teena84

Tamara, OMG!! I love your slideshow!! You had a very good photographer as well - you were lucky to have her there the entire week to capture everything, wow! Do you mind me asking how much you guys paid to have her there all week? We have very similar engagement ring style, and what a coincidence that you and your husband's initials is also E & T like me and my husband (Engel). Anyway, love love love your pictures. I don't think we did enough couple shots, really wish we had more closeup shots at the pier =( It was such an amazing day that I kidded with Engel and say, let's get divorced right away so we can do it all over again. He was terrified..lol. Thanks for sharing! And I apologize if I offended you in any way for what I wrote in the past about centerpieces and MC. It made sense for you to have MC because you had a bigger crowd and they all seemed like fun party people. Our guests were more reserved..haha...would've been a waste for us to hire DJ/MC. And had I had 2 years to plan, my centerpieces and everything else probably would've been more detailed too. Ah well..still had a blast. I'm jealous you had a ring boy and 2 flower girls!! I should've rented one of your flower girls, haha. None of our guests had any little kids so that was kind of a bummer.

Thanks Ilewald. To have your own photographer at the resort - you need to have the photographer stay at the resort for at least one night. Even if you just pay for a day pass, they would not let your photographer be there. What we paid our photographer, included his flight and hotel stay. I was not impressed with Tropical Pictures either, even though they are cheaper. Their techniques are nothing extraordinary. If you can do it, don't skimp out on your photographer budget! We spent about the same amount to hire our own photographer as we did for our wedding package. TIP: I'm all about saving money, so we didn't hire a DJ nor an MC. We had one of the groomsmen MC for the night, and he did a wonderful job. It wasn't like he needed to be up the entire night - he was just there to make announcements and intros in between meals and things, so he still had fun and enjoyed himself. We did however pay for sound system and audio/visual system. I've been to a few weddings already, and I notice the ones who had someone whom the majority of the guests know, as an MC, turned out better because the guests can relate to him/her. Just a thought. Our groomsmen's duties weren't much to begin with, so this was a good task for one of them.

Thanks Reign for your kind words =) I did not ask for the drapery to be removed. When I met with Marlene, and she showed me the venue, the drapes were also not there. I didn't mind not having the drapes there - the structures made the place stood out and gave it a more casual feel I think. Which was what I was going for, semi casual feel. I did not ask for the lounge chairs to be arranged outside. I believe they were always there, and it was nice because some guests used it chitchat and lounge around before and after food was served. I got the fans from Chinatown for $0.75 CAD (I'm from Toronto). The cheapest I've seen them online might've been just under $1 unless you buy in bulk. They were regular fans, and I bought the fan stickers and had it personalized to say 'Engel & Teena 05.21.2013' You can also buy fans that come with stickers. http://www.weddingfavours.ca/ At the end of each fan were these little metal loops, and I got little 'thank you' tags about 1cm x 2.5cm from Dollarama, and tied it with matching wedding colour strings to the fans. And YES, everyone made use of the fans! It was a breezy day, but still hot enough that everyone was glad to have them and fanning themselves throughout the whole ceremony. Unfortunately I heard a bunch of them got left behind because guests didn't know that they can keep it, or maybe they just didn't want it. Ah well, it did its job. No sweat (no pun intended..lol).

