Dreams Cancun Wedding Review 2/23/10

[Mardigras]

Hi all!

We made it back and through the AHR. Now that everything has settled down, I finally have a moment to add my review of our wedding at Dreams Cancun.

 

Like many before me, let me start by saying what an invaluable resourse this forum was for me as I was planning our wedding. I would have totally lost my mind if it hadn't been for the support and information I found here!! That being said, let's get to the real reason you are reading tihs :-)

 

Frontier Airlines A- The flight to and from Denver to Cancun was really uneventful. It was snowing when we left (which made it ever better that we were headed to warm Mexico) so we were delayed a little for de-icing. Once we got through that, smooth sailing all the way to Cancun.

 

Cancun Airport D- This was a bit of a nightmare. We waited in line at immigration for more than 90 minutes. It was hot, stuffy and the fact that I was carrying my wedding dress the entire time make it even less enjoyable. Anyway, we finally made it through the long lines and we were off to customs. I was really nervous about this, based on what I had read about others getting the "red light" I had one entire suitcase full of wedding favors and another with OOT bags. I was ready though, I had all my receipts just in case. I put all my bags through and held my breath... Green light! Woo hoo, home free. Well almost, my FI had my clothes, and he got the red light. The customs officer is going though the luggage full of swimsuits, lingere, etc. and kept looking at him asking, "is this your bag?" Haha. We explained he had my suitcase, (much to the relief of the customs agent), we quickly traded bags, they did a quick look and we were off to find transportation.

 

Transportation, American Express C- This was a bit of a mess. Lots of people were traveling that day and it took a while to locate our travel company. Once we finally found them, it was okay, but they were really, really confused by the fact that we were going to be staying at 2 different resorts.

 

Dreams Cancun A+ I will say everyone we dealt with was wonderful. This can be said for the desk clerks, concierge, waiters, bartenders. They were all fabulous!! At check-in we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite which had a great view of the wedding gazebo and ocean. On top of that, everyone of our family and friends who stayed there received room upgrades. The hotel made sure that we were all in the same building as well, so we weren't spread all over the resort. It was little touches like that which I really appreciated.

 

Wedding Coordinator, Claudia A. The only reason I am not giving her an A+ was the slow response times during the planning stage. I will say that once we were there, she was spectacular! She is very, very sweet, and did an outstanding job of putting everything together for us. We met with her shortly after check-in and within 40 minutes had the entire wedding and reception planned out. She did trade us some things for others, we did not use the trio, so she gave us the sound system for no charge, we did not use the minister, so we got the gazebo decoration for free, etc. I will say Claudia and Cecilia work very, very hard. There was at least one if not two weddings every day we were there. Claudia and Cecilia do all of the set up for the ceremony and receptions personally, once I saw how much they do, I had a new understanding of why it takes so long to respond to emails.

 

Spa at Dreams gets a C. Husband and I had a couples massage the morning of our wedding, which was awesome! Very relaxing,-up wish we could have stayed a little longer and enjoyed the spa a little more. The reason I am giving it a C was the hair and make-up. I really wasn't happy with the way they did either my hair or make up. Despite giving them photos for examples, it was not even close. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to complete re-do it all, so lived with what I had. Personally, if I could do anything over or differently, I would have done my own hair and make-up or would have brought someone in to do it for me. However, I will also say I am very particular about both my hair and make-up, so maybe I am just being overly critical.

 

Ceremony - Was incredible! The gazebo decor, flowers, location, all together it was breathtakingly beautiful. I really can't think of a more beautiful place to get married. We wrote our own ceremony with the help of our friend/minister. It was very personal and very special. Everyone cried, even the tough guys! Haha.

 

Cocktail reception - We were taking pictures, so didn't get to enjoy this, but our guests loved it! We had the cocktail hour on the beach, everyone loved the food!

 

Reception - What a party! Everyone loved the food (I gave everyone the choice of 2 salads, 2 soups and 3 entrees, not one person was disappointed!) I just made up place cards for each guest with their food choices on the place cards, which made it very easy for the wait staff. After dinner, lots of dancing. DJ Mannia did a fabulous job with keeping everyone on the dance floor. In fact, it was such a good time, we had quite a few wedding crashers :-) After a while it became a contest to see who could get the most crashers... LOL!

 

Photography A+ - Due to budget we stuck with Juan Navarro. I have to say, I was not disappointed!! Alex and Tony were both great to work with! They provided great instructions and got some breath taking shots! Not easy to do, as I hate having my picture taken :-)

 

Video, I will give that a B. We used the company that came with our package. The video is great quality, and he dropped it off the next morning, but he did not use our wedding music, but added his own. That was a little disappointing, but in the grand scheme of things, probably not that important.

 

Overall, I will say that we had the time of our lives! All of the staff at Dreams and their vendors were beyond wonderful. Everyone who attended our wedding loved it. They have all said they have never been to a wedding that was as much fun. So, mission accomplished :-)

 

I will try to see if I can figure out how to add some pictures...

[MrsLewistobe]

Your wedding sounded fabulous! It makes me very excited for mine next month! Thanks for posting it!

[Cindy*]

Congratulations on your marriage, sounds like it all worked out well.

[JT3]

Congrats.. Everything sounds great.. I can't wait to see those pictures....

[KelZavs20]

First, CONGRATS!!!

Second, thanks for posing your review, sounds like everything turned out great and i cant wait to see your pictures!!!

BUT - can you elaborate a little more on the hair and make up....i dont wear much make up at all and i am pretty much terrrified of having it done there for fear of not looking like myself when i come out!

[peterpanpixiedust]

Yay, another review! Great job and I can't wait for those pics... especially since you have the new gazebo view. How was it for you... did the rocks stick out or were they easily hidden by angles?

[Michelle613]

congrats! sounds like you had a great time! Can't wait to see pics I'm rethinking doing my makeup there now, though. What hairstyle did you pick out? Maybe I should rethink doing my hair there too...?

[shae]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mardigras Reception - What a party! Everyone loved the food (I gave everyone the choice of 2 salads, 2 soups and 3 entrees, not one person was disappointed!) I just made up place cards for each guest with their food choices on the place cards, which made it very easy for the wait staff.

congrats on being a mrs.! did you have the buffet or plated dinner? i don't really understand how you were able to give your guests different options if it was a plated dinner. thought we were only allowed to choose 1 of everything.

[ahollo02]

Thank you for the review! I hate the Cancun airport!!!

[Rk_cheung]

Congrats on your wedding and Thank you for the great review! Can't wait to see the pictures = ) Can you tell me more about the cancun airport? Are they that sticky with wedding stuff in luggages? Is there a limit that you can bring? Does the limit include wedding dress and wedding bands?