Raq87

Hi Janine, We were supposed to have our reception on the Himitsu Terrace but it rained so we had it indoors. Not sure what the room was called but it was a private room for just us and our guests so it was nice!

Wedding Review! Hi Brides, We just got back from our Dreams Wedding on Sunday and I can honestly say it was truly a dream! We went with 35 guests+ 1 baby (5 months). Here is my review.. Arrival- We arrived on a Saturday. On arrival, we were greeted with tropical drinks. Once we told them we were upgraded to preferred club they took our luggage and ushered us away to the club. Once we were in the club, check-in was smooth sailing for us. I wish I could say the same for all my guests. Some of my guests didn’t get checked in and into their rooms for 2 hours. They weren’t able to find some of them in the system even though they had been booked for 8+ months. Others room keys didn’t work so they had to keep coming back to the front desk several times. Being a massive resort with no elevators in the buildings you can see how they were annoyed after travelling for 15+ hours.. However most of our guests were upgraded to the honeymoon suite which was nice. Also, anyone in a 3 person room only initially had one bed in their room. After calling the desk several times and waiting forever they eventually got their rooms fixed. Unfortunately some of my guests told me that with that horrible check-in experience, if it wasn’t for my wedding they would have left and gone to a different resort. The resort- The resort itself was gorgeous. The staff were super friendly and helpful. One thing to be aware of is that in the DR, electricity is considered a luxury and the resort runs off its own private generator. Because of that, the power goes out once or twice a day, but not for more than a minute at a time. Also, the morning after arrival there was no hot water for showers. Not sure what that was about but needless to say my guests weren’t too impressed with that. Overall the service was excellent, and everyone was just happy to be together in tropical paradise. The beach is beautiful, but make sure you stay to the left of the beach in the sectioned off area or you will probably get hurt! 2 of my guests scrapped themselves pretty badly going in the water right in front of the resort. Anyone wondering about the $200 resort credit, I completely forgot about this until the end of the week and when I inquired I was told that you had to go to the concierge desk and ask for it. We used it to get $80 off at the spa for a couple massage. The spa was very nice! We went to the wellness center and did the water circuit aswell. I also got my hair done there for my wedding which I was nervous about but they did a great job. My hair stayed in place all day! The entertainment- The shows every night were great! And they have activities all day that you can participate in if you want to. You get entertainment $$ for participating, which you can use in their auctions twice a week. The food- The food was all really good! Our favourite was the Himitsu. They have a Japanese side and a Chinese side. The drinks were all delicious aswell.. but if you order a frozen drink make sure to tell them you want booze in it because they won’t put it in unless you ask! Excursions- We did the Saona Island tour with our group which was amazing!! Everyone had a blast. I highly recommend it!! We also did the Dune Buggies which was tons of fun. The Wedding- Our wedding was on the Wednesday, but we didn’t meet Yessica until Tuesday afternoon. She wanted to meet on Monday but by the time I checked my email, we had already booked an excursion. When we met her we went over all the details of our wedding. We went with the wedding in paradise package and just added on the extras. We got the gazebo décor which is 5 large floral arrangements, which we also used as table centerpieces. We went with the basic DJ, which honestly I would recommend saving the $500 and going with your own ipod playlist, or getting the $850 DJ package. I heard such great things about DJ mania, but I guess that’s only if you go with the more expensive package. We opted out of the cocktail hour and went with the platinum dinner package and ordered the lobster and steak. The food was good but I expected better.. the steaks were overcooked and the side dishes were not the same ones advertised. We got cake for 20 people, and it was more than enough for our group. We ended up needing an extra hour at our reception because our pictures ran an hour late. Afterwards our photographer told us that Yessica told him to take as long as he needed, which only left us 2 hours for our reception. I was a bit annoyed because this cost us an additional $500, but hopefully our pictures will be worth it. The total cost of our wedding package was $4000. We tipped Yessica $60, and our photographer $100. Overall for the value of the resort.. I would say well worth it! However, Apple Vacations advertised this as a 6 star resort and I would say more of a 4.5 star. We will definitely be going back in a couple years! Sorry if this was too long but didn’t want to miss anything! Happy planning to all you brides and one piece of advice is not to worry about anything because it will all turn out! I’m a chronic worrier and I can definitely say I didn’t need to worry about anything

Hi Pfeiffla! I'm getting married on November 16th! When do you guys arrive? Also, how did your make your spa appointments? Do you have the email address? I'm worried because I haven't made appointments yet......

Hi guys. so my FI bought these pants and vest from Le Chateau a bit small. We paid 180$ for them, I am selling both for 120$ shipping included OBO. Pants are a size 38, and Vest is an XL. Msg me on here or send me an email: [email protected]

Welcome Amber!! I just wanted to share with you what we are doing for our ceremony.. we went through the same thoughts, and eventually decided to have a small church wedding at home.. We really wanted to get married in a church.. so we are doing just the ceremony and a small reception at my In-Laws place.. That way anybody who can't make it to Punta Cana still feels like a part of the wedding. I'm not wearing my real wedding dress.. I just got a simple white dress for $200 from Davids bridal.. Then we will just do the Symbolic ceremony in Punta Cana. Another reason we did this is that we really had our hearts set on getting married on 11/11/11.. So we will get married at home then leave the next day for our "real" wedding at Dreams Punta Cana I was worried that some people would feel that they should just go to our at home wedding..So I held off on telling everyone about it until everyone was booked to go. Everyone I've told thinks its a great idea, that way my grand-parents who are too old to travel and my sister who has kids and can't afford to come can still be a part of our wedding. And at first I thought about wearing my actual wedding gown, but decided that the dress should be saved for Punta Cana and all our guests who are travelling so far to be with us on our special day!

