many and it wasn't near a kitchen. I had chicken and completely enjoyed it. The one thing I would have done is when I gave them the seating chart add which person wanted what instead of just numbers of beef and chicken. We didn't have a cocktail hour we were given a credit. In the end they didn't put the credit on paper but they gave us way more in add ons. We had 4 children and some adults that they didn't charge us for, they didn't charge us to rent vases and other decorations and included the extra hour for the bar, there may have been even more. In the end we were under what we had budgeted for based on previous pricing. Hope this helps

[Dovibanana]

Hi all,

 

My wedding is quickly approaching- March 18th 2012. I have been reading everyone's posts occasionally. I just had a few questions and would appreciate any feedback!

 

1. Has anyone used the DJ the hotel provides? We do not want to pay any more for outsiders to come in so we figured we would try our luck. I did email DJ Doremixx was told they do not come to this resort... Does anyone have any experience with the hotel dj?

 

2. Has anyone seen table centerpieces that are blue and coral? I am *attempting* to design it myself and bring with me. I have very expensive taste and everything I want to do just isn't feasible. For example, I wanted to buy real brain coral and use those but have found they are pretty costly themselves. I am thinking of buying manzanita branches and spray painting them coral but would like any input/ideas on how to set this up....

 

3. I am trying to negotiate for more photographer time instead of color prints- has anyone been successful at getting most of the day covered? How much did you end up paying for the photog?