stephydmd

Renee is very hard to get in touch with. We originally booked with Tina, and she was extremely fast and professional (but I don't think Tina works in Miami anymore). Renee...well, it takes her about 9 days to reply to an email, and even then she may not completely address your question(s) in her reply. It requires great patience to work with Renee.

You should reserve your date as soon as possible to ensure you get the day and time desired. After your reservation is confirmed, you will be asked to send a charge authorization for $300 which will be charged only if you cancel within 45 days of your confirmed wedding date. Nothing else is due at that time if you selected the Complimentary Package. If you choose one of the Collections, 50% deposit is needed, and the rest of the balance is due 30 days prior to your wedding. You can upgrade from Complimentary at any time. Hope this helps! Below is a portion of an email received from our Hard Rock Wedding Sales Executive: .................................. The wedding contract says that it's for the Complimentary Package. Are we locked into the Complimentary package if we sign and submit the form, or can we upgrade later if we decide to go with one of the packages (i.e. Amethyst)? You may upgrade your collection at a later date should you choose to. Also, I cannot find the dollar amount that I'm required to submit for the Charge Authorization. How much is the deposit, or how much are we supposed to authorize on the charge card? There are no fees nor deposits due at this time. The credit card authorization form does have to be completed however as there is a $300 penalty that gets charged if you cancel within 45 days prior to your wedding date. Once you do upgrade the collection a 50% deposit is required and the balance is due 30 by 30 days prior to the wedding. ..................................................

Hello! Here are some photos of the ballrooms at the Hard Rock. My fiance and I just returned from our site visit last week, and had a fantastic time! Corridor in Main Building walking toward Convention Center / Ballroom area Entrance to Avalon Foyer, which provides access to the Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms (both of which are places where wedding receptions can be held). Fillmore Foyer, which is connected to the entrance to Avalon Foyer (to the left is a check in desk). You can have your cocktail hour set-up in either of these foyers before heading into the ballroom for your dinner. Decor in Fillmore Foyer. They also have Elton John's piano and pic, among others. Inside Avalon Foyer. To the left are the entrances to the Fillmore ballroom...to the right, Avalon Ballroom. The Fillmore Ballroom itself is gigantic, but the Hard Rock will divide the ballroom up to accommodate your party size. One "square" is about 45 x 45 feet, with 26 foot ceilings. We will be using 2 squares for our wedding reception (50 people + dance floor). Here's what a divider wall looks like...ughh! Pretty ugly. The good thing, though, is that the ballroom can be dressed up with fabric and colored lighting, but this costs extra $$$. Your wedding planner will get you in touch with the decor people (Creative Punta Cana -- in-house decorators, or Caribbean Celebrations?? -- an approved outside vendor. The Avalon Ballroom looks exactly the same, but the ceilings are slightly lower at 21 feet, and the "squares" are smaller (40 x 19 feet). If your party has over 75 room nights, you don't have to pay for either the cocktail party or the dinner. Outside of white linens and standard chairs, which is included, decor will cost you extra. If you upgrade to offer "surf and turf" as a menu option it's $20 per person. Hope this helps!!!

