Mary123

Hi Tina G, Here is my review that i posted on Tripadvisor. It seems though that people have different experiences in the resort. Your groups speaks Spanish so you will definetly have a huge advantage :-) “5 star amenities, 5 start wedding service, but 1 start general service†Amenities: BBPD is a beautiful and well maintained property with fantastic beach that always has enough lounge chairs and shade under the palm trees. The beach is surrounded by coral reefs so the sea is quite. If you get out early in the morning, you don’t even need a mask to see different types of fish, sting race and other sea life. The spa is great, the gym is large and offers morning and evening fitness classes. Theatre is beautiful and entertainment is good. The night club is a lot of fun. Wedding: my husband and I got married at the resort and the wedding organization and service were perfect. Aris, our wedding coordinator, was attentive and all guests were extremely happy. The beach decorations and setup were beautiful, DJ played music by request and wedding food and service were superb. The only hic up was the international bar we upgraded two was missing two drinks that most of my guests order: mojito and cognac. General resort service: my friends got upgraded to club premium for $1200 and what a waste of money! We had 30 guests and those with club premium had exactly the same bad service as those without. I traveled a lot and I have never been to the resort that is so poorly managed. The front desk is horrible, the bell boy never comes on time (a few of our guests missed the airport transfer) and room service sometimes doesn’t event show up. If room service does show up, they either forget to throw out the garbage, don’t clean the shower etc… The service doesn’t get better with tipping. Restaurant service is horrendous. If you don’t help yourself at the buffet, you will not get silver wear or water. Every evening we went to a different restaurant, and the waiters forgot to bring food for infants (twice), messed up the order or the bill. The single time we had no issues was at the Japanese restaurant. None of the bartenders are trained by the resort. If you get a mojito at different bars, it will never taste the same. My husband drinks cognac and they warm up the glass in one bar and put ice in another. Every day at least one bar was missing some beverage. Food: I don’t know why people complain about food and getting sick but the variety and quality were great. Japanese and Spanish restaurant food was excellent. You can simply get sick from brushing teeth if you don’t use bottled water. Rooms: the décor of the hotel and rooms is sleek and modern. I come from New York so I prefer more tropical then modern style but it was still beautiful. My only complaint was that the towel hooks were in the toilet room as opposed to by the shower. However, most of my wedding guests had to call front desk to get something fixed: missing shower door, broken draws or hair dryer. I love the amenities and the beach but I would only come back to this resort if the management changes and the service is at least average.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tina G Hi everyone! My fiance and I are currently choosing between BBPD and two resorts in DR for October/Nov 2014. I was wondering if anyone is planning a huge destination wedding like we are, 100-150 guests, and how it all worked out for you. It seems like since our party is so big we are going to have to use the ballroom for our reception. Any tips on how to lower costs for such a huge wedding but still have a personalized wedding and make guests leave with a lasting impression? Wow, thats a large wedding! BBPD is great for large groups because it is huge and all the amenities and restaurants can accommodate large groups. We had great time but the general services at the resort is not up to par so you might have a lot of complaints from your guests.

Quote: Originally Posted by minigodiva Hi! I think there was a past bride who mentioned tipping $100 for WC, dj, whoever else you want to tip. that was of course maybe a wedding last year or two? I don't remember and this thread is def too long too back read. Hehe. I do agree with the current brides to tip 200 for WC and maybe a present. No idea what present yet but just to say thanks We were not sure how much to tip so we tipped WD $60. Sounds like it was too low compared to what others tipped.

Quote: Originally Posted by SoonMrsD Well my WC told me its pretty big and not that crowded since its near the lobby, no reservations but I'm sure your WC can save you a certain area so something like that. I am doing this on a Friday so the night before my wedding but before dinner so people can get their goody bags, some drinks and go drop their stuff of at their room then go to dinner and get some rest or wake up with sunglasses and a hangover haha .... We are doing Strikers the day after the wedding since it's Sunday Funday and my FI already has it planned haha Hello, Carry Bar is very large and usually not crowded. It can probably fit about 150 people or maybe even more. I don't think you can reserve but worth asking. It is a beautifully designed lounge with large selection of drinks, lounge chairs and piano. My guests met there before the rehearsal dinner and before the wedding activities and it is good place to start a party.

Thank you all! I would love to upload pictures but cannot figure out how to do it here. Can one of you please provide instructions?

