DreamsBride09

I'm selling 170 white cloth napkins that I used for my ATR. Around 80 are still in the plastic packaging unused and the rest are in perfect condition. I will sell all 170 for $50 plus shipping or pick up in Mississauga, Ontario. Why pay to rent these when you can buy them for cheaper??? They are all boxed up and ready to go! Msg me if you're interested.

When I got married there (July 1/09) there is a huge binder that I got to choose from. Anywhere from regular roses to tropical bouquets. Mine was pink roses with pink lillies, it looked beautiful. My pics are posted somewhere on this thread!! nsbride - Im from Nova Scotia too!!!

I remember this... I was actually at the resort for a friends wedding when this happened and the entire resort heard about this girl. I do feel bad for her, however, why are you bringing a $25k ring with you? I think if you can afford a ring like that, you can afford a replica of it made. Its not worth taking chances on something with that value.

Update!! This is what is left: - 1 garter -BRAND NEW - white & baby blue $3 - White ribbon $1 - Turquoise raffia $1 NEW - Turquoise tissue paper NEW $1 - 6 extra bottles of Banana Boat sunscreen from OOT bags $3 for all - 2 St Ives lotion leftover from OOT bag $1 for all - 64 Postcards - Says on them "DREAMS PUNTA CANA - WISH YOU WERE HERE". $5 for all - 1 disposible camera 12 exposure leftover from OOT bags $1 - 22 Vases for centrepieces $75 for all (LOCAL PICK UP ONLY in Mississauga, Ontario). - Over 100 white cloth napkins used for our ATR - the golf course was going to charge us over $2 per napkin, so i just bought my own. Some of them are still brand new. $75 for all of them.

I actually bought it from a girl on here!

UPDATE: - SOLD 35 White paper lanterns - $80 for all (some of the metal inserts which are not visable from the outside have snapped, but I can fix them easily with a little tape!) - SOLD 25 Turquoise satin table runners. I paid over $150 for these and some of them have small stains on the edges that looks like water - they can still easily be used without noticing this. Im selling all for $50. - 23 Raffia Fans $20 for all - SOLD Orchid flower for your hair $20 - 1 garter -BRAND NEW - white & baby blue $3 - White ribbon $1 - Turquoise raffia $1 NEW - Turquoise tissue paper NEW $1 - 6 extra bottles of Banana Boat sunscreen from OOT bags $3 for all - 2 crossword/ 1 sudoku $1 for all - 2 St Ives lotion leftover from OOT bag $1 for all - 11 First aid kits leftover from OOT bags $10 for all - 64 Postcards - Says on them "DREAMS PUNTA CANA - WISH YOU WERE HERE". $5 for all - 1 disposible camera 12 exposure leftover from OOT bags $1 - SOLD 6 Pashminas (brand new- it was too hot to use them, still in package) $20 (2 grey/silver, 2 Chocolate brown/ 2 Black) - 22 Vases for centrepieces $75 for all (LOCAL PICK UP ONLY in Mississauga, Ontario).

The table runners are approximately 105 inches long by one foot wide. They were perfect for our circular tables at the resort, but then it rained and we went inside to long rectangle tables and they were used there as well. We also used the rest of them for our AHR where the tables were oval shaped...so they pretty much work anywhere!! I'll PM you back also. Quote: Originally Posted by chantelle I am interested in the table runners...do you know how long they are? I will send you a PM.

