mekanabr

Congrats on your wedding and thank you for sharing your experience with us! I am considering the Majestic for my wedding in July 2011 and agree that the open bar prices are ridiculous. If you don't purchase a open bar package, do they provide soft drinks or juice or anything with the dinner? I don't think I want to see my friends after a few hrs of only being able to drink shots! lol Thanks!!

Great ideas! You'll have to let us know when you get back what everyone thought of them! Congrats and I hope you are having a lovely time at your wedding!!!

This is such a great thread, thanks for all the useful info ladies!

Great job!! Love all the personalization you did with the kits!

Congrats and good luck with the rest of your planning!

These are great, good job Mom!

I Love love love pictures so I want to do a photo guestbook too. Poloroid doesn't make the cameras anymore, and even if you do have one, the film is really pricy since you have to buy it online (plus since its not made anymore theres no guarentees that its still usable) I like the idea of having a few premade things to fill in, names, where they traveled from etc, that'd save some time for guests. This is what I'm going to do and since I've got some time to plan I haven't exactly figured this out entirely, but you'll get the idea... Anyway, I think what I am planning on doing is purchasing one of those single picture printers that you either put your memory card it or directly hook your digital camera up to. Most of them are really tiny (smaller than a shoe box) so its packable, and its something that I'll use again. I'm going to purchase a bunch of photo paper and designate someone to take a few pics of ppl when they get to the reception (or pics of everyone from the days up to the wedding..not sure yet). Once everyone has thir pics taken, someone will hook up the camera and have them print out while everyone is eating dinner. Then have a table set up where ppl can pick out their picture(s) and add it to the book and write messages to create something like a scrapbook. If the pics are taken at the wedding I'll prob add a few fun props like hats or shades or mustaches... but as I said I don't have all of this totally planned out yet but hopefully you'll get the idea! Any suggestions would be great!

I have to agree with everyone else, thats something you need to cover. If you are worried about the price, is it possible to rent a larger vehicle to accomodate more ppl at a lower price? I know its not exactly as easy as renting a bus in the states but its something you might want to look into if you want to cut costs... Also, you only list this price as hotel to marina, you might want to check that the cost is for round trip not just one way! Either way its something that you need to pay for but it might be helpful to look for other means of transportation..

I agree with what everyone else has said... In my opinion, everyone already paid $$$ to come to the wedding, you guys should at least cover whatever you offer for the wedding reception (booze, food etc) If you're worried about the cost then don't offer it. Good luck with the rest of your planning, I'm gong to crave lobster the rest of the night lol!

Quote: Originally Posted by ali0284 I just HATE how everyone questions your choice for a DW and complains about it. To me, if you are going to complain, then don't come. YOu can't make everyone happy, right? HA, AMEN! It's your wedding so they just need to get over it! Sorry you're having such a rough time... we haven't actually told my fiance's family that we are planning a destination wedding yet for this exact reason!

This is such a fantastic thread! I know I saw this on pretty much every post, but I LOVE this forum!! So many amazing ideas!! I didn't think I would have the opportunity to do the bouquet or garter toss but I love these ideas and will definitely be using them. It'd be neat if you could arrange with the hotel to have the winner of one of the games to have their room get that special couples treatment of rose petals, champagne in the room etc as a suprise after the wedding...

Hmmm... thats a tough one. I dont think that your aunt had any right to go off on your mom! I had a similar situation with my aunt and finally when she was visiting, I told her that if she has nothing positive to say about my choice then dont say anything (that finally quieted her down when she realized I wasn't changing my mind...I refused to discus it with her about it until she just gave in haha). Anyway, just because you are having a destination wedding, doesnt mean that you can't have the same celebrations that every other bride does, especially if your family is so willing to throw you one. I think its a nice opportunity for ppl that can't afford to go to the wedding to be able to celebrate with you. That being said, I do think that there has to be a limit to gifts at these kinds of celebrations (at least in my opinion). If I were a guest attending a DW, I wouldn't want to have to buy a shower gift, a wedding gift, plus spend a grand just to get to the actual wedding. I think a really great shower can be thrown that doesn't have to be planned just around opening presents. You plan games, food and spend time with your friends and fam. You can always let your guests know that their presence is all you ask for at the shower and instead ask for advice or suggestions. Also something that I've seen done is that instead of gifts, ask your guests to print out a few of their favorite recipes so that you can create a cook book. That way everytime you use the recipes you think of the person who gave it to you. I'm interested to see what other ppl say about this bc I'll be dealing with it soon too (my FI fam is really big and most likely most of them will be able to come to the wedding..) Good luck with your shower, and don't let pesky family members dampen your celebration!!

