On Saturday October 15, 2011 we got married at the RIU Palace Punta Cana with 35 guests.
 

We had our ceremony at 4:00 pm at the Garden Gazebo, our cocktail hour in the main lobby bar from 5:00-6:30pm, and our reception in the Alta Gracia Steakhouse from 6:30pm – 10:30pm.  We arrived at the RIU Palace 4 days prior to our wedding and stayed for a total of 6 days.
 

Arrival

We arrived at the Riu Palace Punta Cana on Tuesday, October 11th and stayed through Sunday, October 16th.  We flew from Maryland via AirTran.  No issues with check-in, flights or customs.  My husband and I checked 4 suitcases.  1 suitcase for each of our clothes/shoes and two for wedding decorations.  I carried my dress, shoes and husbands attire via a garment bag and just placed it in the overhead bin.  No issues here….

 

When we arrived at Riu, we showed our travel documents from the travel agent and checked in.  This was a smooth process!  Again, no issues here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Resort

The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the resort looks exactly how it is named – like a huge palace!  The lobby décor is AMAZING!!!  The proximity to the beach is perfect!  And the pools were the perfect temperature.  Nice and warm.  There a various restaurants and places to just hang out.  My guests were never board! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rooms

Tuesday – Wednesday we were in a normal jr. suite and had a few issues.  The room had a damp/mildew smell and our bathroom housed little tiny ants.  After a day of complaining to the front desk staff, we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite on Thursday.  What a different world!!!  The room was HUGE!  Had its own walk-in closet, private bathroom with a toilet and bidet, a private glass encased shower and a Jacuzzi.  We had our own private mini balcony that could house about 15 folks.  I would say if you could do the room upgrade, DO IT!!!!

 

Our room was cleaned daily and decorated with rose petals and towel arrangements.  Sorry to say, the petals were starting to bother me because they were everywhere and I had no where to put them but on the floor.  Then they stuck to the bottom of my feet and shoes…  The bed was very hard and damp, but since I was on my wedding, this was something I decided to ignore…  The room comes fully stocked with a mini bar with bear, soda and water which was great!  They also came daily to re-stock it.

 

The only other complaint I had regarding the rooms – 80% of my guest complained about damp beds, the mildew smell and stained couches.  I realize that some things you just can’t escape while on vacation, it was another ballpark to hear my guest keep complaining about this.  Several of them called the front desk to complain, ask for spray and then it took a day or two to even get it.  At the end of the trip we realized that they had these guests in a part of the resort that may not have been used often, which is why these issues stood out even more…

 

Wedding Meetings

Maria was absolutely AMAZING!!!!  She literally took care of everything.  On our 2^nd day there, we met with Maria to go over everything we wanted.  She had all my emails and sample pictures to show me.  Cake, Flowers, Ceremony and Reception Set Up.  I went with the house vendors (DJ & photographer) to avoid the $200 additional vendor fee. 

 

Both the ceremony and reception were set up EXACTLY the way I wanted!!! Every detail I expressed to Maria was done and set out as expressed!!!!  I was very pleased as I did not have to worry about 1 thing!!!!!

 

Ceremony

We had the ceremony at the garden gazebo.   I did not do any upgraded decorations and provided my own chair sashes, unity candle/holder and picture of my dad!  It turned out amazing!!!

 

We used the house Minister that spoke in Spanish, so I had a family member translate in English.  This worked perfectly!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers

I did not purchase any flower upgrades.  I did my bridesmaid bouquets, the mom’s corsages, and the guys boutonnieres out of real touch flowers.

 

I did the standard all white calla lily bouquet for myself and my husband’s boutonniere which came in the package.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reception

 

After the ceremony they directed our guests to beach for group pictures for about 30 minutes.  Then guests had the option of walking around the resort, returning to their room or cocktail hour at the hotel lobby until the reception.  While doing this, myself, my husband and the wedding party was professionally photographed.

 

We did a private reception, soooooooooo worth it!  We booked the Royal package at 15 people and paid an extra $10 per person up to 35.  Costing up about $1500 for the wedding and another $1000 for the private reception at the Alta Gracia (steakhouse) plus the DJ & MC.   All the guests loved the food and the table set up!  We had Cesar salad, seafood platters and a choice of 4 main dishes with veggies and potatoes served family style.  The food was GREAT!!!

 

As far as the table set up – I brought everything from home (table runners, flowers, pails, candles, mirrors, menu cards) and gave Maria a picture of my vision and she pulled it off to a tee!!!! We used the waiter service for serving beverages and food and this worked perfectly!!!

 

Everything that I brought was packed back up in the suitcases I provided however, the only complaint was it was not neat and it was thrown in any kind of way, so a lot of my candles were broken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake

I was a little concerned abut the cake as all the pictures I saw, I wasn’t to pleased with.  I decided to go with a plain 3-teir cake with my initial cake topper assuming they couldn’t go wrong with that!  And they didn’t!!!!  I loved the outcome.  And the cake was tasty too!!!  I used initial monogram napkins to go with my cake topper and brought cake boxes so that guests could take cake back to their room!  HUGE hit….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DJ

We used the house DJ, RS Entertainment.  We purchased the DJ and MC service as we wanted the bridal party introduced. During the DJ meeting, I provided them with a list of songs I wanted played a various times of the reception and they were right on point!!! They did a great job!!! They played all the songs we wanted and did a great mix up (oldies but goodies for my parents, rap, hip-hop, line dances, etc)  I was a lil concerned with how they would keep the crowd engaged but they did a great job!!!!  We purchased the cold fireworks, so when my husband and I were introduced as Mr. & Mrs., the fireworks were a GREAT touch!!!  They even had lights on the edge of the dance floor….

 

Below is the contact info:

 

RS Entertainment, EIRL
www.rsentertainmentrd.com

 

The Photographer

 

We used the house photographer, Antillana de Fotografia.  During our photo meeting, I gave them a list of all the pics I wanted to have.  Their services were great but I did have a few issues.  During my meeting with them, I explained that I would be leaving the very next day after my wedding and that I would need to have my pics on a disc so that I could select them when I got home.  I was told this would not be a problem.  Of course, on the day I was leaving, this was a problem.  They did in fact give me a disc with all my pictures, however, when I got home, I was not able to open whatever file they saved the pictures in.

 

I’m a week out from my wedding and still have yet to get my pics emailed or saved to a website for viewing and selecting.  I have emailed them and have been told that I need to be patient as this is not how they work and that I have a lot of pictures and that it would take a while to upload.  My concern here is that I was very clear and letting you know this was the case and was assured this was not a problem.  Second of all, it’s 2011 – why don’t you have the capability to upload to a website and provide a password so I’m able to select my pictures???  I was just wishing I would have know in advance that they did not have this capability as it probably would have been my deciding factor in going with another company!!!  I’ll keep you posted on when I receive my professional pictures, video and photo book/prints…

 

After all the reviews, it does not look like this is the case with most, as most are at the resort days after their wedding so this is not  a problem.  I think this was an issue as I left the resort, the very next day after my wedding.   

 

After all of my concerns, I do however want to say the pics I did view in my session were AMAZING!!!!  So I am actually pleased with my pictures, jut not pleased that I have not received them yet……

 

Below is the contact info:

 

Antillana de Fotografia
www.antillanafoto.com

 

People want to know what I would have done differently…

 

In regards, to the wedding and reception – ABSOLUTLY NOTHING!!!!! Everything was perfect….

 

In other regards, If I could - I would have stayed a day or two later which would have given me some time to wind down and probably elevated the picture issue I’m experiencing…