lp579

We also asked our friends what their maximum was (the deal breaker) and they too said $1500 which we got by going to the Dominican Republic (Punta Cana) last July. There are good deals to be found so shopping around (a little) is worth it! It's the hardest part of destination wedding planning (IMP), the rest is so much easier! Good luck with the decision!!

We too did our legal ceremony at home....a few hours north of Vancouver. =) If you want to do it in Whistler, the Commissionar we used was fantastic! She let us come to her home (with a gorgeous view of the mountains) and kept it VERY simple. Same cost as the ones in Vancouver as listed in a previous post.....just an option. Oh, and you get the formal marriage certificate so much quicker than doing it out of country.

YES! Definitely keep it on! We hit the disco after our reception ended at 10:30 and it was the most fun ever! My dress was disgustingly dirty with dirt up the bottom, pizza stains (from a late night snack) and it all came perfectly clean after getting home 2 weeks later. Also, the disco (at Dreams Punta Cana) was air-conditioned so it wasn't crazy hot with having a big ole dress on! It was way to much fun to look at all the pics afterwards with us all in our wedding clothes!! Have a blast!

We had a non-religious ceremony with a few jewish traditions thrown in (hubby is jewish). We had his mom explain the 'breaking of the glass' at the end of the ceremony and did the 'hora' and the 'chair dance' at the reception! It got everyone up and dancing! Good luck with your planning, I'm not sure how easy it is to find a Rabbi in the Dominican... =)

nsbride 2010 & lrdavis23 ~ We actually brought our own centerpieces! I got them at ikea for around $20 per table and in that we only had 5 tables it was a good deal! I'll try and find a picture of them and post it later! (If I can figure out how too.....!) rdhbride ~ We had the ceremony at 5pm, then group pictures right after which took until around 6ish, then the cocktail hour until just before 7:30, then reception until 10:30, then hit the nightclub! ebredhawk & jocy ~ They couldn't actually offer "a choice" we actually had both chicken & salmon on the same plate which was quite a lot of food! However, some people only ate one of mains, and some ate it all! I'm sure if you had really fussy guests then they could just put one item on the plate. Let me know if you have any other questions!!

THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG....SORRY!! Well I'm officially starting to feel a little guilty that I haven't done an official wedding review from our big day in July at DPC!! Sorry to you all! This forum was super helpful to me, but I'm sure you can see by how many posts I have that I didn't actually get a chance to be on here all that often, but I'd like to help out as much as I can! We were married on Tuesday July 21st of this year at DPC after our original plans to Mexico were cancelled by the airlines...during the swine flu crap! We had Deyanira as our coordinator and she was fantastic!! All the coordinators seemed very nice and on top of everything. We didn't have many requests for her ahead of time and simply planned almost everything once we met with her the day before the wedding. We had chosen the Ultimate package and had a few ammendments! We couldn't use the resorts photographer as we'd booked HDC, and they won't allow any other pro take pics. We also substituted the dessert in the package for a second entree choice (we had chicken & salmon) as not everyone would have been happy with one...and with the wedding cake, who needs dessert was our thought! By the way, the cake was delishious! It was the standard white vanilla one with strawberry type cake inside...yummy! We were the only wedding booked that day, so we had our choice of time (5pm) and location for ceremony and reception. We originally chose the beach (it comes included if you choose the Ultimate package...which we did), however the day of the wedding, it was overcast and rainy, so Deyanira moved the ceremony to the Himitsu terrace under the covered section. She took care of everything as I was in the salon for hair & makeup, and told me not to stress, which I didn't. The appointments for hair were made when we met with Deyanira as were our massages! The only set-up we left with Deyanira were our centerpieces, which were a rectangular platter with a clear square vase in the center with a floating flower (she put an orchid in) and two froasted triangular small tea-light holders with of course tealights. She also sprinkled some pink rose petals around to add a bit of colour. And we also left her our gift favours with their table number on it. We recieved everything left over and our centerpiece stuff the next day. For the ceremony, we had a symbolic one as we didn't have time to organize all the paperwork with our location switch, so we were legally married in shorts and flip-flops at home in Whistler on the commissionar's balcony over-looking the mountains with just the friends who were coming to the Dominican with us. No one else at home knows about this! We did it exactly one week before our REAL wedding! We brought our own ceremony with us and gave it to Deyanira (who did the ceremony), and made it very personal to us! It was about 20 mins long with the reading from my husband's dad and his mom explaining the 'breaking of the glass' at the end...a little jewish tradition thrown into a non-jewish wedding! (Husband's side is Jewish!) At the end of the ceremony we had a quick champagne toast and some group type pictures done on the open part of the terrace as it wasn't raining at this point. Then hubby, myself, Francisco from HDC photo and the videographer from Dreams went very quickly down to the beach for some photos and got in a good session! It started raining as we got back towards the terrace!! The cocktail hour was in full swing when we returned with the 3 piece trio playing. We had only 28 people total so we didn't use a lot of space on the terrace, but it was raining so our reception was actually in the ball-room just off the terrace, so people wandered in between. Our reception was very simple from 7:30 until 10:30pm, and we had a couple of friends who more than willingly kept the music flowing and had the just the right song all 3 hours! We had some traditional chair dances and the hora which are more jewish traditions that made everyone get up and dance!! Dinner was served in between all our dancing and the servers and bartenders were VERY attentive all night! Our photographer actually was the one that kept things flowing with the 1st dance and cake cutting, etc. By 10:30, we were ready to move on, some of the older folks were tired and the younger folks and a few "oldies" were onto the nightclub. It was ridiculously fun for the rest of the night due to the friends & family that we had with us! In the end, it didn't matter that it rained on our wedding...we were just so stoked that it had finally happened and we had the funnest day of our lives with the most special people in our lives! Hope this helps out, and feel free to ask questions!! Have fun!! Leila