Thanks Candacey, Natalie, and MissJali!! I highly recommend my photog if anyone is still looking for one. One good advice I was given was to not skimp out on photog cost for your budget!! They're the one who will capture your happiest day of your life for you to relive it forever. If anyone wants more info about him, let me know. Natalie - I'm glad to hear your compliments about the bridesmaid's pompoms! Haha, I actually made them so they're fake, out of tissue. I used 3 different shades of pink to create the ombre effect. I can provide more details on how this is done if anyone is interested. They turn out way better than I thought, didn't they? It was good, because I just did all the folding before the trip, so I only had to carry long strips of flat tissue papers - very lightweight. Once we got to the resort, my girls and I designated a couple hours out of a day to put together the wedding favours, and to pouf out all the bouquets and centerpieces. MissJali - I saw his cake topper picture idea from when he did it for another couple, and so when he asked me to make a list of what kind of group shots I want, and what are the must have shots I wanted him to take, I made sure that was on the list. Feel free to copy the idea, although, if you post up that picture wherever, please be sure to credit his name for the idea - Aaron Willcox. There's another picture he took for a couple for their engagement shot, which looked like the girl is standing on top of the guy's hand, like he's balancing a tray of drinks. I thought that was cool, and I had my friend duplicate the same shot, had it up on facebook and credited his name, so he wouldn't mind. Glad you guys enjoyed the pictures =D TIP: Cake style and centerpieces - please don't stress about this!! I know I was, but once you're living that day, you'll realize no one really care what the cake and centerpieces look like, as long as it doesn't look like sh*t. Think practical for centerpieces - so something big, colourful, and lightweight, and cheap, like what I had for mine. For cake style, my husband and I had only a couple bites of the cake - we had chocolate chocolate cake and it was good. At first, I wanted my cake to be a certain way, and they would've wanted me to pay extra for fondant and all that. So I said no, no fondant, just regular icing is fine. I was worried it'd melt and look bad, but they did a decent job with it, provided with the ribbons I brought for them. Reception all comes down to how organize you are, and what you can do for them for entertainment. This means, making an itinerary/timeline on what happens first once you arrive at reception, to the end. As long as there's an organized flow for the whole evening, guests will enjoy themselves, whether you're paying $50 for each centerpiece, or $1 like I did!!

Natalie, I was very worried about the weather leading up to our travel date, but once we got there, the weather was beautiful. Forecast showed rain everyday for the week we are there, but once we got there, we only had one day of rain really. So hopefully it'll work out for you and everyone else here too. Ladies, I just wanted to share with you some more pictures from my photographer of our wedding. There are some nice shots of the bar H. I know when I was planning it, I was obsessed with trying to find pictures of the ceremony and reception place. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Aaron Willcox did a spectacular job on the photos! http://willcoxphoto.pass.us/teenaengel/

I saw the peacocks when Marlene showed me the location when I met with her. The peacocks are always around that area, so I'm sure you'll see them for your wedding. I didn't notice it on my wedding, but my guests did and took pics with it. Love the fan! Very cute!

Here's a short clip of the walkway between the two pools, you'll see the gazebo at the end of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts4W5JvvVww

Hi Ilewald, Congrats!! The gazebo by the pool is at the end of the walkway between two pools, so you'll have onlookers for sure. We didn't have our ceremony there, but we did walk down there afterward to have our pictures taken with our wedding party, and people in the pool would gather and cheer you on. It was kind of nice though, I got a few congrats from strangers. I will try to attach a picture, hopefully it works...it's a picture of us by the pool gazebo (excuse our kiss), and you won't see much but a big piller beside us. But that pillar was photoshopped by my brother to be bigger, because the original photo had a guy in speedos from afar in the background, and he extended the pilar to cover him.

Hi Alycamille, I don't know how many people can fit the pier (which looks amazing from the pictures they posted up on their facebook page), but I remember from reading somewhere or maybe speaking to Susana, that to have ceremony on the pier, they will charge you extra. Maybe a couple hundred dollar on top of whatever wedding package you pick, or more. I could be wrong, but I could've sworn I asked her about this because when I saw those pier pictures, I actually considered changing my garden gazebo ceremony location to the pier. So just be prepare for that. Also, you may want to take into consideration for your guests. Having your ceremony at the pier wouldn't have any shade or shelter for your guests, so they would be in the bright sun for the entire ceremony. Some people may not mind, but if it's a blazing hot sunny day, it could get uncomfortably sweaty for your guests and your fiance, especially if he's wearing a suit. I picked the garden gazeo because there's more privacy, so no onlookers from the beach in their speedos taking pictures of you, or ruining your pictures, but also, the gazebo is big enough to hold your guests and provide them with shade. I went to Jamaica last year for a wedding, and the ceremony was outdoor, no shade or shelter, and they didn't provide any fans for the guests, so we were all drenched in sweat, and all got burnt. It was pretty digusting.

