Punta Cana Wedding on a Budget - Suggestions?

[bbokros]

We are newly engaged (yay!) and looking to get input from anyone that is willing to help us plan our wedding.  Trying to keep the price under $200 for 2 people per room.  The Iberostar Punta Cana is an all-inclusive that looks pretty good, but might be just a little more more than we'd like to ask our guests to spend.  Does anyone have any suggestions (all-inclusive, Punta Cana)?  Thanks in advance!

 

Beth

[alm0411]

When are you planning it for? Where are you coming from? We are booked for January 2011 and our guests are going 4 nights 5 days and they paid under $2,000 total for two people. We are going for 8 nights 9 days and we paid $3,300 and we upgraded our room. Plus we got the "Free" wedding. Which I have to warn anyone there is no such thing as a free wedding. It will still cost you a min of $1,000 if you have more than 10 people. Well at least it did for us, but I was trying to work with a small budget since we are coming home and doing the whole formal reception with dinner, drinks, cake, dancing and all the fun stuff. Take a look at Ocean Blue, that is where we are going and I haven't been able to find to many bad reviews on this place. Of course you are always going to have those few who aren't happy with anything. The only other thing I can say is to ask a lot of questions, get it all in email (writing) and don't leave any room for them to squeeze something in. They did to us and while it wasn't huge, it was still an added cost that I wasn't expecting. Live and learn. Good luck planning.

[lilboltz10]

Beth --

 

We are getting married on December 3rd.  We basically talked to the travel agent and said ... when is the least expensive time for our guests (we were torn b/w May and Nov/Dec b/c those are the best months with my occupation) and she said DEFINITELY the first two weeks of December b/c everyone either flies for T-giving or Christmas and hardly anything in between.  So we booked for December.

 

We chose Dreams Punta Cana Resort & Spa b/c it is kid-friendly and we have 45 kids (yes, 45!!) on our guest list of 215 (I am Irish Catholic and he is Greek = very large families!).  It was also reasonably priced for our guests.  Many couples that booked in June paid $2,100 for 6 nights/7days.  Of that amount, $900 was total for airfare ($450 each person).  So $2,100 less $900 = $1,200/6 nights = $200. 

 

The deals have been going up and down and I actually recently found $1,600 for 5 nights/6 days but that quickly passed since it is back up to $2,000.  I found that AAA (primarily East Coast company) and Costco were the least expensive.  Our TA is through AAA (guests do not need a membership to book through them). 

 

Good luck on your wedding plans and congrats on the engagement!!!

 

[Punta Cana Weddings]

Punta Cana Wedding on a Budget - Suggestions?

 

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[jerzshortstuff]

Congrats on your engagement!

 

What we did was see what wedding packages each place offered and compared it with the rates per night. We ended up choosing Grand Palladium because their package was a flat rate and wasn't a per person fee (they offer a semi-private reception for this rate). Since we weren't sure how many people were coming, it was easier for us to do it this way. Plus, I hate to pay a lot extra at an all inclusive resort. Also, Grand Palladium has 3 resorts plus 1 adult resort so the room prices vary depending on what type of room/service people want. This way our guests can decide based on price and rooms, the section they want to stay in. Good luck!