Jellyfish Restaurant

[jlarruda]

Meg, Diego already put up videos of your wedding.. I just came across them, you had such a gorgeous wedding!

[Sherio9090]

Megan,
I can't wait to see pictures and hear about the day.  So happy to hear about another successful Jellyfish wedding. Picking the Jellyfish is hopefully one of the best decisions I have made so far.

Did you use a DJ and if so was it the one that Mayte recommends or another?

Also, who did you use for your photographer?

Thanks and congratulations!
Sheri

[bamcandr]

I'm also wondering about the DJ from the Jellyfish. I'm almost positive we are getting them, but it would be nice to hear some input on how he was.

[venus909]

Meg,

 

I would love to see your photos from your wedding....  I'm planning my wedding reception at Jellyfish for June of 2012.  Looking forward to reading your review!

[megsosborn]

 

Adam and I just got back from our wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  All of our 22 guests and Adam and I stayed at the Paradisus Punta Cana and we held the ceremony and reception at the Jellyfish restaurant. 

 

The Jellyfish:

The most important thing to know is that Mayte (mai-tee or my-tee) is unbelievable!  Right from the start of my communication with her I could tell that she knew what she was doing.  I had also heard from previous brides that Mayte always got their wedding visions right so I wasn’t worried.   I wouldn’t be worried if she doesn’t respond for a few days.  She is extremely busy.  In fact, she is so busy that she doesn’t get to spend nearly as much time with Luna as she wants to.  She knows what she is doing and is fully committed to each and every bride (I honestly don’t know how she does it).  To plan out how I wanted my wedding, I put together a word document that outlined each step of the ceremony and reception in words and pictures and sent that to Mayte.  We traded emails back and forth after that with more questions and specifics.  I did not send her a deposit beforehand.  Adam and I met with her the day we arrived in Punta Cana with the intent of paying her the cash amount we owed her, $2,400 but I ended up leaving in the hotel safe!  Mayte was such a sweetheart and said we could just pay her on the day of the wedding.  The $2,400 was cash for set-up and for the various vendors: restaurant decorations $400, ceremony set-up $400, bonfire set-up $200, DJ $600, wedding cupcakes $250, bouquet and boutonnière $400 and round-trip transportation from our hotel to and from the Jellyfish.  I’m sure all of these amounts vary with all weddings.  We had an open bar and had all of our guests (including our 2 photographers and videographer) order whatever they wanted for dinner right off the Jellyfish menu.  At the end of the wedding night we paid just under $3,000 for food and drinks including tip.  The Jellyfish DOES take credit cards the issue is that their bank is from EEUU and they are not allowed to charge more than $1,000 US on one card if it is VISA, but she can split it between more than one if you need to.  Mayte did say that they don’t have that same restriction with American Express.  Our wedding total at the Jellyfish was $5,400.  I did not pay the extra $1,000 to rent out the entire restaurant.  There might have been a few people eating dinner while we were there but we didn’t notice them because we had the entire downstairs to ourselves.  I would save that extra money and use it elsewhere J

When we met with her the first day in Punta Cana we set up some small final details and discussed the wedding day time-line.  We also gave her our wedding cake topper, so this would be a good time to give her anything that you have brought down specifically for the wedding and reception.  She also had the bartender make a few drinks for us to taste that would be served to our guests upon initial arrival at the restaurant.  We choose mojitos and pina coladas.  Adam and I asked Mayte her opinion as to where to purchase rum, coffee and cigars for our welcome bags and right away she called her friend and driver, Juan to come pick us up.  Juan was awesome and so much fun.  He took us to a small shop, which actually turned out to be close to our hotel where we purchased everything that we needed. As it turned out Juan was my driver for the wedding day J  Love it!  Oh, and I should mention that the whole time we were there at the restaurant meeting with her, Mayte was also getting ready and decorating for a wedding that was happening that same day! 

