flyingchild

@@Mandiesue Awww I am sorry to hear the lack of response from their part. I actually wasn't having much luck either. The last time I heard from Yanna was end of December. Between then and Feb I sent her a few emails, didn't get any response till last week. I am just trying to be understanding and think that they are really overwhelmed with work to make sure all brides have their beautiful wedding days.

Does anyone know if we can have the reception till midnight when it is indoor? I thought we had the reception confirmed to be 6:30pm till midnight but Yanna just told me yesterday that it is only till 11pm...I understand if it is outdoor it has to end early because of the noise, but ours will be held indoor. Do they come in around 10:30pm and started chasing everyone out or it would be a pleasant exit?

Hi ladies, I came across this special offer on Dreams website where you book your wedding by Feb 28, 2014 and receive a complimentary cocktail welcome party for up to 50 guests. Be sure to ask your WC for that! Here is the link: http://www.amresorts.com/romance/index.html Of course there are terms and conditions, and it does seem to be only applicable for weddings happening during a period of the year. Luckily my wedding falls within the period! I hope some of you get to utilize this promotion as well

Hi fellow brides, does anyone know if we can have the choice of two entree? I know the package say we pick the whole menu for our guests but what if we have vegetarian guests? I asked Yanna this twice but never got a direct answer from her. If there is a choice I would have to include that on the invitations.

@@Nursejazz It is ok to send it your questionnaire even if you do not have everything planned out yet. We can always send the WC updated docs as we fill in more info. That way she has plenty of time to get us price quotes and what not. I am using DJ Mannia as DJ & MC and HDC as photographer. So far I have been very impressed with their prompt responses. Also DJ Mannia is very generous to throw in free stuff for us You're right about the ballroom, I had some struggles trying to come to terms with Yanna on the reception venue. Apparently the convention center (where the ballrooms are) is the only place they can have conventions or things along those lines so if there is a convention booked, they have to give out the ballrooms to them. I decided on the Seaside Grill after much thoughts...the ballroom might be a bit of a walk from the ceremony and cocktail venues for some guests and we like the Seaside interior. I will only decide on the chair type after I get the final head counts. My future SIL is actually a graphic designer and I am meeting with her this weekend to design the invitations! Instead of having boarding pass...etc travel themes, I am going with more of a classic invitation set. Since our color is blue, I want the stationery to be watercolor inspired with romantic hues. When are you sending out your invitations? We are sending them out some time in Feb. We have 40 rooms blocked for the wedding and the drop of unbooked rooms will occur middle of Apr.

Quote: Originally Posted by Nursejazz Hello ladies! I am new to the forum and I have been reading all the posts and getting some really great ideas! I have my wedding date confirmed for July 26,2014 and I am getting married in the Garden Gazebo. I have Yanna as my wedding planner and I am having tons of trouble communicating with her. I have read posts that they are not good with emailing back, so I guess it's something I have to deal with. I am thinking of doing my reception in the ballroom since their will be AC. Does anyone know of any vendors that may speak English for the Tiffany chairs? Also how far in advance did you guys start to confirm things like center pieces, decorations etc with your WC. I would like to do it now as I do not like doing things last minute. Hi Nursejazz, congratulations! My wedding is roughly a month after you on Aug 29, 2014 I have Yanna as my WC as well. She takes about average of 5 days to get back to me every time I have questions. Sometimes her response would even be the next day! How long does it take for her to reply you? I don't have any problem with her so far...I do think that the WCs are very very busy to make sure every girl gets her dream wedding! I confirmed the venues and time for welcome party, ceremony, cocktail hour and reception with Yanna. I also sent in the questionnaire with details on gazebo decoration, bouquet, boutonniere, centerpiece..etc and she told me she is working on getting me quotes on those items. Finalized the people I am using from outside - photographer, DJ and pastor with her as well. She gave me a discount on the tiffany chairs. I agree with Jessica, I would not use outside vendor on this one because in order for the vendor to come in and set it up, there would be outside vendor fee of $150 applied, that fee can pay for 20 chairs itself. Unless the outside vendor really offers the chair very very cheap.

So...I confirmed the venue for the ceremony and cocktail hour with Yanna! The reception location still proves to be a struggle...Yanna says there is a convention booked, the best we can do is to wait till I get there and confirm with the convention people how many ballrooms they need and if they can spare one out for the wedding. Otherwise I think I am going with Seaside Grill indoor. For the brides that picked an indoor location, did you guys (or are you going to) get the pacquet dance floor? I can't tell from the pictures that if the floor is marble or something and if it requires arrangement for dancing. Our families are the big "eat, drink and dance" type. The seaside indoor says it sits max of 70 people, but i am not sure if the dance floor is being factored into the estimation.

