Dreams Punta Cana.2 great wedding reviews!

[DRbride]

Hello Dreams Punta Cana Brides!

 

Not sure if you all are on the Dreams message board or not, but I wanted to share 2 recent wedding reviews. The brides had nothing but great things to say about the resort. There was a link for pictures as well. Enjoy!

 

REVIEW #1

Hi Everyone-

 

I saw that Jacie had written a review of her wedding, so I thought I would write one as well. Rob and I got married on January 10th, 2008 and Jacie and I had a chance to get to know one another through this website. It was fun because then when we were all down there we met in person for a drink at the swim up pool bar. It was great!

 

So here it is…. Enjoy!

 

Having our wedding at Dreams Punta Cana was the best decision we ever made! I had never been to the resort before but our travel agent recommended it and my sister had been there once. The resort is wonderful, and the wedding coordinators were amazing. They made our day so special….I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for the perfect destination wedding.

 

I also worried like Jacie said about meeting with the coordinator (I am a planner by nature), but we arrived on Sunday, I checked with them on Monday and we actually met with Julianna on Tuesday morning…..our wedding was on Thursday. She went through everything and after our meeting I knew it was going to be perfect!

 

Room – We booked the honeymoon suite, because we wanted to stay for 10 nights and as part of that deal part of the wedding expenses were covered. The room was beautiful and huge, we had two big rooms, a bathroom, and a walk in closet. While we were there they bought in new flat panel tvs. =) We were in building 9 and our room overlooked the pool and gazebo. Plus there is a Jacuzzi on the balcony and this was so much fun. It takes a few minutes to fill it up, but was a nice addition to the room.

 

Beach – We chose to have our wedding on the beach, this was a dream of mine and it couldn’t have been any better! The location is off to the right side of the beach and over away from everyone. They put up a flower arch and covered all the chairs in white. It was beautiful and the ocean and palm tree was our backdrop for the ceremony. Julianna did our wedding and the vows the resort provides are so nice.

 

Reception – We chose to have a private reception. We had 26 people including ourselves, and I wasn’t sure if we would all be able to sit at the restaurants together with such a big group. I was so glad that we decided to do this, because it was just us on the terrace outside of the Hibachi Grill, overlooking the resort and you could see the ocean in the distance. We had three tables that sat 8 each and then there was a table for Rob and I in the front. Julianna did a great job decorating and she added all of the little extras that I had brought down. We had our own bar and speakers with our IPod set up.

 

Music – For the wedding we hired the three person band to play while I walked down the aisle. I didn’t have a specific song I wanted played and they were perfect. I would highly recommend them even though it is a little more money.

 

Flowers – I picked a tropical bouquet and the flowers were beautiful. They have a nice book to look through and you can pick pretty much anything you want…..roses to tropical and any colors.

 

Photography – We decided to use the resort photographer and Irene did a wonderful job. She was with us throughout the ceremony and then stayed after took pictures with everyone on the beach and then took Rob and I to the garden area where she took some great shots of just us. Only thing is make sure you know what is included with your wedding package and which photo package you pick, we had a little confusion, which in the end worked out in our favor, but could of cost us more money. They also took pictures of the people that came down for our wedding for us and I included those pictures in the thank notes I sent out as a little gift.

 

Hair – I agree with Jacie on this one completely. The girls did a wonderful job with my hair….look at the photos, they speak for themselves!

 

This was the most memorable experience of our lives and if I could do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing. I got to marry the love of my life in the most beautiful place in the world.

 

If anyone has any questions, just let me know……I will also post some pictures too of the beach and reception.

 

Cheri

Photo Sharing by MyPhotoAlbum.com : MyPhotoAlbum (link didn't work for me )

 

REVIEW #2

As mentioned in my full review of the resort - there were 15 people including myself and Ian at Dreams for our wedding on January 11, 2008.

 

When we first arrived and checked in - we were upgraded to a 'preferred club' room - I'm certain it was beacuse we had so many other rooms booked, we were return visitors and we had our wedding booked with them. The preferred club wasn't completely ready on our day of check in - but it was still a fantastic upgrade. The honeymoon suite was not an ocean view, but we actually found we prefered this more. Our room overlooked the main walkway near the pool, but had so much foliage growing infront of it that we could see out - but no one could really see in. We also were right by the magnificent tree which houses the parrots most days and the fruit stand. It was perfect - if we wanted to sit on our balcony we could still see when our family walked by and we could have a birds eye view of everything! It was a beautiful suite - and I would definitely reccommend room 6212 to anyone! (Although, I don't think we got a lot of the tv channels that our other guests did - but who cares - we weren't there to watch TV!)