Well I figure I don't really need the personal dressing assistant as I will have my maids to help with that.. My friend is a hair dresser so she will do my hair, my sister is doing my makeup.. I am not using the resort photographer or the carribean trio.. My father in law will be video taping.. and all those other little extras I don't care about! So Im just going with the wedding in paradise, gold dinner for 36, adding on the cake & sparkling wine for my guests.. adding the gazebo decor.. and I end up saving close to $1500 actually since I'm not planning on doing the cocktail hour.. I may change my mind on the cocktail hour but as of now I don't think I will.. considering that would only leave about 30 mins for pictures after the ceremony.. I'd rather have an hour & a half.. and my guests can all just go to a bar or do whatever they want!

Hi amu.. No they dont discount you anything on the ultimate package.. I was going with that aswell but because they dont discount you anything for having your own photographer, I decided to go with the complimentary package and just add everything on that we want/need. I calculated that I actually save about 1000$ doing this!! Also question for everyone- did anyone else get the $200/room credit and do you know what this can be applied to?

Does anyone else think its kinda crazy to pay for cocktail hour when were staying at an all- inclusive? I think we may skip the cocktail hour and have everyone just go to the same bar or something.. Or do you think this will make us look cheap??.. I was just thinking ppl might rather have the choice to do what they want aswell..

Does anyone know how many guests sit at each table? We are at Himitsu Terrace and will have 30-40 guests. Also I am getting married in November and was wondering what time is best for the reception. We have 2 pm booked, but do you think it would be better to have a later ceremony, say around 4 or 5? I heard from my photographer that the sun goes down pretty early so that's my only concern..........

Here is the style I would like.. Can anyone give tips on how to achieve this look>

Great job with everything!! Congrats

Thanks for taking the time to share this!!

Very nice! Can't wait to use this

absolutely gorgeous!!

thanks for sharing!!!

probably a watch..

Wow welljen you look amazing!! I love your dress!!! Does the gazebo decor include chair covers & sashes? and can you bring these to the reception after aswell??

Thanks for everyone again for the info! welljen-I don't see the attached pictures! Do you think you could email to me [email protected] thanks so much ladies

Thanks for all the info Welljen!! I just have a few more questions if you don't mind.. 1. If we take the flowers from the gazebo to use at the reception, do we still need o purchase vases? Also wondering if I decide to purchase my vases here to save $$, will a standard vase do or do they need to be extra big? 2. For your wedding cake, did they have a bunch of different designs to choose from? Or I read from earlier brides that you can bring a picture of a cake design you like and they will try to do it?? 3. I am also considering having a DJ, anyone who has done it, is it worth it or would you recommend just using an ipod? Also Lasallebabe where in Calgary did you purchase your sashes? I found a site that sells satin sashes for .89 cents and organza table runners for 2.19 but then you have to pay for shipping on top of it so I'm just wondering what costs would be to just get it here. Aaand on another note, for my photographer I went with Phil Steingard. He has amazing reviews on the facebook majestic brides site. (that is where I originally was going to get married)... He will be there the week of November 12-19th so if anyone else is there that week and wants to share him, you can check out his portfolio at http://www.steingardstudios.com/

Hi ladies,I don't know if any of you are having trouble finding groomsmen attire, but I went shoppingt over the weekend and I managed to find Fi's outfit at Le chateau, linen pants and matching vest which cost $180. I didn't want to spend $100 each for pants for my 5 groomsmen, so I shopped around and found some nice linen pants at Old Navy for 39.50. They didnt have all my sizes in store so I bought it online, and found that on the american site they were only 19.50$! so I got my 5 pants for just about $100. If anyone is interested the style number is 814-861. You may have to make the purchase over the phone if you are using a canadian shipping and billing address. I did also see that there was an online coupon for Tuesdays 10% off, but I'm impatient and wanted to order them now lol.. here is a picture of the old navy pants..

I just received the following e-mail from Yessica: Hello Ms. : I hope you are doing great. You are right, we are no longer accepting external suppliers in the property, as you know we have our own photo shop and their work is highly recommended as well. Once again, I apologize for the inconveniences, but this is a corporative decision and there is nothing I can do about it. I remain at your services, Have a great weekend. Prices are subjet to change Does anyone else think that this is absolutely ridiculous?? I think that if you have already booked your wedding date then you should still be allowed to bring your own photographer! This new rule should only apply to new bookings! I've already paid my photographer a $500 non-refundable deposit so I hope the resort will cover this!!

Hi guys!! I just came across this thread and this has to be the greatest thing ever! I'm getting married here November 16th, and was startingHi guys!! I just came across this thread and this has to be the greatest thing ever! I'm getting married here November 16th, and was starting to get nervous as I have so many questions and the language barrier thing makes it a bit hard. Right now I'm contemplating whether or not to have the cocktail hour. Do you guys think its worth it? Or do you think that you could go without it, and the guests could just go to the bar? It just seems a bit ridiculous paying 11$/person for an hour of food and drinks at an all-inclusive resort.. Also just wondering if anyone knows what is included in the 450$ for gazebo decor.. That seems a bit steep too, when you can buy chair covers and sashes for so cheap here!