Hey ladies, You girls are so understanding of my hissyfit earlier. Thank you for not lashing out at me, which I was worried someone ought to. I apologize if any of you thought I was a b*tch for speaking my mind. I have nothing against Tamara - like I said, I met her at the resort without even knowing it was her, and she was so sweet. I even got to witness her beach wedding, which was beautiful, and their vows definitely got me all teary-eyed. Anyway, moving on, shall we? My wedding photographer posted up some teaser photos on his facebook...I've been a horrible client because I've been bugging him everyday via voicemail, facebook msg, whatsapp msg, and email about an ETA on when he'll be finishing up my pictures. He finally responded yesterday, and today he posted up 15 pics to shut me up. And shut me up he did, because the photos are amazing IMO. Let me know if the following link work for ya - if not, search Aaron Willcox Photography, like his page, and you'll see my album as the most recent one: TIP: If any of you are going to have an hour or two or more, to kill, between end of ceremony and the commencing of your reception, and are worried or freaking out what the heck your guests would do between this time, don't stress about it. My ceremony was around 15-20 min, and people spent about half hours afterwards to take pictures at the ceremony location, which was the garden gazebo. After that, we had arranged for the train to come pick all of us up and took us back to the main lobby. Our guests didn't mind having a couple hours to themselves to get back to their room to shower, change, maybe squeeze in a quick swim at beach/pool, before changing to their evening wear for our reception. I really thought about doing cocktail hour for my guests for in between ceremony and reception, but I was really trying to save money wherever I could, and thought it was unnecessary to have to pay for cocktail hour when people can just go to the lobby bar themselves for drinks, or sports bar for snacks. We already paid a big chunk of money for the wedding, and flight, and hotel for all inclusive trip, so why the need to pay extra for your guests to drink again? Anyway, just food for thought. I know Tamara did a cocktail hour though, and they really set up everything really lovely. It's just unfortunate my budget is super tight, or else it would've been nice too.

It's funny how everyone thanked Trivera for writing her review and congratulated her but no one thanked me for taking the time out to do the same and congratulated me. My review might've not been as good as her, but it still took me a while to write it all out. I know I was not consistent in posting anything much, but it was still a big post for what I wrote, so it would've been nice to be acknowledged of that. Forgive me if it sounds like I'm PMSing, but that's just my thought. Anyway, I will not let this stop me from continuing to try to help out future brides. So, if anyone cares...here's a link to some pictures my brother took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ledavid/sets/72157633797992761/ It has some shots of Bar Higuey. I'm still waiting on the professional pictures from my photographer. A tip for those of you doing a symbolic wedding - after your ceremony is over, and you sign the certificate there, REMEMBER to take it from your master of ceremony or assign someone to take that certificate right away and keep it!! I was so caught up in my ceremony after it was over, the guy gave the certificate back to the wedding coordinator, Marlene, and she kept it. After the reception, she went up to me to ask when will I come by to pick up my cake topper, but DID NOT say anything about the certificate!! I had no idea she had it! I thought, since it was just a cake topper (which I didn't pay for much), and I was so busy, I didn't take my time out the rest of the trip to drop by her office to pick it up. HAD SHE TOLD ME that she also have my certificate, I would've for sure made time to drop by to pick that up along with the cake topper!! Now that I want that certificate back, I have to pay for shipping it back to Toronto. With DHL, it's about $50, with UPS, it's over $70!! I came close to creating a label to have the thing shipped back to me when I remember to check the wedding package, and under Strawberry Passion package, it states the following for #3: "Delivery of the marriage certificate by UPS." I immediately had my friend who speak fluent spanish, to call them up to ask them why we would have to pay for the shipping charge of sending that over when it states that it's part of the package. The idea was to speak to Marlene, but Susana picked up, and according to her, they'll only be responsible for delivering the certificate if we had a legal ceremony, not a symbolic one. The package didn't specify WHAT KIND of marriage certificate!! She said she'll email me with the cost for DHL, but when I was dealing with Marlene, SHE told me that she called DHL, and was told that I have to go to a DHL from my end, and fill out some form and pay for it here first. I called up DHL here in Canada, and they said according to their system, they can't pick something up from Punta Cana to deliver back to Toronto, so I don't know how Susana will give me a quote for the shipping charge. Quite annoyed at this whole thing right now. Technically, THEY should be incurring the shipping charge since Marlene didn't tell me she had the damn thing in the first place! Had she did, I would've just picked it up there myself when I was still there!!

