maridr2012

@ thePYT: How did you get in touch with him? I cant seem to find RSE anywhere on the internet! Do you have their website address or email address? I'd love to hear the sample mix too!

Hi Tamara. The "official" site inspection does have a fee; it's a package they call "Love at First Sight". I booked mine thru my travel agent at DestinationWeddings.com, and if I recall correctly it was about $700 or so and if I recall correctly it requires a minimum 2 night stay.. You can contact the Romance Department in Miami and ask them about the "Love at First Site" package and see what the fee will be. Its a non-refundable fee, but if you decide to book your wedding with PPC that amount will be applied towards the total cost of your wedding. Anyway, this gets you a scheduled appointment to meet with Miguelina (or whoever the wedding coordinator is that day), go over prices, options, date & time availability, and check for availability of the ceremony & reception space, etc. You also go over menu options and select your tastings during this appointment as its included in this package. This is where I would suggest asking to do a tasting of a few PLATED menu selections AND BUFFET menu selections. I do know for a fact that the PLATED menu options are not on the regular menus for the restaurants...I think it's the same for the BUFFET, but I'm not sure. I must admit I was NOT very well prepared for this because I wasn't sure of where I wanted the reception due to uncertainty of # of guests, which hindered me from making the decision to taste buffet vs plated...just ask to do both! Having as clear a vision as possible of your day is something you should DEF know ahead of time. Try to envision of what you want your wedding to be like (casual, formal), location, colors. After your sit-down appointment with Miguelina, you go on a guided tour of the entire property with her or one of her assistants. They take you to every space where they do ceremonies and receptions. Take lots and lots of pics of these spaces. The spaces are NOT set up for a wedding, but if you stay there for at least 1 night you definitely are able to get a peek at what a wedding looks like because surely there will be one during your stay. They also will take you on a tour of the Royal rooms and the Reserve Rooms, and all the different restaurants. With the "Love at First Sight" package, you're supposed to get a coupon for the spa for about 15% or 20%...use it! You want to be sure of who will be doing your hair and makeup...I took advantage of that and booked a blow-out since I have curly typical Dominican hair which isnt very easy to deal with..I was fully satisfied and knew that if they could blow out my hair straight they would have no problem with doing that AND an up-do. Also, in the package you're supposed to get a bottle of champagne and fruit platter delivered to your room on the first night. Neither the spa coupon OR bottle of champagne was provided to me until I spoke up on my 2nd day. They were apologetic and said there was some kind of miscommunication on their end. If you do the Love at First Sight package, I would highly suggest calling the hotel directly yourself or go thru the Miami Romance department to confirm the hotel itself has all of the information on you so their wont be any miscommunications when you get there. Lastly, Miguelina will schedule a wedding menu meal tasting (based on your selections from your meeting with her) during your stay for dinner. It's ALOT of food, but its only the entrees, not the h'ors doeuvres. Try to get a taste of as much as you can i.e. chicken, fish, steak, vegetarian option so you'll know exactly what your guests will be getting. I don't have a documented list of questions I asked, but in my opinion, key things to ask about are: extra fees for anything and everything (photographer, videographer, flowers, dj) space constraints, backup plans, upgrades to rooms, time limitations of events, rehearsal dinner spaces and reservations and fees for those, all those extra little things that add up like OOT bag delivery to rooms, any penalty fees for ANYTHING, OMG theres so much! Regarding which hotels I suggest to cut out, this of course is very subjective..but I would say don't bother with Ocean Blue. Its just around the corner from PPC, only about 5 min away by car. I really did not like this property. It was very small, the ceremony spaces were very limited and very public - they didnt offer much privacy at all. I was completely unimpressed with this property. It just seemed VERY average and a little low-budget to be honest. I was told by a few folks that the Melia Caribe/Tropical and PPC and Paradisus Palma Real are the 3 biggest resorts in Punta Cana. This proved to be very true. All of the other resorts were just too small for my taste, lol..I didnt want to run into the same people day after day around every corner! Please know that Melia actually owns PPC and PPR...so you're going to get great quality for all 3. Melia Caribe in my opinion is a resort you should DEF see. I found their customer service to be wonderful...but the property didnt offer that fun tropical feel as much as PPC did, in my opinion. I did NOT visit any of the Bavaro properties so I can't advise you on those, sorry! I based my site visits on what my travel agent recommended for my needs/wishes and the many many blogs, youtube videos, and pics on the internet. Its alot to take in when you go on your site inspections. The PPC official site inspection does cost some $, but you get it back at the end if you do book with them. The meal tasting is totally worth it. The other resorts did not due wedding menu meal tastings, they will let you try their food but its just from their regular menus.

