AcutieRN

Hey ladies! We just made it home this weekend from the most amazing trip, once in a lifetime! Do not stress about NOW Larimar! Our wedding was absolutely stunning, and Mercy is an angel. We had the wedding beachside, it was a bit windy, but I just tucked my veil under my arm during the ceremony and it was perfect. All of our guests were thankful for the wind as it kept it cool. JB March, can't believe I never ran into you. The resort was a bit bigger than I expected. I kept an eye out though! Sfra, we got married the same day! I didn 't even see you guys, but I did see your reception. Our room overlooked it, it was beautiful. Do not worry about the lack of communication ahead of time. Mercy and Christina can do this in their sleep, they have it down to a science. I met with Mercy on Sunday for our Tuesday wedding. The meeting took about 2 hours and I just reviewed everything we wanted with her. I gave her my decorations and she made some recommendations as well. She talked my hubby (can't believe he is my hubby) into the pomanders. It was our splurge for the week, but they turned out gorgeous. The only thing she didn't use that I had wanted was my rose petal walk way, way too windy out there for that. She used them at the reception. We had our reception and cocktail hour at the terrace overlooking the foutain. It was perfect. We only had 17 people so set up one large table for dinner. Mercy had all the decor moved from ceremony to reception and it looked great. Our guests LOVED the dinner. We did the Divine package and had filet and lobster. Yum. It is by far much better than the steak/lobster you will eat at the a la carte places on the resort. The best desert of the week was our cake! It was so delicious! We had vanilla with strawberry filling. I didn't get much of it that night, but they saved it for me and brought it back to our room. I ate so much of it I was sick throughout the week! I ended up doing my own hair and makeup, and I think it turned out pretty good! Pastor Rick York is great, so many of our guests commented on how wonderful his ceremony was. We used Photo Phil Steingard, his pics are great. We also got the 24 from the resort, they were ok. The videographer did an awesome job on the video! All I can say is don't stress. It turns out great. Our guests had a wonderful time and enjoyed the resort. There were a few mentions that the food wasn't the best they had at an all inclusive but the staff more than made up for that. They went out of their way to help with anything you needed. We stayed at Zoetry and Excellence on our honeymoon week and NOW was as good if not better than Zoetry in service. Excellence was just so so in service, although their food was better than NOW. Zoetry was 5 star in every way possible and we will go back again and again. The only problem we had at NOW was that when we arrived late on Saturday night, they had a room for all of our guests, but not a room for us! I couldn't believe it. They said they were overbooked and hoped to have a room by Tuesday(day of wedding). They wanted us to stay at Secrets, obviously not going to work since we had our entire family at NOW. They would not allow our guests on Secrets property(especially the kids) so my option would have been to lug all of my wedding day stuff the 10 minute walk to the NOW property and get ready in my sister's room. Thankfully Mercy came to my rescue the next day and found us a room with a great view. We did dinner/dancing the night before on LaBaracaza. I can't reccomend that enough. Our guests said over and over that it was the most fun night of their week.(We didn't do dancing night of wedding). Flory is a professional and all of the guys on the boat make it a blast. Don't forget to have a few shots of mamajuana while you are there! Let me know if you have any questions. I am uploading my pics by Photo Phil to my mpix account, they should be there by tomorrow morning. Feel free to check them out(please excuse the one of my husband standing in the shower, I did boudoir photos and they were trying to give me a sexy shot, ha ha! www.mpix.com login email:[email protected] (that is a zero in front of the three) and password is Ben00355 (also zeros). He took about 2000 pics including TTD, but won't have most of them for several weeks. They will have more shots of the reception in them that I will try to remember to post!

Alana, that's ok. It all worked out, I ended up finding some similar at save-on-crafts! They should be here in time:) Skygirl: We are doing the Divine package as of right now. That may end up changing to the middle package once we get there though. We only have 20 people coming and we can't figure out if it is really worth it to do the higher package. We are taking everyone out for a nice dinner the night before the wedding on LaBaracaza and we felt like the only reason we were doing divine is because of the upgrade in meal to platinum. Since we are taking them for a great dinner the evening before we think we may be safe downgrading and getting the silver dinner option. So much of what Claribel told me is no longer an option, even with emails from her, that I am not sure I can justify spending the extra money on the higher end package. In the beginning they were willing to substitute for things, like since I am doing my own hair and makeup she said we could exchange that out for possibly using tiffany chairs. Same with the flowers,since I won't be using them they were willing to swap for something else. Now that it is no longer the case it seems like a lot of the Divine package we won't be using. I can't make up my mind! It will all work out and be wonderful no matter what, I just want to do what is best for the money. Oh well, that was the chance I took when planning a wedding at a resort that was changing ownership. Things change! Are you for sure going with Divine? I think it is the way to go for sure when you have a bigger party.

