Dreams Tulum Wedding Review - Dec 4/09

[gimliori]

Here’s the review! We were legally married at Dreams Tulum on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 3 PM. There were 44 people in our wedding group including 3 small children. Overall we had a fantastic wedding and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!

 

Resort : Overall (9/10)

 

Location (10/10)

Dreams Tulum was everything we had hoped for and more! I loved the more remote location (it took us away from party central – playa and cancun) but playa was still accessible for those guests that wanted to pub crawl and such. It is about a 90 minute drive from cancun, so our driver stopped at local liquor store and we bought some dos equis to quench our thirst on the drive down. The resort is close to a couple of eco resorts and is only 5 minutes from the Tulum ruins. It’s about a 40 minute drive to playa where we did some shopping along 5 avenue. Another bonus was we were last to be picked up for most tours and the first to be dropped off!

 

Rooms (9/10)

We had an Oceanfront room (#8240) which was located by the Seaside Grill and looked over our wedding site. The room was clean and nice, as was the other guests. I didn’t hear any complaints from our guests about their rooms and they were located throughout the resort. The bed was a little uncomfortable but my DH thought it was great. If you don’t like the pillows, you can also phone and substitute for a variety of types. The maid service seemed to come quite early in the morning but we just put the do not disturb light on (conveniently located by the bed) and then the room was cleaned for us after we left for the day. The turndown service was around 6 pm and they make the most amazing towel creatures! I really enjoyed them!

 

Service (9/10)

The service was fantastic for us! The hotel staff was very helpful whenever we had questions. We tipped the staff as we went and had no problems!

 

Food (9/10)

We ordered room service for breakfast most mornings (why turn down breakfast for 2 on your balcony!). Otherwise, it was the World Café which had a decent buffet selection. We alternated between the Seaside Grill and El Patio for lunch. We usually ordered from the front waiter and then ate at our beach chairs by the pool. Our favourite dinners were at Portofino and Himitsu. All the restaurants had good food!

 

Beach (9/10)

The beach was very nice and the sand was great. If you want to go for a long walk on the beach, we suggest going south and taking your sandals as it can get a little rough (not much though).

 

Entertainment/Activities (8/10)

Our group had an excellent time with all the pool activities they had going on! The children enjoyed the nearby ecoparks and the Explorers Club. The night entertainment was usually enjoyable. The fire dancers are amazing! Skip the magician show – it is quite horrendous.

 

Wedding : Overall (9.5/10)

 

Wedding Coordinator (10/10)

Our wedding coordinator was Anabel and she was fantastic!!! We had our initial meeting with her where we went over the ceremony and reception, and the legalities (ours was a legal ceremony). I had brought pictures of previous dreams tulum weddings to help show her what I liked, and she took it from there. She even walked us around the resort to show us the cocktail and reception sites.

 

Photographer/Videographer (9/10)

We used the resort photographer (Filemon) and videographer. Filemon was fantastic! I was initially worried about the quality of the resort photographer after hearing some reviews from other brides but I wasn’t willing to pay thousands of dollars to bring in another photographer when this one was included. Filemon took excellent pictures for us – we had a hard time narrowing them down (there was 210 to choose from) to 50 and ended up getting 55! The video is what we expected – pretty cheesy, but it’s nice to be able to show people that couldn’t make it down for the wedding footage of the ceremony. Our guests are sending us all the candid pictures of the wedding, so we will have more than enough pictures of the special day!

 

Hair/Makeup (9/10)

My hair turned out great as well. Trinidad did a great job with doing a creative bun! And I loved the flowers in my hair. My MOH and mother also loved what the girls did with their hair. My MOH and I also got our makeup done by the girls. I was initially worried because I don’t usually wear a lot of makeup and it felt like a lot but the pictures turned out great – so they know what they are doing.