Not sure if the patio locations were cleared up...so I thought I'd help out anyways. El Patio's terrace is ground level quite close to the main lobby area far away from the ocean. The Bordeaux's terrace is on the 2nd floor of a 3 restaurant complex close to the ocean, but the bar used for that one is open to the public as well. The Hmitsu terrace is a 2nd floor one again close to the main lobby but fairly private as they set up a private bar just for you and your guests (that's the one we chose). Hope that helps out!!

Hey DPC brides! Someone had asked about tipping during/after the reception...just wanted to give you what we did. We tipped each server/bartender around $5-$10 USD (I can't remember the exact amount as I'd consumed a little tequila and my aunt was "taking care of this") Lol! We also tipped Deyanira around $40 as she really did an amazing job of everything!! They definitely appreciate something.... In the end, it's your personal preferance.

Iagree with Carly, only have who you absolutly want to have! The numbers don't have to be balanced! We didn't have anyone stand up with us, but had one of our closest friends each sign the marriage certificate for us. It was about us, not our attendents. Good luck with your decision!

We registered at the Bay and our guests were from as far away as South Africa and had no problems buying gifts on-line! Home Outfitters is owned by The Bay, so I'd assume they'd have the same purchase experience. We also live 1.5 hours from the nearest Bay or any department store for that matter and we just made an afternoon of 'scanning' items in Vancouver....then sorted out what we actually wanted/needed after the wedding!

I found this little blurb about the e-ring and used it as part of our ceremony. I had my e-ring on my right hand, and right after the 'ring exchange' for both of us, we had the officiant read this: "The engagement ring is a symbol of promise and intention. Now the intention is realized and the promise fulfilled. (Groom's name), please place the engagement ring on (bride's name)'s finger over her wedding band to symbolize that the love that brought you together will always protect and sustain your marriage." I found this somewhere on this forum (sorry, to who-ever I may have stolen this from!) and thought it was a unique way to 'move' the e-ring! Whatever you do, make it comfortable for you!

We recently got married at Dreams Punta Cana and it was the perfect place to take your friends and family! The kids area is really good, and the social aspect is fantastic!! The beach is really nice as well, and you can walk quite aways down in as well. The waves are quite small at DPC so you can happily float in the ocean. Price wise, I'd say it's the best deal for a high quality resort. Our Toronto guests paid around $1600 all in. Hope this helps you out and no matter which resort you choose, you'll have a fantastic time with everyone!!

We flew with Air Canada vacations through Toronto as well, and you're allowed 2 checked bags at a max weight of 50 lbs each. We were slightly over (about 1-4 lbs) and they didn't bug us. I did make sure they saw me carrying my wedding dress just in case that helped them 'let us go'! Lol! As for business class (AC vacations doesn't have first), I think they were just allowed an extra bag with the same weight restrictions. We had extra bags and we just got our friends flying with us to check them.

We had NO problems taking stuff with us to Punta Cana. My husband & I had a bag of stuff, and his parents had 2 suitcases of 'stuff', and no-one had an issue. As long as you're taking everything back home with you, I wouldn't worry about it as it's not considered "gifts being left in the country."

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenn&Kraig I ladies!! I apologize if this was already frought up in this thread! This is my post here! We are not planning our DW until Feb 2011, os we do have some time on our side. We were originally thinking Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe, as they have they stay at one play at 5 option, which would be nice for quests who are more price concious. However I was wanting to use Photo Souviner, and asked the WC at Barcelo, and she stated no outside photograpghers are allowed, you have to use theirs, Tropical Pictures, www.tropicalpictures.com.dom, and I don't care for their website, or package options. Does Dreams have a restriction on outside photograpghers? What are you ladies doing? I am now considering other resorts! You CAN use outside photographers. The resort fee for the day is $79 USD. We used HDC photo if you're still looking for someone. Their package was a great deal and the photographer was super nice and easy to work with! Plus, we had all of our prints and CD copy in 4 days!! We're still waiting for the photo-book and website, but Arnaud (who runs it) responds very quickly to any inquiries you may have!