emilyjane

We had a legal ceremony, but wanted our own script. One of the resort staff was able to read our whole ceremony, while the officiant said his parts in Spanish (there was never a direct translation into English). I would imagine you could do the same for the symbolic ceremony- write out what you want them to say, and then find someone at the resort who can read it in English (the wedding coordinator was able to do this for us).

I think that this is fairly common- my sister had a Catholic wedding ceremony in Canada last year, and she was also referred to as a "spinster."

I know it was hard to wrap my head around the money thing, but I came to the realization/understanding that yes, some people may be able to afford to come, or could have saved up the money to come... but in the end, maybe they just don't want to spend their money on coming to my wedding. At first I didn't understand when it was still a year away and people said "it's too expensive," and I thought "you could save $30/week and your trip would be paid for." But then I finally realized that yes, people could save that money, but perhaps they'd rather have that money on a weekly basis to eat dinner out, go to the movies, smoke... do whatever they want with! So yes, people may make excuses that it's too expensive, and then appear to be living "high off the hog," but in the end, maybe they just don't want a Caribbean vacation, and would rather spend their money on other things. Hope this helps!

I love the first one!

I love your dress, gorgeous! Where is it from?

I had to call to book my date... I had tried emailing many times and received no response. So I just called the main line for the hotel and asked for the wedding coordinator, Angela Santiago.

The email address that she used to confirm our wedding date was: [email protected]. I have emailed her a few times though with questions and have never received a response.

Here is the Youtube video of the proposal and wedding: http://shawnandcolleen.wordpress.com/

This isn't my engagement story, but this story was too good not to share- check out the link, and watch the Youtube video within the article. This groom spent a year gathering his girlfriend's ideas for a perfect wedding, and then put it all together and surprised her with a proposal and wedding that she knew nothing about. http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1040420--marry-me-today-windsor-man-plans-surprise-wedding?bn=1

We are going to do a group excursion as our "thank you" gift for people attending our wedding, rather than OOT bags or wedding reception favours. We just thought we might as well give them something that will be memorable, and that they don't have to lug home with them!

In my experience so far with booking our wedding, the travel agent has been alright, but I think we could have had the guests book online just as easily and with less hassle going back and forth with the TA to ensure that spellings, dates, etc are correct. I had already found the vacation package that we wanted online through Air Canada Vacations, and the group rate that the TA was able to get was only about $40 cheaper. For all of the mistakes that our guests have had to have the TA fix on their itineraries, I think they would have been willing to pay the extra $40 to go online, fill out the form themselves and be done with it! The one redeeming thing about our TA is that her first language is Spanish, which will be good when it comes to talking back and forth with the WC at our resort, who does not speak English very well, and has not been very good at getting back to me about my questions.

I'll probably end up doing something bright like a pink, or raspberry colour. I wear nailpolish almost every single day and I generally go for darker colours, and don't usually like light ones. I don't see why my wedding day would be anything different!

Congratulations, and have a great time planning your wedding. It can be stressful, but it's so much fun once you've decided on a date and a resort!

Congrats, and enjoy the planning, it is so much fun!!

We are going to take all of our guests on an excursion (i.e. trip to see a waterfall, or ATVing on a beach) in lieu of favours/OOT bags. That way we don't have to pack extra items to bring down with us, and it will be something that each guest will remember, and that they won't have to pay for themselves!

It sounds like we are all getting different stories from our travel agents. I talked to mine and she checked with Air Canada, and they said that only the bride and groom would get flight upgrades, and only after 25 people have booked.

When I go to the Dominican, I always pick up some home-grown vanilla... delicious in baking!

Thank you for making this a thread and drawing attention to it. I've now inquired with my TA, and she is checking into it with ACV. Can't wait to find out if we'll get the upgrade to executive- it would be a nice way to start the wedding week!

Your timeframe sounds pretty good to me. I am going to let people RSVP up until 45 days before the wedding, which is the cutoff time for people to make their payments to attend our wedding with our group booking. I'm having everyone RSVP online, or by email... we're not too fussy!

Your STD magnet is so nice! We just picked the default "Caribbean" beach themed one from Vistaprint because we didn't have time to customize. Now I wish I had!

I live in Canada and have had great experiences with Vistaprint for wedding related, and non-wedding related items. We recently ordered 100 STD postcards, envelopes, magnets, and a return address stamp for the cost of $35 including shipping. It would have cost less except that my fiance felt guilty for getting everything for free, so we upped the number of magnets and postcards from the amount we would've gotten for free! We ended up using them all anyway because more and more people kept expressing interest in coming to our wedding! The only issue that I've had (which isn't their fault) is that if you select the cheapest form of shipping, it does take a few weeks to arrive. However, you could always pay the extra for express shipping!

I sent out my STDs 10 months in advance, to give people lots of notice. However, most people decided then and there when they received them as to whether they wanted to come or not. For example, soon after they received the STD they would either RSVP "no thanks" on our website, or they would email us to let us know they were ready to pay their deposit. I was surprised that we have very few people "on the fence" about whether they want to come. Therefore, other than the good "early booking" rate that we secured by notifying people 10 months in advance, I don't think the results of who would attend and who wouldn't would have changed if we'd sent them out 1.5 years in advance or 6 months in advance! We included our website on the STD so that people could get a lot of information right away, rather than making them wait for a formal invitation. Honestly at this point, I don't know whether formal invites will even be necessary because most people have made up their minds!

After reading this thread a while ago, I checked out other options before creating a website and then putting it on my STDs. I decided to go with mywedding.com, which has worked out well so far. There are quite a few different backgrounds/themes available, and lots of pre-made generic pages (i.e. accommodations, guest book, etc) that you can use and just fill in your details. They also give you the option to customize a few pages of your own (I made ones related to "What to bring" and "Excursions" so far). I sent out the STDs, and lots of people have checked out the website. The nice thing about mywedding is that it's free, but it includes a page visits counter, so you can see when people start visiting your website. You can also collect RSVPs and keep track of who is interested in coming, or who has booked so far!

In 2009 I stayed at the Victoria Golf and Beach Resort, which you get to via Puerto Plata. Guests at that hotel (which is nice, but affordable) also get access to the Gran Ventana, which has beach access, and offers wedding packages. Both hotels were around $900/7 days, all inclusive including airfare when we visited. The service at these hotels was spectacular, considering the price, and the beach and pool areas were very nice as well. We saw one wedding while we were there, and the flowers looked great, and the cocktail reception looked well done, on the beach.

I am not getting married at a Riu, but I stayed at the Riu Bachata (and visited Meringue and Mambo as well) last year. If you have any questions about these resorts, I'm more than willing to answer them. I also have some pictures of the wedding gazebo at the Bachata, and can give an honest review of the resort when we went in May, 2010! We saw a wedding when we were there as well.