hermosahoops

Thanks Dressa. The beach dance party was great. Way better then I had hoped for and perfect for our group.

Post Dinner Dance Party After dinner we took our ipod player and our case of Bohemia down to the beach and had a little dance party. We did our first dance, father/daughter dance, and fun dancing down by the ocean. People could sit and chat on the loungers if they weren’t up for dancing, and we went over by a light so the area was lit nicely. Unfortunately, everyone in our group had been affected at some point with an intestinal bug so people were pretty subdued. People still had fun though, and once the parents headed to bed a handful of us went to the disco and danced until closing. The rest of the trip I am so glad we stayed at the resort after the wedding. We had one more day with everyone and then 3 days by ourselves. It was nice to be able to really relax and not have wedding things to do. We went to the Dominican Restaurant that is on the far side of the resort, down on the beach. I don’t think people generally get to it, but it was my favorite restaurant at the resort. I have a funny thing about treehouses and when I saw the platform table, I asked if we could eat up there. The girl didn’t bat an eye and seated us right away. My tip, request this spot; you face the ocean so it feels super private and it is only candlelit up there. Plus the food at the restaurant was great. If you are interested in more photos, feel free to check out some more of the HDC pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/WorsfoldWedding/ForFacebook?authkey=Gv1sRgCParzqKHyqbIaw# Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions! Rikki

Cocktail Party After the ceremony, hubby and I took pictures with Francisco and everyone else went to the pier for the cocktail party. The spot was really good for us as it was pretty contained. We hung out there and had drinks and hor d'oeuvres for about an hour, hour and a half. Yanna was in and out during the party and was around if we needed anything. My hubby put in a request for a case of Bohemia for after dinner and she had it brought out to us with the stipulation we bring back all the empty bottles. We had the three hot appetizer options but no one really ate the food except for me. I was staaaaarving after the whole big day and everyone else was more focused on the drinks. Reception Dinner We had our reception dinner in the wine cellar between the Italian restaurant and the French restaurant. I worked this all out with Yanna before the wedding. She made sure it was available and set up. This spot was PERFECT for us as it was private, but since the walls are glass, we still felt like there were other people around. We brought our ipod player in there and had soft music in the background. Some of the great things about the room were that we could be as loud as we wanted without disturbing the other patrons, we could do toasts and everyone could hear and we could order from both restaurants, so everyone found something they enjoyed. They did a beautiful job decorating the room with table runners and flowers. They also brought me a vase so I could use my bouquet as a centerpiece. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with a wedding party 12 and less. They couldn’t have fit any more people in there, but 12 was fine. Plus, since we were only 12 we didn’t have to pay any extra to have our dinner in there. It was included in the “all inclusive†price. You should think about this as a dining place in general. What I found about the restaurants at the resort; all you have to do is ask. The fancy/private looking dining spots are all available, but you have to ask about them specifically.

Ceremony The wedding got off to a bit of a late start. Yanna came and grabbed me at my parents suite at 4ish and we made our way to the gazebo. I guess they couldn’t get the sound system to work so Hubby had to run up to the room and grab our personal ipod docking station. We had Elke do the ceremony and she did an excellent job. She looked nice, spoke clearly and read what I’d written for her, but didn’t just stare at the paper. They brought our cake to the ceremony, which I thought was kind of funny. We didn’t eat it until later that night, so it followed us around for a while. We didn’t have any decorations in the gazebo, but they did bring some flowers for the table in the middle. They also put the turquoise chair sashes on the chairs free of charge. Those were provided by Dreams. They also had a side table set up with the champagne and the cake.

HDC We worked with Francisco of HDC Photography. He was great; super professional and right on time. He accommodated our request for more candid pictures rather than the formal poses. Arnaud got the disc to us a few days later and we were able to pick our prints. The first time was a bit of a mishap; he gave us someone else’s wedding! Not to worry, he dropped the right dvd off the next day.

The Wedding Day!! Spa Due to the increased rainfall from Hurricane Thomas, we elected to have our ceremony at 3:30 instead of 4. My mom, sister and I started our hair appointments at 11:30 and we wrapped up around 2. I didn’t have the hair trial, but I didn’t have to worry as I loved what she did with my hair. It wasn’t anything like I tried to describe, but it still looked really pretty. Just know, if you bring a picture or indicate you like something from their books, they’ll make your hair look EXACTLY like that. I wasn’t able to say “the front like this, but the back like this†etc.

