DRB

I'm sooooo sorry that it took me so long to get back to you! I've been travelling a lot and I was in Africa with little access to the internet! I'm sure that you've already figured out your prices but our guests paid $1694 per person (taxes included). Still pretty high but it was peak season when we went. I guess it all depends on what month you're travelling in. We didn't really see a price drop any closer to the wedding either so I guess that the resort is just charging more now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Oryx Hi Mel, Quick question about the weather -- did you find it very windy in the evenings? I'm getting married on February 3, 2011. Thanks again for such a wonderful review! Yay! That's so fun that you're getting married on the same day next year! It was never super windy in the evenings. Some nights there was a bit of a breeze but it was always refreshing since it was so hot! The weather was absolutely perfect when we were there with the exception of one windy day the day before the wedding (but it was still hot and sunny) and one night where it rained for about 20min at 9pm. I'm sending you good vibes so that you have the same weather we did!!!

Thanks everyone

Thanks everyone for the great comments! I'm not on the site much anymore but it's always nice to come back and read comments!

Quote: Originally Posted by *tinkertoy* Everything is amazing! Can you tell me where you got your OOT bags? Thanks! I got the bags online at Discount Mugs: Canvas Beach Tote Bags, Promotional Beach Tote Bags, Customizable Beach Tote Bags

I'm sorry everyone, I haven't been on the forum in a while. Unfortunately there has been no sign of Bailey good or otherwise. We're still posting ads, putting up flyers, searching etc. but it's been very tough. The kennel continues to take out ads in local newspapers also so at least they are doing something. I still can't believe that something like this happened...still crying almost everyday Quote: Originally Posted by marak I'm so sorry...this is terrible. I hope Bailey is returned home safely. Just a question...is it legal to have an 11 yr old employee in Canada? In the US this would be illegal (I think 14 is the minimum), thus considered gross negligence. Unfortunately, dogs are property. As such the value is determined in the same manner. But really...an 11 yr old employee...I'd be bent with this boarding facility. Who entrusts their business to an 11 yr old?...just saying. It isn't legal here to have an 11 yr old employee, I'm pretty sure that 14 is also the minimum. Something makes me think that maybe the child was related to someone working at the kennel. My parents have told me that they're pretty sure that the kennel has let the child go and isn't using children to walk the dogs anymore. I've tried pressing my parents about the issue but they're so devastated that I think that all they're focused on is getting Bailey back (I think that they're taking the position that getting mad/trying to take legal action isn't going to do anything to bring him back and no amount of money could ever replace him or make them feel better). I'm pretty sure that they have told the kennel that having young children walk dogs is completely unreasonable and the kennel has agreed. I just want to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else because of a similar situation. I know that it's been over a month but they (and I) just can't give up hope, even if some people think that that may be unrealistic. We're praying that someone has him and thinks that he's just a stray. I'll keep you all updated on any developments. Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

Hi everyone, Just to give you a quick update we still haven't found Bailey ( There was a sighting last Friday but it turned out to be another dog. We're still hoping and praying and searching but it's been so hard. I'll let you know if there are any new developments. Thanks again for all of your help, thoughts and prayers!

We had the trio for our beach ceremony at the Majestic and they were amazing! The woman in the trio had such a beautiful voice (she sang an Elvis song after the champagne toast..sounds corny but it really wasn't). I highly recommend them, everyone thought that they fit the mood perfectly!

Quote: Originally Posted by trance_angelx0x I sent your link to people I know in the area and people at my work. I really think I'd go into severe depression if I lost my dog since he's our baby (we don't want kids so our dog is our kid). I'll keep my eyes open when I'm in the area. Thanks so much for doing that!

Thanks again everyone for your kind thoughts and help. There's still been no sighting of him which is so frustrating! Right now we're just trying to keep getting the word out any way we can (internet, flyers, newspapers, radio etc) and my Dad keeps searching the area. Hopefully my next update will be a happier one

Quote: Originally Posted by svetayasofiya What does it mean to have a dog micro-chipped? Is there some sort of telemetry system that can track him? I wish that there was a way of tracking him! Microchips are implanted so that if a dog or cat is lost a vet's office can scan it and the owner's information shows up. Unfortunately they don't have GPS or anything linked to them, although I'm sure that someone will start to market a product like that if they haven't already!