Fans & First aid kits are SOLD

So the wedding is now over and its time for me to part with my items... All prices are in Canadian dollars and shipping is extra. Here's a link with pics and items are listed below: Items for sale pictures by kylie_felix - Photobucket - 35 White paper lanterns - $80 for all (some of the metal inserts which are not visable from the outside have snapped, but I can fix them easily with a little tape!) - 25 Turquoise satin table runners. I paid over $150 for these and some of them have small stains on the edges that looks like water - they can still easily be used without noticing this. Im selling all for $50. - 23 Raffia Fans $20 for all - Orchid flower for your hair $20 - 1 garter -BRAND NEW - white & baby blue $3 - White ribbon $1 - Turquoise raffia $1 NEW - Turquoise tissue paper NEW $1 - 6 extra bottles of Banana Boat sunscreen from OOT bags $3 for all - 2 crossword/ 1 sudoku $1 for all - 2 St Ives lotion leftover from OOT bag $1 for all - 11 First aid kits leftover from OOT bags $10 for all - 64 Postcards - Says on them "DREAMS PUNTA CANA - WISH YOU WERE HERE". $5 for all - 1 disposible camera 12 exposure leftover from OOT bags $1 - 6 Pashminas (brand new- it was too hot to use them, still in package) $20 (2 grey/silver, 2 Chocolate brown/ 2 Black) - 22 Vases for centrepieces $75 for all (LOCAL PICK UP ONLY in Mississauga, Ontario). I will have more to put up once I organize the rest including my dress (Maggie Sottero DALLAS MARIE -check it out...its beautiful!) I accept paypal also. Happy Shopping!

Quote: Originally Posted by lp579 Deyanira is our coordinator...was she easy to understand? Its your wedding day today!! Sorry, haven't been on here for awhile... as you already know by now... Deyanira is soooo easy to understand. She's a sweetheart!

Quote: Originally Posted by lp579 We're leaving on Saturday!! Starting to get excited (again...) as there doesn't appear to be anything that's going to cancel our flights this time around!! YAY! Thanks for the info ACH2009! Lp579, it is the wedding coordinator that performs your ceremony if you have a symbolic ceremony. Who is your wedding coordinator? We had a legal ceremony, and the judge was there and performed in Spanish, then Deyanira just repeated everything she said in English for us.

Have a great time lp579! You'll have so much fun! Post pics when you get back!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk any of you girls who have been had your weddings recently, did the private reception include your own bartender, or did the waiters just refill drinks for everyone? Hi again Since we were rained out and moved downstairs the bartenders just refilled our drinks. But if we had it as planned on the Bordeaux Terrace there is a seperate bar right there where you can get drinks with a bartender of course, and we didn't pay extra for this.

Quote: Originally Posted by annidas Does anyone have any pictures they can share that were taken by the resort photographer at Dreams ... thanks! I posted a link to my pics on page 22 of this thread. They were all taken by Pamela from Tropical (these are the resort photographers). I found them really good.

Quote: Originally Posted by annidas Thanks everyone great advice...im thinking im better off doing the private dinner never thought about getting the complimentary package and adding things to it .... good idea! Did you decide this all the day you meet with the coordinator? so many things to think about but your right its not going to cost as much as a wedding at home would be !!!!! Yes, all of this was added when we met with the coordinator the day before the wedding. We knew we were going to do the free package before we met though. She basically has a check list she goes through. I had Deyanira as a coordinator but I also met Sharron, who is a total sweetheart! She is a very nice british lady

Quote: Originally Posted by annidas DreamsBride09, Thanks for the review!!!!! helps when you read recent wedding reviews. Do you know what options you have if you choose not to do a private reception. Just thinking its pretty expensive to have a private dinner when your guests already paid for all inclusive...are the resturants available for dinner? Also, im going with the hotel photographer were you happy with their work? and did they give you a CD of pictures so you can take them home and print them yourself? thanks for your time! Dreams bride Nov 27th 2009 The hotel photographer was really good. Ours was Pamela. She's super nice. We chose the bronze package (50pics) and there was 189 I think to choose from. The 50 pics were $500 and had the option to buy the rest for just over $700 which we didn't do because one of our friends is a photographer who came with us. So we received 50 printed pics, you can choose 4x6, 5x7 and another size. We chose 5x7's. We also received 2 copies of the cd so we can print more pics. Funny thing is, when I went to Costco to print the pictures, they asked if they could make a copy of one of our pictures to put on display because they thought they were so good! LOL!