Hey Trivera5521! So it was you who my MOH and I (the girls with the white tote bags) ran into at the spa when you were getting ready to have your hair/makeup done on your wedding day!! I somehow knew from the vibe I got off of you that you might've been from this forum, but I don't know what stopped me from asking that. Your wedding was beautiful to watch on the beach. You might've not noticed, but if you did, the topless kid with a camera around his neck taking pictures of your wedding was my brother. I kept calling him a creeper, and said maybe he should start a new trend...topless photographer..hahahha.. Anyway, I'm glad everything went well for your wedding, minus your son's (who was the most adorable ring bearer) unfortunate accident!! Is he okay now? I'm anxiously waiting on my photographer to finish editing the pictures so I can share them with everyone. The bar higuey was amazing, wasn't it?!! I was soo worried about the weather, but it was perfect for our wedding. You had beautiful weather too, so that was cool! Love your pictures, btw! I kind of wanna do TTD from looking at yours now, but I don't think it would've turn out as well as yours because my dress didn't have much of a train. It's a very simple lightweight dress - I posted a youtube link in my previous post if you're curious. I had my bridesmaids wore baby blue dresses, with pink tissue bouquets that I made, and my husband was in a custom tailored gray suit and white shirt with fuschia skinny tie. All the groomsmen wore white shirt, fuschia tie, fuschia boutinneire, black belts, gray pants, pink socks, and black shoes =)

