"New Resort Opening May 1 2011" NOW LARIMAR ~ PUNTA CANA

[EJM17]

So here it is ladies..........my wedding review! I'll start off with the negative and end with the positive.

 

NOW Larimar was by far the WORST resort I have ever been too. I regret choosing this resort for my wedding. My wedding ended at 93 guests and you would think since we were a pretty big group we would be accommodated and treated a little better. We definitely were not. To list just a few things that happened to us:

 

-My parents check in AND in-laws took 3 hours as well as other family members

 

-My parents ended up with a room with 2 double beds when a KING was requested 

 

-The "tropical view" isn't so tropical. Some of my guests had the view of an ugly street outside of the resort.

 

-The resort initially offered me a promotion with my rooms - for every six booked I would get one for free. But they failed to tell me the terms and conditions. I had 35 rooms booked and they declined to give me ANY free rooms because none of them were booked under one reservation number. Beatriz who is the supervisor in Group Reservations was horrible to speak with as well as Gilbert. I asked if the Wedding Day Pass of $45 could be waived for some of the guests since they weren't giving me ANY rooms. She refused to bend the rule for me. 

 

-Housekeeping was horrible. OUR ROOM (Bride&Groom) was cleaned at 4:00PM two days!!!!! The day we arrived they had champagne, strawberries, and chocolate for us in the room, they took three days to take the dirty plate out of the room. 

 

-My husband's family requested another bed to be brought into 2 of their rooms. The beds were never sent.

 

-The night of our rehearsal dinner three of my guests came from a different resort. When they arrived at the entrance they were turned away because they didn't have photo ID. Security spoke with my wedding coordinator to confirm that there was a rehearsal dinner and STILL turned them away. My cousins had to go back to their resort and get their ID's and pay 2 cab rides. 

 

-My wedding coordinator Yeomandry was sweet. I just feel they have SOOO many weddings they don't have the chance to give you all their attention nor are they allowed to bend a rule on that "wedding planner". Mercy the wedding coordinator supervisor made that very clear. I spoke with her the day before I flew out. I expressed my frustration to her about the resort not being accommodating and not offering me ANYTHING for all the rooms and for bringing my wedding. She had the nerve to tell me "well you have understand this is a business as well, you basically only have your food/beverage with us. The rest are outside vendors. So there's only so much we can do for you" I couldn't believe she said that to me! They didn't like the fact I had my decorator, DJ, photographer, videographer, and cake from outside. I didn't want to get myself more aggravated nor have them hate me more and ruin my wedding day. So I accepted the way everything was going to be because there was so turning back or changing anything 4 days before the wedding.

 

-Our last night at the resort with the family (before we left for our honeymoon) we reserved 2 tables at the restaurant Tamarindo and 10 more of our guests ended up joining us last minute. The restaurant REFUSED to set up another table for us when they perfectly well could have put together three tables that were still open. They offered to put the 10 guests on the wait list that was one hour, which was ridiculous because we all wanted to be together. I had all of the 20 guests that were seated already get up and leave the restaurant and we spoke with the hotel manager- Angel Holgado. He apologized for everything that we went through and offered to put the extra tables for us. We declined his offer since everyone started eating at the buffet.

 

At check-out payment for the wedding was made. We paid cash for the wedding. The front desk after they counted the money had the nerve to say they couldn't accept some of the bills because they had writing on them. (We're talking about the littlest thing like a number that is written on a bill) The money was withdrawn from our bank here in the States. Money circulates and we have no control over that and we told them that. That was literally the icing to the cake when they pulled that one. We argued with the front desk and had the manager Angel Holgado come out again. We stood there another hour FOR NOTHING because the person supposedly in charge of bringing cash to the bank came out with a Counterfeit Detector MARKER!!!! The writing on some of the bills didn't matter!!! The manager didn't offer us anything for all the inconveniences the hotel put us through. We are absolutely disgusted with the service and people there. 

 

The POSITIVE - my vendors:

 

-The wedding day was beautiful. I have Gary from Innovart Decorations to thank for that. He did an ABSOLUTE beautiful job with my flowers, ceremony, reception. He was amazing to work with as well. We communicated through Facebook chat and later with the "WhatsApp" application. His prices were half the price of what the resort was trying to charge. It was SOOOO worth it to pay the vendor fee for him. He offers everything and anything a girl can dream of for their wedding. If he doesn't he will make it happen! This is his Facebook link to see his work: https://www.facebook.com/InnovartSRL?fref=ts

My wedding album in his profile is listed as: "Erica & Joseph Wedding" 

 

My photographer Katya Nova and her husband Rob were an absolute pleasure to work with as well as my videographer Mibsan Espejo. I can't wait to see our pics and video in a few weeks! Once I have that I'll post! 

 

DJ Mannia was great! Carlos Martinez was our DJ and MC. He was very easy going and great to work with. Even though we had a live band come in for our reception and we didn't use there services for the whole night. He still made sure to keep on top of everything like (speeches, cake, bouquet toss, garter toss). 

