erinleigh

Quote: Originally Posted by aliceo Needs a little adjusting over the hips, but I love it! You look STUNNING! Congrats on finding THE dress!!

Thanks surprise - you won't regret the Melia. It was amazing and I'm sure we'll be back. Yes my dress is from David's - it was so comfortable and travelled really well!

jess-I'd be happy to help you in anyway I can! I loved everything about our wedding and would love to share my tips, so ask away! Darcy - yes I wish I was there right now!!! I dream about it all the time! Can't wait to go back again (we def. will!)

Thanks everyone!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk erinleigh, thank you so much for your review! we had some stuff change at our resort and decided to change to having our reception on la barcaza! you're right, flori is amazingly responsive and has been a huge help so far! this may have been answered before (because i think i remember reading it somewhere) but do the "open bar" menus include more than beer and rum? i asked flori about this and she said anything like wine or vodka drinks will cost extra, but i get the impression that this isn't always the case? does anyone know? thanks! Thanks! As for the Open Bar - it is just rum and beer, but they have all kinds of mixes, so they made some very yummy drinks for us! We also added wine and champagne to our bar menu. We didnt end up drinking it all though.

Congratulations! I can't believe how AT treated you - we flew with them from Toronto and didnt have any problems. You should def write tons of letters! It's just not right to be treated that way. Your photos are beautiful, it looks like it was a wonderful day!

What a wonderful review!! Every detail seems amazing and you looked beautiful and happy! Congratulations Mrs.!

Beautiful pictures Jess!

It will still be great - they have lights, and I brought electric flickering tealights for the tables, and they looked great! Believe me, it will be awesome!

Thank you!

What I WOULD Do: - Have a destination wedding! It was amazing, and truly beyond all my expectations. If anyone is doubting the decision – don’t! Every single one of our guests said that if they could do it over, it would be this way. - Have our reception on the La Barcaza Yacht. It totally MADE our wedding. Our wedding was reception was the best party I’ve ever been too! He he, and it was my wedding! It made the day so much more extra special to leave the resort and do something so spectacular as a sunset dinner cruise for our reception. - Stay for 2 weeks – one week with family, one week alone. It was really sad to see everyone go, but it was really nice to have a honeymoon all by ourselves! - Upgrade to the Royal Service - all the little extras where really nice. - Go Swimming on my wedding night – yup, I went swimming. Our reception boat docked at a natural swimming pool and the party was in full swing…a few of the guys decided to strip down to their skivvies and get in…then a few of the girls followed and they convinced me. I handed my dress to my mom and got in! When I got out, I dried off, put my dress back on and kept partying, it was so great! An awesome memory! - Have Orange and Aqua wedding colours. Some people thought I was crazy when I told them my colours, but they just POP in all the photos. I love it. And my beautiful bouquet was all orange roses and tigerlily’s, it was so pretty! - Hire HDC photo instead of the resort photographer. Our photographer, Arnaud Brichet, was phenomenal. I love every single picture he took. Plus he gave us all 700 digitals. - Have my wedding in the garden gazebo instead of the beach. It was so private and intimate; all my guests were inside the gazebo (which is beautiful), and there were no topless or speedo-clad people in my photos! We took lots of pictures on the beach, so I still had that as a part of my wedding. - My DIY projects – they added really nice, personal touches and I think people really appreciated all the little things. - Hire the musical trio and have them stand inside the gazebo, rather than follow me down the aisle. They were awesome! And because I had them inside the entire time, everyone could hear them the entire time. - Sand ceremony with my cousin as the reader. It extended the ceremony a bit, made it more personal and was beautiful. What I wouldn’t do again This is hard for me, because I honestly loved everything about my wedding. These are very minor: - Stress so much about small details. Everything was beautiful. - Forget my cake topper. I left it on the boat and I’d really like to use it again at my AHR. - Not be more firm about booking our welcome dinner. I didn’t get the restaurant I wanted, but it worked out fine in the end. - Not have any wedding cake. I only had the small bite when we fed it to each other and forgot to have a real piece. I heard it was good and wish I had some. - Write my speech the day before the wedding. Although it turned out great, I should have done it before we left, I felt rushed.

Welcome Back!! Look forward to your review (and pics of course)!

Fantastic review - so much detail! It looks like you had a wonderful wedding! Congratulations!

Yes you can bring on any decorations you like. You will meet with Flori a couple of days before your wedding and can give her everything then and she will set it up for you. Or, you can just bring it on with you when you get on. They are very, very accomodating!

Hi again Shanelle! We had the mixed grill option (55pp) which was grilled chicken and pork and veggies with a really yummy salsa and fried plantain. It was delicious!! I don't know about live entertainment, I hadnt heard that before. We brought our ipod so that we could have our first dances to the music we chose and then we partied! It was so awesome. You will have a fantastic time!! We were on the boat from 4-8. We had originally booked for four hours and then we ended up extending for another hour when we were on the boat because we were just having soooo much fun!!! So we were on the boat from 4-9. Then we all hit the disco when we got back to the resort!

