Married or going to be married at Grand Palladium Punta Cana?

[kitty25967]

This stresses me out LOL

Originally Posted by roxy1122 

Hi ladies, I found this to-do list from user: Becks

 

She is Rebecca from Allurements, she started designing wedding invitations after she worked on her own destination wedding This list is amazing because you enter your wedding date and the items change color as you get closer to your due date. Also, when you enter your due date, the list auto populates with all the items to be done with their due date.

 

Wedding To Do List.xls26k .xls file

 

Wedding To Do List.xls

[novagirl3]

Hi ladies,

 

Just got back today from the Palladium!! Our wedding was everything we ever imagined...so rest your minds. Carolina is AMAZING and she will take very good care of you.

 

To start....I had 52 guests and upon arrival we found out that we had all been upgraded to the RST section.Sounds great doesn't it! Well it was for most of us but for the 3 families that had children under 18 not so much! They weren't able to get the upgrade and their rooms were not nearly as nice on the Palace side. After 2 days of me going to the reception desk they were all moved to ocean front loft rooms and they were happy and so the party began. Our rooom was a swim up room and it was breath-taking. Everyone loved their RST rooms and I think it will be hard to match them in the near future. My group was not put in all of the same area, we were spread out all over the place but it ended up being fine. I was in the newer section with the swim up room and so were some of my guests but others were closer to the beach with very nice rooms as well but they had a 1 minute walk to the beach and main pool where we had to walk about 5 minutes or so..no big issue with that!

 

I had my hair done at the Spa...looked amazing. It was exactly like I wanted. The cost was 120.00 and well worth it!

 

My wedding was set to happen at 2 o'clock but when we had our meeting with Carolina she informed me that it changed to 4. I was very happy with that. We were also told that La Uva was under renovations and closed to the public but they opened it just for us on the night of our wedding. So we ended up having a private reception at no extra cost. For our dinner we had cesaer salad, beef medallions and the chocolate brownie. It was awesome but if you have people that like their meat well done you may want to speak to someone ahead of time because it was done medium. Also the cesaer salad had anchovies on it just an FYI.

 

The wedding cake was also very good but I brought ribbon and flowers to add to it which made a big difference. I also brought decorations (candle holders, place card holders, crystal accents) and Carolina decorated beautifully.

 

 

My photographer was Michael Weiler and he was so worth the 1200. He shot the wedding and then picked us up a few days later and did a private shoot on a private beach. I can't stop looking at my photos. We are thrilled with his work.

We also had Pastor Rick York do our ceremony along with the judge. It ended up being 2 small ceremonies but I am so glad we did it that way. Pastor York made it feel a little more like a wedding ceremony which also included the sand ceremony. His cost was 300 and again worth it to us.

 

I know I am all over the place here but I am still exhausted and need sleep.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I will hopefully have a chance to add some pics and more info shortly.

 

 

Happy Planning, 

[jerzshortstuff]

Yay! Congrats! I'm so happy everything went well and that you all were upgraded! Was the resort empty for the most part? Can't wait to see pictures!

Originally Posted by novagirl3 

Hi ladies,

 

Just got back today from the Palladium!! Our wedding was everything we ever imagined...so rest your minds. Carolina is AMAZING and she will take very good care of you.

 

To start....I had 52 guests and upon arrival we found out that we had all been upgraded to the RST section.Sounds great doesn't it! Well it was for most of us but for the 3 families that had children under 18 not so much! They weren't able to get the upgrade and their rooms were not nearly as nice on the Palace side. After 2 days of me going to the reception desk they were all moved to ocean front loft rooms and they were happy and so the party began. Our rooom was a swim up room and it was breath-taking. Everyone loved their RST rooms and I think it will be hard to match them in the near future. My group was not put in all of the same area, we were spread out all over the place but it ended up being fine. I was in the newer section with the swim up room and so were some of my guests but others were closer to the beach with very nice rooms as well but they had a 1 minute walk to the beach and main pool where we had to walk about 5 minutes or so..no big issue with that!

 

I had my hair done at the Spa...looked amazing. It was exactly like I wanted. The cost was 120.00 and well worth it!

 

My wedding was set to happen at 2 o'clock but when we had our meeting with Carolina she informed me that it changed to 4. I was very happy with that. We were also told that La Uva was under renovations and closed to the public but they opened it just for us on the night of our wedding. So we ended up having a private reception at no extra cost. For our dinner we had cesaer salad, beef medallions and the chocolate brownie. It was awesome but if you have people that like their meat well done you may want to speak to someone ahead of time because it was done medium. Also the cesaer salad had anchovies on it just an FYI.