 

On the day of our wedding the bus for our guests was on time at 3:30 and Juan came at 3:45 for me.  When I arrived at the Jellyfish all the guests were lounging and mingling with drinks in hand.  All the decorations were beautiful and more perfect that I could’ve imagined.  While we were waiting for Pastor Rick York to arrive our photographers and videographer were taking pictures and everyone was relaxing.  The ceremony started at 5:05.  I didn’t have any music from the DJ during the ceremony (while I was walking down the aisle or walking back with Adam).  I had originally wanted people to stand around us for the ceremony but Mayte suggested pillows so we went with that and it was perfect!!!  The ceremony was about 20min complete with a sand ceremony.  For the next hour and a half our photographers took pictures, first with all the guests then just of Adam and I down by the beach.  During this time the guests stayed on the beach drinking in the lounge area that was set up (which was the same area for the beach reception after dinner) and Mayte served them appetizers.  Around 7 or 7:30 we sat down for dinner.  One of my favorite things about dinner was that we all sat at the same table since there were 27 of us (including our photo and videographers).  I loved this because everyone felt included J  All of our guests said that the food was the best of our vacation and we definitely agreed!  At this time it was dark outside and everything looked ethereal.   All the candles and decorations inside the restaurant were gorgeous and you could look out onto the beach and see all the twinkling lights of the candles and hanging lanterns.  It was breathtaking and I was just trying to take it all in. 

 

Our videographer suggested that we do speeches after dinner so that’s what we did.  After that it was shots of tequila and dancing under the stars!  I changed dresses into a short petal dress from BCBG and was happy that I did.  Mayte also set up a second bar out on the sand under the white tent, as per my request, which was nice because it was close to the dance floor.  I believe that we left around 11:30 or midnight on the bus back to the hotel, although Mayte had told me that we could stay as long as we wanted.  At that time Adam and I took care of paying our food and drink bill and we also paid our videographer.

 

About the DJ:  When we get together with friends I’m usually the one who is in charge of all the music (it’s been this way ever since I can remember) so since I wasn’t sure what kind of music the DJ would play I went ahead and made 2 playlists on my iPod for the wedding and brought it with me to the Jellyfish.  One was for our cocktail hour and dinner and the other was all dance music for after dinner.  After the ceremony, while we were taking pictures the DJ started playing some music but I wanted to liven things up so I just gave him my iPod and told him to put it on shuffle: perfect!  After dinner I told him to put my wedding dance playlist on shuffle – of course it was all music that we loved and had a great time dancing the whole night!  We didn’t do too many traditional wedding things so there was no garter dance, bouquet toss, first dance or any slow dance.  J  So I don’t have any advice or comments about how the DJ handled those things…sorry. 

 

Photographer: Phil Steingard

This man knows what he is doing!  He is the complete package – I could not imagine having anyone else capturing the moments of such a special day.  Right from the beginning Phil was incredible.  He called me on the phone not even 10 minutes after I had filled in my contact information on his website.  We chatted for about 40 minutes but I was sold in the first few minutes of our conversation.  Phil is down the Dominican ALL the time.  He stays at the Majestic Elegance and does a ton of weddings there and is all over the hotel’s Facebook page.  Not only will Phil take beautiful pictures but he will help you plan out your wedding day, which is crazy helpful when you are trying to iron out so many details in a place that you have never been before.  The first time I talked with him we had already outlined my wedding day timeline!  He knows the best time for your ceremony, probably around 5pm, so you can take pictures on the beach during the sunset, when the light is the best….bottom line, Phil is the man!  He offers a great rate for his packages (wedding and trash the dress).  I think one of the best things that Phil does is gives you a complete cd of all of your images!  This is included in his price!!  Most other photographers charge you some ridiculous amount for this.  Phil retouches images and gives them to you – and it’s included!  We paid Phil about a month or so before we got down there and then scheduled our TTD session at his hotel, the Majestic, the first morning that we arrived in the DR.  I think this was perfect because we got to meet Phil before the wedding.  We had such a good time with him that morning; I think Adam was surprised at how much fun he had in front of the camera J  The day of the wedding Phil brought Jamie Dimitry as our second photographer.  I purchased hotel day passes for both of them from our resort that morning.  Phil stayed in my room taking pictures of the girls while Jamie took pictures of the guys.  During that time I made sure to order room service for lunch for all of us (including Phil and Jamie, of course J).  This was something that Phil had suggested since this is something that commonly gets overlooked the day of the wedding.  For the next couple of hours Phil and Jamie took pictures of Adam and I all around our resort then they got on the bus with all of our guests and headed to the Jellyfish. 

 

Phil and Jamie worked so well together taking pictures during the wedding.  It was cool because while Phil would be taking a posed shot, Jamie would be capturing some candid moments – they make a kick ass team!  They have really cool flashes and lenses that help them push their creative boundaries.  Both of them were so crazy talented and excited about getting the right shot.  They made our wedding even more incredible by just being themselves.  They both got along so well with all of our guests; I seriously wanted them to stop working and party with us.  Bottom line; they made our wedding day that much more memorable and not just because of their incredible photographs.

