Dreams La Romana

[dcairns]

Hi Lisa,

 

Thanks for the review, do you have pics of the interior of the SSG? Its just curiosity, or were you outside?  For the bonfire, was there a bar close so people could get their own drinks if needed? Its something that i'm considering and need to figure that out.

 

Also for the hair appointments, did you make them once you were down there? Were there other brides the same day as you? Was their confilict??

 

Congrats and welcome back~

 

Dana

[LisaRob]

Hi Dana,

 

I don't seem to have any interior pics of the SSG, even though we did eat there one evening (inside).  I'll ask around my family and friends if any of them happened to take some photos while we were eating.  I only have exterior pics: 

 

 

 

(in the pic below, you can see the interior slightly behind the glass windows)

 

 

(in the pic below, the SSG deck is on the right, where we had our reception, and the covered part of the SSG is to the left)

[MissTaken]

Hi Lisa,

 

We are also having the ultimate package and hired HDC I was just wondering when and how do you get to choose all the photos from both of the photographers, and also did you get all your photos and video of the ceremony before you left?

We are getting married on Wednesday and are leaving on Friday, just want to make sure that there is enough time to review and receive all of our photos/video before we leave.

 

dcairns - I already booked my hair and makeup trial 2 days before the wedding and the day of the wedding with Elke through e-mail, there is another wedding happening on the same day so I wanted to make sure that I get the times that I want booked.

 

XOXO

[MissTaken]

Lisa, I also have the same question as dcairns * For the bonfire, was there a bar close so people could get their own drinks if needed?

I thinks its ridicouless how you have to pay for bar service at the reception (in my case we are only going to be there for 2 hours) and then again at the bonfire at an AL resort.

That is why I am also buying some liquor at the duty free to take down with us so we can make our own drinks at the bonfire.

[dcairns]

Ha! your trial is the day of my wedding... I've bee asking Tiara for the email but have yet to receive it. I just emailed Elke because there is another wedding on my day too!!! ACK! Hopefully it all turns out.

[LisaRob]

Hi MissTaken,

 

My wedding was on the Wednesday, and we left the hotel for the airport on Friday 6pm.  I told Arnaud from HDC of the timeline ahead of time, even before I sent him the downpayment as I wanted to know that we would have our photos by the time we left the DR.  He assured me that we would.

 

The photographer from HDC that was sent to cover the wedding was Miljan.  He seemed to not know about our departure being less than 2 days after the wedding.  During our photo session after the ceremony, he called Arnaud....Arnaud spoke to me and asked if it was alright if I allowed him to choose our best photos to be printed.  Considering the time constraints, I left that in Arnaud's hands, I did trust his judgement.  Friday morning, Arnaud sent another guy (I think his name was Juan) to the resort, we met him in the lobby.  He gave us the printed pics and the CD with all the pics.  We quickly looked at the printed pics, and then hubby ran down to the Preferred Club to pop the CD into the computer to make sure those pics were fine...and they were!  We got 75 printed pics (I believe they are 5x7 size) and the CD had over 380 pics.  We gave Juan the remainder of what was owed to HDC and he was on his way.

 

As for Tropical Pictures, the photographer on the resort, we went to the booth Thursday night to view the pics.  I found it very difficult to view the pics because he would only let us view one pic at a time. (and also at that time, we didn't know what our HDC pics looked like)  He took over 250 pics and we managed to narrow it down to 84.  As I mentioned in my review, Tropical Pictures really try to get you to buy a package with them.  And their prices are astronomical!  Totally absurd!  We repeatedly told him that we had already purchased services from HDC, we didn't need 2 sets of photos that were essentially the same.  And, if you want any of the Tropical Pictures on a CD, you better believe they are going to charge you for it!  The guy tried and tried to sell us something, but we didn't budge.  If all you want is the 50 free that come with the Ultimate Package, be firm and stand your ground. 

Eventually we narrowed our choices to 50...he had to send those to the lab and we were promised the printed pics in the morning.  We went the next morning, which was the day of our departure, and the pics were not ready.  They told us, come back at 2pm.  We went back at 2pm, pics still hadn't returned from the photo lab.  They told us to come back at 4pm.  We tried at 4pm, they still were not there!!!  At this point we were extremely frustrated as we were leaving the resort in less than 2 hours.  We went back just after 5pm and the pics were finally there!!!  However, I counted them to be sure, and of course, there were only 49.  I know for 1 pic who cares...but after the sales pitch they gave us the night before, the waiting for the pics to be received, and I also found out that my brother-in-law had gone to the booth in the afternoon to get us a deal which they refused him, for just the principal of it all, we wanted something for this 1 pic.  The guy at the booth, I think his name was Robin, did help and in the end he gave us a CD with our 50 chosen pics.

 

Tropical Pictures is not owned or run by Dreams.  They are an outside company who rents the space on the resort from Dreams.  Unfortunately the manager was not on site on that Friday during the fiasco, otherwise he would have heard an earful from us.

 

We picked up the video from Yanna on Friday.  We have watched it and it turned out really well, it's very cute!

 

[LisaRob]

MissTaken,

 

Have you asked Yanna about using the same staff at your bonfire as your wedding reception?  Is she going to charge you twice?  To me that doesn't make sense since your bonfire is the same evening as your wedding.

 

We had our bonfire the night after the wedding.  The bonfire started around 8pm.  Everyone was so tired that night (the dancing at the wedding ended around 11pm, but we then moved on to the disco and continued dancing until 2am!), that most people just pulled up a beach chair close to the fire and just hung out.  I think only 2 or 3 people went to get themselves a drink, which was a few mins away.

 

I hope Yanna can do something better for you!

[MissTaken]

Thanks alot for the detailed reply Lisa ... I am currently dealing with Tiara not Yanna and I already asked her about the bar service for both the dinner and bonfire and she did tell me that I would have to pay for both ((((

I hope I can work something out down there because its totally not fair to have to pay for bar service for 2 hours at dinner and it not being  included at the bonfire. I mean I am paying for a 2 hour bonfire on top of that.

[bride5656]

 

Lisa thank you ever so much for posting your review and the pictures too! )) Very happy that you had such an amazing time while in DR and that your big day went so smoothly as well!!! )) I guess it gives all of us future brides a little peace of mind to be honest, cos we all worry at least a little bit about things going the way we planned oh and cheers for warning us about photographer at dreams, its a shame that sometimes things are so unorganized and you had to have such an unpleasant experience...

We are more than certain that we will go with HDC, I already contacted them and their packages seem very reasonably priced and very flexible too!

 

MissTaken,- wau i didn't have a clue that we will have to pay separate bar service for reception and bonfire!!!! ...I will have to double check with Yanna will it be the same for us, when we are having our reception on the beach (probably right next to bonfire), - cos that wouldn't make any sense at all!!!...

MissTaken, maybe it is worth asking Tiara about location of bonfire and if it is possible to have it any where on the beach then maybe she could arrange it to be closest to one of the bars so you and all your guests will be able to grab some drinks themselves?

 

xoxo

[MrsEtienne2b]

Hey ladies..

 

Lisa, you looked so beautiful, I almost cried at the thought of you crying ha ha ha

 

amurka  I live in west yorkshire, where abouts are you hunni?

 

I just cannot believe there is a charge for the staff to waiter/serve drinks. So even if I have the top package, will I still have to pay for the drinks and the staff?

 

Is HDC photographers an extra charge or is that included in the package?

 

I am soo scared about getting there and not having a suitable location for our evening reception aaarrrrrgggghhh