Punta Cana, DR Dreams Palm Beach Review w/ non pro pics!

[bovkim]

It is my pleasure to write our wedding review on Dreams Palm Beach! I hope that I will be able to give those getting married and considering to get married here the details that you’re looking for. It is a little difficult for me though, because for me, the wedding wasn’t about the details. It was about each other and our love and and our family and friends who wanted to be there to support us! I didn’t have a wedding color or do any DIY projects or have a bunch of scheduled events. I trusted that just being in Punta Cana with our loved ones guaranteed a good time, and that a beach ceremony is beautiful all on its own. I barely did any pre-planning for the wedding, but the times I did email Melani, the wedding coordinator, to ask about things she responded very quickly and thoroughly. I adored Melani. She is very sweet and good at her job and will give you the wedding you want!

 

We had 30 people join us at DPB and everyone has said that it was the best vacation they’ve ever had. Of course, we couldn’t agree more for ourselves. DPB was perfect for us. It was the perfect size, had great energy; beautiful, chic decor everywhere and the restaurants were gorgeous and the food was very good. Loved breakfast at the World Cafe. Had so much fun at the main pool with swim up bar. The lobby is also gorgeous and the lobby bar was a popular spot. The beach is incredible, with plenty of seating and you can walk for miles and miles to the left through uninhabited land unlike many resorts which are all right next door to each other. As I said, the energy in the resort is awesome, there is always plenty going on whether you choose to participate or not. The staff at DPB are just amazing! I have never met such friendly and nice people in my life. And I have to say, the Dominicans generally speaking are very good looking people!

 

Our wedding was on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 4:00pm. We had a legal ceremony and found the paperwork that had to be done prior painless. We stayed seven nights in a honeymoon suite and received the free basic wedding package and added on a private reception and some other extras. The honeymoon suite was fantastic.

 

I had my hair, toes and nails done at the spa. I brought a picture for hair inspiration and although my end result wasn’t very close to how the pic looked, I loved what the stylist did even more. She also did my MOH’s, MIL’s and two flower girls’ hair. Everyone loved their hair - she really did a great job! They put fresh flowers in all of our hair and it was so pretty. I got a manicure and pedicure at the spa, too and was very happy with it. They did not have a big selection of nail polish but I was able to find something that I liked! The spa itself is absolutely serene and beautiful and several people in our group got massages, as they were doing them two for $100.

 

DH got ready in one of his friend’s room and Melani, the coordinator, had all of the boutonnieres delivered to their room and the ladies’ flowers delivered to mine. I had white roses as my bouquet and it was lovely. We picked tropical flowers for the bridesmaids and baskets with rose petals for the flowergirls. It is standard for the beach wedding setup to include rose petals down the aisle but my flower girls wanted to toss some more so I let them! We had a boutonniere of a white rose for DH and tropical flower for the groomsmen. We also ordered corsages for our moms and I think there was only one choice for that - white roses. They were fairly large and very nice.

So, as I said we had a beach ceremony and at 4pm Melani came to my suite to walk the wedding party over. We chose to not have a rehearsal and we really didn’t know who was going first (lol) and Melani put everyone in order. I had given Melani a CD with our chosen songs and the sound system for the music was terrific.

 

Having a legal ceremony, we couldn’t make any changes to the script but we were able to add a reading and our own vows. We also added the breaking of the glass by the groom as Jewish tradition goes. Immediately following the ceremony, we had arranged for extra bottles of champagne and the staff began passing it out. We also arranged for chocolate covered strawberries. They brought little plates of about five strawberries each for everyone. It was super nice but the chocolates were melting quickly and not everyone was eating them, so we asked for “no mas†to be brought out and to save it for the reception, which they did. I just loved, loved, loved every moment of the ceremony. It was by far my favorite part of the whole trip. We stayed in the beach area sipping champagne and taking pictures for about 45 minutes. After that, we proceeded to the lobby bar where we had fun and had more drinks! DH and I also made a stop at the gazebo for some pics, and then it was reception time!

 

The reception was at 6:30pm. Originally, I wanted the reception on the beach but upon being in Punta Cana and seeing how hot and humid it was, we decided to have the reception indoors in their conference center. If we wanted it outside, it would have been better to wait until 7:30 when the sun is down, and I’m sure it would have been ok on the beach since it gets a great breeze. However, we didn’t want to wait that long and we were fine with the conference room. The building and hallways are beautiful, and the room itself has more chic decor than most hotels conference rooms.