Yanna I know people get a bit aggravated with the wedding coordinators at the resort, but they have so much going on, I can’t say I blame them for taking a week+ to get back to someone whose wedding is 8 months away. They oftentimes have multiple weddings going on in one day, so they aren’t near the office much. Even with all the weddings every day, Yanna still did an amazing job making our wedding feel special. I felt she really went above and beyond to make my requests come true. She set up a rehearsal dinner for us at Oceana the night before the wedding and had them hold a table for us in the back. She also had them decorate it with our wedding colors and place flowers on the table. I would definitely recommend Oceana as a reception site over the SSG deck. The restaurant is nice, open and right by the beach. It isn’t air conditioned, but there are a ton of ceiling fans so the air moves around well. I also think it is more private then the SSG as there aren’t any other restaurants right there.

It has been a month since the wedding so I figure I should probably post my review already! I couldn’t have had such a great wedding without all the support and encouragement from the wonderful people on this forum, and I cannot thank you enough! The Resort In a word; wow. Dreams La Romana is amazing. The entire facility is gorgeous. From the winding paths through the grounds, to the pink flamingos by the restaurants, it was like being in a movie. All of our guests were so impressed by the level of cleanliness and the attention to detail applied to everything. The employees were incredibly nice and friendly and spoke fantastic English. With such a high guest turnover, I don’t know how they manage to make each person feel special and memorable, but somehow they do! We had 10 guests for our wedding. My husband and I were upgraded to the Preferred Club and placed in building 7. Everyone else was placed in building 5, except for my parents who upgraded to a suite and were in building 2. All three of these buildings were the newer style and were very nice. A few guests had complaints about their rooms; two double beds instead of a king, funky smell, etc. I called down to the front desk and they were promptly moved to other rooms. I don’t know if I would have paid the extra money for the Preferred Club, but I am SO glad we were upgraded. It was noticeable quieter on that side of the resort, and the preferred pool was a lovely place to relax without the sounds of the rest of the resort reaching you. Plus it was nice to be able to pop into the club for a drink, snack, or to speak with the concierge in there, where there was generally no line.

Love the review Nancy! You looked beautiful. Your beach pictures are lovely; we didn't make it to the beach until it was dark. :S Dcairns: Don't worry about anything. DLR is amazing and everything will be great. I've been writing my review on my home computer in quick snatches of time the last few nights. I hope to have it up by this weekend! Sorry it has taken so long!

Hello! The wedding is over, and it is time to clear wedding central, as my husband calls it, out of our living room. The items I have do not include shipping. I can accept payment through paypal; if you PM me I'll let you know the final cost and where to send the money. Everything I have is unused except where noted. Let me know if you have any questions!! 3 Pink Pashminas - $12 total ($4 each) 6 oz. Off Deep Woods - $5 100 Ezy Dose Pill Pouches - $4 (I used these in my OOT Bag First Aid kits. I was able to give the guests Imodium, Advil, etc. and they didn't take up barely any space.) 38 Clear, Waterproof Badge Holders + 3 Blue Lanyards - $10 (I LOVED having these at the wedding. Everyone wore them around to carry their tip money and room keys. I could easily keep my cash and key in there with no problem.) 80 Earplug Pairs in Individual Packages - $12 (Our guests really appreciated these in their OOT Bags. The hotel was beautiful, but the walls could definitely have been thicker! The earplugs made sleeping much easier.) 8 Raffia Fans - $6 (7 of them are wrapped with purple ribbon and 1 is wrapped with turquoise. I used Glue Dots from Micheal's so it would be pretty easy to get the ribbon off if you didn't want to use them as they are. The sizes vary so I have a picture of the smallest and largest fans next to a credit card, since I figure everyone knows how big that is!) Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions!

Shoot. That didn't work. Does anyone know how to delete a post?

This is a test, we'll see if the pictures show up! <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FWorsfoldWedding%2Falbumid%2F5542641254429456977%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCParzqKHyqbIaw%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

We didn't have an actual rehearsal, but my in-laws still wanted to "host" a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. It was kind of moot because we had group dinners every night we were all there, but it was still fun. I had emailed with Yanna previously about possibly doing a private beach dinner, but when we got to the resort we decided we would just eat in one of the restaurants. Yanna said to tell her which one we wanted and that she'd get a table set up for us. We We didn't pay extra for this, and we had to show up right as the restaurant was opening, but it was still really fun. They put the chair sashes on the chairs and had a table runner down the middle. It wasn't a private dinner or anything, but we were in the back of Oceana, not in the middle of the room or anything.

