Wedding Blog

The first three days of our trip to Punta Cana are a blur to me now. While everyone was doing this…

… we were scurrying around doing all the wedding planning we couldn’t do before we actually got to the resort.

Having haunted the Facebook group for Majestic Colonial brides for months, I knew we were supposed to receive a message in our room from the wedding coordinator with a meeting time. Our first day came and went with no message, and by the second afternoon we went to Reception to investigate. It was there that we were informed that the coordinator with whom I’d been emailing the last few months, Aurelio, no longer worked in the wedding department. Um, excuse me, what? Gee, thanks for telling us. I had been trying to be a laid-back DW bride, not emailing the resort’s wedding coordinator ten million times a week figuring we’d work it all out once we got there, but now, I’m not sure that was the way to go.

We finally met with the new coordinator, Sandra. She took us into a sound-proof, windowless room behind the reception area which made me feel like we were about to conduct some illicit drug deals or something equally unsavory. The room was quite chilly and it was not just from the air conditioning - I did not get a good vibe from the coordinator from the get-go. She was professional and methodical (going down her photocopied list of items) but there was no friendliness, warmth or enthusiasm for us or our wedding. But, I reasoned with myself, she’s not here to be our friend or cheerleader, she’s here to get the job done so whatever.

MAJESTIC COLONIAL WEDDING PACKAGE

The wedding package at the Majestic is $1,500 U.S. or $1,000 for a renewal of vows (i.e. if you don’t need the Dominican judge or brought your own officiant). For this you get:

- Specialized assistance of our wedding planner
- Location of your choice: white sand beach, Our Magnificent Gazebo or your own Suite
- Room up Grade (Subject to availability) for the couple
- Early Check in and Late check out (subject to availability)
- Beautiful decorated Wedding Cake for the group
- Bouquet for the table
- Ironing of grooms tuxedo and bride’s gown
- Simultaneous Translation of the ceremony if needed
- Cocktail drinks after the Ceremony for the group
- Candle light romantic dinner for the couple with champagne
- Romantic breakfast in your suite
- 10% Discounts on any Spa treatment for the couple
- 15% Discounts on Horseback Riding
- Basket of fruits on your room during your stay
- Bottle of champagne in the room
- Room service Included for the couple

CEREMONY VENUE

We first went over the venue options which was quick because I already knew I wanted the ceremony to take place in the Gazebo rather than on the beach. I’d witnessed a wedding on the beach the day before and it looked windy and hot. And sandy. And loud. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t really want random bare-breasted babes and dudes in speedos hanging about listening to our vows and making guest appearances in the background of our wedding photos. (You think I’m joking, right? Ha, if only. To the resort’s credit, there were two staff members trying to keep people off the beach directly behind the ceremony area, but it was a tough job.)

We told her we had 60 guests so they could set up the right number of chairs in the Gazebo, and that I had music to be played before, during and after the ceremony on both an iPod and on a CD (just in case) so we’d need the speaker set-up. So far so good.

RECEPTION

For the dinner and dance, there were a few options which I already knew about (again, from the Facebook group discussion boards) and which Mr Breezy and I had decided were not for us because of the cost. See, here’s the thing. You can do a private reception (dinner + dancing or just one or the other) on the beach, in the Parrot Bar, in the Wet Bar, or in the Presidential suite (on the huge outdoor patio) but you’ll pay for it to the tune of:

- Dinner: $69 per person by the pool; $82 on the beach
- Open Bar: $19 per person for the first hour and half of that for each consecutive hour (this is for the cheapest open bar; if you want better alcohol, it goes as high as $44 per person)
- DJ: $225 per hour
- Sound system: $250

That may be all fine and dandy if it’s you and ten of your closest friends but I calculated that for our large group, even if we did our own DJ and picked the lowest open bar, a private reception would cost us about $17,000 (bringing the total cost of our wedding closer to the $30G mark).

Now, I know that in the grand scheme of weddings, this is not astronomical. We’d have been happy to pay that if the situation were different. But seventeen thousand dollars for food and drinks at an all-inclusive resort? Isn’t that sort of like paying for something twice? It’s the principle of it that bothered us. A lot. Obviously it takes extra staff to set up the reception and serve it, and if we could pay just for that, it would be ok. But it doesn’t work that way.

What no one ever tells you, though, is that you don’t have to have a private reception. Way back when I was planning this wedding, I had a nervous breakdown at the point when we received all this pricing info from Aurelio. Then a travel agent talked me off the ledge and told me The Big Secret of DWs - what most people do is not a private reception at all; rather, they have the dinner in one of the restaurants that’s included in your stay and go dancing in the disco. Sure, it’s not your very own private space - there are other guests around - but you don’t even notice them. And it’s FREE.

So that’s what we planned to do - we had Sandra reserve us two loooong tables in Las Carabelas, the seafood restaurant by the beach. We chose a surf and turf dinner and I specified I wanted NO iceberg lettuce salads (I hate iceberg lettuce).

For the after-dinner part, we went with the disco. Sandra reassured us that we would definitely be done with dinner by 9pm so we rented the disco for 2 hours at $500 per hour. That would give us 2 hours for speeches and first dances and a private party before the doors opened to everyone else at 11pm. (At least, that was the plan.)

Whew. Thank goodness that part was over. Next was the fun part - flowers and cake choices! At least, it should have been the fun part (dun-dun-dunnnn).

DW in the DR: Pack It Up, Pack It In
DW in the DR: Airport Confessions
DW in the DR: Bienvenidos a Punta Cana
DW in the DR: The Guest List Is In the Bag
DW in the DR: The OOTs in Action