Chicago

@kitty Yes, my flowers were real touch. I got them from wedideas.com

Chule, You can actually just talk to Jorge and figure out a deal. What we initially wanted was to get 100 pictures that we would choose from hundreds that he would take. We altered his package to where we would only print 50 pictures. He does print them if that is what you would like. In the end when we saw all 429 pictures...we just could not narrow it down to 100. We bought all 429 and decided to print them ourselves. You can always print those pictures yourself just as he would. Of course the deal we made was also implementing a videographer in the price. It was pretty much custom. Regardless, we got a very good deal considering the quality of his work and that we would pay double that here in Chicago.

Jerzshortstuff Thanks! The picture of the room I found on trip advisor that is the one they offered me in the new section. It is very tricky so make sure you talk to your travel agent and see if the MODERN nicer rooms are actually an upgrade and raise some hell to get you that! otherwise stay in Bavaro which is actually very nice. I just think its false advertising for them to call Grand Palladium a 5 star resort while it has sections which are actually 3 stars. They get away with it because of the name and having 4 sections on one complex.

@jerzshortstuff It all depends what you'd like. We met with our photographer a day before and just talked about what we'd like. Its all up to you. If you like beach pictures or pool. Black and white...posed or just spontaneous shots. 5-6pm in January, beach looks amazing with the sun setting and clouds changing colors. Your pictures will turn out great because it will be in april and you'll get more light and have time to play more with your photos.

@Richards Yes they will let you take off the wrist but only BRIDE and GROOM. They would not allow our best men and MOH to take theirs off. Go figure.... Ladies if you're interested in how our wedding turned out here is a link from my photographer Look under Alma & Muamer Jan 5th. 2011 It gives you an idea of the gazebo and the beach dinner reception for some of those who were asking. http://jorgeallocco.blogspot.com/2011/01/alma-muamer-grand-palladium-punta-cana.html

@ Kitty Believe me I had a tough crowd too. Coming from Chicago and having high expections I was terrified what they might think. Unfortunately it turned out the way it did. What I would recommend is that if you're in the RST it cannot be worse than Punta Cana Section JR Suite. Just dont have too high of expectations. I am on trip advisor riight now looking at the pictures from RST. I just cannot believe that the room they have us looks nothing like this. No fancy pillows...nice curtains, bed with pillars/curtains which is what I had at JR Suite in Punta Cana section. Ughhh the more I look at this the more upset I get that they did not want to reimburse us our money. And here is the room they gave us...I finally found a pic on trip advisor This is what the room they offered us looked like....bld 50 room 5007.....Am I crazy or did I expect something like this BELOW. THE ABOVE PICTURE IS IN THE NEW SECTION....if I had not been in the room I would have thought this room belong to the so called older section.

Kitty, I do not want to be Debbie Downer but we had also requested from our travel agent to be put into the new section. I dont think that really matters because once you get there its your bargain with them. Actually once they did try to make up for the JR SUITE in Punta Cana section they placed us at RST in the new section with the nice pool. They had given us a room I believe it was bldg 50 so rm 5007. That room did not look ANYTHING like the pictures on the trip advisor I have seen. I mean no white linens or that airy light look in the room. My JR Suite bed cover looked nicer because it was cream and that one was just typical hotel bed cover (colorful). Not to go into details the only difference with that room was that it has a flat screen tv. The pictures that sold me were the ones on trip advisor with the luxurious rooms. I do believe that higher floors have those rooms because even their balconies have nice white curtains flowing....yeah. But I do wonder if that is extra charge. I was sooooo pissed off with them that I did not want to give up my JR SUITE at Punta Cana (dirty and all) and move to that little plain old room.

Thanks Jerzshortstuff. That is definitely a smart choice choosing Bavaro section. That is where my parents stayed 3 years ago and gave us reviews based on that. Unfortunately we did not think there would be much difference in Punta Cana section. What I would recommend. If you like your Junior Suite at the Bavaro....just stay there. Once you're there relaxing the last thing you want to do during a day of beach relaxing is to go back to the room PACK and move. We chose not ot go to RST after paying 4 days and stayed at JR suite Punta cana, the thing is the didnt even want to reimburse us. Had that happened in the states it would have been different. I understand charging us a fee for not taking the room but refusing to reimburse anything was just ridiculous. If you're not 100% sure dont book any upgrades until you're there and sure you want something else. By the way, they did give us the new section at RST first floor room. NOTHING LIKE THE PICTURES I'VE SEEN ON TRIPADVISOR. I guess the white linen bed and such is also an UPGRADE. The room looked the same as the Punta Cana section which I did not understand why charge so much more for it. As far as dinner reception. We did not have a semi private but completely private dinner reception at the beach (we were set on private from the very beginning). They had set up our reception on the sand by the Arrecife restaurant. It was beautiful. They surrounded us with palm leaves as a privacy fence/wind blocker. It is at the edge of the beach so no need to worry about people coming around. That dinner reception is extra $60 per person on top of your package. Our ceremony time was at 5pm and I think it worked out the best. Right after the ceremony at the gazebo we had our cocktail hour and then went over to the lobby where Kenia arranged for our guests to get picked up and taken to the dinner reception on the beach. There were pretty much no people on the beach when we had our ceremony. It was especially great because of photographs taken on the beach. For us 5pm worked out the best because right after it our guests were ready for dinner and partying later on.

