DawnBuckley

Hi Brides to be! When I was married at the Palladium last year, I was considering bringing table runners but had enough stuff to bring with me. It turned out perfect anyhow because Carolina had done all the tables with white tablecloths. My colours were turquoise and white so there was a lovely table centerpiece on the head table (which sat 10 of us). The centerpiece had turquoise ribbons rnning throughout so it was very lovely. I brought the ribbons but I think Carolina would have used her own on it had I not. We were 40 people in all. They set up our main head table across one section of the restaurant and in front of us in rows were 5 tables of 6 guests. I had bought clear plastic square "plates" which looked glass. I had Caroline put sand in the bottom of each and I brought ivory candles with me wth dried turqouise and ivory iris heads. They looked beautiful. Each table had two of those and I had also brought favours which were packaged in ivory boxes with the tuquoise ribbons attached. Unfortunately I cannot upload photos on this site for some reason so if anyone wants photos or advice or help with anything, please add me as a friend on Facebook (Dawn Buckley from Ottawa Canada). Glad to help out. Very exciting time for your girls... enjoy it!

I had tried to post wedding pics on this site but have had trouble in the past. Richarsd... our wedding date was April 12th as well! Of course that was last year. If you are on Facebook, look me up... Dawn Buckley. I am in Ottawa too. If we chat on Facebook, you can see the pics I have posted there. Anyone else who is interested can do the same. Just let me know you are from this site.

We got married last April 2010 at Grand Palladium. We had actually worked with a great wedding coordinator/travel agent where we live who had worked at various hotels in Punta Cana. She suggested the Grand Palladium due to the great food. She had shown us other 5 stars but it was her recommendation because they were so well known for having the best options and delicious meals. We were 40 people and had a blast. Everything about the resort including the on site wedding Coordinator Carolina were absolutely fantastic. It's an exciting time ladies... enjoy it!

Hi there! I bought them in Montreal on St. Hubert street which is where all the bridal shops are. Too bad they weren't your size.

When I saw these wedding shoes, I had already bought another pair but just loved them and they looked gorgeous when I tried them on with my dress. Then I ended up wearing the first pair so these were only worn during the dress fitting. They are Blossom Collection Size 6 and are Pure White. They have just the right amount of sparkle... waiting for the perfect bride who takes a size 6! Will sell for $35 plus shipping. Here's a link to my kijiji ad. Beautiful Size 6 Wedding Shoes - Never Worn - Ottawa Clothing For Sale - Kijiji Ottawa

How about something like "Please choose the seat where you'd like to eat!"

Hi Girls! I have been MIA too! Been busy trying to plan the AHR. We are definitely having it here at home in the backyard on June 19th! It better not rain as we don't have a tent yet! Oh well...I am sure it will all work out.. fingers crossed everyone! I sent an evite for this party and so far have 56 confirmed that they are coming but 60 have not replied. If they come and bring someone...yikes! But the way I look at it... if they didnt reply immediately, they don't know yet if they can make it so chances are maybe half of that number won't come, so we shall see. Gave them a deadline of this Friday. Sungodess.... its almost here for you! I am trying to do a review too and post it quickly. Having trouble with photos on here though so I opened a photobucket site and might just do a link to all photos so you can all see the beach party, dinner, hotel, gazebo, etc. Will do that soon... I promise. As Caribbeanlover said it is friggin hot here! Just walked to the store for my husbands b-day cake. And guess what I am doing in this heat... cooking a turkey! Just a small one. His Mom and daughter are coming over so it should be fun.. HOT.. but fun. Talk soon girls! Really excited for those of you whose wedding is around the corner!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by DEH83 It looks like most of us went with the same flowers! I didn't like the options that were included, so I went with lilies and the single lilies for the girls. I brought my own ribbon and they did a great job with it. It was a last minute pick-up and I'm glad I did! (the pin was something my Aunt had been saving for my wedding day for over 10 years. She passed away last year, so it was extra special when my cousin gave it to me) Sorry for the loss of your Aunt.. what an adorable pin. It must have been touching to know that she had saved it for you. Obviously she had a great sense of humour.