Good luck Jess, be sure to take time to enjoy every moment, no stressing, everything will be amazing and it goes by waaaay too fast!

I just got back from my wedding in Punta Cana. We had our reception on La Barcaza. OMG! I don’t think I will be able to do this justice in words. It was amazing and made our wedding the spectacular event that it was. La Barcaza is a small yacht that you can rent. We rented it for 4 hours (and ended up extending to 5) for our reception. It has a top deck with lounge sofas and the lower deck they set up for dinner. They set up our dinner with 4 large square tables of 8. The way the tables were set up made for a very intimate feel. When we did speeches, people would stand sort of in the middle of the tables to give their speech, again it was so intimate. Dinner was served during sunset – incredible. The food was delicious!! Grilled chicken, pork and veggies. Dessert was pinapple flambé – yummy! When dinner was over, we cut our cake, then they moved the tables and we did our first dances and then PARTIED!! We brought our own music on an ipod, and they had a doc for their speakers. I am telling you – our reception was incredible, awesome, wonderful, amazing, etc, etc. It was so nice to do something a little bit different. Everyone kept tell us how amazing they thought it was and at the end of the night everyone was chanting “Best Wedding Ever!” ha ha. Did I mention it was awesome?? Oh, and something funny happened. They doc the boat at this “natural swimming pool” and when the party got into full swing, a few of the guys decided to strip down to their undies and go swimming. Well….then some of the girls did the same. And….yup….I did too! That’s right, I went swimming on my wedding day! I took off my dress, handed it to my mom and hoped in the water. It was so much fun. When I got out, I towel dried off and then put my dress right back on! My hair hardly even budged too! Also, Flori the coordinator is Awesome!! She helped me so much with all the planning and is a sweetheart! The whole crew was incredible too! Book this now! You will not regret it!

I just posted my review! Lots of pictures! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...1/#post1075375

And this might be my fav....

Photographer A+++++++++ We did not use the resort photographer. We hired Arnaud Brichet from HDC Photo – Punta Cana Wedding Photographer. He was incredible!!!! He was so sweet and made us feel instantly at ease. Posing for all those photos is not the most natural thing in the world, but he made us feel so good. The pictures are beyond all my expectations. They are incredible. Arnaud gave us all the digitals and there are close to 700 photos. I don’t know how I’m going to choose which ones to print, I think I might just wallpaper my house with them The variety of pictures we have from getting ready, to ceremony, to beach, to the reception boat are just amazing. I highly, highly, highly recommend HDC photo. I now have photographic memories of the most beautiful kind to last a lifetime!!! Thank you Arnaud!!

Flowers - A++ I was in love with my flowers. I thought they were beautiful. I was pretty easy going about them, showed my wedding coordinator a couple sample pictures and they created the most beautiful bouquets. My colours were orange and aqua so I brought the ribbon with me to wrap the stems. Cake – A The cake was beautiful and YUMMY! Although I only had a small bit when we did the cake cutting. But everyone said it was really good. It was vanilla with strawberry filling. I brought the cake toppers from home, they were diy. Spa - A The girls in the spa really don’t speak very good English, so if you don’t know Spanish, I really recommend bringing a picture of what you want. But they are good! They recreated the picture I brought exactly! AND, my hair stayed in all night long. Through the wind on the boat and even through swimming!! My mom and my bridesmaids also had their hair done and they each loved what was done.

Musical Trio - A++ We chose to hire the musical trio to play the processional music and they also played for about an hour, during champagne and photos. I highly recommend the musical trio! They were excellent!! Everyone loved them and they added something really special to the ceremony. They played Cannon in D for my bridesmaids and the bridal march for me. Usually the trio follows the bride into the gazebo, but we chose to have them in the gazebo and play the whole time from there. We didn’t think people would be able to hear them well until my dad and I got all the way into the gazebo if we did it their way, so we made that change. I’m glad we did! La Barcaza A+++++++++ OMG! I don’t think I will be able to do this justice in words. It was amazing and made our wedding the spectacular event that it was. La Barcaza is a small yacht that you can rent. We rented it for 4 hours (and ended up extending to 5) for our reception. It has a top deck with lounge sofas and the lower deck they set up for dinner. They set up our dinner with 4 large square tables of 8. The way the tables were set up made for a very intimate feel. When we did speeches, people would stand sort of in the middle of the tables to give their speech, again it was so intimate. Dinner was served during sunset – incredible. The food was delicious!! Grilled chicken, pork and veggies. Dessert was pinapple flambé – yummy! When dinner was over, we cut our cake, then they moved the tables and we did our first dances and then PARTIED!! We brought our own music on an ipod, and they had a doc for their speakers. I am telling you – our reception was incredible, awesome, wonderful, amazing, etc, etc. It was so nice to do something a little bit different. Everyone kept tell us how amazing they thought it was and at the end of the night everyone was chanting “Best Wedding Ever!” ha ha. Did I mention it was awesome?? Oh, and something funny happened. They doc the boat at this “natural swimming pool” and when the party got into full swing, a few of the guys decided to strip down to their undies and go swimming. Well….then some of the girls did the same. And….yup….I did too! That’s right, I went swimming on my wedding day! I took off my dress, handed it to my mom and hoped in the water. It was so much fun. When I got out, I towel dried off and then put my dress right back on! My hair hardly even budged too!

