Dreams - Photographer & Music

[AshleyTX]

Although we still have 9 months until our wedding I'm starting to feel the pressure/anxiety (partially because I'm a teacher and have limited time to plan during the school year). There are two "major" decisions I'm in the process of making, music and photographer. Please share any advice you may have, past reviews, opinions, etc, I would love to hear it all! Since we're having a fairly large party/reception when we return home, I'm trying to "budget" my funds as best I can in Cabo.

 

 

       Music - DJ or iPod?

 

What is the average DJ cost?

 

If you used an iPod for the Ceremony/Reception were you satisfied with the sound system, the "flow" of your music, etc? (basically its in your hands, or one of your guests your assign the "job" to push play, as well as from maneuvering from one playlist to another?) Who changed the songs throughout the actual ceremony for you?

 

Is it worth it to pay the extra money for the DJ so you can have an MC?

 

Photographer - We have gone with the Ultimate Dreams Pacakge, I belive it comes with 50-60 pictures. Have you all/are you all planning on getting a photographer of your own? Were you satisfied with the pictures that were included with your package? Are you able to tell the photograher what you want him to "focus" on? Don't get me wrong, I love pictures (and know that a lot of my guests will be taking plenty throughout the night) but I am a little hesitant to spend SO much money on an additional photographer. Although they're great for memories sake, I may put 5-7 up in my house for show?

 

 

I've filtered through a lot of threads on here but am also interested in those "if I could do it all over (what would you do/not do the same)"? I would love to hear what you all have to say (as I'm sure many of the others planing would)!

 

Thanks in advance for all of your help and time you put into keeping up with this site!

 

Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

[OceanWonderland]

I think it really depends on how much you're comfortable spending. You will have a great wedding whether or not you have a DJ or offsite photographer.

Personally, we've hired an outside DJ and photographer, just because we want our wedding to go a certain way....BUT we aren't having a reception back at home so that helped make the decision (extra funds for the wedding). The DJ is supposed to be really good for the flow of the reception, announcing the bride and groom, keeping the music flowing. I hired DJ Doremixx in the Riviera Maya region and I think he runs around $800 for 4 hours or so. I think that's pretty typical. But we also have sent him a lot of song suggestions.  We also searched VERY hard for a photographer within our price range because I want to have a certain 'look' in the photos that the Dreams photogs can't seem to get. I've heard from a LOT of brides that didn't book a photographer that they wish they had. The guests most likely won't get the types of photos you are looking for. Is there a way to review photos from your Dreams photographer? That could help you make a decision.

Good luck!!

[*Lo*]

I went with the Dreams basic package so a photographer was not included. We flew one from Houston and I am extremely happy we did. But that's because photography was fairly important to us and we spent a long time researching them. Yes we might only need a few good photos but we want to have a photobook to keep forever and to remember the day and wanted to have a certain style. I'm not sure which photographer Dreams uses.

We used an Ipod and I am also happy we did this. We had control over what was played when, we made the playlists and could just let it play, or sometimes guests would request a song so we could set it up to play next. I felt like we had control over what was played and all of our guests said they loved the music and requested we send them the playlists.

So it's a personal choice and it depends on what you are comfortable with, but that's what we went with and why.

 

(Our wedding was 2 weeks ago)