 

Flowers (10/10)

The flowers were fantastic for the bouquets, and the ones that lined the sand and on the gazebo. We had told Anabel that we wanted exotic and colourful and she exceeded our expectations!

 

Music (9/10)

We had rented the sound system for the ceremony and everyone was able to hear the music and our vows. We chose some flamenco guitar songs for the ceremony and we had the Caribbean Trio for cocktails (which the guests seemed to enjoy). We had an iPod playlist for our reception which only was able to be played till 9 PM (the ballroom has to be shutdown at that time unless you pay more). It didn’t seem to bother our guests much as we headed to the Sugar Reef Bar and then on to the Disco.

 

Ceremony Setup (10/10)

The ceremony was on the beach beside the Seaside Grill and was beautiful. The ceremony time was at 3 PM but we waited a couple minutes as there is a giant turtle (mascot) that comes to the pool at 3 and does a dance with the staff everyday. It helped break the ice before I walked down the aisle! 3 PM was a good time as it gave us time for pictures afterwards and there wasn’t a big lag until cocktails. I had colourful flowers lining the aisle and a large colourful flower arrangement in the center of the gazebo. We added purple fabric to the corners of the gazebo to contrast with the white tulle. The judge spoke in Spanish and Anabel translated in English. She quoted a Mexican philosopher which was a nice touch. We had to ink our thumbprint onto the marriage papers (as it was a legal ceremony). Good thing my MOH had a kleenex hidden in her hand for afterwards!

 

Cocktails Setup (9/10)

Cocktails was held on the terrace of the lobby and it was great. We had a good view of the resort and everyone was quite comfortable. For appetizers, we chose the mushroom stuffed with cream cheese with black truffle, smoked salmon on melba bread and shrimp with parsley on melba bread. All were fantastic! The Caribbean Trio was also great!

 

Reception Setup (9/10)

The reception was set up in the ballroom and it worked out well for us. We were able to eat with light and no wind! We had our iPod hooked up the to speakers for dinner music and it worked out well. The service was also very good. For dinner we chose:

Appetizer – Portobello mushrooms with truffle mousse and mozzarella cheese

Salad – Asparagus salad with Dijon mustard dressing

Main Course – Surf & Turf (Mignon & shrimp with gravy sauce and melted butter)

Dessert – Tiramisu

The food was absolutely fantastic!!! Everyone was talking about it days afterwards.

We picked Golden 03, a vanilla cake with strawberry filling and it was quite tasty. Anabel decorated the cake with flowers that matched the bouquet and it was very pretty. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake – there wasn’t much leftover at the end.

 

Overall, we wouldn’t have wanted our wedding any other way! All our guests told us that it was the best wedding that they had been to!

 

Pictures:

Dreams Tulum Wedding pictures by gimliori - Photobucket

[vlynnw]

Great review! I'm so glad to hear that everything went well and that everyone loved the food that's the same menu options we are choosing! You're pictures look great you were a beautiful bride and look so happy! Congrats on being a Mrs.

[Butterflyf369]

Thanks for the great review and all the details. You looked lovely and your dress was beautiful.

[jaynreneewed]

gimliori,

 

Thanks for the review, you wedding looked awesome. I'm thinking about having my reception in the ballroom too. Why did you pick the ballroom? Do you have pictures of the ballroom, if so can you post them or email them to me? [email protected]

It would be a big help!

 

thanks,

Renee

[jwilke5]

Great review!! Congrats - your pics are beautiful =)

[ML YoungLove]

Great review! Loved your dress- Unique and very beautiful! Thanks for the detailed review!!!

[*Meagan*]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing! Love your pics!

[mrscheeze]

great review sounds like evrything turned out great congrats

[Tisha316]

Wow! The wedding was beautiful and I loved your set up!! congrats I can't wait to head down there...One question...were there alot o other weddings swhen you were down there?

[NaM]

Thanks for posting such a detailed review! I'm glad your experience was so great

 

LOVED your dress! You looked beautiful!