Heather's Dreams Los Cabos Review *with pics*

[*Heather*]

It’s taken me a little while, but I’m finally posting my review. Our wedding week was one of the best weeks EVER…I wish I could go back and re-live it all over again. For anyone who is doubting having a DW or is getting crap about it from family/friends…just know that everyone who came to our wedding is still talking about it and how much fun it was. I am so happy we decided on a DW and even happier we decided on Dreams Los Cabos.

 

Our ceremony was short and sweet, but also made people laugh because we personalized it with a few jokes. My brother performed our ceremony for us which meant so much to us and made our wedding even more special.

 

 

In this one you can tell we are laughing:

 

 

After our ceremony we had a cocktail hour while we took some pictures. Our WC set up a Polaroid photobooth for our guestbook and then everyone moved over to the reception area about an hour later.

 

The reception took my breath away – I absolutely LOVE how it was set up! Everyone was super impressed. I don’t have any great photos of the entire thing, but there was all of the appetizers/food set up in one area with some small tables and lounge seating, and then the other area had the dance floor, lanterns, and the rest of the lounge furniture. Most people spent the night around the dance floor watching all of the hijinks (we have some crazy friends). I think most of you have seen the Speedo picture(s) by now – that was M’s best man, who at one point demanded an 80’s rock song be played. Matie threw on Livin On a Prayer, and the next thing we knew he started doing a striptease, grabbed a blond wig and sunglasses from under the podium, and ripped his clothes off to reveal the hot pink speedo. We were all dying – this was a total surprise and really got the party started. The rest of the night was the most fun I’ve ever had and I think a lot of our guests can say the same thing.

 

Here is a couple of pics of the reception from afar (this is just the dance floor part, not the appetizer section):

 

 

 

Now onto the vendor reviews….

 

Airline – Aeromexico

 

We flew Aeromexico out of Toronto, connecting in Mexico City. Aeromexico is a good airline – free food and drinks (including booze!) which is a nice change nowadays. The first class closet was only about 3 feet tall so we ended up laying our wedding outfits in an overhead bin. The flight attendants were good at making sure that nobody put their luggage on top of our stuff.

 

Transfers

 

Our transfers were booked through our travel agent, and they worked out perfectly. They were waiting for us when we arrived at the Cabo airport and had the perfect amount of vans with them. They were fast and efficient and organized and everything went well. They arrived right on time at Dreams for the pickup back to the airport as well.

 

Accommodations – Dreams

 

Our check-in to Dreams was pretty drama free. We arrived at 7pm or so, so the front desk wasn’t busy (until we arrived!). Some people did have issues with their rooms but Dreams switched it within a day or so (some people had 2 double beds instead of a King size. So if you’re picky, make sure you specify you want a King when you book). The Dreams rooms are gorgeous in my opinion – we had a honeymoon suite and it was perfect. My parents were upgraded to a great 2 bathroom suite with a kitchen with an island. Overall we found Dreams to be pretty accommodating with people who wanted to switch their rooms.

 

The service at Dreams was great. The housekeeping was AMAZING. Probably the best housekeeping service I’ve ever seen. The food was great also – but there are tons of threads on Dreams food so I won’t go into it here.

 

The size of Dreams is perfect in my opinion. It’s small enough that you can find everyone in your group, but not too small. It feels like a classy resort and all of my guests were more than happy and impressed!

 

Dreams Co-ordinator – Yarai - A

 

After we checked in, we went up to our room and Yarai called me within 2 mins of being in the room (it was probably 7:30pm at this point). I was so impressed! She was so friendly and said if I needed anything, to give her a call. I met with her the next day to go over everything and she was a huuuuge help with all of the backup plans (as we were facing Hurricane Rick, which was forecasted to come through the day of the wedding). She went through all of the backup plans with us and gave us her opinions which made us feel a lot better. Throughout the planning process I thought she was great. She didn’t always respond right away, but it was always within 1-3 days at most…usually 24 hours. I think this is more than reasonable considering how busy she is. I noticed that the closer my wedding came, the faster she responded, which is how it should be I think. I can’t comment on how she was with the actual co-ordinating of the wedding as I had an external co-ordinator (see below) who I think took care of most things. But I was very happy with Yarai.

 

External WC – Amy Abbot – A+

 

I used Amy Abbot from Fiestas Los Cabos as my external co-ordinator, only because I had hired her when my wedding was initially taking place at the Fiesta Americana. Once we moved to Dreams, Amy had already done roughly 9 months worth of work with me so I couldn’t let her go even though I probably didn’t need her (or at least I didn’t think I needed her). Well, with the hurricane and everything, Amy was one of the best decisions I made for the wedding I think. She took care of EVERYTHING and made me feel so much better about the weather and helped co-ordinate all of the backup plans. She let us use her Polaroid camera for the guestbook, she brought the props and backdrop, and stands to put the pashminas on. She also provided us with the sparklers we used for the first dance, and during the reception she made sure she had every single guest sign the Polaroid guestbook. She was working her ass off the entire wedding day with the set-up and co-ordination. She also worked with the furniture guys to set up the ceremony furniture and the reception furniture, and she had her assistant run our iPod for us. At the end of the night she cleaned everything up and put it up in our room for us, all neatly arranged. I really do believe she went above and beyond what was required of her and I couldn’t be happier with my choice to use her as a WC.

 

The only glitch is that her assistant messed up our ceremony music – she played the song I was supposed to walk down to, for my bridesmaids. So when I started to walk, she played the upbeat recessional song – I turned around, and it was fixed within 5 seconds, but she played my song again so it was the same song twice. Oh well – I don’t know if anyone noticed except for me, but I was a little bummed. When it was time for the recessional she got that one right. I don’t think this was Amy’s fault though as it was her assistant, who I never met. When Amy heard the wrong song she was on her little microphone fixing it as soon as she could.