Quote: Originally Posted by MilitaryMrs.s-to be Don't get to ahead of your self with the menu options because Carolina emailed to confirm that we have La Uva and we didn't end up there. We were at the Mexican restaurant. (I think each rest. had a different menu, I don't remember any of the options you guys listed.) Which was still really good. And your blocked off from the rest of the restaurant so nobody bothers you. We had ceaser salad for appetizer, grilled T bone steak (best I've EVER had!) And one vegetarian meal for one of our groomsman. It looked amazing, I wish I ordered one for myself! and chocolate lasagna and wedding cake for dessert. They were suppose to serve the cake at the lobby where everyone was drinking/waiting for us while we had pictures but they didn't they just set it on the bar and then everyone was scared to touch it so my dad brought it to the restaurant on the train with us. lol. But they actually had a cake table set up there so I guess they were waiting for the cake. Ps - the cake is the BESTEST cake you will ever eat!! And I don't eat cake!! You can end up at any restaurant but I think you choose from the menu (which is food from each restaurant). For example, we were at La Uva for the dinner but the food (Beef Medallions) was from Arecife restaurant. We went there later during the week and had something different... food is amazing there! And I guess if you want the cake for dessert, you just tell Carolina. We chose the tiramisu but had a guest who had chocolate allergies so we told her we wanted to cut the cake after dinner and serve it. Our groomsmen ran around and delivered cake to every table! They wasn't planned but it was fun!

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Dawn, That was just great idea going and trying the menu at the resto's.. smart thinking!!!! wish I'd had the time to have done that lol!! The cake WAS amazig... best wedding cake I've ever tasted!!!! Ohhh you brought your own ribbon!!! I should have done that, but it was still very nice with the white ribbon. Aww the single ones are adorable!!! I just made my girls bouquet for $3 lol and they brought it down with their dress. Didn't get ruined in the travel! This is not the greatest image of the bouquet.. it was a few day later, but it gives you an idea of the ribbon, etc. The locket was an image of my Mom and Dad... my something borrowed.

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Dawn, the one you said you had tried and didn't like, the pasta..well I choice that, what a mistake!!! How did you get the chance to try them all out before picking? I only had 1 meeting with her so there was no way I could have done that, granted I got there Saturday for a Tuesday wedding. Good for you for having the menu still..something to keep as a memory lol! Here is the bouquet I got, it was extra it cost $35.... I saw some girls have different colour ribbon, i didn't think of it but if I did I would have gotten turqouise. Hi Tracy! We had our meeting with Carolina then went to the menus posted in the lobby, found out that a few of the meals were at La Uva (thats where your pasta dish was) so a few of us arranged to have dinner there to try different dishes and desserts. I found that the chocolate there is not as yummy and chocolatey as here so we just decided on the tiramisu and wedding cake. Wedding cake was awesome eh? One of the choices of bouquet was red roses. I changed mine to white roses and gave them the turquoise ribbon to wrap around. Girls... bring your own ribbon and they will fix your bouquet for you. I will try to upload a photo but it seems that the size is never right... how do you go and change your photos to fit? Are you saving files as jpegs or bmps? HELP!

Quote: Originally Posted by sungoddess_08 Woah! lots of posts -- great info!! I can't believe oyu only have 13 days! You are so lucky! I'm counting down -- 45 for me! Ah...I know it will go fast, but not fast enough! We went to the states last night and I bought an amazing honeymoon dress -- it's soo cute. Also picked my FI up some white linen pants, we will look very honeymoon-ie! What are the other options for dinner? Chicken/pasta and beef medalions? Are there any other options -- Tracy, I think it was you who was thinking about the french onion soup, did you end up getting it? I am pretty well ready to go, I've been doing iron on rhinestones for bathing suit bottoms/tank tops, and my dress is now 100% finished...Our mugs/bags for favors are in (I'm drinking coffee from one right now lol). I am debating moving the ceremony up from 5:00 to 5:30ish, Carolina said that's fine - but subject to change --- did any of your times change? I'm not too worried about it, but I'd like it a little later so we can go straight to dinner. FI is at a conference at a hospital in Toronto and I decided to come, but I forgot about the time I'd be sitting around in between. I'm in a cafe dying for more coffee lol. Wow! So many posts since my last visit... I have to go back and read them all. Just noticed yours Sungoddess... your big day will be here soon! Our wedding time was at 6 pm and Carolina did tell us when we had our meeting with her that it might be bumped up to 5:30 if the judge was early. So we told our guests to be at the gazebo fo 5:30. I think Carolina came to get me around 5:45 or so. As for the menu, I happen to have a printout in front of me! This is the menu we got to choose from and I believe it was the same for everyone. Doug and I ran around to the restaurants serving the dishes to taste test before. We chose the Beef Medallions and they were excellent. We also chose Caesar salad but got Caprese instead (it was great so we didn't mind). We chose Tiramisu for dessert but also cut and served our vanilla cake so thats what most people ate. Here's the Menu: Appetizers: - Onion Soup au Gratin - Minestrone Soup - Pasta with shrimps, tomatoes, spinach and curry - Lobster Bisque - Caesar Salad - Caprese Salad - Mostacholli with 3 cheeses (not sure what this is) - Canneloni with spinach and mozzarella Main Dishes: - Grilled TBone - Beef Medallions with Three Pepper Sauce - Grilled Chicken Breast stuffed with Shrimp - Chicken Tetrassini (we tried this and weren't crazy about it... pasta, chicken, mashed potatoes... odd combination) - Beef Milanaise Parmesan (tomato sauce, ham and cheese) -- Again we tried it ahead of time.. it was so-so - Loin of Pork with Marsala Sauce - Salmon Filet - Grilled Bass Filet Desserts: - Tiramisu - Chocolate Lasagna - Fresh Fruit Mosaic - Chocolate Bombon with peppermint flavour - Brownie with Vanilla Cream and Ice Cream - Puff Pastry Cake with sweet Apples and Chocolate Sauce Hope this helps ladies!

