Just booked my wedding for October 27, 2012

[mpeter81]

Hi ladies!

 

I got married at Dreams 6 months ago and it was great!! 

 

RESORT: I was worried about the resort since we booked it without ever visiting, but it turned out to be fabulous!  The wait staff was so great there and our guests (15 family members, 20 friends) all raved about the resort and how friendly and accommodating the staff was.  Food was also really good there – especially the breakfast buffets (the Mexican scrambled eggs, and chiliquiles…delish!), a lot of people were fans of the breakfast.  The weather was also perfect – sunny 6 days and high-70’s, low-80’s; and 1 day was overcast, but still high-70’s.   

 

GAZEBO: We had the ceremony at 4pm in the Gazebo (I’m vertically challenged so wanted to be in heels ; ).  FYI – the walkway from the edge of the restaurant to the steps of the gazebo is only 13 feet (or it may’ve been 14 feet, can’t remember the # off the top of my head) so keep in mind it’s short if you’re thinking of a runner.  We just did rose petals instead.  I loved the look of the gazebo and everything, but it was still pretty windy and I was fighting w/ my veil.  If I had to do it again, I’d still wear the veil, but I’d have it pinned down a little better.  Also, even though you’re under the gazebo, where the bride normally stands on the left side is pretty sunny.  I don’t think the sun was directly in my eyes, but it was still really bright and I was squinting quite a bit at first.  The groom being on the right has the better angle w/ his back to the sun. 

The other thing to keep in mind about the gazebo is the PILLARS.  I didn’t find out later, buy I was really bummed when my mom told me she couldn’t see me b/c of the pillar b/w us.  That can be avoided though: just make sure when you stand in the gazebo, you can see everyone over your husband’s shoulder, and he can see everyone over your shoulder.  If you can’t see someone b/c of the pillar, they can’t see you.  We simply forgot to really make sure we did that.  Also, at 4pm on Oct 21, the position of the sun makes it so that the chairs on the left side of the gazebo (the bride’s side) is in the shade, and the chairs on the groom’s side are in the sun.  Everyone disregarded bride or groom’s side and went to sit on the shaded side.  No big deal at all, but just FYI.  : )  Regarding where the wedding party stood, we had 4 people on each side and they lined up on the 13-14 ft walkway of the gazebo, which worked out well.  Overall, the gazebo was great and I'd do it there again.  Oh - and the Dreams staff also close off part of the restaurant patio near the gazebo so you don’t have a bunch of strange onlookers.  The restaurant is pretty empty at that time anyway. 

 

REVEREND MARCO:  AMAZING!!  He was really fantastic and so many people complimented us and said how great he was.  We had a SNAFU with the rings where nobody had my husband’s wedding band during the ring exchange.  (Some mixup and it was left in a drawer in the hotel room.)  But, Reverend Marco improvised and made it great.  He didn’t skip a beat.  He really recovered well, made a joke of it, brought our mom’s up to honor them while someone was looking for the ring, and it turned out to be our favorite part on our highlight wedding video: (http://vimeo.com/32120992 , videographer was Angel Zapien who was fantastic!)   We ended up not getting the ring in time, and borrowed Guillermo’s wedding band.  It only made it half way onto my husband’s finger, but it was enough to get us through the ceremony.  ; )   To be honest, I was really worried at first when nobody had the ring, but then thought to myself ‘I’ve got 4 wedding coordinators – this is their job so i'm not going to worry about it.  I’ll never be in this moment again, so I’m just going to stand up here, look pretty, and try to soak in every bit of it.’  The 4 wedding coordinators part… one was Guillermo, one was the external, day-of, coordinator I hired (Kym Salafranca of Bliss Events in Cabo), and the other two were assistants to Kym. 

 

I’ll have to come back and add more in the next week or so, but for now, I need to get back to work.   ; )  Congratulations and hope this helps so far!  

[bride3183]

Aww michelle, you are bringing back so many memories!  I love watching your video and I love that our weddings were just weeks apart!  WIsh that we could do it all over again!

[jsullivan86]

To the previous Brides of Dreams.....

I've been talking in PM with some of the Brides getting married this year and we've all been wondering the same thing along the lines of making it memorable and what will stand out. It seems all of you agree when you say the night goes by so fast! Can you give us your input on what you would recommend doing vs. not wasting time on? Any advice on how to make the evening flow where it doesn't seemed rushed?

 

 

Also, what size room did you and all your Bridesmaids get ready in? My mom currently has a 1 Bedroom Suite and we are using her room to get ready in...she is now worried it will be crammed in there with 7 Bridesmaids. It is quite a bit more to get a 2 bedroom but she is willing to do this if it will be too tight the day of. 

 

Any and all advice is always exciting to read ) Thanks girls!

[anichols8]

Hi,

 

I am using Enrique Morales for photography and videography.  I know you have photography already but maybe you can check out videography there.  He has been awesome to work with.  His website is emweddings.com
 

[jsullivan86]

Thank you for the vendor info!!!! My Travel Agent is coordinating someone's wedding for May 26th...you will probably see them I'm sure Can't wait to hear all about your bog day!

