Dreams La Romana

[kkimi88]

The two gazebos are on the same strip of beach, over at the preferred side of the resort. They're practically right beside each other. 

[Vancouver Bride]

Originally Posted by marji 

 

Thanks jessicalynneh and Vancouver Bride! It helps to see both of your circumstances since you had such different size weddings. We are planning to get the complimentary wedding package and add on the things we want, and should have only around 30 guests. So far Jenny has only asked me for the date, time and location, and sent back a short confirmation letter. We still have plenty of time and don't have any guests booked yet, but now I will be sure to spell everything out and get a quote a few months before we go. We are working with a travel agent (Patty from this site) so I will also ask her if she can help. 

 

Vancouver Bride, did you like the officiant you got? I'm glad to hear they will perform the ceremony in English! This is one part I have not given much thought to yet, although it's a pretty important part! I would love to see the script they gave you. I will PM you as well. I also see that you added on the extra silver dinner and open bar, but not a cocktail hour. Did you do a cocktail hour before dinner? If so, did they set up the bar by then? I want to provide something for the guests to do for the hour between the ceremony and dinner but if we add on the cocktail appetizers I feel like no one will be hungry for dinner! But it would be nice to have the bar available at that time. 

 

I also have another random question for you ladies... did you tip the resort staff regarding the wedding? I have heard some people say you are not expected to tip at all, and some say you should tip 20% like we do in the US. I am wondering if we are expected or not to tip the coordinator, officiant, waiters, etc. on the day of.

 

Thanks!!

Hello

 

We worked with a Vancouver wedding planner and never directly spoke with Dreams LR or Jenny until the day before the wedding. Jenny held the video camera for us at the ceremony while our wedding planner did the wedding planner stuff. 

 

Officiant

I am neutral about the officiant. She spoke very clearly in English and read the script exactly as we gave it to her so I was happy. I just PM'ed you the 2 script options we got from Dreams about 3 months before the wedding and the final one that my husband and I heavily edited. We aren't religious, so we removed most of that part, but each wedding is differet ofcourse.

 

Cocktail reception--yes we did one, I just forgot to add it to BDW

Yes we chose the silver cocktail menu off the brochure. We had it on the deck of the Seaside grille since the recepition was at the Seaside grill. It was nice to see the sunset outside then go inside for airconditioning. It included a full bar and champagne. 

 

 

Timeline for Ceremony

I created my own timeline for the ceremony--and it worked! My husband and I had tons of time for pictures before and after the ceremony and we even made it to half of our own cocktail hour! We had 1 hour gap between end of ceremony and start of cocktail hour.  I did this because we did tons of family photographs after the wedding-we wanted a photo of the bride and groom and each guest X 24 guests (gave photog names of combinations we wanted a month before wedding). We used these as wedding photos but also a chance for each family and couple to get updated pretty family portraits. We didn't want to pay for a cocktail hour nobody was at so we pushed it back an hour. While guests went to the cocktail hour, we did about 30 min more of B&G photos then joined them for a few cocktails. 

 

Tips

Our Vancouver wedding planner included tips for all staff in our budget and gave it out-so I don't know the exact amounts. I'd ask Jenny and plan on giving them out ahead of time in envelopes so you don't have to carry around money or have a BM do it?

[marji]

Originally Posted by JenWren 

 

Thanks for all the info, Jessicalynneh and Vancouver Bride!

 

We are not planning to do a cocktail reception. We are only going to have 7 guests and they are going to want to follow us around and take pictures anyway, I think. We are just going to pick a bar to congregate at before dinner, I think. We are doing dinner on the beach - for those that have - how is the lighting after sunset? I requested some tiki torches and candles on the table, but I didn't give any specifics other than to use the "altar" centerpiece as the dinner table centerpiece. We thought about the wedding gazebo for dinner - how far is the main white gazebo from the rustic beach gazebo? It looks like it's all the way across the resort.

I am also wondering about lighting on the beach. We will be having dinner there as well. I saw one bride on here a few years ago with rope lights - does anyone know if we can bring rope lights or regular string lights to put on trees? I reserved our ceremony time at 4 pm but Jenny never asked for cocktail hour or dinner time yet. Does anyone have any suggestions on timeline?

[rachyork]

Hi All, We are getting married at DLR on 20th Feb this year - 4 weeks today!!!!! We have 24 guests coming with us. We are not sure whether or not to book the DJ as it seems quite expensive and I have read on here that many people just took iPods to play music on. What do people recommend? Our evening reception is going to be on the Seaside Grill Deck.

[rachyork]

Hi All, We are getting married at DLR on 20th Feb this year - 4 weeks today!!!!! We have 24 guests coming with us. We are not sure whether or not to book the DJ as it seems quite expensive and I have read on here that many people just took iPods to play music on. What do people recommend? Our evening reception is going to be on the Seaside Grill Deck.

[Vancouver Bride]

Originally Posted by rachyork 

 

Hi All,

We are getting married at DLR on 20th Feb this year - 4 weeks today!!!!! We have 24 guests coming with us. We are not sure whether or not to book the DJ as it seems quite expensive and I have read on here that many people just took iPods to play music on. What do people recommend? Our evening reception is going to be on the Seaside Grill Deck.

