DREAMS TULUM brides please post here!

[Theresa08]

SunBride,

 

Thanks - I found all of the info that I need on this.

[amyc]

Hi ladies!

 

My fiancee and I have decided to get married at wedding at Dreams Tulum and are hoping to book a June 2009 date. I submitted the online form last week but haven't heard anything. I've tried to call a couple of times but I always get voicemail...I left a message earlier today and then followed up with an email.

 

I'm anxious to get booked because everyone keeps asking us for a date. All your posts have been so helpful during the selection process. Any tips on getting a response from the wedding coordinator? How long does it usually take to get the date confirmed? Maybe I'm just being impatient.

[LisaG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amyc Hi ladies! My fiancee and I have decided to get married at wedding at Dreams Tulum and are hoping to book a June 2009 date. I submitted the online form last week but haven't heard anything. I've tried to call a couple of times but I always get voicemail...I left a message earlier today and then followed up with an email. I'm anxious to get booked because everyone keeps asking us for a date. All your posts have been so helpful during the selection process. Any tips on getting a response from the wedding coordinator? How long does it usually take to get the date confirmed? Maybe I'm just being impatient.

I would give them a few weeks and if you haven't heard back, send them an e-mail. This is a very busy time for them with all the weddings.

[Blkatz]

congrats on deciding on Dreams Tulum-it took me a few days to hear back from the wedding coordinators there. Try LAndy's assistant Lizet...her email address is: [email protected]

Good luck

[SunBride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amyc Hi ladies! My fiancee and I have decided to get married at wedding at Dreams Tulum and are hoping to book a June 2009 date. I submitted the online form last week but haven't heard anything. I've tried to call a couple of times but I always get voicemail...I left a message earlier today and then followed up with an email. I'm anxious to get booked because everyone keeps asking us for a date. All your posts have been so helpful during the selection process. Any tips on getting a response from the wedding coordinator? How long does it usually take to get the date confirmed? Maybe I'm just being impatient.

keep trying to call them until they actually answer, I wouldn't really expect them to return your call unless it was extremely urgent. You may have to call like 3-10 times before somebody finally answers but when they do answer you should be able to get an answer in a minute or two.

[sisterofthebrideerica]

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Originally Posted by julieanddonnie I recently had my wedding in May at the Dreams Tulum property and it was amazing! We had 42 guests attend and worked through a company called Destinationweddings.com. I have some advise for things to look out for with both the hotel and a destination wedding company! Dreams Tulum: The property was amazing! Here are my suggestions: 1. Ask to be placed in the newer buildings! Some of my guests forgot and the arrangements were nice, but the newer buildings are much nicer. 2. Have a direct transfer from the airport! The direct transfer is about 1 hour and 15 minutes to the propery. If you have to stop at other hotels it did take some of my guests 2+ hours to arrive! 3. Watch out for the photographer and his pricing if you want to buy pictures outside of the package. I had trouble with him trying to over charge me and him wanting me to sign documents that were not describing what I was buying. 4. Ask how many weddings per day! I was told two, but there were four on my day- but honestly I wouldn't have guessed that there were four based on the wonderful service and attention I recieved. PICKING OUT DETAILS/BLOOD TESTS We were upgraded to a honeymoon suite, but instead chose a Jr Suite right off the pool for no extra charge because we had brought so many guests. We had the Ultimate Wedding package. We met with Landy, the hotel wedding coordinator, on the second day we were there. Their website and the documentation they send you is great and you are totally prepared. You need a blood test- which was fine they had a medic there that showed us the needles in the package, used alcohol and didn't leave a mark on us! He was great. We had our parents as our witnesses and all they needed was their passports. We picked out the locations where we wanted out activities. We chose the Beach ceremony (all flowers were included to match my bouquet), the lobby balcony for our cocktail party (while we took pictures) and El Patio for our reception- we also had a Mariachi band (Landy's wonderful suggestion) playing during dinner and then a DJ for a couple hours after dinner. It was beautiful! HAIR and MAKEUP I went into my hair and makeup appointment not have a clue what I wanted. I have chine length hair but wanted it off my face, because it was 95 on my wedding day! She made me look like my hair was super long and the makeup she applied was perfect- I do not wear a whole lot and this was my first time getting my makeup done by someone else. She was wonderful, I gave her hugs and basically all the cash I had on me because I was so pleased! PHOTOS Our pictures can all be viewed at Donnie Franzen :: PowerMove Central. (I cannot seem to upload any, they are probably too big!) We stuck with the inhouse photographer and videographer- both were amazing and took great shots! Very creative and really captured the beach wedding. We ended up buying the CD with all of our pictures for $345.75 extra, but I had to fight with the manager for that price (this is where I had trouble negotiating, but let Landy know and received an apology email from the photgrapher about an hour later). WEDDING PLANNER I didn't need to worry about a thing- Landy made sure that our ceremony and reception were flawless. She would check in with us every 30 minutes to see if there was anything that she could do. STAFF The staff was more than happy to help with anything! At the pool you develop a relationship with a couple servers that literally watch for your drink to get low and after day two they know what you drink and just keep them coming. The activities pool had entertainment and games then the same people would dance at the club! So you get to know them quite well too. No one expects a tip, but they are very grateful when you do give them one. We tipped $20 every other day just because they were so great! I would certainly reccomend Dreams TULUM! It was unforgetable! The travel company destinationweddings.com. I was assigned three different consultants... the first one was the reason I chose to work with the company, but due to a death in her family, I was assigned a new consultant. His name was David Victor. He was the most disorganized person I have ever met with. First he told me I wouldn't like the Dreams Property and he worked exclusively with an other resort in the Mayan Riv. He was upset that I did not want to change my mind as I had done my fair share of research and had already made up my mind. He quoted a bunch of my guests to arrive after the date of my wedding, and was just disorganized so I had to request a new consultant. I then worked with Christine Gulino who was fantastic! She got me an upgrade to the honeymoon suite and was very attentive to my requests! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

