EJM17

PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE!!! Items can be sold seperately 

$10 - 100 - Natural Wavy Wooden Fan Handles 

Originally Posted by CrystalRomero 

 

Ok you have me extremely worried now. What decorating services did you use? I'm thinking minimal decorations so trying to determine if it would be worth it to use the outside vendor. I'm using dj mania though

I used the company Innovart Decorations. I worked with Gary the owner and he was an absolute pleasure to work with. I thank him for making my wedding day amazing. This is his Facebook link to see his work: https://www.facebook.com/InnovartSRL?fref=ts

My wedding is listed as: "Erica & Joseph Wedding" under his albums.

So here it is ladies..........my wedding review! I'll start off with the negative and end with the positive.

NOW Larimar was by far the WORST resort I have ever been too. I regret choosing this resort for my wedding. My wedding ended at 93 guests and you would think since we were a pretty big group we would be accommodated and treated a little better. We definitely were not. To list just a few things that happened to us:

-My parents check in AND in-laws took 3 hours as well as other family members

-My parents ended up with a room with 2 double beds when a KING was requested 

-The "tropical view" isn't so tropical. Some of my guests had the view of an ugly street outside of the resort.

-The resort initially offered me a promotion with my rooms - for every six booked I would get one for free. But they failed to tell me the terms and conditions. I had 35 rooms booked and they declined to give me ANY free rooms because none of them were booked under one reservation number. Beatriz who is the supervisor in Group Reservations was horrible to speak with as well as Gilbert. I asked if the Wedding Day Pass of $45 could be waived for some of the guests since they weren't giving me ANY rooms. She refused to bend the rule for me. 

-Housekeeping was horrible. OUR ROOM (Bride&Groom) was cleaned at 4:00PM two days!!!!! The day we arrived they had champagne, strawberries, and chocolate for us in the room, they took three days to take the dirty plate out of the room. 

-My husband's family requested another bed to be brought into 2 of their rooms. The beds were never sent.

-The night of our rehearsal dinner three of my guests came from a different resort. When they arrived at the entrance they were turned away because they didn't have photo ID. Security spoke with my wedding coordinator to confirm that there was a rehearsal dinner and STILL turned them away. My cousins had to go back to their resort and get their ID's and pay 2 cab rides. 

-My wedding coordinator Yeomandry was sweet. I just feel they have SOOO many weddings they don't have the chance to give you all their attention nor are they allowed to bend a rule on that "wedding planner". Mercy the wedding coordinator supervisor made that very clear. I spoke with her the day before I flew out. I expressed my frustration to her about the resort not being accommodating and not offering me ANYTHING for all the rooms and for bringing my wedding. She had the nerve to tell me "well you have understand this is a business as well, you basically only have your food/beverage with us. The rest are outside vendors. So there's only so much we can do for you" I couldn't believe she said that to me! They didn't like the fact I had my decorator, DJ, photographer, videographer, and cake from outside. I didn't want to get myself more aggravated nor have them hate me more and ruin my wedding day. So I accepted the way everything was going to be because there was so turning back or changing anything 4 days before the wedding.

-Our last night at the resort with the family (before we left for our honeymoon) we reserved 2 tables at the restaurant Tamarindo and 10 more of our guests ended up joining us last minute. The restaurant REFUSED to set up another table for us when they perfectly well could have put together three tables that were still open. They offered to put the 10 guests on the wait list that was one hour, which was ridiculous because we all wanted to be together. I had all of the 20 guests that were seated already get up and leave the restaurant and we spoke with the hotel manager- Angel Holgado. He apologized for everything that we went through and offered to put the extra tables for us. We declined his offer since everyone started eating at the buffet.

At check-out payment for the wedding was made. We paid cash for the wedding. The front desk after they counted the money had the nerve to say they couldn't accept some of the bills because they had writing on them. (We're talking about the littlest thing like a number that is written on a bill) The money was withdrawn from our bank here in the States. Money circulates and we have no control over that and we told them that. That was literally the icing to the cake when they pulled that one. We argued with the front desk and had the manager Angel Holgado come out again. We stood there another hour FOR NOTHING because the person supposedly in charge of bringing cash to the bank came out with a Counterfeit Detector MARKER!!!! The writing on some of the bills didn't matter!!! The manager didn't offer us anything for all the inconveniences the hotel put us through. We are absolutely disgusted with the service and people there. 

