Hello beautiful ladies considering Dreams La Romana for your destination wedding. I intended to write this review after returning from my honeymoon a year ago but got caught up with major life changes. Regardless of how long ago that was, I am still deeply indebted to the amazing women who helped me plan my destination wedding on this forum for without this wonderful community I would not have been able to have the wedding of my dreams. In my promise to return the tremendous support I received, I will write the most detailed review I can from what I remember:

Communication Pre-Wedding:

I did not fly to the location prior to the wedding to inspect the premises so 100% of the planning happened remotely. My wedding coordinator was Jenny and she was nothing short of fabulous. She was sweet, patient and very helpful. E-mails were returned more or less within 1-2 weeks during the 9 month span before the real planning began. I wanted to respect their time and their boundaries so I would normally communicate via email. However, if I had an emergency or something that required immediate attention I would call the office directly. I only did this once or twice. A few weeks before the wedding email turn-around time would be within the same day, if not immediately. I had a lot of last minute changes that were quickly and easily accommodated.

Before we left to D.R. we were given a spreadsheet of all of our costs. This price stayed the same except for a few things I changed when I arrived. When we actually got to the hotel 3 days before the wedding, we met with Jenny in person and went through every single cost and detail and came up with a final amount. She literally gave me the opportunity to re-plan my wedding if I desired to do so, and I took her up on a quite a few changes. It was definitely nice to have her there with me to help me make decisions with her expertise and with more access to pictures and everything. What I learned from this is basically you can show up to La Romana with almost nothing planned and still pull off a beautiful wedding in just a few days. They are that good and very prepared. This is what they do. Trust them.

Check-in/Staff Service:

If there is one thing that makes this resort stand out from the rest, it's probably the high level of service. This resort if filled with staff and every single one of them are so kind, gracious and helpful. I even left a gift for the woman who cleaned our room because I was so taken aback by her graciousness. I felt very at home in this mid-size, cozy resort. From check-in to check-out these people know how to treat their guests. Even if you're not staying in the fanciest room, you will still feel like royalty when you engage in the activities around the hotel, the pool, the bars, the restaurants, etc.

Travel Agency:

I highly recommend hiring a travel agent. We went with the Wright Travel Agency (the one offered through bestdestinationweddings.com) and they were truly a lifesaver. (Thanks Babs!). Out of 63 guests we only had one person complain about not getting a flight they were trying to coordinate with another guest. Otherwise the agency lifted a huge burden off my shoulders. Anytime a guest would call me about hotel or flight booking I would just say "contact my travel agent." And that was that. As a result, I was free to focus my energy on details and tasks that only I could do.

Hotel Rooms and Grounds:

Beautiful and Impeccable. My husband and I stayed in building 11 (I think) which was in the preferred section. My whole family stayed there as well and this section of the resort is really nice and peaceful. The rooms were super clean and the views were great. Hubby and I decided last minute to switch to the Honeymoon suite the night before the wedding so that I could have enough room to get ready with my bridal party. I'm glad we made that decision because the suite comes with an amazing bathroom and perfect view. The only issue we had was a sound coming from the A/C vent. I think it was a bat or something lol. But we didn't let that bother us too much. The room was amazing over all. I did visit a few rooms on the other side of the resort and they were a bit different. But they were still nice. The hallways are not as nice and tranquil as those of the Preferred side but I actually like the style of the non-preferred rooms too. 

Coctail/ Welcome Party:

The night before the wedding hubby and I decided to host a cocktail party on the beach. The resort provided the food and drinks and we had them do a bonfire. It was really nice. We also bought sky lanterns. Here's where we went wrong: prior to the cocktail hour we had everyone eat at the big restaurant that serves a buffet. We did this under the assumption that the food at the cocktail party wouldn't be enough but we assumed wrong. The food for the cocktail party ended up going to waste because people were full from dinner. The plus side was the drinks they made were superb! Also, if you decide to do sky lanterns, make sure they hire enough staff and lighters to do them. There were only two guys lighting one lantern at a time so we didn't get the full effect of the lights being in the sky all at once. The guests enjoyed them nevertheless because the activity of getting it to light and then watching it float away is a fun activity in itself. But I would make sure they have enough lighters to go around so that multiple lanterns could go up simultaneously. I became quite the bridezilla in this moment but honestly everyone else was having a good time so I let it go. We even had strangers come join us and I let them light some leftover lanterns to share in our joy.

