MrsTrussell2B

Quote: Originally Posted by limon_b Thanks so much for sharing. I am using Juan also for photos. The wedding looked lovely....which package did you choose? Thanks! I chose the photographs on CD only and the video package.

Quote: Originally Posted by Vane Hey Carla, where is the Ciel Bar? I have been on the website often, but I don't recall the Ciel Bar. oh sorry on the website its called the Sky Bar. When Vivianna first told me the guest would meet there i had no idea where it was. Then i think i found out that ciel is Spanish for sky. Outside right in between the the Buffet (Naos) and the Market Grill. If you wedding is on the beach it is only steps away from the beach where the ceremony is held.

Quote: Originally Posted by DanielleNDerek I've booked Bana for our Welcome Dinner, i saw that you did too. viviana recommended us doing the festival menu there. If that's the same menu you had, can you tell me if there's some choices for vegetarians that do eat seafood? I dont remember vegetarian choices at Bana BUT i will admit half of the time we had no idea what they were serving us. I do remember 2 salads but i know at least one of the two had meat. I didnt like the festival menu. It wasnt bad but it didnt feel like dinner it felt more like a cocktail menu. There was plenty of food but i cant remember any of it sticking out in my mind as being wonderful (just OK). and I had suspected that guests would leave there and go to the buffett. and i was right about 1 hour after the dinner i found several of the guests at the buffett. But no one complained about Bana because the staff was great and they knew that they could go to the buffett afterwards so i dont regret holding the dinner there and i would definitely have it there if i had to do it over again.

Oh my goodness! WE met!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea you were on this forum when we met! you were sitting in Viviannas office doing your seating arrangement and I was there for my meeting. You told me that you were using Juan and to not worry that everything would be fine. I saw your set up that night it was beautiful. I wish i would have known you were a member of the forum. We should have taken a picture together.

here is my fan the white spots you see are where i blurred the names (im so paranoid now after watching Untraceable) :-)

I made these candles to use a favors and placecards my guests loved them. We used the very small tealight candles. Suprisingly it worked out well. Some people accidently forgot their candle the night of the wedding (too much to drink) and they were asking the next day if anyone picked them up

ooops sorry i should have put the link in here Juan Guzman-Wedding Photographer in Dominican Republic carla and kevin

oh we used Apple Vacations. We didnt have any problems and we were the only people out of 38 with a direct flight becuase USA 3000 is owned by Apple so they fly direct to Punta Cana

Im sure i will leave things out so feel free to email me with questions. So the day of the wedding this were pretty smooth. They began setting up hours before the wedding so my local wedding coordinator viewed everything. she saw a few things that werent right (the linens for the bride/groom table did not match the linens of the guests tables; the seating chart was incorrect) she let Viviana know and they were fixed. TIP: have a friend act as your "coordinator" in Punta Cana. They will be able to work with viviana to handle things you are unalbe to handle. Juan arrived right on time and so did his videographer. As a matter of fact i had no idea that they arrived early and took photos and video of the hotel. So we were scheduled to start at 5:00 at about 4:50 I left my room and walked to near where the wedding would be located so Juan could get shots of me on the way. Vivianna had me wait around the corner from the Ciel Bar (this is where she will have your guests meet about a half hour before the wedding) so no one could see me. I started getting antsy because i couldnt believe that they were making me wait. Finally as i had a bridezilla moment she came to get me (i found out later that they were still setting up the PA system). We had our own minister so she led the ceremony. Once she was done Vivianna led my guests to the Gabi Beach terrace for the cocktail hour and we continued to take pictures. If i had to do it over again i dont think i would have paid for the cocktail hour. The guest could have easily gone to the Gabi Bar and waited for the reception to start. And when i passed the food at the cocktail hour there seemed to be plently left. Plus there was soooo much food at the reception that is seemed that the cocktail hour was a waste of money. So if your party is small consider telling them to all meet at the Ciel Bar while you take pictures then give them a time to report to the recption. Anyway by the time we arrive at the cocktail hour it was almost over so i didnt get to taste any of the food (plus i was tooo excited) For the reception we were pretty much on our own. We didnt have a DJ so i had a friend act as MC and another friend man the Ipod. My coordinator pretty much directed the entire reception (this is why i said above to have a coordinator) Vivianna checked on us periodically so im not sure if she left becasue she knew i had someone helping or because this is the standard practice. She let my coordinator know that the wait staff would address any issues which may arise. This worked out fine. The staff was amazing and the food at the reception was wonderful. I had sevarl people comment on how good it was. I highly recommend the Beach BBQ! Sorry ladies i hope this was useful info. I really want to answer all questions because I know there arent many PPR brides. I have 400 pics from Juan. I will post them in the appropiate spot

