Bahia Principe Bavaro/Punta Cana Brides

Kerry,

I am surprised when you say that you were told that your wedding package is the sunshine package but you are looking to upgrade. We choose the Blissful Love package. I didn't know that you get assigned a package.

We also had to pay the supplement for the private reception.

We are undecided about ordering the extra bouquets for the bridesmaids (only having two). Not sure if we will go with the extra charge at the resort or bring some from home.

As for the wedding dress. There are two. A longer dress for the ceremony and a shorter one for the reception and pictures on the beach the following day. The longer dress is not bulky or heavy. It was more of a sleek dress. If you want to check it out: Bridal Image - go to the Gallery, Bridal Gowns, Impression and it is the 2nd dress on the top row - Sytle # 3003. The wedding dress is in Ivory and the bridesmaid dresses are in a tangarine colour.

I am still trying to figure out what will be supplied as far as decorations and flowers. I have been told by the wedding co-ordinator that the flowers from the ceremony will be brought to the reception and placed on the head table, etc. My concern is that I don't know which flowers will be supplied or will it be another cost when we get down there. Seems like there is always an extra charge for things.

In the meantime, I am trying to decide on centrepieces for the tables. Any thoughts.

hi ladies. glad to hear all you planning is coming along. i'm not getting married till july 2011 but i'm trying to get my head around the details sooner than later.

what do you mean about colour scheme? are you bringing a bunch of centre peices ect yourself? dont they just have different colours for you to choose from?

and for everyone, what about photogrpahy? this is a major thing for me. what are you ladies using? resort photographers? i hear some ppl fly in someone. i dont know, all very confusing lol i thought this was suppose to be less stressful lol

thanks!

love your dress!

Ashley,
At the resort they have told me that if you choose the garden gazebo, they cover the chairs with the white linen and then they have ribbons that tie onto the chairs. You will choose the colour. Therefore, you would select a colour scheme for your wedding. Since the BM dresses are tangarine, we are going with an orange colouring sheme. We will use this colour for some of the flowers (that they supply) and also for the centerpieces that we need to supply. I was thinking that I would purchase some small glass containers (cheap ones) from Michaels. So I will try and find some flowers around the resort, put them into the water and then have a floating candle on the top. Also thinking that if we go with orange, I could probably pick up some orange floating candles just after Halloween. It would make for a good DIY project and be very inexpensive.
For a photographer, we approached a school chum and unfortunately although he was very willing to do a destination wedding, we could only swing it if he would take the trip as a vacation and just get paid for the wedding job. He was looking for us to pay for his trip and the photography so therefore I think that we will just go with the resort photographer and try and get a deal. There pricing seems very expensive.

thank you so much! that helped out a little. answered some questions. but like i said it seems all very stressful, which i thought it would be the other way around.

That is why I like this website. I was originally stressed by everything that we needed to do both for the destination wedding and the AHR. This way I go on to the different topics and check things out and of course ask some questions. I can keep track of where I am and how things are going.

So make sure you ask questions and let us know what you are planning. This particular thread is good since it should be the brides that are planning on their destination wedding at this particular resort.

Looking forward to hearing about your plans.

i just wanted to mention that they can customize your flowers

they give you a book to pick flowers out of (i have a link to the pics somewhere, i'll have to find it when i get home then i'll post it)

 

i picked a bouquet and asked if i could have purple flowers put in instead of the orange ones that were there, they did it no problem and no extra charge for changing the flowers. and i got offered 3 different boutouineers (however you spell that) as my WC didn't know which pink i would prefer

 

and the flowers were more than enough for centerpieces imo, but then again i had one big long table instead of a bunch of little ones.

Everywhere that I read about the wedding packages, it seems to mention that only the brides bouquet and the grooms flower was included. It seems that it will be an extra charge for the MOH, parents and best man.
Do you know if they include flowers as ceremony decorations.

Hi guys!!

My FI and I are getting married on June 19, 2010 @ the Gran Bahia Principe bavaro too!!! We have 34 people booked!!

 

Location: Gazebo wit Pastor York

Package:Unforgettable but thinking about downgrading to Blissful Love since its a 400$ diff and the only things missing are nightly sweet treats, 5 photos, and spa discounts lol

Reception: Garden Grill & doing a cocktail hour with the 4 signature drinks

Music: Ipod

Rehearsal Dinner : Jellyfish Restaurant

 

We initially booked everything in June of last year but since then so much has changed. Our initial bridal booklet explaining all the packages etc has since been upgraded i.e. the cocktail hour

So we are now reviewing to make any additions and revisions

The one thing I am stuck on is a photographer!!! I am lost. I wanted MIchael Weiler but he is soo expensive and now the resort has a policy that if you dont use the resort guys they charge 75$ for the day and a 500 vendor fee.

I'm scared to use resort photographers

Any suggestions??!!!

Anyone doing any of the other extras??!!!

 

Melissa

Congratulations Melissa!

We brought our own photographer and because he was a guest at the hotel, there was no charge. It was not a problem with the resort. Instead of paying the $75+$500, it would probably be better to just pay for a night at the resort for the photographer if they are local. Just tell the resort they are a friend of the family and ask the photographer to go along with it

That said, I saw some of the photos by Arrecife (the resort photographer) - they also took some at my wedding as some were included for free in our package - and they are pretty good. In general they are as good as the photos on their facebook page (friend them if you want to take a look). Not quite my style (pose-y) but lovely nonetheless. I can send you a few they took at ours (where they knew we were not buying a package as we never contacted them to book or anything - so they probably didn't make too much of an effort but still got nice photos). Just PM me.

I would suggest downgrading your package. We never got the nightly treats except the first night (I forgot they were even included!) the 20% spa discount only includes "spa" treatments which means it doesn't include hair, nails, make-up - just massages, facials, etc... so it won't save you any money if you are paying for your wedding party to have hair and makeup done.

If you booked everything last June, know that they will generally honour those prices. So you can kind of mix and match the prices. Just bring emails or whatever to the resort and have them ready. Generally, if you tell them that's the price you were quoted and the person (usually a coordinator who is gone) you were talking to, it's enough for them to give you the lower price.

Which gazebo are you using for your wedding?

Claire