 

Videographer: Diego Cores of Bright Light

Phil recommended Diego so right away I knew he would be good.  Come to find out Phil and Diego have shot a few weddings together, which is priceless because then you don’t have people competing for the right shot or video.  Diego was great from the beginning of our email correspondence and he always responded quickly.  We decided to make our own package and have him film the arrivals, ceremony, speeches and reception.  We met Diego at the Jellyfish on the day of our wedding.  Right away he started filming and didn’t stop until it was time to go.  I cannot stress enough how much fun it was to work with all three of these guys.  Diego is extremely talented and such a great person.  We had made a cd of songs for him to use for the final wedding video but we forgot to give it to him at the wedding.  We ended up leaving it at our resorts’ front desk for Diego to pick up the next day, only to have a mix up happen and Diego to leave empty handed.  I was bummed but Diego assured me that he had music I would be happy with – and boy was he right!  The day before we flew home, Diego met us in our resorts’ lobby where he sat down and showed us a few minutes from each section of our 40 minute video.  Adam and I were both in tears; all I could do was look at Diego and tell him how amazing he was.  I also couldn’t believe that we would be taking our whole wedding video home with us!  We didn’t watch the video in its entirety until we arrived home; I think we ran through the whole spectrum of emotions watching it.  From tender moments to funny ones, Diego caught so many special scenes of all of our guests and of Adam and me.   We were blown away by how perfectly he captured the exact feel of our wedding day.  In the beginning stages of wedding planning I wasn’t sure if we should spend the extra money for a videographer but I know now that we absolutely made the right decision and Diego was the best person for the job.  You’d be missing out if you didn’t hire him. Here are links to two short clips from our viedo:

 

http://vimeo.com/24528467

 

http://vimeo.com/24639000

 

Here are a few pictures that we took.  I can't wait until we get our professional photographs back from Phil and Jamie  If anyone has questions I'd be more than happy to try to help you!

 

[jlarruda]

Amazing! we're almost 5 months away from our wedding and this is exactly what I needed to see Your wedding was beautiful!

[Mel2010]

Wow, thanks for all the info. Your wedding was amazing and your videos made me tear up. Your dress was gorgeous too!! Thanks for sharing your special day with us, it means so much to hear from another bride and to know that choosing the JF for our ceremony and reception was the RIGHT CHOICE!!

[Labebita911]

absoloutly breathtaking!!!!!!!!! it looked perfect.. And that video.. wow.. it brought tears to my eyes.. you guys look soo in love and sooo happy. Congrats!!!!!!!
 

Originally Posted by megsosborn 

 

Adam and I just got back from our wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  All of our 22 guests and Adam and I stayed at the Paradisus Punta Cana and we held the ceremony and reception at the Jellyfish restaurant. 

 

The Jellyfish:

The most important thing to know is that Mayte (mai-tee or my-tee) is unbelievable!  Right from the start of my communication with her I could tell that she knew what she was doing.  I had also heard from previous brides that Mayte always got their wedding visions right so I wasn’t worried.   I wouldn’t be worried if she doesn’t respond for a few days.  She is extremely busy.  In fact, she is so busy that she doesn’t get to spend nearly as much time with Luna as she wants to.  She knows what she is doing and is fully committed to each and every bride (I honestly don’t know how she does it).  To plan out how I wanted my wedding, I put together a word document that outlined each step of the ceremony and reception in words and pictures and sent that to Mayte.  We traded emails back and forth after that with more questions and specifics.  I did not send her a deposit beforehand.  Adam and I met with her the day we arrived in Punta Cana with the intent of paying her the cash amount we owed her, $2,400 but I ended up leaving in the hotel safe!  Mayte was such a sweetheart and said we could just pay her on the day of the wedding.  The $2,400 was cash for set-up and for the various vendors: restaurant decorations $400, ceremony set-up $400, bonfire set-up $200, DJ $600, wedding cupcakes $250, bouquet and boutonnière $400 and round-trip transportation from our hotel to and from the Jellyfish.  I’m sure all of these amounts vary with all weddings.  We had an open bar and had all of our guests (including our 2 photographers and videographer) order whatever they wanted for dinner right off the Jellyfish menu.  At the end of the wedding night we paid just under $3,000 for food and drinks including tip.  The Jellyfish DOES take credit cards the issue is that their bank is from EEUU and they are not allowed to charge more than $1,000 US on one card if it is VISA, but she can split it between more than one if you need to.  Mayte did say that they don’t have that same restriction with American Express.  Our wedding total at the Jellyfish was $5,400.  I did not pay the extra $1,000 to rent out the entire restaurant.  There might have been a few people eating dinner while we were there but we didn’t notice them because we had the entire downstairs to ourselves.  I would save that extra money and use it elsewhere J