Quote: Originally Posted by ACH2009 The private reception does cost money, which I know many people don't like considering it's all inclusive resort, however it is definitely worth it. From my own experience I would not count on being able to use one of the restaurants. I think it is hit or miss. Some people may have been able to do it, but not everyone can. When I first inquired about having a welcome dinner they said I could reserve a terrace but it would cost per person. Then when I asked about it again they said none of the restaurants could be reserved and the only place we could fit our group was the buffet. I'm only saying this because I wouldn't want someone with a large group to count on reserving a restaurant for their reception and to then find out it couldn't be done. The private reception is worth it because you know exactly what you are going to get. I totally agree. For example, we went to the Japanese restaurant one night, there was 13 of us there, and we waited for about 45 mins to be seated. With the private reception you pick the time you want at your meeting with the coordinator and it is all set up by the time you get there. I also asked the wedding coordinator if it was possible to set up a dinner for us and our immediate family the night after the wedding and was told that it was not possible and we'd just have to go when we wanted to be seated, which is what we did, but still had to wait. To be honest, our entire wedding did not cost half as much as we expected considering the add on's we wanted. We had the free wedding, added the sound system for the reception (Which we didn't even use because it rained), added a bridesmaid bouquet, extra boutinnere, 5 centrepieces, 3 person trio, dinner for 37 people, 2 extra bottles of champagne for after the ceremony, judges fees, my hair and my MOH hair, and Im sure there was more and it only cost us $2300 USD. I didn't think that was too bad at all!

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk dreamsbride, thank you SO much for your review!! definitely helpful to hear how it all worked and learn from everyone's experiences! i have already added EXTRA immodium to our list of OOT bag items! a couple of questions for you if you don't mind! -were your guests able to hear everything at the ceremony? was the mic w/ the speaker sufficient? (FI's best man is playing the acoustic guitar as my processional music.. want to make sure it can be heard!) -were the guests on the beach close to the ceremony a nuissance at all? -did the flower arrangement on the "altar" come with the free package? -did you get to choose the flowers on the arch? were they included in the $300 beach ceremony fee? sorry for all of the ?s!!! just little things that i have been curious about.. much easier to ask the BDW brides than the WCs! thank you SO much!! Hi Erin! Here are the answers to your questions: -were your guests able to hear everything at the ceremony? was the mic w/ the speaker sufficient? (FI's best man is playing the acoustic guitar as my processional music.. want to make sure it can be heard!) We chose the trio as our music - it was $250 for them to play for an hour. They walked behind me playing as I went down the aisle. They continued while we signed and had pics taken. I think a guitar by itself will be fine, your guests should be able to hear it no problem. -were the guests on the beach close to the ceremony a nuissance at all? To be honest I didn't even notice people on the beach, but now when I look back at picture there were a couple of people watching from beach chairs. They stay pretty far away though. They weren't saying anything at all though. You won't even notice them! -did the flower arrangement on the "altar" come with the free package? The arrangements on the table were added seperately. We had 37 guests attend and that was one of the centrepieces we used. Deyanira just took them to the restaurant afterwards. We should have had 4 round tables and one head table (until it rained and we went downstairs) so I paid for 5 centrepieced at $95 each I think. To be honest, I really didn't care if I had them or not, but hubby thought it would add extra colour. We had turquoise table runners which looked great with the colours they chose for the centrepieced. -did you get to choose the flowers on the arch? were they included in the $300 beach ceremony fee? The flowers on the arch were there since we got there at the start of the week. I think they just freshen them up daily. So no, I didn't get to choose the flowers. The arch stays up all the time. When you get to the resort, if you want to see where the ceremony takes place, go to the ocean and it is to the left. It is right by the Aquatics Centre, so it is on the edge of the property, which is fine because there are no resorts on this side and the one resort that is to the right is actually closed down right now so there is no one there. This makes for a very quiet beach area which I loved. I hope this helps! Thanks, Kylie

