Dreams Puerto Vallarta Brides 2012- 2014

[amandaD]

Hello ladies, I'm about to book my wedding, however my concern is the addition cost for over $ 20 ppl. I plan to have 40-50 and I was told $85 per person. This includes the cocktail hour, appys, dinner and cake. Does anyone have suggestions on how to decrease this cost other then eliminating guests. Luv this resort but already not happy with this unexpected cost. Amanda.

[amandaD]

Hey ladies!k I just wanted to let you know that my review of Dreams is up! Long story short, we had about as close to a perfect wedding as you can get. Feel free to PM me with any questions. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/dreams-puerto-vallarta-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/7422 Best of luck! Enjoy your day!  

So happy you had a great time. My concern is the sound system. What did u do did u have a DJ or went with sound package ? Was there anything different u would do?

[amandaD]

For those brides who brought their BOSE I pod doc stations. What did u use for a mic ?? My wedding is April 2014. I would rather spend $$$ on other parts of the wedding rather the paying for mic hourly and sound system.

[Tbasgall]

We decided on a DJ for our Jan 2014 wedding. It's nearly as much to rent the sound system as it is to hire a DJ. Hope it works out well for us.

[amysis]

Originally Posted by kristadawn 

 

-few questions starting to get panicky lol.!!!

Anyone doing IPod for music?did you do full playlist or just random songs you enjoyed? Im so lost on this!! 

We are having very small ceremony reception with only about 24 people so not doing a dance floor or anything just wanted some music with dinner and afterward? 

-As well what are you bringing for decorations?? I cant justify some of the crazy costs of the decorations but not sure what i should or want to bring. we are doing family style dinner on beach so dont need much but worried i wont have enough?? we rented lights and candles but was thinking our boquets will work for centerpeices?

-oot bags-- im doing travel mugs and a few things havent finalized, however did you bring another suitcase for this stuff?

 

Thanks!!!

Hi Krista!

 

We did a HUGE playlist of songs for dinner music and the reception.  We organized it so it could have played straight through, but our guests had a lot of fun choosing songs to play throughout the evening.

 

I brought various sizes of paper lanterns in various shades of aqua (pic attached), little seashells, and mini lanterns as decorations.  The wedding coordinators did an amazing job decorating with them!  They lined the aisle with the paper lanterns for the ceremony and moved them over to the reception area afterwards.  They put the shells on the tables along with the lanterns (and we also brought glow sticks and bracelets as favors for our guests--which were awesome, BTW!--and they put those on the tables too).  It was very minimal, but the setting is so beautiful that you don't need too many decorations, IMO.

 

Finally, the stuff for the OOT bags was a pain to get down there.  We packed it all in actual boxes, which immigrations went through thoroughly upon our arrival (it was a HUGE pain, but they didn't charge us any import tax or confiscate anything).  I had heard some advice from another bride to pack it all in a suitcase, and then to pack your dress in that same suitcase for the trip home, but we had too much stuff for the OOT bags to fit in one suitcase!  I had also debated buying a suitcase or two at a thrift shop to pack the OOT stuff in and then just leave at the resort.

 

I hope that helps a little bit!

[amysis]

I couldn't find any pictures of the dining tables from the reception, but here's one of the cake table.  It shows you the lantern.  Just imagine it with some shells (and the glow sticks ).  

 

Oh, and that sign in the lower left: kind of ugly, but it was great for letting people know that our events were private.  It wasn't really needed for the wedding, but we put it up for our bonfire the night before, and we noticed several people starting to wander over, then they noticed the sign and walked away (we still had a few random people sit down and join us anyway!)

[jjackson1977]

Congrats to all the lucky ladies getting married....we had our wedding at Dreams Puerto Vallarta in April 2013. First of all the resort was above and beyond my expectations...beautiful, lush, and the service was over the top. We had people stay in both the old and new tower and everybody was super stoked on their rooms.....amazing views! I dealt with Fatima through the whole planning process and she was great....so quick to get back to me and she really did pull it all together. I had sent her photos of the ideas I had for flowers and they were unbelievable....so beautiful. The only caution I would say is to pay attention to prices...I was quoted things and later on would find the price was more than originally stated.....thankfully all correspondence was done by e-mail so they always went back to the original price and it never seemed to be an issue. We paid extra to do the beach bonfire and I would highly recommend this....they set out beach chairs, marshmallows, a fondu, bar service and a fire....a nice laid back way to thank the guests. My husband was not all for it as he thought it was over priced but I'm glad i stuck to my guns....and he did think it was great when we were there. We did our ceremony at the Oceana beach which seemed a little more private than the Seaside. Our ceremony was at 530 and was beyond hot.......most of the guys had completely soaked through their shirts. It was the end of April and a beautiful day so I'm not complaining but I can't even imagine how the other wedding going on at the other end of the beach handled those sunny hours doing a beach reception. One of the random add ons I did was the pedals down the aisle....I can honestly say I never saw them on the day of but they look super beautiful in the photos so two thumbs up to that. The other thing with the ceremony was I had asked for the ceremony script a couple weeks before we went down and when I read it I knew it was not our style....we only did a symbolic ceremony so I was able to just make our own. I really loved the reception area....just a beautiful spot at the las palmas terrace. We had added on pool and hanging lanterns and floral center pieces that matched our bouquets....this all looked perfect. We also added on the Tiffany chairs which looked really nice with the decor. As far as music for the reception we brought down a portable speaker called the blocker rocker....it was perfect for the ceremony and background reception....maybe not quite loud enough for the dancing but I found the poolside part went by super fast by the time you eat and do speeches, have the first dance and cut the cake it's time to wrap it up and move to the sports bar where they have a loud sound system. I just don't know if the price they charge for the sound system is really worth it for the amount of time you can be on the pool deck. We got the photographer (Lilli) supplied by the resort and she was amazing. We had a lot of fun with her and I got a tonne of great photos....I was super surprised the pix were so good cause I didn't really feel like we had put a lot of time into them. I had picked the package that included like 30 photos in a book but when I previewed them I ended up paying 800ish to take all the photos....so glad I did.....I love them! I hope some of this info is helpful to a Dreams PV bride out there....sorry it's a bit disjointed but I was writing as things were coming to me. Feel free to message me any questions.......and I'll try to post some photos soon!

[Tbasgall]

Amysis- you said the stuff for the OOT bags were a pain. If you had to do it again would you still? I'm debating on whether or not it's worth the hassle. Thanks for your input.

[Tbasgall]

I just received an email stating that Fatima will no longer be working at Dreams. It looks like I have been handed off to another wedding coordinator. I'm a little nervous about this. Anyone else have experience working with Eleane?

[kristadawn]

I just received an email stating that Fatima will no longer be working at Dreams. It looks like I have been handed off to another wedding coordinator. I'm a little nervous about this. Anyone else have experience working with Eleane?