PPC brides: I need to know if any of you have had your reception at El Romantico or any of the terraces (not including the pool)? We are still considering the possibility of privatizing El Romantico restaurant for our reception, but the few pics I've seen do not impress me! Looks like they have yellow curtains, which is soooo not in my color theme. Is there enough space for dancing? The entrance to this restaurant is beautiful, but my guests wont be outside the entire time! LOL. If you've had your reception at one of the terraces, how did that turn out? Did you have to get ambience lighting or chinese lanterns? Did they include the white veil sheets hanging from the ceiling I see in so many pics? Also, have any of you used RSE dj services? I was actually told by the Romance Department that DJ Mania has been getting unfavorable reviews from many couples because they show up late, don't know what playlists to use even though they were already provided by the couples, etc. So, RSE is another preferred vendor company for PPC and they will not charge an extra fee since they are preferred, AND they're a bit cheaper. Can any of you share any feedback if you've use RSE?

@trivera5521: Thanks for the info on Theresa's service fees! Her rate doesn't sound too bad actually, I thought it'd be more. However; I think I'm going to pass on getting an additional planner. Right now I'm in "lock down saving mode", so EVERY penny counts. PPC brides: I did speak with the Romance department in Miami, specifically with Marilyn who is the manager, regarding the new external vendor fee they added. She confirmed this is true; however the fee would only apply to external vendors if you booked your wedding @ PPC in 2012. Luckily, I booked my wedding in Dec 2011 (for 2012) so I am excluded from this. Also, my FI and I decided that we are having a maximum of 70 people, thats it (I still think too much but I'm letting it go). Anyway, I've been so stressed out trying to figure out where to have our reception because according to all the documents I've received the maximum capacity in most of their spaces is only 60 people, and I thought we'd have to go with the ballroom which I really disliked or worse yet, have to privatize a restaurant which would be a minimum of an additional $5,000 (for El Romantico) and as high as $9,000 (for the Gabi restaurant). These options were EXTREMELY worrisome to me because once you privatize a restaurant, you are not able to apply a wedding package to it, you have to itemize absolutely everything (except the food and drinks). Needless to say...I wanted to cry everytime I thought about it. Anyway, I had a call with Veronica from the Miami office to go over these issues because I didnt want to have to privatize a restaurant but wasnt quite sure how to calculate everything correctly using their budget calculator file. After my call today I feel much better; we will continue our conversation tomorrow because she had to leave the office. She did explain several things to me and told me the pool terrace AND foyer/terraces which say "maximum capacity 60 people" can actually fit about 72 people. Granted, it'll be a little tight, but its do-able. Here is my suggestion to all PPC brides that are doing a site inspection..I'm offering this up because it's a lesson learned for me: Try to get your hands on the most recent budget calculator from PPC BEFORE you go for your site inspection (get it from the Romance Dept in Miami which is their headquarters). Also, when you are at the property doing your inspection, do a tasting from the plated menu AND the buffet menu. We only tasted the plated menu, but really like the pool terrace for our reception and plated menu is NOT an option there because there are no restaurants near the pool terrace. So, if we do it there we are forced to have a buffet style meal and we didnt get to taste the wedding menu for buffet style! Also, during your site inspection, ask, ask, ask, and ask some more! Ask anything and everything! Now looking back, I wish I would've asked about space constraints with dance floor added, extra lighting fixture costs, seeing examples of their centerpieces (if you choose to get if from them), see the space for a semi-private rehearsal dinner, etc. Just keep asking questions and dont be afraid to speak up! Hope this helps you all in some way. As I continue to get information, I will share!

@ Kat2012, ur dress is gorgeous and u were a stunning bride! Would you mind sharing where your husband got his suit from? Is that linen? We are starting to look around now for places to shop or rent for suits for my fiancee and his groomsmen. Our wedding is in November of this year and will be in the Dominican Republic, on a beach gazebo @ 5 pm. DEF no traditional tuxedos, but he (suprisingly) wants a semi-formal look and doesnt just want to wear a shirt and pants...he's into the suit look, lightweight and light color. Any information you could share would be greatly appreciated!