Long review of my wedding at GP January 5th, 2011. We booked our wedding at Punta Cana part of the resort. Mistake #1. We mainly chose that side because of our guests. We decided to stay 6 days at Punta cana and then move to Royal Turquesa for 4 days. Check In at Punta Cana Lobby: From the moment we got there it was off. The front desk 'supervisor' Faustino was extremely unprofessional. If you demand some basice customer service he will be such an ass to you. On the other hand if you let him flirt with you then its completely different service. Some of my guests already arrived a few days prior and had a lot of trouble with their rooms. We already knew about this and requested to be put on the second floor due to a lot of mold in the rooms. If you did book or will book Punta Cana, first of all do yourself a favor and dont. But if your guests do choose it do not go into 2000 block first floor. My brother and parents had to change their rooms due to excessive mold issue. I have been to this country 3 times prior and all over caribbean so I'm familiar with the mold issue...it was fine until now. When I say mold I mean MOLD GROWTH in the shower, on the mattress.... So Faustino would just walk away as we stood there waiting to check in. He did not let us have a room until 4pm. Not to mention try to accomodate some of my guests who shared a room to have a two bed room. So they shared a bed!!! For 3 days straight they would come every morning to request a two bed room and they would not accomodate so poor people just gave up. First impression of my JUNIOR SUITE at 2000 rm 2032. We come inside the room and the pull out sofa is flipped. I mean pulled out stuck cushions gone and just crooked stuck in air. Interesting right? We pick up the phone to call front desk...not working. Finally 3 guys came in and for an hour hammered in that sofa to get it to go inside and we still could not sit on it. Some time later the cushions for it arrived. Not to mention that it was visibly filthy and moldy. We contacted our Apple Rep and told her everything. I was mostly upset for my guests. She did work with us and was very nice but it is almost impossible to talk to their front desk staff including the managers. She managed to get them to listen once we actually took them into our suite and showed the filth on furniture and mold. The day before the wedding they decided to put us into ROYAL TURQUESA as a favor. Once we saw the room there we were even more upset. I dont know what it was but it just got worse and worse. They put us in the lowest possible room there. It was the same room as our Suite as far as furniture type etc. but it was just a room while I had a Suite there. So we decided not to move because here I was paying for a suite to have more room for the wedding day as we take pictures and such. Just the whole experience with the managers upset us that we did not even want to move at all. We chose to stay in Punta Cana section and not to even move for the 4 days we paid for. I know we looked completely crazy but for 3 days straight they were driving us nuts that we just gave up and did not want it to ruin our vacation. The pictures you see on trip advisor of Royal Turquesa with white linens and such...yes they do exist but not on the first floor which is what they gave us. I dont want to seem like a bridezilla but I do not think I would return to this resort again. They use the nicer sections of the resort to spruce up ones such as Punta Cana and give it 5 stars while its barely 3. False advertising so be very careful which section you choose. Resort Grounds: Absolutely amazing! I have been all over carribean and particularly in DR. They have one of the best kept grounds and its hugeeeee! Just walking around the resort is relaxing. AMAZING! Food: As always very good food. If you're picky stick with the buffets. You can switch back and forth between Punta Cana buffet and the Bavaro. I would definitely recommend checking out the Brazilian and Japanese restaurant. You do need to be there right before 6pm to make a reservation. They dont take them prior. Also the Spanish restaurant was very good. We tried getting into the Chinese but it was booked the last night. One restaurant that I did not enjoy was the Arrefice (seafood) but you cant always win. Overall great food! The serving staff goes above and beyond. Fantastic people. Beach: As always it is breath taking. Clean and plenty of private little nooks to hide and relax. On the days when the weather was exceptionally nice of course the lounge chairs were scarce. You do need to get up earlier and go to the beach to claim yours. Beach is always my favorite part and refuge from the moldy room. Wedding: Since my wedding was during Carolina's vacations I did not get to meet her. Instead I met her lovely assistant Kenya. One thing I want to mention ladies. Keep all your emails with Carolina, do not delete. This will come in handy if you had any special requests and some confusion comes up once you arrive. With them everything gets confirmed once you're there so I did have some trouble explaning that I will be having a beach reception with only 17 guests instead of 20 that they request. I had my travel agent confirm this with their apple rep prior to coming and still when we came they gave me a tiny bit trouble only because Carolina wasnt there. But nothing major. Kenya made sure she had all the details. We gave her our sand ceremony kit and little details. We were having the ceremony at the gazebo and then a dinner reception on the beach a la carte. I cannot say enough about the wedding. Even though we had a rough start with the room and all the wedding made us forget it all. LADIES DO NOT WORRY!! They will take care of you as much as you request. If you want to have a private dinner reception on the beach with special requests they will go above and beyond. We were really impressed. From the ceremony to the very dinner. We had a DJ starting at dinner until we were done. I must say that the servers were some special people. We loved them! Such professionals, more so than the front desk. Kenya stopped by to check on us and I could not believe she pulled it all together. FABULOUS! PHOTOGRAPHER: I know a lot of brides here always ask about photographers. I have a friend who is a freelance photographer himself and when I was choosing mine he helped me. I came across Jorge Alloco. Let me tell you. This guy is a real professional. Google him and check out his website/profile. His work is amazing and he has real good equipment. We met with him the day before to go over what we'd like and from then on we went gaga over the pictures he's taken of our wedding. I do want to say. What you pay for is what you get. I have seen weddings done at the resort with the resort photographer. You can do that yourself. They only have a camera with one lens all the time. If your at all knowledgable about photography once you see their photographer you'll know. Jorge is a real sincere person and extremely interesting. He has extensive resume of his work. It all comes down to how important your wedding pictures are to you. Another thing I forgot to mention. He also has a guy with him who does videography. We used him as well and definitely were happy that we did. I know Jorge will be posting some of our wedding pictures on his blog as he does with most of his brides (with signed consent of course). If you're interested in seeing our photos please check out his blog http://jorgeallocco.blogspot.com/ he should be posting ours in a few days. Alma & Muamer 01.05.11. CONCLUSION: LOVED IT! If I could come back to this resort and get married every time I would. Their Wedding services exceed their customer service as far as front desk. Punta Cana section is not at all 5 STARS...absolutely not. BAVARO and Palace are much better which is where my parents stayed prior to our wedding and we went with their review. Avoid unnecessary headache and go to Palace or Bavaro. Our guests admitted the same thing. They would have rather paid more than to have their kids inhale all that mold. Have fun planning your wedding and once you get there let them take care of you. I know its hard to believe it (it was hard for me even) but it turns out 10x better than you expected. If anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer as best as I can.

