A little overdue, but here is my review on how my destination wedding was at the Majestic Colonial Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
I am originally from the Dominican Republic, born and raised. So when my husband and I first started talking about where to have the wedding, we had no doubt that we wanted to have a destination wedding, and where better than my place of birth?
The abundance of resorts in Punta Cana, and all around the coast of the island, made it challenging when selecting the perfect resort. After lots and lots of research we decided on the Majestic Colonial, but not before flying down there to see it for ourselves personally and meeting with a wedding coordinator about a year in advance.
We have stayed at other resorts in the area before that are on the same level as the Majestic Colonial, but found that the Majestic was a better bang for your buck. We were pleasantly surprised with the rooms; they were the cleanest, most comfortable and nicest rooms I've seen in the PC area (for the money).
For our wedding weekend, upon check-in, we were upgraded to a one bedroom suite (see above). This was very convenient when getting ready for the wedding, having my MOH, my mom, my MIL, the photographers, etc.
We got there on a Wednesday and our wedding took place on Friday, March 26, 2010. We met with the coordinator on Thursday to go over all the details and give her some of the decorations for them to put up, such as the chair sachés, table runners, paper lanterns, a picture of how we wanted the cake, etc.
My mom pretty much took care of the rest of the decor and guided the hotel wedding coordinator as to how to place everything.
My wedding coordinator, Wardes, was great. She was very professional and pleasant to work with. Everything was timed perfectly and the ceremony started on time.
Right after the ceremony, we had a champagne toast which is included in the wedding package and every guest got a glass of champagne. Everyone said they loved that we did that because it was different.
After the toast it was picture time. The guests went to the lobby bar for cocktails while we took our pictures. There are so many places throughout the resort that make beautiful backdrops for photography including the little chapel they have on premise, and we had the best photographers fly down with us, Bella Loren Photography. Even though we had an hour and a half to take pictures, until the reception started, we still ran out of time and wanted to take more, but it was also very hot and we wanted to get our groove on and see our friends and family.
We had the reception at the Tres Calaberas Terrace, where we had them set the tables in a big U shape, leaving the middle as the dance floor. This made for a more intimate setting.
The food was from their set menu, included in the package, and it was very good. It was a surf n' turf dish, with potatoes and vegetables.
Overall, the whole experience was amazing, but there were a couple of things I was disappointed in: one, they didn't put up all the paper lanterns, only about 12 out of 40 that I gave them to put up, could have been that they ran out of time. And then the major one being the music. We booked both the DJ and the Live Band, which we were told it was the in-house 7 piece band that plays at night for all the guests. We had seen them play before and they were excellent, but that wasn't what we got. We got a 2 person "band" with just a keyboard. Needless to say, they were awful, not what we paid for, and eventually had to ask them to stop playing because no one was dancing and that is very rare for our crew. The DJ wasn't all that great either, but we made up for it after the reception when we all went to the resort night club, Coco's.
The rest of the weekend we spent it eating, drinking and at the pool. My husband and I also got a complimentary couple's massage the day after the wedding and it was amazing, best massage I've ever had. Also included in the package was a romantic dinner for the newlyweds, but we opted to have dinner with our friends and family since they all came in from all over and we don't get to see them often.
I hope this post was somewhat helpful to brides considering to have a destination wedding at this resort. I will write all about the wedding decor and details on another post, as I have to go through hundreds of pictures to pick out the best.
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteI'm getting married at the Majestic Colonial Sept 2013 and love all the pictures as well as the above blog!! Do you have a link to where I can find the post written about the wedding decor and details?
Would greatly appreciate any extra details..
Thank you
Kat
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for writing about your experiences! I am getting married at the Majestic Colonial in June 2013. How did you find the wedding coordinators up until your wedding? Did they return your emails in a timely manner? Did you have a private dinner or a semi-private dinner?
Thanks!
Amanda
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKatrina, I had responded to you a couple of weeks ago with my iPad but I'm just now noticing it never posted. So here's the link to the post with the rest of the decor, not much more to see really, we kept it very simple.
ReplyDeletehttp://nuagemulberry.blogspot.com/2010/09/destination-wedding-punta-cana.html
Amanda, I had 3 coordinators throughout the planning process. Apparently there is or was a high turnover in planners there. The one that I had for most of the planning process was very helpful and returned my emails immediately, then she quit about a month before my wedding and the one I had after her took a day or so to return emails but she was good. So I couldn't say how they are now since I'm sure there's a whole new team.
ReplyDeletePalace Ludhiana
ReplyDeletethis blog is awesome.wedding images are very nice and nice contents. Your article also very nice..
What were your wedding bouquet options? I see that they are included in the packages & I wonder if they had choices or if they gave you a standard bouquet and if so what were the flowers?
ReplyDelete