KristinaM

Agreed!! I'll pay it if I have to but I am absolutely bringing my emails quoting me $50 and also that they would honor 2012 prices. It's only fair for booking early plus I have the email backup.

I have her email quoting $50 per person for outside vendor so I'm going to try and hold her to that.

I agree that it's really a personal decision. There's so many ways to get information out there to your guests: Save the dates, website, formal invites, pre-travel letters/brochures. I'm personally sending save the dates a year in advance and invitations about 4-5 months in advance.. and probably a pre-travel letter about a month before. I'm also parsing down in that line though- like anyone who says they absolutely aren't going probably won't get a formal invitation, and anyone who RSVPs no won't get a pre-travel letter, etc. It may be overkill but I just love the designs and can't decide between them and it's also helpful to your guests to help give them details and guide them along the way. I thnk everyone has done it different ways and I'm sure whatever you decide will work out perfectly!

Your work absolutely paid off. Everything came out amazing!!! Your guests are going to LOVE receiving them! I'm totally jealous- and lazy I guess- but I don't have a creative bone in my body! LOL Congrats on a job well done!

Love the pictures posted so far and this thread! We are super excited to be working with HDC!

Your bags came out amazing!! I love the pictures card too- that's definitely something I want to do so people can share theirs that don't use FB and such. Great work!!

I'm with Alicia--- the policy may have changed but I booked a few months ago for April 2013 and have Yinette's email that the outside photographer just needs to pay the day pass. I have HDC booked. Also, she told me that when I was booking the 2013 prices weren't out yet but they would honor the 2012 prices. It sounds like we got lucky booking early. I hope you can get them to work with you for whichever photographer you want!

The honeymoon suite prices do seem crazy! Especially because we're going for 2 weeks. I think we're booking a normal room and then trying to negotiate an upgrade once we're there- even if it's just for the second week or something. Honestly we spend so little time in our room that it seems like a waste to me. The only reason I really want it is for the getting ready pictures LOL. That's exactly how I feel! The package prices elsewhere are so much less expensive! I'm just happy someone else agrees because I was starting to second guess myself because I felt like the only one! I think I have a list of spanish phrases saved on my pc.. I'll post at home if I still have it. That's another great idea for the website. Or even for a pre-travel or welcome letter!

Hey Ladies!! Alicia- I love your barefoot sandal! You did a great job! Jessica- your save the dates are awesome!! They really came out great and I bet your guest will be so excited when they receive them! I also love your wedding website. I used mywedding.com too but I only have bare bones on mine so far. I need to add so much stuff. Are you using a travel agent? I was so on the fence about that but I think I'm sticking to not using one. I absolutely loved the TTD pictures posted on here in the past and booked them with HDC but agree that they aren't for everyone. If you read some past stories on here alot of brides say their dresses came out cleaner than they were after walking around the resort for the wedding! Just a thought.. I can't attest to it Rebecca from Allurements by Rebecca is working on my boarding pass save the dates now. I'll post when they are complete but I saw a draft and they're amazing. I'm SO freakin excited!!

Welcome Lorraine.. I'll add you in. Your date is come up before all of us! How is your planning going? Lozzawatts (Lorraine) Wedding: August 9th, 2012 Travel: Aug 7-12 gina24 (Marcia) Wedding: Jan 23, 2013 Travel: Jan 19-26 DominicanAlly (Alicia) Wedding: April 11, 2013 Travel: April 6-20 jlb392 (Jessica) Wedding: April 17, 2013 Travel: April 14-24 KristinaM (Kristina) Wedding: April 18, 2013 Travel April 13-27

It's big. That's for sure. And alot of the buildings look the same. My boyfriend made fun of me because I would still turn in the wrong direction even by the last day of our second trip LOL. I've never been to majestic so it's hard to compare but picture it as almost 4 resorts in one. There's the punta cana section, palace section, bavaro section, and then the royal suites. You can access all except the royal suites unless you are a guest there specifically. But there's pros to that too.. there's always a change of scenery.. like one day we didn't like the feel/crowd at one pool so we just walked over to another section's pool. I would go back in a second but I figured with a large wedding group I sort of wanted a place where people will just "run into eachother" often.. ie one lobby at night or something. At the same time, a larger resort would be good to not have to feel obligated to be together allll the time. But it is a beautiful resort. Check out the other site for sure because there's tons of info on there.

That was much better than my descriptions!! haha we were there two years ago so I tried but it's fuzzy. Thanks for the awesome recap!

We stayed at Palladium Punta Cana twice and loved it-- just decided we wanted a smaller resort for our wedding. The beach was by far our favorite of the resorts we stayed at in Punta Cana so far. I don't have much wedding info but I'm pretty sure there's a palladium addict website out there that has a whole wedding section if you google it.

I always find better prices through the packages so I'm guilty. I do get nervous though so I usually will email the hotel directly about two weeks before our stay to confirm that they received our reservation and all is set. We should def get together for a drink! And I didn't know about delta- will check that out for sure thanks! Resturaunts-- let me try and remember... Route 66 was like typical diner food, italian was nice but i didn't really love my dish, and I compeltely forget what I had. Mexican was good. I think we ate there twice. I have to go through my pictures to see if I remember more from when I was there. We didn't eat at the dominican though I can't remember why.

Oh yeah we always book packages-- we generally use like expedia or hotwire.com

I'm thinking around May. Right now expedia says Packages can only be booked within the next 330 days and you can select out to the beginning of February 2013.

No problem- he's super quick getting back to you! Good luck

If the site is still down you can try emailing Arnaud directly. [email protected]

Hey Ladies! Looks like all three of us are close together! DominicanAlly (Alicia) Wedding: April 11, 2013 Travel: April 6-20 jlb392 (Jessica) Wedding: April 17, 2013 Travel: April 14-24 KristinaM (Kristina) Wedding: April 18, 2013 Travel April 13-27 Our travel isn't booked yet though since it's not yet available down here! I can't wait to get that done.

Yay! Alicia can stalk my wedding! hahaha I'm also going to have to find you as soon as we arrive to get your last minute advise!! So happy we're going to overlap a bit!

Hi Ladies! We just got our date confirmed for 4/18/13 at Ocean Blue and booked HDC photography! So excited!!

Your decorations are beautiful!! I love the terrace set up.

We are planning on booking HDC once our date is confirmed but I'm still a little torn on packages. I just don't have a clear idea in my head of how many hours we will need. Yinette at Ocean Blue said the only extra charge for outside photographers is the $50 per person day pass.

The dinner is open bar too, right? regular brands as well?

That's perfect, thanks for the info!