natashakc

The best/cheapest way for you and your guests always to book is last minute!!! Travel agents try to tell you to book early/group booking but the only person that benefits is the TA! Ours tried pulling the whole "running out of room at hotel/flights,etc" thing with us, and of course as an anxious bride I panicked and booked the whole lot of us!We booked 6 months in advance with a group rate ($1510 for 7 nights out of Toronto). By one month before the wedding, the trip was down to $1147 Cdn. Don't be a bridezilla! Let your guests book last minute and you and your fiance book early to guarantee the date! Believe me, when people pay more than they could have they are NOT happy

Email:[email protected] Patricia is the head coordinator, but I dealt entirely with Cinthya (the assistant) before we got there. Both were great!

In between the ceremony (4pm) and the reception(6pm) our guests not involved in pictures headed up to the lobby bar for some drinks.

Gran Bahia is my biased choice!! We had a private recption there (at the Garden Grille restaurant). Our wedding package was $1350 USD, extra flowers about $300, and the private reception was $750USD plus $100 USD for the 3 piece mariachi band for after the ceremony. Our meal at ther Garden Grille was amazing!! We had chicken ceasar salad for appetizer, grilled chicken breast, roasted potatoes, veggies main course, then chocolate mouse/cake for dessert. Plus, we had the most delicious wedding cake!! They are very accomodating, so if you want any changes/supplements at all on the menu, they will do it. They made sure there was a children's menu of chicken strips and fries, and fettucine for my niece and nephew. Great place!!!!

I vote Gran Bahia principe Bavaro!!! Married there November 2009 and LOVED every single minute of it!!!

We had our wedding ceremony at the gazebo November 16, 2009. I am soo glad we had it there and not on the beach. There is absolutely NO privacy on the beach-people literally stand right next to the aisle! Plus, the gazebo makes it more formal/special. I wouldn't be paying extra during the reception for drinks. It's an all-inclusive resort, for gosh sakes!!!! We had a private recption ($750USD) at the garden grille, and had all the drinks we could possibly consume until 10:30pm when the dinner ended. I guess if you want to stay at the restaurant after 10:30pm...but we all just headed up to the lobby bar to continue the party!

We are in Southern Ontario and used WEDO for our legal work as well. They were very simple to deal with and I would highly recommend them!

Quote: Originally Posted by ashley1316 hi ladies! Natashakc do you have any pics from your wedding? Jharish what options did u have for flowers and centre peices? Ashley, I will post pictures from our wedding soon! It has been so crazy-busy since we got home from our wedding! The week we got home we bought a new home, then this past Saturday had our at-home reception for 240 people. Yikes:) Stressful! But now it's all over and things are settling down, so I should have time to post shortly. Flowers: Patricia, the co-ordinator gave us a book of about 5 pages of flower options at our meeting. You can interchange the colours somewhat in the bouquets, and we chose bright pink and orange roses, with some other green berries or something:) They were gorgeous! The guys had hot pink roses for their bouttineers. Patricia also did up a flower basket with our flowers for my flower girl to carry, at no charge. Patricia delivered the flowers to our rooms about 1 hour before the ceremony. They give you lots of options for the chair cover ties at the ceremony too. We chose pink chiffon ties, and they looked so pretty. They also do up the restaurant with very pretty table clothes, etc.

Hey ladies! We were married there November 16, 2009! We had a private reception at the Garden Grille (excellent choice). We chose this restaurant as it was the most "Canadian" of the options for our meat-and-potatoes kindda group:) We paid $750 USD for the private reception which was worth every penny. We were married at the Gazebo at 4pm, took pictures after that, then the reception began at 6:30pm. Don't worry about bringing your own centrepieces, etc. That is absolute insanity to me as they do a beautiful job with flowers, decorations, etc. They do up pretty menu cards at each place setting, which was a nice touch. Our menu: Chicken ceasar salad for starter Beef Vegetable soup Grilled chicken breast, roasted potatoes with veggies Chocolate brownie with ice cream They also had a beautiful wedding cake which was absolutely delicious! We brought our own IPOD with a dinner and dance playlist which I gave to the co-ordinator that morning and when we got there at 6:30pm it was all hooked up to the speakers and ready to go. That worked very well for our dance! The reception went until 10:30pm. Don't pay out extra for the bar, that is totally silly and unnecessary. Our guests couls barely take a sip out of their dinks without it beign topped up, without paying that dumb supplement. Anyways, any questiosn you ladies have, ask away!!

