kellymiller

I personally didn't use one as it only took a minute or two (or at least that's how long it felt to me!) but my sister used "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder and it was cute!

I would start by looking at the packages provided by the resort (if any). By looking over those you should be able to get an idea of what is and isn't offered. From there, you need to decide what kind of feel/theme you want for your wedding and see how you can incorporate that into what the resort offers. You can definitely search around on this website and I'm sure you will get lots of ideas! Good luck!

I recently got married at the Dreams resort and you won't have to worry about a thing! If they are staying at the resort as a guest you do not have to pay the vendor fee. The fee is only if they are coming for the day of the wedding. Good luck planning!

We did the legal stuff after our wedding in Punta Cana. We only told a few people (mainly our parents and bridal party) that the ceremony wouldn't be legal, but there was no way to know from our ceremony. There was even a certificate for us to sign. Most guests didn't know that the ceremony wasn't legal. We actually got legally married a month after our ceremony, due to some issues that came up when we got home. We went into it with the mindset that the legal aspect at home was just signing the paperwork. When we got married in Punta Cana that is when it felt real for us. We will celebrate our wedding anniversary as the date our of DW, as in our minds that is the day we got married. Now that it has been three months we keep getting asked (mainly by his family) if we got legally married and when is our anniversary etc. I find it annoying because to us our wedding day was special, not the day we got legally married. On that day we didn't dress up or do anything special. We brought two of our friends to be the witnesses and they were more excited for it than we were! We chose the shortest ceremony option possible and didn't exchange rings. It was very low key.

I think any of the AM resorts would be a good fit for you (they include Dreams, Secrets, Now resorts). They offer a complementary wedding package if you have a certain number of rooms booked for 3 nights.

We stayed for almost 2 weeks. We went down on a Sunday night and left late on a Friday night. Our wedding was on a Friday and we went to another resort on the Sunday for some alone time. It was expensive, but we got a good deal on the second resort, plus we got back almost $2000 based on our guest count at the first resort, so that almost covered our second week. It was definitely worth staying longer as we actually got to relax and spend some time together. We had guests arrive from Monday to Thursday, so most of our days were broken up by waiting to greet guests as they arrived.

I also don't have much to input on this (we were planning on doing an AHR but now we are both unemployed and completely broke...not to mention have zero interest in planning anything else!), but I just had a question about the costs. How would inviting more people bump up the cost? Just the food and if you do pay for some drinks? Would you be able to modify your food selection to accommodate more people? Also, people might not be expecting too much food as your event is from 2-6. As for the guest list, did your aunts and uncles attend your wedding in Mexico? What about their children (aka your cousins)? Were you planning on inviting them, because if that is the case you should probably invite your aunts and uncles as well. Just some things to think about!

We had the same time frame that you suggesting. Our ceremony was at 4 then we had cocktail hour/reception start at 6:30. Our ceremony was about 30 minutes, then we did group and family photos. We then went to the beach for couple shots for about an hour. Our guests just relaxed in the lobby bar while we were taking pictures, so they were able to cool off and relax. We had enough time to get photos and make it back for 6:30 so we didn't miss any of the reception. Good luck!

I've seen people put a picture of their lost loved one on the empty chair. That way you would be able to see your mom's smiling face on your big day

Oh cool! I have never heard of that place, but it looks nice! I will have to keep it in mind if I ever need any type of dress again!

You look gorgeous! Did you get it in London? If so, from which store? I don't recognize the background! lol

Hi Ladies, I'm just about to start our thank you cards but have a few questions. Our wedding was about a month ago, so we figure that we have received all the cards/gifts we are going to get. It appears that we potentially have three different "categories" of cards to write: 1. People who attended the wedding (either with a gift or not), 2. People who were invited to the wedding and sent a card and/or gift, and 3. People who were not invited to the wedding (great aunts, older relatives etc) who send cards and/or gifts. I was just wondering what to write for each "category"? Also, what kind of general wording did people use for their cards? Thanks!

I got married at Dreams Palm Beach a month ago and it was fantastic! I had no issues planning the wedding and everything went very well. I can't say enough good things about dreams! All of our guests loved the resort and would go back again. The WC at Dreams are very good at what they do. I'm not sure the difference in price points, but Dreams is definitely a great resort!!