 

We had our wedding scheduled at 4pm on January 11, 2008. As of late Monday morning we hadn't heard from the wedding coordinators, so we went up to the lobby and found Grisel. She was so polite and friendly! She assured us we would receive a letter in our room to inform us of our appointment time to meet with Julianna. As of Tuesday evening, we still had not received a letter - so we again went to the lobby to find Grisel. This time she apologized profusely for the letter not arriving and reprinted us a copy of it right then and there. We were to meet with Julianna on Wednesday at 11a.m. (This part was my only complaint if you can call it that!) We would have rather met with her earlier in the week or at least have known when we were meeting before Tuesday evening so we could plan things with our wedding guests. I would attempt to work this out with wedding coordinators before I arrived or as soon as I arrived! Just for planning sake!

 

On Wednesday we met Julianna in her office - directly behind the front desk. We sat down and worked out all the details of the wedding. It was at this time we gave her the music for the wedding. We decided to have three songs play. 1) I loved her first (for my dad walking me down the isle) 2) My Best Friend (as Ian and I left the gazebo) and 3) I Melt (for while we were taking pictures around the gazebo.)

 

The have a beautiful book of flowers to pick out what you'd like. I found a very tropical bouquet - and should have photos up shortly of the bouquet and the rest of the wedding. Then we just had Ian's boutineer to match my bouquet. We decided to not go with any additional flowers. The gazebo was perfect with out any additions. I like the simplistic look anyways. It was also at this meeting that we picked out our reception information. We decided against a private reception - and quite frankly it worked out perfectly. If we would have done the private reception I would have felt like it was a waste of money. There was another wedding on the same day as our wedding and they had a private reception on the patio of the El Patio and I would have been disappointed to look inside El Patio and have seen such a beautiful wedding reception at no additional cost. We also decided against having a first dance - because we wanted to save that for our reception here in Wisconsin. We also had them take the champagne and cake directly to the restaurant for the reception.

 

Julianna also discussed the photography options with us - but we decided against them. We had enough family and friends around who all wanted to take pictures - and I think we ended up with just as many, if not more, excellent pictures! Its such an easy place to get good pictures!

 

Julianna would have also done a walk thru of the ceremony with us at this time if we had wanted. I personally didn't think we needed it. We have all seen enough weddings! She also gave us a copy of the vows so we could look over them before the ceremony. We loved the vows they provided. You could have your own prepared if you prefered or she would have read anything we asked her to read. We left feeling relieved knowing the wedding was in such good hands.

 

The day of the wedding finally rolled around, after zip-lining in the morning -- Ian went to his brothers room to get ready and I got ready with the help of my two best friends in our suite. I had made my appointment for my hair with the Spa on my own on Monday. I picked a 2p.m. time - the wedding was at 4p.m. I was done with my hair by 3p.m. and had an hour to get ready, have a drink and it was perfect, we didn't want pictures before the wedding - and I didn't want to spend my entire day in paradise with bobby pins in my head! When I arrived at the spa for my hair appointment - my best friend came with me to help me describe what I wanted. But I didn't even need to. They had a couple books with fabulous wedding hair pictures and I picked the picture of what I wanted - and it turned out identical to what I picked. I wish I had someone that good with hair back here in the US! They are fabulous! I absolutely loved my hair. She also put a few beautiful white flowers in it! (Again, I'll have pictures up soon!)

 

I got back to our suite about 3p.m. and Misty Kae and Misty Lou and I ran to get a Wilson's special from Wilson at the Barracuda bar before the wedding. We drank those as we got ready for the wedding! I did my own make up - and it turned out wonderfully. I had bought and been using Bare Minerals before the wedding - and it was fabulous! Anyone who is around the Fox Valley Wisconsin, I reccommend going to Ulta Cosmetics in Appleton's Fox River Mall and trying it out! It never melted, felt cakey, etc. It was perfect for the humidity and heat down there. Even when I cried, it didn't budge!! I finished my make up and changed into my dress! While I was getting ready room service suprised us with a HUGE fruit basket and champagne. Julianna called at about 4p.m. and told me I could walk down to building 9 to meet her and my father (his room was in building nine!) My best friends walked me down the back covered paths and I felt like it was only my special day - the housekeepers would come out and look and call to one another to see the bride! Guests would stop and congratulate you, so would any employees around! It was fabulous.

 

Julianna met my father and I in building 9 and gave me my bouquet - then she walked me the back way to the kids club area so I could enter the gazebo area with out being seen by our guests and my husband too soon. We waiting around the corner from the kids club until our song started to play - and the wedding began. My dad walked me up to the gazebo and I managed to only cry a few tears. I met Ian infront of the table in the gazebo and set my bouquet down and walked behind the table and held hands. Julianna performed the wedding and it was fabulous!! She speaks into a microphone and it is the perfect volume. Except for Ian - he was nervous and was having trouble hearing her since his back was too her. When she asked him to repeat "for better or worse" - somehow he got "thru the vast underworld" --- If you only knew Ian - this added to our giddyness and I immediately chuckled!! The ceremony was perfect - it only lasted 10 minutes!