If anyone is in the Ontario area and wants to help or knows someone in the Ottawa area can you join or pass along the link to the Facebook group I created? I'm hoping that the more people know about Bailey the more likely we are to find him: Help us find Bailey the lost Shar Pei (Richmond/Ottawa ON) | Facebook

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts. Still no news but we're holding out hope that maybe someone in the area has him and just doesn't realize that we're looking for him. I guess that my Dad spoke to the kennel owner again and he's still looking. My Dad also thinks that he let the child who lost Bailey go and won't be using children to walk dogs anymore (at least we hope!). On top of everything I just feel so terrible for the child who lost him because we know that he feels awful and that it was an accident. It wasn't the poor kid's fault so we don't blame him at all. I hope that the poor thing isn't completely traumatized. I'm going to mention to my parents that maybe they speak to the child or his parents just to let him know that no one is blaming him and that as horrible as a situation this is it can happen, dogs can be unpredictable. I'm just so sad. I grew up with this dog and he means so much to me too. My whole week has been spent either searching, searching and crying, crying in bed or drugging myself up with Gravol to try and sleep (ok not the healthiest thing I know). DH doesn't know what to do with me at this point and he's also a huge dog lover. Even my own dog is sad right now! My heart is completely broken and I have no idea how to move forward (I don't want to say move on because I don't want to lose hope or abandon him). I know that to some people a dog is just an animal but I've always been the type of person who cries during a movie when a dog dies but not a person. It's just so hard! I'm not religious but I'm praying for a miracle at this point. Thanks for all of the support though! It's just nice to hear that people care!

This has been such a horrifying experience and completely unbelievable! Last Sunday my parents left for Florida and dropped their dog Bailey off at the kennel. About an hour afterwards the kennel took him for a walk and lost him!!! I don't want to blame the kennel since it was an accident and they've been doing everything possible to find him but it's been such a nightmare! I guess that they have kids who walk the dogs and this one 11 year old took Bailey out and while he was bending over to pick up some poop Bailey slipped out of the leash they were walking him with. From what my Dad told me they took off Bailey's normal collar and used a no-slip collar/leash, I have no idea why they would do this but obviously it wasn't a very effective no-slip leash! The kid tried to catch him but Bailey got scared, bit the kid and ran off into the woods (Bailey is shy and not very friendly with people he doesn't know, he's a Shar Pei and this can be characteristic of the breed). It's a pretty rural area so no one knows exactly where he went. He hasn't been seen since even though we've been searching every day, have contacted the Humane Society, the city, radio stations, have put up flyers, have taken out newspaper/Craigslist/Kijijii ads, spoken to farmers in the area etc. My parents got the earliest flights home that they could and have also been searching every day. We're just so sad and left with so many questions like 1) why was a young kid walking him and 2) why didn't they keep his collar on since it has his ID on it (at least he's also microchipped). I was also pretty livid earlier this week when I got home to find a message from the kennel owner on my answering machine. It started by saying that he was looking everywhere and thinks that Bailey must be at someone's house or farm. Then he proceeded to say that he wasn't happy that I used the kennel name in ads looking for Bailey since it's "bad for business"!!! Umm, excuse me? 1) I was using your kennel as a frame of reference for where the dog was lost and 2) YOUR KENNEL LOST HIM!!! I couldn't believe it! I never blamed them or said anything bad about the kennel, the least they could do is own up to their mistake! Unbelievable! It's been almost a week and we're still holding out hope. If you know anyone in the Ottawa area that has found a dog please contact me! Here is all of the information: Please help and share this with anyone you can! LOST DOG Richmond ON/Ottawa Area: Bailey, black, Chinese Shar Pei, neutered male, 9 years old, ~40 lbs, not wearing a collar. He is shy so may not come to you if you approach him or call to him. Bailey got loose while out on a walk Sunday morning (March 28th). Last seen near the Huntley Road area in Richmond. If you are in the Richmond area and see him or know of anyone who might see him in that area please call Melissa at 613-314-5365, or the kennel at 613-838-4478, or the Ottawa Humane Society at 613-725-9998. He is extremely important to us and we miss him! Reward for his safe return!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by aepproduction Thanks so much for sharing your experience! We are getting married at the Elegance, but we are also using Yadilis and DJ Mannia. I have had a positive experience thus far with both, but it is always reassuring to see other brides' experiences. Best of luck! They were both amazing to work with! You're in good hands! Good luck with all of your planning

Wow, PaperBagPrincess those are some beautiful pictures! Thanks so much for sharing! I'm getting more and more excited about the trip!!!