I just picked up reading this tread and all I can say is WOW! I can't believe the turn it took, but am pleased that it made you think about your situation better @@JennyZ!! That MIL seems to have forgotten the whole point of her sons wedding....to watch her son get married! All she seemed concerned about is how much of an inconvenience it is for them. She also seems to be in the opinion that her future DIL is making all the decisions....while that is mostly true for weddings, I never made a decision without consulting my husband first. Even if I knew he answer would be "Do/get whatever you want" I would still make the point of asking or showing him so he knew what was going on. I'm sure this bride also did the same, and if her husband really had an issue with the location of the wedding he would have said something. We just got back from our wedding about 2 weeks ago, and to be honest we didn't think about the people who didn't attend. Well, we did think of one groomsman who had to back out that it was probably for the best he didn't come as he is pretty intolerant of other people and different cultures, so it was for the best that we didn't have to deal with that! My husband and more family attend than from my side (he had about 10 and I had 7) and the only friends that attended were my MOH and her boyfriend. I can feel for your FI not having many relatives attending, but if they clearly don't want to be there they won't be any fun to be around!! One last thing, when we first told our parents about having a destination wedding they weren't thrilled with the idea. If they did grumble about it no one said anything to us about it. I think my parents really changed their tune after dealing with my sister's wedding in September and all the stress and tears that it caused Turns out all of our guests have the times of their lives and are already planning their trip back next year! Now I can foresee a future awkward situation about having to pick which family to go on vacation with :S

That is ridiculous. It seems to me based on this and reading your other posts there is NOTHING you can do to make her happy! I wouldn't try too hard to make her happy, as it seems nothing will. Just brush it off and keep doing your own thing with your hubby

Love it! It sounds like a combination of all the dresses you had picked previously!

I agree that you have the right to be annoyed/angry/hurt about the situation, I know I would be! She should have made an effort to go to your bachelorette and at least one bridal shower! BUT to play devil's advocate here maybe there is something else going on with her that you don't know about? Maybe she can't afford all those little trips, because in total it would be a lot! I'm not sure if it's 2.5 hours one way or round trip, but that adds up to a lot of time and money for gas! Has she met the rest of the bridal party? Maybe she didn't like someone or is afraid she won't fit in if she doesn't know them? I'm just speculating here, but there might be another reason for not attending your wedding functions. At least she has paid and is attending the wedding! My MOH pulled out at the booking deadline, so I had to ask one of my BM to step up. I knew it was coming because any time we talked over the year I was planning the wedding she always said she was broke or would have to book last minute because she couldn't save any money.

I just recently got back for my DW and honeymoon in Punta Cana. We stayed at Secrets Royal Beach for our honeymoon, but wondered onto Now Larimar for dinner a few times and it was great! The resort is really nice and the food was good! You won't be disappointed there!

Have you considered just getting a TA to get you a good group rate for the resort and let the guests book their own air travel? I'm from Canada and went this route for my guests (all from Canada), as some people were only able to attend for 3-4 days while other guests where there for 7+ days. We could have gotten a package with resort and airfare, but we knew that not everyone would be able to be there for the 7 days included in the package. We were able to get the lowest group rate available, then guests could pick their own air travel and pick the length of their stay and when they came and left. I feel that it worked out best for our guests, but I know some people didn't think it was a good enough deal (aka they didn't really look into our group rate and only wanted to look for packages on their own even though in the end they paid the same price as everyone else lol).

I was recently at Secrets Royal Beach and they had foam parties every day around 4:30pm in one of the pools. I didn't notice them going on at Now Laminar...

I would send them to everyone you sent save the dates to. It will save you some headaches and/or hurt feelings to just send them to everyone!

We did all retro dance songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s and a few 90s songs and everyone loved it! we had most people up dancing all night!

@LisaAnthonyPoppy I didn't do OTT bags for our wedding. It wasn't in our budget and we really didn't want to travel with all that extra stuff! Also, all our guests know of someone who has travelled at one point in the past 20 years so they were given tips on what to bring with them etc so we figured that giving out little tubes of sunscreen etc. would be redundant. Even if the majority of those tips are out of date and/or not relevant to the Dominican or our resort lol We are just doing a welcome letter for the guests outlining some events of the week and the wedding. What are you doing?

I'm about 2 weeks from our wedding (we leave in 6 days!) and I feel the same way! I had sooooo many ideas when we first started planning the wedding but now I figure if I haven't done it or thought of something yet it's not important! I'm just going to finish up my last minute stuff and let the WC take it from there! lol Looking back I really didn't do too much 3 months out...I just made use that all the guests were book and that we had the pastor, photographer etc booked Good luck ladies!

Hi Ladies, It's officially two weeks until our wedding! I'm just working out last minute stuff now (music, tipping, order of events, welcome letter etc) but I have a question about tipping. So far I am planning on tipping: WC Pastor Photographer Wait staff and bartender(s) and possibly the hair and make up ladies BUT my question is, how did everyone go about tipping these people? Did you just hand them an envelope at the end of the night? Or did you get someone else to give them out? I'm just worried about how to go about giving people their tips and don't want to miss anyone! I was thinking of getting my Dad to give them out so we aren't preoccupied with it during the night. Thoughts? Also, did I miss tipping anyone?