Quote: Originally Posted by limon_b Thanks for the info. I am unsure how to do the welcome/rehearsal dinner also. I think we will just make reservations at a resturant also. Do you guys ever feel that you are leaving something out? It could just be my day to freak out, but today I am thinking I have not organized enough. I know, I should just chill, they do weddings everyday, but my analytical brain thinks I need to know exactly how everything flows. Or I am hungry and just need to eat I had a lot of days like that!!! so you are not alone. What finally got me on track is when a co-worker gave me a list of everything i needed to do and she gave me deadlines. I walked around with that list for weeks checking things off

Quote: Originally Posted by DanielleNDerek thanks for the info Carla. I'm on the fence about even having a rehearsal dinner. I would like just to have our immediate families at dinner before the wedding, but i wasn't going to do it if i had to pay for it. I'll have to talk to Vivianna see if she can make me reservations at on of the restaurants for it. I only wanted immediate family and the wedding party at the rehearsal dinner but people kept asking if they could come. Since i didnt have to pay for it i felt bad saying no so in the end almost all of our guest came to the dinner. It worked out fine and I would not have had it any other way. Vivianna had no problems making (and changing our reservations) the only limit you will have is the size of your party. Passions definitely is for a small group. We never made it to Vento and for Bana because our party was so large we had to do family style. But no matter where you end up i think you will like it. Plus you start to think how even the food at the buffett is wonderful so you wont want to pay for a private event. Oh BTW we were the only people in our section of Bana so it seemed semi-private!!!

Danielle we did not pay for the rehersal dinner. Vivianna (or maybe Kelly at the time) made us reservations initially at Vento but because everyone wanted to come our party was too large for Vento and they couldnt accomidate us. So thats why she changed it to Bana. I loved the fact that it was included. I couldnt fit it in our budget to pay for a seperate one and we really didnt need it. Because it would have been tooo much like the wedding reception.

Juan was very reasonable. I need to find the link to his blog/website that has the prices. I am sooo glad i used him. he made me comfortable and i felt beautiful

Thanks! if your paradisus is anything like the one in the DR you will never want to come home!!!!!!

PS if u want to see some of the pics go to Juan Guzman-Wedding Photographer in Dominican Republic and click on Carla and Kevin