Quote: Originally Posted by lp579 DreamsBride09, Thanks so much for your review and the pictures!! It's really good to hear that you thought the beach was more private for the ceremony, and after looking at your pics, a very beautiful setting! I'm afraid I'll probably melt in my dress as well....oh well. One question for you, was your bouquet one of the options in your package, or was it an upgrade? (It's stunning!) Thanks, and so happy to hear that you had a fabulous Canada Day wedding!! Thank you so much, I loved it too! My bouquet was included in my package. She basically gives you a binder to choose from. There aren't that many options. I just didn't want one with carnations in it. My bouquet was pink lillies and pink roses, however the roses were supposed to be white, but no biggie! We got the free package which included my bouquet and one boutiniere, we just added another smaller version of my bouquet for my MOH and another boutiniere for the best man. I hope that helps! Oh yeah, they will bring you a bottle of champagne in the room (well actually they bring a fruit tray and a letter saying there is a bottle of champagne ready when you are. You just have to call the concierge to let them know when your ready) what I did with my flowers was I just put both bouquets in the cold water from the champagne to reduce wilting.

Quote: Originally Posted by KPEG Nice pictures!! Thanks for sharing. Did you find the resort too big or too small? Was it very busy/crowded? Did you have an problems with booking the wedding times/location? I would ideally like to use the gazebo and have an afternoon wedding. But if you're saying it's that hot....I might have to reconsider. Although, the plan is May, so maybe that's a bit better. Ugh, so many thoughts! The resort wasn't too big or too small. It was comfortable. Even though the hotel said they were at 96% occupancy, you'd never know. When we went to the a la carte restaurants they were never full. The gazebo is really nice, although if you want privacy this may not be the place for you. The gazebo is right outside the lobby and main buffet. I watched a couple of weddings there and they looked beautiful. I really liked the gazebo, but I figured we're going down south to do a wedding so why not get married right at the beach, which we did. Good luck with your planning and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Quote: Originally Posted by KPEG Congratulations DreamsBride09! How did you find the resort? If you have pictures and more info to share with me, I would really appreciate what you are willing to share. Thanks! Check out the Dreams Punta Cana Brides thead, I posted pics and my review yesterday.

