"New Resort Opening May 1 2011" NOW LARIMAR ~ PUNTA CANA

[RFFL]

Thanks Skygirl!! Your bouquets look beautiful!! I got some mew questions:

Where did you put the rings on the ceremony? Like those small pillows?

Did you do the menus for the dinner attendees?

Did you get the books for signing or something like that?

So many things to think about.....at least I am happy because today I bought my wedding dress! )))

[Skygirl]

for the rings: they set up the table with flowers...we did sand ceremony...so the vases were there, and the rings were in the shell next to it...

menu print outs, thats something that the resort just does, i had no idea even that it will be available...

 

 

[suzzMF]

Hey Guys,

we just got back from Punta Cana and we had the time of our lives! So much fun. Our wedding was amazing and I can just say that all the worrying was for nothing.

 

Here is our story.

 

We arrived on wednesday and stayed at one of the suites, which were so nice. We did upgrade for the Preferred service, which I can only recommend.

Luisa was our wedding coordinator and she went above and beyond to make our wedding special. We met with her on thursday and went thru all the details, flowers, food, decorations. I gave her my suitcase full of decocations and we did a walk thru at the fountain and our reception location. We had our reception at the carnival terrace, which was a perfect size for our 27 guests.  

At the day the wedding, we got ready in the Bridal Room, which is located in the Spa. I had my hair and make up trail the day before and I'm so happy that I did that. My hair & make up turned out fantastic.

Luisa organized and took care of everything, all I really did was getting ready and show up. The ceremony was at the fountain at 5:00 PM. It was still a little warm & humid, but we didnt care. Ceremony was short & sweet.

As for the reception - we choose Carnival Terrace for our reception, it was decorated so beautifully. The only thing was that it poured down rain for about 5 minutes right after we opened the buffet. Everything was wet and they had to change the chair covers, etc. I was kinda bummed out about it, but it seemed like all of our guests didnt mind it and just said it was good luck when it rains on your wedding.

The buffet and the cake were soooo good!

We hired Dj Mannia & HDC Photo, both were good, but I have to say we could've saved us the money for the DJ and just played an ipod, because we gave him a list of tracks beforehand and all he did was play them once by one, without really mixing.  

 

All I can say is to future brides dont stress out, because once you get there they will take care of everything. Also dont get upset if they dont reply to you right away, they get hundreds of emails daily and once you get close to your wedding date (2-3 weeks) they will response quicker.

 

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skygirl]

Originally Posted by Skygirl 

 

@sportsgirl. I know how you are feeling...4weeks away. But i can reassure you, that everything will be perfect! just remember to print all the email, highlight everything important, make a list with questions for your WC when you get down there..

As far as chairs, i do not think you need to pay for them twice (ceremony and reception)i think they move them... Because i had to pay for extra chairs at the ceremony(regular, not tiffany)and they just move them.... 

@RFFL: i got my flowers made by KateSaidYes, she is on etsy...i originally wanted Angelsaccent to do them, i found the bouqet on their site, and contacted them 5-6month prior to the wedding,along with other trusted sellers, and all i got from all of them was that they are fully booked already and can not take my order on. can you imagine??? so i started looking on etsy for a local seller(boston for me)then i found KateSaidYes, sent her the picture and she made them for me within a month, I went to her house and picked them up...so no shipping charges... She did a great job. Im actually considering to sell mine bouqets if anyone interested:)

[RFFL]

So beautiful suzzMF!

Could you please share the details on your centerpieces?

What about the little boxes I see over the tables?

Please let me know what stuff did you bring to the hotel?

[suzzMF]

The little boxes are favor boxes I made and brought with me. I also brought a lot of candles, Luminary bags and electric candles that Luisa put all around the terrace, but unfortuntaley there arent any pictures of it, because they got soaked when it rained. )=

I ordered the flowers that you see on the table from the resort. They were $140 a piece.

I also brought the cake topper and the small flower decorations for the cake.

 

I wanted to bring as much as I can with me, so I dont have to pay anything extra, I felt like the resort charged a lot for little things.

 

[thesportsgal]

suzzMF, that looks beautiful!!  Congratulations, I'm so glad everything worked out for you!

 

I just wanted to share that I have found the SOLUTION to my problems/frustrations with the Now Larimar: Caribbean Celebrations!  They are going to come in and do all my decorations for me, and everything I have been quoted so far is at least HALF of the resort, if not a third.  So even with the vendor fee, it will save a ton. 

 

For example, their Tiffany chairs are $5 a piece and they will move them for a labor fee.  Each centerpiece I have been quoted was half of what I was told from Now, as well as chair sashes, linens, etc.  Plus, she gets RIGHT back with you when you have questions about what you're interested in and the pricing.  I get 2 responses from them to Now's 1.  I know I haven't used their services yet but at this point, my stress level has gone way down . 

 

I still have stuff I am bringing but was excited to share that if anyone has certain decorations they definitely WANT and they are too expensive at Now, I would check out Caribbean Celebrations. 
 

[RFFL]

Sportsgal.....can you share the contact details for the decoration?

[thesportsgal]

Here is their website.  I contacted them through the contact us page and they got right back with me.

 

http://www.weddingsandeventsinpuntacana.com/

 

I sent them pictures of the flowers I liked and they sent me a quote.  I sent the same thing to Now and the prices were double.  They're going to be at our meeting to go over everything and then she said not to worry, they would take care of everything .  I feel so much better!

[chrisdeluca]

@SuzzMF - your pics are awesome, thanks for sharing them. You looked amazing!! I'm also getting married at the fountain, did you get flowers to put on the posts of the gazebo? I got quoted 200.00 a piece for the ones shown on pictures from the website (ridiculous) I'm just wondering what it would look like without any....

 

@thesportsgal- thanks for sharing that site... How much is the vendor fee? And what package are you going with than through the resort if your getting all the decorations done by an outside vendor?