samantha2

Quote: Originally Posted by Trish Upshall Thank you so much Samantha for your review! and congrats! I am so glad your wedding turned out perfect!! I was also wondering about the whole itinerary thing - like did you know in advance of your menu choice and wedding day itinerary, so that you were able to provide an itinerary to guests? I am the WORST wedding planner ever and i am so confused as to how all of this operates etc. Like I dont want to assume an itinerary and create one to hando ut to all my guests and then it change according to what the wedding coordinator says it should be. Also - does anyone know how it works with rehersal dinners? do you have to pay extra or can you just reserve a spot at one of the restaurants? or is there a limit as to how many guests? I have emailed Aria (my wedding coordinator most of these questions and she has still not gotten back to me yet) Thanks Ladies! The only thing we really told our guests for the day of the wedding was what time and where they needed to be. Then Aris took them all to the ceremony site and then ushered them around after that as well. We made an announcement at our welcome drinks so that everyone knew the information for the wedding day. We did not have a rehersal dinner so I didn't ask any questions about that. Depending on how big your group is though you can make reservations for a certain restaurant. I would recommend doing that early though so that you can get enough seats. Not sure on the limit of how many guests a restaurant can hold. You will become a priority as your wedding day gets closer. I didn't start to email Aris until 2 months before my wedding day and never had a problem getting information from her asap.

Quote: Originally Posted by MissJali Samantha congrats!!!! I'm so happy to hear you used HDC also. I'm using them as well. You look beautiful in your photos. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. 1. How many guests did you have? 2. Did Aris offer you the option to take down everyone's food choice before the wedding or did you just choose the beef before? 3. Did they print menus for you? Day of Itineraries? 4. Did you use the dj? We had 20 guests (so 22 total with my husband and I). We filled out a questionaire form before we even left for the wedding, you get it about 1-2 months before the wedding. That is where we wrote down our food choice. We just had everyone eat the beef tenderloin (plus one vegetarian option). They did print menus for us, which was a nice surprise. They were on everyone's plate when we walked in to the reception site. They printed them on nice paper and in our wedding colours. There was no day of itinerary though. We meet with Aris before our welcome drinks and then just told our group where they needed to be and at what time for the wedding day. Then Aris was with us the rest of the time on the wedding day and just coordinated our guests. We did not use the dj. The presidential suite has speakers on the balcony with a system that you can plug an iPhone into. Aris also brought a portable speaker for us to use if we needed.

Quote: Originally Posted by Adrienne Lauren First off, Congratulations! You looked beautiful! Do you know how long the photographer has to stay as a guest? We aren't actually getting married at the resort, so really, all of the pictures the photographer would be taking would mostly be of us getting ready, I think. I would think just the one night but I am not 100% sure. You have a bit of a unique situation so I'm not really sure how that would work for you. If your friend was there with you I don't think you would even need to let the resort know... Sorry I can't be more help!

Quote: Originally Posted by tricia-m @samantha2 CONGRATULATIONS to you and your new husband! Thank you for the wonderful review and beautiful pictures. What a lovely intimate ceremony and reception! Great tip about the welcome drinks on the roof top. By chance, do you know if they allow children there? Hey, We never saw any children there but no one was monitoring who was up there. It is an open area of the resort (not part of the adults only) so I'm sure children would be allowed!