Ayansi08: Is Theresa's fee as wedding planner high? I also had the pleasure of working with her shortly before she was let go, and she was wonderful. Unfortunately, by the time I actually paid my deposit and locked in my date, she was already gone. I may very well reach out to her. I already booked PPC for my November 2012 wedding, and all of the posts on here are starting to really concern me. I definitely DONT want to use Arrecife. I dont like the style of their photography...I've seen so many of their photos on blogs and they leave me un-impressed. I'm leaning towards HDC...so I need to get on the ball very quickly about finding out for sure what all these penalties and extra fees are. PPC is very expensive and even though I'm having about 80 people for my wedding, they weren't willing to provide a group rate unless I signed a contract...which I'm not willing to take on that financial responsibility. Its ridiculous that they are now trying to find ways to upcharge bridal couples now for not using their preferred photographer..which sorry to be blunt...SUCKS A$$.

@ Trivera 5521: I'll send you a private message with detailed answers..but I do want to answer in the forum for all regarding the car rental. My parents are from DR, and although this was my first visit back in decades (last time I visited I was 8 yrs old), my parents and extended family go back every few years. I always hear from everyone how the drivers are crazy in DR, and so I was very nervous about renting a car versus cabs to and from location. Since we had appointments at so many resorts, we knew we'd be spending alot of $ to take cabs, and our travel agent recommended just renting a car since many of them were within close distance. So...we rented. BEST decision. Here's the thing, Punta Cana really isn't that big. The furthest resort we were going to visit was Dreams Punta Cana which wouldve been about 1 hour away from the airport, or approx 45 min away from PPC. We eventually decided not to even visit Dreams, but that's just to put it into perspective for you. The maps the car rental agency (right in the airport) will give you are very easy to understand, and if you speak Spanish (which I assume you do), it'll be even easier. A word of advice: only ask directions from the hotel personnel or your travel agent. We were warned and ignored the warning about asking some locals for directions if we got lost...and got even more lost after the locals in the street gave us directions, lol. I dont think they purposely gave us wrong directions, but they were simply giving us their shortcuts which were confusing. Use the map. The driving is a little erratic, there aren't alot of lights to direct traffic...mostly just stop signs, and even in the few intersections with lights, most people ignored them. Here's the thing....if you're a savvy driver, and have experienced driving in NYC...you will be just fine...no different, haha! One last word of caution...there are alot of speed bumps....which really should be called speed mountains. And these speed bumps often have the paint faded so you sometimes dont see them coming. Please keep your eyes out for them because you will be taken by surprise each time...they hit hard! Look for my private message!

Hi all. I want to share with you all my thoughts and feedback on PPC, I just got back last night from a 3 day stay for a wedding site inspection there. We wanted to check out several resorts before making a decision and committing to anything, and let me tell you, it was sooooo worth it! Let me start by saying I kinda had my heart set on PPC, but after visiting all the resorts, it is definitely confirmed because none of the others could compare. Over the course of 5 days, I visited & stayed at Melia Caribe, PPC, Ocean Blue, and NOW Larimar. By far, PPC was the best. I dont really want to spend alot of time talking about the others but I'll say that none of them offered all of the restaurants, activities, landscape, ambience, customer service and food quality that PPC did. I probably sound like a show off but I've been to many fine resorts and I left PPC feeling great in my decision to book a wedding with them. The grounds are beautiful! Everything is so lush and green. It is a large resort so you may need to take a trolley to get from one end to another, but they come every few minutes, and once you're there for a few days you get to learn the shortcuts so it won't seem that large and confusing in case you want to walk. If you stay in the Royal or Reserve rooms, there are designated trolley carts specifically for you to transport you around the property. Speaking of the Royal and Reserve rooms....I fell head over heels for the Reserve rooms. The Royal rooms are actually more expensive because they are within walking distance to the beach..but the Reserve rooms are so much more beautiful! We are booking our room at the Reserve for our stay next year, and we dont even have kids (which Reserve is more geared towards families). During our site inspection stay we stayed in a standard upgraded room which meant it had modern decor. It was nice. I only had 1 complaint and it was because the area rug under the bed didnt look vaccumed, and I later learned from one of the maids its because they actually dont use vaccums at all - they sweep & mop the rugs. When I complained to the front desk about the rug they sent someone up to clean it better and the issue was resolved. Another small issue I had was I paid for a Site Inspection which includes room upgrade (if available) and a fruit basket and bottle of champagne on 1st nite. I didnt get an upgrade but they explained they were at capacity in upgrade rooms in Royal and Reserve, and the bottle of champagne and a fruit platter was delivered on the 2nd nite. My meal tasting for the site inspection was great. The food was DEELISH! The only thing I wasnt crazy about was the lamb dish (for seated menu)..it tasted gamey to me..but of course thats all subjective We tasted the grilled lobster, veal chop, chicken with blue cheese...all wonderful and thats what we are serving for main entrees at the wedding. Didnt get to taste any hors doeuvres. The food and service at the other restaurants and buffets (11 in total!) were very satisfactory, but our faves were Fuego (latin fusion), Rodizzio (steakhouse), and the Japanese restaurant. I witnessed several weddings while I was there, all of them on the beach gazebo which you have to pay a non-refundable deposit to get it since they only do 1 wedding per day at that location. Well worth it..it provides perfect amount of scenery and intimacy for you and your guests. I also saw 2 wedding receptions at the pool (also my fav choice). All were set up just beautifully, I am so looking forward to my own! All of the locations for pics were amazing too. So much beautiful scenery! Miguelina, the wedding coordinator at PPC is wonderful, she is so informative, on top of her game 100%, and is just a sweet doll. I am confident I can trust her to pull off my wedding arrangements perfectly. Lastly, the ambience at PPC was the best in my opinion. This resort seems to be more of a beach crowd...everyone wanted to be at the beach. The pools were practically empty..they were beautiful but the beach was the happening spot. There were people of all ages....mid 20s to mid 60s and some early 70s. Everyone was so respectful...no crazy obnoxious partying but fun all the while. A few topless women....which can be amusing lol but not vulgar by any means. And although there were a few vendors trying to sell their cigars, jewelry, or even excursions, they were all very respectful and if you told them you're not interested they immediately left you alone. I loved that. This was a sharp contrast to NOW Larimar where they literally had guards on the beach yelling at the vendors because theyre not supposed to be within 60 meters of guests...and over there the vendors really did harass you. I will try to post some pics over the next few days. Im sharing this because I was extremely nervous about picking a resort for my wedding...we have about 70 guests coming (all from Westchester NY which as some of you know can be a bit snobby)..and I know for sure this resort & wedding ceremony/reception will make a lasting impression on all. Countdown to 11/9/12!!!! : )