Hi ladies, Sorry i haven't put up a review yet. I've been super busy at work since I got back and am way too tired at night to write anything. I'll take a few minutes though to answer some questions I've seen so far. 1. My flowers were included in my package. There was a bit of language issues when picking out the bouquets, but I am super pleased with how they turned out. Yanna showed me a folder of a few different examples and asked me what color I wanted my flowers. I told her "colorful and tropical" and she said, "What color? We'll paint them any color you want.". I said "No, don't paint them, whatever you have is fine." "Blue flowers? You want Blue flowers! Ok, we'll paint them." "No..." We went back and forth on the painting for a while, but I kept saying "Natural but colorful". I think a few in there were painted, but I couldn't tell even when i closely inspected them. They were beautiful up close. 2. The chair sashes were provided by dreams. I'm not fussy about everything matching, but our general wedding colors were purple and turquoise. She said she had something close to turquoise and they worked out great. She even had them on the chairs for our rehearsal dinner at Oceana, which I thought was really sweet. We worked with HDC photos and we had to pay for a day pass for the photographer, but a couple of our guests are amateur photographers as well. They had big professional looking cameras and no one said anything to them whatsoever. I'm sure you'll be fine bringing in your own photographer.

Hi ladies! Thank you again for all the wonderful thoughts, wishes and comments. Things could not have worked out better and I'll be putting up a review soon, I promise! Yanna was wonderful, the weather was great and everyone said they had a great time. I even met the lovely Nancy a few days after the wedding and she was awesome. If you have any questions or concerns please ask away and I'll try to answer the best I can. I had a small wedding though, so I might not have the answer on private receptions and so forth. In the meantime, here are some pictures from HDC. I had Francisco and he did a great job. Lots of love, Rikki

Hi all, I'm getting on the plane in 4 hours and then off to the DR!!! Thanks for all your help and your positive thoughts. Tomas is taking a turn west so we should be good by Monday. NancM, I'd love to see you as well and have a drink. How about we plan for the lobby bar on the 12th at 7pm? If you can make it, great, otherwise I'll just catch you back at BDW. I'm sure I can ask for your real name from Yanna as well, if you don't mind, so I could contact you through the hotel. Best of luck! Rikki

Ok, I have a request for all my DLR forum friends out there! We are scheduled to fly down to the DR on Friday, which of course is the day that Tropical Storm/Hurricane Thomas is scheduled to make landfall in Miami... Would you please put out positive intentions for my wedding, my guests, and my flights to not be delayed/injured/canceled in any way? The DR has had a rainy year, but of course I get to have the hurricane! I'm not going to let it get me down, but it does put a damper on my anticipation of a beautiful beach week. So please, if you have a minute, cast a positive intention out there for the storm to dissipate and for everything to be fine. I would really appreciate the thoughts. Thanks! Rikki

Thanks Dcairns! i can't believe we leave so soon! It is only 13 days until the wedding. Where did all the time go?? A question for the already brides... How long was your processional music? I'm not having any attendants, but I do want to walk down the aisle to something. Does it take a minute, two minutes, etc. for you to get from where the WC cues the music to the gazebo? Any suggestions on music from anyone? I'd like something instrumental, but not the "here comes the bride" or "cannon in D". Thoughts? Thanks!!

That's really pretty Dana! I like the wording of your vows.

