jessyg20

James Bond: Sexy Spy

Congrats and Welcome Kristy!! Where in Key West are you having your wedding?

I'm really sorry hear this. I can't even imagine how you and your FI feel. I do like the idea Katyko suggested. If you and your FI decide you want the brother to step in then maybe he could wear a frame around his boutonniere in his memory. It is your wedding day, and whatever you decide will be respected by everyone. Sorry again.

OMG!!! cdc0427 You made me laugh when I read your post! Yes, acutally the best man is jokester. He's my husband brother, the youngest in the family. He's a smart a$$!! lol My family is all girls as you can see. Thanks for the compliments. It's funny but pics can tell a story! lol You're a riot!!

to the forum!!!!! Yay to another DR bride! Congrats and Happy Planning!

pedicures: pretty feet

I guess it depends what's normal to you. Are doing the Sand ceremony? Any special readings? Your own vows? To some people that's different. There is one thing that stands out from a beach wedding I went to, the release of Butterflys when they said a few words about family members that had past.

I admit, I put an alarm on my Blackberry to remind me to watch. Knowing MTV would air it over and over again for weeks to come! I was curious. I feel for her. She really hasn't had a normal life. She really can't do all those things we take for granted. Maybe I'm a sympathizer, but I feel bad for her and her kids. I still think she's a good entertainer. That's what she does best because that's all she knows how to do.

to the forum! Happy planning!!

Hi Marisa! Welcome and Happy Planning!! I'm the girl that got married there last month! lol If you need any help or if you have any questions, I'm a PM or email away ([email protected]).

Welcome and Happy Planning!!!

Celina, that sucks! I'm so sorry. I don't blame you for being livid! I probably would never invite them to anything EVER again myself. You shouldn't stay quite though, make sure you let them know what's on your mind!!

to the forum and Congrats!! Those were my choices too. I decided on DR because of the budget and when I went to visit, I fell in love with the country. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by JennTheBride Hey Girls, I've got a question for you all. Are most of you doing the symbolic ceremony in DR and then legalizing back in your own country. We had the judge booked originally for the date of the wedding Feb 24th, but 12 noon was the only available time, so we canceled and will do the symbolic ceremony @ 4 in the afternoon instead, which is much better timeline for my day. But, my question is to people who already have had the symbolic ceremony... who performed the ceremony?? I'm just getting around to planning stuff...lol. I'm having a pretty casual wedding so I'm not stressed. Thanks Girls Jenn, Good idea on the time change. It's REALLY hot at noon. I started my ceremony at 430p, it was scheduled for 4p but we gave time to the straglers that couldnt find there way from the bar to the center of the hotel!! lol Usually the Guest Relations Manager reads the symbolic ceremony. I wasn't to happy with the idea. Especially if it meant she'd come out in my pictures. No offense to her, but I wanted someone formal. So I found Pastor York. He's an american pastor who lives in Punta Cana and does Mission work. He charges $250 to perform the ceremony. You can customize it or he can show you what he usually reads. I's a 25-35 min ceremony. Nice man. He'll even ask you if you'd like him to dress up in suit or if it's casual. He speaks english and spanish. Here's his website: Eastern Dominican Christian Mission Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by marisacastro I'm new to the forum and would like to thank you for posting your experience in such detail. I am planning on a small wedding but it is great to hear from someone who has been there and experienced it first hand. The information I have read from all the contributors is priceless! Thanks! Thank you Marisa! Thank you girls for all your positive feedback. I received a lot of help from the forum during my planning, so any help I can give back I'm more than willing!

My Bridal party walked to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"- Israel Kamakawiwo. I walked down to "From this Moment"-Shania Twain. It made the crowd tear up, thank god for those tears of joy packets we made!

