My Dreams PV Wedding Review (just got back!)

[Kate G]

Hi Brides!

 

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?

[brownsugarbride]

First off, I'm so sorry that the resort staff did not handle the details of your special day in the way in which you deserved.  How incredibly frustrating after so much planning!   However, I'm glad that the ceremony went well and that you ended up having a great time.

 

I definitely think that you should put this in the review section, so that brides will have full information about your experience at the resort.  Did you end up talking to the hotel manager and corporate about what happened? You deserve an apology and a partial refund at the very least!

[Kate G]

Originally Posted by brownsugarbride 

 

First off, I'm so sorry that the resort staff did not handle the details of your special day in the way in which you deserved.  How incredibly frustrating after so much planning!   However, I'm glad that the ceremony went well and that you ended up having a great time.

 

I definitely think that you should put this in the review section, so that brides will have full information about your experience at the resort.  Did you end up talking to the hotel manager and corporate about what happened? You deserve an apology and a partial refund at the very least!

Thanks for the kind words! I totally didn't see there was a whole review section, duh haha. Unfortunately I didn't end up talking to anyone in person about it but left them some lengthy comments when it was time to check out (they have you complete a survey before leaving). Haven't heard from anyone since, and don't expect to get any money back :/ It's unfortunate but what can ya do! It was still a great time

[Tbasgall]

Reading this makes me nervous for my 01/2014 wedding there. I'm hoping that I don't encounter the same problems that you had.

[kristadawn]

yikes!! this makes me really nervous!! we are getting married in two weeks,,,so nervous now! everything seems to be good with Eleane now, some confusion from start but now all seems ok but that review makes me super nervous!! I am also not super impressed that when we booked we asked for adjoining rooms since we have 4 kids with us and they can't quarantee it… so so nervous.. Im sure it will work out but with 4 kids i don't want to be spread apart…yikes….