Dreams Puerto Vallarta Brides 2012- 2014

[aild]

Has anyone come up with a good timeline for the day of? All I know is we're getting hair and make-up done at the spa starting at 1pm. I'm most concerned about the reception timeline, when to do the dances, toasts, etc. If any of you ladies have something put together, please let me know!

[JillTran]

Originally Posted by futurekcarrera 

 

So I just came across this on Pinterest and thought it would be awesome for a destination wedding (considering the cost of imported flowers). Has any body considered using synthetic flowers and doing it themselves??? At first I thought 'tacky" but the more I think about it, I'm actually considering it. If you buy the nice fake flowers, it can turn out really pretty (and exactly how you want it!), plus it is a keepsake forever! Thoughts, opinions? Is it a"no-no" or maybe worth it?

 

Check this out, it looks really good!:

http://www.weddingchicks.com/2012/09/17/how-to-make-a-fake-flower-bridal-bouquet/

 

Hey futurekcarrera, NO! Not tacking at all!! Not if you go with the real touch flowers! I believe you can pick them up at Michaels, but are not cheap! Check out www.destinationornot.com, her name is Lynda and is a Canadian based company - When we participate in wedding shows, we always have her with us in our booth and let me tell you, everyone is SHOCKED that the flowers on display are not real.

 

Check these out they really are amazing!

 

 

 

 

[Jenny2014]

Soo...... FI and I decided to change our entire wedding haha.

 

We are still having it at Dreams, but we have removed, oh, about 80% of the guests. We are now only going to be inviting our immediate family (and grandparents), and a few friends- topping us out at 23 people (including us). And we are pretty sure even less than that will come- I highly doubt my grandparents will come, so that puts us at 21 with us.

 

We are not longer going to be going with the Ultimate package, and are just going with the basic package, in the hopes we get it for free! We are just going to have a small private dinner on the beach after (@ $55/per person)....... and that's it. No fire show, no lounge furniture, not cocktail hour or reception.... and probably no bonfire earlier in the week. We will have them tape our ceremony, and I will still hire Photoshoots Vallarta for a couple of hours on the day of to get some pictures, as well as an hour a couple of days later for a ttd session.

 

We also now have to get married on the 17th (but I am going to ask our quests to pretend it is the 18th!) LOL. Flights just weren't working for us, and if we really stuck to the 18th, either everyone would leave on the day of our wedding, or arrive on the day of our wedding. IF we separated resort costs and flight costs (instead of the package deal), our guests would be paying nearly $2000/ person. Soooo.... we are just going to ask everyone to pretend the 17th is the 18th, and have them only pay $1315/ person, leaving the day after our wedding.

 

We are thinking on the 18th of October we will have a BIG reception back home. It seems to be the only way to accommodate everything, and allows us to still have the small, simple wedding we want. We are giving in and allowing our parents to invite whoever to the reception. As we are having the ceremony taped, we will play that, as well as a slideshow of pictures during the reception, so the guests don't feel like they didn't get to see everything. Plus, we will be doing all the firsts there- first announcement as husband and wife, first dance, cake cutting, father/daughter dance, garter toss, bouquet toss, etc. And I will get to wear my dress again!!!

 

The costs for possibly inviting all of those people to Mexico, PLUS still having an AHR after was just ridiculous. Our wedding was basically going to top out around $50, 000 after everything was said and done. Now, with these changes, all the prep, two week stay in mexico, legal ceremony, etc. our Mexico cost is around $12, 000, with that AHR probably going to be around $15,000 (inviting around 150 people). So now everything is MUCH cheaper, and things are moving along the path we wanted.

 

I completely got carried away with the planning and forgot our dream of simple, intimate and elegant. I got completely caught up in the show.... and I am now leaving all that to the AHR.

 

How are you ladies doing? Have any of you undergone any drastic changes like this?

[aschackart]

Originally Posted by aild 

 

Has anyone come up with a good timeline for the day of? All I know is we're getting hair and make-up done at the spa starting at 1pm. I'm most concerned about the reception timeline, when to do the dances, toasts, etc. If any of you ladies have something put together, please let me know!

 

I just finished planning this, so I'll share what we decided to do. Since each hair and makeup appointment takes about an hour, and there are three spa personnel at a time to do each thing, I am having my bridesmaids hair done starting at noon. So three bridesmaids done from noon to one. My mom, grandma, and I, are getting our hair done from 1 to 2. My makeup and my MOH's hair will be done from 2-3, along with my MIL's makeup. So everyone should be done around 3, except for actually getting dressed, and I figure from 3-4 we can do some getting ready pictures and bridesmaids group photos done. 

