Dear brides!

I am very happy to finally share my experience and have some input as many of you helped me so much through the planning process! Brace yourselves, this review is going to be long :) Our wedding was on January 11/14 and we had 50 people, including small children.

1. Hotel

First of all, you’ve made a great choice of the hotel in terms of the grounds and the staff. It is true what everyone else here said – the people at Dreams are super friendly and nothing is too much trouble for them! They create an awesome happy atmosphere for their guests.

The rooms did have some problems but once you call the staff over it is quickly fixed. I really didn’t notice any smell of dampness, and I am usually pretty sensitive.

My husband and I got upgraded for our entire 10 day stay to a honeymoon suite which was very nice and spacious, with 2 bathrooms. It was perfect for the day of the wedding preparations.

The beach does have some seaweed but it is honestly so beautiful with the turquoise water and huge palm trees, and they do a good job maintaining it. Even though the resort was packed when we were there, there were always beach chairs available.

Instead of OOT bags or party favors we took everyone on a surprise trip on a boat provided by SeaPro and gave everyone a stripy sailor shirt that they had to wear and kept as a souvenir – made for some outstanding pictures! I have to admit that the boat trip was probably more fun than the wedding itself – we brought our own music and were dancing the whole time, did snorkeling, played water volleyball – the crew was just awesome and so fun!!! Thank you SeaPro team!

Unfortunately, we did end up having a major glitch with the resort. One of my guests, a 20-year-old boy, went to play the baseball machine and got his nose broken. It turns out that they have zero (!) supervision there and no helmets or masks or any safety features at all! We checked the settings after and the machine was set on 90 miles/hour! That’s roughly 150km/hr!!! If this was a child I don’t want to imagine what could have happened. The resort just sent us on a taxi to the hospital – obviously we paid for it out of our own pocket – and NEVER followed up! None of the management ever came up to us to make sure that he was ok. Which he was obviously not – he had a lot of hemorrhaging and might have surgery now.

1. The wedding planning.

I won’t sugarcoat the details of my planning process as I had some major problems.

My coordinator was Vanessa and she was responding to my emails on average once in 2.5 weeks. Yup! Even one month before the wedding she was taking a couple of weeks to reply, so all the last details were verified the day before my flight! To say that it made for some nerve-wrecking planning is a major understatement.

We had 50 guests and I included a lot of extras in terms of décor, services, additional hour of reception etc. I was trying hard to have a well-planned reception similar to what we would have had at home but it was very hard to do. Initially, we wanted to have our reception at the Pool Island however, a few months before the wedding our guest list grew and we decided to relocate it into a ballroom. Vanessa was on vacation at the time and I communicated with Cristina (the manager). Cristina confirmed that ballroom is available and said the reception is now moved, no problem. For 2-3 weeks I was re-thinking all of my décor as it was no longer outside, then sent the final draft to Vanessa. As usual, she took 2 more weeks to reply and came back saying sorry, the ballroom is no longer available. At this point me and my husband just flipped out and, after 2 days of back and forth calls and emails we were finally given the medium ballroom and advised that it fits 60 people.

Of course, there was more to come. A couple weeks before our flight Vanessa told us that the dance floor of the size recommended by DJ Mannia for 50 people did not fit into the ballroom. I was so devastated thinking the whole way to DR that we will be dancing on a carpeted floor… Worth mentioning, the amazing Amy from DJ Mannia would not charge us for dance floor cancellation after she saw my email communication with Vanessa.

Once we were already in DR, Vanessa was actually pleasant to deal with in person and she did try her best to accommodate us. Even though she didn’t remember some of the major things I emailed her about (and sent pictures, too), once we went over everything, she met all our wishes. She took us to the ballroom and spoke with the manager who allowed the dance floor – so we weren’t dancing on the carpet after all!!!

My advise to you – do not rely on anybody but yourself, print everything out and bring with you, and check and re-check! You can have the fun wedding of your dreams but you will have to put a lot of time and sweat into it! :)

I have to mention that there are a lot of hidden fees involved in the wedding when you have over 20 people. We had the Ultimate package and were charged per person for alcohol, food, additional hour of reception etc. Tropical Studio did an amazing job with ceremony pictures and we chose 50 prints. They advised they have to charge us for the electronic version of all pictures and quoted us .... $700! We refused because this was ridiculous. We had HDC cover the ceremony anyway.

