atrott

We scheduled one 'group' excursion. We planned a snorkeling trip for the day after our ceremony. We didn't put alot of pressure on people to go, we just gave them the option & left them to book the trip themselves if they chose. The spa does run daily specials so you can get some good deals there! We had a small group trip to La Romana to tour the cigar factory. My hubby is a huge cigar fan so he loved that! I've been told that there's a tour of waterfalls that is wonderful but I'm not sure where it's out of.

Just thought I'd answer your questions really quickly since I was just stopping by! We were married at Excellence this past December & it still feels like yesterday. I've been scheming to go back ever since we got home! lol They didn't charge any extra to set up our chair sashes & the few decor items I had brought along. I made sure to bring extra sashes & the coordinators ended up using them to decorate in other places as well. (i.e., around trees & the ceremony table). We too did the middle wedding package. The resort provided ceremony music & then we used our own Ipod during the cocktail hour & reception. They actually only charged us for an hour of speaker rental & we used it for several hours! I had my hair done at the spa & did my own makeup. I took a few pictures with me to give the hairdresser some ideas & I absolutely LOVED the way it turned out. Even better, she was done with it in 20 minutes!! My hairstylist didn't speak good English so I was glad I had taken pics with me. That made communicating so much easier. I can't answer your question about using your own vows during the symbolic ceremony. We did the symbolic ceremony as well but we opted to use the minister they provided & his ceremony was all Spanish. The wedding coordinator was actually the translator during the ceremony. You ladies with upcoming wedding dates at EPC are going to be so happy that you chose them!!

Welcome back Diva! Your pics are beautiful. Glad you enjoyed EPC as much as we did!!

Sorry I didn't get your message sooner Diva. Just got back from Las Vegas & I see you figured it out. Everything looks great! Wishing you a wonderful trip!!

Pinkie, actually Arturo was our photographer & I was extremely pleased with his work. I had exchanged emails with Severine but we never got to meet. I didn't go with a 'list' of must have pictures, I trusted them completely to do their work and they certainly didn't disappoint! I can't remember where I ordered the chair sashes from online, sorry! I do remember I had gotten the info from another post on here. No one in our party had any issues with the food with the exception of one guy on his last night. He ate fish in the french restaurant & it didn't agree with him. We also emphasized to everyone to drink the bottled water and even though some brushed their teeth with tap water, we didn't have any reported issues with that either. We did gift bags for everyone & delivered them all before our trip. I just didn't want the hassle of traveling with everything myself & there were things in them that our guests actually packed and brought with them (i.e., the pashminas & koozies). We used a travel agent for the trip bookings and she booked everything through Funjet at a considerably lower rate than through Excellence themselves. We opted not to go with a 'group rate' as we didn't want to be held responsible paying for rooms that may/may not have been used. As it turned out, we had more than enough rooms booked so that we wouldn't have had to pay extra. We didn't get any discounts at the resort on the wedding either but Griselda had extra flowers added and she only charged us for one hour of rental on the speaker for the ipod. My best advice I can offer is to just relax and let them take care of things for you. More than likely, your guests won't know if theres 'something' missing. The resort and staff were truly amazing to us and I'm sure they'll treat you the same! Hope this helps, if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

I didn't do a garter or bouquet toss at all. There's more than enough room to do everything on the beach! We had some guests that just weren't into dancing with the rest of the partiers & they were still able to sit & chat at the dinner tables without us disturbing them.

Send me your email & I'll get that over to you. I LOVED the beach location! We had perfect weather & just the right amount of breeze on the day of!! There's a tiki bar on the beach that we made a dance area out in front of. We didn't use a DJ, we had everything on ipod & just rented the speaker. After they kicked us off the beach (around 11pm), we all went to the dance club & finished the party there. We also used the officiant included in the ceremony package. Griselda was our translator. Although, we didn't understand most of it, we knew when we were supposed to say 'I do' and didn't have a problem with any of it!

If you haven't been to Excellence before, wait until you get there & check out the Cascade Pool area before you definitely decide on it for your reception. It's a beautiful setting but the buildings block any breeze coming through so it can get pretty warm, even at night. We were there in December & felt like it was going to be too warm between the buildings so we did everything on the beach instead.

Wow! I hate to hear about your troubles Mdb! That makes me even happier that we had a symbolic ceremony @ EPC and did everything legally at home beforehand. If you haven't done it already, I would RUN (not walk) straight to the courthouse! I'd be concerned about health insurance, etc. at this point & not so much with getting my certificate from the DR.

My Hubby is the exact same way! If I get him to sit in the sunshine for an hour, it's a MAJOR accomplishment! There's lots of shady spots at Excellence so I did get him to spend alot longer on the beach than I thought! We went on a snorkeling excursion one day and then a city tour of La Romana (namely the cigar factory) another day. The resort has lots going on during the day. You'll get a newsletter each evening that details the next days events so I'm sure you'll find something to get into.

Quote:Originally Posted by stephany0930 Atrott, i dont think i ever thanked you for the pictures?! so sorry about that! Your pictures are soOoOo lovely! congratulations! I was wondering if you or ANYONE.. had any recommendations about tipping the vendors? Is it expected to tip how we would here in the states? 15-20% in gratuity? I'm planning on tipping the WC, DJ, Photographers.. but should i also tip the officiant? I dont want to under tip i just have no idea what the ettiquette is for tipping overseas!.. thanks!

