I don't normally write reviews but while planning my wedding I couldn't find a whole lot of information on this resort for weddings, and I am beyond pleased with how it all turned out! I got married at the Bavaro Princess on May 6, 2011 and loved every minute of it! This review is very long, so I'm sorry. :)

I will start from the beginning. We traveled with a group of 23 with Apple Vacations. I would say the most frustrating part of the whole trip was keeping my group together and on time for things but there isn't much I could have done about that. The resort itself is beautiful and has a ton of wild life to see on its 96 acres! It is huge but easy to walk from one end to the other and a tram was always right around the corner if you didn't want to walk. From the moment we arrived at the Bavaro Princess, Wendy, the group planner, had a welcome sign just for us with our own private check in and coconut drinks. It was very easy and organized. From there, we went to our rooms by riding the tram that was waiting for us with our luggage. They dropped all of us off at our rooms which conveniently were all located in the same area. We were given bungalow suites right next to the pool and beach. My husband and I were considering upgrading to Platinum before the trip for room quality but there was no need, the location was perfect and the room was beautiful! The rooms were very clean and we often had towel animals waiting for us on the beds or spa tub. We never had anything stolen from our room, but we did have one person in our group whose cell phone went missing from the room. I would just advise keeping all valuables locked up and tip a dollar or two every day to keep the maid happy.

We spent most of our time at the enormous lagoon pool with an awesome pool bar or the beautiful beach (also with a pool bar). The beach is one of the best features of this whole resort. It is stunning with soft, clean sand and clear blue ocean. The all inclusive drinks and food were great but tipping the bartenders every now and then went a long way with them as they all would remember us and serve us right away and made our time there even better. The workers are all really upbeat and fun making the atmosphere very relaxed and enjoyable. Apple Vacations had a buffet lunch for all Apple travelers on the beach on the second day which was a nice way to meet up with our group and have a meal. I would also recommend attending the Apple orientation on the first day because Carlos will tell you everything you need to know about the resort and how to get the most out of your vacation without wasting your time or money.

I never ventured off the resort to the Casino or bar attached to it, but some members of our group did and said it was not worth it as the bar allows locals and there were a lot of interesting people there at night. The resort did throw a "disco" on the beach one night which was one of the most fun nights we had as they played popular American dance music and had the beach bar open.

Now, I will talk about dinners and the restaurants we went to. Dinner reservations were easy to make the first day with Carlos after his talk or you could go at any time to Oscar (who worked closely with Apple) to make reservations. This was an added bonus with Apple because other travelers had to wake up early and go to the lobby and stand in line every morning if they wanted dinner reservations that night. We ate a lot at the lobby buffet which had a different dinner theme every night and did not require reservations. The food was okay. The resort food in general was good but not excellent. We went to the Chopin one night which had an excellent indoor/outdoor atmosphere next to a river-like creek that had a small boat with the pianist and the piano floating around it! We tried the Japanese restaurant one night which was okay, but the entertainment of the hibachi was not quite what you would see in the states. Most of the party did get stomach sick from the food by the end of the week, but I don't think it had anything to do with food poisoning just a symptom of eating food from a different culture for a week and our bodies getting used to it. It would pass pretty quickly and didn't ruin our time at all.

Finally, the wedding events! The night before the wedding we planned our Apple group cocktail party and dinner with Wendy. Let me just say both Wendy, the group coordinator, and Francelia, the wedding coordinator, were amazing!! They did absolutely everything I asked and made it soooo easy for me, and I had nothing to worry about. The cocktail party was on the beach and was set up with hor dourves and decorated beautifully with our wedding colors. We had our own private bartenders and music while we socialized and enjoyed the scenery. We then went to El Pescador for our dinner and shared the room only with another wedding party who was having their reception dinner. I felt a little bad they had to share with us, but we were fine with it. There were personalized menus with our names on it and my husband and I had picked out the food earlier that week. It was a bit disorganized as we all were not at the same table and there weren't enough chairs for us. Once we got that figured out and had ordered, then one of the tables got their food a good 20 minutes before the other and were getting dessert while the other was getting their food. Needless to say, it was a long night.

On the wedding day, my groom went to his best man's room while I stayed in our room to get ready. I went to the spa to get my hair done and my flower girl's hair done and they did an excellent job! I showed the woman a picture, and she did it better! It also stayed in all night! I then went back to the room where I found fruit and champagne waiting for me while I got ready. I had my 2 dresses pressed the day before, and they looked perfect. We got picked up at our room by a beautifully decorated little tram and were whisked away to the gazebo for the wedding. It was decorated beautifully with path for us to walk down through the grass and the chairs set up on the walkway in front of the gazebo. They put up big palm leaves to block it off from other guests, so it was very private. The ceremony was very short as we did a civil ceremony before we left, so Francelia performed the ceremony. Then we all had champagne and got tons of pictures. Looking back, I wish I would have stopped the photographer included in the package a little earlier. He took a million pictures after the ceremony, none of which were included in our 15 picture package. Only 15 pictures from the ceremony are included so beware of this! Every additional picture you want is $20.00 and all the pictures taken immediately after are not an option unless you want to pay $20.00. We were lucky to have a lot of people with cameras so we didn't need his additional pictures anyways!

After the ceremony, my little tram took me back to my room to change into my other dress while another tram took all the guests to the lobby. We were meeting there to wait for the bus to take us to the boat reception on La Barcaza. We chose not to do a reception at the resort and booked La Barcaza instead, and I would say that was one of my best decisions. The guests are still raving about it! I know this is a Bavaro Princess review, but I strongly recommend doing a La Barcaza reception. The mixed grill seafood was the best food we ate all week! The scenery was AMAZING and Gorge the boat go to guy was a blast and kept the party going! We cruised around the coast for a little while and enjoyed the couches on the top of the boat. Then, we ate and cut the cake we brought on from the resort. Finally, we danced the rest of the night away! I wish we would have gotten more than 3 hours though because I wasn't ready for it to end! When we got back to our room that night, we had more champagne waiting for us and a wedding cake made of towels with a lot of swan animal towels throughout the room. It was a beautiful ending to a perfect day!

The next day, my husband and I went to the spa and got massages which may have been one of the best massages I have ever gotten! The spa was beautiful, but communication was a little bit tough there.

As far as excursions go, my husband and I went zip lining. We booked through Apple because we knew it would be safest. We rode a bus about an hour out of the city and got to see a lot of little run down towns on the way. It was interesting to see the culture outside of the tourist area. We also got to see the mountains of the D.R. which were stunning and definitely worth seeing. I would definitely recommend zip lining if you are the adventurous type because it was amazing. They had something like 14 or 16 different lines that you went on and a few of them were very long and scenic. Two of them cross a little river and are so long you feel like you are flying. I actually did turn to see a bird flying on my level at one point. It was a lot of fun.

Finally, the last night we were there we were surprised with a phone call from Wendy to tell us they had planned a private dinner on the beach for me and my husband. We went to the beach to find an archway and a pathway of tiki torches leading to a table on a sand platform in the middle of the beach!!! The table was lit and decorated with water vases and candles and even the trees nearby were wrapped in our wedding colors! It was so magical and romantic, and even though I didn't bring my camera I will never forget that night. We were served an excellent dinner of steak and seafood and shrimp cocktail with a dessert of our choice and all the wine and champagne we could ask for with a private waiter. It was incredible and the perfect surprise to end the week.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone getting married or traveling and hope to return someday for one of our anniversaries! I hope this helps some of you brides out there like me with very little information on this resort. If you have any questions, please ask!