At first, I paid 3hrs for a DJ. Then I realized it wasn't enough. We almost forgot we had to take into consideration the DJ has to pick up his equipment and carry it to the the reception area after the cermony. This can take up valuable time, time you're paying for! Instead, I made a CD of all my Ceremony songs. I paid for the hotel's sound system and had my WC play the CD. I gave her a list of the songs, in order, and we discussed how I wanted them played and when to fade. She did a great job. It turned out perfect. Then, we hired the DJ for the reception, that's where you need to get you're money's worth. The DJ played a CD I created with our entrance songs, first dance, mother/son song, etc., then he played music during the dinner. It took almost 3 hours until he could play party/dance music. At that point I realized we need him longer. So we kept him for 5hrs from start of the reception though.

Quote: Originally Posted by gofeden Hey Jessy! I just wanted to ask you...where did you buy the bottles of liquor? Can you walk there? Do you need to cab it? This sounds like a perfect job for the best man! That is a great job for a reliable best man. lol Since we had a family memeber who was going to drive to the resort we asked him to pick up the bottles for us. He said he got them at a supermarket 20 mins from the resort area. It's called El Nacional. Yes, a supermarket that sells booze! I love it. Why can't my local supermarket sell Rum or Vodka?! lol There is a mall (the resort has a shuttle that takes you there for free) near the hotel but I hear it's pretty pricey. Have the bellman call a cab and ask him to quote you upfront for a roundtrip ride to the nearest supermaket that sells booze (or the nearest El Nacional). The bellman speaks english and he was always helpful in getting the cabbies to quote and lower their prices upfront. That way there's not suprises. Or you can have him buy a few bottles in the duty free shop on the way to DR.

Quote: Originally Posted by FoxyBride Happy Eat Whatever You Want Day! LOL In my cooking fury today... I managed to run my phone through about 1/3 of a dishwasher cycle. I couldn't find it and I KNEW I had been in the kitchen all day and I live in an apt, there's not that much space. So after I exhausted all the normal locations I moved on to the absent-minded spots drawers, refrigerator, cabinets... nothing. Then it dawned on me... the dishwasher! It's so terrible, all I can do is laugh! Can't get another one until the store re-opens day after T-giving, that should be fun! LOL That's too funny!! Thank God It didn't get stuck inside the Turkey! Happy Thanksgiving to all!! Gobble gobble

I don't know if your all-inclusive resort has a-la-carte restaurants, but mine did, and everynight we had reservations to different ones. It made everyone feel as if they were at a fancy restaurant and we were picking up the tab! But it's an all inclusive so it's free!! lol During the daytime they did whatever they wanted. Many just enjoyed the beach or pool on their own. They loved the fact we got together as a group for dinner. Especially sine afterwards, we'd hit the bar/club as a group as well. I was able to do 1 excursion with a group of 12, 2 days after the wedding. It's hard to get everyone to agree.

Quote: Originally Posted by landolfe Wow you photos are beautiful Jessyg20, they have given me so much inspiration b/c you have some great ideas. the color coordination was planned down to a t and it all looks great. I like the chocolate seashells on the cake, were they very hard to make? OMG, Thank you!!!! The seashells are not hard to make at all! Actually my Husband thought it was one of the easiest tasks he helped me with! lol It's just a little messy. If you have a Michaels close by home you can get everything you need there. All You need is: -The chocolate melts. They come in all sorts of colors. -Plastic tray molds of whatever shape you want. I bought the soap molds for my seashells. They were bigger than the ones in the baking aisle. They are same plastic material. -They sell mini squeeze bottles where you can melt the chocolate in but, they were not much help to me, especially after so much reheating. I found it's easier to use ziploc bags. How to create chocolate seashells (or whatever shape your mold is): 1. Put a handful of the chocolate melts in a zip-loc bag, boil some water, and dip the bag in it. Make sure you get NO WATER inside the bag or it'll ruin the chocolate. So you should only dip the bag in the boiling water for a few seconds at a time. 2. Once melted, make a whole in the bottom corner of the bag and pour into the molds. 3. Lightly banging the trays on the countertop after filling the molds helps spread the chocolate out evenly. 4. Place tray in refrigerator for about 30 mins. Then your chocolates are done! Taking your chocolate seashells to another country can be a mission. I recommend taking it as a carry on (obviously) in a tupperware. Add a bag of ice ( preferablyice in a zip loc bag and take a few extra empty ziploc bags with you too) inside the container. Once you get to the TSA Security Checkpoint, dump the bag of ice. Ice melts into liquid, so they will give you a hard time and Dry ice is not permitted as carry on. After you pass the TSA checkpoint, go to any vendor by your departure gate and ask them to kindly fill your ziploc bag with ice. My flight was for 2 hrs and between my arrival, baggage claim, and transfer to hotel, that 1 bag of ice barely made it. So, I would recommend before landing, dump the bag of ice again and ask a flight attendant to fill a baggie for you. The chocolate seashells will make it if you keep them cool. Then again, if you don't, they melt and look sloppy. Good luck!