Hair and Make-up:

The ultimate package came with a free hairstyle and make-up application as well as a trial run days before. The day before the wedding I went in to the spa with my own make-up from MAC and a fuzzy vision of what I wanted. The hairdresser asked me what I wanted to do with my hair. I told her I didn’t know, I just knew I wanted an up-do. She gave me a book of hairstyles to flip through, I chose one, she executed it perfectly and that was it. She was quick and super professional. I was impressed.

Then for the make-up I showed her a picture of a celebrity (Lala Anthony) with a nice glam but bridal look. She executed that pretty well too. We went with a more natural look but I loved it. I was VERY satisfied with the work she did. Particularly because I gave her lots of make-up products to work with that seem complicated to me personally (highlighter, concealer, eye foundation, etc.) but she knew exactly what to do with all of it. I loved the spa and the salon altogether. It’s a nice chill, but professional vibe. They also did my mani and pedi for the wedding.

The day of the wedding I had to wash and dry my hair myself (otherwise I would have had to pay for that) and the woman was able to replicate my hair and make-up. This time it looked even better than it did at the trial. I felt like a beautiful bride thanks to them.

The Ceremony: Garden Gazebo

Okay now for the big day! The ceremony was probably the most beautiful part of our wedding. We purchased the Ultimate Package which ended up working out well considering what we wanted (I worked out the math and it was our best option). It could not have been more perfect. Here is where I have to give it up to Jenny, my wedding coordinator. I hadn't yet fully fleshed out how I wanted my ceremony to be decorated besides the fact I wanted it to be different shades of purple. (I was inspired by Khloe Kardashians wedding). The only thing I did was bring my own sashes to make sure they matched my bridesmaids dresses. Other than that, I relied on her creativity to make it pretty. It was plain but elegant- just my style. We didn't go with Tiffany chairs because they were more than I wanted to spend on chairs but we did pay a little extra for the white fold up chairs which ended up working nicely. The flowers were pretty much left to Jenny too. I had to have a lot of faith and trust to do this but I really liked how it came out.

We didn't hire anyone to perform our wedding ceremony. The Pastor everyone suggested on this site was booked. My hubby's friend was studying to be a pastor so we let him perform our Christian wedding and it turned out great. This was another aspect of the wedding where I had to let go and let God. lol. Because honestly, I had no idea what he was gonna say. Thankfully, it turned out well. 

The best part of our ceremony was right as we kissed and walked back down the aisle, it started to rain. Our wedding started at 4:30 and the sun was shining beautifully. It was perfect the whole time except when the ceremony came to a close. It was as if the rain waited for us to finish. But it was just a light drizzle and brought us a beautiful present: a rainbow :-) It was perfect. And it stopped after 3 minutes so we were able to enjoy the champagne that was waiting for us. Then we took pictures with the wedding party as well as the entire guest party.

Photography: Tropical Studios (Hotel Photographer)  

So this was the part of the wedding that was probably the biggest blessing in disguise. Two weeks before we flew out to DR, we found out that my husband's uncle who was supposed to be handling our pictures wasn't coming to our wedding anymore. We were pretty much left stranded and had no idea what to do because we hadn't budgeted for a photographer. The wedding package we purchased came with 50 pics and a video of the ceremony but we wanted the reception captured too and we wanted to have pics of us and our wedding party. So we had to hire the Hotel's photographer to cover those aspects of the event as well. It wasn't nearly as expensive as the other local photographers so we were happy with the cost but we had no idea if it would be good quality. Well, the quality ended up being better than we hoped for. It was probably my favorite part of this whole destination wedding project. Not only were the pictures done beautifully and professionally but they had them ready for us like the next day. We got to sit in the hut with them and pick out the 50 pics we wanted printed (that came with our package) and then we got two CDs of all the pictures (around 300). They were spectacular. And the photographer (Kenny) was just an awesome guy. The whole crew was awesome. Great customer service, great product, and great delivery.

Cocktail Reception: Pier

Immediately following the ceremony and group pictures, our guests were lead to the pier, while hubby and I stayed at the beach and took couple pictures. By the time we joined them it was getting a bit dark and the hors d’oeuvres were pretty much gone. The few I tasted were delicious and I remember people coming up to me to tell me how good they were. During that hour the videographer asked some of our guests to say some nice words to us so we have that as part of our video which was a really nice gift. The trio band was also a cool part of it because it made it feel like a chill island party. The pier is pretty narrow though and for my large party some people had to stay on the main land. It was fine though.