Hi ladies, I'm from Toronto, Ontario - Canada, and I just came back from BBPD for my wedding and it was AWESOME!!! I kind of wanna do it all over again! I joined this forum months ago, and participated very little in the past. Many of you have been very helpful to me in the past so I know I have to owe it all to you past and future brides by writing a review of my wedding experience at this resort. I figure I should do this now while it's still fresh in my head. My original coordinator was Susanna, but when I went to meet with her, I found out that Marlene will be assisting me instead for my wedding. I picked the strawberry package ($2780USD) which allows up to 25 guests, and paid for 2 extra guests (one of them showed up last minute, i wasn't too keen about that) at $50 a head. We also paid for sound system, which had speakers and microphone, for $400, and audiovisual system which had screen and projector for $300. We had 17 fish dishes and 10 sirloin steak dishes, so we paid for the extra $16 per plate of steak. I made menus for each guest to remind them which dish they are getting, but when the waiters/waitresses went around to ask what each person picked, they came back with 18 fish and 9 steak. When this happened, Marlene immediately came to me to explain what happened, and to make sure we know that they didn't mess up on the count..it was one of the guests who changed their mind and with the type of guests we had, I believe her (still don't know who, but I didn't want to let it bother me, so I just shrugged it off even though it meant that that one extra beef plate I paid for went to waste). My duration stay was from May 17th to May 24th. My wedding date was on May 21st (ceremony at 3pm, and reception at 6pm). My original meeting time given to me was 10am on May 17th. This was impossible since I wasn't arriving to the resort till that night! I called them, and had them changed it to the next morning, May 18th, at 9am. That morning, my husband and I, along with my maid of honour and best man (they insisted on coming even though they didn't have to), went to meet with Marlene. The meeting took about an hour altogether, give or take. We figured out the breakdown of the timeline of everything during ceremony and reception. She went over all the details I filled out in the wedding questionnaire that Susanna sent a month ago. She set up the layout of the tables for reception on her laptop, and showed it to me. We only had a total of 5 tables including our head table, so it was easy for her. I asked to book my manicure/pedicure for the day before my wedding, and my massage, for the day after my wedding as my reward. I don't think I would've been able to relax and enjoy the massage if it was the morning of the wedding. My maid of honour also ended up booking a massage with me. I'm glad I didn't have to do mani/pedi and massage on same day of wedding day because hair and makeup took about 2 hours!! Our meeting ended with Marlene driving us to the garden gazebo location for our ceremony at 3pm - beautiful place...there were peacocks always around that area. The bar higuey where we were going to have our reception was very close by. I was able to breathe much better because of the big weight off my shoulders after the meeting. Marlene overall did a great job, so ladies, please don't kill yourself worrying!! Here's the breakdown from what I can remember of my schedule: May 20 - 11:00am manicure/pedicure. This was after breakfast that morning, and dropping off my centerpieces and cake topper with Marlene. May 21 - 11:00 - photographer met up with the boys at the gym to take pictures of them working out and getting pumped up for the wedding 11:30am - hair/makeup begins for the girls (gym was in the same building as the spa) i wanted some small white flowers in my hair on my left side, and one of the girls working there called Marlene to tell me that I didn't order that. She said it would cost me $7 each, and my girls wanted one too, so I just bit my tongue and said ok, fine. Marlene showed up with 3 HUGE white lilies and my lovely pink roses bouquet (which weighed like a brick, so beware!!). Who the hell wants a huge lily in your hair?! It was the size of my head. I told her that's not what I want, and that I wanted the smaller kind. The girl who was doing my hair knew what I meant and asked Marlene to take those white lilies away, and so I didn't get charged for that. 12:30pm - MOH and bridesmaid finished hair, and went back to MOH's room to change and get ready 1:00pm ish - the girls came back to see my makeup was still being applied - the damn fake lashes took a while to apply, and the girl who put that on for me didn't really know the proper way to do it, so if you ladies are wearing fake lashes for your wedding and you know how to do it yourself, just do that yourself...i took someone's advice here and brought my own makeup (eyeshadows, waterproof pencil eyeliner, brow liner, lipsticks, face primer, eyeshadow primer, blush, finishing powder)..i didn't have foundation but the girl used one of their own lines of foundation there and it was pretty good. 1:15pm - went into the bride's room and my girls helped me put my dress on 1:30pm - my MOH had to be back in her room because all of the boys were meeting at her room to put on their ties and socks while having our photographer capture all that. 2:00pm ish - a couple girls from the spa came into my bride's room with some small white flowers and I was happy with that. The girl clipped some flowers into my hair and left. But maybe about 15 minutes later, the girl who originally did my hair and makeup came and apologized for taking so long. She showed me another kind of white flowers she found, and I thought that was wayy better so she clipped those on instead. 2:30pm - all the guests met by the Carey's Lobby Bar upstairs, and Marlene guided everyone downstairs to get on the train to take them to the ceremony location 3:15pm ish - I was left alone in the bride's room until this time. This was when Marlene showed up and drove me with a golf cart car over to the garden gazebo. It should've been earlier because our ceremony was suppose to start at 3:00pm and goes to 3:20pm but some of our guests were late >_< 3:35pm ish - ceremony was over, and we spent the next half hour ish having our pictures taken 4:00pm ish - train took all the guests back to the main lobby, and was asked to meet back at Carey's Lobby Bar at 5:40pm for the train to take everyone back to Bar Higuey for reception 4:10pm to 5:15pm ish - was with the photographer the whole time having our pictures taken 5:40pm ish - train took us all back to Bar Higuey. When we arrived there and my brother and my husband's brother, tried setting up their laptops, this was where we found out that their project is old school and didn't have a USB port to just plug into our laptop. Marlene ended up having to call someone to bring over another laptop, and finally problem was solved. I didn't really stress at all about this because we knew we could count on our people to have this taken care of. While this was going on, my photographer took more pictures of us at reception area. 6:00pm ish - we were surprised with blue cocktail served to everyone upon arrival. Our itineary during reception was as follow: 1 - Intro of wedding party 2 - Surprise wedding group dance to Danza Kuduro - this is us! 3 - Slideshow of our baby pictures to present time 4 - Best Man speech 5 - Appetizers served - Chicken Caesar salad was not bad..it came in a cheese bowl. No bacon though. 6 - Video Montage - will try to upload it to youtube later and share link 7 - Maid of Honour speech 8 - Main Entree served 9 - Video made by brother in law shown, and his speech 10 - Dessert served 11 - Our thank you speech, which we improvised due to not having time to prepare one..turned out very well and very emotional 12 - Cake cutting 13 - Father/daughter and Mother/son dance 14 - Bouquet toss to Madonna's like a virgin...I was quite heavy handed on the throw and my brother in law ended up catching the bouquet and we all had a good laugh, lol. 15 - A bit of dancing before the reception concluded 9:00pm - we took a couple last pictures with our photographer 9:15pm ish - Marlene asked if we wanted to play one last song before wrapping everything up. FYI, this was no extra charge even though it went past 9:00pm When the train took us all back to the main lobby, I went back to my MOH's room to rest up a bit, before heading on over to Carey's Lobby Bar for drinks. We continued the party at the disco, which opened at 11pm to 3am. Of course when you show up at the disco club right when it opens, it was quite sad looking because the place was pretty much empty. However, the DJ there played a nice version of Stand By Me, and my husband and I got to dance to that song on the dance floor..it was just us on the dance floor, with people gathering around watching, so that was nice. We didn't hire any form of entertainment, nor did we hire a DJ. With the type of guests we had, hiring a DJ wouldn't have been worth it at all. Also, with all the videos, slideshow, and speeches, that took up all of our time, and everyone still had fun. We didn't use the resort's photographer because I found an awesome one from San Diego. I first found out about Aaron Willcox Photography from pinterest and fell in love with his style, perspective, and creativity. He was amazing to work with, and my guests loved him because he was so patient and thoughtful of everyone. He also doesn't go by hours for the packages he offer! It's unlimited hours from morning till night on our wedding day. As soon as he is done editing all the pictures (approximately 10 days), he'll send me a USB flash drive of our pictures - high res printable versions, and low res for facebook uploads, etc. Please please please hire him because you won't regret it - he's totally worth it!!! http://www.willcoxphotography.com/ https://www.facebook.com/willcoxphoto http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=aaron%20willcox Now, I can't guarantee I can answer all questions that will be asked because I don't check this forum as often as I should. However, I'll try my best to do so. The best way for me to answer questions is via FB, so feel free to add me https://www.facebook.com/teena.le.23 Hopefully this review helped, if not a lot, then at least a little bit, for you all to breathe a bit better. As soon as pictures become available, I'll share it with you all. Cheers! Teena