Quote: Originally Posted by marji Not lame! I am happy to answer questions since this forum helped me so much! We did not want to pay for upgraded chairs either so we decided to just see what we got. They are basic plastic outdoor chairs but not uncomfortable or anything at all. The white chair covers actually looked much nicer than I expected. And I originally emailed and asked what sashes were included for free and Jenny sent me 5 colors, blue, green, pink, orange, red, all just solid plain bold colors. But when we got there we told Yanna we wanted blue and she showed us two different options, one was the light blue sheer which we picked. I thought that looked much nicer! Not sure if other brides leave things, or they just have extra laying around or what but we were happy. One thing that surprised me though was we got charged $3 per chair for the number of chairs over 10. When we booked though the wedding guide did not have a price for chair covers and the latest one says $3 so maybe it changed. I didn't argue it since we only had 26 chairs. I tried to attach a picture of the whole ceremony set up but my pictures are all really big and it won't let me use any that are over 10 mb. These two kind of show the chairs more. This is so helpful! Thanks Marji! I did not know they provide free sashes...I will definitely ask her for that!

Quote: Originally Posted by jessicalynneh Hmm thats so strange that she won't let you reserve it, I would push her for it if thats where you want to have it! The ballrooms are beautiful...and when you first walk into the building with the ballrooms its gorgeous too, all marble and just really pretty and classy. There are like 8 different ballrooms....I think theres 4 or 5 small ones, and then 3 larger ones. But the larger ones definitely wouldn't be too big for that many people! If you go on the Dreams la Romana website: http://dreamsresorts.com/la-romana/weddings and click on the Destination Wedding Guide, there are the ballrooms and the measurements of them in there. Thanks! I will definitely try to get the ballroom

Quote: Originally Posted by marji Hey ladies! We just returned from our wedding and it was absolutely amazing!! I was so stressed before getting there and wasn't getting responses from my WC Jenny but after arriving we met Jenny and Yanna and had Yanna for the wedding day. She was amazing and everything was perfect. The resort is beautiful and you have nothing to worry about! Let me know if you have any questions! I will try to post some pictures too. Marji Marji I have a probably really lame question.... I noticed from your pictures that you had the white covered chairs...how did you guys like the chairs? Were they comfortable? Did the white covers look good and classy with the whole setting? I really like the Tiffany chairs but am not sure if they worth the extra money...

Quote: Originally Posted by jessicalynneh Who is your WC? I got married last November and Jenny was my WC & she reserved the ballrooms (we used 2 of the 3 large ones as one huge room bc we had 155 guests attend) for us with no question. The ballrooms are beautiful! Yanna is my WC...I asked her three times that if we can have the ballroom...at first she told me it depends on how many guests I have because the ballroom might be too big and she recommends the onsite restaurants. I told her we are expecting 50-60 guests, do you think the ballroom would be too big for the number of guests we are having? Yanna never answered this question. In the last email she told me she can book and confirm restaurants but not the ballroom...I am greatly confused by that. I don't really want to pay the extra $300 rental fee unless the restaurant is really that much better looking than the ballroom.

Quote: Originally Posted by marji This is gorgeous!! Congratulations!!

I guess from all the new information I got from WC, there are just more depressing (or money costing) news than good news... I am trying to eliminate some stuff that are "nice to have" and probably no one would notice but myself haha

Quote: Originally Posted by xoxosteph24 Hey Flying child, I didn't know that about the bonfire needing to be coupled with a rehearsal dinner. That will really suck if I can't do it. I only have the cocktail hour secured. I still haven't heard back from my WC Jenny about it. Hopefully they will allow me to do it considering the large size of my party??? Idk. When is your wedding date? From the email she sent me a couple days ago, she says bon fire needs additional services...if I get the $20pp dinner they will set up open bar for us for two hours. I asked if the guests can just go the closed by bar and get their drinks, she says no...even if it is an all inclusive resort but apparently the bon fire is considered private event and we need to pay extra for food and drinks... I did asked her about the free cocktail hour after you mentioned it, and also asked if we can opt for a dessert bar or some sort instead of a formal dinner... That might be cheaper and I am sure by the time bon fire starts, most guests have already eaten dinner. Our wedding is on Aug 29, 2014- US Labor day weekend! We aren't sending out formal invitation till the coming Feb, but from talking to friends and family, we are anticipating a party close to 50 people as well. Are you getting the Tiffany chairs? I am in love with those chairs! But $10pp to rent it is ridiculous. She gave me a discount but I am negotiating for a better deal with the amount of guests we plan to have.

We have decided to have an indoor reception...but I want the ballroom because all the indoor restaurants seem to cost extra rent. My WC told me she can't confirm the ballroom for me but only the restaurants. I don't understand why... Where did you guys pick to have your reception? Do you have to pay extra to rent the restaurants? And which restaurant to pick? I am leaning towards the Seaside grill but again, I have never been there so I can't really picture the location. We want to have the ceremony by the garden gazebo and cocktail hour at the pier.

