calchik

i live in calgary and i got married at the bahia principe bavaro in may 2009 it was $1600 for the all inclusive hotel package and flight from toronto. but we had to pay another $400 to fly from calgary to toronto as there are no direct flights from calgary in may we also got legally married in calgary to avoid the hassle. originally we were getting married in mexico where they require blood tests so no way we were doing that. the only difference was you pretend to sign the marriage document in punta cana. plus the renewal of vows or symbolic ceremony was cheaper than the legal ceremony

i got married there in the Picsas resturant in may 2009 i can't remember my whole menu but i do remember all of it was good cesear salad - which was big and yummy mixed grill - pork, steak, chicken, sausage. only bad thing about this was depending on what part of the animal you got served would be different level of doneness for the meat. some had really good steak, but not great pork, others had vice versa. but still good overall, i never heard any complaints from my guests check my review, i think i have pics of my dinner. lol for drinks, everyone pretty much stuck with the wine that came with dinner then after dinner, some ppl were asking for different drinks (beer, gin and tonic) from the waiters and they got them. i didn't get charged anything extra. then after the reception was over at 10:30 we went to the disco where you could get whatever drinks you wanted

i just wanted to mention that they can customize your flowers they give you a book to pick flowers out of (i have a link to the pics somewhere, i'll have to find it when i get home then i'll post it) i picked a bouquet and asked if i could have purple flowers put in instead of the orange ones that were there, they did it no problem and no extra charge for changing the flowers. and i got offered 3 different boutouineers (however you spell that) as my WC didn't know which pink i would prefer and the flowers were more than enough for centerpieces imo, but then again i had one big long table instead of a bunch of little ones.

we did travel mugs, ordered them plain and then i made stickers with our logo on it. i figured people are more likely to use it again at home once they peel the sticker off. my guests took their travel mugs everywhere, on the beach, in the pool, in the ocean. so i think having the lid was much better than just a cup, kept water and sand out of the drink. ours were insulated and worked pretty well keeping the drinks cold considering how hot it was outside. the mug was still bigger than the dinky cups they give you at AI. we also saw about half our guests right before we left for the trip to give them their OOT bags, less for us to pack.

we did our sand ceremony at our AHR but we stole sand from the dominican beach for one of the colors. we put it in a ziplock plastic container with the screw on lid then put it in a big ziplock bag. we put it in our checked luggage and never got searched coming home so we had no issues taking our sand. it didn't spill either. sorry i'm not much help with bringing it once the ceremony is already completed

we got married at 2-2:30 pm and our reception was at 6:30. by the time we were done our pictures it was almost 4 and aside from the last 30 mins or so our guests were with us while pics were being taken. we didn't plan anything for our guests in that in between space. me and hubby went to have alone time before the reception. i think most of our guests either went back to their rooms to relax or went to the lobby bar for a drink or two. but nobody went to the pool cuz they didn't want to deal getting dressed again. and nobody showed up hammered for the reception. even my biggest drinkers were fine and just started drinking hard at the reception. i had the same concern about people being super drunk for the wedding events but my guests had lots of respect for our day. that and we got married on the 5th day there so everyone was pretty much tired of being super drunk by that point. lol. they got that out of their system within the first 3 days there.

ooh fun, and informative for those who are still planning although some of the online stuff is american 1. Registry: Home Outfitters 2. OOT bags: Dollarama, Michaels, Walmart, Coffee Mugs, Shot Glasses, Wine Glasses, Beer Mugs, Promotional Products, Tote Bags, Champagne Glasses, Wedding Favors , Sports Bottles, T-shirts, Promotional Pens & personalized Glassware., My Store Supplier - Wholesale General Merchandise & Novelty Items!!! 3. Wedding Attire: my dress - Blissful Bride, shoes - Cinderella of Boston - Womens Petite Shoes (i have tiny feet, have to special order heels, so annoying) his suit - Pinstripe at Sunridge Mall, Silk Ties - Silk Neckties - Silk Neck Ties - Men's Silk Neckties - Silk Neckwear - Discount Neckties - Cufflinks For Mens Ties, flip flops - Aldo 4. Rings: engagement ring - not sure of the name but he had a jeweller in Regina make it my wedding band - Luu Goldsmith his wedding band - The Scottish Shoppe (it's a celtic knot band) 5. Invitations: Powerpoint DW invites made our own AHR invites, materials from Scrapbookers Paradise and Michaels 6. Flowers: Costco for our AHR 7. Decor: n/a 8. Travel Arrangements: Marlin Travel - don't use them, they're terrible 9. Are you active on any other Canadian Forums? (if yes which ones): nope 10. Other: sand ceremony - Pier 1 and Michaels wedding jewellery - Claires (yup i cheaped out on my jewellery) Tiara is from Mylee's Bridal Fashions though

this is where i got my purple/hot pink ties from when i couldn't find them anywhere else Silk Ties - Silk Neckties - Silk Neck Ties - Men's Silk Neckties - Silk Neckwear - Discount Neckties - Cufflinks For Mens Ties and you can sort by color, and they're cheaper than buying a tie in a store. good luck, hopefully something matches your colors

We had a champagne toast after the ceremony and as we were taking pictures off to the side our WC was sneakily giving our guests flower petals and setting them up along side our aisle. Then she announced as a gift to us she was adding some Dominican flair to our wedding. Dominican music started to play, we walked down the aisle as our guest threw flower petals in the air as we walked, we kissed half way, then did a little dance the rest of the way. This was a pleasant surprise for us and the pictures and video of it were great. And like everyone else our room was decorated after the wedding with balloons, rose petals, bubble bath, towel swan and some of the flowers from the ceremoney.