Here are my pics! Wedding pictures by kylie_felix - Photobucket

Hi Everyone! I guess now its finally time to post my review of the hotel. Sorry if it is long!! Flight: We left from Toronto on the 2:40pm flight which got us into Punta Cana around 7pm. We flew on CanJet (really small planes and kind of crappy - but hey... we got there!!) Arrival: When you arrive at the airport after getting your bags, you will be approached by TONS of porters and taxi drivers trying to get you to take their cabs. If you booked a package through a tour operator that includes your transfers, just ignore these guys and walk right through. Your tour operator will have a sign with the company name on it and direct you to which bus you will be taking to the resort. When we got there we had a completely full bus of about 55 people. It was a very nice motorcoach and we arrived when it was dark out so we didn't really get to see the villages you pass on the bus. I've been there before so I know what is around. Also when we went at night in the large bus the drive didn't seem to be that bad. There has been lots of complaints on forums like Trip Advisor saying the ride was horrible and people were throwing up, this DID NOT happen on my transfer. Everyone found it fine. Since Dreams is pretty much one of the furthest hotels passed the main Bavaro Beach strip, we had to drop some people off at the Majestic Colonial (which is also a beautiful hotel - we stayed there last year for a wedding). It is about 1/2 hour to the Majestic and then another 1/2 hour to Dreams. Check in: Upon check in to the hotel, unfortunately we were not given our private check in (which didn't really matter since my group was mainly the largest group checking in- there was another small group of about 10-12 people) and we did not get the complimentary champagne upon arrival. My sister actually arrived from Cyprus a couple days before us and paid one of the waitresses to bring champagne to our bus. Hotel Room: There are 9 buildings with rooms in the hotel. We booked just a Deluxe room ( the lead in room category) and were never upgraded, which is fine. The only thing that was wrong with our room was that my room was right next to MY PARENTS!!!! A little awkward! LOL!! I went up to the front desk to have my room changed and they told me there was nothing they could do for me because they were at 96% occupancy (so what about that other 4% eh??!). I was told to come back the next day at 2:30pm to see if there was going to be a room available to switch. This is what I did and they did switch my room. We were originally in room 8209 and were changed to room 1217 (which was an oceanview - same size room though). A couple of my guests had problems because there was my cousin who was with her husband and their 2 twin girls who are 6 years old. They booked a Deluxe Family Suite and when they got to their room it was a king size bed and a pull out couch. By the way, the pull out couch was literally a single bed. There is no way 2 grown children could sleep on that bed. The hotel brought a cot to the room which they were okay with. My group was all over the hotel, the only buildings we weren't in were building 2 & 6! Hotel: The staff was very friendly. The building itself could really use a fresh coat of paint, but none of my guests even noticed since for most of them it was their first time at an All Inclusive. Watch out for Tarrantiulas! (sp?) they are everywhere, but they are scared of you! This is the case in alot of the Caribbean countries, no need to be alarmed. Restaurants: The buffet was excellent! Very yummy food! There is a wood burning oven to get pizza made fresh 24/7! I'm not a breakfast person, but I was yold that the Oceana restaurant near the beach had a great breakfast buffet, and it was much quieter than the main buffet (World Cafe). For lunch the main buffet is open and Oceana is open for a la carte, there are also about 3 or 4 different bbq's on the beach and near the pool. The one on the beach has more selection *** MAKE SURE YOU BRING IMMODIUM!! *** Every single one of us needed it during the week. Not sure if its the food or what, but I've never had this happen before on an All Inclusive before. Some staff had said that it is because of the utensils used when cooking because the food is raw, then sits in the sun and they serve you with the same fork. Wedding: I got to the hotel on Saturday night and there was a letter at the front desk from Deyanira letting us know when to meet her. The wedding took place on Wednesday and we met with her on Tuesday at 10:30am. Yes it did seem a little short notice, but don't be alarmed, they were amazing! Deyanira was so nice and so helpful. There were things that we had no clue what we should do and she let us know what the options were without making us feel forced to do so. We chose the free wedding package and just added on extras. We felt this worked best for us since there were things on the one you had to pay for that we wouldn't even use! On Wednesday we just brought our fans and table runners to the wedding department in the morning and I relaxed in the sun until about 2pm. I had a hair appointment for myself and my MOH at 4pm in the spa. I was pleasantly surprised on the turnout of our hair, I've had so many compliments on it! I didn't even have a picture to show them. They just gave me a couple of magazines and I chose from there. The spa staff do not speak english well at all, so don't try to explain to them in english what you want, a picture works best. It took about an hour to get my hair done, so I was back in my room at 5pm, and I just needed to do my make up and get dressed. Deyanira came to my room 5 minutes before the ceremony to get me and we walked downtogether along with my MOH and my Dad. It was so hot that day and I am so happy we chose a 6pm wedding. It was cooling off, and at this time, the sun sets at around 7/7:30pm so it made for some great sunset pics. After the ceremony the resort photographer took all of the family pictures and then took us down the beach for some private more intimate pictures. Our reservation at the Bordeaux Terrace for the reception dinner was to happen at 7pm. When we were taking our pictures we notices an enormous rain cloud coming right for us! Once we got to the Bordeaux Terrace, which looked beautiful, unfortunately I made the call to move the dinner downstairs to the Oceana restaurant. Good thing we did because about 10 minutes later is poured for about 2 hours! It would have been nice to have the dinner outside, but it turned out fine. It was soooo hot though! I couldn't even eat I was so hot! After dinner I had to go change out of my dress. I wish I could have kept it on, but it was rediciulously hot! So this is the end of my review! I hope you liked it, and I don't want to sound negative about the hotel at all, everyone had an amazing time! I'm uploading pics to photobucket now and will post them!

Im not from Winnipeg but I am Canadian (from Mississauga, ON). I just got married at Dreams Punta Cana one week ago today. It was awesome. Let me know what sort of questions you need answered, I also work for a Tour Operator and know and have been to many of the resorts in Punta Cana within the past 2 years. Good luck and Congrats!

Also, if you are planning on bringing travellers cheques with you, they charge a fee of approx $2.25 per transaction but that is to convert into Dominican Pesos. If you want your US travellers cheques cashed into US dollars they take 15% of the travellers cheques!! My sister got screwed over for alot of money from this wrong information given from the hotel. I don't want anyone else to get screwed over. Please tell your guests so no one is surprised!!