Our wedding was November 9, 2009 at the Melia Caribe Tropical Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We had 30 friends and family members travel from Canada for our wedding week. Our wedding and the week with those closest to us was truly amazing. It was the best time of our lives and the wedding day was the best day of our lives. We would not change one single thing. It even poured raining the morning of the wedding, and although I had a mild panic, it turned out to be a blessing. The rain made it feel like we were all in this little cocoon under the gazebo, it was so intimate and romantic. Then, as soon as we were ready for pictures, the sun came out and the sky looked beautiful with white puffy clouds. Our pictures are incredible. I’ve tried to review the big things, but if anyone has any questions, please let me know. I’d also like to thank everyone on this forum. I could never, never, never have planned this wedding without the ideas, creativity, support and friendships on this forum. Resort – A+ The Melia Caribe Tropical resort is absolutely beautiful. It is a very large resort (2 resorts that are now one) but the attention to detail in everything does not go unnoticed. The variety in restaurants, bars, pools, activities, etc makes for a great all-inclusive experience. This is our second trip to this resort and we will be back I’m sure. This time we stayed in the upgraded Royal Service and it was worth every penny. Check-in/Guest Rooms – B+ When we arrived on November 6 at about 8pm they had a private check-in set up for our group. That made things easy and smooth. No waiting in any long lines! The rooms are very nice, large, clean and fairly modern. A couple people ended up having to switch rooms for minor problems (queen beds instead of king, etc). And only my parents (disappointing) had major problems and had to change rooms twice. Other than that everyone was very pleased. We stayed in the Royal Service section and were upgraded to a master suite. It was beautiful with a kitchen, living room, separate bedroom, large bathroom with huge Jacuzzi tub and shower with massage jets. Welcome Dinner B+ We held a welcome dinner the day after everyone arrived at the American Grill. We were slightly disappointed because we had originally requested the Dominican Restaurant for our welcome dinner as they have a large semi-private room to accommodate a large group. But, we got bumped by an actual wedding, so I can’t really complain . We were seated at 3 large tables, close together. The food was really good and the set up still allowed us to make a brief speech and be heard and give out our favors (insulated mugs). It was a nice way to get everyone together. Melia Wedding Coordinator - C Our wedding coordinator was Laura Kruetz. She was ok, but I didn’t feel like she really went out of her way for us or anything. We made some changes to the ceremony and I found it took some convincing to get her to go along with my requests. She seems to have one way she always does the weddings and doesn’t like to deviate. But I got my way in the end so all was good! One other thing is that I gave her fans and programs to put on chairs. I asked her to fan out the fans and insert the programs between the pieces of wood, but I found out later that she just set the fans and programs on the chairs as they were. Not a big deal, but still, I worked hard on them. The Wedding A++ Our wedding was magical. It was so beautiful and romantic and a lot of that has to do with the rain. It added something really special. We chose the Melia wedding package. Which is the “free†package. But it is only for 12 people so we had to pay extra for champagne and cake for the rest of our guests. We did a legal ceremony, so the judge performed the ceremony in Spanish and Laura, our wedding coordinator, translated. I thought the Spanish was romantic also. The wedding only lasted about 10-15 minutes max. We did a sand ceremony also, and had my cousin read it, which was beautiful. Melia Garden Gazebo - A++ We chose to hold our wedding in the garden gazebo. You can also have your wedding in the beach gazebo or on the beach. We chose the garden location for the beauty of the gazebo and for the privacy. I’m so glad we did, because as I mentioned it poured raining during our ceremony. The garden gazebo is very large so all our guests were seated inside the gazebo and we were in a little cocoon from the rain. They decorated the gazebo with fresh flower arches which were really pretty. There is also a nice “aisle†where you go over a little bridge to get to the gazebo. I highly recommend this site for weddings at the Melia.

Hi all, Just got back from our wedding and honeymoon yesterday. By reading the forum it seems that everyone had wonderful weddings!! So glad to hear that. Mine was everything I hoped it would be and more. My expectations were totally exceeded! I'm working on a review and hope to have it done soon. Just want to quickly thank everyone here for the ideas and support. Could not have planned my wedding without this site!

Can't wait to see some pics!