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@@Jc14 no problem! I'm so happy to help. I think I had questions up until we left, but I think that's just the way it goes with destination weddings - thank goodness for this forum!!! 1. We were in 3000 (3131 actually, right at the end). Several of our guests were in the 2000 building though. Both are next to the beach, but 3000 is next to the pool too. 2. I wish I could remember, but I don't know the name of the buffet. Looking at the website now, I *think* it's this one: http://www.palladiumhotelgroup.com/en/punta-cana/grand-palladium-punta-cana-resort-spa/restaurants/arrecife-restaurant/ I'm pretty sure this is the one where we had ours, and was our general go-to because it was in our section: http://www.palladiumhotelgroup.com/en/punta-cana/grand-palladium-punta-cana-resort-spa/restaurants/behique-restaurant/ 3. No, they didn't come (they're usually with the weddings on the day, and there was a wedding pretty much every day while we were there). My cousins were our photographers though (they have their own studio) and since they work so many weddings they helped us work it all out. ACTUALLY, that's my one kinda regret from the wedding. I run events for my profession, so I kinda felt like I was working a job on my wedding day. If you can delegate someone to be your time keeper, I would definitely suggest that! 4. The line is only long(ish) for the reservations. But seriously. The bacon wrapped bananas. I'm drooling a little just thinking of them (someone get a picture of them for me, PLEASE!). 5. The lobby bar is great. Great location, live entertainment (although... we took over the lobby on our last night, we had 70+ people watching the Habs playoff game on a laptop, the entertainment crew gave up on trying to sing until after the game. It was AMAZING). The pool bar closes a bit earlier. For us, our plane was delayed on the way down, so while we were going to do cocktails before dinner the first night, it didn't work out, and after dinner everyone went their own way. I'd suggest if you have a change of plans, announce it on the bus on the way to the hotel before you all get your room keys and everything. The hotel will also provide you with a list of all your guests, their rooms, and their extensions in case you need to reach them (super handy). In our case there were a few rooms switches too, but that was all worked out by day 2. 6. The sports bar wasn't the most exciting one - sadly they didn't have the Montreal games. It was indoors though, which was good for those with mosquito bites.

Hi all, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I can't believe it's already October - all the 2015 weddings are almost done! @@Jc14 I'd be happy to answer your questions! 1) The garden gazebo is in the Punta Cana section. It's really close to the beach, so when you're standing on it you can still see the water and get the breeze. 2) We stayed in the Punta Cana section - we could actually see the gazebo from our room! 3) We mostly went to the buffet in the PC section because it was close. There's one right on the water with seashell chandeliers that's quite beautiful (I forget the name of it). While there's no formal rehearsal planned we just did our own then went to the buffet in the PC section (easiest place to meet up). 4) It depends which restaurant and the size of the group. They only start taking reservations as of 5:30, and people line up as of 4:45 to get a spot at the time they want. Some of them will still do drop in (I believe we did this for the Tapas one), but we were only 6 that went to that one. The japanese one has the longest lines, but that's mostly for the show. If you do a drop in, they can give you a buzzer (which is what we did for the mexican one). For the record, I STILL find myself dreaming about the bacon wrapped bananas at the tapas restaurant. SO SO SO good.

@@Jc14 we did our guest book during the dinner. The only problem with that was that not everyone saw it or took the time to sign. If you want to do it during the ceremony, the guests will be brought to the ceremony location about half an hour before, so there's definitely time. I'm also pretty sure that you can ask the wedding coordinator to move it over to your reception spot for you. As for everyone trying to reach Carolina, I think this time of year is her time off. Last summer it was really hard to hear from her too.

@@shevette925, what a stress for your dress! I'm glad it worked out for you. @@Jc14, I could be wrong, but I'm about 95% sure that the restaurants typically do play a background music. At the steak restaurant the band trio also goes around to serenade people. If you want to do your own decorations you can. After your meeting with the coordinator she'll come by your room to pick up your supplies. If you really have a specific layout you want, I'd suggest taking a picture of how you want it set up. (We did a table for our favours, so here's how they set it up). The beach bash IS short, which concerned me a little too. As I've said, I think it's because of a by-law of the hotel regarding noise. That being said, by the time we actually wrapped up it was closer to 11:30-midnight and most people were exhausted from being in the sun all day. The other thing is that because you're actually dancing in the sand, it takes a LOT more energy out of you! Everyone's legs were feeling it the next day. We brought our own music, but had the guy play some of his at the end.

@@Jc14, no it's included. There wasn't any food though - not sure how important snacks are to you! We didn't do a signature cocktail, as I wasn't sure how that time of day would play out I left it up to our guests to order what they wanted. The beer was amazing, and quite a few people got into the "coco locos" which was like a pina colada without pineapple but with cinnamon.

Hi @@Jc14! So good to see some action here again!!! - We didn't do a cocktail menu, but if you chose not to do something they arrange for a section of the lobby bar to be used as a cocktail hour for your guests with drinks. - We sent out welcome kits before we left, partly to avoid figuring out those logistics, and partly so that we weren't carrying too much weight in our suitcases. How about doing your bags at your first dinner? The resort is so large that it was easiest for all of us to meet at the buffet the first nigh, so that could be an easy option?

Hi @@njn33rocks, The way most of the à la carte restaurants worked was that people could make reservations every night as of 5. People usually started lining up at the good places at 4:30, even to make reservations for later. You can show up later, but there isn't a guarantee they'll have room at your ideal time.