Thanks everyone

Wow! It looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Wow! Thank you so much for all of the information! And you pictures are incredible, I'm so excited about this trip! DH and I have never done a group trip before and we are a little leery about it but we figured that we would give it a go. Your advice and experience is so helpful! We will most definitely take your advice about restaurants! Being sick on our honeymoon would be the worst. That's so awful that everyone in your group got sick, especially your FH ending up in the hospital! Thank goodness you managed to visit Machu Picchu before the illness hit! We aren't really buffet people to begin with and since it is our honeymoon we figured that we would try and hit as many really good restaurants as we can (also so that we can have some time just the two of us). I went on the La Rosa Nautica website and it looks incredible!!! Wow, it's so beautiful! Thanks so much for suggesting it, we will definitely be going there! All of your suggestions are so helpful! Thanks so much!!!

Has anyone honeymooned in Peru (or even just vacationed in Peru)? We're going in August and I'd love to hear someone else's experience especially if you did a tour like through GAP Adventures!

Quote: Originally Posted by brendali.caban ladies- also of note, the open bar is no longer the prices quoted per person per hour with the 26 percent tax...its actually now $500 per hour for the rental of the space, as well as sound system and open bar. This must have just changed, it definitely makes the calculation clearer! I think that it works out to about the same as the space rental, sound system and National open bar. Wait, if I calculate based what we ended up paying it's actually a few hundred less so that's a great advantage for brides from now on!

Quote: Originally Posted by brendali.caban This helped alot...if there is a bar in part of the restaurant then that is perfect! I need a BIG space, lol...I have alot of people coming, and we are dancers so we need room!!!! Haha. If the bar is close, then thats awesome. I wouldnt mind paying a couple of them, lol...I just need drinks! Can I ask another question? I am definitly without a doubt booking DJ Mannia...what kind of music did he play? DJ Mannia played whatever we wanted. We gave Carlos a play list ahead of time with some songs that we wanted during the dancing portion of the reception as well as our first dance song etc. Besides that we had just asked him to play some Carribbean/Latin music during dinner. We also told him to use his judgement and add in songs he thought would keep the party going. It worked our really well!

Quote: Originally Posted by brendali.caban Ladies! My fiance finally sat down with me and we discussed color options, and we checked out some great places online to buy the sashes for the wedding, as well as make an official budget! I have some questions, hopefully previous brides can help?! #1) we are going to actually end up having a HUGE amount of people coming in, we are expecting about 110. We want the outside terrace as our reception area, and the gazebo as our ceremony location. My question is, what bar is closest to the outside terrace location? For open bar for the night would cost us 5000!!!!!!! Thats RIDICULOUS considering this is an ALL INCLUSIVE resort!!! I am willing to even perhaps see if I pay one of the waiters, or bartenders if you will, money and have him just bring a tray of drinks thru out the night! I dont see why he wouldnt, I am willing to pay him alot to do this, but I just think 5000 is crazy. Any brides have any experience with this? #2.) Tuxedo rentals!! My fiance insists on wearing a tux, he wants it to be very classy, however, this means we would have to rent the tux here in teh states and rent it out for like a week for DR? Any ladies have experience with this? #3.) Is it cheaper to have two people in a room? The photographer of MY DREAMS agreed to do my wedding FREE!!!!!! All i have to do is pay his air/hotel...which is AMAZING!!!! :-) Pete Redel Photography - Fun / Modern / Edgy Weddings that is his website and i am overjoyed at his kindness! I stalked him for a year! Anyway ladies, please, please, please lend a hand! <3 I just added the link to my review in my siggy ) I'll try to answer your questions as best I can! 1) Do you mean the terrace outside of the Steak/Seafood restaurant? If so there is a bar that is part of the restaurants but something tells me that you wouldn't be able to get away with just paying one of the waiters there without some of the other staff noticing. Besides that the closest bar would be right outside the lobby, there's a little outdoor area where live music plays at night. It really isn't all that close though but if you could swing it it might be a more discreet way of getting someone to bring you drinks (and really, it's not so far that they will get warm while the waiter brings them to you). We ended up doing the open bar at the wet bar so I'm not sure how other brides have gotten around the paying part. 2) I'm sorry, I can't help you with tuxes. Our boys bought their own outfits. 3) It usually is cheaper to have two people to a room if you look at the per person cost. Just as an example, our guests paid $1694 (taxes in) each out of Ottawa but if they wanted a single room they would have had to pay $2200 (taxes in) each. Hope this helps at least a little!

