tjs

We just got back from here. Wedding date 4-29-16. Ceremony 5pm. Gazebo Location. Resort: The resort is large. If you have elderly people coming they do not have elevators (make sure to reserve bottom floor) and there is a good bit of walking. They have wheel chairs but they go fast so try and get one the first day you arrive if needed. Some of the rooms are dated. The preferred ones are newer and nicer. The partial ocean view is just that. Partial. My view was looking somewhat at an ocean through a palm tree. I would save money and possibly just get a garden. Try and request a third floor as the high ceilings are very nice. We stayed in the honey moon ocean front suite the days following our ceremony and it was awesome! If you can front the money go for it. It was beautiful. We had one in building 4. Which is kind of in the best location. Center of the resort and you can get to everything easily. It was a little louder but nothing terrible. If you want something more quiet head towards building 7. The restaurants were good. Bordeaux was probably the best food I think. Service was pretty good all around. No complaints really. Wedding coordinator: We had Yessica as a coordinator. She did a great job. She is new at the resort, but not new at planning. She worked at other dreams resorts before so she was ready to go. Communication from the wedding team before going is awful. Give me a shout on here if you need to. Photography: We used the adventure photos with the resort. I would honestly recommend going else where for photography. I was not that impressed. We did get a few good ones, but they just weren't the best. The also showed up late on our wedding day. We did not do much research here, and I wish we would have. Rehearsal Dinner: Not so much a dinner, but everyone got together and had appetizers. This was actually supposed to be a bonfire on the beach, but it got rained out. It ended up being in a conference room, but it wasn't so bad. Yessica decorated it as best she could and it was air conditioned. We had an open bar and a speaker with an iPhone playing music. This was great for everyone to get together before the big day. Wedding: We went with the gazebo. That is why we picked the resort. It is awesome. We went with white drapery. and flowers on the front 2 post. The wife wanted the upgraded tiffany chairs so we went with that. Turned out great. We had the pastor they set you up with. Pastor Mark. He is a nice guy from the states. Speaks great english and is married to a dominican lady there. He did a wonderful job. We also did the violin. He also did a great job. Make sure he can play the songs you want before booking. Also please note he plays with music in the back ground unless you tell him. Please let him know if you want just strictly a violin. Rehearsal Dinner: Not so much a dinner, but everyone got together and had appetizers. This was actually supposed to be a bonfire on the beach, but it got rained out. It ended up being in a conference room, but it wasn't so bad. Yessica decorated it as best she could and it was air conditioned. We had an open bar and a speaker with an iPhone playing music. This was great for everyone to get together before the big day. Wedding reception: Went with Oceana. I recommend going indoor if you are doing a wedding close to the rainy season. It rained every single day we were there (lucklily not during the ceremony). Privatization is like $500 for any restaurant. It had an awesome view. It started pouring during the reception but it didn't matter. Oceana is outdoor but is an open air design with a cover. We went to every restaurant while we were there and Oceana was set up the best for wedding reception in my opinion. Another couple had there reception on the beach the same night. Not so great.... They got flooded on. We had the DJ with the MC. I also recommend this. The reception stops at 11. Resort rules. Recommendations: Do research on photography! We started our wedding ceremony at 5. Really ended up being 5:30. I wish we would have started the wedding at like 4 to be honest. We needed more time at the reception. It went so fast. AVOID THE RAINY SEASON! We thought we would be ok going for April. We were not. We honestly stressed the whole few days we were there before the wedding. It rained every day. Not all day but at least once or twice during the day for 30min to a couple of hours. Pay up and go during Dec-March. It is more expensive to stay I am sure, but the stress of rain was terrible and you could not enjoy your time pre wedding ceremony. We were lucky that it did not rain during our Ceremony, but we saw other couples who were not as lucky. I felt so bad for them. Some stuck it out and got poured on while others moved to the conference rooms. You aren't paying all this money for a conference room wedding! Go during a time when chances of rain are the least. Let me know if you have any questions. I know I am leaving stuff out. The wife would probably be better at this than me, but just thought I would share some observations while I had time. Thanks!

We were at Oceana. I highly recommend it. I think to privatize any restaurant it is $500.

We just got married at dreams la romana. We were looking for the same thing. Beautiful place. Check them out.