 

Then ceremony from 4-4:30. We left two hours for pictures- one hour for family and group photos, and one hour for personal photos of just him and I. Cocktail hour from 6:30-7:30, reception from 7:30-10:30.

 

Starting at 7:30, we are doing in order: toasts, then first dance, then cake cutting, and that's it. I don't anticipate it taking more than an hour, hour and a half. Hope this helps!

[aild]

Thanks, aschackart! Rosa at the spa told me that there are 5 stylists to do hair and makeup. And the pricelist stated 75 minutes for hair and 55 for makeup, so I said we wanted everyone to be done by 3pm and asked if 1pm was a good start time for me and four bridesmaids. Rosa said that would work. If it's only an hour, though, I don't think we need to start so early! I'll confirm with Rosa. I was thinking we might do introductions, first dance, and then toasts during dinner. Not sure where to put the father/daughter and mother/son dances. Are you not doing those? And the bouquet toss?

[Kate G]

Hey everyone! I posted a thread giving my review of my wedding experience at Dreams, but wanted to post it here too in case people are just checking this thread. 

 

----

Just got back from beautiful Puerto Vallarta and wanted to share my Dreams wedding experience with anyone interested. I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this thread so forgive me if it isn't. 

 

First off I just want to say Dreams is an AMAZING resort - it was absolutely breathtaking; more beautiful than I had imagined. The staff was super friendly, the rooms were nice and clean, the food was delicious. It was great. 

 

Now onto the bad :/ Unfortunately my bad part of the review concerns the most important reason for me being at Dreams: my wedding. 

 

I started working with Eleane at Dreams last May to plan my wedding there. I loved working with her; she always responded promptly and was very nice. When we got to Dreams we finally met with her in person to go over the details. I also met with the decorator, Tamara (offsite vendor but does many weddings at Dreams). 

 

Everything seemed to be going well and looked like it was all in line. The day of our wedding (5/18), I went to Eleane's office just to make sure I knew where I needed to be and at what time. Eleane told me that before my hair and makeup appt. to be in my room because they would be dropping off my flowers, and then after hair and makeup she would be there to help me get ready and walk me down to the ceremony at 5:30. Well, I waited for the flowers before hair and makeup and they never came. So I just figured they were running late and my maid of honor, mom, and I went to get our hair done.

 

After hair and makeup we came back to the room to start getting ready. The flowers were there, but they were not in water. We had to fill up little cups to put them in and they almost tilted over because they were too heavy for the cups. Anyway everything was fine, not a big deal, but I thought it was odd they didn't have the flowers in water because they were starting to wilt. 

 

We hung out in the room for a while and our videographer was there getting some footage (we used our own photog./videog.) At around 4:30 I thought it was strange that Eleane still hadn't come up to the room so I called down to see what was up. Fatima, the other wedding coordinator, answered the phone and told me SHE would be up to walk me to the ceremony at 5:20. Huh? This was news to me. She didn't tell me where Eleane was but just said she would be there, so I just went with it. at 4:45 my photographer got there to get some photos of me getting in my dress, so I finally started to get ready. They took photos and videos and then next thing I knew I was looking at the clock and saw it was 5:26. NO ONE came up to get me and the ceremony was scheduled to begin in 4 minutes. I started freaking out. 

 

My mom got on the phone and told them her daughter was getting married and no one came to our room to get us. Finally we decided to start walking ourselves. Well, on the way out, Fatima did come up as if nothing was wrong. I was just relieved to see someone so I kinda just smiled and asked her where Eleane was. She said Eleane left for the day. Again...WHAT? The wedding coordinator I worked with all year just left, and gave me absolutely no indication. I was kinda mad to say the least, but was about to get married so didn't worry about it. 

 

We got down to the ceremony area to line up. Fatima was doing her best but things just seemed a little off, like at the last minute she was being thrown into this situation and wasn't sure of all the details. Well, the ceremony went fine (everything looked beautiful) and then the guests made their way to the cocktail area while we got some photos done. We had hired the mariachi band to play til 6:30, and at 6:10 we started walking up to cocktails and the mariachis were leaving. So we didn't even get to hear them play except for a little bit at the ceremony. 