[bride3183]

Originally Posted by jsullivan86 

 

To the previous Brides of Dreams.....

I've been talking in PM with some of the Brides getting married this year and we've all been wondering the same thing along the lines of making it memorable and what will stand out. It seems all of you agree when you say the night goes by so fast! Can you give us your input on what you would recommend doing vs. not wasting time on? Any advice on how to make the evening flow where it doesn't seemed rushed?

 

 

Also, what size room did you and all your Bridesmaids get ready in? My mom currently has a 1 Bedroom Suite and we are using her room to get ready in...she is now worried it will be crammed in there with 7 Bridesmaids. It is quite a bit more to get a 2 bedroom but she is willing to do this if it will be too tight the day of. 

 

Any and all advice is always exciting to read ) Thanks girls!

We also had a one bedroom suite and it was huge.. should be plenty of room for everyone to get ready in.

[laurenscott]

Hi Ladies!  I have been busy securing all my vendors for my wedding at Dreams on November 3, 2012.  Has anyone booked a make-up and hair artist?  If you have can you please provide me with some recommendations?  Thanks so much!  I really appreciate any and all feedback.

[TATrisha]

In April 2011 I photographed two weddings at Dreams Los Cabos.  Both brought in their own makeup artists.  Here are my thoughts and then the wedding pictures so you can see the makeup and even the artists that you'd have with you.

 

Susan Morales -  Susan was not there, she sent two of her makeup artist and then a translator.  The makeup artists didn't speak English very well so the translator was essential.  The ladies did a nice job, but it was a little heavy for some of the ladies and some had to do touch ups.  Overall, a nice job.

http://blog.faberphotography.com/weddings/dream-wedding-at-dreams-los-cabos-mexico/2011

 

Blanc Salon - Neysa came for the second wedding I did.  She is amazing.  A super sweet woman, speaks perfect English and did exactly what the bride wanted.  She did airbrush makeup and it was flawless.  I would definitely recommend Neysa!

http://blog.faberphotography.com/weddings/victoria-alastair-dreams-los-cabos-gazebo-wedding/2011

[Casi]

My fiance and I are getting married next month (!!!!!!) at Dreams Los Cabos and we are so excited! We started the planning for our wedding in San Francisco where we currently live and realized it was going to be so far out of our budget we started pursuing other options. Then we thought about Dreams, which my family has had a timeshare at since I was a kid. It fit in our budget and we got to go on an amazing vacation with our family and friends. Can't beat that!

 

Now that it's getting closer to the wedding and we are ironing out all the last details we are realizing that this is turning out to be a lot more expensive then we hoped (although still much cheaper than a wedding in SF + the whole getting a vacation thing). Here are some of our big expenses and I was hoping to get a bit of advice on ways we could possibly save on these things. Or just some words of encouragement to help us ease our minds.

 

1. Bonfire - we decided to go with a bonfire party the night before the wedding as a welcome party for all our guests. My future FIL is paying for this so it is the least worrisome expense for us. Except for the fact that we have guests who are not staying at the hotel who will be coming but it's going to be $65 per person (7 outside guests) which goes over the allotted amount my FIL gave us for the party. 

 

2. Extra guests - the packages come with 20 people, which I was hoping to stick to, but that totally didn't work out and we now have almost double that. I'm not so worried about this...but it does add up. Especially with the outside guests which are an additional $95!

 

3. Transportation - we are arranging transportation right now for our guests from the airport to the hotel (and back at the end of the trip), and it's turning out to be about $1,000. We got a quote for $19 a head, plus group rate of $100 flat fee for 5-10 people in one car. Unfortunately, our guests are arriving at all different days and times so we can't take too much advantage of the group rate.

 

4. Photography - This has been a major sore spot for us because when we looked at the packages before booking it simply says that it comes with photography. This was probably our fault, but we didn't think to ask for how much photography, and just assumed it covered the whole wedding (ceremony, photo session with family, entire reception, plus extras like getting ready in the room). The packages come with 1 hour, which just isn't enough. The quote we got from the suggested photographer, Adventure Photos, isn't so bad. But it's just an added expense we didn't realize we were going to have.

 

5. DJ - We knew the DJ was going to be pricey, which is why we were just going to go with a sound system and bring our own music. But the more I read this forum the more I realized a DJ is really needed to keep things fun and moving. We are still waiting for a quote for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception, but I'm sure it will end up being more than we hoped and we may just stick with having the DJ only for the reception. 

 

If anyone has any advice or recommendations I am totally open, but I mostly just wanted to vent a little bit about our last minute stress points. Thanks for listening!

[Casi]

Another thing I was hoping to get advice on is a good first look spot at Dreams Los Cabos. Has anyone done this? Where did you do it? How much time should we allot for this with our photographer.