jenne

I agree with Uninspired. The DJ's speakers were great and we did not bring our own. The only songs I had on my laptop were for our first dance, father/daughter, and mother/son dances. I didn't even think we would need them because the DJ was supposed to have them, but he had the wrong songs. Other than those songs though, he played his own music and it was great!

Hey LisaRob, I got married at DLR last April and we used the resort DJ. There were a few problems at the beginning because he did not have the right song for our first dance. I had to bring my laptop down and he was able to play it. Other than that though, the music was great. Everyone at our wedding was dancing all night and had a great time. He had a really good variety of music and was able to play almost all of the special request songs as well!

The resort's outlets are the same as in North America. I used my straightener lots down there!

I would not worry about the rooms at all! My sister stayed in building 2, room 2313. Here are pictures of her room: The next picture is of my Dad's room which was in the preferred club, building 7. As you can see, they are the same! I don't have a picture of the one room I saw that was different. But one guest stayed in building 3 and had a room that looked like this a little different than the others but was still very nice. Check Oyster Hotel Reviews and find Dreamss La Romana and the pictures of the rooms with more brown colouring is how the other rooms looked.

Quote: Originally Posted by JoNewhams Jenne, I've heard loads and loads of mixed reviews about the rooms, is it true their all the same apart from the views? Apart from the suites, most of the rooms I saw were pretty well the same. My Dad was in the preferred club and my sister was not, and their rooms looked exactly the same!

Quote: Originally Posted by DRbride2011 Hello Everyone! I am new to this forum and I am booked with Dreams La Romana for the endof April 2011. I was wondering if any of the brides who have already gotten married would recommend the preferred club? I have booked the honeymoon suite but not preferred. Help! Hi and welcome to the forum! I was married at Dreams La Romana a month ago. Great choice of resort I would recommend the preferred club only if your guests will be staying in the preferred club as well, or if you are not having any guests come. However, that being said, you may want to double check with the resort but I'm pretty sure all of their suites are part of the preferred club. We booked an ocean front suite (wasn't called the honeymoon suite so I'm not sure what the difference is), and we were in room 4241 which is right in the middle of everything, but is not actually located in the preferred club section, but because it was a suite we had access to all of the preferred club amenities. Since our guests were not in the preferred club though, we didn't really use them, and didn't feel like we were missing out on anything. I feel like I just rambled on and on but hopefully that helps a bit and makes sense!

We used HDC photo as well. Although I did not actually meet Arnaud because he had another photographer come for the wedding, he is who all of the emails and bookings go through and he was amazing! I can honestly say that 95% of the times that I emailed him, he emailed me back within 10 minutes.

Quote: Originally Posted by flowersfizz28 Wow another fantastic reveiw!!! many many congratulatins Lianne!!! Im after a little bit of advice! Tiara has got back to me and has advised me that as we are such a small party, dinner on the pier or the beach would be the best way to go after renewing our vows! can anyone give me their opinion, both sound lovely! not sure what to do? is it still very warm after sundown as this will be the time of our meal? I didn't get a chance to see any weddings on the beach, but I think the pier would be awesome for a small party for dinner! As for the heat, it does not cool down at night much at all! We we SOOOO hot the whole day and night of the wedding so I would not worry about it being too cool no matter where you are.

Congratulations Liane! I'm so happy you had such a great wedding and vacation

We had 30 people come. One couple did not know that they were not supposed to drink the tap water, and they drank it, and were not feeling very well. We were told on the bus to the resort and at our orientation the day after we got there, not to drink the tap water. The water they give you at dinner from the restaurants is fine though. We all drank that and were fine!

