Dreams Riviera Cancun - Brides post here (new thread)

[JustNoelle]

Also, does anyone know if I would be able to exchange the beach flags (included in the ULTIMATE package) with the poles to hang lanterns?

[tigerlily2435]

Originally Posted by bgarcia1026 

 

 

Hey tigerlily, i would just double check to see if you can bring the popcorn with you into the country.  I know Mexico is super strict sometimes with what you bring into the country.

 

Whats the name of the store in Chicago?  Only because I am a popcorn addict and will probably be in Chicago during October for a conference. 

Hi!  Thanks for the advice.  I searched the rules for bringing food into Mexico and it looks like it would be ok.  Hope so!  The best popcorn in Chicago is Garrett's!  Be sure to get some when you are here!

[WPGBride]

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them.

 

I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony.

The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day.

Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days.

We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina

The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like
holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling.

We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us.

We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long.

After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

[ssapper]

Originally Posted by WPGBride 

 

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them.

 

I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony.

 

The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day.

 

Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days.

 

We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina

 

The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like

holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling.

 

We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us.

 

We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long.

 

After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

 

Im sorry to hear you had problems with Dreams! but im glad your overall experience with them was good. out of curiousity do you know what fabric your dress is? Im worried about this because i've been told that my dress (silk organza) can not be steamed (which actually causes more wrinkles) but only pressed. Did you ever get an answer from the hotel as to why this happened? Did they steam it or press it?? do you know? thanks!!

[LindseyM]

Originally Posted by ssapper 

 

 

Im sorry to hear you had problems with Dreams! but im glad your overall experience with them was good. out of curiousity do you know what fabric your dress is? Im worried about this because i've been told that my dress (silk organza) can not be steamed (which actually causes more wrinkles) but only pressed. Did you ever get an answer from the hotel as to why this happened? Did they steam it or press it?? do you know? thanks!!

My dress is silk organza too!  It actually is made to look wrinkly, I think.  I am htinkng I will just hang it on the plane and not let the resort touch it.

[Newbride2013]

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them. I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony. The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day. Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days. We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling. We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us. We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long. After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

Sorry to hear your day did not go as planned! what are your suggestions as to how to avoid this happening to others? I hope the rest of your stay was a good experience! Where did you originally want your recept? We have reserved our locations & now I'm a bit concerned?

[WPGBride]

Originally Posted by ssapper 

 

 

Im sorry to hear you had problems with Dreams! but im glad your overall experience with them was good. out of curiousity do you know what fabric your dress is? Im worried about this because i've been told that my dress (silk organza) can not be steamed (which actually causes more wrinkles) but only pressed. Did you ever get an answer from the hotel as to why this happened? Did they steam it or press it?? do you know? thanks!!

 

 

I looked online since I keep forgetting to check my dress but it says that it is Torino Taffeta. As for how they did it, when I spoke with Gina she said they put it in a big closet type thing and I guess that would be steaming it, and they don't have any handheld steamers. At the time of when I told Gina about this she was just concerned about rushing me out of the room to stay on scheduale and really had no answers to my questions and was definatly not comforting me in any way, just concerend about staying on scheduale.

[WPGBride]

Originally Posted by Newbride2013 

 

 

Sorry to hear your day did not go as planned! what are your suggestions as to how to avoid this happening to others?

I hope the rest of your stay was a good experience!

Where did you originally want your recept?

We have reserved our locations & now I'm a bit concerned?

 

My suggestion would be to be ontop of everything before you leave for Mexico. At the time of planning I was in school full time and held a full time job as well as prepping our house to be put on the market for when we leave. Just way to much going on! but I felt reassured by hearing that everything would be fine from other brides and that a lot of everything you can plan down there as well as having the coordinator assure me the same thing. However I also think it would help to be firm and clear on what you expect and to double check that they understand what it is you want.

 

I originally wanted my reception on the pool deck which I think is the best place to have it, the pool terrace is not private at all from guests and if you have your reception earlier on that means that people will be walking around in and out of the pool since it does not close till 8:00pm. However Seaside Grill was a great place to hold the reception, very private and a bit more sheltered from the wind. As well the washrooms were close by for the guests to access.

 

What are your locations that you have chosen ?

[WPGBride]

Here is my wedding slideshow!

 

http://web.mac.com/vallarta_adventure2/SlideshowsDRERC/MARKOWSKIWED/

[Dominique 161]

Originally Posted by WPGBride 

 

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them.

 

I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony.

 

The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day.

 

Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days.

 

We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina

 

The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like

holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling.

 

We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us.

 

We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long.

 

After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

 

Sorry to hear your wedding did not go as planned

 

But it still sounds like you had a wonderful time!