Quote: Originally Posted by bahiabride2010 Thanks for the heads up about the wedding coordinator change! I'm going to email today to make sure everything is booked and confirmed. Where are people having their receptions? What kind of centre pieces are you bringing? Are you doing an I Pod reception? We were married there on November 16, 2009 and everythign was perfect! Don't worry about the wedding co-ordinators. The entire time I was plannign the wedding I had dealt with Cinthya, but when we got there I dealt the entire time with Patricia, who is AMAZING!!! She was an absolute dream-come-true, and was there for us the entire week. We had 36 people with us, booked the Sunshien package for $1350 US,(that's all you need), private reception at Garden Grill $750US, 3 piece trip at ceremony only $150US, flowers for girls, guys, corsages, etc. $300US. Don't worry about bringing extra decorations, centrepieces, etc. You are just cerating wayyy more work for yourself that is completely unecessary. They decorate everything in the colours, flowers that you choose, and the Garden Grille restaurant was decorated beautifully. I didn't bring a single thing other than the ring bearer shell. They even provided the flower girl basket and decorated it with my choice of flowers for free, with rose petals. Believe me, I know the stress and the worrying you guys are doing right now planning a wedding so far away, but seriously....You do not have to worry. They look after everything for you and they try so hard to accomodate every one of your wishes. I absolutely loved this place, all of our guests adored it, and I would recommend any couple choose it for their wedding!! If you have any questions, I love talking about this stuff!! We have our at-home reception this Saturday night, then I will be in withdrawal from no more wedding stuff tasha

Quote: Originally Posted by calchik hi girls, i got married there in may click on my wedding review link for lots of pics of the resort and our wedding. we just had whatever music they gave us to play during dinner, nobody was really paying attention to the music at that point anyways but if you're willing to put together a playlist for during dinner then you can ipod it. a microphone would be nice though, we just talked really loud but it was raining the whole time so i'm sure everyone could hear us but a mike would have helped. we didn't have a rent a sound system but maybe it varies depending on which restaurant you use? we paid $600 for our 24 person reception. our WC told us to ignore the extra per person charge. not sure if it's cuz we were only 24 people but you might want to clarify that with the WC as i balked at that charge when i first saw it too. sounds like the prices went up a little bit from last year Hey calchic! Just wondering how you hooked up your IPOD for the recption?? Do you need a specific cord/attachment to do this? Thanks!

Hi Melissa! You sound to have very similiar plans to me for my wedding November 16, 2009! I have found the coordinator Cynthia absolutely wonderful-much better than the other girls before her. Cynthia has been very open about prices, something I did not find before. We are doing the Sunshine package $1350USD, private reception for $750 USD, and speakers for the dance $150USD. I have been so lucky as to talk with a girl that was married there in March 2009 and she shed major light on howe things work. Her number one piece of advice for me was NOT to book everything for your wedding/reception before you get there because you will be missing out on some great deals that way. She said when she went there in March and her and her fiance had their meeting, they said they were not doing the prvate reception due to the cost, and the coordinator cut them a major deal. So, she ended up getting the private reception but at half the cost laid out in the brochures they send to us brides. I guess they figure they might as well get all they can from us so it's better to give a discount then to lose all together.

Quote: Originally Posted by sherryl_joy My TA advised me that Sunquest will have their Winter 2010/2011 contract rates out this around November/December. We were thinking of booking our package around January or February 2010 since our wedding won't be until Nov 2010. She gave us 2009's Winter package rates as $1500 with taxes all in as an idea of what to expect for pricing around that timeframe, with every 17th person free (or maybe it was 11th person, I can't remember)... I sure hope it's about the same or better!! We have (hopefully!) about 50-60 guests coming. Girls, all I can say and I cannot stress it enough....DO NOT let your travel agents/tour companies pressure you into booking so far in advance!! It is absolutely NOT worth it and you will end up screwing yourself and your guests on the price. My fiance and I booked our group travel arrangements in February 2009 for our wedding at Gran Bahia Principe, Punta cana in November 2009. Our travel agent insisted we MUST get thibgs done quickly, or we would lose our spots. WHATEVER!!! Totally not true! So now we are booked at a rate that is much higher than what the trip is going for now, and also all of our guests have to pay the full amount by Sep/07/2007, 2 months before we leave. All I know is I would NEVER use a travel agent again, I would use Itravel 2000, red tag, travelocity, etc. those telephone/online companies are much mroe knowledgeable (from my experience). Believe me, I know us brides-to-be are excited and want to get plans arranged and locked down, but it is not necessary to book so far in advance. It very rarely works in your favour.

