Mishi

No one has talked about this in several months, but for us newbies I thought it may be a fun topic! We are getting married in Cabrera, Dominican Republic which is on the mid east coast. The wedding is 7 days and then we are going on a two part honeymoon; 10 days to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the southern part, and then to Anguilla for a week. We leave three weeks from today, can't wait!!!

I am hoping I don't have to wear anything under either but its a form fitting dress and I want to be as smoothe as possible. My concern is that it will be too high in the back. My dress comes to right where to top of my bra would be, which I won't be wearing.

I just saw your new post after I posted. We are staying in the main suite in the main house. This is the master suite and is supposed to be the nicest and have an incredible shower/bath. This is also upstairs and away from everyone else so a little more privacy. We also have kind of assigned our other guests to rooms based on what we think will work best, but we will decide for sure once we get there. We are going up a day in advance to set up the rooms and make final plans and enjoy the place to ourselves before everyone gets there. I definately reccomend this. And, if you are only using that one room, they will give you the villa at a discounted rate for that night, if it is available. For budget purposes we are checking in on Monday, our guests come in on Tuesday, we get married on Friday and everyone leaves on Sunday. So we only did 6 days and 5 nights for our guests. As far as the alcohol, I will attach the list she gave me to this post. They have tons of it on site apparently in the wine cellar and keep the bar stocked with bottles, you only pay for what you open. They said if we wanted something not on the list they could get it if told in advance and we just pay for whatever we drink. We did a guestimate of what we would use (and grossly overestimated) and came up with 650 for alcohol. I don't think we will come up with anything near that and our group are drinkers!!!

Bring on the questions!!! I would love to be a part in helping you decide if this place is right for you or not. Ok, first to answer your questions: So how did you narrow down your guest list?? This was actually the easy part. When you are working with 50- 60 people its not enough to incorporate everyone but its too many for just your closest of the closest, so you have to put friends in tiers and people get hurt. So, when having 12-16 like this place holds, it is pretty easy to narrow it down. By the time we invited parents, siblings/spouses, BM and MOH, we had enough room for two best friends and the list was complete. People that are good friends don't feel as hurt. And the nice thing is you can say, this Villa only holds a few people and is very limited but we would love for you to come to the wedding day if you can make it, but we understand if you can't. This puts the decision on them, they were invited but prob won't fork out the money to venture down. Then you just plan a AHR to cover everyone else. Do you have families going with you? We decided not to include children and luckily only one of our guests had a young one to leave behind. Our guest list was my FI Mom and Dad, Brother (BM), Sister and her Husband and Best Friend... mine was my Mom, Aunt and Uncle (like my Mom and Dad), my two cousings (like brother and sister, we grew up together), my brother (walking me down the aisle), my sister and my best friend. Are you getting married on the beach? I think I am going to do a barefoot ceremony on the beach. They have many options and will pretty much do whatever you want, but most of their brides choose the place that overlooks the cliff (as you see in the video/pics) to hold the ceremony. They are so easy to work with and pretty much will do whatever you want and include it in the price. And I guarantee there is nothing that they wont do for you but there may be an additional fee. Nothing I have done thus far has been extra. And a side note, I expected for 4500 for everything including the planner, that it would be a book and I would choose between three bouquets, or two different cakes, uh huh, Monica the wedding planner had me send her all the pics I could find of what I wanted and she is actually meeting with the desinger today to work it all out. They are wonderful! And when I tell you that the owner is unbelievable, you will feel like he is family. He answers the phone personally half the time we call and is great to work with. He wants nothing than to make you the happiest guests ever, especially if you are doing the wedding there. Have you seen pics from the photographer? This is the one question that I honestly can't answer. Knowing the owner and how maticulous he is, I can not imagine the photographer being anything less than wonderful. They include a DVD as well. They give you the option to hire your own photographer or bring one with you but with everything so far, I trusted their choice. I love that this place is so intimate. I was almost getting used to the fact that I'd have men in spedoes in my pics!)LMAO, I know the feeling, and thats what was the deciding factor for me. Just having privacy and our own pool, our own beach, but still our own space will give us much more of an intimate feel. They also have masseuse on call all the time that charge, I believe its 40-60 an hour depending on the service. Everything is so reasonably priced. And the alcohol is all on hand and you only pay for whatever bottles or cases are opened. Very inexpensive. They require a 50% deposit when you book and the balance 30 days before you arrive. This is just for the actual villa, you dont pay for the wedding, food, etc until you arrive. This made it soooo easy on us. Ok, hit me up with more ?'s. If you are like me you will think of 50 a day. And if you don't have a TA and need one, I would love to recommend mine since she is familiar with this place. She has enjoyed working with the owners as well.