The POSITIVE - my vendors:

-The wedding day was beautiful. I have Gary from Innovart Decorations to thank for that. He did an ABSOLUTE beautiful job with my flowers, ceremony, reception. He was amazing to work with as well. We communicated through Facebook chat and later with the "WhatsApp" application. His prices were half the price of what the resort was trying to charge. It was SOOOO worth it to pay the vendor fee for him. He offers everything and anything a girl can dream of for their wedding. If he doesn't he will make it happen! This is his Facebook link to see his work: https://www.facebook.com/InnovartSRL?fref=ts

My wedding album in his profile is listed as: "Erica & Joseph Wedding" 

My photographer Katya Nova and her husband Rob were an absolute pleasure to work with as well as my videographer Mibsan Espejo. I can't wait to see our pics and video in a few weeks! Once I have that I'll post! 

DJ Mannia was great! Carlos Martinez was our DJ and MC. He was very easy going and great to work with. Even though we had a live band come in for our reception and we didn't use there services for the whole night. He still made sure to keep on top of everything like (speeches, cake, bouquet toss, garter toss). 

-Pastor Mark Lykins was our officiant and amazing to work with as well. He knows English and Spanish. It was very important to us to have the ceremony bilingual since we have some only Spanish speaking family members. 

Let me know if you have any questions ladies! 

You can PM here or email me at [email protected] I wish you all luck with Now Larimar! 

I hope your experiences with them are nothing like mine.

Just posted my review Jennifer! its at the end of this forum  

So here it is ladies..........my wedding review! I'll start off with the negative and end with the positive.

NOW Larimar was by far the WORST resort I have ever been too. I regret choosing this resort for my wedding. My wedding ended at 93 guests and you would think since we were a pretty big group we would be accommodated and treated a little better. We definitely were not. To list just a few things that happened to us:

-My parents check in AND in-laws took 3 hours as well as other family members

-My parents ended up with a room with 2 double beds when a KING was requested 

-The "tropical view" isn't so tropical. Some of my guests had the view of an ugly street outside of the resort.

-The resort initially offered me a promotion with my rooms - for every six booked I would get one for free. But they failed to tell me the terms and conditions. I had 35 rooms booked and they declined to give me ANY free rooms because none of them were booked under one reservation number. Beatriz who is the supervisor in Group Reservations was horrible to speak with as well as Gilbert. I asked if the Wedding Day Pass of $45 could be waived for some of the guests since they weren't giving me ANY rooms. She refused to bend the rule for me. 

-Housekeeping was horrible. OUR ROOM (Bride&Groom) was cleaned at 4:00PM two days!!!!! The day we arrived they had champagne, strawberries, and chocolate for us in the room, they took three days to take the dirty plate out of the room. 

-My husband's family requested another bed to be brought into 2 of their rooms. The beds were never sent.

-The night of our rehearsal dinner three of my guests came from a different resort. When they arrived at the entrance they were turned away because they didn't have photo ID. Security spoke with my wedding coordinator to confirm that there was a rehearsal dinner and STILL turned them away. My cousins had to go back to their resort and get their ID's and pay 2 cab rides. 

-My wedding coordinator Yeomandry was sweet. I just feel they have SOOO many weddings they don't have the chance to give you all their attention nor are they allowed to bend a rule on that "wedding planner". Mercy the wedding coordinator supervisor made that very clear. I spoke with her the day before I flew out. I expressed my frustration to her about the resort not being accommodating and not offering me ANYTHING for all the rooms and for bringing my wedding. She had the nerve to tell me "well you have understand this is a business as well, you basically only have your food/beverage with us. The rest are outside vendors. So there's only so much we can do for you" I couldn't believe she said that to me! They didn't like the fact I had my decorator, DJ, photographer, videographer, and cake from outside. I didn't want to get myself more aggravated nor have them hate me more and ruin my wedding day. So I accepted the way everything was going to be because there was so turning back or changing anything 4 days before the wedding.

-Our last night at the resort with the family (before we left for our honeymoon) we reserved 2 tables at the restaurant Tamarindo and 10 more of our guests ended up joining us last minute. The restaurant REFUSED to set up another table for us when they perfectly well could have put together three tables that were still open. They offered to put the 10 guests on the wait list that was one hour, which was ridiculous because we all wanted to be together. I had all of the 20 guests that were seated already get up and leave the restaurant and we spoke with the hotel manager- Angel Holgado. He apologized for everything that we went through and offered to put the extra tables for us. We declined his offer since everyone started eating at the buffet.