Hi ladies, I just want to let you know that I finally got around to posting my review of our Feb 3rd wedding. Hopefully it answers some of your questions, if not feel free to PM me and I'll help as much as I can

Hi ladies! It took me a little while to get to my review but here it is! Sorry for the wait! If you have read my planning thread or some of my other threads you know that I can be wordy, lol. I’m warning you now that this is long! Pics are at the end though. We were married at the Majestic Colonial on Feb 3rd. We had 40 guests join us and we stayed at the resort from Jan 30-Feb 6. Our wedding was absolutely fantastic!!! If you are booked here you have absolutely nothing to worry about in regards to the wedding. They definitely know what they’re doing; the whole day went off without a hitch! I have mixed feelings about the resort itself since service seemed to be lacking (for a 5 star at least, I think that it may have been a low/understaffed week) and the food was hit and miss and the majority of our group got sick (from what I heard through Trip Advisor norovirus was going around Punta Cana at that time so that isn’t really the resort’s fault) but please don’t let this scare you. All in all please take my comments in perspective, sick or not we had an absolutely amazing time as did our guests. We are so happy that we had a destination wedding at the Majestic! Skyservice: F Awful! Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:15 pm and we got to the airport 3 hours early. Right before we were supposed to board the plane we found out it was delayed until 9 pm due to a mechanical issue. Since we had already checked our luggage and gone through security we decided to stick it out. At 8pm we found out that the plane wouldn’t be leaving until at least 11 pm. I realize that mechanical issues are beyond anyone’s control but we later found out that the staff knew that morning that the plane wouldn’t be leaving until at least 7 pm. None of the passengers were notified about the delay (we called before leaving home and kept checking the screens at the airport) until right before boarding and all we got for the 10 hours was a $10 food voucher (try finding a meal $10 or less at the airport!). We’ve complained to Skyservice but have yet to hear back from them. A bit of a delay wouldn’t have been a big deal but waiting so long, worrying about our guests being upset and having to carry around/watch my wedding dress just stressed me out. By the time we got on the plane I was exhausted! They had no closet to hang my dress so I had to put it in the overhead bin (which I knew before the trip) and I was so stressed the whole time about someone putting their luggage on my dress (even though my parents were guarding it). Normally I would have been fine but I think that because of the long day I just overreacted and lost it and ended up having a little cry on the plane (privately at least, lol, only FH noticed I think that everyone else was too exhausted). All in all I had absolutely nothing to worry about in regards to my dress, it arrived at the resort in perfect condition, I didn’t even have to get it steamed! So moral of the story is don’t worry about transporting your dress, it will be fine! The only reason that I didn’t give Skyservice and F- is that the flight back was ok. Majestic Colonial Punta Cana (the resort as a whole): B+ *scroll down if you want to get straight to the wedding details* The resort was beautiful and very clean. We were given an upgraded oceanfront room which was really nice. It seems like we were there during a less busy week as the resort never felt very full. The pool was beautiful and very large, again very clean. The beach was absolutely gorgeous! One of the nicest beaches we’ve ever been too! We had no problems finding loungers (and we didn’t have to play the towel game which I always hate at resorts!). For a 5 star resort we found the service to be lacking. When we arrived at the resort many in our group had room issues. For example, we had a first floor room and the patio door wouldn’t lock, our friends’ safe wouldn’t work, room keys didn’t work, etc. Even with repeated calls the repairman never made it to some rooms (we got our door fixed within a couple of hours though). Our friends whose safe didn’t work got so frustrated that they just gave up and used another friend’s safe. Most (but not all to be fair) of the front desk staff seemed annoyed whenever you asked them anything and weren’t the most helpful. We were given the wrong bracelets, told that wedding party members had to keep bracelets on for the wedding (we later found out that this wasn’t the case but it involved talking to many people to sort it out), had to fight for the late (6pm) check-out that was part of our wedding package (they had already booked another couple in our room and at first said that we had to be out by noon but then