Hello rachyork

 

We also had 24 guests and our cocktail our on the SSG deck (reception inside SSG). We weren't initially going to book at DJ for the reception but somehow our planner worked out so the cost for speaker and mic were cheapter if they came with the DJ. We booked the DJ, speakers, mic for 3 hours-and they gave us a 4th hour for free!! (I'm so glad we added the extra hour--I was really surprised how much people danced, especially with 24 guests). We had the same DJ at the ceremony as the reception and no music at the cocktail hour. 

 

We gave the DJ our ceremony songs, about 2 hours of "dance music" and "filler music" on an iPod (I had back up CDs, but not needed) (P.S. Vitamin String Quartet is awesome modern filler music while people arrive and eat). In the end, we didnt choose enough music for 4 hours so the DJ added in his own choices which were all really fun! 

 

I think you would be fine with just an ipod--but make sure you have lots of music and choose someone to be the virtual DJ maybe. I'd also check on the cost for all the speakers and mic---it may be the same cost to get the DJ with the gear anyway?

 

Vancouver Bride

[xoxosteph24]

Hi Ladies!!

 

I am a new bride. My tentative wedding date is December 14, 2013. My wedding planner is Jenny. Thank you all so much for sharing so much information with other brides. This website was instrumental in helping me finally pin down my wedding location.

 

I am have opted to go with the ultimate package but I see that a lot of you have gone with the less expensive packages. Is it not worth it? I kind of wanted to do the least amount of planning possible. I am a lazy bride :-(  But I don't want to be a foolish one. I looked on the Tropical Studio website and those pictures seemed to be really nice to me. Are they not an accurate representation of the the Hotel photography's work?

 

Stephanie

[JenWren]

Welcome Stephanie!  I went with the less expensive package because I'm only having 7 guests, and wouldn't be using some of the things offered in the more expensive ones. I decided on HDC photography after reading some reviews here and comparing packages. I think you get a little more for the money with HDC and probably some of the others. In terms of quality - I haven't really heard anything bad, it just sounds like what's included in the wedding package is pretty basic and if you want anything added on it gets pricey. I also heard that the printed photos were not really on high quality photo paper - I think I read that in one of the previous reviews.

 

I can relate to your "lazy bride" statement. I am taking the same approach. I really don't feel the need to dictate every detail of the decorations, etc. Maybe it's because it's my second marriage, maybe because I've grown up a bit (only 13 years!) since the last one. 

 

Originally Posted by xoxosteph24 

Hi Ladies!!

 

I am a new bride. My tentative wedding date is December 14, 2013. My wedding planner is Jenny. Thank you all so much for sharing so much information with other brides. This website was instrumental in helping me finally pin down my wedding location.

 

I am have opted to go with the ultimate package but I see that a lot of you have gone with the less expensive packages. Is it not worth it? I kind of wanted to do the least amount of planning possible. I am a lazy bride :-(  But I don't want to be a foolish one. I looked on the Tropical Studio website and those pictures seemed to be really nice to me. Are they not an accurate representation of the the Hotel photography's work?

 

Stephanie

[JenWren]

NEWLYWEDS!!! 

Chanelo February 24th 2012

Amurka 6th March 2012

Cynthia (CynMay2012) - May 4th 2012

brendee2005 May 5th, 2012

almasu - May 19th 2012

soccer1615 July 5th 2012

Romana uk 2012 September 7th 2012

Andreanna October 27, 2012

Vancouver Bride 29 Oct, 2012

jess819 November 9th, 2012

Jessicalynneh November 10th, 2012

Adesir8 November 10, 2012

Kelly Horton December 12, 2012

LIST OF WEDDINGS IN DREAMS LA ROMANA 

 

Rachyork February 20, 2013

Jennifer (JenWren) March 8, 2013

Butterflies April 20, 2013

taz1704 April 24, 2013

wellthen02 April 26, 2013

Dani Kerr June 6, 2013

Bridezilla2 July 2013

Mystical Rose June 28, 2013

kkimi88 2013 August 23, 2013

Jessicaisaqt August 31, 2013

marji October 18, 2013

JSpot101 November 21, 2013

FutureMrs.C13 November 25, 2013

TomTom April 1, 2014

[jessicalynneh]

Originally Posted by xoxosteph24 

 

Hi Ladies!!

 

I am a new bride. My tentative wedding date is December 14, 2013. My wedding planner is Jenny. Thank you all so much for sharing so much information with other brides. This website was instrumental in helping me finally pin down my wedding location.

 

I am have opted to go with the ultimate package but I see that a lot of you have gone with the less expensive packages. Is it not worth it? I kind of wanted to do the least amount of planning possible. I am a lazy bride :-(  But I don't want to be a foolish one. I looked on the Tropical Studio website and those pictures seemed to be really nice to me. Are they not an accurate representation of the the Hotel photography's work?

 

Stephanie

 

Congratulations & welcome!!  We used the Ultimate Wedding Package and then added on everything else we wanted and it was definitely worth it! (We had a larger group though).  How many people are you expecting?  Tropical Studio does great pictures but bc they are on the resort (convenient) they are about 3x-4x more expensive than HDC, Caribbean Emotions, or most of the other photographers you would bring in.  We had a videographer & photographer from 3-10pm, and photobooth for the reception, the raw video footage, edited DVD, ALL pictures on CD, 350 prints, and a coffee table book for $2650 from HDC. Tropical Studio wanted $300/hr for just the videographer.