When we met with her the first day in Punta Cana we set up some small final details and discussed the wedding day time-line.  We also gave her our wedding cake topper, so this would be a good time to give her anything that you have brought down specifically for the wedding and reception.  She also had the bartender make a few drinks for us to taste that would be served to our guests upon initial arrival at the restaurant.  We choose mojitos and pina coladas.  Adam and I asked Mayte her opinion as to where to purchase rum, coffee and cigars for our welcome bags and right away she called her friend and driver, Juan to come pick us up.  Juan was awesome and so much fun.  He took us to a small shop, which actually turned out to be close to our hotel where we purchased everything that we needed. As it turned out Juan was my driver for the wedding day J  Love it!  Oh, and I should mention that the whole time we were there at the restaurant meeting with her, Mayte was also getting ready and decorating for a wedding that was happening that same day! 

 

On the day of our wedding the bus for our guests was on time at 3:30 and Juan came at 3:45 for me.  When I arrived at the Jellyfish all the guests were lounging and mingling with drinks in hand.  All the decorations were beautiful and more perfect that I could’ve imagined.  While we were waiting for Pastor Rick York to arrive our photographers and videographer were taking pictures and everyone was relaxing.  The ceremony started at 5:05.  I didn’t have any music from the DJ during the ceremony (while I was walking down the aisle or walking back with Adam).  I had originally wanted people to stand around us for the ceremony but Mayte suggested pillows so we went with that and it was perfect!!!  The ceremony was about 20min complete with a sand ceremony.  For the next hour and a half our photographers took pictures, first with all the guests then just of Adam and I down by the beach.  During this time the guests stayed on the beach drinking in the lounge area that was set up (which was the same area for the beach reception after dinner) and Mayte served them appetizers.  Around 7 or 7:30 we sat down for dinner.  One of my favorite things about dinner was that we all sat at the same table since there were 27 of us (including our photo and videographers).  I loved this because everyone felt included J  All of our guests said that the food was the best of our vacation and we definitely agreed!  At this time it was dark outside and everything looked ethereal.   All the candles and decorations inside the restaurant were gorgeous and you could look out onto the beach and see all the twinkling lights of the candles and hanging lanterns.  It was breathtaking and I was just trying to take it all in. 

 

Our videographer suggested that we do speeches after dinner so that’s what we did.  After that it was shots of tequila and dancing under the stars!  I changed dresses into a short petal dress from BCBG and was happy that I did.  Mayte also set up a second bar out on the sand under the white tent, as per my request, which was nice because it was close to the dance floor.  I believe that we left around 11:30 or midnight on the bus back to the hotel, although Mayte had told me that we could stay as long as we wanted.  At that time Adam and I took care of paying our food and drink bill and we also paid our videographer.

 

About the DJ:  When we get together with friends I’m usually the one who is in charge of all the music (it’s been this way ever since I can remember) so since I wasn’t sure what kind of music the DJ would play I went ahead and made 2 playlists on my iPod for the wedding and brought it with me to the Jellyfish.  One was for our cocktail hour and dinner and the other was all dance music for after dinner.  After the ceremony, while we were taking pictures the DJ started playing some music but I wanted to liven things up so I just gave him my iPod and told him to put it on shuffle: perfect!  After dinner I told him to put my wedding dance playlist on shuffle – of course it was all music that we loved and had a great time dancing the whole night!  We didn’t do too many traditional wedding things so there was no garter dance, bouquet toss, first dance or any slow dance.  J  So I don’t have any advice or comments about how the DJ handled those things…sorry. 

