We had our wedding at Dreams Palm Beach in Punta Cana on 1/18/14. We stayed from 1/14/14-1/21/14. It was absolutely wonderful and I cannot say enough good things! This was my first time outside of the United States. We travelled with 10 other people. Some had been outside of the US before, and some had not. Everyone had a wonderful time and is still talking about it. I was nervous to go, but all of that was for nothing. The stay at the resort was excellent, and the wedding was flawless. Every day we are still wishing we are at the hotel in Punta Cana. We will definitely go back to visit. If you are considering a wedding there, I would highly recommend it. The hotel has all of the resources you need, but you are able to use outside vendors if you want. They make it so easy, so affordable, and it is the most gorgeous setting you could ask for!

Resort: The resort itself was gorgeous. Everything was lush and green and very well kept. It was very clean as well. It was never too crowded, but never dead either. The staff went out of their way to be extremely friendly. All of them spoke English.

Room: We stayed in building 5, and it could not have been better! We were on the second floor. We did the Preferred Club. If you are debating between Preferred Club or not, I would say it is worth it for a few hundred dollars. I would not say it is worth more than $500. You get a special section of the beach, which was my favorite part. Plus you can go to the Seaside Grill for breakfast and lunch, and there is better alcohol at the Preferred Club Lounge.

Restaurants: I’m a vegetarian, but no one else in my group was. All of the restaurants were fantastic. The only one I wasn’t very impressed with was El Patio. The service was slow and the food was not great, but it could have been that it was busier that particular night. There is a wide variety of food to choose from, so you never get tired of anything. The service in all of the restaurants was excellent.

Beach: The beach looks like a postcard in Punta Cana. There are green palm trees everywhere, with sand that is like powdered sugar against the turquoise ocean. The staff did their best to constantly be raking up any sea grass or any other debris. There are people selling various items if you are interested, but the guards don’t let them walk up to you on the beach, so you never need to worry about that. There are very attentive servers to take your drink orders on the Preferred Club side of the beach. It makes for a perfect beach experience! As with any beach, it’s best to get there early in the morning to get your chairs, but no matter what time of day, we were always able to find something.

Salon: My sister and I had our hair done in up-dos at the salon at the hotel. Rosa did our hair and was amazing! We brought in pictures of what we wanted and she quickly duplicated it. I cannot say enough good things about her, and this experience was perfect.

Wedding Coordinator: My wedding coordinator was Johanna Rivera. She was so great and I can’t say enough good things. Johanna answered all of my questions, and took care of every request that I had before we go to the resort as well as after. We had a pre-wedding meeting the day after we arrived with Johanna. We confirmed songs for the ceremony, our vows, colors, dinner, and the seating chart for dinner, etc. We had a rehearsal the day of the wedding, which I would highly recommend. The day of the wedding, Johanna gave me a cell phone to be in constant contact with her. She took care of every detail. Definitely request Johanna for your wedding!

Ceremony: We did the Ultimate wedding package with a symbolic ceremony. (We got legally married in the US right before we left, just to simplify all of the legalities.) Our ceremony was on the beach with a white wooden gazebo and the natural tropical flowers that the package comes with. We had a violinist play for the ceremony. I requested typical wedding songs, such as “Cannon in D”, and the violinist had no problem. Everything was absolutely beautiful and could not have been better.

Photography: We used the photography studio at the hotel- Tropical Studios. They were wonderful. We added on the $500 photo package. We met with a photographer the day after we got there to discuss what we wanted as far as photos of getting ready, etc. Ana ended up being our photographer the day of, and could not have done a better job. Everyone still comments on how well the photographer did on our photos. She took some photos of my husband and I each getting ready, and then of the ceremony, and then photos of our families and my husband and I after the ceremony. The guards on the beach were extremely considerate as they would not let people on the beach walk behind us as we were getting photos taken, so we do not have any bystanders in any of our photos. It was well worth the extra money.

Reception: After the wedding, we had a cocktail hour for the guests while my husband and I took photos. The Caribbean Trio played and they were wonderful. The cocktail hour and the dinner reception took place in one of the ballrooms. It was all set up perfectly. We had an exquisite bar, and we did a buffet dinner. The food was delicious. I didn’t bring any decoration for the room. All I brought was place card holders and favors, which Johanna had perfectly set up beforehand. In my opinion you don’t need to bring decorations unless you just want them. I brought a portable speaker and used my phone to play music instead of hiring another band or DJ. It worked perfect. We did not do a dance just due to the small amount of people we had. We did some fireworks and sparklers on the beach after dinner. It was gorgeous and I would not have changed a thing.