Happy December and Happy Holidays! This month has been super busy…and it’s because we had our destination wedding in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic earlier this month! We are officially married!!
We had our wedding at the beautiful Dreams Flora Resort & Spa which opened in February 2023. The entire wedding weekend was perfect and the wedding team did such an amazing job.
While I don’t have our professional photos or video to share yet, I wanted to give some quick highlights and tips for anyone considering a destination wedding!
Arrive 1 to 2 days BEFORE your guests arrive! Get everything you need done at the resort BEFORE your guests arrive. Planning to check-in to the resort a day or two beforehand will be extremely helpful, as once your guests start arriving, all you want to do is be with them! Whether you have welcome bags you need to assemble, meetings with your vendors, writing thank you cards, or anything else on your to-do list, it will make the entire weekend more enjoyable with those tasks checked off the list!
Host a welcome dinner! Consider hosting a welcome dinner for your guests a night or two before the wedding. Majority of your guests will arrive 2 or 3 nights prior to the wedding (in our case, our guests arrived on Wednesday/Thursday and our wedding was on Saturday), so hosting a welcome dinner to kick off the wedding events was a great way to get everyone together. This was also part of our wedding package with the resort which was perfect for how we wanted to spend time with our guests.
Book a swim-up room! There are different kinds of swim-up room setups, but if there is an option where the swim-up is connected to a main pool, then even better! And if your guests book a swim-up room as well and you have the ability to swim-up to their rooms and go to the main pool (where there is most likely a swim-up bar) then you have a perfect pool day. We spent the majority of our free time doing just this, lol.
Incorporate resort hosted activities into the weekend! Knowing what events the resort is planning for the dates you are staying is a great way to figure out if you want to incorporate it into your weekend with your guests. For example, we had initially inquired about renting a space to do karaoke with the resort, but they informed us that they already had a planned karaoke night for that Thursday night (which ironically was when we wanted to have the karaoke night!) We had a great time singing (along) with whomever was performing on stage and it felt like a huge party.
Maximize time with your guests! Your closest family and friends have taken time out of their hectic lives to travel and celebrate your wedding with you 🙂 This is also a vacation for everyone so you have more time to spend with each other as the wedding day alone goes by so quickly (which is one of the main perks of a destination wedding!) We had 110+ guests at our wedding so it was rather difficult to spend a lot of time with everyone, but we tried our best! The resort we chose was small, so by simply walking around we were able to see our guests at the pool, at the restaurants, in the lobby, at the bar, you name it. We also made it a point to be in the lobby when our guests checked-out each day (Sunday and Monday) so we could see them off!
Stay a little longer! After all of the wedding events are done and the guests have left for home, why not stay a few more nights to enjoy your new marriage?! Consider either staying at the resort or switching resorts for a change of scenery. We chose to move resorts on Monday after all of the guests checked out to Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa, an adults only resort which is under the same umbrella as Dreams. Highly recommend this resort for anyone looking for an adults only experience!!
Derick and I are so happy and blessed to have the best wedding weekend anyone could ask for. It was overwhelming to have so many of our friends and family there with us for the weekend, but all the planning paid off and we created lifetime of memories together.
If you (or someone you know) is considering a destination wedding, do not hesitate to reach out!
