I cannot sing enough praises for Excellence, Punta Cana and their staff. From the moment we arrived until the moment we departed, we were treated like royalty. Every member of our group thanked us for picking such a wonderful resort for our wedding.

PLANNING

Griselda was my wedding planner and she was absolutely wonderful.  From the first correspondence through meeting her in person, she took as much time as necessary to answer all of my questions and never made me feel like anything was too small to be concerned with. She went above and beyond, surpassing all of our expectations. Planning a wedding from so far away can be a daunting experience, but Griselda put my fears at ease and made the experience "Super Excellente."

FLIGHTS

US Airways is definitely not the way to travel for a destination wedding. Our flights times were changed a couple of times, which was not really a big deal, but main reason why they are not good is the baggage fees that they charge and their boarding process. Even though the Caribbean is an international destination, you must pay for every checked bag. Since we had three and one was overweight, we ended up spending over $120 in baggage fees, making the cost difference for flying US Airways negligible. (It would have been more, except our flight home was on American). They recently changed their boarding procedure to board from the back of the aircraft to the front, not longer giving you an earlier boarding call for checking in online 24hours prior.  This wouldn't have been a problem, except that US Airways passengers tend to use up all the overhead storage space before Zone 5 even has a chance to board, therefore making you check all carry-ons at the gate. Since this was not an option, by DH was able to get the people at the gate to allow us to pre-board so that we were able to take my dress and all wedding day things on-board with us. Had he not spoken up and requested this, I'm not sure what could have happened to my dress (especially with a plane change and layover).

TRANSFER

I booked the transfer to the hotel though an affiliate of Cheapcaribbean.com. The day before departing I noticed on the fine print of the voucher that I needed to confirm my transfer at least 72 hours prior to departure, I immediately called the Cheap Caribbean phone number listed on the voucher. Unfortunately, the guy on the phone had to call the transfer himself, and was unable to communicate effectively due to the language barrier.  I informed him that I speak Spanish and requested that he conference us together so I could confirm it myself. After much difficulty, I confirmed the transfer.  But upon arriving, it was very difficult to figure out who to go to for our transportation.  We finally got to the right booth, only to find out that they weren't expecting us because the guy on the phone wrote down the wrong date. However, once everything was figured out, we got onto the shared transfer, only had one stop along the way, and then were delivered to Excellence after a long ride.

ARRIVAL

Everyone mentions the cool towel and champagne upon arrival, and this was definitely a wonderful way to be welcomed.  As they gave us the towel and champagne, they said "Welcome Home" and they meant it. We were then escorted to the front desk where the welcome was repeated.  They promptly retrieved our reservation, and then had someone escort us to the Excellence Club for our private check-in. We didn't wait long before our introduction to the resort and the club before we were escorted to our room. Our bags arrived at our room shortly thereafter and we were ready to relax and take in the resort.

STAFF

Everyone was extremely friendly at the resort and always had smiles on their faces than never seemed forced.  It seemed like everyone who worked there was extremely happy to work there and wanted to do everything in their power to make sure we enjoyed our stay.  One of the nice touches was at every restaurant the hostess took the lady to the table by taking her arm and then they would put the cloth napkins on our laps when we sat. Whenever you asked someone how they were, they would say "super excellente!" and you knew they meant it.

FOOD

I really enjoyed the food at Excellence.  The buffet had so many options and they were very accommodating with any and all requests. We tried every restaurant at least once. Barcelona was by far our favorite, unfortunately we didn't try it until the last night there. Spice was good, but none of the food was what we expected. The coconut soup was nothing like the Thai food at home, but was good for whatever it was. We ordered room service a couple of times, and although it took 30-45 minutes, it was always good.  If you do order room service, make sure to answer your phone as they call to confirm you are there before bringing it up to you. Agave was pretty good, some of our guests liked their food more than others.  Oregano had good pizza and the calzone was awesome.

BARS

Every bartender was super friendly and even though the mixed drinks were a little inconsistent from bar to bar, they were always good.  We drank a ton of cocolocos and they were by far my favorite.  The upgraded mini bar in the Excellence Club was awesome and I even requested a special bottle of one of my favorites that was in the room the very next time I went back. Every bar had top shelf liqour and the martini bar had awesome chocolate martinis and espresso martinis.

AMENITIES

I used the gym a couple times during our stay.  They always had the mini-fridges stocked with cold water and chilled towels, which was a very nice touch.  The machines were constantly being cleaned and the room was a lot larger than expected.  I did do a pilates class one of the days, which ended up being disappointing, as it wasn't much of a workout.  But overall, I am very glad I took advantage of this amenity.

