Dreams Punta Cana Brides

[ska2m]

As far as i know, they said yes when i asked. But they change their minds all the time, contracts i think mean nothing there.
 

Originally Posted by subbi 

Does anyone know if Dreams allows outside vendors for flowers?

 

[Amber 5678]

Hello everyone!!

My name is Amber and I am getting married at DPC November 10, 2012. I have been booked for a while now. I started planning a local wedding, but after my FI realized how expensive it was he put the guilt on me saying "that's as much as a downpayment on a house!" Complaining from family members about the fact it was going to be in the evening and that they were already planning on leaving early really irked me. I finally just said to my FI- why are we even doing this?? So we decided on a destination wedding instead. A girl on The Knot suggested DPC and I fell in love right away, which I was so relieved about since I was emotionally drained from doing so much planning here locally (and having my heart already set on a great location and to have it slip away- I didn't think I could ever love anything else as much). I just recently found this forum- I was dissapointed that no one on the knot was really talking about Dreams. Thankfully an internet search led me here! I just spent the last week and a half reading through every single page here and I would recommend it for anyone new. I already booked Portofino Terrace for the reception (the pictures on here looked amazing) and the gazebo for the ceremony. And I just sent an email to Michael Weiler to book him as our photographer!!! Thanks to all of the previous brides for all of the recommendations and good advice, you are all so amazing!

 

The only thing I can't decide on is how I want to handle the ceremony. I keep going back and forth on this one, and I hope one day it will just hit me and I will know what to do. I am torn between a home ceremony and civil at DPC without anyone knowing, or a ceremony by Pastor Rick York and sneak away for the legal one when the judge gets there. I think it would be nice to just get married in one day so that the real wedding day is the one that I originally picked, but then it would be great to avoid all of the red tape of the documents. I am not a fan of the WC doing the ceremony, on youtube videos they seem too rehearsed and does not seem too heartfelt or personalized to the couple. Is there anyone on here currently that has used Pastor Rick York? Did he meet with you ahead of time?

[Raq87]

Welcome Amber!!
I just wanted to share with you what we are doing for our ceremony.. we went through the same thoughts, and eventually decided to have a small church wedding at home.. We really wanted to get married in a church.. so we are doing just the ceremony and a small reception at my In-Laws place.. That way anybody who can't make it to Punta Cana still feels like a part of the wedding. I'm not wearing my real wedding dress.. I just got a simple white dress for $200 from Davids bridal.. Then we will just do the Symbolic ceremony in Punta Cana. Another reason we did this is that we really had our hearts set on getting married on 11/11/11.. So we will get married at home then leave the next day for our "real" wedding at Dreams Punta Cana I was worried that some people would feel that they should just go to our at home wedding..So I held off on telling everyone about it until everyone was booked to go. Everyone I've told thinks its a great idea, that way my grand-parents who are too old to travel and my sister who has kids and can't afford to come can still be a part of our wedding. And at first I thought about wearing my actual wedding gown, but decided that the dress should be saved for Punta Cana and all our guests who are travelling so far to be with us on our special day!

Originally Posted by Amber 5678 

Hello everyone!!

My name is Amber and I am getting married at DPC November 10, 2012. I have been booked for a while now. I started planning a local wedding, but after my FI realized how expensive it was he put the guilt on me saying "that's as much as a downpayment on a house!" Complaining from family members about the fact it was going to be in the evening and that they were already planning on leaving early really irked me. I finally just said to my FI- why are we even doing this?? So we decided on a destination wedding instead. A girl on The Knot suggested DPC and I fell in love right away, which I was so relieved about since I was emotionally drained from doing so much planning here locally (and having my heart already set on a great location and to have it slip away- I didn't think I could ever love anything else as much). I just recently found this forum- I was dissapointed that no one on the knot was really talking about Dreams. Thankfully an internet search led me here! I just spent the last week and a half reading through every single page here and I would recommend it for anyone new. I already booked Portofino Terrace for the reception (the pictures on here looked amazing) and the gazebo for the ceremony. And I just sent an email to Michael Weiler to book him as our photographer!!! Thanks to all of the previous brides for all of the recommendations and good advice, you are all so amazing!