It looks beautiful as is, but for cost purposes and I think it would look just as beautiful if not more (I like simple things too) I would take the two pieces off that are on the end on each side, and spread the hurricane and flowers a little further apart and lots of votives. The more candles the better. And I like the starfish, I think if you start mixing up the shells it will get too busy. Maybe just use two or three instead. What beautiful colors and a beautiful idea!!! Let us know what you decide, or try a few ideas and repost pics so we can see. Sometimes things sound better than they look.

I can not say enough about this place, I love it! I didn't want to do a resort just because I wanted more of an intimate feel and this still gives everyone privacy. As you saw, they have private villas that you can comfortably accomodate guests. If you have overflow they have places close by too. We decided to keep our guest list to 16 and paid for the villa rental, and the meal plan (50pppd) and the wedding of course (5,000- for everything including wedding planner) and the VIP travel that is (75pppd) Anyone else that wanted to come, we would pay for the pass to the villa the day of the wedding (I think it was 100 pp- includes meal) but they would have to cover the rest including their lodging. I could not be happier with my choice. Everyone has been wonderful and they even have fireworks displays that you can have go off over the ocean. We are going to do a 5 minute show at the end of our first dance. Depending on how many people you are planning on having, it would be great. You have a private staff to cook and wait on you the entire time. We also looked at Caribbean Luxury Rental Villas; Luxury Dominican Republic Villa Rentals for Beach Front Vacations in the same development but it was higher on the cliff and I didn't feel that it gave you the same relaxing layout that Sunrise did. And, omg, when I tell you I spent a ton of time on the internet searching, it was rediculous. I searched for over a year and settled on two places before finally deciding on Sunrise. I could go on forever and ever but could probably answer any question you have. Please do not hesitate to ask. Also, we opted to do a week here with our families for the wedding, and then we are going to Punta Cana (a little more touristy) for 10 days for the first leg of our Honeymoon and then a week in Anguilla to finish it off. I am excited to find another Dominican bride, whoo hoo!!!!!

I love love love your photos, you were stunning! And I have the same idea for the alter in my photo section. I hope mine turns out half as beautiful as yours!

You know, it never surprieses me how many people are miserable and just want to bring everyone else into their sinking shit too! I have complained in every thread about my family too, so this won't be anything new, but mine is the very opposite. Both of our families have nothing but great things to say and are soooo loving, but my entire side (the 8 most special people to me in the whole world) did not think I was important enough to save $650 over the last year that they have known I was getting married. Now, at the last minute with just three weeks to go, the price has gone up to about $850 and they are crying broke! It really pisses me off to tell you the truth, and hurts my feelings. But, I have come up with a new rule... the "DGAS" rule... I really just "DONT GIVE A $h1+" anymore. As I said before, as long as my FI and I are there, thats all that is important, we are gonna be the ones there for the next 80 years!!! If anyone else cares to show up- they will have a blast!

If you are anything like the rest of us, you won't be getting much work done now that you have found this site, but be ready to make a lot of really good friends who will help you with all of your planning to make sure your wedding is exactly what you want! Have fun, and if you have your dress or have ideas, find the thread "Show us your dress"- this was my favorite!

If the meal is included or if you just wanted to do something special at the basic dinner you could do a slideshow that features at least one picture of a memory with each of the guests, honoring them to make them feel special. You could even give each person a framed picture of the slides that featured them to keep. This would be very special and inexpensive.

I would have loved to do a slideshow at the welcome dinner with pictures of memories of you with each guest, kind of an honor thing to them and make them feel special. The only reason I am not is because we have such a small group. Maybe you could do that and then frame one of the pics and present each person with the framed pic wrapped up or something. This would be very special and inexpensive.

OMG do I know how you feel. We had a budget for a local wedding and realized we could do a DW and pay for almost everything for about the same price. Of course now, we are over budget but I feel my money is so much more worth it than if it was just a one day event and a dinner. I am struggling trying to come up with the last few thousand in the next three weeks, but what are ya gonna do, its too late to turn back now.

Yeah thats why we limited our guest list to 16 people because we wanted to be able to do a private setting and pay for the majority. We could have never done this if we had 70 guests, oh my lord! I admire you guys!

I should have been a little more specific, I was more curious about the group as a whole. We paid for my MOH's plane ticket as well but not everyone elses. A lot of people prob did this for special guests.

Oh, it is sooo pretty. I thought about changing too but I know me, I won't want to take my dress off once I get it on. How exciting! And how lucky are you to have family that can do that. Let us know how it turns out.

I am new to the board and was curious as to how you guys set up the bill part of your DW. Knowing most of my family and friends didn't have much money, we are paying for everything except their passports and airfare. I just wondered how the trend was leaning.

You guys are so sweet and no I am not wearing a veil, my FI does not like veils, go figure. You know I noticed reading in this forum that FI's are a lot more picky than I originally thought, lol. I haven't told him anything about what I am doing but he has definately dropped some major hints. So... no veil, and I think they look so pretty blowing in the breeze on the beach.