Got back from our wedding week late Sunday night, the trip and the wedding were amazing!! First off we were upgraded to first class on our Calgary to Toronto flight! Best flight ever! We got free drinks, snacks, a three course meal and the seats are way comfier!! We arrived in Punta Cana and did not need to go through customs. Our group had a private bus for our transfer (they did want to take us to stop for a beer, but I just said no we really wanted to get to the resort. Pretty sure they just wanted to make some money off us!) We arrived at the resort and checked in at the Club Premium lounge. We were upgraded to the Master Suite Ocean Front room, which is amazing!! Our room was by the adults only pool with an amazing view of the ocean. The resort is very large but not hard to get around. We arrived on a Sunday. The Monday we hosted "welcome drinks" and gave out the double walled tumblers we had for everyone. We asked everyone to meet at the Roof Top Lounge at 5pm. There is a $500 charge to rent the roof top lounge, we did not do this and we ended up being the only people up there! Totally worth saving the $500!! If you are planning to use the roof top lounge do it before 8pm, usually it would rain after it would get dark for a few minutes and then everything would be wet. Tuesday the ladies went to the spa and everyone really liked what they had done. I had my nails and toes done plus they styled my hair. Wednesday was our wedding day. My maid of honour, my mom and I all went and had lunch then went to the spa to start getting ready. My hair turned out amazing!! I loved it! The girl did exactly what I wanted. Take a picture as they don't speak a lot of english. My makeup turned out awesome as well. My maid of honour wasn't super happy with her makeup, they started making it very dark with very thick eye liner (neither her nor I wear makeup on a regular basis so we asked for light, natural makeup). The lady doing my maid of honour's makeup did take some of it off but it still turned out a bit darker than she would have liked (it looked fine just not how she would have ever worn makeup). Milan from HDC photo showed up and took some pictures of the guys getting ready. Then he came to the spa to find the girls. Milan ran around taking pictures of all the "details" while we finished getting our hair and makeup done. He took some pictures of us getting ready and then headed to the ceremony site to take some pictures there. We paid the vendor fee to have HDC photo be our photographer and are soooo happy that we did. Milan LOVES what he does and it shows in the pictures that he took! I am so happy with all the pictures we received. We had rented the Presidential Suite for our reception site and the guys were able to check in around 2pm to the suite. Aris, our amazing wedding coordinator, collected our guests from Bar Carey and took them to the ceremony site. Then she went to get the guys and took them there. My mother is quite high strung and was super concerned about being on time that we left the spa to head to the ceremony site. We were not sure if we were supposed to wait for Aris to come get us or not so we walked to the ceremony site. There was no way my mom was going to let the wedding start late!! We started the wedding without Aris, however the funniest part was seeing Aris running up to the site with the guitar trio running behind her. The minister did an awesome job, our ceremony was very short and sweet. Which is good because it was very hot that day! Milan took a bunch of pictures after the ceremony and then our guests headed to Bar Carey with Aris. My new husband and I got more pictures taken of just the two of us and then met the rest of our group at Bar Carey. We had a drink with our guests at Bar Carey and then Aris told us the reception was ready. Aris took us to the Presidential Suite where we were welcomed with drinks that matched our wedding colours! They were super delicious! Our guest had a few minutes to walk around the balcony and get a drink. Our guests were then asked to find their seats at the tables on the balcony and we were introduced for our first dance. We had our first dance and then invited other couples to dance with us for one dance. Super was then served, we had the caesar salad, beef tenderloin and black forest cake. Some people said it was the best beef tenderloin they had ever had!! I agree the meal was amazing!! I heard they bring in a chef to make the meals for weddings. We cut the cake in between salad and the main course, then did our thank you speech after the main course. Aris had everything under control and kept everything running so smooth that I didn't need to worry about anything. Our group continued to party and have fun on the balcony. As the night continued we made our way to the disco and danced there for a while. Overall it was an awesome wedding! The resort in general was amazing. Everything has been upgraded and well taken care of. The beach is amazing!!!! The water is calm and you can enjoy hanging out in the water. There are always beach chairs available. We spent most of our relaxing time at the adults pool (quieter than the regular pool) or the beach. My husband and I did find that there was not as much time to relax as we would have liked and to hang out with our friends and family as we were running around with wedding stuff. A few of our guests did have some stomach problems but nothing major that wasn't resolved fairly easily. Make sure you take pepto and imodium with you!! We did a private catamaran excursion with our entire group and it was sooo much fun! There is so much to do at the resort and it really is a beautiful setting. The weather was amazing the entire time we were there too. It called for rain most days but the most rain we got was around 7/8pm and for only about 15 mins. Everything turns out so perfect that there really is nothing to worry about! If you have any questions just ask. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Quote: Originally Posted by Adrienne Lauren I'm sure this question has been asked many times, but does anyone know what the vendor fees are to bring an outside photographer into the resort? Thank you!!!! We got married there last week and used HDC Photography. We did pay the $1000 vendor fee and it was still cheaper to pay the cost of the photographer plus the vendor fee than using Tropical pictures. We are soooo happy that we went with HDC. If your photographer is a guest that you are bringing with you and they are staying at the resort I believe there is no fee.

We leave today for our wedding week at BBPD! Super excited! Will post how everything goes when I am back.