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorbabe Hey Jenne, Pretty new to all this but I feel like I went thru this whole process with you after reading all the pages. Congratulations, looks like all your hard work and planning paid off and was a gorgeous event. You looked amazing. I also am planning to do the Gazebo for ceremony, the Pier for the coctail hour and SSG for the reception. I beleive you had 30 people if I recall correctly? Yes, we had 30 people. -The white sheets and the pink fabric at the gazebo...did you have to pay extra for that? I see the decorating of the gazebo is $350 so Im wondering if its naked unless we pay for it? I love what you did and used the flowers elsewhere...great idea! We paid $350 for the gazebo decoration. I had the Ultimate Package so I think it would have just included the table and centrepiece and covered chair. The $350 paid for the fabric and I believe the chair covers. -same question with the chairs at the ceremony...are those included or are those the tiffany chairs? pay extra for the pink fabric? The chairs were included. I am not 100% sure if the pink sashes were part of the Ultimate Package or the $350 that we paid for the gazebo decorations. -cake says its good for 20 people...did you pay for an extra pound? you said there was extra...would I be best off to go without extra? (Im expecting 30 as well)We paid for extra cake. We definitely did not need the extra cake though, but I like that the cake had two tiers and not just one. It was $30 for the extra cake. The whole bottom layer was left over so we had some a couple days after the wedding. Last question...sorry to be a pain... -You booked a DJ did you oly pay the $850 for the reception and thats why you were surprised about the song being played while you walked the isle? We only paid $275 for the DJ which was for 4 hours at the reception, so I think maybe the song walking up the aisle was part of the wedding package, but I'm not 100% sure. Oh wait one more...I was trying to ask WC if we can leave the cocktail hour for 20 people (as usually there is a tendancy to overorder) and do the dinner for 30? We also like the silver menu better...I assume its okay to shall we say downgrade? This I'm not sure about! We had both the cocktail and dinner for 30 people and stuck with the gold menu. Thanks so much for any assitance you can provide. Sheri Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Pink_Petals Jenne, thank you so so much once again! The pictures are just perfect!!! Honestly, you made it so much easier for me to envision what I can do with the place. In regards to picture below, is that still the same SSG deck? If so, did they move the tables out of the way for the dancing or there is so much space left at the end of the deck? What happens if it rains? Which location do you get moved to? Thanks sooo much for all your help again! xoxo The picture is the same SSG deck and no, nothing was moved! It's just hard to tell in the other picture how much room was actually left at the end of the deck for dancing. The deck is pretty big and we had the head table plus four big round tables (30 people total) and there was plenty of room left! To be honest, I'm not sure what you would do if it rains. Tiara had said once I believe that it could be moved into one of their ballrooms, but we didn't have to worry about that and neither will you because it's NOT going to rain for you!

Quote: Originally Posted by lizzyjayne Thanks Jenne for getting back so quickly, I had thought of using the lanterns with the battery operated lights in them, but we can't have our meal at the gazebo unless we pay for the silver menu and most of our guests would struggle to find anything they like of the silver menu (lots of picky eaters) so we are having our meal outside on the SSG Deck, so if I'm right there would be nowhere to hang the lanterns with the lights in them, would this be right? I loved the way the gazebo was decorated for your wedding so I may just go with that, did you get charged for the fabric in the gazebo and chairs? Also the zip lining looks AMAZING, I had not seen that anywhere and know my step kids would love that, do you think it was worth it? Sorry for asking so many questions :-) I don't know if there would be anywhere to hang lanterns on the seaside grill deck. I think there are some trees that you might be able to hang a couple from, but not very many. The cost for the gazebo decoration was $350. To be honest, I am not sure if that included the chair sashes, or if the chair sashes were included in the Ultimate Package, but I think that was part of the $350. The price also included four flower hangings for the gazebo posts, but we did not want them so they just put them on the tables at the reception instead. Ziplining was a lot of fun! It was about a 1 hour and 40 minute busride from the resort, so it took most of the day, but I think it was worth it.. especially if you have never been ziplining before!

Quote: Originally Posted by lizzyjayne Do you know I've been on this forum for ages, and I DID NOT know those chairs were free, I was actually quite worried about our budget as its just mounting up and up, but thats one thing i can tick off. jenne your photos on facebook are beautiful I cried from start to finish (what on earth will I be like on the day) One question though, Did Tiara have those pink sashes for the chairs or did you bring them? Thanks Lizzyjayne! I was so scared I was going to cry too on my wedding day and I totally did! haha.. right when my dads walked me up the aisle! But I was all smiles too so I don't think anyone could tell. Tiara had the pink sashes. We didn't bring any decorations with us at all. When you meet with her she will show you a photo album of other weddings and you get to pick what you want. The colour was perfect for our theme!

7 days. 10 would have been perfect

Okay here are the pictures of the Seaside Grill Deck. I feel awful because I do not think that I got all the photos you wanted! But here are the ones that I do have: On the deck during the daytime setup. At the right part of this picture is where you would come onto the deck. If you are having your reception on the Seaside Grill Deck, there is plenty of room to dance right on the deck. SSG deck setup for our wedding. This view is from the dance floor part looking at all of the tables, and the head table at the back. Looking from the head table towards the rest of the tables. It looks like there is not much room at the other end, but there is a big space for the dance floor and then the DJ table and drink table at the far end. Head Table Looking from the deck towards the Seaside Grill. The tables you see is the outdoor area that you would eat at at the SSG. Again, I'm sorry that I didn't get all the angles for you. But I hope that these help at least a little bit!!!