 

The only thing I can't decide on is how I want to handle the ceremony. I keep going back and forth on this one, and I hope one day it will just hit me and I will know what to do. I am torn between a home ceremony and civil at DPC without anyone knowing, or a ceremony by Pastor Rick York and sneak away for the legal one when the judge gets there. I think it would be nice to just get married in one day so that the real wedding day is the one that I originally picked, but then it would be great to avoid all of the red tape of the documents. I am not a fan of the WC doing the ceremony, on youtube videos they seem too rehearsed and does not seem too heartfelt or personalized to the couple. Is there anyone on here currently that has used Pastor Rick York? Did he meet with you ahead of time?

 

[Amber 5678]

Thanks Raq! Yeah there are definitely a lot of pros to having a legal ceremony at home! I asked my FI about it and he doesn't care, which makes it even more difficult to decide. My dad thinks it would be great...so we'll see. So your legal ceremony will be on 11/11/11? That is so awesome!!!

[farlem311]

Amber

Another option can be to have a legal cerimony on November 10th 2011.  That way you still have your date and have your real wedding the following year.  I wish I did that so that I could have my date for my legal day be the same as my wedding day.  We did the civil ceremony here.  We did not exchange rings and tried to make it as informal as possible so that we would not take away from the actual wedding at DPC.  We did our legal ceremony a week before the wedding.

Once at DPC we had Pastor Rick to do our ceremony.  It was $300US, but worth it.  He really made the ceremony feel like a wedding.  Everyone loved him.  He surprised us and had us sign a wedding certificate, which I don't believe is the real deal, but my family did not know that.  It did come in handy for our honeymoon a few days later when showing proof of our wedding day though.

Originally Posted by Amber 5678 

 

The only thing I can't decide on is how I want to handle the ceremony. I keep going back and forth on this one, and I hope one day it will just hit me and I will know what to do. I am torn between a home ceremony and civil at DPC without anyone knowing, or a ceremony by Pastor Rick York and sneak away for the legal one when the judge gets there. I think it would be nice to just get married in one day so that the real wedding day is the one that I originally picked, but then it would be great to avoid all of the red tape of the documents. I am not a fan of the WC doing the ceremony, on youtube videos they seem too rehearsed and does not seem too heartfelt or personalized to the couple. Is there anyone on here currently that has used Pastor Rick York? Did he meet with you ahead of time?

 

[Shelly21]

Thanks Raq! Yeah there are definitely a lot of pros to having a legal ceremony at home! I asked my FI about it and he doesn't care, which makes it even more difficult to decide. My dad thinks it would be great...so we'll see. So your legal ceremony will be on 11/11/11? That is so awesome!!! :)

You can definitely save a lot of money by having a legal ceremony at home. Im going to have a simple legal ceremony and not tell anyone but immediately family.

[Amber 5678]

I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but the 2012 prices are up on the DPC website. UGH!

[DRwedgal2011]

Does anyone know how much we should tip our videographer and photographer?

[Shelly21]

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to have a cocktail hour.

Any past brides have a cocktail hour? was it worth it?

[jpgphotography]

Hey guys, just starting on the forum, but a long-time photographer. So, full-disclosure in advance.

 

I did a wedding at DPC, and the couple did have a cocktail hour. It was useful because the bride and groom wanted to do a ton of pictures, and really use the grounds. With a more evening ceremony, and that setting sun, the couple wanted to soak all that sun in to their pictures.

 

Having a cocktail hour can be useful too if you want to just have a few minutes a lone with your new spouse. The day goes by so fast. Sometimes stepping away from everyone can help that feel real so you can savor the commitment and joy you just entered into.

 

Hope that helps.  Good luck!

 

Best,

Joe G

www.jpgphotography.com