mrslbs

Quote: Originally Posted by S2BLennon Hi there! Thanks for the quick review! I was bummed that Photosouv. is not avail for my wedding date - so now I feel stuck. I did email TP asking about how much it was to get all the pics for proofs, and they did tell me that we will have to negotiate. I kind of hate that idea, I feel like they should have a better pricing system so that you can be better prepared with a budget- especially since I know that I will want all the proofs! Do you have any shots that you can share so that I have an idea of what I am looking at? And - did you meet with the photographer prior to go over your shot list / did you give it to him that day? Sorry for so many questions - I feel like photo's are a really important part of the wedding! I agree, the photos are what we were most willing to invest in, and I was super nervous going with the resort photog. We did not meet with the photographer until the actual wedding. She also was very limited in her English, which led to some minor miscommunications, but she was very sweet. She just started taking shots of us, and than I directed her on the couple I really wanted. Like I said, we had originally bought the smallest package of 50, but than when we went to go over the pics the next day, there were so many more we liked, we ended up buying them all. I think we got a pretty good deal when I think of how much money it costs in the US. Just remember to be VERY firm with them. They started off somewhere outrageous like $1600, and I was really nervous bc I know they know they have us to a certain extent since these are our wedding day pictures, and they know how special they are to us. And the guy who is making the negotiations was different than the photographer. We got the 50 prints which were edited, the other 42 just edited on a CD, and all the originals. We told him we only had a certain amount of cash, and just kept talking him down. I will try to post some pics as soon as I figure out how!

We used Tropical Photog at Dreams, and I was very happy with the results. If I had a clue how to add a photo I would do it in a second, any help?

I opened an Apple Vacations book, saw the picture of Dreams, and said "that's it!" We thought it was going to be too pricey, but once we started pricing the different resorts, found out this one was one of the most reasonable! We also wanted something family oriented bc we had 7 kids coming, and they all loved it, but it was also not overrun with kids. There were plenty of activites for kids and adults, and the resort is beautiful, the food awesome, and the staff was amazing!

I was not allowed to make any plans until we actually met with the WC upon arrival

I bought my dress in February for my December wedding..I got it for $300, plus $60 for the sash. I loved it at the time, but as the wedding drew nearer I was freaking out and thought I should get a more "destination" wedding dress! Luckily my friends helped me calm myself, and I ended up wearing it, and I absolutely loved it! It was a simple, but more traditional dress. With alterations at $65, I came in under my $500 budget!

You know, I never even thought of tipping the WC. As amazing as our wedding was, I felt like the WC added a lot of stress to the whole process. She was awful at communicating up to the wedding, and than when we arrived at the resort and met with her, she forgot about the changes we had made months before. I was not thrilled with the service we received, but like I said - everything ended up working out great. but I do not think that it was due to the WC...there were little details that had to be sorted out, and i wish that we just would not have had to deal with those extra stressors!

I had seen that promotion when we were booking as well, and we were told it did not apply to groups. We were not able to use this for any of the kids in our group.

We just got back from our wedding at Dreams PC and I was incredibly stressed about the timing before we left. I know that everyone said not to worry and it would all work out, but I couldn't help it! Now coming back and going through it, it WILL all work out! We had SUCH an amazing time! We had the ceremony planned for 4 PM, and dinner planner for 6:30 - cocktail hour at 8. I was concerned about small gaps, but did not need! The ceremony did not start until 4:30, and we ended up taking pictures until about 6. We all just kind of mingled, some of us went back to our rooms to freshen up and relax for a minute. All met for 630 dinner, which lasted until about 7:45, and by the time we all walked over the the cocktail hour it was 8. The resort messed brought out the wrong hor deurves, so by the time the right ones came out, it was almost nine. We all were more than happy with drinks though, and had just eaten, so the food coming out later was not a problem, AND they left us stay for an extra hour bc of it. We stopped at one of the bars outside for about a half hour until the disco opened, and than closed up the disco after! It all flowed together and worked out great! We had our first dance and cake cutting at the cocktail hour, and than the disco it felt like a regular wedding reception. the dj pretty much let us just run his equipment so we got to hear w/e we wanted, PLUS my maid of honor set up a spontaneous garter toss which was so fun! I know we all say it, but it will all REALLY work out! Don't stress TOO much!