 

Photographer: Phil Steingard

This man knows what he is doing!  He is the complete package – I could not imagine having anyone else capturing the moments of such a special day.  Right from the beginning Phil was incredible.  He called me on the phone not even 10 minutes after I had filled in my contact information on his website.  We chatted for about 40 minutes but I was sold in the first few minutes of our conversation.  Phil is down the Dominican ALL the time.  He stays at the Majestic Elegance and does a ton of weddings there and is all over the hotel’s Facebook page.  Not only will Phil take beautiful pictures but he will help you plan out your wedding day, which is crazy helpful when you are trying to iron out so many details in a place that you have never been before.  The first time I talked with him we had already outlined my wedding day timeline!  He knows the best time for your ceremony, probably around 5pm, so you can take pictures on the beach during the sunset, when the light is the best….bottom line, Phil is the man!  He offers a great rate for his packages (wedding and trash the dress).  I think one of the best things that Phil does is gives you a complete cd of all of your images!  This is included in his price!!  Most other photographers charge you some ridiculous amount for this.  Phil retouches images and gives them to you – and it’s included!  We paid Phil about a month or so before we got down there and then scheduled our TTD session at his hotel, the Majestic, the first morning that we arrived in the DR.  I think this was perfect because we got to meet Phil before the wedding.  We had such a good time with him that morning; I think Adam was surprised at how much fun he had in front of the camera J  The day of the wedding Phil brought Jamie Dimitry as our second photographer.  I purchased hotel day passes for both of them from our resort that morning.  Phil stayed in my room taking pictures of the girls while Jamie took pictures of the guys.  During that time I made sure to order room service for lunch for all of us (including Phil and Jamie, of course J).  This was something that Phil had suggested since this is something that commonly gets overlooked the day of the wedding.  For the next couple of hours Phil and Jamie took pictures of Adam and I all around our resort then they got on the bus with all of our guests and headed to the Jellyfish. 

 

Phil and Jamie worked so well together taking pictures during the wedding.  It was cool because while Phil would be taking a posed shot, Jamie would be capturing some candid moments – they make a kick ass team!  They have really cool flashes and lenses that help them push their creative boundaries.  Both of them were so crazy talented and excited about getting the right shot.  They made our wedding even more incredible by just being themselves.  They both got along so well with all of our guests; I seriously wanted them to stop working and party with us.  Bottom line; they made our wedding day that much more memorable and not just because of their incredible photographs.

 

Videographer: Diego Cores of Bright Light

Phil recommended Diego so right away I knew he would be good.  Come to find out Phil and Diego have shot a few weddings together, which is priceless because then you don’t have people competing for the right shot or video.  Diego was great from the beginning of our email correspondence and he always responded quickly.  We decided to make our own package and have him film the arrivals, ceremony, speeches and reception.  We met Diego at the Jellyfish on the day of our wedding.  Right away he started filming and didn’t stop until it was time to go.  I cannot stress enough how much fun it was to work with all three of these guys.  Diego is extremely talented and such a great person.  We had made a cd of songs for him to use for the final wedding video but we forgot to give it to him at the wedding.  We ended up leaving it at our resorts’ front desk for Diego to pick up the next day, only to have a mix up happen and Diego to leave empty handed.  I was bummed but Diego assured me that he had music I would be happy with – and boy was he right!  The day before we flew home, Diego met us in our resorts’ lobby where he sat down and showed us a few minutes from each section of our 40 minute video.  Adam and I were both in tears; all I could do was look at Diego and tell him how amazing he was.  I also couldn’t believe that we would be taking our whole wedding video home with us!  We didn’t watch the video in its entirety until we arrived home; I think we ran through the whole spectrum of emotions watching it.  From tender moments to funny ones, Diego caught so many special scenes of all of our guests and of Adam and me.   We were blown away by how perfectly he captured the exact feel of our wedding day.  In the beginning stages of wedding planning I wasn’t sure if we should spend the extra money for a videographer but I know now that we absolutely made the right decision and Diego was the best person for the job.  You’d be missing out if you didn’t hire him. Here are links to two short clips from our viedo:

 

http://vimeo.com/24528467

 

http://vimeo.com/24639000

 

Here are a few pictures that we took.  I can't wait until we get our professional photographs back from Phil and Jamie  If anyone has questions I'd be more than happy to try to help you!

 

 

[torilynnsmith]

Hi Megan, I think you are on the FB page as well but I wanted to ask you if it was extra for the second photographer (Jamie)?  We have booked Phil for our February wedding but I LOVE the idea of two photographers!!!!

[megsosborn]

Torilynnsmith,

Yes it's extra, so you'll have to talk to Phil about that