MissNatalie18

Hey Nat - I ditto what Linds said - I am not on here too much anymore.  So excited for you!!  Hopefully we can all get together when you are back and grab a bite and some drinks

We still haven't seen Sandy since her wedding.

Chat with you all soon!

Natalie

So sorry guys but I am in Toronto for my AHR!! I leave the 10th and I am back the 20th! Star - I got my dresses at H&M for 40 dollars last summer. Thanks for the video compliments!

http://vimeo.com/24383300

Also ladies, you can see 2 videos on this site of my wedding day.  I think one shows up on the side (Natalie and Jay) and you might have to go to "see all" videos, so you can see the other one.

Enjoy!

I am game for anything as well...and the 7th works for me

Gabriel is the owner of the Jellyfish - he is super nice. 

Natalie

I am free to meet whenever ladies!!

Thanks MrsSCK.

The designer is Paloma Blanca and the dress is number 3854!

natalie

 

Originally Posted by MrsSCK 

Natalie -- your dress is so beautiful!  who's the designer!?!  

I'm starting to look for dresses....

Happy Wedding Day Sandy!!! WE are thinking about you!

Nat

Sandy - I think you leave tomorrow!!  Have soooooooooooo much fun - I am so jealous, I wish I could do it all over again!  Enjoy every minute of it.

Nat

I would 100% reserve the restaurant.  I didn't want ppl hearing my speaches or being drunk around my guests.  If you were getting married locally you would have a private wedding right!!  Just to give you an example, during my wedding a really really drunk man came into the restaurant and starting standing with my guests, he got escorted out right away.  I would have been so upset if we didn't have it private and he could drink at the bar or near us. 
 

Originally Posted by Mel2010 

Hey Natalie,

 

We are also thinking of reserving the restaurant just to ourselves. At 24 ppl for your wedding -- would you say it was worth it to book the entire restaurant? We will be 30+ ppl (the number keeps growing) so I'm thinking we might as well cough up the $1000 for more privacy, lol.
 

 

 I used Michael Stiengard who is Phil's nephew - they cost the same amount of money, $2600 and it was WELL worth it. That includes the TTD and I did do it.  My guest were in aww of Michael and ppl have said I have the best photo's they have even seen.

Originally Posted by MrsSCK 

natalie,

who did you use for your photographer and what was your budget?

we are thinking of going with photophil and he is $2600 for a 10-12 hour wedding day and a trash the dress session.  did you do trash the dress? 

thanks!

melanie

Hi Melanie,

I had 24 people at my wedding including my husband and I.

The total cost for the wedding for just the jellyfish was around $8500, then $1500 for the DJ and the dancefloor.  So I would say have the wedding it was about 10K, but that doesn't include my photographer ect.  That includes, food, venue (I privatized the restaurant), ceremony decorations, dinner decorations, flowers, lounge furniture, food, appetizers, open bar for 6 hours at $15/hr, dj and dancefloor.

Natalie

Thanks Mel!!

The dance floor was through DJ Mania, and they set it all up, Mayte didn't do any of that. 

The couches were through Mayte - I believe for all that lounge furniture it was $500, which is a great price in my opinon for the look it gave the wedding.

Natalie

 

Originally Posted by Mel2010 

Natalie ~ Your pictures are GORGEOUS!! Thanks for sharing them. And I love your dress, you were so beautiful in it! =) I've read in a few magazines that the "sweets table" is the way to go now-a-days if you're looking for something different. Thanks for sharing. It's inspired both my FI and I to have one as well. I think we may bring down our own candy too though, lol.

 

Question ~ the dance floor that was setup on the beach? Was that DJ Mannia's dance floor? Or Jellyfish? And the white leather couches, do those belong to the restaurant?

 

Again, thanks for sharing your pictures. Looks like you had a beautiful wedding and I love the white & pink. It turned out beautifully!!

I just told Mayte I wanted hydrangeas, sent her the pictures of exactly what I wanted them to look like and she quoted me the price.  My flowers were really expensive, because they had to be imported in.  I think they were around 1000.00

Natalie

Originally Posted by jlarruda 

Your wedding looked amazing! I've been trying to look for information about flowers in the dominican around the time I'm getting married (November) but I haven't had much luck.  Did Mayte tell you options about flowers and what were estimates on prices? Just wondering what would be the best solution.

