Hey Ladies!! My Husband and I will be having our wedding at the Colonial on January 25, 2013 at 1:00p.m. on the beach I know people who have done destination weddings as well and I have been told that many people have a civil marriage and then fly out to their destination. We have done this as well, we got civillaly married with just us and our kids present and 2 witnesses. Our wedding will be the big event with all our family present and by doing this you actually save money and time. Our wedding with the resort is called the 'Symbolic Ceramony' we have to bring our marriage certificate as it makes the cost of the wedding cheaper and we won't be getting a marriage licence in spanish because then you have the hassel of converting it to english and if there are any mistakes its just a huge head ache and I have heard the cost to have it converted into english is like $500. We opted to use that money towards our wedding as it seems like such a waste to give it away to someone for just a translation. We are very excited for our destination wedding but I haven't done anything for it yet except book the resort, send out an email to our guests and many have booked already. As for a dress, gift ideas and all that I have no idea yet and would love others input and ideas. I was planning for a 1pm wedding on the beach 5 pm cocktail hour and a 6pm private reception. Hopefully everything moves along smoothly. I also think we got a great group rate of 1340. based on dbl I have an awesome travel agent working with me and she specialized in Destination weddings as soon as we booked she called the resort and during our week of stay there were only 2 available times left. **I would advise any bride who is considering booking a resort to call the resort first and make sure the date and time they would like are even available. We are flying out from Toronto - Punta Cana on January 23 - 30, 2013