DREAM CANCUN bride - need some advice!

[Hartyt509]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCLIVINGSTON Hi everyone, i'm looking for some advice from those of you who have been married at Dreams Cancun or are in the process of organizing your wedding!! Our wedding is in July 2009, I have just recently sent the deposit and filled out the Q & A form for the wedding and have today recieved a copy of our contract. We have booked the Dreams Ultimate package ($2650) as I thought it included quite a lot in it, I realised that we would probably need to pay extra but the price on the contract has DOUBLED!!!! We are not having anything fancy, there are 31 guests so need to pay extra for 11 as it only covers 20, fair enough. We said we would like a DJ for evening reception OMG how expensive is that!!! Also you have to pay for the sound system for the ceremony on top of that!! The list goes on and on... Just to see if everyone is in the same situation?? If so does anyone have any advice as to getting the cost down a bit or negotiate with what's in the package?? Just a bit surprised at the price...... Thanks for the help!! Louise

I scrapped the DJ and am going with my ipod. I've told them I don't want the sound system either. If you look at Kat's review you'll see that it was no use whatsoever.

You can try trading stuff in the package for other things you want.

[zorlack76]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCLIVINGSTON Hi everyone, i'm looking for some advice from those of you who have been married at Dreams Cancun or are in the process of organizing your wedding!! Our wedding is in July 2009, I have just recently sent the deposit and filled out the Q & A form for the wedding and have today recieved a copy of our contract. We have booked the Dreams Ultimate package ($2650) as I thought it included quite a lot in it, I realised that we would probably need to pay extra but the price on the contract has DOUBLED!!!! We are not having anything fancy, there are 31 guests so need to pay extra for 11 as it only covers 20, fair enough. We said we would like a DJ for evening reception OMG how expensive is that!!! Also you have to pay for the sound system for the ceremony on top of that!! The list goes on and on... Just to see if everyone is in the same situation?? If so does anyone have any advice as to getting the cost down a bit or negotiate with what's in the package?? Just a bit surprised at the price...... Thanks for the help!! Louise

Hey There,

I am waiting for my Q&A from Gaby. Did she send it in the mail or on email What kind of prices went up...did the cost of the wedding package go up? If you dont mind me asking, with all the bells and whistles that you added, about what was the cost that she proposed? If you hear anything else, please let us all know!!

[LCLIVINGSTON]

Hi!!

 

Thanks for your replies. I got my contract through via e-mail from Gaby.

 

We went with the Dreams Ultimate package as I thought it would have most stuff we needed in it which is $2650. She sent through the contract adding on:

- $198 for the sound system

- $924 for a DJ at the reception

- $307 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for the cocktail hour

- $585 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for International open bar for 3 hours for reception.

- around $300 for 3 bridesmaid bouquets and 1 flower girl bouquet

- $630 for Blood tests, translation of birth cert and Marriage cert

 

in total it's working out at least $5594, more than double the wedding package mainly because I have 31 guests going and the package only covers 20. They are all staying at the hotel but as we get our own waiters etc we need to pay extra which is fair enough but it all seems quite expensive and no doubt there may be a couple more extras when we get over there!! What seemed like the cheaper options is turning out to be pretty expensive

 

Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Thanks for the advice with the Ipod, I just wanted a DJ as I didn't want to have to worry about anything when I get over there but I don't even know if the DJ is any good and would be worth all that money??

 

The sound system I thought we would need so that our guests can hear what is going on as it might be quite noisy right next to the ocean!!

 

Ps. What thread will I find Kat's review on??

 

Thanks again

 

L x

[cougs]

i would scrap the dj. personally i can't see paying almost $1000 for a dj who probably won't have most songs i want to hear. we are going with our own ipod & docking station, because it was about $400 (for a bose system) and we get to keep it forever, not to mention use it in our room there all week, and we will have every song of our choosing. we already owned ipods. i believe if you don't want to buy a docking system, you can still rent their sound equipment to use with your ipod, and that way you'd end up still having a mic for toasts/speeches/intros but it would still end up cheaper than the dj.