@@ElisabethC, this site seems to have quite a few French signage ideas: http://www.prettywedding.fr/nos-realisations-en-photo/

Hi @@ElisabethC, I didn't see very much - I pretty much translated all our stuff myself or with help from friends. If you know exactly what you want let me know and I can see what I can do

Some cultures do a hand blessing ceremony (http://bridalmusings.com/2011/06/ceremony-reading-blessing-of-the-hands/), or pass the rings around for guests to warm with their love/thoughts.

@@Jc14 - WOWZA! You managed in 2 weeks what took me MONTHS - you're amazing! - Good question... I think if your group is large enough they'd make you pick a restaurant that was larger rather than automatically make it private... but I'm not sure. - I think the restaurants depend on your size of group. In my opinion, the Tapas (tapeo) and the Japanese restaurants had the best food. - It depends on what look/vision you have for your photos. I didn't particularly like the resort's photographer because I found the photos not particularly creative. HDC does a lot with lighting and colours, and while I loved their shots I thought I'd want something a little more traditional. After looking at a few others (http://www.photosouvenirpuntacana.com/), we considered the prices and realized it cost the same to pay for the trip for a photographer from home. My cousin and her husband are professional photographers, so we paid for their trip and it added a little extra sentiment. - I read the beef medallions and the brownie were good too. Our chocolate cake at our wedding was AMAZING (and like I said I'm not a cake person). - Reception decorations are more elaborate for the head table. Besides that it's just what the restaurants are set with, otherwise it's extra (to my understanding). - They did an itinerary for us and delivered it to guests, but I asked if they could because our ceremony time changed. I don't know if this is standard, but they didn't charge us for it. There were little cards at all the dishes that listed what it was (we had a buffet), and there weren't table numbers. I also didn't have an assigned seating chart, but if you have one they'll set it up for you. - We did a legal ceremony, so can't help there- sorry! @Jc1 Oops, I wanted to attach this for you. It's the price list for Photo Souvenir, https://2011photopackages.wordpress.com/ (Note, it cost us about $2900 for ours, but we didn't pay an outside vendor fee and they shot for almost 12 hours, AND did an extra "Just Married" shoot.)

Way to go @@Jc14! We sent out Save the Dates a year in advance without a set hotel or a specific date, just a "Hey we're getting married in May in the DR" so that people could start saving if they needed to. As soon as we confirmed with our TA our hotel and date (end of July), we ordered our invitations from http://preciousinvitations.com/and had them within 2 weeks (in English and in French). They were sent out by mid-late August, and we had people RSVP by booking their tickets by the end of September.

Sorry @@Jc14, I thought someone had answered already. We did the legal ceremony, but it cost $600 for the officiant. Everything goes through the wedding coordinator at the hotel. We didn't meet the judge until the ceremony itself, and did a rehearsal/run-through on our own without coordination from the hotel. - Yes, the booking # is from your TA - You can write approximate amounts. Carolina will send you an excel sheet to fill out that you submit 3 months prior to the wedding to confirm the details, and you go over it all again when you get there, so things can change.

Sorry ladies - long weekend! @@Jc14 We didn't miss the music at all. We planned on meeting in the Lobby bar for cocktails the first night, but with the plane being delayed we all just ended up at the buffet at the Punta Cana hotel. Afterwards it was a bit tiring because people kept asking me where everything was and what was next and I was like "you're on vacation! Do what you want!". Also, it was hard because I didn't know much more about the hotel than they did as it was just our first night. About halfway through the trip people started organically meeting up at the pool right outside our rooms around 3 pm daily for drinks and to catch up in the shade. It was perfect because it just happened naturally. Then people would split up to try the different restaurants for dinner. Most nights we'd meet again in the Sports bar (and TRY to convince them to get the Habs games... unfortunately they didn't have the channel, but if we'd had a cable to connect the phone to the TV they would have hooked it up for it). Otherwise the group of "younger" people (aka our friends and cousins) would end up hanging out most nights. For the flowers I didn't even explore it with her because I told her I brought my own and it was all taken care of, I just wanted to replace the package ones with small centerpieces. Our silk/real-touch flowers were PERFECT. No one knew they were fake. Our friend's husband was running errands for us all day and kept asking if he needed to put the toss bouquet in water. For our flowers we bought: 1 Bride: As Shown in Listing. Light Yellow Wrap. $125 1 MoH Bouquet: 7" Wide Matching Bride. $55. 2 Bridesmaids: 6" Wide Matchin Bride. $45. 3 Boutonnieres: **Green Orchid** with Grass Sprays and Ribbon Wrap. $8 each. 2 Wrist Corsages: Matching Order. $14 each. 1 Wedding Flower Girl Pomander 1 FREE Toss Bouquet It came up to $350 with taxes, but without the exchange rate. The flowers still look gorgeous, and the bridesmaids loved them (and have them decorating their offices or homes now). Also, we didn't end up doing an excursion. After the wedding I was just jealous of everyone getting to spend time on the beach so that's what we did. A number of people did the catamaran cruise and loved it - but it took up a whole day (they left at 8 am and only got back to the resort at 7 pm). Ah, just found a picture where you have a better look at my flowers.

@@Jc14, sadly there wasn't a sound system. To rent one, it's an extra $340 (or 360... something like that), so not something we felt would be worth the investment. The trio band DID stop in and play a few songs though, and we had a little activity for them to do at their tables, but besides that it was just people talking and the ocean - which was actually pretty nice. The beach bash was on the beach for us, about 100 ft from where we had dinner - but another wedding while we were there had it on the deck. I think it depends on the size of the group. Dinner was a buffet - and delicious! My cousin is a professional photographer, so we paid for her and her husband's trip (and avoided an outside vendor fee). They're AMAZING, and even did an "after-wedding" shoot with us wearing our new Mr. and Mrs. tops.