I was going to suggest the same thing with the large round glass bowl/vase with maybe the blue glass or blue stones/rock on the bottom and the coral sitting on top of it. But I think doing the blue runner with the bowl, white sand and coral would be beautiful!!! I will look for ideas too and post if I find any good ones.

Thank you! This and the dress were the only details I cared about. I am using the cymbidium orchid, like the green one I posted, but I definately think I should go with white in my hair.

Ok, I have known from the beginning that I wanted to leave my hair down and pull the sides up or back and accentuate with flowers. I had this pic that I loved and knew this was going to be the style I wanted. This is it: (Sorry for the quality, I only had a hard copy and no color scanner so I had to take a pic of the pic) Now that I have been looking, I think I like the look of the larger flowers better and am thinking of incorporating it with this look above but flowers toward the middle in the back... not sure. What do you guys think? This is what my hair looks like now... not a very good pic but the best I had. I am 6'0 tall and it literally comes down to my waist. These are some of the pics of what I like and am thinking... I don't know why but I am drawn to this one: and maybe a bunch of these: This is the flower I am using in my bouquet, but I think I need to stick with white: And, these are the other similar hairsstyles I think may work better if I use flowers... like toward the bottom in the back: Ok, sorry to bombard, what do you guys think? LOL, you guys are the best

Oh, I just found an awesome website for travel size things. You can even get them wrapped in the foil packets instead of plastic and they are like 19 cents a piece. Minimus - For All Your Travel Size Item Needs I am in love with this site, lol. My whole house is going to be full of these little travel size things, lol. And for all of you doing your weddings in Mexico, how cute would it be to put the little mini Tabasco sauce bottles. That would be adorable! And... if you did a basket of the minis you could do a little card that says "Mini Thanks, for coming all this way" hehehehhe, yes I am a bit corny ;-}

This is a touchy one, I am like most people that say, if you like it that is all that matters but a lot of people are against raffles. I went to a wedding where they did raffles at the reception for a few things like the couple that had been married the longest and the ones that drove the furthest, etc. If you are on the fence then maybe do it throughout the stay or on a certain day for prizes for a couple of games. The thing is the OOT are not really to give the guests gifts, its to welcome them to your wedding. If I was you, with that many guests, I would try to do a few little DIY things to put in their room as a welcome package. You could have the hotel round up maps of the location, tour guides, brochures and you could pre cut ribbons to tie around this with hershey kisses attached and a personalized card or something. This would be very inexpensive but still let them know you are glad they are there and appreciate them coming.

Ok, I have two details I am trying to decide on and I need some opinions. First is the hard one. The place I am staying has a 20 foot cliff set in a garden that overlooks the ocean which is a popular site to get married. However, I always wanted a barefoot beach wedding. I can choose between the two, but have heard that the wind is a factor on the beach with people being able to hear (but I am a small group of 10-12) and other things that make it a pain in the butt. Any advice or experience with this that should sway me one way or the other? Also, I have saved all dried rose petals from all of the flowers my fiance has given me over the last 5 years and wanted to incorporate them somehow. I was thinking maybe I would package some for each guest and have us all throw them over the cliff into the ocean together (not sure if this would be a hazard or not allowed- I wouldn't think so) I would think it would make for a beautiful experience but how would I go about setting that up, or should I cut it out all together? What do you guys think?

I have been hunting for things for months and one thing I have decided to do that takes up some room and will be very handy is a snorkel. Not many people like to use used snorkel gear. The goggles and fins, yeah, but the actual snorkel/mouthpiece not so much. Here are some of the places I found it the cheapest.http://www.snorkelcity.com/udidelmarfim.html (19.99 for whole set) SnorkelCity Standard Snorkel (only 3.99 for snorkel) Snorkel-Mart : Snorkel Gear Combos, Masks Snorkels & Fins, Prescription Masks, Snorkel Equipment Specialists Akona Wahoo Jr Snorkel from LeisurePro.com Blue Reef Fluid Flex Purge Snorkel from LeisurePro.com Also I found WATERPROOF PLAYING CARDS that I love love love- here is the link Waterproof Playing Cards And, I liked the idea of using waterproof cameras and disposable cameras, and here are a couple of links to the best deals I found Wholesale Wedding Disposable Camera, Discount Kid Polaroid Camera Film Fujifilm Quicksnap 800 Waterproof 35mm Disposable Camera - 27 Exposures

OMG, see this forum is why we are running around crazy in circles with a martini glass in our hands... everyone has such great ideas and beautiful things that we are constantly changing our minds. This thread so makes me want to change my colors. It would be very easy for me to replace my green with that red, hmmmmm. Back away from the mouse, very slloowwwlllyy.