1. The wedding day.

Ceremony – beach 3.00 PM

Cocktail hour – ballroom foyer 5.30 PM

Reception – ballroom 6.00 PM

The morning of my wedding it rained – and thanks to all the reviews on this website, I knew it was a good thing because it was less hot and busy on the beach!

We went to the spa at 10.00 AM – the ladies there wanted to do my appointment at 11 AM but Im so happy I pushed for 10. With all other guests coming and going, I got out of there after 1PM!!! I had the free hair and make up trial with Bella the day before and I highly recommend it – she is good but she has her own vision, so you need to bring pictures and be honest with what you like and don’t like. She did my hair and make up to perfection on the day, but she did have trouble putting the eyeliner in a straight line etc. I don’t blame her – its so dark in that room, I couldn’t see anything! Thankfully, my videographer came at that time and he was standing with his light on while she was finishing my makeup. FYI, we liked Bella much better than Rosa – a couple of my ladies weren’t happy with Rosa’s work. Vanessa brought samples of all bouquets and boutonnieres to the spa to show me and they were all gorgeous! That uplifted me a lot!

After this we came back to my room, where the photographer was already waiting. We used HDC and had George on the wedding day. I wasn’t thrilled with him as he provided no coordination when we were taking group pics after ceremony – and it is hard for the bride to handle 50 people. He did not suggest a single pose for our wedding party photoshoot either. Our couple photoshoot was nice though and he did make a few great portraits and action shots during reception. During our dinner, my husband kept finding him on the couch in the hall and told him he wasn’t happy. I understand it’s a long day for the photographer, but this was in the beginning of the dinner and I saw how hard our videographer was working - George was nothing like that. We had a trash the dress session with Milan the next day and he is SO lovely! Very hard working, he was practically sweating when he was running around us and fixing everything, and he had a fountain of ideas and was so social! We loved Milan and his pictures!

Right before the ceremony, when we were waiting for Vanessa to come and get me and my parents, I broke down and started crying (there is a lot of pressure on you that day, that’s for sure!). Vanessa came in and calmed me so well! She kept saying how beautiful I was (I’m sure – who doesn’t look beautiful with puffy eyes and red nose!) and moving us along to the ceremony site. She wasn’t rushing me at all, and made sure I’m ready to “have my moment” as she put it. Thank you for that Vanessa.

The ceremony was executed beautifully by Vanessa and the Dreams team. We had 8 people in the wedding party and a few honorary guests walking down the isle in the beginning and Vanessa coordinated them so well! This is my big rowdy Russian family we are talking here, so I don’t know how she handled them this effectively! The music was on cue and the decorations…. WOW! When I came out and saw everything, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was even better than I’ve pictured in my head for all these months! Vanessa understood EXACTLY what I wanted and executed it beautifully. The day before the wedding I decided to print programs last second, and Cristina advised she will give them out, although she reassured me that the guests would be guided to the reception location. Im so happy I did the programs, because after the ceremony and pictures there was no one there to guide my guests!

For reception, we had gold and ivory theme, star ceiling draping by Dreams and white dance floor with led lights by DJ Mannia. We had a sit down dinner with steak and lobser bisque – me and my hubby didn’t like the food very much, steak was overdone, salad looked very simple and had chest nuts instead of pine nuts that were promised. We liked the soup though. We brought our own votive candles, and Vanessa threw in a few more for free. Everything looked beautiful and very wedding-y. We really liked DJ Mannia, and Amy – our MC and overseas coordinator – was very organized and on cue. She told me she never coordinated such a rich program as we had A LOT of musical numbers, speeches, surprises etc. She did a good job, even though my husband did tell me that he wished she would cheer people on and make a more fun atmosphere, as opposed to just announcing the next number. Nonetheless, I really liked her and I think they did a good job. During the planning, she was about the only person in DR who responded to all my emails promptly! :)

I hope this helps! If you have any questions – do not hesitate to contact me!!!