Quote: Originally Posted by xoxosteph24 Hi Steph! I actually found out that doing a welcome dinner will add about another $2k to my costs, which doesn't work for me. So what we are going to do is just have the welcome cocktail hour along with the bonfire. The welcome cocktail is free for us (for up to 50 people) because we took advantage of a promotion going on earlier this year. As far as DJ goes, I felt the same way you did: didn't want to be fiddling with an ipod and I really wanted to have a nice party. So I hired DJ Mannia. The base DJ service is about $900 if I remember correctly. A bit pricey, but having a fun, stree-free party is important for me. Hope this helps! Hi Steph, I just heard back from my WC Yanna. She says in order to get the bon fire we need to purchase an additional service such as rehearsal dinner which costs $20/pp...That is too much for us. What kind of deal was it that you took to have cocktail + bon fire?

Hey ladies! How's wedding planning been going?! I've been away for a while...good news is most of the big items for the wedding are done! Fiance and I had engagement picture session last weekend and it was a lot of fun! My future sister-in-law who is a photographer, did a two-day shooting session for us for free! We did fall colors sunset theme and beach theme (a must-have for beach wedding right?!) Let me tell you, the temperature in an October Wisconsin morning is chilly! We were wearing summer clothing for the flowy beach feel and bare feet on the freezing sand... But when we saw the pictures, it was all worth it...they turned out so beautiful! Alright, just wanted to share my excitement with you guys. Happy wedding planning and have fun!

Quote: Originally Posted by Carlajane85 Hi all. Can I just ask probably a very stupid question.....With the Ultimate package it states that we can have the gold menu for up to 20 guests. Does that mean the food for 20 guests is included in the price and we pay extra for guests over that or do we still have to pay extra for all our guests? I'm very confused lol. Thanks Yes, for Ultimate Package you and your 20 guests meal and bar services are included. So for example if you have 40 guest, you pay extra for 20 of them. The gold menu is $35pp for food and $10pp for bar services, plus taxes. So everything would add up to total of about $60 per head for the extra guests, that is including gold menu meal and bar services for up to 4 hours. Dreams do have the "kids stay and eat free" promotion so keep that in mind when you do the math for extra guests! Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the inputs ladies! Sounds like the people-watching issue is really bothersome huh! I can only imagine how upset I would be if the perfect photo has someone standing in the background in Speedo! lol! And I think the AC might be really nice...afterall we are all wearing long dresses and our partners wearing long sleeve. I might just have to get creative to create a "moonlit" feel in the ballroom Thanks for all the insights Valleygirl! I have my heart set on the garden gazebo, I think it is very pretty I wasn't going to go barefoot for ceremony either way though, I am petite (5'4'' 107Lb) so I am wearing heels for ceremony for that extra boost! I am having a relatively late ceremony (4pm), cocktail at 6pm and reception at 7pm. I am really hoping for the sparkling sunset lights on the ocean, do you think I can get that background at the garden gazebo?

Help....Any brides here has actually been to the resort or Caribbean? I am debating whether to have the reception at the beach or indoor ballroom...and it has been a big battle in my head! I loooove the image of a beach wedding...dancing, tiki torches, moonlit surrounding...the whole Caribbean feel. But I know it might not be as pretty as I think. Not sure if the guests would like the sand everywhere, and the wind might be strong, the weather might be bad, mosquitoes..etc. We don't really appreciate a lot of strangers standing around watching either. Ballroom is a little more formal and classy. More private too, along with AC that I am sure everyone would appreciate under such warm weather. But it lacks the whole "tropical, beach and ocean" feel that only nature has to offer. Good thing about indoor venue is we get to have the party going for longer and there are less variations that I need to worry about. Did all these when through your head when you were trying to decide? What venues are you guys going for and why?

Quote: Originally Posted by strwbsprkl I guess they are updating the packages as well I'm not able to click on them I just realized that.. I am sure they are still working on the website, you should be able to click on the links soon.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tomtom Hi Everyone, how exciting time is going so quickly before we know it we will all be married! Just wanted some advise on photographers... I have the dreams of love package and get some photos of the ceremony within this package but I wanted someone all day... Jennt has said its £150 to let another company other than tropical studios onto the resort - who is everyone else using as I LOVE the design of caribbean emotions photos!! I have the Dreams Ultimate wedding package and on top of that booked HDC photo for 8 hours

Quote: Originally Posted by strwbsprkl i meant the dreams la romana site! sorry I know right I love the new site! Looks much classier haha

Quote: Originally Posted by stephandmarkDR Those colours are amazing... I've gone for an antique pink and ivory theme, I've been collecting a few rustic pieces and making hessian chair sashes to courier out before we go- I want to bring the English garden tea party to the Caribbean! I really hope I can pull it off... I sent my save the dates 13 months before, wanted people to have enough time to decide if they could come, send them as soon as you like, I don't think there's a right or wrong time :-) Yes please post some pics of your evening dress would love to see the options! I've found my wedding dress too I'm so happy :-D x Your theme sounds soooo cool! Please post some pictures when you get back I would love to see how it turns out I will post some pictures soon. What kind of dress did you end up choosing?

Quote: Originally Posted by strwbsprkl Thank you your colors sound awesome too!!! I think I'm going to send the save the dates in August!!! 13 months in advance what do you guys think? There is no such thing as too early when it comes to thing related to your big day! Go for it! It is always good to have one less thing on your to-do list