Hi Disazaja, First off, thank you for that amazing review you wrote - it was definitely very informative and helpful for all of us and I truly appreciate that. I'm curious, if you don't mind, how much did you have to pay for the makeup and hair trial? Also, how much for the food tasting - I guess you had everyone eating the same entree? Did you also get to do any cake sampling? When you met with your WC, did she say you guys were getting anything extra for the day after the wedding? Eg. breakfast in bed, cruise during sunset, dinner on beach? I think I saw a video about this on youtube, but I don't know if it's part of the package, or you have to pay extra.. Thanks again.

I found an old response from my WC Susana about photographer: As for photographer – I understand your resort do not allow external photographer, but if we have a photographer stay with us at the resort for a few days or the whole week, would this be ok? If that person is staying at the hotel and is going to be one of your guest this won’t be a problem. As for menu options, at first she weren't going to let us have any options, but she seems more lenient now - here's her responses, if anyone's curious about extra menu cost: Can you please clarify now, is this only for main dishes? Or do all guests still have to eat the same soup, salad, and dessert? If we pay extra for guests to choose between the soup, salad, and dessert, how much would this cost? For soup $5usd each, for salad $10usd each and for desserts everybody eats the same. When you said beef, would this include the Beef Tenderloin and Sirloin Steak to choose from? Or is it just one of them? Pesto marinated broiled chicken--Chicken $10usd per plate Pan seared fish medallion, parmesan cheese risotto, asparagus and red bell pepper coulis--Fish $16usd per plate Glazed pork chops in old mustard sauce--Pork Beef tenderloin with potatoes and vegetables--Beef $16usd per plate Sirloin steak parisienne coffee with vegetables--Beef $16usd per plate When I say beef this is for Beef tenderloin and Sirloin Steak. How much would pork cost? $16usd per plate.