I think an engagement party is a great idea! We did one but only invited our friends that happened to be in our home town over Thanksgiving since its rare everyone is in the same place at the same time. But it was sooo fun since it had been months since we had all been together and its all about you and your fiance...yay! However, I've been told you have to be careful though about inviting ppl to an engagement party that aren't going to be invited to the wedding (unless this is your substitute for an at home reception). You might have to make it understood that only your closest family and friends will be invited to the actual wedding or you could get some hurt feelings to ppl down the road who celebrated with you in the beginning. Has anyone else heard this before? Not that I want to discourage anyone from having a party, I think we should get to celebrate our engagement every weekend!! But just don't want you to unexpectedly have to deal with an unhappy friend or family member once the invites are sent out!

I had this struggle at first too when I was planning. I found some really fabulous places that I thought everyone would be willing to spend the money for. But as my FI and I started to think about what we really wanted on our wedding day, we realized that to us it was more important to spend the day with our family and friends than to be at a 5 star resort (even if it cost us a little more for the wedding). So now we are looking into less expensive, but still great resorts. Also I agree that whatever the price is, you should give your guests as much time as possible to save for the trip. Its easier for ppl to digest the price of a vacation when you can break it up over time! That's one of the reasons we are doing a July 2011 weddig so that it gives our guests (and ourselves) a while to save up for the trip. Good luck with your decision, whatever you choose I'm sure you'll be happy- it is your wedding after all!

These are so pretty! I will definitely be trying them out. I am curious about how you are getting them down to your destination... Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for the info, I think I should prob just convince my FI that we should do a site visit for a few days...that would be amazing since theres 2 ft of snow on the ground in DC! haha. Anyway, I think we will do an open bar (regardless if its pres. suite or not..I'm not running around in my dress waiting for drinks! haha) But is it possible to buy bottles of beer or liquor for cheap anywhere? In case we wanted to do something back in our rms after the wedding since I'm assuming running back and forth to an open bar would be a little ridiculous. Thanks!! Ahhh I love this forum!!!

Congrats!! Where did you hold your ceremony and reception? Would love to see some of your beautiful pictures!! Thanks!!

Quote: Originally Posted by MexicoBeachBride2010 the bride and groom get the room for their wedding night but the party must shut down at 11pm. I was there in May and toured this option. It's beautiful but my fiance and I didn't want to spend all the extra money. We wanted to do the free dinner and you can still do that with the presidential suite but it seemed like such a waste of time having guests trek back and forth to this spot. Is there anywhere to go after 11pm? Or is the presidential suite big enough for a quiet-ish after party? Thanks for all the info everyone, you are the best!!

Thanks for the info on the presidential suite, I was hoping that if you did go through with the extra expense that it meant you could stay there as late as you wanted! That's kind've ridiculous that that bride got kicked out at 11, since I heard that you book it for a 24 hr period... bummer. Do most of the rentals only last until 10 or 11? I don't really want to have to go to the 'disco' late night but I dont want to have the reception ending at 10 either...

Glad to see I'm not the only confused bride about all the DR prices! I did notice that some packages are cheaper into Puerto Plata, they have some nice hotels there too (its hte north side of the island). I haven't been able to figure out which resort offers the greatest value for us and our guests bc each are so different. I like Majestic Colonial/Elegance bc they seem to have reasonable rates but the wedding packages sure add up quick, esp if you want a private reception like I do. Excellence seems nice too, but I can't find a ton of info about their wedding packages. When I looked at prices for Moon Palace they were much more than $900 for 4 nts (and I'm coming from the East Coast too) so you got a great quote! I did notice though on some travel sites that there might only be 100-200 dollar difference between a 4 nt and 7 nt stay, which I thought was very interesting. I think I'm going to offer both choices to my guests since they might think they are getting a better value on the week long vaca. Anyway, thanks for all the info and keep up the advice, its super helpful!!!!

Thanks for sharing and congrats! I would love to see pics too!

This is such a great site! I just ordered a bunch of samples and can't wait to receive them. Thank you so much for sharing!!!

They look amazing! Congrats and great job!!

love the idea of the white boards!! Where did you find them?

That's definately a concern of mine but I'm going to include luggage locks in the 'what to pack' list and encourage all of my guests to keep their bags locked while they aren't in their room. I'm going to bring a few extras with me as well to make sure everyone has them. I've read a few horror stories of guests even having their safes broken into so I think keeping your bags locked up will help. I also saw a thread that some ladies were making door hangers that didnt necessarily say they weren't in the room, instead they had fun sayings like 'No Mas Tequila!', 'How can I be so thirsty when I drank so much last night?' or 'Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses' Anyone have any other cute quotes?