At check-out payment for the wedding was made. We paid cash for the wedding. The front desk after they counted the money had the nerve to say they couldn't accept some of the bills because they had writing on them. (We're talking about the littlest thing like a number that is written on a bill) The money was withdrawn from our bank here in the States. Money circulates and we have no control over that and we told them that. That was literally the icing to the cake when they pulled that one. We argued with the front desk and had the manager Angel Holgado come out again. We stood there another hour FOR NOTHING because the person supposedly in charge of bringing cash to the bank came out with a Counterfeit Detector MARKER!!!! The writing on some of the bills didn't matter!!! The manager didn't offer us anything for all the inconveniences the hotel put us through. We are absolutely disgusted with the service and people there. 

The POSITIVE - my vendors:

-The wedding day was beautiful. I have Gary from Innovart Decorations to thank for that. He did an ABSOLUTE beautiful job with my flowers, ceremony, reception. He was amazing to work with as well. We communicated through Facebook chat and later with the "WhatsApp" application. His prices were half the price of what the resort was trying to charge. It was SOOOO worth it to pay the vendor fee for him. He offers everything and anything a girl can dream of for their wedding. If he doesn't he will make it happen! This is his Facebook link to see his work: https://www.facebook.com/InnovartSRL?fref=ts

My wedding album in his profile is listed as: "Erica & Joseph Wedding" 

My photographer Katya Nova and her husband Rob were an absolute pleasure to work with as well as my videographer Mibsan Espejo. I can't wait to see our pics and video in a few weeks! Once I have that I'll post! 

DJ Mannia was great! Carlos Martinez was our DJ and MC. He was very easy going and great to work with. Even though we had a live band come in for our reception and we didn't use there services for the whole night. He still made sure to keep on top of everything like (speeches, cake, bouquet toss, garter toss). 

-Pastor Mark Lykins was our officiant and amazing to work with as well. He knows English and Spanish. It was very important to us to have the ceremony bilingual since we have some only Spanish speaking family members. 

Let me know if you have any questions ladies!  

You can PM here or email me at [email protected] I wish you all luck with Now Larimar!

I hope your experiences with them are nothing like mine.

Just got married this past Saturday!!!!! Lets just say my wedding day was beautiful but the planning process and service and Now Larimar is HORRIBLE! A full review will be coming in a few days.

It all depends what services you need. If you want just DJ services and no extras I say stick with the resort. I went with DJ Mannia because I also want a lighted dance floor & projector and screen. It came out to be about $800 more in the price if I stayed with the resort for all those services. So I don't mind paying the vendor fee. 

I'm just about 2 1/2 more weeks away till my wedding day!!!!

So stressed with all the little things that still need to get done! I can't wait for this planning to be over!!! lol

So far we have 94 guests booked! Having a fountain ceremony, carnival terrace cocktail, and Castaways reception!!!!!! So excited!!!!

I am having Gary from Innovart Decorations come in to decorate. He has taken a tremendous amount of stress off of me with this planning. Let me know if you have any questions ladies!!!  

It all depends what services you need. If you want just DJ services and no extras I say stick with the resort. I went with DJ Mannia because I also want a lighted dance floor & projector and screen. It came out to be about $800 more in the price if I stayed with the resort for all those services. So I don't mind paying the vendor fee. 

I'm just about 2 1/2 more weeks away till my wedding day!!!!

So stressed with all the little things that still need to get done! I can't wait for this planning to be over!!! lol

So far we have 94 guests booked! Having a fountain ceremony, carnival terrace cocktail, and Castaways reception!!!!!! So excited!!!!

I am having Gary from Innovart Decorations come in to decorate. He has taken a tremendous amount of stress off of me with this planning. Let me know if you have any questions ladies!!!  

OMGGGG your pictures are beautiful!!!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing them!

Originally Posted by KellyLBauman 

 

Hello! I'm new to the board I'm getting married at the Pardisus Palma Real and staying in The Reserve April 15th 2013. I'd like to hire a professional hair/makeup artist that I could pay by the hour to stay with me for a few hours to touch up my hair and face as we take pictures. My finance and I are eloping alone, so,I want to go all out on the photographs. I'd like to wear my hair down for the ceremony... But given the heat, I'll need someone to to an updo after a bit I've already contacted Krystie Ann and she has a wedding booked that day. Does anyone have any other contacts in that area??? Thank you, I'm desperate!!! Lol

Hey Kelly!