 

The wedding cake was also very good but I brought ribbon and flowers to add to it which made a big difference. I also brought decorations (candle holders, place card holders, crystal accents) and Carolina decorated beautifully.

 

 

My photographer was Michael Weiler and he was so worth the 1200. He shot the wedding and then picked us up a few days later and did a private shoot on a private beach. I can't stop looking at my photos. We are thrilled with his work.

We also had Pastor Rick York do our ceremony along with the judge. It ended up being 2 small ceremonies but I am so glad we did it that way. Pastor York made it feel a little more like a wedding ceremony which also included the sand ceremony. His cost was 300 and again worth it to us.

 

I know I am all over the place here but I am still exhausted and need sleep.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I will hopefully have a chance to add some pics and more info shortly.

 

 

Happy Planning, 

 

[richarsd]

That is so awesome that you got ALL of those upgrades...I am wondering the same thing as jerzshortstuff - was the resort not very busy?? You and your group are very lucky!!! Yay! It sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I have just reserved Michael Weiler for my wedding and TTD photos too so I'm glad to hear you had such a great experience using him. Welcome back as a Mrs!

[roxy1122]

This question is for brides to be and past brides at the GP, did you have a rehearsal dinner at the resort? I am wondering about just gathering all my estimated 35-40 guests together and showing up at one of the restaurants to have dinner perhaps the night before the ceremony, but not sure if this will be considered a rehearsal dinner and be charged extra for it. I'm eager to hear your plans or feedback.

 

 

[kitty25967]

Novagirl - Congrats!!!  I can't wait to see you pictures, and I am so happy you had a great experience.  This reassures me!  What was your room number?  I want to make sure our TA puts our request in for the "new" rooms.  All of my guests are booked in the RST.  I am so jealous that you had La Uva.  I have heard it is really nice and I want a private reception but they have apparently changed their rules to minimum 40 guests which we might have just under   So I will be battling that one since it was 20 people when I booked the place.

[richarsd]

If you mean you want the restaurant to be private for just you and your group, then yes, you'd have to pay extra for it. And if you just show up to the buffet or a la carte at the same time hoping to get seats/tables together for ~40 people, it's probably highly unlikely that everyone would be able to sit together. Your best bet is just all meeting at one of the bars, where there's more space and more ability to pull chairs and tables together. I'm not doing a rehearsal dinner of any sort...I think the ceremony will be fairly straight-forward.

 

Originally Posted by roxy1122 

This question is for brides to be and past brides at the GP, did you have a rehearsal dinner at the resort? I am wondering about just gathering all my estimated 35-40 guests together and showing up at one of the restaurants to have dinner perhaps the night before the ceremony, but not sure if this will be considered a rehearsal dinner and be charged extra for it. I'm eager to hear your plans or feedback.

 

 

 

[novagirl3]

Kitty- My room was 5806 and it was a corner room so we had a little private alcove in the pool which was nice.

Oh and were you asking about Hemingways because this isn't much of a bar, at least we didn't think so. There is a piano but I never heard anyone playing it unless you know someone in your party that does. Also it is just a bunch of tables and game tables to sit around. Any night we went there were a lot of older people there and it wasn't very lively but that is just my opinion. One plus to it was that they had by far the best made drinks that I had tasted. Just an FYI incase you're wondering.

 

 

Richarsd- You made a wonderful decision with Michael as your photographer. He shoots the wedding and then a few days later, depending on how long your vacation is (we had 14 days), he will pick you up and take you to a private beach to do the trash the dress. We actually took casual photos and chose to wear casual wear instead of wedding clothes for fear of ruining the dress and because we are having an AHR in one week. Everyone I have shown the pictures to are in awe, some saying they are the best photos they've ever seen. He makes you a coffee table book that I can't put down it is so incredible. If you want to get a sneek peek I could add you to facebook (if you are a facebooker??) where I have most of my album, just let me know.

[roxy1122]

Hi ladies, how is everyone's planning going?

[richarsd]

Planning is going well! We finalized our music list yesterday and have a DJ friend making up CDs for us (so we don't have to download all the songs and burn the CDs ourselves...lazy of us, I know, lol). I also had my make-up consultation today at Sephora and the girl did an AMAZING job, I love it!!! So I have all my make-up now and will have to practice a couple times. Tonight is my bridal get-together/shower with my girlfriends so I'm excited for that!

 

ONE month from today is my wedding day! SOOOO exciting!!!

 

How's everyone else's planning going???