Trish Upshall

Thank you!! I will try and post more pics once my photographer sends them! Yes the resort is soo pretty, beach is gorgeous and i loved loved loved the garden gazebo. we had 6 tables and 35 guests, for centre pieces I brought down small square glass vases which surprisingly enough didnt break at all and had fake flower arrangements to put in them, Aris filled them with sand for me so you didnt see any of the stems etc. They looked great and had many people ask for one after the reception. then i had small tealights around the table and thank you cards on the plates. You must be getting so excited!

Hello Ladies! I just got back on Monday from my wedding at BBPD. The weather was beyond perfect, didn't rain a single day! I am at work right now so I wil try to touch on as much as I can. We arrived Monday around 6:00pm, we let everyone get to their rooms and get settled in and then had everyone meet us at the Bar Carey (Lobby Bar) for 8:00 which is when we handed out our welcome bags. We had our kids with us, so we had the family deluxe room which gave us two separate rooms which was perfect for the kiddos! The next day we met with the wedding coordinator (I had Aris and she was great) and went over all the final details. I gave her all my centrepieces, candles, thank you notes, table numbers etc.. everything I had for the big day and then went over some music suggestions etc. We had our rehersal dinner at the Steakhouse, we were only allowed to make a reservation for a max of 20 people so we just invited thebridal party adn their significant others, our parents and our photographer and MC. Yes, we brought a photographer down with us. It seemed to be cheaper to do that than it was to use tropical pictures...though, I have been following tropical pictures on facebook and pinterest and their photos are amazing and because the day was SO busy and so hot that I didn't get to take as many photos as I had hoped. Another perk to bringing the photographer down with us was that she was able to take pictures of our rehersal dinner and time at the pool etc. Wedding day! I had my hair appointment at 10:30, the stylists there did an amazing job on all the girls hair, I was super impressed! The bridal suite was already booked so unfortunately I had to get ready in my photographers room which turned out to be fine but I would have preferred the bridal suite so try to reserve that as soon as you can. The flowers were delivered to the room about an hour before the wedding, the bouquets turned out very nice. We took some photos outside while waiting for the coordinator to come pick me up. The wedding party met at the bar carey 30 mins prior and Aris collected them all there and they took the train over to the ceremony site as we got married at the garden gazebo (which btw is absolutely gorgeous and more beautiful than pictures) then she came to get me, the photographer and my maid of honour (as only a few people can sit on the golf cart). I walked down the aisle to "Marry me" by Train and there were some speaker problems so it delayed the ceremony a bit but Aris made up for the time by adding 30 mins to our reception. The ceremony was perfect (they got the spelling of my name wrong on the certificate lol twice so they are apparently sending me the correct one in the mail) but other than that there were no issues. There are peacocks everywhere and the garden is just perfect. everyone then went back to the bar carey (which is nice and air conditioned- it was SO hot the day of the wedding that everyone was begging for some cool air) and then we were picked up again at 6 to go to the Bar Carey which is right beside the garden gazebo for our dinner. We had the caesar salad, beef tenderloin and creme brule and it was all good, everyonel oved the food. Dj was great, played good music - had no issues there and my MC was able to coordinate the rest of the wedding events (garter and bouquet and speeches) with the wedding coordinator and everything went great. It was by far the best day of my life and everything turned out as it should have. The coordinator had set up all my decor etc exactly the way I wanted it. Oh and one more thing - with the photographer, when i first booked with Marlene a year ago, I was told that it was no problem at all to bring a photographer with me as long as they were a guest of my wedding party. Well apparently now you still hae to pay a vendor fee (which is ridiculous because she was a guest and she was taking pictures) but anyways, i ended up getting out of it because i was originally told there was no outside vendor fee. We originally were going to extend the reception an hour but it is just so expensive and everyone was so hot so we decided to just bring the party back to the lobby bar and we went and put the kids to bed and my mom stayed in with them while we went off to the disco. It was nice to cool down and some people went and changed into cooler clothes etc (including myself lol) The resort is gorgeous! a lot of walking cause it is fairly big but all the guests enjoyed there stay. Here are some pics - hopefully they load :S

Yes! our wedding is at 3pm at the garden gazebo! That is awesome that you were able to do a site visit!