That is too bad Angel's is booked. I am sure your girl will do great though! I would just make sure you get her to forward you (or since you live so close show you) some proofs before you pay the entire amount to her. Especially if you are having a bigger order with centerpieces and bridesmaid flowers. The one I ordered through Angel's is a special "destination wedding" order that just includes the bride and groom. I think that is the only time they will do less than the $450 order. I think my bouquet was supposed to be 12-14 inches, and I think it is that! I am not doing centerpieces. We thought about it, but the concern started to be about how to get all of our stuff down there safely. We are already pushing our limits, ha ha! Looks like we will each have two large checked suitcases for a total of 4, plus all of our carry on gear.I may also have another large bag that I will have a family member check, trying to condense now. When I started all of this I really didn't think about the transporting part of all of this! The OOT bags alone are almost an entire suitcase,and we only have 20 guests! Then on top of that I have gifts for family members, decorations(although minimal they still take up space) and most crazy of all is all the products I am bringing to be beautified on my wedding day. I am doing my own hair and makeup, I am kind of overly picky about others doing it so I am bringing an arsenal of supplies! Good luck with the flowers, I am sure they will be beautiful. It is so crazy how real these real touch flowers are!

Oh, and Skygirl, thanks for the idea of alternating sash colors! I actually found some at save on crafts and they should be here this week. Even with purchasing new ones and upgrading shipping it is going to be cheaper than renting from resort! She said they would charge me $3 per sash per chair at the wedding ceremony and then again for the reception. No way!

Ok, here are some pics, they look soooo real and even feel real!

Skygirl: This is what I did! I ordered from Angelsaccents and could not be happier. The bouquet is stunning and looks real. From the photos I have seen of the real bouquets that the resort provides, there is no comparison in size. Mine is huge, stunning. I am actually a bit worried about carrying it on with me, I was hoping it would fit in my dress bag! I am not sure how big the ones at the resort are, but they told me they would not split it into 2 or even into wrist corsages for that matter. I am just using it as extra decoration on the table. I am just getting other flowers in my package that are similar. I don't see any reason why they need to match perfectly. I think if you just do the similar colors, you will do great. I got both my bouquet and boutonniere for I think around $150. It was important to me to have peonies because of a memory of my grandma's peony garden, and I knew they would be outrageously expensive in DR. I will take a pic and try to attach in a little bit. Go with real touch! You will not be disappointed, especially if you use Angel. They are so professional and the flowers are more than I could hope for . That being said-they book up fast so put your order in ASAP!

Ok girls, I have been reading a bunch but I still can't get a good consensus. I am thinking about doing my first Brazilian one week before my wedding. What does everyone think about this? I don't tend to get ingrowns, and not very sensitive in terms of rashes. I am just a brunette with olive skin, so you know how fast that stuff grows, ha ha. The question is should I do it the first time right before my wedding? I'm nervous because some of these horror stories! I live in Denver and wouldn't have a problem finding someone reputable. Help!

I can't agree with the "you are what you eat" statement more! I have lost 47 lbs since last July (I'm only 5'1) and it all came down to what I ate! I really did eat the same thing day in and day out which consisted of protien and veggies as well.I had been on weight watchers for years and couldn't understand why I kept gaining not losing! It was def not a clean diet for me. I also ramped up the cardio and started to include lots of weights and interval cardio, and wow, what a difference. I am down to the last two weeks and can't believe that clean eating has transformed me. Good luck and thanks for the post!

@Prettyfinebrown: Welcome! Sounds like you are getting much more response already than most of us have in the last year! That is great. Sounds like you are way ahead of the game. Congrats and happy planning. I am wondering if any of the April brides may be able to help me. I know several of us are going to be there at the same time. I arrive Saturday night the 14th and we are being married Tuesday the 17th. I ordered my chair sashes months ago and they came in, no problem. I opened the packages to iron them today and upon closer inspection, they are totally different colors! They are supposed to be sage green, 10 are sage and 10 are neon lime green. I bought from Ebay and seller no longer carries them. Ahhhh! I refuse to pay the resort $3 per sash. My question is does any of you have sage/light green chair sashes I could buy from you after you are done? I know it is a long shot, but just thought I would try. I leave in two weeks and all the others I am seeing on ebay would ship too late. Thanks girls!

