plb2010

Hi All, My fiancée and I are going to be getting married in Punta Cana (Riu Palace Bavaro) this coming January and the question has come up as to how much to tip the resort’s wedding planner. Does anyone have any insight to offer into this matter and or any other gotchas/faux pas that with a little knowledge could be avoided? Thanks in advance, Peter

Well,… perhaps a watched pot does boil. We heard this morning from Riu and the judge has been confirmed for our date. What a relief.

Thank you both for your suggestions. We have discussed the idea of getting married in the US or Canada (I’m a US citizen and she is Canadian) and then having a symbolic ceremony in the DR but it takes some of the magic/romance out of it—and increases the chance that some guests will opt not to travel so far for what will only be a symbolic event. So,… we have a plan B but… I guess we will have to be patient and hope the judge is able to confirm our date soon.

My fiancée and I are planning to get married in a civil ceremony at Riu Palace Bavaro Beach in mid-January 2015. We reserved the day/time back in late August and got a partial confirmation from Riu that the date was held but that it was all contingent on the judge’s schedule. The sales rep told us that theer is only one judge in the area and that it would take up to 20 days for him to confirm. Fast forward to early November and Riu is still unable to provide final confirmation. All of my inquires keep getting polite but vague replies informing me that they are still waiting on the judge. Has anyone else run into this problem as well? Is this long of a wait normal? Obviously we are getting worried as we cannot really plan the wedding, invite guests, etc until we get a confirmation of the date. As a fallback, we’ve started investigating the possibility of getting married at the Civil Office in Punta Cana and then have a symbolic ceremony at Riu. (I've rady elsewhere that this is possible.) Has anyone done this? Is it really possible? Any advice would be most welcome. --Pete