My FI is a super private person so he asked I don't post his name on here, so he is Monkey and I am Mongoose. On behalf of Monkey and Mongoose, I would like to welcome you and thank you for coming to participate in this exciting event. Those of you who have been invited here to witness Monkey and Mongoose’s wedding ceremony and to celebrate with them here today will play your part in their marriage too. A marriage needs the help of a community, of friends and family who will be there when needed and will do all that they can during hard times to stand by Monkey and Mongoose and offer their support to them and the new family that they will create. May you always do all within your power to support the union that will be made here today and to nurture the bond between these two people whom you love. This ceremony is not magic; it will not create a relationship that does not already exist and has not already been celebrated in all the commitments Monkey and Mongoose have made to each other, both large and small, in the days since they first met and recognized their connection to one another. This ceremony is a symbol of how far they have come together and a symbol of the promise that they will make to each other to continue to live their lives together and to love each other solely and above all others. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two. Mongoose and Monkey, the vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things we’ve promised and hoped and dreamed- well, I meant it all, every word.†Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another- acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this - is my husband, this - is my wife. Say vows Please repeat after me I, Monkey, take you Mongoose, my best friend, to be my faithful partner and my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of need, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sadness, in times of failure and in times of success. I promise to cherish and respect you, to care for and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and to faithfully stay with you, for the rest of my life. I, Mongoose, take you, Monkey, my best friend, to be my faithful partner and my husband. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, care for you and protect you, be open with you and listen to you. I give you my promise to love you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the barriers we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and all of my love, from this day forward for as long as I shall live. Mongoose and Monkey, the promises which you have spoken to each other today are inscribed forever in your minds and in your hearts. But words are fleeting and so those who marry wear rings as visible, tangible symbols of their commitment and of their emotional and spiritual connection. They are a reminder and a celebration of the promises you have made today, and you give these rings to each other as a symbol of your unending bond. Please now exchange the rings you have brought. No one but you can declare yourselves married. You have begun it here today in speaking your vows before your family and friends and you will do it again in the days and years to come, standing by each other, sharing all the sweet and the bitter of life. Each tender act, each loving word will be the declaration of what was made here today. We have all gathered here and witnessed the celebration of love that Mongoose and Monkey have shown and the commitment that they have made to each other. This marriage is not an end of their existing relationship and neither is it a beginning, but rather it is an important step along a path which continues into the future, and it is a step which Monkey and Mongoose are taking with a clear understanding of the commitment and resolution that the path requires and with confidence, trust and love. May your intention and your commitment to each other remain strong and may the foundation of your relationship be love, communication, and the best interests of each other. Go forward in your life together with the good wishes of those who love you. Remember this day, those who came to wish you well, the words you have spoken, the emotions you feel and the love you have declared. And above all, be happy. It is now my honor to present you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Monkey Monkey, you may kiss your bride.

Hey Bee, Thanks for putting up your playlists. This is a big item on my TO DO list and having your suggestions will be a big help. I would love to see your ceremony script. Mine is pretty short, about 5 minutes when read out loud. My attention span at weddings is always really short so I assume my guests would think the same. I might borrow somethings from yours though, if I like them. I'm going to post mine below so people can read it if they want, otherwise feel free to skip the post.

Hi Ladies, I've been lurking on the forum for a while and haven't posted anything in the last couple weeks so I thought I would pop in and say hi! I've been super busy with wedding stuff lately but I'm so excited to be leaving for DLR in just a couple short weeks! I can't believe the time has flown by! We'll be at the resort from Nov. 5th - 15th so Nancy, if you'd like to meet for a drink, I'd love to let you know what was great about our wedding and what didn't work. Uninspired, my colors are turqoise and purple as well! Our party is super small though (12 people) so we aren't really doing decorations, otherwise I'd leave my things for you. I've been working on my OOT bags every night after work and am going to post a planning thread hopefully soon. I'd recommend posting it in the planning section which is under "Tell us your wedding/engagemet story!". http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/list/128 I sent off our ceremony script to Elke last week. Of course now my FI says he want's to write his own vows so I'll have to send another one to her. At least he's getting involved... I assembled my script from various examples on the internet and it is non-religious. If anyone wants to see it I can post it here, but I won't take up the space if people don't need the help. Where has the time gone?? I can't believe it is all happening so soon!

I have some fuschia pashmina's I'd be happy to sell. I bought them off another bride on here and then changed my wedding colors. I have 3 I will sell for $5 each + shipping from California. Let me know!

Hi Dressa! Welcome! I'm not sure when your wedding date is, but keep in mind that the sun sets pretty early in the Dominican, and you might have a hard time getting a ton of photos done after your ceremony at 5pm. It depends on your style though; if you are wanting a sunset wedding, 5pm might be perfect for you! I know that wasn't your question, but I thought I'd offer my 2 cents anyway. Regarding dinner, if you book the seaside grill, you can order off the menu, so you aren't technically paying for the food, just the space. I'm not sure how you do that, vs. doing the $30 a head dinner, but a lot of the other girls on here have done that. I have a super small wedding, 12 people, so we're just going to an A la Carte for dinner. Good luck on the planning!! Rikki

Don't stress too much georgie2b. I was freaking out back in July when we booked the hotel about getting everything done, but you have a TON of time. Destination weddings are so great because they take a lot of the planning away from you, if you want. You'll find everything you need, and it will all be great!