Hi All! My fiance and I just did a pre-site wedding visit to Hard Rock this week AND IT WAS AMAZINGGG! My fiance had to pry my body of the lobby floor when we were leaving. We are getting married June 2012...eek soon! We will be having 50 guests, including us. We qualify for the 75 room nights = free unlimited functions! My advice, if you think you can get this 75 room nights, then have your wedding at hard rock. We booked our wedding months ago, thanks to some great reviews on this website (e.g. ginamapi's video). We have been sweating ever since there have been some outrageously poor reviews about it on this website and tripadvisor. Alas, we have NO worries. For those who have time or can afford to visit before your wedding, I'd highly recommend. You can just pick out all your events/etc and their locations then. We had wanted Eden Pool for a Welcome dinner, but it was already booked! Sorry about my pictures, I don't know why they are intermixed within my text. The pictures are of the ballroom, the avalon foyer (the reception cocktail hour location, located right outside the ballroom), and of Toro Terrace. Back to our pre-site visit: We met with our WC, Melissa Santos (very helpful!). We too were really worried since we had not been able to get some of our questions answered before we went to visit. We have been assigned to Rene, and I had actually had a conference call with her last week right before we left for our trip. Like some of you guys have said, she asks: how many extra chairs ($$) do you need at ceremony, which site do you want ceremony, type of cake (chocolate, strawberry, vanilla), how many bridesmaids bouquets do you want? (i am going to be doing parasols), my bridal bouquet color (white, ivory, some other colors I forgot since I am only considering white or ivory), etc. I was only able to answer a few of her questions since I had no idea what I wanted yet (hence our site visit!). We had originally wanted the one of original wedding collections ("Sapphire"), but they are being phased out, and beginning June 2012, all weddings will be offered the Colin Cowie Collection (or Complimentary Collection) only. We are getting married in end of June. Boooo. We dislike the Colin Cowie Collection, they are a bit too tacky for our taste. Also, they are hefty in terms of price. Melissa (the WC) showed us we can change our event decor through Creative Punta Cana or Carribbean Celebrations. In particular, we are going to use Creative PC since she printed out their pamphlets for us, but they are basically the same. Since we have 75 RNs, we get the unlimited private functions. With our events, we get standard round tables (hold 8 individuals) with regular style chairs (not Tiffany chairs). All white in linens. We decided to only do a few private functions, since we don't want to tie everyone up. We get 3 hours of private functions per day, if it is a cocktail with dinner, the cocktail hour is 1 hour, followed by a 2 hour dinner. We are getting married on a Friday, so here are our private events: Thursday: welcome cocktail hour (Moon Lounge; indoors) from 5-7pm Friday: Ceremony at 3:00 (Gazebo; outdoors), post-ceremony cocktail hour from 4-5pm (Toro Terrace; outdoors), and cocktail hour/reception (7-8; 8-10; fillmore ballroom). We are purchasing an extra hour of DJ/event ($$), so our dinner and reception will go until 11pm. Saturday: Farewell Party, cocktail hour with buffet 6:30-9:30pm (Eden Pool; outdoors) We finally choose to do a Ballroom in the end for reception because we are worried about the weather (HEAT! RAIN?!?). Problem is, the ballroom needs to be spruced up (it is very [ugly] ballroom looking...which I think is weird since we are in a tropical paradise!). We were debating between a cocktail hour and dinner at an outdoor venue: Sax pool or Eclipse Terrace. With an outdoor event, dinner must be buffet. However, ballrooms are the only places for indoor receptions on the resort, and the only way to get a plated dinner (hello beef fillet). Back to the decorations: Both these event decorators are approved vendors at Hard Rock (Creative Punta Cana is the in-house vendor), and can cater to anything that you want (including lighting, table decor and centerpieces, lounge furniture, AV equipment, etc). Check out their websites to get a sample of what they can do. Here's a brief list of prices from Creative Punta Cana's Decor Catalogue as of our visit. Table runner $8 Chair sash $5 Tiffany chair $10 for black, golden, white. $12 for Brown or Silver Center Pieces: Natural flowers arrangement $50 starting LED wax candle $15 Candle and sea shells $35 Artificial flower/candle/stones $45 Natural flower/candle/stones $60 Ballroom decors: Hanging lamps $35 White fabric for walls/ceiling $20 (my tip: A MUST if you want to "mask" the dividing walls in the ballroom) Star drapery $200 for a 18 ft x 24 ft piece (6x8m) Other: Light-up constellation table $90 Glow table $65 (white, green, red, blue) Lounge furniture Four-post bed $80 (white or red) Love seats $28 Ottoman $20 Heavy black table (8-10ppl) $50 The prices are PER UNIT and do not include 16% DR tax! don't hold me to the prices, you should contact your wedding coordinator for a list of current prices. But anyway, anything can be customized...just let them know what your want! We are going to put white drapings on the walls with accent lighting to give it some ambiance. We have to purchase accent lighting in addition. We don't know how much that is going to cost yet. But!: in the end, we know everyone is gonna have a blast (especially with the A/C of the ballroom hehe) so gals, don't sweat the small stuff! My pictures are of the ballroom (that's me running like an idiot because I was bored). For 50 people, we were told two of the "Squares" would suffice for our reception.