Congratulations!!
No, I didn't choose Now Larimar... I didn't read that great reviews, plus I didn't want to get married at a resort. However, Punta Cana you pretty much have to stay in one.
The forum for our wedding venue (off resort) people discuss resorts and where to stay etc. and I thought I'd share a recent post by someone who was going to get married at Now Larimar...
"I wanted to get married at Now Larimar. The package that was presented to have everything i would need was priced at 3500 outside of decor. Only to find out that in order to change the color of the napkins was 5 dollars a pop and not included in the additional 1500 extra for decor. Centerpieces that should only be 50-60 dollars to upgrade (from the original decor package) were full charge. The only option was to do everything separately which resulted in hundreds of dollars in additional fees. Not to mention the outside vendor fees. The one photographer/videographer is very overpriced and the list goes on....
About two months ago i had my first wedding meeting with my old wedding coordinator at now larimar at the end of the call my wedding was almost 17,000. I cried until my FH came home and he said he had enough of Now Larimar."
Somebody else chimed in with " I was at Now originally too and that same thing happened to me. I told my husband we may as well have a "regular" wedding in the states. I was so upset with those fees!"
What I will say is those who have stayed have said they 'liked it', but not rave reviews. Just wondering if there is a reason why Larimar is at the top of the list? You have plenty of time to plan!
Although you are not going in spring break, be careful not to travel around Easter, outside of North America people get time off over Easter plus DR is quite busy over the Easter period.
Good luck and don't worry about anything said above, if you think its the right place for your wedding then perfect, just wanted you to be aware.