Re: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one! Get a coke and skim at your leisure. LOTS of pics but all NJ vend

Wow what a great review! Congrats!!

Re: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one! Get a coke and skim at your leisure. LOTS of pics but all NJ vend

You Looked BEAUTIFUL. I loved all your ideas and your dress was gorgeous!

I am glad everything was so beautiful, you were one of the first brides to help me out with some of my questions...and we were the same wedding weekend and so I always felt some sort of kinship. We seemed to stress at the same time over the same things.

You are too creative and did an awesome job on your wedding! Congrats!

Re: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one! Get a coke and skim at your leisure. LOTS of pics but all NJ vend

EVERYTHING IS SO PRETTY AND BRIGHT!!! ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! YOUR FINAL THOUGHTS MADE ME TEARY EYED, IT WAS VERY TOUCHING, THANK YOU FOR SHARING THAT WITH US

Re: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one! Get a coke and skim at your leisure. LOTS of pics but all NJ vend

Girls you're going to make me weepy eyed and its Hump day! Oops well was. Today's Thursday! Obviously my brains are still post wedding fried.

Anyway thank you all for the swetet sentiments. Ive been sporatic lately-do haveto post our honeymoon review. Just keep forgetting. And working on our album. Anywho thanks again and I hope some our our ideas will help future brides cause that would be cool.

Re: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one! Get a coke and skim at your leisure. LOTS of pics but all NJ vend

now relax!!! and have fun

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Update for HM pics at last

UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Sorry had to do another post but it wouldnt let me add it to the original LMAo too long!


Ok so I realized I had never posted about our honeymoon! OYE! Originally we were not going to go on one because it just was not in the budget but my parents decided to give us a surprise and that was it! On a lucky day, we happened to go to Liberty travel and managed to book a 6 night 5 day stay at Excellene Punta Cana, formerly known as Secrets Excellence Punta Cana. Since we had stayed at the one in Cancun just the previous June, we knew what the quality was (outstanding!) and were thrilled to eb able to go to the one in the Caribbean for literally half the price since they were having a sale.

Hotel property:
One of the best beaches I have ever been on. The waters were crystal clear and the color of pool water. DH and I got burned the first day because it was so cool by the waters edge that we didn’t feel the sun. OW! Sunscreen is a must here. The hotel property itself was not as nice as the one in Cancun. The Cancun resorts are newer and better laid out. This one had all these weird twists and turns to get to the places you wanted to go. I also didn’t like that the “club Excellence” (Cue more money for SAME STUFF) was really isolated and though we budget couples could sit over there which totally negates the reason to pay extra for the club, it was so far out of the way you almost felt deliberately snubbed. In Cancun all the places were pretty much public so you could all talk and enjoy and no one felt segregated like in the Dominican republic. Also, we didn’t find the best pool on the property till our LAST day the last 3 hours of our day! It was in this really weird isolated corner on the crappier side of the resort where they were doing renovations. It’s a two tier pool; deeper on top then on the bottom. REALLY awesome. Its not even near the Club Excellence side which is supposed to be the nicer area.

BUT with that said, the service in Punta Cana was soooooo much better than the one in Cancun. Like 100x better. The staff was friendlier and more willing to “play” so to speak. Like the girl who greeted us every morning at the breakfast place taught my dh to do a few dance steps everyday she saw us lol. Oh and when we arrived for check-in, their English was excellent which was great for my dh who felt lost in Mexico and they greeted us with cool, wet towels for our faces. FABULOUS after the long ride.
Overall: A

This is the main pool area. They also have these floatie things you can just grab and float on in the pool, but people can be greedy with them. No real need-just might have to walk a bit to find one but we usually found plenty to use.




Some of the resort:
Inside a restaurant:

This is the theatre inside where they host shows. You can hang out at the bar here too. Nice to mingle.



People get married here






This is the beach. They have these great bed things that you can throw your towel on and just snooze in to stay away from the sun but you need to grab one early if you intend to stay at the beach because obnoxious people “claim them” then use em for 5 minutes but leave their stuff there all day as they go do other things. There were always plenty of huts though. Oh and if you walk to the far right end of the property, there’s a rock wall there that breaks the waves so practically none at that end. I LOVED sitting out there because I cannot swim and am afraid of the water. Its crystal clear and you can borrow snorkeling equipment and snorkel out there too.