gave us until 4), our restaurant reservations were booked for the wrong day etc. I think that the most annoying part was that many people didn’t get their rooms cleaned regularly (some for a few days in a row). When they did come they were very inconsistent on the times they came. This was annoying if you were in the shower when they walked in or if you wanted to take an afternoon nap. Normally I don’t think that it would bother me so much (I have no problem reusing a towel) but we had to ask the front desk 3 times the night before the wedding to send someone to clean the room since it hadn’t been done (we were taking pictures in the room the wedding day and I just wanted fresh towels too!). Also, we had room service included in our package and we got the complete run around trying to order something so the bridal party could have lunch before the ceremony (e.g. The brochure in the room said that room service is available at 11 am. When we called at 11:55 they said it started at 12 and to call back in 5 minutes. I said it was my wedding day and I was getting married in an hour but they still wouldn’t even take my order until exactly noon. It was just strange!). I do want to mention that although the service wasn’t what I expected at a 5 star that most of the bartenders and servers were great (except for one miserable man at the lobby bar who wouldn’t take women’s orders)! Also the spa was great. I suspect that maybe we had service issues because it was a low week for the hotel and it was understaffed. When we left it seemed that they were gearing up for more activities that they didn’t have the week we were there (beach Olympics etc..) so I expect that the hotel might be better when it’s busier. We don’t go to resorts for the food really but I think that we had expectations that a 5 star would have better food. The food was very hit or miss. Sometimes really good, sometimes ok, sometimes awful. We had dinner at the steakhouse and weren’t very impressed but when we went back for our romantic dinner it was excellent! Maybe it depends on the night? The main buffet always had something to eat but like all buffets it was repetitive and sometimes things were cold. We weren’t at all impressed with the beach buffet (usually cold food, undercooked meat) so we usually just had lunch at the main one. Probably 95% of the 42 of us got sick during the trip (confined to the room for a night or full day). At first we thought that it was just a case of too much sun and booze (which it very well may have been for some people) but it just seemed like too many of us to just be that. Maybe it was the food, maybe we caught a virus like norovirus on the plane or from other guests (it was going around Punta Cana at that time), we’ll never know. Although it wasn’t pleasant (I spent the whole last night in the room and my stomach took a few days afterwards to recover) it’s the chance you take travelling and can happen anywhere. We tried to not let it get us down! One warning: beware the burgers! Everyone who ordered one (including myself) found that they were extremely undercooked and completely raw inside. It didn’t seem to matter where you ordered one either (buffet, beach buffet or the late night fast food place). The drinks were on average good and plentiful, although you couldn’t get some drinks like Caesars and they wouldn’t make some mixed drinks. One thing to mention is that we were under the impression that the top shelf alcohol at the lobby bar was included. After speaking to reception they said that everyone has to pay for it and that it’s not included in anyone’s package. At $6 a drink we passed on the top shelf stuff! Now to the really important part, the wedding and our vendors! Wedding: A+++ Travel agent/Wedding Planner (Wedding in the Tropics): A+ We used Julie Thivierge from Wedding in the Tropics (Home - Weddinginthetropics.com) to book our trip and wedding details and we are so happy that we did! Julie is awesome! She is fluent in Spanish and knows the resort well so she did all of the communicating with the resort/wedding planner for us. She made everything so stress-free! I’ve heard that some brides have had a hard time communicating with the wedding planners at the resort but Julie has such a great relationship with them that she could just call them and would often have answers to our questions within a few hours. She also translated all of our documents for us. She was well organized and was so detailed about everything. She also sent us off with a checklist and lists of all of the wedding details we booked and prices we agreed to pay so that there were no surprises when we got to the resort. All in all we would highly recommend her!!! Resort Coordinator (Yadilis): A Our coordinator was Yadilis and she was a sweetheart! When we met with her I had so many decorations to give her (I was a little worried that I went overboard!) but