 

We went up to the terrace to be introduced and at that point I was pretty agitated, just very anxious feeling because I felt like nothing was being handled and it was suddenly my responsibility to make sure the timeline was going right. We had to tell them when we wanted them to start dinner, no one had it handled. 

 

Dinner took an extremely long time, far more than the hour it was scheduled to take, so we didn't have enough dinner music (we just used our iPod, no DJ), and had to keep playing the same songs over. Again, not a HUGE deal but given all that I was feeling was going wrong it was really bugging me. 

 

I didn't really see Fatima much, and at one point my dad had to get up and ask someone to start speeding things along. Finally after dinner we cut the cake (that wasn't supposed to happen til later on but they brought it out). The cake had no decoration on it, just our cake topper. I wanted it simple but asked for some small flowers. There were no flowers on it. Then we went into dancing, but that all went by SO fast because dinner took so long. We probably had an hour total of dancing and it just flew by. 

 

To top it off, we went up to our room after and it wasn't decorated (they are supposed to leave rose petals and champagne and stuff). We had to call and ask that they do that.

 

So I know I sound like a huge downer and am just focusing on the bad here. Overall I will remember my wedding as being a ton of fun and a beautiful day surrounded by loved ones. For the most part, it was. But those little details had me feeling so anxious that the first half of the wedding I couldn't even enjoy myself because NO ONE seemed to be handling it. I am really upset that Eleane bailed and gave me no explanation or heads up even. 

 

But Dreams was so awesome that overall I won't be focusing on any of this in the big picture - so that says something right?

[Jenny2014]

Originally Posted by Kate G 

 

Hey everyone! I posted a thread giving my review of my wedding experience at Dreams, but wanted to post it here too in case people are just checking this thread. 

 

----

Just got back from beautiful Puerto Vallarta and wanted to share my Dreams wedding experience with anyone interested. I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this thread so forgive me if it isn't. 

 

First off I just want to say Dreams is an AMAZING resort - it was absolutely breathtaking; more beautiful than I had imagined. The staff was super friendly, the rooms were nice and clean, the food was delicious. It was great. 

 

Now onto the bad :/ Unfortunately my bad part of the review concerns the most important reason for me being at Dreams: my wedding. 

 

I started working with Eleane at Dreams last May to plan my wedding there. I loved working with her; she always responded promptly and was very nice. When we got to Dreams we finally met with her in person to go over the details. I also met with the decorator, Tamara (offsite vendor but does many weddings at Dreams). 

 

Everything seemed to be going well and looked like it was all in line. The day of our wedding (5/18), I went to Eleane's office just to make sure I knew where I needed to be and at what time. Eleane told me that before my hair and makeup appt. to be in my room because they would be dropping off my flowers, and then after hair and makeup she would be there to help me get ready and walk me down to the ceremony at 5:30. Well, I waited for the flowers before hair and makeup and they never came. So I just figured they were running late and my maid of honor, mom, and I went to get our hair done.

 

After hair and makeup we came back to the room to start getting ready. The flowers were there, but they were not in water. We had to fill up little cups to put them in and they almost tilted over because they were too heavy for the cups. Anyway everything was fine, not a big deal, but I thought it was odd they didn't have the flowers in water because they were starting to wilt. 

 

We hung out in the room for a while and our videographer was there getting some footage (we used our own photog./videog.) At around 4:30 I thought it was strange that Eleane still hadn't come up to the room so I called down to see what was up. Fatima, the other wedding coordinator, answered the phone and told me SHE would be up to walk me to the ceremony at 5:20. Huh? This was news to me. She didn't tell me where Eleane was but just said she would be there, so I just went with it. at 4:45 my photographer got there to get some photos of me getting in my dress, so I finally started to get ready. They took photos and videos and then next thing I knew I was looking at the clock and saw it was 5:26. NO ONE came up to get me and the ceremony was scheduled to begin in 4 minutes. I started freaking out. 

 

My mom got on the phone and told them her daughter was getting married and no one came to our room to get us. Finally we decided to start walking ourselves. Well, on the way out, Fatima did come up as if nothing was wrong. I was just relieved to see someone so I kinda just smiled and asked her where Eleane was. She said Eleane left for the day. Again...WHAT? The wedding coordinator I worked with all year just left, and gave me absolutely no indication. I was kinda mad to say the least, but was about to get married so didn't worry about it. 