Hi ladies. My fiancee & I will be traveling to PPC in 2 wks for a site inspection and I'm wondering if any of you have any pointers on what to look for/ask about if you have done a site inspection? We'll be doing food tastings too (his idea)...he's very involved in this planning process! Also...we really REALLY want to get married in a church. He's Catholic, I am not (Im Christian just not Catholic). However we've been advised all of the chapels and resorts in Punta Cana will only allow Roman Catholic Ceremonies. I know the Majestic Colonial has a chapel, do any of you know if they would allow a wedding ceremony in there by a locally hired pastor? I'm torn because I've fallen in LOVE with PPC based on pics and feedback from everyone, but we really would also love a religious ceremony in a chapel/church! : (

Holy moly! I definitely hit the destination wedding planning jackpot in coming across this thread! This is extremely helpful! I have fallen in love with the Paradisus Punta Cana resort - all via pics - for my destination wedding. My FI and I dont have a wedding date picked yet, but I'm thinking along the lines of November 2012. I originally wanted September, but after lengthy conversations with my parents who are both from DR they convinced me November was a far better option due to hurricane season as it tapers off in October. Plus..hotel & flight rates are still good in November. My FI wants to do a site inspection at PPC, but I really dont want to spend any of our budget on a site inspection when there is sooo much info available especially on a site & thread like this! I also have zero idea on many of the details..but what I do know is I'd love to book a gazebo or garden ceremony. I'm not crazy about the idea of walking thru sand in my wedding dress or having bystanders in their bikinis and swim trunks gawking at us during our ceremony, lol! And for the reception..I really like the idea of a pool area reception. I've seen several pics and it seems like you still get the outdoor feel (without sand), and it looks festive with the lanterns, yet casual-chic...served buffet style food. I actually really like the look of the Casual Chic package colors and may punch it up with another bright color - I like the bright orchids and neutral brown but still feel like it needs 1 more pop of color - either lime green or bright blue. However, the Aqua Package seems like it offers more. We are probably having about 50-60 people attending our wedding..and my FMIL is practically harassing me (lol) about having another party when we return for another 100 guests or so..I cringe at the thought of that..I feel like 50 people is already too much for a destination wedding but well...that's a whole different thread. Anyway, as I learn more info about Punta Cana and PPC I'll share. Im visiting the DR as a tourist - my last visit was when I was 8 yrs old but my parents visit every 2 to 3 yrs to see their extended families. I can't wait to share my Dominican heritage and culture with my future in-laws who are Italian-American! Best wishes and happy wedding planning to you all! : )