Digado:

-the stone ceremony was incorporated into our wedding ceremony.  Our ceremony was not legal. 

-I did plan everything to the T, and sent pictures of exactly what I wanted the wedding to look like.  Mayte did a great job of matching my pictures to what I wanted, the pink actually wasn't suppose to be there but it worked out okay lol. 

-My friend was my MC and he introduced us for the dinner, introduced all the speaches, the first dances ect.

-I set up the DJ myself with DJ Mania, Mayte didn't set up anything related to that, but I did send her extensive pictures of what I wanted the lounge to look like and she did it such a good job of capturing what I wanted.

-Mayte put down the aisle platform without me asking!

 

Originally Posted by Digado 

I LOVE all of your photos, it looks like you had a beautiful wedding!!  Sounds like you were very well organized too.

Did you do a legal wedding ceremony as well as your stone ceremony?  

Did you find you needed to plan everything out to the T?  (did you have an M.C who kept everything running smoothly or did you just go with the flow in terms of 1st dance, speeches etc.)?

Did you have to send Mayte photos of what you wanted your dance floor and lounge area to look like or did she just do this?

Did you request to have a platform to walk down the isle on, or was this something that was done by surprise?

We have our wedding booked for the 19th of November 2011 and I"m just starting to get all of the photos together of what I would like our wedding to look like.

Thank you again for posting all of your photos and giving all of us brides-to-be a lot of helpful information!

 -I didn't bring down the sashes, they actually were not suppose to be there, but they worked out in the end.  My wedding was suppose to be all white, with only some pink highlights in flowers around the lounge area.  But the guests liked it and I never mentioned anything to Mayte, because I felt she had tried so hard and it was still beautiful!

-all my flowers were hydrangeas, which are really expensive.  I sent her pictures of the "balls", they are called pomenders and she got them made for me.  They were a carbon copy of the pictures I sent.  I can't believe how perfect the flowers and cupcakes turned out, based on the pictures I sent.

-our dinner was inside at our request.  It is actually quite windy at night, so I suggest dinner inside.  That being said, Mayte can have dinner on the beach for you.

-I can't remember how much the lights were exactly. I will say that for DJ service starting at 5, including playing music for my ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and reception, which lasted until 12 and also the dance floor and lights was $1425 approx and then a tip.  It was well worth it.

Originally Posted by Labebita911 

Aboloutly beautiful..!!!!!  I know you must be overwhealmed with questions but  i have a few... 

 

The sashes on the chair did you bring them yourself?

What about the rose "balls" those are realllyyyy nice... did mayte get that for you?

Also, i see the dance floor was what seems to be a "lounge" area with lounge chairs, this is not where the dinner took place right? was dinner inside the restaurant or outside. I would really like everything to take place on the beach..... 

Also how much was the lightin of the floors. really nice,,, goes with your pink theme.. My theme is pink and sage green... )
 

 

 -I did the cupcakes through Mayte.  I sent her the pictures of what I wanted and she got it perfect.  I was very specific as well. The cupcakes were $275.00

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb1013 

OMG - I love the cupcakes. These pictures are AMAZING! I was wondering if cupcakes could be done through Mayte. Do you remember how much the cupcakes cost? What DJ company did you use? We are having anywhere from 50-70 people for our Jan 2012 wedding and most of them are drinkers also and I am afraid what will happen if we only do open bar for 3 hours after dinner. We will probably have to do the local option for $10 per person per hour. Has anyone done that option? If so, how was it?

 

Here are a small sample of photo's - I will post more of JF once my photographer and friends send me their pics.

Mel - the day I arrived I brough the cash portion of my bill to Mayte and got rid of a lot of my cash that way.  Our hotel was very secure and I was never worried about anything in my safe (paradisus palma real), so all money, gift cards, jewlery ect. went in the safe.  Depending on your hotel, I am sure you will be fine.  The other option which I didn't feel we needed to use, is to spread out your cash amoung your parents ect.