I havn't posted in a while but before I comment on my site visit I would like to comment on destinationweddings.com. My family tried them first and like you we were given multiple people. The gentlemen tried to get us to switch to another place when we already had a date with Dreams Tulum. We quit right away. It was this website where someone posted about Tammy at Wright Travel. ALL OF YOU THINKING ABOUT BOOKING A WEDDING AT DREAMS USE HER!!! She knows the ins and outs of this place and Landy respects her! Tammy was so patient with my crazy parents requests and got us an amazing rate for a site visit, and we got to have a 4 HOUR MEETING WITH LANDY AND HER ASSISTANT. That was priceless as was the tasting that was included in the meeting. Don't fall for the destination wedding $50 gets you a great planner garbage. All it gave me and my family was heartache, good thing Tammy was there to help!! Email me and I can give you her contact info...

[sisterofthebrideerica]

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Originally Posted by neen I would take this email to mean that although they do cover themselves with "prices are subject to change" all you have to do is remind her when you arrive for your wedding that you have been working with the 07/08 guide and they will honor those prices. Despite the extended response time, I have to say that DT seems very flexible and accommodating and again, none of the nickel & diming I've found with other resorts. Of course there are pros and cons everywhere, but every bride that has come back from her DT wedding and posted about it said everything worked out fine so we just have to have a little faith & try not to stress ourselves out too much

Ok.. I was going to address this issue in my review but I think doing it seperatly would be more effective. I'm not sure if it has been brought up but Dreams Tulum is now adding a 10% tax to all products and services including wedding packages and a 15% gratuity to services. This increased prices of wedding packages by 25%. This made a large impact to our party because our wedding is about 90-100 people and it is quite a bit of add ons to the wedding package. Landy did try and add the new tax and service fee to our prices even though we had agreed to everything before this new policy was put into place. This point in the meeting was the only unpleasant part of our trip. I was very stern in explaining that she could not change a price so severly after making a verbal agreement as well as sending me pricing information. She referred back to the small print of prices being able to change and she did tell me that is why they do the contracts when you come. I remained calm but again told her that it was dishonest and extremely misleading, how could my family come down here under one assumtion and have her change things. After some back and forth we compromised that the wedding package and the additions to it would not have the extra taxes, but the welcome reception that we are having will. I asked her to add that to our file while I watched her write it. My advice is to ask everything regarding pricing up front. Our visit was in May and my sisters wedding is in November. I think the price changes were going into affect after the summer but I'm not 100% positive. I don't want to upset anyone, but budget is important and I think these items need to be spelled out on paper. Save all of the emails you have both from Landy and Sandra. Print them out and bring them with you. This helped alot during our meeting especially with the transistion from Sandra to Landy.