 

Here is the pashmina set-up on the trays that Amy provided:

 

 

 

Here is an example of the photobooth setup and some of the props:

 

 

More to come...

[*Heather*]

Flowers – Lola at Florenta - A

 

Lola was amazing to work with. Her response time is great, and her prices are so reasonable. She will work with your budget and make recommendations on how to cut costs, etc. I met with Lola the day before the wedding and gave her my black and white striped ribbon and she made it look amazing. The bouquets were very nicely put together and same with the centrepieces.

 

I had a major issue with my flowers – they were not the right colour AT ALL. I don’t blame this on Lola though…I think in hindsight I shouldn’t have asked for peach roses. The hair flower and bouts came out more of a light pink, not peachy, so I should have known it would be impossible to match flowers to that colour. I should have probably picked white for my bouquet. But oh well. It didn’t matter for the centrepieces but when I see pics of the ceremony, I cringe. I will just make all of those pictures in black and white!

 

Here are a couple of pics of the centrepieces. I wanted them simple because the lounge furniture was enough, I felt.

 

 

 

Here are the bouquets (the next day):

 

 

 

Cupcakes – Deena at Sweat Dreams - A

 

Deena was great to work with. She delivered our cupcakes to Dreams the day before the wedding because of the impending hurricane, just to be safe, which I appreciated, and the cupcakes tasted as good as if they were baked that very day. They were SO GOOD. We had 80 cupcakes – a mixture of vanilla, chocolate, and caramel crunch. Everyone loved them although we had a ton left over. My mom brought cupcake trays that we put the cupcakes out on.

 

Hair – Neysa Berman – A+

 

I used Neysa (pronounced Neesa) for just my hair as I wasn’t overly comfortable having my makeup done (I’ve never had good results with makeup artists for some reason), and also I wanted to save on my budget. As soon as Neysa walked into my room on the wedding day, I wished I hired her for makeup too. Neysa is GORGEOUS! She has great makeup and hair which made me feel comfortable right away. She was a tad late but it wasn’t her fault since Dreams gave her issues with a day pass, which Yarai resolved as soon as was informed. But I LOVED what Neysa did with my hair, and also my girl’s hair. She also applied fake eyelashes for me and did a great job. I’m 100% happy with the job Neysa did. Her prices are not cheap, but it was worth every penny for me.

 

Photographer – Fer Juaristi A+++++++

 

I reviewed Fer in a separate thread:

 

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...uaristi-52174/

 

Check it out!

 

Furniture Rental – Oxten A++

 

I worked with Hector at Oxten and he was awesome. He was really good at responding and tried to accommodate my budget as much as he could. We arranged the 60 chivary chairs beforehand, plus the ottomons and coffee tables. The day before the wedding we decided to add the lighting and the dance floor, which were probably the 2 best decisions we made. The prices are very reasonable in my opinion for the amount of impact it gave the wedding. Our guests thought our wedding was so upscale and classy but really the costs weren’t that bad. We didn’t give Hector much direction about how we wanted everything set up, but he had a vision and it worked out perfectly. While we were getting ready for the wedding, I looked out my window and saw the dance floor and it looked waaaay too small. So I called Matie and had him go speak to Hector about it. The next thing I know, I see all of Oxten’s guys building additions to the dance floor with wood and power-saws and everything! I have zero complaints about the furniture and I truly believe this is what set our wedding apart from other weddings our guests saw at Dreams during our week.

 

Here is the ceremony set-up on the beach (that table wasn’t there by the time I came down the aisle; they must have moved it). It was nice and simple, just like I wanted it. The pom poms hanging on the edge of each chair were made by my mom with the help of her friends.

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures I found of our reception – they aren’t perfect but these are the best I have so far where you can kinda see the ottomans and coffee tables, the dance floor, lighting, and lanterns.

 

 

 

Transportation – Ixchel A+

 

We used Ixchel to transport us from Dreams to Cabo San Lucas for our sunset cruise. I was a little worried about this one but it worked out perfectly. They showed up right on time in nice little vans with signs in the windows. When we got to the marina, Oscar (the head driver I guess?) walked us right to the terminal we needed to be at and went to speak to the captain of the boat for us. He was so helpful and friendly. Ixchel was back waiting for our guests who were going back to Dreams right at the end of the sunset cruise. We had zero issues with transportation either way.

 

Sunset Cruise – Sunrider Tours A+

 

I worked with Mario at Sunrider. He was great with response times as well, and their prices were really reasonable ($35 per person for food, open bar, and a private boat). We had to pay for gratuities separately but that wasn’t an issue as most of our guests were tipping these guys all night anyway. The food was GREAT, the service was incredible, and our guests all had an amazing time. I think this was one of the highlights of the week.

 

That’s all I can think of! Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!

[Andi]

great review! so glad that hurricane Rick went the other way and that everything worked out perfectly for you on your day!

[stacey]

Heather~ what a great review, thank you for sharing!! It looks like you had a fabulous wedding. Im a little sad that the shout box girls didnt jump on a plane and take that open room.

[YaelM]

WOW Heather - GREAT review!!! Im so glad you had the best week ever and that the hurricane didnt ruin anything

[~*Kathy*~]

Awesome review Heather, I'm so glad that everything worked out at the end of the day dispite a few hiccups and weather probs!

[cougs]

your wedding is amazing and makes me want a do-over! so awesome! congrats again and again!

[Erika J]

SO AMAZING heather!! So beautiful and unique!!! Woo hoo on beng a Mrs!!!

 

Thanks again for leaving me the votives

[*Meagan*]

Heather! Love the review!! Love the pics!! yaya!

[Geralyn]

Heather congrats again! Great review!