I have decided to just stick with my resort spa for hair and make up. But I do have a name of a very good make up artist in DR. She works in the capital but she does go to Punta Cana. Her name is Indira Sanchez - her email is [email protected]and her facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/indiramua

She was a bit out of my budget. She quoted me $200 for my make up and $100/each for my bridesmaids. Hair was $75/per person. I would have also had to pay my vendor fee of $150 for her to come in the resort. So I'm just sticking with the spa.

Hey Mady!

I have decided to just stick with my resort spa for hair and make up. But I do have a name of a very good make up artist in DR. She works in the capital but she does go to Punta Cana. Her name is Indira Sanchez - her email is [email protected] and her facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/indiramua

She was a bit out of my budget. She quoted me $200 for my make up and $100/each for my bridesmaids. Hair was $75/per person. I would have also had to pay my vendor fee of $150 for her to come in the resort. So I'm just sticking with the spa.

Thank you for the info. Turns out he's phasing into his retirement this year and will not be available for me either. Sounds like Pastor lykins is American as well and has done his fair share of weddings so he should be fine . When's your wedding?

Hi Mvee!

Pastor York's email is: [email protected]

I hope you're lucky to get him because he gets very booked. His partner Pastor Mark Lykins will be at my wedding. I'm hoping he is just as good as him. 

OMGGG Thank GOD!!!! I haven't been on the thread for a few days and I just panic reading this. I'm so happy they are honoring my $150 vendor fee!!!!!! I gave my deposit to my outside photographer IN FRONT of Francina in December when I went to do my site inspection. So for them to enforce some new policy out of no where I would have went crazy on her!!! lol Thank you ladies!!!!!! 

Same goes for our resort Jennifer. One vendor fee per company.

Lucky you! You're gonna think I'm crazy.... Photographer: Katya Nova Videographer: Mibsan Espejo Decorating: Caribbean Celebrations Flowers: El Tronco Floresteria My DJ isn't booked yey because I'm still comparing prices with DJ Mannia and the resort DJ

Wow I didn't know he was retiring. I am booked with pastor mark for my wedding. If you get more info on him please let me know! My email is [email protected]

Hi Erica Thank you for your response. I think I am going to hire Caribe Emotions. Are you hiring a photographer? I was trying to decide between Caribe Emotions and HDC. Rose Yes. My photographer is Katya Nova! I am absolutely in love with her work and so excited to work with her!!!!  

Yes thy both speak Spanish.

Does anyone know if Pastor York or his associate speak spanish? I would love to have my wedding in English and in Spanish as I have some family members that do not understand English very well.

wow, what a nice big party ejm17!!! yea I think that is a crazy amount to book castaways!!! we are doing the fountain for the ceremony, and I am hoping carnival terrace for cocktail hr, and possibly one of the pools for the reception, all depending on how many guests we have. we are only expecting about 40 or so guests. @ favorsrsmr, that was one of our original choices!! very beautiful!

Hey Rose,

Sorry I don't have pictures of the pools but yes you do have to pay extra for the chairs. It would be an additional $3.50 for the regular chairs with white covers. I wouldn't be surprise if they charge it twice since they would have to move them from ceremony to reception. 

Hi Rose and welcome!!!

You can go ahead and book your photographer yourself. On the day of the wedding you will have to pay the vendor fee of $150 for all the vendors that come in. Let me know if you have any questions. By the way who did you pick!?

Happy Planning! 

-Erica

oops this is for Jennifer!!! read the wrong name! lol

HEY JACKIE!!!

YES! I noticed your day is very close to mine too!! I just came back from Now Larimar last month. I went to DR for my cousin's wedding in Dream La Romana and I took advantage while I was out there to do a site inspection at Now Larimar and met with my coordinator Francina and photographer Katya Nova! My wedding is going to be roughly around 100-115 guests. (My family is very big) My ceremony will be at the fountain area, cocktail hour at eclipse club, and my reception in the ballroom. I really wanted Castaways for my reception but refuse to pay the $5,000 fee to shut it down for a private event. Let know if you have any questions!!! Happy Planning!!!

- Erica 

Wow I realllllly love that idea!!! Looks great!