Quote: Originally Posted by DinaQtobe Started seriously packing today. How overwhelming! Our tumbler mugs don't stack overly well, so they are taking up a huge amount of space. I've never had to pack for two weeks before. I made a list so that is helping... Any good tips from brides that are packed already? I packed all my cups into a carry on and am having my parents take it as one of their carry on pieces. My mom packs pretty light so it works out well for us. Maybe there is someone travelling with you that could take and extra carry on bag?

Thank you so much for sharing. Looking at using your program idea!

This has been so helpful and full of awesome ideas! Thanks!

Under a month left before our wedding! We received our travel vouchers from our travel agent this week and received a huge surprise! Our entire group received upgraded seats on the flight from Toronto to Punta Cana!!!! I could not be more excited! I will always use a travel agent for all my vacations from here on!!

How much for the photo booth?

Quote: Originally Posted by sis of bride Hi Everyone! New here... My sister is getting married (or hoping to LOL) at the end of this January. I have been helping her plan what started out as a simple 'beach wedding' to what now has become a bigger undertaking than either of us expected! We have gone from Atlantis to Cuba to now Punta Cana, specifically BBPD - and reading this blog has certainly confirmed for me her choice in location. HOWEVER.. we have not yet heard back from a WC and would like to start booking the hotel/flights this week! I know, rediculous as it sounds, we are moving fast and have a lot to cover over the next week. So a confirmation of date would be nice. Quick question for you ladies (as you are all SO informative!): How are you getting your guests to book their rooms/flights? We were thinking of working with Air Canada Vacations (we're in the Toronto area), and they have a package sale on now with really attactive options - offered only until the end of October. The bright side is that most of the guests are immediate family so most booking can be done in one shot. Just not sure if the resort prefers booking through their website? Anyhow, any insight would be most helpful! Thanks!! Hello Sis of Bride, We are actually from Canada too and using Air Canada Vacations. We hired a Destination Wedding Travel Agent and it was the best thing we have done in regards to the wedding. She booked our date and time with the resort so I wasn't constantly waiting to hear back from the WC at the resort. I also think the process went a bit quicker with the travel agent then if I had of done it myself, she has a relationship with the WCs at the resort. She also took care of booking everyone which was WAY easier than me trying to make sure everyone was booked. The travel agent created a website with all the prices and tons of needed information so that our guests could find everything there. She was also able to alert us to deals that we didn't see advertised with Air Canada Vacations. Using a travel agent gives you someone to deal with any of the kinks that show up, we had someone needing to cancel before their final payment and she took care of cancelling that person and changing the room to a single room for the person sharing a room. It would have taken me a lot longer to figure the process out plus she had lots of options for that person cancelling in regards to their situation. I could go on and on but I'll just add in again it was the best decision we made with the wedding!! Let us know if you have any other questions!

I didn't really ask if it was an option. In my emailed I just stated that I would be using an outside photographer. Not sure if that approach would work for you or not. I'm also thinking that the vendor fee should cover the day pass!

I received a reply from Aris and we are able to use an outside photographer we just have to pay the outside vendor fee. Although it is still cheaper to use hdc even with the fee! I'm booking hdc for the photography. They have been awesome to work with so far. Thanks for all your help everyone!

Anyone find out any more about using HDC at our resort? I'm so confused!! Really want to book them but don't want to book and then be told "no way". Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by SoonMrsD I do! haha I will send it to you in now! Thank you so much! I didn't think there was any way possible that HDC could be cheaper especially with the "vendor fee" that the resort makes you pay. However now I am pretty sure that I agree it is a better deal! Think I might just need to investigate this further!