We did a layer of strawberry & one of lemon. Seems like the cake had a slight flavor to it as well as the filling. Both were very good. I was more partial to the strawberry, it tasted like it had been soaked in strawberry puree or something, it was extremely moist!

Diva, I had washed my hair the night before & all they did was style it. I've always been told it's better to do an updo with 'dirty' hair because it stays better. From my own experience, this seems to be true!

Yes, they did my hair at the salon (which is in the spa). I was VERY impressed with my hair. I took a few pics with me which was a good thing since the stylist spoke very little English & I speak very little Spanish. I have ALOT of hair. It's really thick & anytime I've ever had it done it seems to take forever & they have to use oodles of bobby pins. Isabel had my hair styled in 20 minutes!! AND I had less than 20 bobby pins supporting it. The gentle breeze we had that evening on the beach couldn't move it either so whatever spray they use is super!

We had the reception right on the beach. We went out a few nights before the ceremony just to see how the weather was at night & to see if there were any bugs. Of the whole week we stayed, the bugs were only bad ONE day on the beach & that was after it had rained ALL day the day before. The cascade pool area is pretty but I had read from a previous post that it can get warmer in this area because the buildings block the breeze. I liked the beach location better because they were able to grill all of our food right there in their barbque area. Instead of the food being brought over & just placed in warmers, it was good & hot when we got served! Griselda was my coordinator at the resort. Isuyney helped out. Both were super nice & really easy to work with. I took 60 chair sashes down with me & they are still at the resort for anyone who needs them so you may want to ask them about them.

Stephany, PM me your email & I'll copy it for you to read. I realized that I forgot to mention anything about my flowers. I had the pictures that Ana had sent me beforehand & I was having a hard time making a decision. It didn't get any easier when we got to the resort so I finally just pointed to the white roses & said 'Those!' They turned out to be beautiful! The roses are pretty substantial so they were heavy. The only snafu we had was with hubby's bout. His shirt was silk & thin and the rose was way too heavy. We tried to lighten it up a bit by removing a 'few' petals and it ended up falling apart so needless to say, no flowers for him!

Excellence Punta Cana Wedding Review.docx

According to Tammy, reviews go in the vendor sections but I found this confusing so my next post will be my review. I hope it's helpful & if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

We got married in Punta Cana on December 6th. This was a second marriage for both of us. On my first go-round, I spent a year planning and had the whole Cinderella affair. I honestly don't remember alot about the day other than being rushed around, stressed out and not able to enjoy everything I'd spent so long planning! Doing a destination wedding the 2nd time around was the perfect choice. I didn't have any worries and it was nice to turn everything over to the resort WC. The day was perfect because it was about US, not anyone else. We were able to celebrate with our closest family & friends and enjoy every minute of it. I highly recommend it! It's your day & you should be able to plan it just how you want to no matter what anyone else thinks!

I totally agree that you could do SO much with the theme for Cinco de Mayo! Absolutely go with it if it's the date you want! On another note, I just returned from Punta Cana & Excellence Resort there. We had 34 guests and aside from a few upset tummies, no one really had any major issues with the food. Also our food was GREAT! I wasn't too crazy about the steak at our resort but everything else was quite tasty!

keight, we were in bldg 7. Bldg's 7 & 8 are Excellence Club rooms. Not sure about the others though. On another note, I'm working on my review but I can't seem to find the NEW review section. Anybody have any pointers?

Arturo was our photographer @ Excellence. I can't say enough wonderful things about our pictures. They turned out sooooo good, I'm happy with all of them. We did the 2 hour gold package. You get a discount of $268 (I think) off the package if you're wedding pkg includes photos. We spent a little over an hour before the ceremony taking pictures & then probably another 30-45 minutes after. We were able to enjoy our whole cocktail hour & we had all the right lighting for all of the photos. We did the 20 minute video through Photo Souvenir as well & it turned out perfect as well. I think 20 minutes is just the right length. They recorded the whole ceremony as well as the photo shoot afterward. The edited version of it looks really good. If you pay for your photos with cash or traveler's checks, you also get a 10% discount on everything.

Hi Girls! I'm back & now Mrs. Thomas!! We had a WONDERFUL time & I'm hoping to get my review done tommorrow. It figures, we were in nice warm sunny weather all week in the DR & it was freezing when we got home so I've been sick all week long. I've finally got the pro pics uploaded to photobucket so I'm posting a link if anyone wants to go ahead & take a look: http://s1009.photobucket.com/albums/af217/amybrandont/

Diva, I'm currently sitting in my Excellence Oceanview Suite typing this. We've been here since Friday, got married on Monday (review will be coming - it was WONDERFUL!!) & have had NO complaints about the place. Neither did the THIRTY FOUR guests who travelled with us. The only negative thing I can think to say at this time is there is definitely a communication barrier. I speak Southern & the Dominicans speak Spanish! LOL

I have the same question as Stephany. We're trying to figure out tips for the WC & officiant. Is it appropriate to tip the pastor since he's part of the wedding package anyway? I know traditionally you tip the minister performing the ceremony but I'm not sure the etiquette for a DW. HELP! We leave Friday!! (woo-hoo!!)