Quote: Originally Posted by missbliss85 Hi Dawn, I can't remember the exact amount for the Centurion, but I know that pricing depends on which room you book. We have the Adriatic room, which I put down a $1000 deposit for the date, and I think they required a minimum of $3200 on food and drinks for our booking (based on room size, etc.) You might want to take a look there, as they have about 5 different rooms, many of which can be combined into one larger room. I think the Centurion requires that you use their caterer and bar as well. I'm from Old Ottawa South (area of Bank St. near Billings Bridge) - my parents live about a 5 minute walk from the canal. For our invitations, since I sent these out before we left for our wedding, I bought a simple DIY kit from Staples and printed out the invites and RSVP cards on my computer. To make them look a bit nicer, I printed a photo of DH and I onto vellum paper and attached the vellum on top of the invite. Everybody's been complementing them, and kept asking me where I had them made! Right now I'm stuck waiting for people to reply by May 15th (I purposely made the RSVP date early so that I would have time to chase down the late responders). Leah Thanks for all the great info. Leah! Well this weekend, we decided... we are doing it ourselves... yikes! Hubby is set on having the AHR right here at the house. We will turn it into a BBQ party. Need to find out this week how much for the rental of table, chairs, etc. and hopefully a tent. I heard that they are soooo expensive, but its a little classier with a tent! I will do an evite... not so exciting I know, but we plan it for June 19th which is SOON!! This way, we will know pretty quickly who opened the invite and whether or not they will be attending. Good thing I like party planning. Lets just hope no mosquitos or RAIN comes our way...positive thoughts... sunshine and no bugs!! Isn't party planning fun

I purchased 15 beautiful Thai Silk turquoisey blue boxes from Boston Bride last September. See the following thread (hope this works) or go to her August 27 posting if you can. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...tations-48331/ These are gorgeous boxes which I intended to use to give my MOH, mother in law and bridesmaids their gifts OR I was going to use them for wedding favours (larimar jewellery). Unfortunately we had 40 people join us for our wedding so I did not have enough boxes. One of the boxes has a mark on it but the others are still wrapped in the box I received them in. I paid $15 per box but am willing to sell them for $10 each. Could even split them up if someone wants them. Please let me know. They are absolutely beautiful. If you cannot see the posting on here, I can email you photos. For some reason, I cannot seem to upload pics. Thanks! Dawn

Quote: Originally Posted by rgonzalez_83 Hi April Brides! Does anyone have any pics of the beach party they wouldn't mind sharing? We had originally wanted the private reception but now I'm wondering if it would be better to do the beach party instead. Thanks, Rebecca Hi Gals! The beach party features big spotlights and some hanging flag decorations but very very simple. They use white patio furniture and stack the lounge chairs under a palapa so you can use them or not use them. We didn't. The dj is in a little yellow shack and the bar is on the opposite side. The beach is your dance floor so there is no need for any decorations. I will try to post some dancing photos and the dj in his booth. They did do a nice fabric entrance for us but unfortunately I don't see it in the photos! Sorry!