Sunandsand

Good news (I think) Tiara said she'll allow me bring in my own system for free and not use the P.A. I figure I can get good outdoor speakers for the price of what she would want me to pay a dj and I can keep them. She said she's not supposed to do that but she'll make an exception so if you ladies are looking for the same thing ... tread lightly. So, I guess I'm booking the whole SSG for dinner and dancing! Yay!

Hey ladies, Here's an email exchange from myself and Tiara. (her answers in bold) Hi Tiara, I believe after looking at all the options, we would like to rent the entire Sea Side Grill for our reception on July 14. I undertsand that this costs $1000 US plus 26% in tax and gratuities. Can you please tell me what is included with this? The dinner for no more than 60 guests. You will pre – select the meal from the menu of the restaurant. Will we be able to bring an ipod with music and play it for free over the restaurant's speakers? In that case you will have to pay for the DJ services that is USD 250.00 Will we be able to dance on the patio of the restaurant? Yes. ------ Kinda sucks that I need to hire a dj for this. I'm Greek and my fiance is from the Caribbean so we really wanted to play music that would appeal to both our families as well. (I kinda doubt a dj there would have that.) Plus, all I want to do is hook up my ipod. I think she's breaking me down. I am tired of struggling to save money. On another note... my colours for the wedding are going to be white. I know, plain, but also classy. So if anyone wants to go with white and share some chair sashes, etc. let me know.

Thanks Nadia, please forward me the email from Tiara about renting the entire SSG. Also, does anyone know if we can play music for free if we rent the whole restaurant out? (I'm assuming the place has speakers to play ambient music anyway)

Hey ladies, I've just been emailing back and forth with Tiara. If you want to purchase the food from the Sea Side Grill (and not the silver or gold menu) you have to pay $20 plus 26% tax and gratuities. I just sent her another email asking how much it costs to rent out the whole restaurant. Does anyone know this price for certain? (Has Tiara quoted it for anyone?) It might be cheaper than the silver or gold menus or even the $20 option if you have more than 25 people. Also, I asked about the beach dancing. You can rent speakers for $250 for 4 hours and a dancefloor for $120 and you can have dancing on the beach as long as you are done by 11:30. Please let me know if you ladies have gotten the price for renting out the whole SSG.

I haven't even seen this brochure before. ... And it gets more confusing. I thought it was approx $11 US per person to eat what was on the menu. According to this brochure, it's $20 US plus taxes & gratuity. And what happens if you have over 20 people at the SSG? Nadia, thank God you're going down to speak to Tiara. One more thing. Maybe once you've spoken to her, you can get her to write everything down that you've discussed so it doesn't change once we get there.

Quote: Originally Posted by dolfinluck I'm pretty sure they are talking about doing a semi-private at the SSG and you cant have music or dancing but if your renting it out i am sure you can have both. Yes, I'm not renting out the space. Just getting the meals there. Now I'm wondering if we can just have dancing on the beach just by bringing our own music or even just renting their speakers. I only have about 30 people coming (I think) so it doesn't need to be fancy. Just a few dances and then we can head to the disco.

Hey Nadia, If you can find out whether or not you can pay for a dance floor and ipod hook up on the beach for after dinner, that would be great. I'm going to try to have dinner at the Seaside Grill but since they don't accomodate music there, I'd like to have a couple of hours of dancing on the beach if it's possible. We could keep the chairs there from the ceremony maybe.

Hi ladies. I haven't been on the forum for awhile. I was in dress-shopping heaven/hell, but I finally found my dress!!!!! Vera Wang - on sale at Saks in NYC for 70% off (plus an additional 10% off for getting a Saks card). Now I can get back to concentrating on this. Tiara sent me my confirmation today! My new question to her today (since you can only ask 1 at a time) is - since we want to use the seaside grill for the reception, if we can just go down to the beach and get a dancefloor for a few hours for dancing. Maybe they can keep the chairs from the reception there and we can just go back down to the beach. That would be perfect... and hopefully not too expensive. Let's see what she says! Glad to be back. I feel like I missed soooo much

I might attempt to do my own hair as well. I'm getting married at 5 but haven't asked about other weddings that day. I'm still waiting for her to confirm that everything's ok with my credit card. Tiara sent me an email earlier in the week saying that she was processing my card and would let me know once it was processed.... Not sure why it's taken so long. I'll wait for that to be worked out before I ask the rest of the questions.