* A little side note: DR DOES allow topless sunbathing so if you are into it. this is the time to go for it! LOL I admit I did. Felt sooo weird but Dh taunted me into it and since I had a wedding to go to when we came back for my MOH) and my dress was strapless, I didn’t want to get lines. But believe me, no one even notices staffwise. Other guests might stare but have your Dh give em a dirty look and that’s the end of that lol

This was at the far right of the beach…couldn’t really figure the big Buddha out lol.


Big chess pieces you can play with-almost life sized.


There is a place by the main gate where you can feed the birds they have; ducks, macaws, flamingos, etc. There is always bread in the little wooden thing there so just grab a hunk and toss. DH liked that. There is also a place behind it where you can run-some trails for runners (though WHO runs on a tropical resort in 100 degree heat!) and there’s like some type of garden. It’s pretty for photo ops.

DH feeding the birds.




Garden area:






This pool was the one we found out last day-own bar area and it’s a double tiered pool-top one is deeper than lower and it has waterfalls. REALLY nice. Only downside is the rooms on this side are being renovated so a lot of noise.

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Accomodations:
The room was a B+ compared to Cancun’s. It’s an older property and we were placed right by the main path. In hindsight we just should have asked to be moved because they would have done it no prob, but we had already unpacked and didn’t spend much time in it anyway. Only annoying thing was when drunk people went back to their rooms, we could hear them snorting and laughing.

It was cleaned every day and the toiletries pack was actually awesome, but the hot tub in the room was “lopsided” so we could never keep water in it for long and it didn’t have the extra space that our Cancun room had-we had a sitting area in that one and the hot tub was angled better to see the TV. Otherwise it was nice. Upon our arrival we had a towel swan on the bed with rose petals. No bottle of champagne but they did bring it as soon as we mentioned we were honeymooners. The shower was awful! In Cancun the toilet and shower were in seperate rooms but in DR the toilet FACED the clear shower doors lol so we couldn’t be in there at the same time like in Cancun when he would shower while I peed etc. Also the shower doors were the cheap kind and leaked water so we ended up having to use some of our few towels to sop it up every night. Didn’t like that. Otherwise, room was ok. (PS stole the bathroom pics from Eliana since I didn’t take andy and she went to the same place, just to show how weird the bathroom setup was.)
Overall B+

Our first night.



*Side note You DO have to dress up a little for dinner. Lunch and breakfast are pretty relaxed and in the resort in Cancun they were not really enforcing the rule, but here they really did. Some people complained about having to wear khakis or a dress but DH and I felt it made it a little more special, and he is normally a wife beater and jeans kinda guy. They weren’t asking black tie or anything and its nice to see something besides bathing suits on people who should NOT be wearing them in the first place! LMAO ok that was mean…I take it back! But yes, bring some nicer clothes for evening.

Food:
I know people always are afraid of all-inclusives because of the food but the food was FABULOUS! Cancun had good food but this blew it out pf the water completely. For one thing, they encouraged you to order as much as you wanted at the evening restaurants which were “al la carte” meaning you ordered from a menu but it was still all included. In both Mexico and Punta Cana we found the servings to be TINY but where in Mexico they made it seem you could only order one appetizer sized entrée, in Punta Cana they brought me the 4 things I was debating about one night without even asking me! Just brought it out and told me I didn’t have to choose! I thought that was fantastic service. You don’t have to tip at all, but we did every meal and we found they were just slightly more attentive. It also helped that I understood the language.

Breakfast and Lunch were buffets and dinner was al la carte themed restaurants; nine in all though not all of them were open every night.. They did have one al la carte lunch place but it was eh. The buffets were awesome. SOOO much fresh fruit and they had a smoothie area and so much seafood which Cancun lacked. We went to the Mediterranean restaurant, the Grill, the Lobster House and the Asian and French. All were fabulous. In Mexico we also did the Mexican one and that was also awesome.