 

Originally Posted by Mel2010 

Another question for you ladies....

 

I was thinking about the possible wedding gifts that we may receive on our wedding night -- specifically cards containing cash and wanted to know how some of you plan on storing these cards in a safe place until the end of the week/trip? I'm already worried with the fact that we will be bringing down a lot of money to pay our photographer, DJ, Judge and the JF restaurant and figured we would just get rid of as much money as possible once we get there (idea came from a wonderful bride on this thread) but now I realize we will just end up with more money from our guests on our wedding night.

 

I'd love to hear your ideas/thoughts on this one!

 

Cheers,

 

Mel

 

 

 I would say just try and nail down you entire wedding bill with Mayte before the big day - we had some last minute changes with appitizers ect. so the day I went to pay the bill I didn't have a completed invoice with all the changes, I was just showed a summary of what I owed ie. for the food she said I owed 1000ish, but there was no breakdown.  I am sure they are not ripping me off, but still, would have been nice to see a breakdown.  I was so busy and tired by the end of the trip that I just accepted the amounts and paid.  My flowers went up in price somehow as well, but I never really inquired why.  I was on such a wedding high when I arrived that things started slipping my mind or I didn't react as dilligently as I should.  In the end of it all, you can only control so much, and you can only be on top of so much.  A few top many drinks and lots of excitment made me lose a bit of control

Originally Posted by Labebita911 

COngrats!!!!!!! Please post your pics.. i would love to see. Also any tips we should know would be helpful. Im going to travel to DR in July this yr and im going to check out JF but want to go prepared with questions and concerns... Thanks

 

 

Answers to your questions:

-yes the ceremony started at 5 on the dot

-my ceremony was about a half and hour max, but I had a stone ceremony in it and it was a bit lengthy - I would say the average is 20 min

-we had a champagne toast after the ceremony, did some pictures with our guests, and then from 6-7 we left to do pictures while our guests enjoyed the cocktail hour. We were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. at 7 and then commenced the dinner and speach portion.

-Due to speaches our dinner was scheduled from 7-9, however I don't know what time it actually ended.

-I think we left at 12.  I have a very party type family, and the whole week we had late nights.  The night of the wedding we were drinking hard and danced straight from the end of dinner until 12.  Some ppl were very drunk and we decided it was time to go home!

-Mayte put down a hard flooring to walk down the isle

-I was the one that had the sweet table and it was AMAZING - I will attach a pic.  I also did cupcakes which I will show you as well (I think Mayte can get you candy, but I brought down all my own candy for the table)

-I did open bar all night starting at 6-12 at $15/hr.  I couldn't limit my guests to drinks.  The other option was that during cocktail hour I could pay like 5 or 8 dollars/head and pick a few signature cocktails to pass around, but if my guests ordered a rum and coke or something Mayte would get it for them, but then charge me (I thought this could get pricey if ppl didn't want the cocktails I picked).  I didn't like that idea, so I just went for the open bar.  I think all my guests were very happy they could order what they wanted.

-I had no extras, I don't believe they would have been necessary.  The wedding was amazing as it was and anything else would have made it overwhelming.  I put a lot of effort into designing the perfect wedding, so not extras were needed Plus I didn't need any more expenses lol! 

Originally Posted by bamcandr 

Natalie CONGRATULATIONS!!

I am too so happy to hear of yet another happy bride My wedding is coming up fast..only 64 more days until we are at the Jellyfish!. Thanks for adding in how much you tipped because I was wondering what people went with. Mayte has been so fabulous so far we are going to set aside a bunch of money for her and everyone involved

I have a few questions below when you have a chance to answer ( if you don't mind).

 

-did you start at exactly the time you were supposed to start the ceremony or did it run late?

-how long was pastor yorks ceremony?

-After the ceremony did you guys just hang out or go right inside for dinner?

-approximately how long would you say dinner took?

-what time did you end up leaving the jellyfish ?

- When you walked down the aisle was there anything to walk on? I have wedge shoes and was wondering how hard it was to walk?