 

We got down to the ceremony area to line up. Fatima was doing her best but things just seemed a little off, like at the last minute she was being thrown into this situation and wasn't sure of all the details. Well, the ceremony went fine (everything looked beautiful) and then the guests made their way to the cocktail area while we got some photos done. We had hired the mariachi band to play til 6:30, and at 6:10 we started walking up to cocktails and the mariachis were leaving. So we didn't even get to hear them play except for a little bit at the ceremony. 

 

We went up to the terrace to be introduced and at that point I was pretty agitated, just very anxious feeling because I felt like nothing was being handled and it was suddenly my responsibility to make sure the timeline was going right. We had to tell them when we wanted them to start dinner, no one had it handled. 

 

Dinner took an extremely long time, far more than the hour it was scheduled to take, so we didn't have enough dinner music (we just used our iPod, no DJ), and had to keep playing the same songs over. Again, not a HUGE deal but given all that I was feeling was going wrong it was really bugging me. 

 

I didn't really see Fatima much, and at one point my dad had to get up and ask someone to start speeding things along. Finally after dinner we cut the cake (that wasn't supposed to happen til later on but they brought it out). The cake had no decoration on it, just our cake topper. I wanted it simple but asked for some small flowers. There were no flowers on it. Then we went into dancing, but that all went by SO fast because dinner took so long. We probably had an hour total of dancing and it just flew by. 

 

To top it off, we went up to our room after and it wasn't decorated (they are supposed to leave rose petals and champagne and stuff). We had to call and ask that they do that.

 

So I know I sound like a huge downer and am just focusing on the bad here. Overall I will remember my wedding as being a ton of fun and a beautiful day surrounded by loved ones. For the most part, it was. But those little details had me feeling so anxious that the first half of the wedding I couldn't even enjoy myself because NO ONE seemed to be handling it. I am really upset that Eleane bailed and gave me no explanation or heads up even. 

 

But Dreams was so awesome that overall I won't be focusing on any of this in the big picture - so that says something right?

 

Hi Kate,

 

 Thanks for sharing your review. I'm sorry it didn't go as smoothly as it should have! Did you see Eleane at any point afterwards and get an explanation for why she left?

 

I am glad you enjoyed Dreams- it really was an incredible place for our vacation and I am so excited to go back there!

 

I really do hope that despite all the minor hiccups, that your wedding was truely beautiful, and that you all had a wonderful time!!! Hopefully when you have some time you can post some pictures

 

Congrats on your wedding!!!!! xoxoxo

[aschackart]

Originally Posted by Kate G 

 

Hey everyone! I posted a thread giving my review of my wedding experience at Dreams, but wanted to post it here too in case people are just checking this thread. 

 

----

Just got back from beautiful Puerto Vallarta and wanted to share my Dreams wedding experience with anyone interested. I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this thread so forgive me if it isn't. 

 

First off I just want to say Dreams is an AMAZING resort - it was absolutely breathtaking; more beautiful than I had imagined. The staff was super friendly, the rooms were nice and clean, the food was delicious. It was great. 

 

Now onto the bad :/ Unfortunately my bad part of the review concerns the most important reason for me being at Dreams: my wedding. 

 

I started working with Eleane at Dreams last May to plan my wedding there. I loved working with her; she always responded promptly and was very nice. When we got to Dreams we finally met with her in person to go over the details. I also met with the decorator, Tamara (offsite vendor but does many weddings at Dreams). 

 

Everything seemed to be going well and looked like it was all in line. The day of our wedding (5/18), I went to Eleane's office just to make sure I knew where I needed to be and at what time. Eleane told me that before my hair and makeup appt. to be in my room because they would be dropping off my flowers, and then after hair and makeup she would be there to help me get ready and walk me down to the ceremony at 5:30. Well, I waited for the flowers before hair and makeup and they never came. So I just figured they were running late and my maid of honor, mom, and I went to get our hair done.

 

After hair and makeup we came back to the room to start getting ready. The flowers were there, but they were not in water. We had to fill up little cups to put them in and they almost tilted over because they were too heavy for the cups. Anyway everything was fine, not a big deal, but I thought it was odd they didn't have the flowers in water because they were starting to wilt. 