 

also most people here seem to avoid all the "legal" fees by doing the legal part at home before having the symbolic ceremony at dreams. for us, that wasn't really an option tho, so we're in the same boat paying around $700 for blood tests and translations!

[zorlack76]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCLIVINGSTON Hi!! Thanks for your replies. I got my contract through via e-mail from Gaby. We went with the Dreams Ultimate package as I thought it would have most stuff we needed in it which is $2650. She sent through the contract adding on: - $198 for the sound system - $924 for a DJ at the reception - $307 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for the cocktail hour - $585 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for International open bar for 3 hours for reception. - around $300 for 3 bridesmaid bouquets and 1 flower girl bouquet - $630 for Blood tests, translation of birth cert and Marriage cert in total it's working out at least $5594, more than double the wedding package mainly because I have 31 guests going and the package only covers 20. They are all staying at the hotel but as we get our own waiters etc we need to pay extra which is fair enough but it all seems quite expensive and no doubt there may be a couple more extras when we get over there!! What seemed like the cheaper options is turning out to be pretty expensive Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Thanks for the advice with the Ipod, I just wanted a DJ as I didn't want to have to worry about anything when I get over there but I don't even know if the DJ is any good and would be worth all that money?? The sound system I thought we would need so that our guests can hear what is going on as it might be quite noisy right next to the ocean!! Ps. What thread will I find Kat's review on?? Thanks again L x

Thanks so much for posting that!! That helped me a ton with trying to figure out how much I'd be spending there. I am going to try to negotiate to get some of those prices lowered though. And I, too, am one of the people doing the civil ceremony in my home town, so that will save 700 by itself! Thanks again.

[cougs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCLIVINGSTON - $307 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for the cocktail hour - $585 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for International open bar for 3 hours for reception. in total it's working out at least $5594, more than double the wedding package mainly because I have 31 guests going and the package only covers 20.

you may find that you won't end up with nearly that many guests. we started with about 40 so-called "definites" and as time went by our number has dropped to about 20-25. we're sad those other people aren't coming, of course, but our wallets are definitely happier!

[cougs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zorlack76 I am going to try to negotiate to get some of those prices lowered though.

good luck trying to get them to lower prices! (hell, you can haggle everywhere else in mexico, why not with the wedding coordinator? LOL) keep us posted! i don't know of anyone so far who has gotten lower prices, but some people have been successful with swapping unwanted package items for other upgrades. best of luck!

[cancunbride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCLIVINGSTON Hi!! Thanks for your replies. I got my contract through via e-mail from Gaby. We went with the Dreams Ultimate package as I thought it would have most stuff we needed in it which is $2650. She sent through the contract adding on: - $198 for the sound system - $924 for a DJ at the reception - $307 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for the cocktail hour - $585 for the extra 11 guests (who are all staying at the hotel) for International open bar for 3 hours for reception. - around $300 for 3 bridesmaid bouquets and 1 flower girl bouquet - $630 for Blood tests, translation of birth cert and Marriage cert in total it's working out at least $5594, more than double the wedding package mainly because I have 31 guests going and the package only covers 20. They are all staying at the hotel but as we get our own waiters etc we need to pay extra which is fair enough but it all seems quite expensive and no doubt there may be a couple more extras when we get over there!! What seemed like the cheaper options is turning out to be pretty expensive Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Thanks for the advice with the Ipod, I just wanted a DJ as I didn't want to have to worry about anything when I get over there but I don't even know if the DJ is any good and would be worth all that money?? The sound system I thought we would need so that our guests can hear what is going on as it might be quite noisy right next to the ocean!! Ps. What thread will I find Kat's review on?? Thanks again L x

Have you thought about maybe getting married in your city or state and then just having a ceremony out there? That would drop your $600+ off the bat. I would do that and just have a sand ceremony or candle ceremony, nobody will ever know you did this.