From: danette316

I'm planning a wedding in July in Riviera Maya. Do you have questions?

From: stephaniehackel

I am having a hard time deciding between 2 hotels, the brand new Dreams Riviera Cancun or the Paradisus...

what resort are you getting married at?

I am also hiring a destination wedding planning company so i dont have to deal with the stress, are you doing it on your own?

thanks:)

steph

From: danette316

We are using destinationweddings.com. Is that who you are using? It has taken away some of the stress but I feel like our planner can be pushy at times.

We have actually been to the Paradisus twice. We love it. I can probably answer any specific questions about that place but in short, we loved it. We saw many weddings there and all seemed to go very well. The only thing we didn't like is that the wedding location is relatively close to where everyone is hanging out on the beach. The good thing is that weddings are around 5pm and most people have left the beach by then and they do try to make is feel secluded as much as they can. They have a room set aside for receptions and when talking to some of the brides, they seemed very happy with it. Just make sure there are no other weddings scheduled at the same time. We only saw this once and one reception was on the beach. It was far too windy for that and the location of the wedding was not the best. I think this must have been a mistake. Anyway, as far as the resort itself is concerned. The restaurants are great. My fiance caught a fish while deep sea fishing and they grilled it up for us and really made it special. We had to wait until 9pm for that but we had a waiter to ourselves who met our every need. That is sort of the attitude with all of the staff we encountered. The bartenders remember your drinks (maybe we just went to the bar too much) and the they are willing to try to make anything and usually really well. They have top shelf everything so make sure to ask for that. The rooms are very nice and very clean. The only thing we didn't like... the beds. The beds were too hard. I would say that is my only complaint. They have entertainment every night. Jazz night in the lobby was probably my favorite. The beach at the Paradisus us also wonderful. Not much seaweed, rocks or shells. When we went once in May, the next in April, I think we paid about $1,500 per person for 9 days. An excellent deal but I noticed that the prices went up significantly I don't know what the price is now but there are other places (Excellence for example but they don't all any children at all) that are priced the same and I'd say that Excellence is far better than Paradisus. Sorry, I know I said I'd be short ;-)

We looked into Dreams as well. I thought it looked beautiful on-line and it's in a good location so the beach should be nice. The only problem with this place is that it's not open yet. Our coordinator from Destination Weddings strongly advised against this place and I agreed with his points. You can get really good deals but there are always issues with new resorts. Many resorts have delays when opening and once they are open they take a while to really get their act together. I didn't trust planning a wedding at a brand new place. The other thing and this may be minor to you but the landscaping at a new resort will not be lush and beautiful like a resort that has been around for a while. I've seen pictures posted with reviews from other new resorts at tripadvisor.com and I didn't like the way they looked.

We decided to go with the Barcelo. It's much further south so the drive from the airport will be a pain but we wanted to find a beautiful place with a nice beach and fun activities that was NOT is Playa del Carmen, allowed kids, had premium alcohol. Oh and it had to have an area for a wedding reception rather than just a dinner.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm happy to help.

From: emcclure84

Do NOT go with Paradisus! My wedding planner said the food is horrible, as well as the service! She was just there a couple of weeks ago and they have a new manager who she does not like, and the on site wedding coordinator is leaving and she cannot talk about why. I was in love with this resort until I found this out. I was happy to know before I booked.

From: stephaniehackel

thank you for this:)

From: nycgirlkat

Hi Stephanie,

I'm getting married at the Barcelo Maya Place on November 7th...I'm also using Destinationweddings.com and found my coordinator to be very good. I've never stayed at Paradisus or Dreams, but I was close to picking the Dreams in Tulum at one point. In the end we went with the Barcelo because they do beach receptions which is something I really wanted.

Good luck with planning!

Kat

From: danette316

Kat,

Congrats! Nov 7th is right around the corner. I would LOVE to hear about your wedding and stay at the Barcelo! If you happen to think of it, can you PLEASE send me an email after the wedding? I know you'll be thinking of a million other things but if you have time my email is danette.goodwin@gmail.com

Thanks!

From: emcclure84

I'm also getting married in April! How exciting! My wedding planner specializes in destination weddings. Her website is designerdestinationweddings.com if you are still looking for someone to help you plan.