AND I should mention that 24-hour room service is included and they have a GREAT menu. When poor DH was trying to cool his shedding burnt skin in the shower one night, I ordered at like 2am and they were quick and so polite despite the crazy hour.

DH and I gained 5 pounds apiece lol!

Overall: A++++++

Staff:
We had no issues with the staff. They were all very attentive and helpful and they actually spoke excellent English which was a minor problem in Cancun. The entertainment staff also has a good time with the guests. We had daily water aerobics which I loved and we played games everyday at 3pm. I won a bottle of champagne and some STRONG Dominican rum lmao for winning the banana game; had to hold a banana with the tip cut off, between your legs and pass it to the person next to you-It was all girls (because they got the guys out quick so no sexual harassment going on) LOL but we had a BUNCH of men watching lmao and you can imagine why since we couldn’t use our hands!

This was another game-an egg carry game. My team was SLOW! ?




Excursions:

Cannot really rate this since we didn’t do any paid excursions-we were lazy asses lol we admit it. we sat around, drank and burned. But we did go on the free horseback riding tour they offer-supposed to be a half hour long but it is really like a half hour out and a half hour back. I recommend doing it because it is free and really fun. We also heard from several couples that the catamaran/speedboat excursion was great.


Side note again: For anyone who knows a gay couple who wants to go to a beautiful resort and not be made to feel uncomfortable, the guy next to me said he and his partner were treated REALLY well despite the fact homosexuality isn’t looked upon really well generally in Latin cultures. They said outside of the resort they had the usual issues but inside they were treated no differently than any other honeymooning couples. We told my SIL and her partner about it and they plan on going.







Shops(on the resort):

Had to rate this because we needed to buy aloe vera and asprin because dh burned soooo bad-was like a first degree burn on top of another one. He was burned BENEATH his burn –shakes head- so we needed Tylenol for the fever and they charged us like 10 bucks for 2 little packages, I kid you not! A small pack of Q-tips was also another 7 bucks. And another female guest told me she was charges 10 dollars for 3 tampons… Moral of the story is BRING EVERYTHING you might need unless you want to pretend to be Richie Rich and his wife.

Overall we had a phenomenal time and would love to go back with our in-laws. No kids, just sun, fun and booze! LOl what more can you ask for!

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Great Honeymoon review! That resort looks fabulous!!! Thank you for sharing!

Also, I can't get over how beautiful your wedding was!!!!!

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

aww thanks Gina! did you see our centerpieces? We did a variation of yours.

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

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Posted by PeteysBride

aww thanks Gina! did you see our centerpieces? We did a variation of yours.

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yes I saw them! They looked awesome!!

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

congrats

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Wow, everything looked amazing! COngrats!

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Thank you for the Excellence review. I booked my honeymoon to Cancun Excellence.

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Vika, Cancun Excellence is FABULOUS. I have pictures from when we went in June of last year if you want to see them. You will love it. Its really well laid out.

Re: UPDATE AGAIN with album layout. July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

page 1 and2


page 3 and 4


page 5 and 6


page 7 and 8


page 9 and 10


page 11 and 12


page 13 and 14


page 15 and 16


page 17 and 18


page 19 and 20


[

page 21 and 22


page 23 and 24


page 25 and 26


Alot more in the album but got tired of posting-we DIYed so we have like 60 pages.

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Hey Jenn,
Your album came out awesome. Did you use one of the online providers (like kodak or snapfish)? I need to do my parent albums!!!! (ack! on top of all the other stuff I've been putting off)

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

You are a beautiful bride! Congrats. Upr colors are amazing

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

Your bok is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE Gerber Daisy's! Seriously I wish I would have seen this before we had our wedding. What amazing flowers

Re: UPDATE: With pics from honeymoon: My July 29, 2007 Wedding Review is Finally up for our red-Hot Gerbder Daisy studded Nuptial! BEWARE! It is a monstrously long one!

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Posted by medic6809

Your bok is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE Gerber Daisy's! Seriously I wish I would have seen this before we had our wedding. What amazing flowers

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aww thanks! LOL our flowers..oye..so much headache that could have been avoided had I just trusted our florist from the getgo... I was so pleased with them.