@MissJali thank you so much for your review and your pictures!! you were such a beautiful bride!! I leave Monday, April 21st for my week away at this resort and am getting married on April 25th. I promise to post my review soon after. I really love the pier and was thinking about trying to switch our ceremony location to there, we are currently in the garden gazebo (which i think will be nice cause it is shaded for the guests and I chose because i heard it is more private. We are bringing a photographer down with us, it was actually cheaper and better for us to do that than go with Tropical pictures. Our photographer said she takes pictures of all of us all week long so it will be nice to have a week full of memories in photos. i am feeling a tad unorganized and overwhelmed with all the planning and i feel like i am missing things. Did you bring your own table numbers or table number holders? I am certain i will forget a million things :$. the weather also says rain almost every single day but i find that it tends to always say chance of rain in the tropics so fingers crossed that it doesnt rain every day or especially on the wedding day Anyways, good luck with all your planning ladies, i will be sure to post my review and some pictures. If any one has any questions, feel free to ask!

I live just outside of Toronto, and since everything tends to be so much cheaper in the states I decided on ordering everything (including my bridesmaid dresses, all orders i made through etsy etc.. and any other favours or welcome bag items) in the states. But, to avoid shipping rates to Canada, there is a postal mailbox service you can use and its I think 5 bucks per package and you get a US address so we just had everything shipped there and just drove over for the weekend to pick it all up. Its called CBI warehouse or something along those lines if anyone from the area is interested. I save a load of money doing it this way.

I am bringing my own photographer with me so that is theo ne thing I haven't had to worry about! but everything else seems to be a disaster :S It is also so hard to chose colours when you can't exactly see everything in person lol So I guess I haven't even chose my colours for the tables yet either! wahhhhhh stress!

I am beginning to freak out as well and it seems every time I try and get things sorted out and planned I never seem to get the answers I need and my wedding is in just over 2 months :S Do we have to let them know about table cloth colours and sash colours prior to going down there? I can;t believe how much the extras are, like the draping and lighting that I wanted soooo bad but I refuse to pay the thousands they want for it! so frustrating!!! I feel as though I am the worst wedding planner ever. I want to make little wedding day timelines for everyone but I dont even know what time my reception is going to start, at least it is not confirmed with the coordinator or anything so its hard to go ahead on these kind of things. Oh and centrepieces are so expensive to use at the resort so I am trying to figure soemthing out to be able to carry some down with me but then you have to worry about extra luggage allowances etc.. Ugh I feel as though I am going slightly crazy

Hi Ladies, i was wondering if someone could please send me the template for the vacation survival kits? If so, my email is trishaupshall@@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

Yes! I thought I read something about an Ikea being around the corner!! that is quite perfect! Thanks for your help! i need to get my indecisive self in gear! 5 months today i leave!

Thank you! that info helps! I am going to create my own itinerary and menu as well and I would like to do a little welcome party to hand out our welcome bags as well but i am definitely not payng extra for any of that. I think if I do any kind of rehersal dinner it will just be for our wedding party and our parents, but i will have to figure that out. We have the Tangerine package...and i have asked Aris what exactly is included in that package for decor options..I have the price list that was given to me for all the extras, but i know there is certain stuff included in our tangerine package, she just hasnt answered me. I am still trying to figure out what to do for centre pieces etc and how im going to get everything down there. P.s. I pick up my dress tomorrow!! (super excited!!!!!)

Thanks Samantha!!

Thank you so much Samantha for your review! and congrats! I am so glad your wedding turned out perfect!! I was also wondering about the whole itinerary thing - like did you know in advance of your menu choice and wedding day itinerary, so that you were able to provide an itinerary to guests? I am the WORST wedding planner ever and i am so confused as to how all of this operates etc. Like I dont want to assume an itinerary and create one to hando ut to all my guests and then it change according to what the wedding coordinator says it should be. Also - does anyone know how it works with rehersal dinners? do you have to pay extra or can you just reserve a spot at one of the restaurants? or is there a limit as to how many guests? I have emailed Aria (my wedding coordinator most of these questions and she has still not gotten back to me yet) Thanks Ladies!

I just emailed my wedding coordinator over a week ago asking for this information and still havent heard back. would you mind forwarding it to me as well? My email is [email protected] Thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by Reign14 Hi Trish... Do you think the trip was cheaper later in April because earlier in the month is spring break for a lot of kids? Mine is April 12th and I'm a little worried about the travel costs and how many people will be traveling at that time. It's the weekend before Easter, and I hear a lot of school aged kids go on spring break that week, so a lot of families tend to vacation around that time. I also hear there's a convention in town the weekend of my wedding. Not happy. Thinking of moving the date! Hey, we looked at dates all throughout april, we originallyw anted the first week but it was still very pricey for what we were looking for so our TA just looked for a bunch of departure dates and we found that leaving on the Monday the 21st was the cheapest for us. Just be very careful when bookin in April because they have Holy week which i believe is the week before i leave which is like the 14th to the 20th or something like that and apparently all of domincain basically shuts down, nota good timet o travel so be sure to look into that.

