Married or going to be married at Grand Palladium Punta Cana?

Isy_Beau, The sun does set usually somewhere between 6:45 and 7pm in April - I looked it up because it was a concern of mine since we are being married at 5pm.

Sunrise and Sunset for Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo – April 2010

I think for you you should have enough time depending on how many photos you're having done before the sun goes down.

We are going to be doing our photos before and after the ceremony. I originally didn't want to do this because I didn't want my fiancé to see me before, but we are going to doa private photo session of when we see each other before the ceremony. The good thing about getting married later in the day though is that you get to capture some photos with the beautiful sunset as well!

Tracy,

We haven't planned the ceremony music yet but are hoping the she does in fact have a cd player. We wanted to do music, just not quite sure what. I love the song God Blessed the Broken Road but probably for our first dance instead. Also love When God Made You and thought maybe the old song Longer Than by Dan Fogelberg would be a good prelude or walk down the aisle song. Not sure yet. We have to buckle this stuff down this week.

For the toasting, I think maybe I will have enough music or instrumental music on so if we want to have it going in the background, we can.

We have the Dj for the beach party but thought it was $250.. if its $200, even better!

I am with you on the AHR.. we need to have it because we promised friends from work, etc. but not even going there until we have the actual wedding done!

I don't know if I will wear the dress to that party. Maybe. I am not doing a TTD dress... neither one of us cares about the rolling in the water, etc. so probably wont do it.

Yep... we are 40! Awesome! We arrive on April 7th as do many of the guests from Ottawa. My family and friends from Montreal are coming on Thurs and Fri. and one couple coming Sat. We are staying two weeks so we will eventually get our honeymoon without a crowd!

Our favours of Larimar earrings, etc. were bought from several different vendors on ebay and etsy. The prices varied from $6.99 a pair to a bracelet that I paid close to $20 (yikes) but I figured that in the end whatever we saved by not having the full meal and reception here at home I could put into the wedding favours.

Yes luggage weight could be an issue so we are probably packing a few OOT bags each and my sister and friends have agreed to split some up with us so everyone just adds a few extra pounds to their luggage. Hopefully we wont be too heavy!

So far I havent done labels on any of the OOT bag contents. Last year I bought some fabric Ouch Pouches on Etsy and put the hand sanitizer, band aids, etc. in there so maybe I dont need to bother with those labels. One less thing to worry about! I still want to do a mini plastic photo album containing our welcome letter, etc. but havent been able to find them. They used to sell them at the dollar store. Still searching.

I plan to go to Montreal Thursday night and stay at my BM house. Hopefully she can take me to St. Hubert streed Friday for the dress fitting because I wont have a car. I am pretty sure she will take me. She is a real estate agent so makes her own hours.

Not sure about my accessories... bought the girls their seaglass necklaces and earrings.. those should arrive tomorrow.

I did not have a bachelorette party, or bridal shower. I am sure my sis will plan something. You see I am 43 (a young 43 I might add...lol) and my FI is 44 so we both had homes before and have alot of stuff. We did register yesterday on Bed Bath and Beyond for those little extra things becuase everyone was bugging us to do so.

How many people are attending on your end? We will have a head table of 8: FI and I, MOH, 2 BMs and the 3 guys. My neice and nephew are ring bearer and Jr. Flowergirl. THey will sit with their Dad at a table since 8 is prob. plenty at the head table.

You are right, I don't think I will bring anything to set up the beach party. Going to see the travel agent/planner this week and hopefully she will have some photos to show me of the beach party. I asked her to get some if she could.

I think I will do my OOT bag tags today. That would be a good thing done!

Do you work full time during the day? It would be great to meet for coffee before we go. You are in Pierrefonds, right?

Talk to you later!

Dawn

Hi girls.

Let me first start off by introducing myself. I'm Dana, from St. Louis. My fiance, Mike, and I got engaged two weeks. We knew long before we ever got engaged that a destination wedding was what we wanted to do. So we were researching and trying to pick out a spot within 24 hours of our engagement (That's how long it took to spread the word to our parents and siblings and make sure they were officially onboard. Otherwise, it would've been immediately, lol.). We decided on Punta Cana in November 2010 rather quickly. Once we made that decision we researched resorts and fell in love with the Grand Palladium. So I think that's what we've decided on.

Along with perusing other threads on this site, I've read back through every single post and page in this thread, and I can't tell you how helpful this thread has already been to me!

However, we have not booked yet because we have one question. Well, we have many, many questions, which I'll post at a later date. Our most pressing question though is if we can/should book the travel before we have confirmation that our target date, or a date within 1-2 days of it, is available to get married.

I have a HUGE fear of booking all of this travel and then being told, "sorry, no times are available then".

I sent an email to Carolina at PC on Friday with this question (asking if we book travel first and if our date(s) are available) and have not heard back from yet. Reading through this thread I see that sometimes it can take her awhile to get back to you with answers to your emails. So I'm waiting, but also wonder how long to wait.

So I'm wondering......did you girls book your travel first, and then hope the wedding date would be available, or did you get confirmation on wedding date availability first?

Thanks!

Dana

We confirmed the date also! I was nervous because as some of our guests are coming scattered throughout the week -- we really only had 1 day to work with (because they don't do Sunday weddings) so it was nervewracking, but she got back to me within a business day or two.

I would definely wait though!

Thanks, ladies. I figured waiting for the confirmation from Carolina was the way to go. It's just hard to wait though, especially when we're so excited and ready to book! I really hope she gets back to me tomorrow!

I am SOO excited!! lol, just wanted to share my excitement with fellow brides!!!!!!

lol!!!

I wish I was that excited, worse thing is, I don't know why I'm not!!