 

We hung out in the room for a while and our videographer was there getting some footage (we used our own photog./videog.) At around 4:30 I thought it was strange that Eleane still hadn't come up to the room so I called down to see what was up. Fatima, the other wedding coordinator, answered the phone and told me SHE would be up to walk me to the ceremony at 5:20. Huh? This was news to me. She didn't tell me where Eleane was but just said she would be there, so I just went with it. at 4:45 my photographer got there to get some photos of me getting in my dress, so I finally started to get ready. They took photos and videos and then next thing I knew I was looking at the clock and saw it was 5:26. NO ONE came up to get me and the ceremony was scheduled to begin in 4 minutes. I started freaking out. 

 

My mom got on the phone and told them her daughter was getting married and no one came to our room to get us. Finally we decided to start walking ourselves. Well, on the way out, Fatima did come up as if nothing was wrong. I was just relieved to see someone so I kinda just smiled and asked her where Eleane was. She said Eleane left for the day. Again...WHAT? The wedding coordinator I worked with all year just left, and gave me absolutely no indication. I was kinda mad to say the least, but was about to get married so didn't worry about it. 

 

We got down to the ceremony area to line up. Fatima was doing her best but things just seemed a little off, like at the last minute she was being thrown into this situation and wasn't sure of all the details. Well, the ceremony went fine (everything looked beautiful) and then the guests made their way to the cocktail area while we got some photos done. We had hired the mariachi band to play til 6:30, and at 6:10 we started walking up to cocktails and the mariachis were leaving. So we didn't even get to hear them play except for a little bit at the ceremony. 

 

We went up to the terrace to be introduced and at that point I was pretty agitated, just very anxious feeling because I felt like nothing was being handled and it was suddenly my responsibility to make sure the timeline was going right. We had to tell them when we wanted them to start dinner, no one had it handled. 

 

Dinner took an extremely long time, far more than the hour it was scheduled to take, so we didn't have enough dinner music (we just used our iPod, no DJ), and had to keep playing the same songs over. Again, not a HUGE deal but given all that I was feeling was going wrong it was really bugging me. 

 

I didn't really see Fatima much, and at one point my dad had to get up and ask someone to start speeding things along. Finally after dinner we cut the cake (that wasn't supposed to happen til later on but they brought it out). The cake had no decoration on it, just our cake topper. I wanted it simple but asked for some small flowers. There were no flowers on it. Then we went into dancing, but that all went by SO fast because dinner took so long. We probably had an hour total of dancing and it just flew by. 

 

To top it off, we went up to our room after and it wasn't decorated (they are supposed to leave rose petals and champagne and stuff). We had to call and ask that they do that.

 

So I know I sound like a huge downer and am just focusing on the bad here. Overall I will remember my wedding as being a ton of fun and a beautiful day surrounded by loved ones. For the most part, it was. But those little details had me feeling so anxious that the first half of the wedding I couldn't even enjoy myself because NO ONE seemed to be handling it. I am really upset that Eleane bailed and gave me no explanation or heads up even. 

 

But Dreams was so awesome that overall I won't be focusing on any of this in the big picture - so that says something right?

 

 Hey Kate!

 

Sorry things didn't go perfectly   What is unfortunate is you can spend all this time doing all this research and thinking your are prepared for everything, and then something you couldn't have expected happens. Nonetheless, I'm sure your wedding was still gorgeous and your guests had an awesome time. Post pictures when you get a chance!

[kristadawn]

SO sorry hun///I can see where that would be extremly frustrating!!

We spend so much time with these planners and going over everything, they should be there..Did they ever explain why Eleane wasnt there??The whole idea of the wedding planner is to be there the day of wedding as well for the bumps that may come up, bride should not be worried about minor details!

 

Im finding im frustrated with the whole process, some is my fault as when I spoke with Dreams Tulum they were so accomadating that I was assuming PV wouldbe same. Now we are booked and yet nothing can be modified or changed, very much unlike Tulum

 

Im sure your wedding was beautiful and amazing just the same!

[Kate G]

Originally Posted by Jenny2014 

 

 

Hi Kate,

 

 Thanks for sharing your review. I'm sorry it didn't go as smoothly as it should have! Did you see Eleane at any point afterwards and get an explanation for why she left?

 

I am glad you enjoyed Dreams- it really was an incredible place for our vacation and I am so excited to go back there!

 

I really do hope that despite all the minor hiccups, that your wedding was truely beautiful, and that you all had a wonderful time!!! Hopefully when you have some time you can post some pictures

 

Congrats on your wedding!!!!! xoxoxo

Thanks Jenny! Unfortunately I never got a chance to talk to Eleane Oh well, we did have an amazing time despite it all. Congrats to you too! xo