That is so good to hear!!

Ok so I finally got a reply. Aris is my wedding coordinator now!

Quote: Originally Posted by Yessi That's awesome, we will def. see each other there, I am having a catholic wedding and we using the Bar higuey for our reception. Email them again, I think I emailed Marlene twice before I got response from hildradebra I just sent off another email so hopefully I will hear back! We are having a symbolic ceremony in the garden gazebo (though i have changed my mind twice now as to the location LOL) and then we have the Bay Higuey as well.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yessi Hello Ladies, I am new at this site... I am loving all the information I am getting from this... My wedding in April 26, 2014 and I have the Tangerine Package .. I was communicating with Marlene but now Hildelbrada is replying to me... did something happen to Marlene? Your wedding is the day after mine I had Marlene as well but have not heard from ANYONE since she has been gone. I had sent an email over two weeks ago and still have not heard a reply, so i gather as of right now, i dont even have a WC.

Quote: Originally Posted by SoonMrsD Yes read above ... The $1300 includes DJ, MC, fireworks for first dance and strobe lights but this is the pricing from Aris, my WC. ahh ok. i did receive that quote from Marlene in the begining but i didn't realize that was for DJ Mannia. Thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by LovelyGemini Trish, when are you in April? I'm April 5, 2014, but I've been so nervous planning for everything that I've asked my WC tons of questions via email and also went over a couple things face to face when I met with her back in July, like colors and stuff. I've read most WC's send you some sort of questionnaire to go over everything about 2 months before, but I would send sample pics of things you want, like colors, cake, centerpieces, etc so they can tell you what's possible and what may not be. Only because they love to charge "extra" for every little thing, I feel it helps to know budget-wise what you may be paying extra for. Our wedding is April 25th we were actually originally going to get married on april 5th but moved our date to later in the month since it worked out to be a bit cheaper for the actual trip. I have emailed the coordinator a few times as well inquiring about colours and to try and get pics of centre pieces and flower bouquets etc.. since I want to know how to coordinate with things and whether I want to do fake flowers cause it seems that all they have to offer are roses and lilies.

Quote: Originally Posted by SoonMrsD We are all mostly for DJ Mannia, the resort recommends him and he has amazing reviews. Plus a friend of a friend had him for her wedding 2 years ago. Good Luck on your wedding and planning! How does it work for DJ Mania...do you already have costs?

Thank you ladies! I had a nice sigh of relief after reading your responses lol. I am bringing a photographer down with me and she is staying at the resort for the whole week with us so photography is dealt with my other concern was dj, which i will probably just use one frm the resort since the vendor fees etc seem to be very high and we are already tryng to budget lol. Happy planning everyone!! everytime i read posts on here i get more and more excited!!

ok so i am probably the WORST when it comes to wedding planning! My wedding is still 7months away (April 2014) I have the date booked and ceremony time and reception etc...but haven't booked or discussed anything else with the coordinator. Which I believe from reading through the past comments, is no longer working there so I emailed the other day and still ahven't heard back. Should I be booking and reserving a dj this far in advance? and with decor etc do I need to let them know colours or does most of this get dealt with once we are there? I am the WORST wedding planner ever!!!!!!!!!!! Ps.. Thank goodness for this thread or else i would be even more lost! I love all the pictures and posts from all the past weddings!! Makes me so excited for mine!!

Thank you for your review and pictures, your wedding was beautiful! I did read your review before, I haven't posted many posts on here but do find ALL reviews and information given, super helpful in helping me plan my wedding. I think many people responded re Trivera's review because she was an avid poster prior to her wedding on here and i think many people formed a relationship with her because of that and were highly anticipating her review. I am sure many people read and were thankful for your review as well so thank you for posting it and your pictures for all of us to see!!

Thank you soo much for this review! I am now officially worried because i chose the oceanfront gazebo as our wedding location because i loved the look of it, i didn't even think about all the onlookers and crowds :S Im wondering if i could change it at this point!! I may have to look into it. Your wedding party looked beautiful, i love the colours! thank you for your review and all your tips!