-what kind of dessert did you do? I just talked to Mayte about how she just did a wedding that had a sweets table...was this by weird chance your wedding? We are not doing a formal wedding cake so I'm trying to come up with cheaper options for some type of dessert after dinner.

-What option bar did you take (10, 15, or 20 an hour)? And were  any of your guests limited on what they drank if they asked for other things?

-Did you have any other extra things at wedding, like fire dancers, cigar rollar, etc? Anything you would recommend?

 

I'm also wondering about wedding gifts we may get?

 

Any other tips or info. would be greatly appreciated! I cannot wait to see pictures! This is soo exciting and every day I am more and more happy we are getting married at the Jellyfish!

I used Diego from Bright Light Productions for my video - he is amazing!!

The ceremony was at 5 and it was very intimate, you couldn't get this intimate of a ceremony at any hotel on the beach, and the 5pm time is essential for privacy.

 

Originally Posted by dreamspb11711 

congrats .......cant wait for pics and more details..did you go a la carte for bar too?who did you use for video? did you have ceremony on site?time?was it intimate or were there lots of public beach goers?

 

Hey - once we sat down for dinner Mayte handed out the menus and our guests ordered the appi and main at that time.  All the food came out at once!

Natalie

Originally Posted by Mel2010 

Hey Natalie, Congratulations!!!! So glad to hear you had an AMAZING time!!!

 

And thanks for sharing how much you tipped everyone. I was also trying to figure that one out. I would looove to see your pics!! I'm so excited to hear back from yet another JF bride!!

 

I'm also liking the a la carte option. We'll be having 30+ guests and feel the set menu may end up costing us more. So how did Mayte organize this exactly? Did she just had out menus to all of your guests and they just ordered whatever they wanted -- like a regular restaurant?? I'm thinking this would save a lot of $$$. So I'd love to hear how you organized this. =)

Thanks girls - I just can't believe how amazing the wedding was.

Sandy - We didn't do any excursions other than parasailing, which I hated lol.  We were so busy and everyone just loved our resort and hanging out - sorry I don't have any more info on that.  Don't be scared if the weather says it's raining.  Before we left it said it was raining the whole week on the weather network and it only rained once at night.  I was freaking before we left.

JBean - My photographer was Michael Steingard and he was amazing.  You can see his website here www.michaelsteingard.com

this is his blog www.michaelsteingard.com/blog/
 

Star - I love having two hairstyles.  I had to see my hubby before the ceremony due to timing, as we got married at 5 and we wanted to have a lot of time for pics, and we would only get that before the ceremony.  So he saw me in the afternoon with my hair down and no veil, and then for the ceremony I had my hair up with the veil.

Can't wait to see you all - lets try to meet when Sandy is back!

Nat

I just got married at JF and it was AMAZING - beyond all my expectations. 

I tipped everyone - Mayte $400 DJ, photographer, videographer $100, pastor $50.  Everyone should have been tipped more, the service was amazing!  But I was on a budget.

When I get time I will try to post some pics of the venue.

I did a la carte and I felt I saved money.  I had 26 ppl (24 for the party, but you feed the photographer and videographer as well) and if we did the $65 option - which is what we would have picked the total would be 1690.  I ended up spending about $1000 on my food with the a la carte and everyone had the option to pick whatever meal and appi they wanted.

Natalie

HEY LADIES!!!

I am back from the best trip of my life - WOW!!

I am super tired but it was worth it!  I have some pics to show you all - just have to figure out how to post them.  I am about to go out for lunch - just waiting for HUBBY to shower.  I will try to put them on now, but if I can't I will do it when I return.

xo!

Hey girls - any past JF brides - quick question - did you tip? If so did you tip pastor york, dj mania, mayte, photographer, videographer - assuming you had all those services and how much?

Thanks,

Natalie

Linds - your pics look so good - you look beautiful and the wedding looked fab!  Maybe less planning is the way to go - cause your reception and dinner set up looked AMAZING!!!

Nat

See you soon!

I ordered my paper online from cards and pockets and then for $90 I had all my invites printed at Minute Man Press - the beltline location.

They were great to work with.