Dreams Punta Cana Brides

[Tink]

This may be a silly question, but would we have to do Pre Cana if we want a Catholic priest to be at the wedding? Or is that only when you're having the ceremony at an actual church?

[DRwedgal2011]

Hi redlake,

 

Do we have to pay the buffet option if we have more than 50 people attending? If so, what is included in the buffet spread? Thanks for any help
 

Originally Posted by redlake 

Just in case anyone else with a large group is going to Dreams Jennifer e-mailed me the pricelist for the buffet. The cost is between $45 to $69.30 per person depending on which package you want and how fancy you want the buffet to be. The $45 price is for a minimum of 40ppl and the higher end has to have a minimum of 50.

 

[redlake]

You can still have the table service but they told me that with that many people the service can be slow.  If you give me your e-mail I'll send you the buffet details.

 

[kwaller82]

Tink - you do have to do Pre Cana for a Catholic wedding.  You have to do it w/ your home church or an approved online course and then submit it to your parish to give you the green light and send all of your paperwork to the priest at the Dominican parish.  Send me a PM if you have more questions.  My fiance and I are in the process of finishing all of this stuff up.

[DRwedgal2011]

Thanks Redlake, my email is [email protected]  

Originally Posted by redlake 

You can still have the table service but they told me that with that many people the service can be slow.  If you give me your e-mail I'll send you the buffet details.

 

 

[swojdyla]

Hi Everyone,

   I'm pretty new to all of this. I am still trying to decide where I want to get married. I have never been to a Dreams Resort before...what made all of you pick Dreams? I know in the DR they speak spanish and english...is it possible to get someone to marry you in english or does it have to be in spansih? Thanks! Happy wedding planning to everyone!

                        ~Stacy

[lilboltz10]

Stacy,

 

My husband and I decided on Dreams because we liked the Gazebo at Dreams.  We got married in English by the DR Catholic Priest.  Another option is to have Rick York, a pastor in the DR, perform the ceremony.  He speaks English and a lot of brides love him. 

 

We also felt that Dreams was priced very well for our guests.  Many guests stayed for 5 or 6 nights at $800-$900 a person including airfare (leaving from Washington DC, Philly or NY).

 

So we decided to take a leap of faith and just book and make the best of it -- definitely was a great decision and our guests all loved the resort (we had 60+ guests so it was quite a feat!)

 

Originally Posted by swojdyla 

Hi Everyone,

   I'm pretty new to all of this. I am still trying to decide where I want to get married. I have never been to a Dreams Resort before...what made all of you pick Dreams? I know in the DR they speak spanish and english...is it possible to get someone to marry you in english or does it have to be in spansih? Thanks! Happy wedding planning to everyone!

                        ~Stacy

 

[swojdyla]

Thank you so much for the response. I was almost 90% sure I was going to go with RIU Palace Paradise Island.  Then our travel agent said look at Dreams Punta Cana....and BOOM everything changed! lol I fell in love. I'm just scared to take a leap of faith I guess. Dreams looks too good to be true. The brochures have amazing picutres! That price is amazing too!! When did you get married? Do you have any helpful tips to lock in a good price for our guests? That really is my main concern! Thank you so much for your input I greatly appreciate it!!

[welljen]

 

Originally Posted by swojdyla 

Thank you so much for the response. I was almost 90% sure I was going to go with RIU Palace Paradise Island.  Then our travel agent said look at Dreams Punta Cana....and BOOM everything changed! lol I fell in love. I'm just scared to take a leap of faith I guess. Dreams looks too good to be true. The brochures have amazing picutres! That price is amazing too!! When did you get married? Do you have any helpful tips to lock in a good price for our guests? That really is my main concern! Thank you so much for your input I greatly appreciate it!!

Hey swojdyla,

Just wanted to comment on your question about getting a 'good' price for your guests. I really wouldn't sweat it too much, as speaking from experience no matter how hard you try to get a good rate, you'll have tons of people that won't really believe that that is the best rate and will think that they can do something better.

 

That's exactly what happened to us, when we told people the price back in August. Lots of our guests decided not to take advantage of the deal we worked out with our travel agent (which we thought was quite good at $1495 including taxes!) thought they could do something for less than $1000 based on their experience with Last minute deals in the past. Unfortunately that isn't really an accurate measure since they likely didn't make the arrangements until 1-2 weeks before leaving - not exactly the kind of lead time you want to work with when its a wedding  

 

Fast forward to now (6 weeks before our wedding) and the prices have only been increasing, not to mention the increased fuel surcharges on account of the rising oil prices because of the war in Libya. Needless to say the original prices we quoted are starting to look pretty good to people, since on average they have increased between $300-400. 

I hope this doesn't sound like it's been a negative experience, I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to take all this price stuff on your shoulders. All you can do is do your research and offer people the option to go with you guys, but at the end of day people will do whatever they want to do.

Happy Planning!

 

[lilboltz10]

We got married in December.  Dreams really is not too good to be true!  I will NEVER EVER forget my first experience at Dreams.  We arrived and were wisked away to the Preferred Club which is closer to the beach (entrance is farthest from the beach).  We walked past the Gazebo and fell in love in real life (not just the picture we saw on the internet)!  We continued to the Preferred Club and by the time we got there we knew we made an excellent choice!  A lot of my husband's family members gave us a lot of crap about our wedding choice.  He is Greek Orthodox and we were the first of his entire family (and his grandmother is 92!) who have not been married in the Greek Church.  He didn't want to go the traditional route and I had no intention of standing in front of 300 people for a 2 hour ceremony!  One of his cousins actually wanted to hire PERSONAL SECURITY ESCORTS (I know!!!) to get her through the airport (she ended up not coming, thank god!).  I mean, come on!  Needless to say, those who attended went home completely in love with PC and the DR (one couple is taking their son there as a graduation gift in a few months).  The only negative comments we heard were that the rooms were small but whatever... you pass out in them you don't spend the day indoors! 
 

We got engaged in May and the wedding was December (short notice, I know!).  The prices were very consistent throughout the booking process.  I will say that I booked in June and we got probably the "best deal" but we were also there for 12 days.  I would say the average couple leaving from either DC, Philly or NY spent $1,800-$2,000 for 6 nights.

 

We had a travel agent through AAA but I would say most booked through other means -- about 30% booked through AAA.

 

Guests will complain (again... seriously.. an escort??) but if they really want to go to your wedding they will attend.  If they don't want to go don't worry about it. 

 

Originally Posted by swojdyla 

Thank you so much for the response. I was almost 90% sure I was going to go with RIU Palace Paradise Island.  Then our travel agent said look at Dreams Punta Cana....and BOOM everything changed! lol I fell in love. I'm just scared to take a leap of faith I guess. Dreams looks too good to be true. The brochures have amazing picutres! That price is amazing too!! When did you get married? Do you have any helpful tips to lock in a good price for our guests? That really is my main concern! Thank you so much for your input I greatly appreciate it!!