megsosborn

I am really struggling with gift ideas for my 2 best friends who are coming down for my wedding in the Dominican Republic. I am not having bridesmaids but they are the closest thing to it. I have known these girls for most of my life; they knew my Dad before he passed away and ran the last 10 miles of my last marathon with me when I was having a hard time - they are my family. My wedding is coming up soon, May 27th and I still haven' thought of anything yet. If anyone has any suggestion that would be awesome! I don't want to get anything monogrammed, or pretty much anything that you would typically get for a bridesmaid. I just feel like I have so much going on right now that I can't thingk clearly about this Thanks so much for the help!!!!

I am really struggling with gift ideas for my 2 best friends who are coming down for my wedding in the Dominican Republic. I am not having bridesmaids but they are the closest thing to it. I have known these girls for most of my life; they knew my Dad before he passed away and ran the last 10 miles of my last marathon with me when I was having a hard time - they are my family. My wedding is coming up soon, May 27th and I still haven' thought of anything yet. If anyone has any suggestion that would be awesome! I don't want to get anything monogrammed, or pretty much anything that you would typically get for a bridesmaid. I just feel like I have so much going on right now that I can't thingk clearly about this Thanks so much for the help!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Miss Sunshyne & Janet1480!!!! I'm definitely going with the Lobby bar then. Just finished my wedding day timeline and will be sending them off to the travel agent tomorrow for her to include in the welcome packet she is sending my guests

Hey everyone! I haven't written in awhile but I'm trying to wrap a few more details before the big day in May. I want to get all my guests together for drinks the night we all arrive and was wondering if anyone had recommendations as to where we should do this....I've heard from a few people that the lobby bar is the best place and the most lively. What about the Gabi Club? Also, some of my guests are not staying in the Reserve so does that mean that they will not be able to go into the Gabi Club?? Thank you guys Megan

These are beautiful! Where did you find the Caribbean map graphic?

Thank you so much MrsLamb!!!! I decided on booking the lunch at the Spa and am so excited. I also booked my hair and make-up appt, and thank goodness bc there was already 1 other bride at the same time. Only 3 months to go~!!

Hi everyone! I booked an incredible photographer, Phil Steingard, for my wedding during the last week of May (May 27th). After searching and searching through forums and different photography websites I came across Phil's site and was honestly blown away. I have read nothing but positive things about him and after speaking with Phil on the phone yesterday I knew he was the one His rate is very reasonable and his input on my wedding location and other topics that we discussed were priceless. Phil will be down in Punta Cana the last week of May 2011 and is looking for other weddings to photograph during that time. The more weddings that he can shoot, the lower the price becomes for everyone and I don't mind sharing! Phil will be looking for wedding the 4th week of May - I am getting married that Friday the 27th and Phil has to fly back home the next day. Check out his website and I promise you won't be disappointed. http://www.steingardstudios.com/ If you have any questions, please please don't hesitate to send me a message! I'm sure I'll have some questions too - planning has been hectic but fun and I can't wait to have my closest friends and family with me in the Dominican to celebrate! Megan

Hello everybody, My fiance and I currently live in Boston and are getting married this May in the Dominican Republic. There will only be immediate family and a few close friends at the wedding and we plan to have receptions back home in Michigan and Washington where we are both from and here in Boston. Neither of us are having bachelor or bachelorette parties and I am not having a wedding shower. I am in the process of making invitations for our AHRs and would like to know what I should do about informing our guests about where we are registered. Initially I thought it would be okay to put this information at the bottom of the card along with the RSVP info but EVERY website I have been reading says NOT to include any registration info on the invites. I guess I'm just not sure if our situation is unique in that we're having 3 receptions, I'm not having a shower and we also do not have a wedding web page (I think I read that it would be appropriate to inform guests of a wedding web page and then put registration information there). I certainly do not want to offend anyone. I don't think people would be offended to have that info on the invite but I'm not sure what to do! Any thoughts, comments or questions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone Megan