[sisterofthebrideerica]

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Originally Posted by neen we're expecting somewhere between 75-100 ppl and we're having our reception at the Seaside Grill which is right on the beach and has a great view of the ocean. the only downside, well there are actually 2 - firstly, its right next to one of the pools so its not totally private (though the rest will be closed for our group), and secondly, the reception cannot begin until 6:30pm because they won't close it down to everyone else until 5pm and then they need time to set up. We're trying to figure out what to do with all our guests between our ceremony (which should be over by 4:45 latest) and the start of the reception dinner...thinking we have a really long cocktail "hour"? Any other ideas?

My sisters wedding is large by destination wedding standards also. We are close to 100 people. This seems to be the amount that Landy started to talking convention center. Our reception is at El Patio, but she said 100 was the most she would allow there.

When I was there I saw a great cocktail hr in the balcony off the lobby area off the resort. They had the mariachis (sp?) and were taking a lot of great shots on the amazing staircase. The fountain is also right in front and made for some more great pics. I think that might take up a little more time if you add it to a shoot on the beach. The guests can also go inside the lobby bar if they need to get out of the sun which is a nice option for them. The balcony is also a little bit further from the beach wedding area so getting there would take up some time. The guests would also be away from where your reception was being set up so no peeking I also think having a guest book or something for guests to sign could also take up some time as well.

[julieanddonnie]

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Originally Posted by Theresa08 Julie, Thanks so much, this was so helpful. But I have a few more questions for you, if you don't mind. 1. Did you use the house DJ? Did you like him? 2. When you booked, was the "new" wedding guide out? I booked when the old wedding guide was available and I was confirmed for the Seaside Grill, outdoors, private event (because I want a DJ, which means they have to close the restuarant) and I am just trying to find out of they honor that. I did read in one of these threads that the are not allowing any new bookings to close the restuarant, but if confirmed prior, can I still get it? I am more concerned that I get to have my reception outdoors with a DJ and I see that they added so more outdoor areas for weddings, so that may be ok. 3. Just trying to understand what you meant when you said you couldn't eat all of the food given, were the portions that large, etc.? Also, what else did you mix in? 4. How many hours was the reception? Thanks for the tips on the appetizers, we changed ours to what you had. If you have any pictures, I would love to see them. Thanks again!!!!!

1. Did you use the house DJ? Did you like him? I did use the house DJ and he was fine played anything that we asked, mostly popular US music.

2. When you booked, was the "new" wedding guide out? The new guide was not out when I booked and I made up my mind on where I wanted things after I arrived and had a chance to walk around a bit.

3. Just trying to understand what you meant when you said you couldn't eat all of the food given, were the portions that large, etc.? Also, what else did you mix in? The portions were perfect they are not huge and not small, but I think it was just the number of courses and being out in the hot sun. We had lots of food that we did not eat.

4. How many hours was the reception? our wedding was at 5:00-5:30 we had the cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30, then went over to El Patio for our dinner and mariachi (for 45 minutets) 6:30-8:30 then the DJ played from 8:30-10:30. I hope that helps!

All of our pictures (both professional, our and our guests) can be viewed on my husband's website: Donnie Franzen :: PowerMove Central I will warn you there are TONS! But it gives you a great idea of how much fun we had.

[julieanddonnie]

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Originally Posted by neen Congrats Julie! Thanks so much for sharing all the details with us...every good review makes me feel better and better about our choice!!! I can't wait to go look at your pics! I'm wondering already if you know the name of the person who did your hair and makeup? Sorry I've been MIA, work has been crazy but I'm leaving next Thursday for Mexico and I will see if I can get the following from Landy (just added to my list!): - example of spreadsheet - list of linen/chair bow colors (pics too if I can) - different table sizes - music list for the DJ - the real deal with music for an outside wedding Let me know if there are other things you ladies would like me to find out about...I'm starting to feel bad for Landy already with all the questions I'm going to through at her, but I'm sure she'll have all the answers!!!

The woman that did my hair and make- up was named Trinidad. I hope that helps!