Hello Future Bride!
I JUST had my wedding at PPR in August 2016! So I will give you a short recap of what they don't tell you.
Short about us...We are in our early 30's from New York City and always knew we wanted to have a destination wedding. So Punta Cana was perfect.
We thought it would be a great time for our family and friends to get to know each other, and we wanted a weekend celebration.
We also booked the Tailor Made package, which is the highest priced option, however I did not want limitations as other packages don't offer as much, ie rehearsal dinner.
Our Ceremony was at the Gazebo and Cocktail hour on the Terrace. The Reception was in the Apollo Ballroom.
Remember there are some venue options in the hotel that charge extra, so for this Apollo Ballroom I paid an additional $1000.00.
We had a Rehearsal Dinner at the Beach which was beautiful! All my guests were very happy. However, please note I had to pay additional for any decoration for the rehearsal dinner, like flowers or any additional decoration. I believe they only give you the LED string of lights. Otherwise any centerpieces are additional through Caribbean Celebrations.
Cocktail Hour: The bride & Groom barely attend as that is the time you are taking photos. But the decoration company works with you on decoration, again any flowers are extra for the tables are extra. The cheapest flowers are about $35.00/40.00, which is insane because its this little bitty flower! I do feel alittle taken advantage of with the decoration company's prices.
Reception: Again, beautiful! But you have to PAY so much for decoration as they hotel doesn't really include anything except the actual place and the table clothes and chairs, napkins, plates. As you can imagine their selections are nice, but if you want anything 'fancy', it's going to costs 'extra'! That's the word I started saying during my wedding, let me guess, 'that's extra'
EXTRA: is Table #'s, Table Place Cards, Guest Book, Favors, Flowers are VERY expensive, at $200.00 and that's only for roses as Center Pieces at reception. Its OK in NY, but this is destination! So imagine I had 100 guests, 10 tables x 200, $ 2000 just on flowers!
Oh don't forget if you choose the reception at a Hall, you have top pay extra for the Dance Floor, as the halls have carpet, so you have to pay extra for floor which depending on the floor size its from 1000-2000 dollars! If you want LED about 1600.
Most important note that TAX in DR is I believe 28%, so imagine the cost of your wedding and then add an additional 28%. Again I paid about $3000 in tax alone!
Tropic One Studio: To be honest, I just received my pictures, and I was NOT happy. Their pictures are OK, but with all this money you are spending, its your special day and you want them to capture EVERY moment. They didn't capture every moment, and I had 2 photographers and 1 assistant and 1 videographer. I feel like maybe they need more direction on what to do and what kind of poses to take. But you are so busy on your wedding day, you don't have time to guide them, that's their responsibility. I paid $5000 for my photo package. And it was not worth the price. I should have just paid the vendor fee and hired someone else.
If you hire Tropic One, make sure you tell them exactly what kind of photos you want and what you want them to take pictures of. I didn't have time, nor did I think I needed to guide them. I thought they would know what pictures to take etc. I mean, they took a few good photos, they were not ALL bad, but as I said, they missed a few moments that were kind of important.
They are nice and professional, but maybe not as experienced I guess.
The PPR Wedding Planners are great! They are helpful and always answered my emails quickly. I did try to bargain on some prices! Just make sure you tell them you want all your guests together in one area of the hotel, its quite confusing for guests when their rooms are all over the place. The hotel is quite large.
Caribbean Celebrations: They are quite expensive is all I have to say, and don't bargain with you. I tried to bring some of my own decorations, however you cant bring everything!
DJ: Note I brought my own DJ from NY, so they waived the vendor fee, but he had to stay in the hotel for 3 days.
At the end of the day, based on 100 Guests I end up spending at least 30,000 dollars, which is insane for a destination wedding. Remember the tailor made alone is about 15,000 JUST for 42 people, and then for each additional guest is $190.00. Decoration about $5000, and photographer about $5000, and any extras you want like a cigar roller, which we had.
Just remember EVERY little Detail, adds up! Overall the hotel is beautiful, the food is great and staff is great as well.
Don't do destination JUST to save money, because depending on your guests count, you don't really save THAT much. These hotels know you come from more modern countries and have increased their prices to match our dollar, so prices are almost the same at times.