Jelena- Believe me, once you get there, it will be MUCH easier to negotiate. You may want to speak to whoever is in charge directly. They are more inclined to say NO through Elizabeth than directly to you. We noticed that!

Thank you Jenn, I'm still very happy!! It was amazing. Hey girls, I finally finished my Edenh Wedding review. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t32477

Thanks Joanna!I bought the Parasols at Lunar Baazar. They worked out great. I finally added my review to the forum as well: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t32477

Cigars-We had an option to give out cheap cigars to our guests. My husband didn’t like that idea so we decided to go with Lucas de Meester Premium Cigars. We ordered 200 robusto mild cigars and EVERYONE that had one loved them. We called him up and he delivered the cigars to us. He’s a nice man and he does have quality cigars. You can work out a deal with him if you order a nice amount as we did. We only displayed 50 at a time in the bar, the rest are in my husband’s Humidor (my wedding gift to him). Lucas De Meester Cel: 809-415-3952 or email: [email protected] I displayed the cigars in a Cigar box I brought from home. I walked into a cigar shop and asked if they had empty cigar boxes, and the guy gave me 2, for free! I glued my Monogram on the top and a quote on the inside. The days after- We decided we wanted to relax the day after the wedding and asked our guests if they wanted to join us for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Everyone came out to the pool with their mugs and enjoyed the day with us. Some guests ventured to town or on excursions. We met up again, as always, for dinner at a restaurant and the after party was always at the Alizios Bar. Alizios Bar always had a great DJ every night after 11p. Sunday nights at the Edenh is Karaoke night from 9-11p, so we had fun with it. My 13yr old Niece singing “Hopelessly Devoted” to you… My sisters and I singing ” We are family”…. Excursion-In my opinion, as a bride, you really have no time to take an excursion before the big day. There’s always something to do and you don’t want to get a bad tan?! We decided to take an excursion, The Dune Buggy excursion, 2 days after the wedding. Our guest list by that time was 20, and only 12 of them decided to go. It’s hard to get such a big group to agree on doing something outside the resort, so I recommend you just let your guests do whatever they want during the day but arrange to meet up for dinner so they feel they are there for you and welcomed. If they want to take an excursion it’ll be up to them and at their time. By the way, if you do get a big group to go on an excursion, ask about you or/and your husband going for free. I did and it worked! Tipping-Tipping goes a long way in Dominican Republic. I recommend you take plenty of dollar bills and tip the staff from time to time. These people work hard! You’ll see that same server for breakfast and then for dinner. The staff knew my name and Chris’. We were celebrities but it’s only because we appreciated they’re service. They really work hard!! I have no problem compensating someone when they truly deserve it. Wedding Coordinator- Elizabeth is such a wonderful person. She’s great! Her patience and attention to detail really made my day extra special. She really worked hard for our wedding. We were really grateful to her. She knew what she was doing and that made my wedding day go by so easy. I really didn’t worry about anything. I knew it was going to be perfect, and it was thanks to her. To sum up, the resort was fantastic. We still have friends thanking us for inviting them. Everyone had a great experience there. Edenh Arena Real is a resort that will cater to you and your guests. Go with an open mind and you’ll have fun! Here's a link to my PRO pictures... http://www.pictage.com/client/eventP...folder=1524035