Dreams Punta Cana Brides

[smtc0245]

Thats cool they told me they couldn't do square cakes but I really like that one its cool. 

[MsClarke724]

OK - so I would like some opinions.  My wedding is Jan 28, 2012.  Prices for our guests are not available yet because it is too soon to book airfare.  However, the first week of January is available and it is like $2500 per person for the week.  People have tried to tell me that it is just like this in the beginning and that it will not stay this high, but I am nervous since our guests could never afford such an expensive trip if it did.  How long will it take for prices to decrease to something reasonable (say $1500)?  Anyone have any further insight or experience with this??

[smtc0245]

Ok ladies, So this girl messaged me on facebook asking me a bunch of questions about my wedding at Dreams and she told me that when you have a reception on the Bordeaux Terrace that the reception isn't private and the terrace is open to guests.  Was anyone else told this ? I have never been told that I might have to share my private reception with other guests.

[kwaller82]

The prices will almost definitely go down.  We're getting married in May, so the different time of year may affect you a little bit, but my best friend got a great deal for our wedding, I think she's paying $800 a person for a week (she's an amazing bargain hunter).  My experience is that if you keep a look out you should be able to get a week for well under $1500 a person (unless your guests upgrade).  I think my family paid somewhere in the range of $950 per person for a week for a standard room and airfare w/ one layover.

 

If you have any other questions let me know!
 

Originally Posted by MsClarke724 

OK - so I would like some opinions.  My wedding is Jan 28, 2012.  Prices for our guests are not available yet because it is too soon to book airfare.  However, the first week of January is available and it is like $2500 per person for the week.  People have tried to tell me that it is just like this in the beginning and that it will not stay this high, but I am nervous since our guests could never afford such an expensive trip if it did.  How long will it take for prices to decrease to something reasonable (say $1500)?  Anyone have any further insight or experience with this??

[smtc0245]

I agree keep your eye out on deals my guests paid anywhere from 1000-1500/person to go and we are getting married next week.  The week after my FI and I booked the price dropped 200/person so always be on a look out.  We are also all flying from Canada and the price tends to be a little bit higher here.

[smtc0245]

Well ladies we leave tomorrow and I am so so excited.  I cannot wait to finally see the resort and finally just be there to enjoy my time. Good luck to everyone eelse leaving in the next couple of days as well.

[drbride83]

Hi Ladies,

 

We had the best time, you will love the resort! Here is a recap of the wedding stuff went, it will probably be somewhat randomly since I'm pretty tired. Message me if you have other questions and I will try to answer them. I have pictures of all the terraces (not set up for weddings), and the huppa beach set up so let me know if you want to see them.

 

Arrival/Meeting:

We meet with Carolina the day after we got there, the wedding coordinators office is just around the corner from the reception desk near the cash exchange window. When you arrive for your meeting go right in and knock on the inside door, we didn't see the sign on the inside at first so we were waiting outside for a little bit. This meeting took about 30 minutes and we just went over everything we had emailed about and more and reconfirmed it all plus we added more things. She also let me know the time of our hair hair/nail appts at this meeting. Carolina also told us to bring all of our stuff to her office the morning of the wedding. Carolina was really great to work with and really nice and knows what she is doing, so don't stress about it, everything will be taken care of in this meeting.

 

**We had requested a room for the groom for the night before the wedding and we were told we could pick up the key on Sunday after 4 and had to return it the next morning. We didn't end up using the room though because it smelled pretty moldy (which is common given the climate) probably because it was a handicap room and hadn't been rented out much so it wasn't aired out. It wasn't that big of a deal to us, as I just slept in one of my bm's room instead.**

 

Ceremony (Gazebo):

We got ready in our room, and Carolina brought us the flowers about an hour before the ceremony. After we got the flowers someone dropped off the bill for the wedding ( the amount was what we expected it to be, so there were no surprises). We then met Carolina outside and she brought us over to the lobby and explained how everything would go. We didn't think to bring music to play while the guests waited for us to arrive, but Carolina had some on her ipod and played that which we thought was great.

 

The only really annoying thing (which had nothing to do with the resort or staff) was that some guy in a speedo walks right through the procession and cuts in front of my MOH mid walk! He could totally see it was a wedding because I watched him stop for a second beside another couple that waited for us then decide he had time to walk between my BM and MOH through he obviously didn`t walk fast enough because my MOH had to stop for a second as he cut her off. Other than that the ceremony was great, but some guests had trouble hearing us, since we weren't speaking loud enough to get our voices picked up by Carolina's microphone. Also sometimes the poles in the gazebo can partially block views of the BM's and GM's but they set up the chairs so this doesn't happen much.

 

Reception (Portofino):

Carolina met us out front of the Oceana restaurant (stairs to go up to Portofino are beside the bar in the Oceana restaurant). The view on the terrace is amazing, all our guests loved it as they hadn't been up there yet, and there was a fantastic breeze up there which is a lifesaver when you're wearing your dress!

 

Just to answer the question of one of the other girls here, the terrace is not exactly private because you actually only get half the terrace/bar and the other half is for the guests waiting to get into the Portofino restaurant. It makes sense though that you can't deprive the other paying guests at the resort use of the terrace/bar, but it would be nice if the staff told them to be quieter as there is a wedding reception going on as we are also paying alot of extra money to use this space as well. There was one group of people that were really loud during our speeches and someone had to get up and ask them to be quiet which they did once they were told it was a wedding reception. 

 

To divide the space they set up some palm tree leaves as wall barrier between the reception and waiting area for the restaurant, but you could walk around either side of it and see into the reception. No matter which terrace your reception is on you'll have people who can see the reception, this one is the only one where it seems they are quite close by though, but everything else about the terrace makes it worth it!

 

Food:

*Most of the food we had picked happened to be available at the World Cafe so whenever I saw something on our menu I tried it out. The food at this resort is fantastic! All our guests loved it, no matter where they were eating.

 

Assorted Dominican Appetizers (meat turnovers, chicken wings, etc) - these were good especially if you have people who are picky eaters, but I would probably try something different if you can since you can get these at the World Cafe and at the Oceana restaurant during the day.

 

Dominican Sancocho (Meat Stew) - This was soooo good! Everyone loved it.

 

Chicken Cordon Blue - Very Good!

 

Kahlua Flan - Good, most guests ate it, but I did see a few plates that hadn't been touched but maybe some people might not like flan.

 

Wedding Cake - Very Good. We ordered cake for 30 which fed 37 people.

 

Reception Dancing:

Dinner went on longer than we expected but we still had time to do our first dance plus the other parent dances and play some dance songs before our three hours ran out. We rented a sound system and used our Ipod then went to the disco after the reception. We did have to slide the head table back to make more room on the dance floor.

 

All in all us and our guests had a great time, and would do it all over again the same way. Carolina was great, she came over a few times to make sure everything was going how we wanted it, and the rests of the staff were wonderful as well. I hope this helps ladies and best wishes for your wedding day  

 

[drbride83]

Thought I'd add in names of some of the good girly drinks we had if you like those kind because sometimes it takes almost the whole week to figure out the names of them!

 

- Sammy Sosa

- Dirty Monkey

- Banana Mama

- Miami Vice (with Rum)

- Coco Loco (?)

- Wow

 

[Shelly21]

Hi Sherri, 

The luminarys look great! Did you get the glass and candles there? or did you pack them with you?

[Sherri84]

Hi Shelly,

 

We're putting LED tea lights in instead of real ones, easier to travel with

Originally Posted by Shelly21 

Hi Sherri, 

The luminarys look great! Did you get the glass and candles there? or did you pack them with you?