she took it all in stride. She had a list of everything that we had gone through with Julie and was really well organized. She went over all of our details and told us when she would get in touch with us on the wedding day. During the wedding she translated the ceremony for us and it was perfect! At the reception everything was set up as we asked with the exception of our kissing game (that’s the only reason why we didn’t give her an A+ but really, that’s a pretty minor thing over the course of the day). It was all so beautiful! We were so happy with how everything turned out and we have her to thank for it! Spa: A+ We got our hair done at the spa and the ladies there did such a great job! We had appointments booked for 9am (2 BMs), 10am (myself and my MOH) and 11am (the two Moms). I went to the first appointment with all of my BMs and they ended up doing all of our hair by 10am! It was awesome! Plus they had fresh flowers to put in the BMs and Moms’ hair which was a really nice touch. I was really happy with how my hair turned out in the end! With the exception of one of my BMs (I think it was more the style she picked) everyone else loved their hair too! As a part of our wedding package DH and I got a free couples massage. This was also great. I have to say, we were really impressed by the spa (and it smelled so good there! I forgot to ask what the scent throughout the spa was but I loved it!). Cermony : A+ We were married at 1pm on the beach. It was absolutely perfect!!! We brought our own chair bows and they looked great with the whole setup. Yadilis had also added some rose petals down the “aisle†which was a nice touch. The weather was amazing, the judge was on time, the ceremony was beautiful and DH’s brother read a hand ceremony that didn’t leave many dry eyes in the crowd. We had a champagne toast on the beach immediately following the ceremony and it was a lot of fun to mingle with our guests. Dominican Trio: A+ We loved them and so did our guests! We had them play Canon in D and the Wedding March at the start of the ceremony and they played Dominican music right after. Afterwards they played many songs while we mingled with our guests (sorry, I can’t remember what they were but they fit the mood) and a one point the female musician (there were two men and a woman) started singing an Elvis song and she had the most amazing voice! They were definitely worth the money! Flowers (Shavon’s Silks): A- I absolutely loved the look of our flowers (everyone thought that they were real) but I had to take a few marks off because the ribbon on some of the boutonnieres and my bouquet started unravelling before the ceremony and my Maid of Honour’s bouquet started falling apart as she was walking down the aisle! They were beautiful though and for the price we paid we were still really happy with them. Videography (Video Punta Cana): A+ Florian from Video Punta Cana was recommended to us by Julie. Before the wedding we always joked that we were probably going to get a super cheesy, low budget video that we would laugh over. Boy were we ever wrong (ok our “testimonials†were cheesy but that was more us, lol)! Our video is amazing! Florian was so professional and captured everything perfectly! Our wedding was on the Weds and he was back at the resort on the Sat to show us the finished product. It was perfect; he didn’t even need to edit it. We are so happy to have such a wonderful souvenir of the wedding (that is in perfectly clear HD, definitely not low quality looking). We highly recommend him! Reception: A+ We had a private reception at the Wet Bar from 6:30pm to 11pm. Best choice ever! Our reception was a blast, decorated exactly as we wanted and I have to say that the food was excellent. When we first started planning the wedding I got a lot of flak from some people (mostly FH and the parents) about paying extra to have the private reception. In the end everyone apologized to me. The private reception was one of our favourite parts of the day and our guests all gushed about what an amazing party it was! I just knew that for us it wouldn’t have felt like the type of wedding we wanted if we had gone the free dinner route so I stuck to my guns on this one! We wanted a head table, speeches, the dances right after dinner etc. and we got exactly what we wanted. It was so beautiful; I still can’t get over how much I loved it! Just a note: it wasn’t as expensive as it could have been since we had the dinner from 6:30pm to 8pm that included beer and wine and didn’t start the open bar until 8pm (it went until 11pm). This may be an option for some couples who think that they have to have the open bar all night. Also, the bartenders were so much fun! They were hilarious and seemed to be having a great time all night! All of our guests loved them and they definitely earned their tips! DJ Mannia: A+++ Music was so important to us, we’ve been to