Thanks so much for your quick response, Sunny. I just got word from Susana, saying that if I want my guests to have option, we should pay extra for each person for buffet style - a whopping $58US per person! I think this is quite excessive, especially when our wedding package is suppose to include food and drinks. Luckily, I found an old post you posted about the extra cost for beef/fish and chicken, and I copied and pasted that into my response email to her. Our guests are already eating buffet every morning, we don't want them to have to eat buffet for our wedding too. We'll see what her response is - I'm trying very hard to be patient and nice to Susana since we are the one asking for things from her, but it's not easy! She was however, able to give me a lower quote for without the DJ, which was $390 USD. Man, the costs are starting to add up! Do you by any chance remember how soon you had to tell Marlene the final number of guest count for your wedding/reception? And how soon you had to tell them who wants what for their menu? Again, I really appreciate you still coming back to this forum so often even now after you are married, to help us brides-to-be out. I'm sure we all feel the same.

Oh man, I just wrote a bunch of stuff and accidently went to another page so everything got erased - GRR! Anyway, I wanted to apologize for not participating in this forum more than I should've. I hope everyone is not stressing so much for this planning - I know I am, regarding travel arrangements, but my friend told me, it could always be worst, had we plan the wedding locally. So I'd say I made some good progress - got the deposit money down for wedding package, along with confirmation for garden gazebo symbolic ceremony location, and bar higuey for reception. I just got the menu from Susana and she said everyone have to eat the same meal?!! I know a lot of people who would like beef, but some people can only eat chicken or fish. I think, Sunny? You paid extra to hve options for the guests, right? Was the extra cost only for choosing main dishes? Or can the guest pick different apps and desserts too? Also, does anyone know how much it costs to rent just the mic and sound system from them? We don't need a DJ - we were just going to play music from a laptop or something..

JG, Susana responded to you? Grrr...she still haven't gotten back to me yet. Did anyone get some sort of email response or anything after you sent the wire transfer down? I just need to know the money made it there ok, and that we're booked for Bar Higuey.

Hey Natalie, were they able to confirm with you where your reception will be, prior to you sending the deposit down there? I asked Susana this a few days ago, but I still haven't got an answer. I want to know this before putting our money down. Also, in the confirmation form - it says that we have to pay within 7 days or else our reservation date is cancelled. Did anyone take longer to pay? Is it ok to go over 7 days? I'm afraid if Susana doesn't get back to me in time, I'd lose the date, but if we put the money down, and our reception is not confirmed or there's no availability, then what..? If anyone know, please advise - thanks again ladies!

Hey Nat, I haven't got a chance to call her, but yes, if you could please send over the details, that'd be awesome of you! Please send it to my email: [email protected] What happened after you sent the money? Did she tell you that you're booked for bar higuey for sure before sending money?