HI! I am in a bind, my sage green chair sashes came in and 10 were one color green and 10 were another color! The shop won't respond to me. I leave for my wedding in exactly two week and I need some chair sashes now! Would you consider selling the sashes separate at this point? Could you PM me pics just to make sure they are close in color? I would be willing to pay to upgrade shipping depending on how much you are asking for them. I just don't want to pay the resort 3$ per sash! Thanks Amber

Sani, Welcome! The reception dinner is a bit stressful currently. We also only have 15 guests. I was also planning on doing a non private dinner at one of the resturants. I was told that we could do so, but there would be no guarantee that we would all be seated together at the same time or in the same area of the resturant. The other negative for me was that we had to pick food from a fixed menu from that resturant and all of our guests had to eat the same thing even though we may not have been seated together. For me, I felt like I wanted the security of us all sitting together so I choose to do a private dinner at one of the few areas they can accomodate that.I was told that since April and May are high season that the resort will be at capacity and that it would be hard to seat us together. We choose to upgrade our package because once I started adding in the things that I knew we wanted the price quickly skyrocketed from the basic package into something much more expenisve that even the highest wedding package available. They charge you for EVERYTHING! It all depends on what is important to you and if it is worth the upgrade. Good luck! Mandy, Thanks for that picture! I am considering changing my wedding to the foutain from the beach based on the new setup! I am just so worried about the wind at the beach.

Andrea: Welcome! The pamphlet is unfortunately wrong. It seems that they have not done a lot of updating of their literature since many things have changed in the last several months. My understanding is that 50 people and above are required to have the buffet dinner, and it is a higher cost at NOW as well. Since both NOW and Dreams are run by AMresorts, I do believe their wedding packages are similar if not the same. Check out the other thread on here for NOW-New resort opening-NOW Larimar, there is tons of great info on there. Good luck!

Alana, No, I am so glad you shared it here. I love seeing what everyone else is doing. It looks like you have everything together and ready to go! I can't believe the hotel overbooked by 100 rooms. My Travel Agent said not to worry because my group has a contract so they won't be able to kick us to another resort. That being said, we do have a few guests who booked on their own and she said they may be bused to another resort. That would be awful. They have messed up a bit of stuff it sounds like. Is your reception dinner private at the Castaways? If so, how did you get that? I wanted it there, have an email from Claribel confirming it from months ago, but they still said no way. I don't get it. Maybe if yours is private, they won't let me have mine private the next night due to closing the place down for two nights at over capacity? SkyGirl, thanks for the info. I have called a few times. I keep getting Christina, which is awesome, but she keeps referring me to Mercy, who I never hear back from. I think my frustration comes from the first 10 months Claribel never responded to me and I feel like I lost out on a lot of what I wanted because of this.Also, a lot of what she told me was false information or information that has drastically changed. I can't wait for 3 weeks to hear back from these girls, my wedding is in 3 weeks!!!Ahhh. Christina did say that since I have such a small group we can do a plated dinner even though it is at the Carnival Terrace. Hopefully it will be good! I am trying to keep calm, the reason I wanted a DW was not to stress. I don't really know why the resort is in such a mess right now. Makes me more than nervous.

Hey Girls, Alana, we are in the same boat. We will be arriving April 14th and our wedding is the 17th. The hotel is so overbooked that they have downgraded all of us to garden views from ocean views and it seems that none of us are in the same area of the resort. This is awful because I have two grandma's who were helping two couples out with baby care coming and their rooms were supposed to be side by side. No longer.And to make matters worse, they are supposed to reinburse us the money we paid for the upgrades and they have stated they have yet the money is no where to be found on any of our cards. We even have a few people who didn't book with my travel agent that may not have rooms, even after they paid for them a year ago.AHHHHH! I also still have no idea where we are having our dinner/reception.Mercy only gave me the options of the Terrace by the fountain(I have since learned this is the buffet rest, which we don't really want) or the beach. How can there only be two options? I have sent info that states I was told I could use castaways, but since the resort is overbooked it doesn't seem to matter much. They are doing what they want at this point. I feel frustrated. I have spent more time feeling frustrated about the resort that not. Why can everyone else get a response? Is it just that I have Mercy and not Christina?

Ahh, I have been wondering the same thing...anyone know about tipping? How about how much to tip the wedding coordinator? I am so bad at that stuff, should just leave it up to my FI