Quote: Originally Posted by Bibi WEDDING REVIEW BibiHello Ladies!!! I have been following this board for several months now and I must say it has been very helpful. My wedding on Aug 17, 2013 at 11 am at the Garden Gazeebo. I chose the strawberry package and had 31 people. I want to do a review because I found the reviews by others to be very helpful and this my way of giving back. We arrived at Barceló on Aug 14. Me and my husband were so excited to be there. We booked at the Barceló Bavaro Beach from Aug 14-21. When we arrived we found out that we did not have a reservation for the 14th. Our reservation was booked to start for the 15th. This was no fault of the hotel but of expedia. We ended up paying an additional $200 for the 14th. Expedia acknowledged that it was there fault that the reservation was not booked for the 14 but claimed that they could not do anything about it because the reservation was already made. They claimed that they could not comp us the room and gave us a $200 voucher for a future trip. The customer service is terrible and I am surprised that we got that much out of them. My original wedding coordinator was Marlene Rejon who I had been working with since Nov 2012. If it wasn't for this sight I would of never found out that she was no longer with the hotle. Once I saw this that I immediately called the hotel and spoke with Hildebrandba who confirmed that she was no longer with the hotel. I advised her that my wedding was in two weeks and had heard nothing from anybody advising who my new coordinator was going to be. That was when Hildebrandba advised that she would be able to take over the planning of my wedding. The reason why I am letting you know this is because when I arrived the hotel did not even know that I was a BRIDE!. It was sooo irritating. I had to ask for my room upgrade which they did not do correctly. When the bellman went to take us to the room we walked in and the room had not even been cleaned yet. They ended up putting us up in a room with two double beds because they had ran out of king size rooms The next day we had our meeting with Hildebrandba which went very well. She did an excellent job at arranging the appointments at the spa and putting together all the details of the wedding. There were no surprises at all. Hildebrandba assured me that she had spoken to the front desk and the my upgraded room would be ready in a couple of hours. A couple of hours went by and we were taken to hour room. The next day was Friday and I had my massage, manicure, pedicure and had my hair washed and blowed dried. After that the wedding party had the reherssal dinner at the steak house. Saturday was the day to the wedding. I got to the spa at 8am. They did my hair and make up. The photographer came at 10 am and started take pictures of me getting ready. The girl did my hair very well, but struggled with the makeup. This was not her fault. She just did not have the right colors. The make that the spa had was very matte. So we had to keep working with the makeup. Thank god I brought my own foundation and primer or I don't know what I would of done. I wish I would of broght more of my own make up. If I would of had the right colors I would not of been late to the ceremony. Once my make up was done we did more pics and got my dress on. Then the brides maids were taken to the gazebo and then the maid of honor were taken to the gazebo for reception. We did the ceremony and then there was a cocktail hour for our guest. Our wedding package came with an hour photo shoot. We took pictures with hour guest then my husband and I did pictures alone in the garden, at the hotel and at the beach. After that we went to the reception which was at the Ibiza ballroom, The reception was AMAZING!!!! We had a full d.j. with DJ Mannia They did an excellent job!!!! They played all the music tht we asked for and the m.c. kept the reception flowing smoothly. The food was also good. We had the caprese salad, a choice of sirloin steak or chicken breast for the entrée. For the dessert we chose the crème brulee. Our guest loved the food. I can say for myself that the steak I had was better than the steak I had at the reherssal dinner in the steak house. No complaints about the reception. We had a good time and our guest enjoyed it. I thought that after the reception there should of been transportation to take everyone back to the a lobby at the Bavaro Beach. Everyone went there separate and then we all met at the pool after the reception and stayed there for about 3 hours. The rest of the days after the wedding went well. We ate at Mexico Lindo El Coral and El Kiyoto. The two buffets at the beach side were also good. The hotel offers a lot of excursions which we and the other guest enjoyed. The day before we left we went to tropical pictures to view our photos. The pictures were AMAZING! Our photographer did a wounderful job. We were very pleased with her work and even purchased additional photos. I have stayed at the barcelo bavaro deluxe in 2010 and I liked my stay there better than the stay at the bavaro beach. The rooms on that side are nicer and come with a Jacuzzi on balcony and the staff at the deluxe is much more organized. We stayed for seven days and we switched rooms 3 times. We switched twice when we first arrived and then we had to switch again before we left because the air conditioner in our room went out. After having the technicians there for 2 hours we were switched to another room. Once we got to that room the t.v. was not working and we had to call the technicians one again to fix. Summing things up I would say that the wedding went very well. The resort is beautiful and well kept. There were a few bumps along along the way but everything went well and my husband and I were very pleased. All of our guest loved the wedding and the resort. The wedding department does a very good job. I t may not look like everything is coming together but it will once you get there. Don't stress and enjoy your day because it goes by fast. Bibi: You said that you purchased additional photos, how much is each additional photo? Thanks

Does anyone have package information and price for HDC photography? If so can you please send them to me, my email is [email protected] Thanks!