Sunrise Villa Wedding

Mishi · 03-24-2007, 09:05 AM

Just sharing our setting... when we decided to get married we really wanted a more intimate setting since we were only inviting immediate family and a couple of friends. We set our limit at 14 and found the most incredible place. I have been in direct contact with the owners and wedding planners and feel like they are family. I have a great travel agent too who, I swear I would make her a bridesmaid if she wasn't going to be in Fiji during the wedding ;-}

The villa has one large house with the master suite in it that has a living room thats close to 2000 sq ft alone. It has a pool table that opens into a huge bar area that spills over into the party hot tub and huge pool. Then there are seperate villas spread out over the other 2 acres of the property.
I loved this idea because everyone had their own space but we were all right there together. You have a private beach that shares with the house next door and a cliff. You also have a full staff that includes a chef, bartender, masseusse. It is crazy. And... it is all inclusive, $50 per person per day for food.

The wedding price includes Surf and Turf dinner, champagne, massage, manis/pedis for bride/groom, photographer, dvd, cake, flowers, bouquets, everything you need! I love this place and just felt like it was more romantic and private than a larger resort. If you want to look at it it is Dominican Republic Villas, Caribbean Beachfront Vacation Rentals and Unusual Luxury Vacations at Sunrise Villa

tvt · 03-26-2007, 01:21 PM

OH. MY. That is stunning!! What area is it in? We were thinking the Punta Cana/Bavaro area but are having the hardest time picking a resort.

I'm so glad you posted this place! How in earth did you find it?! I've been searching the internet more than I'd like to admit, and still haven't figured out where to stay. We thought about Majestic, but have read horror stories, thought about Gran Bahia, but it's huge.

So how are you working out the payment? Are you paying for all accomodations?

Mishi · 03-26-2007, 01:29 PM

I can not say enough about this place, I love it! I didn't want to do a resort just because I wanted more of an intimate feel and this still gives everyone privacy. As you saw, they have private villas that you can comfortably accomodate guests. If you have overflow they have places close by too. We decided to keep our guest list to 16 and paid for the villa rental, and the meal plan (50pppd) and the wedding of course (5,000- for everything including wedding planner) and the VIP travel that is (75pppd)
Anyone else that wanted to come, we would pay for the pass to the villa the day of the wedding (I think it was 100 pp- includes meal) but they would have to cover the rest including their lodging.
I could not be happier with my choice. Everyone has been wonderful and they even have fireworks displays that you can have go off over the ocean. We are going to do a 5 minute show at the end of our first dance.
Depending on how many people you are planning on having, it would be great. You have a private staff to cook and wait on you the entire time.
We also looked at Caribbean Luxury Rental Villas; Luxury Dominican Republic Villa Rentals for Beach Front Vacations in the same development but it was higher on the cliff and I didn't feel that it gave you the same relaxing layout that Sunrise did.
And, omg, when I tell you I spent a ton of time on the internet searching, it was rediculous. I searched for over a year and settled on two places before finally deciding on Sunrise.
I could go on forever and ever but could probably answer any question you have. Please do not hesitate to ask.
Also, we opted to do a week here with our families for the wedding, and then we are going to Punta Cana (a little more touristy) for 10 days for the first leg of our Honeymoon and then a week in Anguilla to finish it off.
I am excited to find another Dominican bride, whoo hoo!!!!!

tvt · 03-26-2007, 02:36 PM

I just got back from a meeting and looked at the website again... it's like that nervous giddy feeling when something is so EXACTLY what you've been dreaming of!

Here come the questions:

So how did you narrow down your guest list??
Do you have families going with you?
Are you getting married on the beach?
Have you seen pics from the photographer? (Some resort photographers are very so-so, and this is my hot button - aside from a location! I love that this place is so intimate. I was almost getting used to the fact that I'd have men in spedoes in my pics!)

I'm going to do more research on this resort (so far I've only looked at the price, pics, and wedding stuff!) and I'm sure I'll have more questions for you then. Thanks for sharing this place!

Tara

tvt · 03-26-2007, 02:58 PM

Already have questions! First off, I cannot wait to see pictures from your wedding! You must be so excited!! Heck, I'm pumped for you and I just met you :)

What "room" are you staying in?
Since alcohol isn't included in the AI plan, are you just going to go out and buy a bunch?