Ok I will try not to ramble because i have sooo much to say but Im still in a fog so hopefully I wont forget anything. So we arrived on Friday July 18th. Wait let me back up. I had planned to make my own centerpieces but the night before we were leaving we were finishing them and i HATED them. They looked so juvenile! So i hopped on the compute and sent my WC here (one of the friends) and Vivanna an email saying that we did not have centerpieces and would need to pick out something there. So we arrived at the hotel. We were told by several tourist and locals that PPR is considered one of the best hotels on the island and i see why! It is beautiful. There were 38 of us and I didnt hear one complaint. People did have problems with there rooms but the hotel was very accomidating and fixed the problems. For example my aunt had plumbing issues that they tried to fix 3 times. For the inconvience the manager provided a complimentary dinner for 5 of us at Gabi Beach restaurant. This was the only restaurant at the hotel that wasnt a part of the all-inlcusive. (Side note: it was good but if i went back i wouldnt pay for it because the included restaraunts were just as good!) Anyway so when we arrived they upgraded us to the MBR suite, the room was beautiful. After settling in check-in was smooth (our room wasnt ready but we were ready). So we went to the buffet. The buffet is WONDERFUL i have absolutely no compliants about the food (fresh fruit, made to order steaks, lobster, cheese, bread, etc) . the service is top notch (anything you ask for they provide). Anyway we were not suppossed to meet with Vivianna until Saturday but i was worried about the centerpieces so we popped in. she didnt make me feel as if i was disturbing her so i was happy about that. We talked briefly and agreed that on Saturday she would show us a few centerpiece options since the wedding was on Monday. We met on Saturday and i told her that I was over budget so i needed inexpensive centerpieces. She showed me the colored water with a lily (i think) floating in it. That worked for me. at the time i thought oh well that is better than nothing but when i saw it the day of the wedding i was pleseantly surprised at how perfect it was. Anyway Viviana walked us around showing us where we would have the ceremony (on the beach), cocktail hour (terrace of Gabi Beach) and reception (on Gabi beach). She also showed us the options for if it rained. I liked the rain option for the ceremony (because the hotel has many open air places we would have been covered from the rain but still outside) but I didnt like the option for the reception. It was just a cramped ballroom. luckily it didnt matter because we had beautiful weather the entire time we were there. Saturday night Kevin and I had dinner in Passions. It was very good and romantic. Later we had the meet and greet in the lobby bar (nice!) and did our girls night out and guys night out. The disco is OK. some times the music is great and other times it just makes you laugh but we made the best of it. On Sunday we had the rehearsal with Carolina. I had a meltdown and a few tears (not sure why I think Kevin and I were just both nervous so we were awkward to each other. after my meltdown the rehearsal went fine! That night we had dinner in Bana with about 18 of our guests (the wedding party plus family). Because of the size of our party we had to do a family style dinner and the waiters said we could have unlimited food! I thought some of the dishes were good others were just ok. Stay tuned i will right Part 2 later today.

Hola ladies! Sorry it took me soooo long to share my pictures. I almost logged on in the DR but I was sooooo busy having a good time. Juan Guzman photographed my wedding. He put the pictures on his website. This isnt all of them. He is sending me a CD and Video that i should have by Thursday. Juan Guzman-Wedding Photographer in Dominican Republic click on Carla and Kevin

We used an IPOD and brought CDs as back up. I had assigned the duty of making the song list to one of my BM and i only had the 1st dance songs on my IPOD. the day of the wedding i listened to her IPOD and I HATED the songs that she had on there! I was pissed. But what saved us was sooooo many people had an IPOD so during the reception we used my IPOD for the introduction of the wedidng party, the bride and groom 1st dance, my dance with my father, and Kevins dance with my mother. Then we switched to one of the IPODs that a guest had and we partied! I am sooooo glad that we didnt pay for a DJ (or the dance floor) because it would have been a waste of money. People were tired so they danced and drank and slowly but surely people started leaving. If we would have paid for a DJ i would have been really upset if anyone left!

Lets see let me try to remember since its all a blur. We brought our own minister so she pretty much handled the order but she went on and on and i just wanted her to stop! I havent seen the video yet so im a little fuzzy on what happened before i arrived but here is what i can gather from the pictures entrance of minister entance of groom and best man (not sure how they did it since things were not done he we practiced them the night before LOL) Entrance of mother of bride entrance of two brides maids entrance of MOH entrance of bride and father of the bride minister read a prayer minister said ALOT of stuff minister had us recite our vows sand ceremony soloist introduction of the couple jumped the broom This is sad but i really cant remember. I can send you a picture of my program but I dont think we followed it

Hola! Im back! Juan was wonderful! He made me feel like a princess the entire time. I am going to post a review for all of you ladies right now so check out that section of the forum. I may also post a link to my pictures in the DR forum.