Hello Ladies, I am back from my wedding and everything was fantastic. We had strawberry package, with ceremony, cocktail hour and reception on the beach, full DJ package with MC, gold photo package and sun video package from Tropical Pictures. WC was Aris. Number of guests – 30. So, I will start the review in order: Rehearsal dinner at the Santa Fe steak house: not bad but waiters forgot to bring the couple with an infant and when they brought the food the couple has left. We asked them to pack the meal, they said ok and then they said they threw out the food. The dinner was on but the restaurant service was bad and not only in this restaurant but in every restaurant we visited. Wedding Day: Preparation 11am: hair and make-up came out perfect; mani and pedi was also good. The hair stylist suggested everything herself and she was very good. I did do the trial hair and makeup and I suggest all of you do the same. Both my bridesmaid and I were in the bridal room which was clean and quite. After Aris met all guests at the Carry Bar and took them to the ceremony, she picked me up from the bridal room. Ceremony 5pm: the white and orange setup was beautiful. Aris suggested that we get huppa and it was well worth it. The symbolic ceremony was short and the minister was hard to understand but we had an idea what he was saying ïŠ The only hiccup was that Aris didn’t set up our sand ceremony set properly. We got a forever frame with an insert which is supposed to be taken out before the sands is poured in and put back to hold the sand. She didn’t take out that piece so we pretty much buried our picture. When she returned the set to us the day after, that piece was missing and we had to throw out the sand and order the new plate and sand. My suggestion is to ensure that you provide instructions to your WC on everything and not assume that she would know. Also, the minister misspelled my husband’s last name on the certificate and he was very upset about it. But overall everything was good. Cocktail Hour 5:30pm: during the cocktail hour which was set up next to the ceremony, we took pictures and guests had time to relax. Trio finished playing 30 minutes into the cocktail hour so we paid them extra $40 to play till the end. Then Aris called everyone to the train which took the guests to the reception place at the other end of the resort. Reception 6:30pm: the setup looked just beautiful. Aris suggested that we get a dance floor and it was well worth paying for. I highly suggest that if you have a beach reception, you get the dance floor. We ordered tropical centerpieces for each table (5 tables), I brought battery operated tea lights (6 per table) and small white seashells that were lying around the table. We also ordered 6 large led lights. The DJ was paying great music by our request. The MC is so not worth extra $600! He introduced the bride and the groom, the first dance, the parents giving the toasts and then said a few worlds to end the party. If you have someone who can do that for you, don’t waste your money. The sparkles during the first dance were a nice touch! The reception was over at 9:30pm, the train took all the guests to the rooms to change and then we meet at the disco at 11pm. The Bavaro disco is a lot of fun! Reception Menu: Aris gave me copies of the menu and asked all guests to fill out their choices a day before. I didn’t mind doing that so everyone got what they wanted and the food was very tasty. The chef that cooks wedding food is not from the resort. Reception Bar: Aris upgraded us to the international bar but it was missing two drinks that most of my guests like: mojito and cognac, so that was disappointing. Tropical Pictures Gold Package: the pictures came out much better than I expected. Well worth the $2000. Tropical Pictures Sun Package: the initial version of the video was horrible so the videographer had to do a lot of work on it. The second version came out good but I have seen better wedding videos. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer!

Hi SoonMrsD, we have decided to go with strawberry package and have all events on the beach : ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. The colors are white and orange. I got full DJ package with MC, wooden dance floor and their tropical centerpieces. I tried to do my own centerpieces but it took so much time that i returned all i bought and decided not to bother We do have a rehersal dinner a night before at the Santa Fe Steakhouse and they gave us the dinner free of charge because my future mother in law has been to that resort 7 times. As far as the pictures and video, i ordered gold package from Tropical Pictures and the cheapst video for the ceremony. I decided not to bother with outside vendors and none of my friends are professional photographers. Plus, i wanted someone who knows the resort well for the nice background and trash the dress photos. I also have welcome bags for all guests: Oleg Cassini glass pieces (bought them at TJ Max at 50% discount), wedding survival kit (band aids, sun screen etc), chineese fans for women and small toys for kids (there will be 6 kids out of 36 total guests). I think that was all. What about you? When is your wedding and what have you decided on?

Hi tricia-m, i asked the questions about using Skype on the beach months ago. Two ladies responded saying that the internet connection in the resort is very good and they had no problems with Skype video.

Hi SoonMrsD, my WD is Arisquelmy (my 3rd wedding coordinator so far). She starter responding to me very quickly 4 weeks before the weeding and now she seems to be on top of everything. Hopefully, she will not quit in the next two weeks. :-)

Thank you for the review! My wedding is in two weeks - November 2 and i am so excited to hear that everything went well for you. Can you please share a little more about the beach reception, the location etc..? We are having ceremony, cocktail hour and reception on the beach but none of us have ever been to BBPD before? Thanks!!!!

Hi Natalie, thank you for the response. so it looks like we will be able to share the ceremony with the grandmother live!!!!!

Thank you all for posting! It has been so helpful to read the reviews? Does anyone know if WiFi is available on the beach? My grandmother will not be able to come to DR because of her health issues and I would love to connect to Skype so she could see the ceremony live.

This is great. Helen has been very responsive to me when i dealt with her a few time. Please provide your feedback after you meet with her!

OCT 2013 BR, hopefully they assign one of the current WD to you. I have a wedding in Nov 2013 and not doing a site visit so they are in no rush to assign anyone to me. But Helen from the wedding department called me and told me that i will get a response shortly and they are training someone new.

Hello Ladies, if you were working with Lianny and not getting a response, she quit. So, you will probably not get a response very soon but they are woking on assigning weddings to other coordinators and training someone new.