Planning spring 2011 wedding in DR and need help!

Hello all and happy 2010!

I wanted to hear from brides who have gotten married at Excellence, Paradisus, Majestic or any of the Riu properties. I am torn between those but I am leaning toward Excellence because they seem to give you the most bang for your buck in the wedding package.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

I went with Paradisus because they seemed to have everything I wanted. Not to mention tons of pictures that I have seen. I was not able to find many pics from the other resorts and I already had in mind what I wanted.

When is your wedding date?

Hey ladies!

We are thinking of Majestic Elegance, we did tonnes of research the last couple of months, and it seems to meet our criteria!

Our main concern was the beach and pool, and from what we have read it's on a great part of the beach, water is nice and blue, seaweed is cleaned up daily, and the pool wraps around the resort, perfect to chill out on tubs with and ice cold bevy! Plus a swim up bar! Everything else seems ideal as well, rooms are newer and very modern, the resort has only been around for a few years.

There are plenty of bars and food choices, the only down side I have heard as they don't switch up the menues very often so you eat the same stuff alot, but hey! If I ain't cookin i'm happy!!! Some people are really picky ayways so you can't trust everything you read!!

We looked at Paradisus, but it seemed a little pricy for our guests, Majestic is about as pricy as we want to go, around 2 grand Canadian/week.

Oh, we are also looking at going Feb 2011, no date yet as we are still waiting for the 2011 group rates to come out!

Best of luck picking a resort!

Hi there!

We have narrowed our search down to the Riu Palace Punta Cana or the Majestic Colonial for February 2011 (I might see you there Jenn&Kraig!) We are leaning more towards the Riu as it is a bigger resort (more restaurants, activites, etc). The wedding packages seem comparable, the Riu's Royal Package is $1495 and offers a ton of stuff for up to 40 guests including a romantic massage for bride and groom.. The Majestic is a bit pricier $1750 and seems to offer the same details (minus the massage). Jenn&Kraig, if you go through a TA, they can send the request off to Sunquest and get the group rates now. For the Riu, we were quoted $1770pp. Quotes haven't come back yet for the Majestic.

Hey Diva,

I am in the same position as you are now! A spring 2011 wedding (most likely May) and choosing something in Punta Cana. Right now the Paradisus resorts - Palma Real and Punta Cana are top contenders. Probably because I saw them first online and fell in love.

I haven't looked too much into the Riu, Majestic, or Excellence. However, my initial impressions of the Riu resorts is that their architecture tends toward the high-rise or sprawling which is not "resort" feeling to me. A few posts have warned that the Majestic tries to charge you for every little thing which turns me off. The Excellence I haven't really considered yet. However, ultimately it may come down to cost. I'm looking at $1500-1700 w/ flight, tax in.

Looking forward to hearing how your decision-making is coming along!

Hello all!

Thank you for all of our input! So we decided on the Excellence, you get a TON of stuff in their gold package. And they kind of sold me with the whole getting brought in by a horse drawn carriage bit!!!

I also got a killer rate of $141 per night for us and our guests, they have really good reviews on TA too.

All of the other resorts didn't seem to have as many amenities in their wedding packages, check them out!

^ Diva, congrats deciding on a place!!

Did you go through a travel agent or website? I've been hesitant to start looking seriously because I thought prices don't come out until earliest a year before.

I've definitely going to take a look at Excellence, too. I love the Paradisus but their price are pretty high for wedding packages IMO.

Hey bikegirl, sorry for the delay. We did go through a travel agent and our contract is signed and date is set! Not sure where you are located, but she is based out of Austin, TX and she is PHENOMENAL the agency is called Vacations in Paradise if you want to check her out (hint hint)