 

We had four round tables and purchased a centerpiece of tropical flowers for each one. I brought no decorations of my own, but had a note made for each person’s place setting thanking them for coming and announcing our donation in their honor to a children’s home building project in Santo Domingo. We also had two memorial candles for DH’s father and brother that was at the ceremony table and brought to our table in the reception.

 

We rented speakers from the resort and played music from my ipod during dinner and dancing. We selected the Gold dinner package and loved it. We had the cake brought to the reception (we did not upgrade from the cake for 10, and it was huge and served 30 of us just fine)! We chose the strawberry cake and it was delicious! We ordered more champagne at the last minute (right before the speeches) and this was not a problem and they brought it out promptly and kept our glasses filled.

 

Melani stayed at the reception the whole time and she and a couple other waiters even danced with us! I was told the reception is only three hours, but when I asked Melani if it was time for us to go at 9:30 she said we could stay until 10:30, so we had the room for four hours which was nice!

 

 

After the reception, DH and I went to our room to change and received applause from everyone in the lobby. We actually had a ton of onlookers at the ceremony which everyone found to be really funny, including us. Strangers stopped us later to tell us how beautiful it was and a few guys said their wives/girlfriends cried.

 

After we changed, we headed to the disco for some more dancing. The disco is super nice and modern and played great music! We had plenty of fun nights there, but later on in the week we started hanging out on the beach at night which was my fav. We would plug in someone’s docking station from the room, play our ipods and have a great time! (there were electrical outlets behind the big screen)!

 

The setup in our room the night of the wedding was amazing, as was the breakfast spread in the morning! The evening after the wedding, we took our guests on La Barcaza yacht for a sunset dinner cruise. This was absolutely incredible and we were in awe of the boat, the staff, the swim in the natural pool in the ocean, the food, the scenery, everything.

 

As I said, we were originally booked for seven night at DPB but on the 6th night we realized that we were not ready to leave! We decided then and there to extend our trip and stay for a honeymoon! Dina from this site was our travel agent; she was terrific throughout the whole process but really came through when she got our trip extended in a matter of hours before we were supposed to leave! We stayed an extra night at DPB but decided to go elsewhere for a honeymoon. We went to Paradisus Palma Real and are so, so, happy that we made the spontaneous decision to stay! We had originally planned on honeymooning in November but realized the time was now! If you are able to take the extra time for a honeymoon, DO IT! You will want it and you deserve it!

 

PPR is an outstanding resort and we felt it was the perfect place to honeymoon while DPB was the perfect place for our wedding. Every little thing about DPB wasn’t perfect - some rooms had issues with AC, some people waited a long time for their luggage, there were lost in translation moments but no one let this affect their good time. Everyone was still very, very impressed with the resort, with Punta Cana, the DR, the people, everything. It was the time of our lives and they gave Jason and I our dream wedding.

 

Onto the pictures! These are not professional photos, and some are very poor quality as I took them off my friends’ facebook pages. One of my talented friends was our official photographer and I won’t have his pics for a couple more weeks.

 

Please, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to email me at bovkim@gmail.com.

 

Best wishes to all of you.

 

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[girlkin]

Oh wow! You look so pretty-gorgeous to be exact. Your dress is gorgeous as well. I so feel you on really getting into the true meaning of a wedding. Congrats to you and FI!

[MObride09]

Wow! Beautiful! Congratulations Mrs!!!

[erinsny24]

Congratulations! The pictures are beautiful and so are you! Thank you so much for the review! I am getting married at Dreams Palm Beach in March and your review got me so excited for ours!! Definitely puts my mind at ease that I don't have to worry about a thing and that everything will come together!! Thanks again!

[TammyB]

Congrats, you look beautiful and I loved your dress.

[Outdoor_girl1010]

Congrats, everything looks so wonderful. I am in the same boat as you as i will not be taking much down there with us. I was wondering if you had any pictures from Palma Real as that is where I am getting married in March.

[SSNM]

Thanks for the review!

[Flasong]

Awesome review! Thanks for sharing! I think its great you just went down there and went with the flow rather than sweating the small stuff!

[jdelia79]

Thank you so much for the awesome review and photos!! I loved hearing about your experience and it makes me even that much more excited for my wedding at DPB in June!!!! The pics are great and you look beautiful! The whole ceremony looked gorgeous. I love how it was held between the plam trees with only the white linens on the trees and the ocean in the background Congrats!!!! Will you post your professional pics when you get them? I would love to see them! Thanks again!!

[Chelymo]

Kim - Congrats on a beautiful wedding. Thank you for taking the time to write up your review and posting the pics. You looked amazing and it looks like you really did have a great time.