Hello Ladies, We've just gotten back from our wedding at GP. I will post a review as soon as I settle in.

@sheila Ohh, you're sooo lucky!! I'm glad she'll be there for you. I am sure Kenia will do a great job but I have just gotten used to communicating with Carolina. Do you mind sharing the script? That's actually one thing that I am currently working on. Will any of you have a friend or family member read the script?

@ Guke I am not sure for how long she is gone. She said after December 9th she wont be available because she's going on a vacation. Obviously a long one since she wont be there for January 5th Yeah, that's one thing my travel agent told me. BRING ALL THE EMAILS.

@Sheila I am more than excited, but also losing my mind with last minute preparation. I just found out this morning that Carolina wont be there for my wedding. For all the ladies out there that are getting married soon, her assistant Kenia will take over. I am freaking out about this!!! Any previous brides worked with Kenia? I feel as if I will have to repeat everything I have planned with Carolina for the past year with Kenia. As for the music. We are also making our own CDs and getting a resort DJ to play them. I know sounds stupid to pay $300 for that but if I am not mistaken it also costs a bit to rent their equipment. I figured I dont want to bother my guests to be MC or even ourselves.

@jacobderosenoir As far as beach dinner reception technically you do need 20 guests. I am going that route as well and only had 16 guests which made it impossible to reach an agreement with Carolina. She wanted me to wait until I got there to figure out if they'll let me!!! The whole catch for me was the beach dinner reception. Luckily, last minute I decided to go with a travel agency and they arranged everything for me. Your situation is a little bit different. I was only missing a few guests so they made an exception I dont know about 10 guests but worth trying. Just make sure she gives you a final decision prior to going there cause nothing guarantees you'll have it unless you have it in writing from her. Good luck @ January 5th, 2012 BRIDE (SORRY FORGOT THE NAME) CONGRATS! I have also chosen that date but for 2011.

Hello, I am looking for Teresa who got married at Grand Palladium Punta Cana on November 20th, 2010. If you are reading this. I came across your wedding pictures on Jorge's wedding blog. From what I have seen, you had a beach reception. I am actually going with the same photographer, resort and beach dinner reception. Please PM. I would love to ask you a few questions about the reception. Thanks a bunch Alma