DH played basketball with his friend a couple of times and took advantage of the ping pong table and pool table. The sports bar was a little small, but the ice cream and snacks they had there were very good.

REHEARSAL DINNER

I did not know that this was included in our package when we booked, but this exceeded our expectations in every way. They had set aside a private part of Toscana for us and Griselda had decorated the table and put on personalized menus for us, none of which we had requested nor expected. We had great service from all of the waiters that night and our glasses were never empty.  Although it was a set menu, everyone enjoyed their food and they were extremely accommodating to my mother's food allergies.

HAIR AND MAKE-UP

This was probably the only thing that was a little disappointing. I showed the lady at the spa pictures of how I wanted my hair and it didn't really come out as I had hoped. Perhaps the humidity had something to do with it, but in the end it didn't really matter since everything else was perfect. I brought a lot of my own make-up and ended up doing touch-ups when I got back to the room.  But overall, I really can't complain.

WEDDING DAY

This could not have been more perfect. Griselda came to my room to take me and my parents down to the carriage. Arturo took beautiful pictures while we were waiting and as we walked to the carriage. The ride was awesome and really made me feel extra special on my wedding day.  Griselda did an excellence job playing all of the music at the appropriate times from our iPod and her assistant had the wine and everything else for the ceremony set-up perfectly.  The microphone had a little bit of an issue at the beginning, but was fixed very quickly and did not bother us at all. The weather was beautiful and we read our vows to each other as the sun was setting. Our ceremony was symbolic, and a friend of ours conducted it, making it extra special and personal. The night before we went over where everything would be set-up (the table, our sand ceremony frame, the kettubah on an easel, the wine glass, and the lightbulb in a napkin for DH to break at the end of the ceremony). I brought my own chair sashes and DH set-up our video cameras in the perfect spots to capture the ceremony.

COCKTAIL HOUR

We didn't get to enjoy this very much due to taking pictures on the beach for golden our, but luckily our guests did. The food I did try was amazing and they prepared a special drink for our guests that matched our wedding colors. There was so much food, too much.  I wished I could have taken it with me as I wanted to enjoy more of it since I didn't get to try everything. It was set-up on the beach, not far from our ceremony site.  I had originally thought of doing our cocktail hour at the Cascade Pool, but Griselda recommended keeping everything on the beach, since our reception was going to be on the beach as well. I am very glad that I listened to her so that we were never far from our guests.

RECEPTION

Again, way too much food.  We opted for the beach bbq so that our guests would have more options than a set menu and it seemed like there were so many more things on the buffet than we had even requested in our pre-interview.  I'm not sure why they made so much food, but everything was extremely delicious. We brought our own iPod dock, but Griselda ended up setting up the speaker for us free of charge, and we were extremely grateful as the sound was perfect. I had planned on using my wireless lav mic through the iPod doc in case anyone wanted to make any speeches, but it ended up not being necessary as we were such a small group and the site was very intimate. We had our own private waitstaff and bartender and they took care of us better than I ever could have imagined. We ended up eating before our first dance, and then went straight into our mother/son, father/daughter dances. We ran the iPod ourselves and even though it was very informal, we loved the simplicity of it. Griselda put our cake topper on our cake and we set up our own camera and lights for the cake cutting. I have to say that the cake was absolutely delicious.  Again, another thing I wish I could have taken home with me because it was so good.

We had planned on continuing the celebration at the disco, but we were all tired from the day, so we ended the night around 10:30PM. By the time we got back to our room, all of our personal items from the wedding had already been brought back for us, they decorated the room with towel animals and flower petals, and had drawn the bath for us. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day.

EXCELLENCE CLUB

We only booked the Excellence Club initially in order to get the discount on our wedding package.  As it turned out, we had enough guests staying enough nights to get the discount anyway and we probably could have downgraded, but decided to keep it as it was our wedding trip. I am so glad we did as the Concierge at the Excellence Club was extremely helpful throughout our stay.  They upgraded my parents from a regular room without being prompted and were there when any issue arose. I had somehow lost the special pens I brought for signing our Kettubah and for our guest book, and one of the gentlemen at the club gave us a personal permanent marker that saved the day. The Club truly felt exclusive and made our stay even more special.

Overall, we could not have been happier.  Having our wedding at Excellence, Punta Cana was the best decision we could have made.  The only bad decision was choosing to move to another resort for our honeymoon (review under Majestic Elegance.)