Well, we are back! We ended up going with the resort photographer, bc Photosouvenir never got back to us. I actually did ask Photosouvenir if they could do a smaller package for us and they did say no. I am extremely happy with the shots that we got from the resort photog. Our package only included 50 pictures, but of course they took many more, and we ended up buying more. We ended up with 92 edited photos and all 237 original photos for $800 which we were extremely pleased with (after a lot of negotiating!) We were nervous when we first got there and realized the photogs walking around each day taking guests pics were going to be doing our wedding, but we seriously could not be happier. I think as long as the photographer has decent equipment, it is all about the poses and locations, and we were able to direct the photographer according to what we wanted...plus my husband looked to handsome and i felt so beautiful, I don't think anyone could have screwed up our shots! i would def say if you are on a budget, the dreams resort photogs did great! i don't think i would have been any happier with Photosouvenirs, and we saved at least $400

We ALSO had an issue with discountmugs.com. They sent us a proof with our original mug choice, which was basically just our monogram sent back to us in black and white. We than asked for a virtual proof so we could see the size of the monogram in relation to the mug. They told us that the imprint area was so small on our original mugs that we probably wouldn't be able to read it. WTF, um, yea, that's why we were spending $250 on personalized mugs, so the guests couldn't read them. So than they made a suggestion for a different mug, which did not have a handle, but we went with it bc it was more important to have the logo. So we approved the proof after going back and forth for 10 days. So we get the mugs in the mail, and they are our original mugs! Did we NOT just have an ongoing convo for a week and a half? Luckily we pushed back on them, and they sent the new mugs out. We were fortunate bc both mugs actually look really great, and we are going to do half and half. I am worried about the mugs w/o the handles though..after hearing so many monograms peeling off, we are going to warn the guests to try to hold by the bottom and not in the pool! It's amazing how many issues everyone has had with discountmugs!

I saw someone else had posted on here they paid $1000 for the rights, I don't know if that was on top of their package or what. I e-mail Tropical Pictures to see what they said. I had PhotoSouvenir booked until about 3 weeks ago when I freaked out about money and cancelled! I don't really need 200 pictures, we are going to have so many guests taking picturs, I just want a few professional artsy shots to frame. I e-mailed photo souvenir this morning to see if they are still available!

I was just reading that Tropical Pictures, the resort photographer for Dreams PC, charges $1000 for the rights to your photos. I was curious if that is on top of the package? We we looking at doing the $500 smallest package with them to save money. We were debating between them and Photo Souvenir, but Photo Souvenir's smallest package was $1200, but they include the rights to the photos in that charge. Obviously we would like to go with Photo Souvenir if Tropical Pictures is going to charge $1500..HELP!

I have seen posts here and there regarding this, but was looking specifically at Dreams Punta Cana. We are thinking of doing the Ipod route, but wonder what our other options are. We are against having a DJ. If we do the ipod, are you able to hook it up to speakers, or do you have to have a docking station? Can you hook up a laptop to the speakers there? Any help would be appreciated!

Quick Question - Has anyone thrown a welcome dinner the first night they arrived? We fly in around 1230 on a Sunday afternoon, and I was thinking it would be nice for all of us (approx 35 ppl) to have dinner together the first night as a meet n greet...I have asked the Dreams WC to make reservations for us, and she said we would take care of all that when we arrive..I am just nervous they won't be able to accomodate all us for on such short notice..any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

We are having exactly the same issue! We thought we would be nice and invite our parents to the courthouse bc my mom gave me a guilt trip about not being at our "real" wedding, even though I explained that wr would not see it that way, so than when we told her the date, she kind of blew us off and said she would make it if she could, but not to wait on her. i was confued by the reaction, and she just couldn't understand why we would have all these people spend money to go to PC when we weren't "really" getting married there. To save us all headaches, we just told her we decided to get married "for real" in PC, and we are not letting ANYONE know otherwise to save on hurt feelings. My only conern is, is the rov ceremony really the same as the legal ceremony? And did any guests raise any questions, and if asked, what did you say? My main concern is the wedding party, did anyone have their MOH or BM ask why they didn't have to sign any papers as the witnesses? Sorry FI and i are getting really paranoid!!