i used Florian for my wedding video. he's fantastic, i LOVED his work. i got the video and photo package with michael and it was well worth the money. i orginally didn't want video at all but am i ever glad that we did. imo if you spend money on anything it should be pictures and video. i was actually watching my wedding video again last week. lol. here's my video review from my wedding review Video – - A++++++++ We didn’t even want a wedding video but it came with the package so we went with it. For the same price as a Claudia Rodriguez (our original Mexico photographer) package for 3 hours with a CD and prints we got a CD, photo book and video. Claudia did email and ask if we needed a Punta Cana photographer once all those weddings got cancelled in Mexico. I thought that was great that she still offered her services in a different location, but by then we already booked our photographer so we declined. Much like the photographer it was a bit unnerving to be followed around with a video camera at first. But aside from when he was asking for a comment and putting the camera inches from your face, I didn’t notice our videographer, Florian. Since we confirmed our photographer 2 days before we were leaving, he asked us to come up with 9 songs for the video. It kept us up late one night because we were trying to prepare everything else and had this new task and we knew we had to pick great songs. He used almost all of our songs and very appropriately. Everyone commented on how great the video showed our personalities with the music choices. We thought our wedding video would be cheesy and we’d never watch it again, but I’ve seen it so many times and I could watch it over and over again. This is pretty much the layout of it and the songs that went with it Girls getting ready – I could not ask for more – Edwin Mccain Boys getting ready – Ladies and gentlemen – Saliva Wedding ceremony – Canon in D (song I walked down the aisle to) -Nothing else matters – Metallica orchestra version Taking pics after the ceremony – celebration – kool and the gang Taking beach pics – I love you – martina mcbride Florian got comments from everyone about our wedding, it was so great to see what people said. Our video captured our wedding day very well, I love watching it. I wish I could figure out a way to post it online. It came in a DVD case with our pictures on it and has a menu like most DVDs so you can skip to different chapters, it even has ending credits like we were in a movie. Lol. And just like the photo book and CD, we got the video the very next day. He even brought a mini DVD player so we could watch it right then and there. Again, so so so impressed. He asked if wanted any extra copies, we got 2 more for $20 each for our parents. He came to the resort and delivered the extra copies to us the next day. The service from them was amazing, we were totally blown away at what they delivered to us the next day. We showed our wedding video at our AHR and lots of people told us how much they loved it. It was entertaining and funny at parts, plus they got to witness our wedding and hear our vows.

for our private reception we were only drinking the wine they provided but then people started ordering other drinks and i think the waiters went and got them at another bar and brought them over. not sure but we didn't pay for an open bar but my guests were getting other drinks besides the wine or beer. gin and tonic, stuff like that. although we were good with only going til 10:30 so maybe that's why the open bar option wasn't offered to us? i'm not sure what the gazebo 2 is either. once we were there we were only offered gazebo or beach, we weren't given a choice of which type of gazebo

yup there's reception set up pics in my wedding review link in my signature ours was one big long table for 24 people. but i saw them setting up a wedding in a different restarurant and they were doing 5 tables in the shape of a U.

hi girls, i got married there in may click on my wedding review link for lots of pics of the resort and our wedding. we had a private reception in Picsas restaurant next to the pool. dinner, waiters, drinks, and cake. then we hooked up our ipod to the sound system for dancing after. our dinner was at 6:30pm and it took until 9:30 pm to finish dinner, speeches, and the cake cutting. so there wasn't a lot of time for dancing. i'd definetly go the ipod route instead of paying extra for a dj. we just had whatever music they gave us to play during dinner, nobody was really paying attention to the music at that point anyways but if you're willing to put together a playlist for during dinner then you can ipod it. a microphone would be nice though, we just talked really loud but it was raining the whole time so i'm sure everyone could hear us but a mike would have helped. we didn't have a rent a sound system but maybe it varies depending on which restaurant you use? we paid $600 for our 24 person reception. our WC told us to ignore the extra per person charge. not sure if it's cuz we were only 24 people but you might want to clarify that with the WC as i balked at that charge when i first saw it too. sounds like the prices went up a little bit from last year

we had our reception in the Picsas (might be spelling it wrong) restaurant which is outdoor and next to the pool but has a big hut roof over it. we had 24 people and it was $600 for the meal and liquor. my WC told me to ignore the part about paying for extra people, so maybe confirm if you have to or not? they clear out all the tables and chairs normally set up for the lunch restaurant so it's only your wedding tables in the middle of the huge hut. i think it'd be enough room for 50 people. We had half that and it seemed really empty when we were dancing. we hooked up our ipod to do the dancing after. we stayed up late making a play list and barely used it, we had only maybe an hour for dancing so keep that in mind. we started dinner at 6:30 pm. and was done dinner, speeches, cake by 9:30 pm. they close your restaurant at 10:30 pm, then we just all changed and went to the night club after.

i use the clear and clean blotter papers too, pretty gross when it's see through cuz i'm so oily by the end of the day i got this HD translucent powder for my wedding and it worked great. no shinyness and makes your skin feel silky smooth. i was aiming for bare minerals but the sephora ppl talked me into this since i couldn't tell them how dark i was going to be tanned by my wedding day Sephora: MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microfinish Powder: Loose Powder