ska2m

YAY! Congrats! You'll have so much fun planning and you'll find everything you need on Dreams right here in this forum!

OMG lilboltz, I'm actually quite surprised to ehar fo this extra $10 per person per hour cost for the extra reception hour....That'll be an extra $600 for us to just have the terrace for an additional hour.... Hmmmm..... I wonder if Deyanira will mention this cost in advance or will i not hear of it until the day of. Thanks for the heads up, I guess I need to factor that cost into our total. I so hate how you can't negotiate anything here and how they nickel and dime you for everything. Oh well, i guess it's all worth it in the end!

Hey Ladies, Just an fyi. If you haven't booked with DJ Mannia, apparently they are now new vendors for Dreams. So you can book this DJ directly with your WC. Thanks!

Hey Morgan, I'll be taking my dress in a garment bag, but it will be stuffed and in a cardboard protection so it can't get squished. I will definitely be carrying on the plane with me. I will not be risking it getting lost or damaged. So I think your friend is right to recommend this.

Reception can be however long you want it, however, it has to end by 11pm. So I will be starting my reception at 7 and going until 11 (so 4 hours).

Is it too late to hire a DJ, either the resort one or maybe DJ Mannia? Have you tried Cabos (for MAC) or Limewire? I don't think those are down....But if you end up having to download, $80 is not a whole lot, considering a DJ would've cost much more.

Hi Erika, If you have the package that includes the photographer, then yes, those 50 are free, but anything more than 50 you pay a ton of money for.... Hence why i am only using the photographer for the 50 pictures and then I have hired a photographer for everything else.

I do have a question for the brides that have gotten married already. If you brought your own centerpieces (like vases) but no flowers, did they still charge you $100 per centerpiece for just the flowers? It seems so pricey $100 per centerpiece....But then again, i don't know what centerpieces cost, so can't really say that's pricey. I was looking to have a submerged flower centerpiece, but wanted to use 3 different size vases per table, so not sure if the $100 would cover that..... Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again ladies for all your help!

I will be getting married on a Saturday. It was really easy to pick a Saturday, I chose my date 1 year and a half in advance, so that may be the reason why it was available.

Hey Farlem, I visited Sactuary Cap Cana back in April when I was scoping out resorts for our wedding. The resort is very beautiful. At that time, there was construction going on in a few areas and also it was not all inclusive. From my visit in April, i can tell you that the resort was very deserted, i felt like the only one on the resort. There was hardly anyone there and there wasn't much water activities to partake in. It looked like it was mainly for someone who just wants to lay on the sand all day. I don't know if much has changed since then (other than becoming all inclusive and adult only). If you are looking for adult only, you should check out Excellence resort, that is a very nice resort if you prefer to not honeymoon at Dreams Punta Cana. Hope this helps.

Thanks Eliana! I love the pictures and i can't wait to read your review! I'm glad you had no problems (at least major ones). Congrats again!

Hi Lil, Thanks for sharing your pictures, they looked great. It sure did look like you all had a wonderful time! It's getting me all excited for mine! =)

Hi Jenny, I would assume from the posts over the last year that most of them are not using the resort photographer. The reason for me was that they are charging a ridiculous price. They don't give you all the pictures that they take until you pay for each of them. Unlike Michael, it's a flat rate and he takes a ton of pictures and they are yours to keep. Also, the resort photographer charges per hour and also their videography is expensive. So after doing the math, we ended up getting a much better deal with Michael. Since we have a wedding package and get a photographer in the package, we will be using the resort photographer for free for our ceremony, so at that time we will have two photographers. Hope this helps. Ska2

Thanks Lyndsay for the suggestion and picture. I'll definitely be trying out a few different options that are hopefully best for our guests.

Hi Anita, He has i think two different pages, plus he's on facebook. You can check out www.weddingpuntacana.com and www.caribbeanmotions.com Hope this helps!