Mishi · 03-26-2007, 03:00 PM

Bring on the questions!!! I would love to be a part in helping you decide if this place is right for you or not.
Ok, first to answer your questions:
So how did you narrow down your guest list?? This was actually the easy part. When you are working with 50- 60 people its not enough to incorporate everyone but its too many for just your closest of the closest, so you have to put friends in tiers and people get hurt. So, when having 12-16 like this place holds, it is pretty easy to narrow it down. By the time we invited parents, siblings/spouses, BM and MOH, we had enough room for two best friends and the list was complete. People that are good friends don't feel as hurt. And the nice thing is you can say, this Villa only holds a few people and is very limited but we would love for you to come to the wedding day if you can make it, but we understand if you can't. This puts the decision on them, they were invited but prob won't fork out the money to venture down. Then you just plan a AHR to cover everyone else.
Do you have families going with you? We decided not to include children and luckily only one of our guests had a young one to leave behind. Our guest list was my FI Mom and Dad, Brother (BM), Sister and her Husband and Best Friend... mine was my Mom, Aunt and Uncle (like my Mom and Dad), my two cousings (like brother and sister, we grew up together), my brother (walking me down the aisle), my sister and my best friend.
Are you getting married on the beach? I think I am going to do a barefoot ceremony on the beach. They have many options and will pretty much do whatever you want, but most of their brides choose the place that overlooks the cliff (as you see in the video/pics) to hold the ceremony. They are so easy to work with and pretty much will do whatever you want and include it in the price. And I guarantee there is nothing that they wont do for you but there may be an additional fee. Nothing I have done thus far has been extra. And a side note, I expected for 4500 for everything including the planner, that it would be a book and I would choose between three bouquets, or two different cakes, uh huh, Monica the wedding planner had me send her all the pics I could find of what I wanted and she is actually meeting with the desinger today to work it all out. They are wonderful! And when I tell you that the owner is unbelievable, you will feel like he is family. He answers the phone personally half the time we call and is great to work with. He wants nothing than to make you the happiest guests ever, especially if you are doing the wedding there.
Have you seen pics from the photographer? This is the one question that I honestly can't answer. Knowing the owner and how maticulous he is, I can not imagine the photographer being anything less than wonderful. They include a DVD as well. They give you the option to hire your own photographer or bring one with you but with everything so far, I trusted their choice.
I love that this place is so intimate. I was almost getting used to the fact that I'd have men in spedoes in my pics!)LMAO, I know the feeling, and thats what was the deciding factor for me. Just having privacy and our own pool, our own beach, but still our own space will give us much more of an intimate feel.
They also have masseuse on call all the time that charge, I believe its 40-60 an hour depending on the service. Everything is so reasonably priced. And the alcohol is all on hand and you only pay for whatever bottles or cases are opened. Very inexpensive.
They require a 50% deposit when you book and the balance 30 days before you arrive. This is just for the actual villa, you dont pay for the wedding, food, etc until you arrive. This made it soooo easy on us.
Ok, hit me up with more ?'s. If you are like me you will think of 50 a day. And if you don't have a TA and need one, I would love to recommend mine since she is familiar with this place. She has enjoyed working with the owners as well.

Mishi · 03-26-2007, 03:22 PM

I just saw your new post after I posted. We are staying in the main suite in the main house. This is the master suite and is supposed to be the nicest and have an incredible shower/bath. This is also upstairs and away from everyone else so a little more privacy.
We also have kind of assigned our other guests to rooms based on what we think will work best, but we will decide for sure once we get there. We are going up a day in advance to set up the rooms and make final plans and enjoy the place to ourselves before everyone gets there.
I definately reccomend this. And, if you are only using that one room, they will give you the villa at a discounted rate for that night, if it is available. For budget purposes we are checking in on Monday, our guests come in on Tuesday, we get married on Friday and everyone leaves on Sunday. So we only did 6 days and 5 nights for our guests.
As far as the alcohol, I will attach the list she gave me to this post. They have tons of it on site apparently in the wine cellar and keep the bar stocked with bottles, you only pay for what you open. They said if we wanted something not on the list they could get it if told in advance and we just pay for whatever we drink. We did a guestimate of what we would use (and grossly overestimated) and came up with 650 for alcohol. I don't think we will come up with anything near that and our group are drinkers!!!

tvt · 03-27-2007, 06:54 AM

Thanks for all of the info! Can you email any other documents they've sent you?

Also, are you getting legally married there? Or are you doing that before you leave?

Also, another really good DR site is
Debbie's Dominican Travel Forums - Home

Tons of wedding info, and general DR stuff.

Mishi · 03-27-2007, 07:37 AM

Yeah I will compile some of my info and send it to you. A lot of it is email correspondance, so you may get a lot of typing, lol.

The legal part is a little tricky... but I think we have decided what to do, thanks to the boards suggestions. You have to be in the DR for at least three days before you can legally wed, like most places. So, we get there on Monday and are getting married on Friday. We could go on Thursday or Saturday to do the legal part, but we aren't sure we want to waste the time. They have a legal marriage officiant doing the ceremony but you have to go to the "courthouse" and file it with two witnesses. So, we have decided instead of doing that and wasting our time there, we will go the the Justic of the Peace here in our hometown and do the legal part before we leave. It just makes it easier. We aren't going to tell anyone we are doing it because our "real" wedding day and the day we will celebrate will be when we profess our love to one another in front of each other and our friends and family, not when the courts tell us they have time to record it.

So, that is what we will do. But it would be very easy to take the 1-2 hours out of a day in the DR to go finalize it to, whatever you think. The price went from 125 to 500 to do this, but if you get married at Sunrise, it is included in the price of the wedding.

I will send you the email, let me know if you think of anything else.

tvt · 03-27-2007, 08:08 AM

We were thinking the same thing. Get the legal stuff out of the way before we leave. It just seems to simplify things. But I'm curious how a resort would handle the "renewing of vows" because, like you, we wouldn't tell people, so we'd want to have the cermony be a wedding cermony, not a renewal of vows. Are you telling them what to say during the cermony?