weddings with bad DJs before that completely killed the mood of the party so we wanted to have the best DJ we could get. All I can say about DJ Mannia is WOW! Carlos was so professional, we met with him on the Tues to go over our entrance song, wedding party, speeches etc. and he left us feeling so confident about how the reception was going to proceed. Throughout the reception he acted as MC, had the speeches flow perfectly and played the best set list! He and his assistant (I feel bad, I never caught his name) read the crowd so well, the music was incredible! Some of our guests told us afterwards that he was the best wedding DJ they had ever encountered. They even handed out balloons at one point and that was such a hit! You have no idea how crazy a bunch of grown adults can go with balloons, lol! It was a pretty crazy party (in a great way). Just to give you an idea of how great the sound system and party was, when we got back home I was on trip advisor and a woman was actually complaining about how loud our wedding was, lol. Part of me felt bad at first but really, it was over by 11pm and it followed the resort’s policies (apparently she was at the front desk complaining though, lol). Our Incredible Photographer Eva Hadhazy: A++++++!!! Eva was by far our favourite vendor. Not only is she an amazingly talented person, she’s also one of the sweetest most genuine people we’ve ever met! We loved her and so did all of our guests! Originally we had booked another photographer but due to some issues (it’s discussed elsewhere in the forum) we weren’t comfortable having him as our photographer anymore. This was about four months before the wedding and I was beginning to worry about not having a photographer. I had booked a boudoir photoshoot with Eva for DH’s wedding gift and after being so impressed with her work (this was even before I saw my album) I asked her if she would photograph our wedding. I was so happy when she said yes! I was even happier after my photoshoot because she made me feel so comfortable and beautiful and the album for DH was incredible (I felt like a Victoria’s Secret Model...and believe me, I’m no model). It kind of ended up being a funny situation though because we couldn’t tell DH how I had found her. He didn’t put all of the pieces together until he got his album on the wedding day! BTW he LOVED the album! I’ve always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that things always work out in the end and in this case I was absolutely right! Eva being our photographer was absolutely meant to be! Her photos are so amazing and I’ve never met anyone so passionate about their field. All week she was constantly “onâ€, we really had no idea how someone could have that much energy! Not only did she shoot our wedding, she also shot an engagement shoot on the Monday and a TTD the day after the wedding. We have 1000s of pictures and we love them! We have no idea how we’re going to narrow them down for albums! She was so fun to have around and she just has such great positive energy to her. We can’t say enough good things about her, she really was one of the best parts of our wedding day and week! Wedding Party Gift (Mike’s Marina): A+ As a thank you to our wedding party we booked a private catamaran trip through Mike’s Marina for our last day. It was exactly what we needed after all of the stress and excitement of the wedding! It was so relaxing and the crew was great! I would definitely recommend it especially since it was nice not to be crammed onto a boat with a ton of other people! All in all although we have mixed feelings about the resort itself we are so happy that we got married there! The wedding was perfect, our guests had a great time and above all else we’re married!!! I would definitely recommend a destination wedding at the Majestic to other brides. I would like to leave you with a little advice though. Remember to take some time for yourselves, we only stayed one week and it was very exhausting (we’re honeymooning in Peru in August, yay!). We adored having our friends and family with us but we also felt like we had to be “on†for the whole week and that we were always on display (ok yes I know that we were the bride and groom and that we should have expected that but it was a bit much at times, we were very happy to go back to our anonymous lives after the wedding, lol). Don’t schedule too much during the week and if you must schedule something (besides the wedding of course) make sure that it’s just a day for you and your hubby! Happy planning everyone and thanks so much for reading! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions! Here are a few pictures, you can see more at this link: Picasa Web Albums - 10465200237980679... ***Just as a note, all of the pictures in the Picasa album are courtesy of Eva Hadhazy Photography and cannot be copied or reproduced without her permission***