Dolfinluck - we had the meeting setup before we got there. I think we arranged that about 2 or 3 months ago when I asked her when we would be meeting. Sunandsand - We just asked for two tiers and really had no idea what it would look like until the day of the wedding. The white is actually fondant and the brown is icing.

Oh and here is a picture of the cake - nothing super fancy, but it was very good!

We cut the cake immediately after the ceremony, I guess for pictures, and only my husband and I had a piece. Then the cake was brought to the reception and later while everyone was dancing, we cut more of it to serve to all of our guests.

Quote: Originally Posted by JENISE Jen, your wedding sounds magical. Thanks for posting such a detailed review. I had a question about photography. I'm getting married at Dreams Punta Cana and also booked the Ultimate wedding package and an out of resort photographer. Can they both not photograph at the same time? Did the resort photog give you a hard time? I still want to use him as it is already included in the package I purchased, I'm just wondering how it's all going to work. Thanks again and congrats on becoming a MRS! Thanks Hey Jenise, I think it will depend on the contract with the photographer you booked. We went with HDC and it stated in their contract that we could not have another professional photographer there at the same time. We spoke with the resort photographer and he was fine with it. He said that they have so many weddings that things like that happen all the time so he had no problem changing it to another time besides the wedding, since our package included pictures from him. Hope that helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Pink_Petals Hi Jenne, YAAAAAAYY....Its so good to hear everything is going well for you...Im super excited for you I hope everything goes well on Wednesday...it will for sure!!!! I have a little favor to ask...I would love to see various pictures of the SSG deck from different angles including th concrete area before you step down onto the deck. Im bringing A LOT of decorations with me and I would love to get an idea of what I can do with the recepton place (i.e. round vs. reagular tables; hanging lanterns; etc) So far, Tiara hasnt sent me any good pics of the place...always close ups of the tables...and Ive been going crazy searching the internet for pics of the deck! Also, in case it rains (god forbid), where would the reception be held? Thanks so much for you time...this forum is a life saver!!! xoxo Will try to get these posted tomorrow!

Just posted my review in the Wedding Review section. Hopefully this link will work: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...0/#post1273015