I also was thinking about a starfish pendant for my girls. I would love any of the other brides input on where they got theirs??

Quote: Originally Posted by Love3 You ladies are so kind and helpful! I did try Old Navy and they had no short sleeve. I did actually see exactly what I wanted in the Superstore "jennierin" but they didn't have white I am having nooo luck. I tried Zellers, Walmart you name it. I am still on the hunt but if any of you ladies come across one please let me know. Thanx a bunch! Heath Heather, ClassyBride.com has them.

Heather, Classy Bride has all kinds of bridal clothing, hoodies, tank tops, etc. I got hot pink tank tops with crystal "Bridesmaid" on them for the girls, flower girl and 2 tank tops for myself. They are really good queality too, because some tanks you get, especially white, are really thin and cheap Can get a little pricey with the shipping to Canada though I paid $90 for 3 tops. Amazing service!! I ordered them tuesday and had them delivered to my office by Friday the same week!!

Robinkar, As far as I can tell the liquor is included in the private recption until 10:30pm. After that, if you wnat to have an open bar you have to pay a per person supplement. There is a sound system available to rent for $400USD or you can rent a DJ service to play the music. We have rented just the sound equipment, microphone for $400 USD and we will bring our IPOD with us and use pre-made playlists for the evening. The wedding coordinator assures me there is plenty of room to dance at the Garden Grille terrace. Let's hope!

I love it! So dramatic!

I sent in our payment form, passport copies, etc. in March and have had no problems. I actually caleld my travel agent when the resort co-ordinator requested this information from me to make sure it was "normal" for this to be requested. Apparently, it is normal! I did not provide the 3 digit code on the back of my cerdit card, but I did provide the card number and expiry for them to debit my card the wedding package deposit of 10%.

Ahhh...gotta love the Stag & Doe/ Buck & Doe!!! They are a Big-Time Canadaian, and especially Onatrio based thing. I don't think they do them at all in the states. Our wedding party is throwing one for us, though my fiance and In are quite involved in the planning. I don't think it's tacky at all-it's not like a stag and doe is a small party for just the guests comign to your wedding! EVERYONE and their dog comes because it's a cheap party-where else can you go out for the night with tons of people, have great music, cheap booze, and a midnight lunch?? It's a fabulous idea and a great opportunity to make anywhere from $5000-10,000!

Gosh, I just sent all my docs and $300USD to WEDO, so I hoep to God that they are legitimate. I guess I'll soon find out:)

Geez, it seems like quite a few of us have had the same problem! We booked our November 2009 wedding in March 2009 with Sunquest flying from Toronto to Punta Cana. Can you imagine they STILL do not have flight schedules for our flight?! that seems absolutely RIDICULOUS to me! It's only 4.5 months away!! We also had issues with seat availability-it started with one of our guests calling the agent wanting to book, and him saying the flight was full! Apparently Sunquest books up and then doesn't release any more seats for awhile? So then our TA told us that he might have to book the other half of our group on another tour company, etc. and I totally freaked out!! Does anyone else wonder sometimes what the heck good these travel agents are!!?? Mine is useless! I swear, these little bumps in the road might not usually drive me to the brink, but when you are planning a trip with 40 some-odd people, and it's kinnda an imprtant trip...we can get a tad crazy over these mishaps!!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL pictures! And I am totally thrileld to see the dress photographs so incerdibly well...I have the identical DRESS!!! Oh my gosh, I had a small heart attack when I saw the first pic and thought "she's wearing my dress!" I'm glad everyone loves it:)

Let's hope Cinthya sticks around longer than the past ones have:) What the heck? I wonder why there is such a high turnover at the resorts??