Update: Juan Guzman is going to photograph and videotape the wedding. He was able to provide me a good explanation of what i will get and meet my needs. I will post pictures as soon as i return. I leave in on Friday!

yes but i looked on another forum and a bride that was married at PPR in June said that you dont actually receive pics. She said they are all on CD. Before reading that post i asked the photo several times about a CD of pics. here is my convo with the photog (his answers are in CAPS) then i followed up with an additional question in red #2. I have a few questions about the photo packages 1. Are all of the pictures provided on a CD no matter what package I purchase? NO 2. Are proofs provided for all of the shots taken (even the shots not selected as part of my package? WHAT YOU MEAN WITH THIS QUESTION What I mean here is I am sure you will take a lot of pictures. I know our album will only include the photos we pay for but is there any way to by the proofs of shots that we do not select in case we want to print them later. 3. Will my video and photos be ready and delivered to me at the hotel prior to my departure? YES Will they be in a photo album? THE DIGITAL ALBUM IS OPTIONAL, FOR THE DIGITAL ALBUM, WE SEND IT, BECAUSE MOST OF TIME WE DONT HAVE ENOUGE TIME TO MAKE IT. 4. Will you capture photos of the bride and groom preparing for the wedding ? THE PHOTOGRAPHER GOES TO THE BRIDE"S ROOM AND TAKES SHOTS, IF YOU WANT SHOTS OF THE GROOM AT THE ROOM WHEN HE IS GETTING READY YOU MUST HIRE ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER FROM US, OR YOU CAN GET THE PLATINUM PACKAGE THAT PROVIDE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS, THE DIGITAL WEDDING ALBUM, PHOTOS ON CD, FULL VIDEO AND OTHER STAFFS 5. Can you tell me the length of the Basic Video Package ($450) and the length of the Gold Video Package ($850) ABOUT THE VIDEO, IN BOTH PACKAGES YOU GET A FULL EDITED VIDEO, WITH MUSIC, IF YOU WANT YOU CAN BRING US THE CD WITH THE MUSIC YOU WANT ON THE VIDEO OR YOU CAN SELECT FOR OUR MUSIC LIST. THE TWO MAYOR DIFERENCES ARE: COVERAGE AND THE HOLD TIME OF THE EDITED VIDEO. FOR 450 YOU GET THE BASIC VIDEO, WHO HAS COVERAGE ONLY ON THE ROOM BEFORE THE CEREMONY, THE CEREMONY AND THE PHOTO SESSION AFTER THE CEREMONY, IF YOU HAVE A COCTAIL, DINNER OR PARTY YOU DONT HAVE COVERAGE FOR THIS PART OF YOUR WEDDING DAY. THE FULL VIDEO, AS HIS NAME, YOU GET FULL COVERAGE OF YOU WEDDING DAY, IF YOU HAVE A CELEBRATION IS GOINT TO BE COVERAGED. AND THE OTHER DIFERENCE IS THE TIME OF THE EDITED VIDEO, IN THE BASIC VIDEO YOU GET A FROM 20 TO 25MIN EDITED VIDEO, AND IN THE FULL VIDEO YOU GET A 45 MIN MINIMUN EDITED VIDEO. ABOUT THE PICTURES, FOR USD 1,000 YOU CAN GET ALL THE PICTURES OF YOUR WEDDING DAY ON CD. AND IF YOU''VE SEEN OUR LIST PRICES THE DIGITAL WEDDING ALBUM IS OPTIONAL, FOR 1,000 DOLARS.

Hwere is the video info WEDDING PACKAGES 2 slides.pdf

OK i tried several times but now luck. I separated the pdf into two portions WEDDING PACKAGES 4 slides.pdf

im having a hard time psoting the pdf of the package. I think its too large