 

-Pastor Mark Lykins was our officiant and amazing to work with as well. He knows English and Spanish. It was very important to us to have the ceremony bilingual since we have some only Spanish speaking family members. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions ladies!  

You can PM here or email me at ejm.wedding@gmail.com I wish you all luck with Now Larimar!

I hope your experiences with them are nothing like mine.

[EJM17]

Just posted my review Jennifer! its at the end of this forum  

[foreverlove]

Hi ladies! I am new to BDW and am getting married at now larimar 7/12/14. I have spent days reading this entire thread and have just caught up. I figured now was a good time to post and share in this experience with you all

[ksassy1115]

I am getting married at NOW on 11/15 and am still clueless about some important details!!! Has anyone had a wedding and did not add on DJ service? Anyone have thoughts about not doing this service? We are doing a pool dinner reception and were thinking between the eating, chatting and speeches we would take up 3 hours then go to the disco to dance after...and save $$ Also I am clueless about what to do for center pieces...I don't want to buy everything at the resort but I don't want to have bare tables...our wedding is very simple, tan and light pink/blush colors- a wedding party of only 3- we are not super fancy people so we want simple and cheap and easy to travel with. Ideas??? We are doing pictures through WBA before the 5 pm ceremony, 530 cocktail hour then 630 dinner reception at the pool. We are making canvas tote bags for welcome bags and stuffing full of trinkets we find in DR. Is it smarter to bring our own sand ceremony set or buy one there?? I feel so flustered

[jennifer8913]

Hi ladies! I am back from my beautiful wedding!!! I wrote my review! Please let me know if you have any questions!!!!

[amberk90]

Congratulations Jennifer8913!! I didn't come across your review can you tell me where to look or repost it? I hope it was everything you wanted and more!

[jennifer8913]

Pros: Beautiful wedding location, very accomodating, very happy with our special day!

Cons: some miscommunication, cake serving utensils returned broken and not cleaned

I have to say that I had the most beautiful wedding! Luisa was so sweet and so patient with me, I owe her a great big thanks! Two days before my wedding we met with her and confirmed all of our choices for our ceremony and reception, and gave her all my decorations, which she put together so perfectly and elegantly. She told us no more worries that she would take care of everything and she did! I was able to relax until my big day arrived. The morning of the wedding it rained twice, sun showers to be exact, quick showers, but had me nervous enough to want to change my location from the fountain and the pool to the eclipse night club, but that would shorten my time. We lucked out with the weather and we were able to have the ceremony at the fountain and reception at the pool. And both locations were absolutely perfect!!!! I had my hair and makeup done in the spa and rented the bridal suite, I loved my hair and makeup, fabulous job! My girls all had there hair done at the spa as well as my mom and excellente job!!!

Ceremony and reception were perfect, I had a beautiful wedding, I don't know what more I can say!!!! Food and cake both delicious, everyone loved their meal!

My only issue I had was my cake serving set was returned to me damaged and dirty, still cake and icing residue and a cake crumb inside box. I didn't notice until 2 days later when there were ants in our room, and I opened up the box to find that's where they were coming from. We stayed in the preferred club and notified our consignee. He made good for our troubles by deep cleaning our room, washing the clothes that were in the same area, and giving us a romantic dinner on the beach with lobster and steak.

I highly recommend NOW Larimar to have your wedding. We all understand things happen, but the staff here is very accommodating and makes good on any unforeseen issues that may arise. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me!

[foreverlove]

Hi jennifer8913 do you have any pictures you would be willing to share? Did you use the resort photographer and DJ? Any tips for planning a wedding at NOW?

[jennifer8913]

Originally Posted by foreverlove 

 

Hi jennifer8913 do you have any pictures you would be willing to share? Did you use the resort photographer and DJ? Any tips for planning a wedding at NOW?

Hey!!! What kinds of pics would you like to see? Do you have Facebook? A lot of my pics are on there. I did not use the resort photographer, except for what came  w my package, but of those they did a nice job. I used HDC but do not have my pics yet. As far as the planning, this website helped me so much!!! But above all, do not stress!! Everything turned out beautifully, I wouldn't have changed a single thing!!! Let me know if you have any more ?s or friend req me on FB to see pics!!!

[duchovny0901]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jennifer8913 

Hey!!! What kinds of pics would you like to see? Do you have Facebook? A lot of my pics are on there. I did not use the resort photographer, except for what came  w my package, but of those they did a nice job. I used HDC but do not have my pics yet. As far as the planning, this website helped me so much!!! But above all, do not stress!! Everything turned out beautifully, I wouldn't have changed a single thing!!! Let me know if you have any more ?s or friend req me on FB to see pics!!!

 

Hey jennifer8913 I'd love to see some pics as well! Can you PM your Facebook info so I can see? Thanks so much!