We just returned from Dreams La Romana yesterday and we were there from April 17th-April 24th, and our wedding was on Wednesday, April 21st. We had a fantastic time and everything was perfect with only a few minor glitches! Meeting We had our meeting with Tiara, the wedding coordinator, on Monday, where we confirmed all of the details of the wedding and finalized the plans, and also paid for everything. This is when we chose the decorations for the gazebo, talked about the timeline, and had all of our questions answered. We chose the Dreams Ultimate Wedding Package and I was very happy that we did. It included a lot of little extras that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise had. One thing that we found out at our meeting, which we were very happy about was that we would actually be getting our marriage certificate before we left the resort (we thought we would be waiting for weeks for this to come in the mail)! And we got it on Friday, which was great! Times Our wedding was originally booked for 5pm but we had changed it to 4pm and I am very glad that we did. Having the wedding at 4 allowed us a good amount of time for the ceremony, pictures/cocktail hour, dinner, speeches, and dancing. By the time all of the first dances were done, we still had about two hours left to dance! Hair & Makeup Our hair and make-up appointments started at 11am. There were four of us getting our hair and makeup done, including myself, my two bridesmaids, and my Mom. There were two stylists working so only two of us had our hair done at a time. By the time the last person was done, it was almost 3 pm so it was a good thing that the appointments started when they did, but we were all happy with the way our hair & makeup turned out. Ceremony We had the ceremony at the wedding gazebo and I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone getting married at Dreams La Romana. The gazebo is beautiful and very private. There are some rocks behind the gazebo and then the ocean, so no one will be sunbathing or swimming nearby. With beach weddings there are lots of people nearby who are bound to show up in the pictures. Here is a pictures of the gazebo décor: We did not want the flowers on the posts of the gazebo and had these as centerpieces for the dinner tables instead: Our wedding ceremony was a few minutes late getting started, but this was not a problem. Tiara made sure everything at the wedding gazebo was ready to go and then came to our room to get us. We found out as well when we had our wedding meeting that we could choose a song to walk up the aisle to and chose Lucky by Jason Mraz & Colbie Callait. It was played by the DJ and was very loud and audible. The ceremony was performed in Spanish by the judge and translated into English by Tiara. I thought that the whole ceremony was great and the translation was great! I am very happy that we had our legal ceremony there. We also had a sand ceremony for which Tiara provided the script. My sister read the script as all of our parents and my husband and I poured the sand. After the ceremony, my husband and I were served champagne and then we cut the cake right after. Cocktail Hour Our cocktail hour took place on the pier. There is a larger wooden landing at the beginning of the pier where all of the food and drinks were setup. These were the options we chose for the food: -Cream cheese rolls & avocado -Assorted sushi -Crab Canapé -Melon, Cheese and Grape Brochette -Fried Calamari Rings -Ham and Cheese Quesadillas We had photos taken during the cocktail hour so did not get a chance to try much of the food, but I did try the calamari rings and cream cheese rolls & avocado which were both AMAZING! Our guests enjoyed the food, drinks, and the music trio which played for the cocktail hour. Dinner/Reception Our dinner was held on the Seaside Grill Deck. I think we lucked out because the Seaside Grill was closed that night, otherwise there would have been people seated quite close to our reception. The deck was setup perfectly. We had a head table at one end which sat the 7 of us in the wedding party, and then four large round tables which seated the rest of our guests. On the other side of the round tables was an open area for dancing, as well as a cake table and guest book table, and then at the far end is where the DJ set up and there was a table for drinks which were served to us. Here is what we chose as our dinner menu: Appetizer: Warm Mixed Lettuce and Breaded Shrimp Salad Soup: Cream of Tomato Soup with Tangerine and Fresh Basil Main Course #1: Beef Medallions and Shrimp, with Cordial and Black Pepper Sauces Main Course #2: Chicken Breast, Stuffed with Port Sauce Marinated Crayfish, Served with Pasta Meuniere Dessert: Kahlùa Flan with Coconut and Chocolate Sauces The shrimp on the salad cold and was VERY good! I did not really like the rest of the salad but I think that was just me being picky. The soup was amazing! I chose the beef medallions and shrimp for my dinner and it was also amazing. Those who chose the chicken said that they really liked it as well, but did not get any crayfish. The dessert was good, but after trying the dessert at the restaurants, I would definitely recommend the cheesecake! We had a vanilla wedding cake and got a second tier added and it was very good! We had far too much cake in the end and did not even have to cut into the first layer, but the staff put it in the fridge for us at the Seaside Grill and we were able to go back and eat it on Friday. The music trio also came back at the dinner and played a song at each table. They were fantastic! Since the DJ was setup on the deck, we had a microphone to use for the speeches which was great! My Dad gave the first speech and he is quite emotional when it comes to his daughters’ weddings so he had a bit of a tough time getting through some parts. One of the waiters, Richard, helped out by standing beside my Dad with a drink and held it up for him to drink though a straw and also held up a flashlight for him to read his notes since it was getting dark. It was hilarious! The servers stayed with us right until 11 pm serving drinks. They also showed us how to do a couple of Dominican dances which was fun! The bar outside the Seaside Grill is also very close by and some of us went there to get drinks during dancing as well. DJ After all of the speeches were done, we began the dances. This is the part where we had some “glitches.