Thanks Lil! Well, we are expecting from 45-50 guests. I guess we could do the seat thing, or maybe have the seats added after I walk down the aisle? I don't know. But I did decide to have the wedding party stand inside the gazebo with me and that right there is 10 people....How frustrating, maybe Deyanira will have a good suggestion....but if anything else comes into mind for "suggestions" from the brides, I will gladly accept them! =)

Thanks Lil for the update on how your wedding went! Congrats on your wedding too. It sounds identical to mine that I am planning! I am getting marie din the gazebo, but am very concerned that the aisle won't be wide enough for both my parents to walk me down.....so I'm trying to figure out what to do about that. Also, I too am concerned about the pillars being in peoples way to see us! After that, we will be heading to the himitsu terrace for the cocktail hour, thanks on the advice to upgrade, I think we are going to do the same. We also hired Michael Weiler for our photographer, i had only heard rave reviews on him! SO very excited to hear more good stories! We also hired DJ Mannia as they too got rave reviews, I'm glad it went well with them, I will make sure about the time though since we are also going to have a reception from 7-11, so I want to make sure he plays for that long and not before as we will be using the trio band for the cocktail hour. I can't wait to see the photos from your wedding! It would be great to see how everything was set up since I have only seen the terrace empty or with only the tables set up, but never the full set up with DJ, and guests and bar! Congrats again and thanks for easing my mind with your great experience!

Congrats Eliana! Everything will go so smoothly and you will have an amazing time!!! Have lots of fun and can't wait to hear all about it when you return!

Hi all! I'm in NYC. Jenny, I'll be getting married at Dreams Punta Cana too on 11/5/11

I am getting married 11/5/11 and i sent my STD's n October 1 and the invites are being sent out January 1, 2011. Plenty of notice and also they are able to book by January 1 their flights as lots of my friends want to book as soon as they can. Airlines only have flights available 11 months out.

Have an amazing time Jackie! Congrats to you and your husband to be!

Agree with everyone else. #2 is beautiful!

Hello Ladies, I am feeling overwhelmed by the whole mantilla cathedral veil (with a detachable blusher) that I am wearing for my ceremony and what to do with it for the reception. Ideally i would love to wear my veil all night, but since it is a cathedral veil, it will most likely be too heavy to wear all night (even if bustled). So a couple areas i'm confused at what to do and would greatly appreciate any suggestions you ladies may have! I have super straight hair and halfway down my back in length, if i wear my hair down (which this is what i think i'm going to do) I'm assuming that in order to keep the veil from falling (since i will wear on the crown of my head), they will need to put lots of bobby pins in there to hold it in place. So if this is the case, when i go into the reception, i was thinking of doing a veil switch to something shorter, but don't know if that is possible since i don't think it will be easy to take out the original veil and put in the new veil and having it hold in place. I figured maybe i can add something to my hair together with the mantilla veil, but I don't think that with a mantilla veil you can add anything to your hair, like a tiara or such while the veil is on. Don't know...maybe it's possible. But anyway, any suggestions or pictures of how i should consider having my hair/veil so that I'm not without a veil at the reception would be helpful. I've searched the internet for pictures of like a switch in veils and how brides deal with that, but I just assume the girls take their veils off for reception time....so no luck there. Thanks again and sorry for the long post!

Thanks for sharing your pictures Jennifer! You looked great! I'm glad you had an amazing time!

i know this post is almost a month old! But good for you LMango! I was having that same dilemma about whether or not to invite kids or not. I didn't want people to give me a hard time. But then i spoke to my friends who had kids and told me that they totally understand and they didn't take offense at all if i didn't want kids there. They also told me that they feel that weddings should be adult oriented. So that made me feel better and so the only children allowed to my wedding are my nieces who are the flower girls. As for how i mentioned it to guests, on the invites where i have the schedule of events, i clearly sate "adults only", and tell them to contact me if they need babysitting services hired for the night or they can feel free to bring their nanny with them if they really want. Then it's stated again on our website and for our RSVP's we only allow them to choose 2 adults max (since we are having them RSVP online). If anyone complains there is nothing i can do to make them happy. I figured if folks do have kids, they probably may want some vacation time with their spouse, so this wedding is a great opportunity for them to take that mini vacation!