I GOT MY WEDDING CONFIRMATION FORM!!!!! Oh man, I'm SO relieved. This was Susana's response: I’d like to pick the first picture – the garden gazebo (see attach). This doesn’t mean we have to pick the blueberry package though, right? No, you don’t have to choose the blueberry package for this location. We still want to pick the strawberry package with 35-40 people, and we are willing to pay the $50 for each extra person. ok For the time, we’d like to pick 3:00pm please. Perfect In the form I sent you, I’ve put down that we will arrive on Friday, May 17, 2013, and the departing on Friday, May 24, 2013. The wedding day is on Tuesday, May 21, but I really hope this won’t be a problem because my travel agent already booked the flights already. We don’t know the time of arrival yet, but if we get there early on Friday, we can meet with you right away if you want. Don’t worry when the wedding date is approaching I will let you know when is going to be our meeting. Also, can you attach details of extra costs, sound system, such as cocktail hour after ceremony? Please find the extras attached, as per the cocktails and canapés has an additional cost for $12usd per person, be advise that prices may change. As for photographer – I understand your resort do not allow external photographer, but if we have a photographer stay with us at the resort for a few days or the whole week, would this be ok? If that person is staying at the hotel and is going to be one of your guest this won’t be a problem. As I mention emails below for the strawberry passion wedding package you have to place a 30% deposit, please find attaché the bank information, the invoice and your wedding confirmation. She attached everything except for the bank information. I think I might have to call her tomorrow to get her to send that over asap. The confirmation says we have to pay deposit within 7 days or else they'll cancel our reservation.

I GOT MY WEDDING CONFIRMATION FORM!!!!! Oh man, I'm SO relieved. This was Susana's response: I’d like to pick the first picture – the garden gazebo (see attach). This doesn’t mean we have to pick the blueberry package though, right? No, you don’t have to choose the blueberry package for this location. We still want to pick the strawberry package with 35-40 people, and we are willing to pay the $50 for each extra person. ok For the time, we’d like to pick 3:00pm please. Perfect In the form I sent you, I’ve put down that we will arrive on Friday, May 17, 2013, and the departing on Friday, May 24, 2013. The wedding day is on Tuesday, May 21, but I really hope this won’t be a problem because my travel agent already booked the flights already. We don’t know the time of arrival yet, but if we get there early on Friday, we can meet with you right away if you want. Don’t worry when the wedding date is approaching I will let you know when is going to be our meeting. Also, can you attach details of extra costs, sound system, such as cocktail hour after ceremony? Please find the extras attached, as per the cocktails and canapés has an additional cost for $12usd per person, be advise that prices may change. As for photographer – I understand your resort do not allow external photographer, but if we have a photographer stay with us at the resort for a few days or the whole week, would this be ok? If that person is staying at the hotel and is going to be one of your guest this won’t be a problem. As I mention emails below for the strawberry passion wedding package you have to place a 30% deposit, please find attaché the bank information, the invoice and your wedding confirmation. She attached everything except for the bank information. I think I might have to call her tomorrow to get her to send that over asap. The confirmation says we have to pay deposit within 7 days or else they'll cancel our reservation.

Hi MissJali, Welcome! Did you try sending it to [email protected] ? My wedding coordinator is Susana, and she's been responding via that email address. Also, if you want a quick response, I suggest calling them in the morning. Just buy a $5 prepaid phone card and call down there: 809 686 5797 tell them you want to speak with someone about wedding packages, and they will transfer you through.

So I was just reading up on their barceloweddings.com website, and it says that you need to be in DR for 72 hours prior to wedding day. Does anyone know if this is 3 business days? I really hope not, because I'm suppose to land there on Friday (not sure what time yet), and the wedding day is suppose to be on the following Tuesday. Sunny - what day did you get there, and what day was your wedding?

Thanks for your responses, Natalie and Disazaja. When did you guys start telling them where you want your ceremony and reception to be held? The last interaction I had with Susana was Friday, where she asked if I wanted to reserve my request date, and I responded with yes, and asked her to send confirmation/deposit info. It's end of day now and I still haven't heard back from her yet. I hope she send some sort of response for a peace of mind between now and confirmation.. Coco - maybe it's because you're doing a civil ceremony, that's why it's taking longer to get the time of your wedding day? Don't quote me, I'm just guessing. Whatever the reason is, it looks like all of you ladies here have been doing a pretty awesome job relieving each other of stress one way or another by being supportive, understanding, and sharing. So far, from everything I've read from everyone, I think I believe Sunny have made it pretty clear that it all seems so stressful now, but once we get down there, it will be all be worth it, and I believe that. Thanks Sunny for being so informative of everything =)