†We used the resort’s DJ. I had sent a list of the first four songs that we wanted played. The DJ had the list because showed me a printed out copy of the email I sent. However, when my husband and I went up for our first dance, the wrong song came on. At this point, the DJ did not have the right song on his computer, so he went somewhere and was able to get it right away. We also sent someone up to our room right away to get my laptop which had all of the songs on it. After the first dance played, which was “My Best Friend†by Tim McGraw, it took awhile to get the father-daughter dance ready, and then he did not have the mother-son song at all. Luckily, since we had already gotten my computer, he just plugged the speakers into it and all was good. The father-daughter song was “I Loved Her First†by Heartland and the mother-son song was “You Raised Me Up†by Josh Groban. I then requested “I Gotta Feeling†by the Black Eyed Peas and then said to play whatever he wanted after that. Besides the first few songs not being ready to go, the DJ played great music and had us all up dancing for most of the night! I would definitely recommend him, but would just double check with him on the first few songs before it was time for them to be played. From the prices I have seen for other DJ’s I think the resort DJ was great! Also, throughout the night he was able to play all of the special request songs that we wanted! Tiara Tiara was an absolute pleasure to work with! She made our day absolutely perfect and I can honestly tell all of you that you have nothing to worry about when you get there! I know that many brides like to know exactly what everything is going to look like and exactly how the day is going to go, but Tiara will make your day perfect and this was done by confirming all of the details only two days before the wedding. It was kind of funny while we were there because my Mom and my sister (MOH) were asking me all sorts of questions on the wedding day, like when we will get the flowers. At that point I had no idea and told them I didn’t know but I wasn’t worried about it. They couldn’t believe how relaxed I was about things like this! But when we got back to our room after the salon, the flowers were there waiting for us! Tiara came to our room to get us for the ceremony and she stayed for the whole ceremony, cocktail hour, and into the reception to make sure things went smoothly. We met with her again two days after the wedding where she gave us our marriage certificate and videos of the wedding, as well as our certificate to get free anniversary nights at any Dreams resort! HDC Photography We used HDC Photography and our photographer was Francisco. He was great to work with and made the whole photo taking part of the day a lot of fun! He was to come to our room where the girls were getting ready at 3 o’clock and was right on time. When he showed up he immediately started taking pictures of everything. He was able to make us laugh so that the pictures turned out even better! We had our trash the dress shoot as well with Francisco on Saturday just before we left the resort. The TTD was a lot of fun! We splashed around in the waves, walked out into the ocean, and rolled around in the sand. We got our DVD with all of the photos on Saturday from the wedding and will be able to view the TTD photos online tomorrow! We can’t wait to see them since we loved the wedding photos! Videography Our videographer was resort videographer which came with our wedding package. He came to video us getting ready before the wedding and stayed for the ceremony and a little bit after the ceremony. Our DVD was ready two days after the wedding and turned out great! Resort Photographer Our wedding package included the resort photographer, but since we had also booked HDC Photography, we were not able to have him at the wedding. Instead my husband and I booked a photo session for the day after the wedding where he took pictures of us around the resort and they turned out SO good! If anyone is using the resort photographer for their wedding I am sure you will be VERY happy with your pictures! Airport Troubles…. This part has nothing to do with Dreams La Romana, but just an FYI/heads up for any other couples out there doing a sand ceremony. Our sand ceremony looked awesome and we were super happy with the way it turned out. We put a cork in the top and had it in our carry-on bag to take on the plane. When we were going through security at the Punta Cana airport, they took the vase out of my husband’s bag and this girl, who was apparently working there, but not even in uniform, took the vase and starting shaking and shaking it until it was completely mixed up and not layered at all anymore. My husband tried to stop her and so did the other security people (who were in uniform), but she just kept shaking it, laughing the whole time. I did my best to hold back tears, but I guess we will be pouring out the sand and re-doing it. I know it’s not the same but it is completely ruined now. My Dad was there when this happened and said he will be writing a letter of complaint to several people in the Dominican Republic. If they needed to know if there was something in it, you would think they could put it back through the scanner on its own Side Notes… There are a few things I want to mention that I think would be good to take into consider if having your wedding at Dreams La Romana. As mentioned earlier, if you want your ceremony to be private, I would not recommend the beach. However, the resort photographer told us that they are going to be making a private section for the beach wedding at the far end of the preferred club section, so in the future, this might be a really nice option! One night while we were there, we had dinner in the indoor section of the Seaside Grill. This area is very nice and quite large, but I would definitely not want to have my wedding reception in there. There was actually a wedding dinner in there while we were there and for the first half of the dinner I did not even realize they were there. It was very loud and very echo-ey and I couldn’t imagine it for a dinner if you wanted any speeches or dancing. On the plus side, it is air-conditioned! Overall Overall we had an amazing wedding and an amazing week! I remember being at the wedding dancing and looking up at the stars through the palm trees thinking about how perfect the day was and how I wouldn’t have changed a thing! I would highly recommend this resort to anyone considering getting married in the Caribbean and to anyone going on vacation. I would be happy to return there any time and I’m sure we will!

Hi Girls, We just got back from our trip yesterday and I will be posting my review today! And hopefully some pictures!

Hey Everyone! Okay, so I am not internet obsessed or anything, but we brought our laptop so that we could get everyone's pictures from them before we leave the resort. We have been here since late Saturday night, and so far everything has been wonderful! We met with Tiara this morning and she is super friendly and nice. Since we are having a legal ceremony, it will be in Spanish and translated to English, so I can let you know how that is after Wednesday! Also, we were happy to find out today that it doesn't actually take several weeks to get our marriage certificate in the mail, we will actually get it the day after the wedding! So that is awesome! And all of our guests have only said great things about the resort which is also a plus! So other than that, we have been having a great time and can't wait till Wednesday for the wedding! Again, if anyone needs to know anything or wants a specific picture, let me know and I can try to find out!