Amygirl, I think we just have to pay for his day pass. I just booked Arnaud too! Also ladies in Toronto, I found an officiant who will do a simple civil ceremony near the High Park area for between $75-$100. Gord Kushner - Toronto Wedding Officiant I think I might go with this option. Do you know if that means that I won't have to pay $300 for an officiant? And if I don't pay for an officiant, who would do the service? Is this what you guys were talking about? Tiara would do the service?

ladies, send me your emails and I will email you the photos. And if someone can figure out a way to post the photos, please do. It would be great for everyone to be able to see all their options.

Hey ladies, I was looking at these ideas and came up with a similar one. I'm going to have a photo book done at Blurb.com and have people sign it like a yearbook at the AHR. We're getting a professional book done in the Dominican but I can't trust that someone's not going to ruin it by writing over our photos etc., so I checked out blurb and you can get a book with 40 pages for under $30. Including shipping it would be around $40 and at least it's something you can leave out on the coffee table. We'll include some wedding photos as well as photos of us when we were younger, dating, etc.

I've posted the photos in this document because it wouldn't let me actually post them as pics, but if someone else knows how to do this, feel free to post them. We should probably post whatever we all have so we have a central place for everything. And fyi, I haven't heard about my deposit from Tiara either and it has been a week. (LOL) seaside grills.doc

Hey ValleyR, are you flying to Punta Cana or La Romana? I'd love to know once and for all how long the drive is from Punta Cana airport. Also ladies, I'm going to post some of the Seaside Grill photos Tiara sent me.

Vday bride, I'm a bit of a shoe whore too. (Which is why I'm trying to not spend too much money this time around) If you don't want to post your wedges here, could you PM me?

these are the ones I have my heart on but they are above my price range. If anyone sees anything similar, please let me know.

Hi all, I'm having a beach ceremony and would love to wear some kind of heel because I'm only 5 feet tall. Height will help make my dress look better and I also won't look tiny next to my fiance who is 6 feet tall. I have been contimplating wedges but can't seem to find really classy ones. Please post photos of your shoes if you've had a beach ceremony or any suggestions you may have. Thanks

I just checked out the Dreams Tulum site and was overwhelmed. 102 pages. Wow. One thing I noticed (before I had to stop from information overload) is that they had fees listed for table linens, coloured napkins, etc. Has Tiara given anyone a fee for this? I have just emailed her to ask her if there is an extra charge to set up the tables nicely if you are just ordering from the Seaside Grill menu at a cost of $15 pp. Stay tuned for her answer.

Quote: Originally Posted by dolfinluck I am thinking of doing the seaside grill as well. If you don't rent out the whole place, I think there might be a charge of $15 per head if you have over x amount of ppl. I believe it is to take care of bring out everyone's food at the same time. I wouldn't mind paying 15 instead of 30 or 40. My fiance hates the silver package as well and actually wanted to do a buffet insteadWill they still allow you to decorate your area how you want (i.e. like the photos Tiera has sent with table cloths, and a couple of flowers at each table)? Lizzy, meeting you is going to make me life so much easier. I will have to get you a "post-wedding" drink ... or 2.

We're arriving on the 10th so Lizzy, I would love to meet you then! Next question ladies ... have you decided on the reception details? I'm thinking Seaside Grill with the Silver package, which (when you add in gratuities, etc.) comes to about $39 US per person. It kinda sucks to pay for food when there will be free food all around us. (for 20 guests, that's 800$). What are you ladies doing?

TIARA'S BACK!!!! I just got an email saying she was out of the office for a week ... you'd think there would be an auto-response or something, but I keep forgetting that it's a different culture and way of life there. Anyway, looks like I'm getting married July 14! YAY Ladies, what time are you getting married (ceremony)? I am thinking around 5 p.m. so it's not too hot. I looked up the sunset times for that time of year and sunset is scheduled for 7:20 so that gives us a bit of time for photos? What time are the rest of you thinking?

Sorry Nicole, try [email protected]. Still no word from Tiara. Has anyone else had any luck?

Yeah, my last email had "Urgent" in the subject line. I hope she's not tired of me. I have been waiting to book the date because I had to wait for confirmation from family overseas. I just hope I haven't screwed myself. Also, Nicole, I also told Arnaud that I will be using him after your recommendations.

Nicole can you also send me the buffet menu? [email protected] I also have been trying to get in touch with Tiara. She emailed me last Sunday and I have sent her 3 emails since then because I need to change the date of the wedding (I haven't officially booked it yet and now we're going with a different carrier that leaves on a different day). I haven't heard anything and I'm panicking a little. I don't want to book the flights if I don't hear from Tiara that she has availability for my wedding. I also bought a calling card and have been calling her extension but it always says no one is available to pick up.

Hey ladies, I just had a TA tell me La Romana was 3 hours from the Punta Cana airport. I thought it was only 1.5 hours. Has anyone gone?