Hi Ladies! It's been awhile since my last post but I just started hammering down some more wedding details since I took a break over the holidays:) Questions for everyone: 1) When do you pay the outside photographer fee? 2) We are planning on having an informal welcome/get together dinner and was wondering if any of you had suggestions as to which restaurant might be best for this and 3) Is anyone trying to organize a lunch for their bridesmaids and other girls the day of the wedding? I am getting my hair done at the Spa on my wedding day and I thought it would be nice to have lunch for all my girls. Some of them will be getting ready there with me and others will just come for lunch. Mayra, at the spa has gotten back with me and said that we can have lunch but is pushing for us to rent out the Garden Villa since there will be around 12 women. The Villa is $200 an hour - plus the cost for lunch! If anyone has been to the Spa, can you tell me if there is a room to set up a lunch buffet in or if there is even room to accommodate a request like this? Thanks everyone! Megan

Hi Ladies! I'm from Boston and we're getting married in Punta Cana on May 27, 2011. We'll be staying at the Paradisus Punta Cana and getting married at The Jellyfish restaurant. I cannot believe it's only 5 months away!

What are the flowers called in your bouquet? Beautiful

Yogagirl - Yes! I'm excited that you're starting to look at Jellyfish! You'll have to let me know how you're planning goes. MissNatalie - I will send you my Word document. Can you give me an email to send it to? You'll have to excuse how non-professional it is LOL but I will definitely share it! I don't have any colors...after searching and searching I decided on white roses for my bouquet and all other flowers, although I have not heard back from Mayte as of yet about how available roses are in the DR, so I might be changing to another flower. White is beautiful and classic and the surroundings should provide all the color I need I absolutely agree with you about the unique feeling - apparently we have good taste! Adam and I decided that we will not be using a DJ. We both wanted everything to be low key and relaxed and I've never been that thrilled about cheesy DJs at weddings. We won't be doing cake cutting, first dances..... We plan on making an iPod playlist for the bonfire to sing and dance to. My group will be rowdy enough! So far we have 30 people booked - all very close friends and family. Sooooo, how about yours???

yogagirl77 - We are getting married at The Jellyfish restaurant. The place is really unique and the wedding coordinator, Mayte is amazing. She has been so easy to work with. We wanted our guests to get away from the resort and experience something different - also this is cheaper and we feel like we have more freedom with our decoration and food options. I typed up a word document with all our specifics, from the ceremony to the beach bonfire reception complete with pictures of what we were looking for and Mayte is taking care of the rest! Hope this helps

jkwedding day: We are getting married on Friday May 27th, 2011. I went looking for dresses last night and had sooo much fun:) hnm0201: We are using Diane Amato-Doerfler from Travel and Beyond out of Baltimore, MD. She specializes in destination weddings and in fact got married a few years back in Punta Cana! Super nice lady and on the ball.

jkweddingday: We decided not to have a formal wedding party for the same reason you don't want to ask anyone until they've committed attendance I just didn't want anyone to feel like that had to come, you know?!? My two best friends are twins and I am trying to think of a way to include them in our ceremony with out them formally standing up. Pastor York will be doing our ceremony and we decided to have both of our mothers do the two readings, so I've got to come up with something else for the girls. We just sent out our save the dates which was kind of a relief...I'm definitely getting more and more excited every step of the way!!!

JKWeddingday We are paying about $2600 for Phil and we get to keep all the digital negatives which is priceless. Most photographers charge you extra for that. Phil has also been great to work as far as planning goes too because he is down in the DR so often he is very familiar with everything down there:) Hope that helps:)

Hello all! Â I thought I should speak up after reading all these threads for some time now! I am getting married next May 27th, 2011 at the Jellyfish restaurant and will be staying at the Paradisus Punta Cana. We are inviting around 35 people so ti should be pretty small and intimate - we're going for a family and close friends vacation feel. The PPC was one of the first resorts that we looked at and even after researching many other hotels we kept coming back to this one. Also, one of my close friends vacationed there 3 years ago and she loved it. Â We decided not to get married at the resort because, honestly I wanted it to be more intimate. The lady that I am working with at the Jellyfish is great and I have also booked Phil Steingard as our photographer - his work looks fantastic. Â I just wanted to say HI to you all and hopefully we can use each other as resources in our planning! Â Megan