 

We then traveled around the resort taking pictures - and of course got a multiude of well wishes from anyone who saw us! It was a fabulous day!!

 

That's right, as I said above we decided to have our wedding reception in El Patio. Since it is an all inclusive resort - you can do this for no additional charge. You simply had to make a 'reservation' for the first or the second seating and pick one appetizer, one soup, one entree and one dessert. The first was 6:30p.m. or the second was 8:30p.m. We could choose from any restaurant in the resort. We choose the 6:30p.m. time slot - and it really worked out perefectly, with the wedding at four, we had plenty of time for pictures and for a quick cool down period in our room before we headed to dinner. When making this reservation, I assumed that we would just have a standard El Patio table for 10 with the fixed menu we had selected.

 

Instead, we walked in the restaurant - and in the very back of the restaurant there was a beautiful table set up - all drapped in white with our pre-selected menu placed around candles - they illuminated beautifully! There were flowers sprinkled every where and our server was magnificent! It was quite the experience. And it all was very private - there was no one within 25 feet of us and we felt like we were the only ones in the restaurant! We started the meal with the Mexican Sampler Platter, then Tortilla Soup, then Beef and Chicken Fajitas (they even added shrimp) and then the chocolate sticks with goat milk! What a menu! It was perfect - but fair warning the portions were larger than you normally get in El Patio. We couldn't eat another bite by the end of the meal! We thought it was perfect because everyone likend the Beef and Chicken Fajitas - if they wanted them in a tortilla they could or they could eat them plain for those that aren't huge mexican fans! It worked out perfectly! It was also nice to have the meal in an air conditioned restaurant! As I previously mentioned we saved our champagne and wedding cake for the meal at El Patio instead of in the gazebo! It was perfect! The server poured champagne for everyone and had the cake sitting in the corner beautifully decorated. We stuck with the standard 1-tier cake and it was HUGE. It was only supposed to feed 10 - it could have easily fed 40! Ian and I cut the cake and actually served it to everyone - the servers tried to do it - but we really enjoyed it and got to thank everyone and give them hugs for being there with us! We cut HUGE slices and still had more than half of it left. We gave our server a huge tip for how wonderful he was and encouraged him & the rest of the staff to help us eat the cake - we couldn't even come close to finishing it!! He was thrilled!

 

Oh also, as we were eating the musical trio also serenaded us - a beautiful Dominican romantic song! As Ian and I left the restaurant - everyone in the resort started clapping and congratulating us!

 

This is when we arrived back at our honeymoon suite to find it was decorated beautifully - a honeymooner banner on the door, candles and flowers leading up to our bed, a sheet-art wedding dress drapped over the bed with beautiful flowers everywhere. Then Ian's parents had brought a talking monkey and a card for us which Grisel had placed on our bed. And M&M's with our name and wedding date in dishes next to the bed! It was the most beautiful thing ever!!

 

After finding our beautiful room - wee actually changed and went up to watch the show - but first everyone came over to see how beautiful our room was! After the show we headed to bed - my hair had a million bobby pins in it that I wanted to take out before going to sleep! Overall, our wedding day was fabulous! I'd do it over again in a heartbeat! What a way to have a perfect wedding!

 

If I forgot anything or anyone has any questions - please let me know! I'm more than happy to help answer or calm anyones nerves! It was the best wedding I could possibly imagine!

 

Jacie and Ian

 

ijm81's photos and albums on webshots

[jen419]

DRBride, thanks for posting those reviews, they were extremely helpful! I have one question though, I'm new to this forum and was wondering where can I get to the Dreams Forum you mentioned?

[JHarwood2Be]

Maybe she is referring to this site. I came across it yesterday while on here but I haven't taken the time to check it out yet.

DREAMS

[jen419]

Thanks a lot for that link!

[Nuc Med Bride]

These reviews are wonderful. You girls put a lot of effort into them. It is nice to hear how relaxing your wedding day can be.

[TammyDez]

Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s nice to get reassurance that the resort is so great!

[DRbride]

no problem at all! the message board can be found here..you just need to set up a user name and password...

Dreams Resorts & Spas - Login

[jen419]

Thanks a ton DRbride!

[LadyCheese]

Thanks for the info. I too am considering Dreams. Hopefully they will have my date available.

[S2BLennon]

Thanks for taking the time - this is what helped us make a decision to change locals and go here!