Reception: Italian Restaurant (Portofino?)

Prior to arriving at the hotel I was certain I would have the event at the Seaside Grill. I loved the way it looked in the pictures and it seemed to be the popular choice among Dreams La Romana brides. But when I arrived and Jenny took me on a tour of the premises, it did not fit the dream I had in my mind. It looks exactly how it looks in the pictures, but I had not really factored in my desire for an inside wedding until I got there. So I ended up switching the location to the Italian restaurant. It was definitely more my style. The only thing I would have changed is the black and white checkered floor. Other than that, it was just a better fit for the overall vibe of my wedding. The decor was beautiful and a bit more posh than the other locations. It worked really well. Even the walls were purple, which matched the colors of my wedding, strangely enough.

Music: DJ Mannia

So we ended up going with the popular DJ Mannia because I wanted to make sure the music was appropriate for our crowd. They played pretty much everything we asked them to play and they did a great job with moving the event along. I forgot the woman's name but she was the maestro for the evening and made all the announcements, which was a huge relief. There were two DJs taking care of the music. We had to ask them to change a song once or twice, but I think that was a result of not enough pre-planning. I would suggest having a conversation prior to the wedding. We also rented the light-up dance floor with a few lights placed around the room to get that club vibe. It was a nice touch. Everyone had a great time. People were pretty much on the dance floor until the end. After that a group of people from our party wanted to keep the party going so they all headed out to one of the local clubs and partied all night.

Food/Cake: Buffet Style

Because of the relatively large number of people we had, it was suggested that we do a buffet. That worked out well because everyone got up and served their food table by table. The food was great. I have no complaints. But I also can't go into too much detail about it because I was too hungry, nervous and uptight to really taste and savor the food I was eating. That was really the least of my concerns. But everyone else raved about it. Tip for Brides: make sure you eat well while you're getting dressed. It will be a while before you are able to eat anything again.

The cake was fantastic. I didn’t know how it would come out. All I knew is I needed a three layer cake with purple flowers. I was pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful it was. And it tasted really good! We got the opportunity to choose different flavors for each layer which was really cool. The bottom layer was vanilla with dulce de leche filling, the middle layer was chocolate with chocolate filling, and the top layer was vanilla with chocolate filling. My husband said it was the best cake he ever had in his life. It was huge so we ended up eating it for dessert every day during our 5-day honeymoon. And we still left a big chunk behind J

Last Thoughts/Words of Advice:

My number one word of advice is to dream big, believe it is possible, then relax and don’t be attached to the outcome. I chose to have a destination wedding because I wanted to have a beautiful wedding that was affordable and would be easy to plan and that’s exactly what I got. I didn’t really do any heavy wedding planning until a month before the wedding and even then, I added much more stress to myself than I needed to. Your day will be wonderful. You are in good hands with this resort. To illustrate how awesome these planners are I’ll share this last part of our story: for our sky lanterns we had to ship them straight to the resort because they didn’t fit in our bags. Six weeks after shipping them they still had not yet arrived at the resort. We were getting antsy because at that point our wedding was only a few weeks away. We told Jenny about it and she told us not to worry, she would inquire into it. She contacted the postal office and found out they were holding it for some unknown reason. So she drove there herself and got them out for us before we arrived to La Romana. I personally didn’t see this as part of her duty as a wedding coordinator, but she still went above and beyond her duties to make us happy. That is the kind of service you will find with this Resort.

I try not to have any regrets because I believe we learn from every experience whether good or bad. But if there is one thing I would have done differently, it would have to be nixing the welcome bags. They were way more trouble than they were worth. Putting them together and delivering them myself took away from me being able to enjoy time with my friends and family. If you do welcome bags, pay the money to have them delivered to the guests! Your time with your friends and family is short so doing anything that will maximize your time and ease your stress is highly recommended!

Other than that, I was in paradise. And you will be too. The only way you can mess this up is by focusing on things you can’t control. If you focus on being happy, you will be very happy with your experience. I wish you much love and serenity as you embark on this wedding planning journey and even more so on your marriage. Have fun and enjoy each and every moment!!

xoxo