We had our wedding 2.10.24 with 82 of our friends and family travelling from all over the country and it was incredible!

Wedding colors/theme: Boho Glam! Cream/ivory, light blush, eucalyptus colored greenery, natural tones

DJ: Kukua DJ. He was great! We kind of took control and made playlists for everything, because I was just too much of a control freak. But he followed all our requests for music, cut it when it needed to be cut (our reception entrance got explicit at 32 seconds so we wanted it cut at 31 exactly lol), and kept the party going!

MC: Kukua MC. He was so sweet and did a fantastic job! Communicated with us well when we had questions and we loved him! We kept laughing as he kept calling my dad “Meeester (like Mr but drawn out) Jefff” and now it’s a nickname that’ll never leave the family. We loved him!

Wedding planners and Coordinators:
simply amazing and the best! Rachel made the process so easy leading up to the wedding. She isn’t just a wedding planner, she also is a friend you make for life! She is so kind with the biggest heart and we adore her! She was always there to answer every question and she went above and beyond for us! We had a small hiccup with chandeliers prior to the wedding (vendor issue, not Kukua) and Rachel and Mayte worked tirelessly to come up with a solution and it was BETTER than I could’ve ever imagined and way better than what it was originally suppose to be. I am so grateful to the two of them for this!!!! It honestly made my dream come to life with this hiccup, so in hindsight I’m so happy it happened LOL Mayte is exactly who Rachel makes her out to be- she is so sweet, wonderful, and incredibly talented. And she is on it!!! She ran through everything with us during our tasting, and eased all my anxiety! And how she brings it all to life- oh my gosh. I mean I knew Kukua was good, but I didn’t know they would be this good! My guests cannot stop talking about how incredible and beautiful it was- many told us it was the most beautiful wedding they’ve ever been to! I am a complete control freak and with Mayte, I was actually able to sit back and let it all unfold. I still can’t get over the floral arrangements and how they hand make them all in house. Mayte put all our bouquets together and they were incredible.

When you see the venue blank, it’s hard to envision your dream wedding come to life. But let me tell you… trust MAYTE, the staff, and the process. It will be far beyond what you could’ve ever dreamed!!!! And the moment you sit down with Mayte and start to go over it all and you taste the food, you are reassured right in that moment! We are soooooo happy we trusted Kukua, Mayte, Rachel, David, and all the staff to help our dream day come to life!

The Venue and Staff:
-Every touch, every thing, every one- from top to bottom, were AMAZING. They were so on top of it all and they were incredible. Every detail was perfect and if it wasn’t, I sure as heck did not notice at all! I can go on and on, but I think the pictures will do the talking. It was incredible and they carry out your dream! I am forever grateful to Kukua and all of its wonderful staff!

Bridal Suite:
-just the freaking best! Air conditioned and more than enough room for the 10 plus of us in there! Kukua’s steamer was perfect to do all of our dresses day of and the service was amazing with drinks and food for getting ready!

Tasting:
-Simply incredible. The food and drinks were top notch, as was Mayte! It was so fun to try everything and for everything to come together. Our signature drinks were the passion fruit mojito and the pina colada. My mom hates mojitos and even she was obsessed! The something blue was our other favorite! For apps we chose: 1. salmon roll, 2. chicken and pineapple skewers, 3. Fresh tomato, basilisco, and parmesan cheese Bruschetta, 4. Mediterranean style vegetables mini panni with goat cheese, and 5. Seabass and shrimp ceviche with spicy passion fruit dressing and plantain chips. Guest favorites were the ceviche, and the goat cheese and bruschetta- last two being my favorite for sure!!! For dinner we did the pineapple chicken salad (INCREDIBLE!), avocado carbonara, filet and seabass. I will be dreaming of the seabass forever- it was soooo good!

For the cake, omg. I’m still dreaming about it and wish I could get some shipped to my house. They get their cakes through Cake Studio by Ana and we did two flavors, and I never even tried the red velvet. The winner that all my guests cannot stop talking about is vanilla flavor, dulce de leche filling, American butter cream frosting. It’s seriously so good. I ate cake with my hands for like 3 days after the wedding in our room. And I would do it again if I had some at home. The best wedding cake I have ever had!!!! Our friends keep asking if we’re going back for our one year anniversary and if they can come so they can get a slice of cake! LOL

Mini Desserts: Churros, key lime pie, crème brule. We were obsessed at our tasting.

Late night: tacos and nachos- cant speak on these as we didn’t try our late night as we were on the dance floor all night long!

Add on’s we did that we considered our favorite/must do’s:
-Shot seating chart with tequila and lime, our guests loved it
-LOVE sign. I didn’t choose it at first cause it felt cliché but our guests loved it, especially with the little fireworks going off during our first dance! Get the fireworks they are worth it!
-Chandeliers, just do it. It was stunning
-Sweetheart table couch: felt like I was in game of thrones. It was awesome.
-Cascading lights and bistro lights: my groom wanted all the lighting and he was so right. It was pretty windy so we had to keep the shades down and the cascading lighting made it so romantic and intimate! Get all the lighting, its worth it!

We had our dream day, it was perfect. And we will be dreaming of it for the rest of our lives. Thank you so much Kukua, especially Rachel and Mayte, for making the wedding of our dreams come true.

Other vendors review’s:

Hair: Natalia (Instagram: browbar_dmn), I’m obsessed with her. She was so sweet to work with, brought a second to do hair since we had so many, and all of our hair styles looked amazing. I had done absolutely no trial and just showed her pictures from pinterest and told her what I did and didn’t like, and she knocked it out of the freaking park! Can’t recommend her enough!

MUA: Blushed Hair and Makeup from Detroit, MI- Lauren is incredibly talented and had actually done both my siblings weddings, so it was a no brainer to bring her along to help complete the trifecta! If you are in the Detroit area, highly recommend Lauren for your wedding prep and all things skin related- she is one of the most amazing estheticians (super successful business-#1 detroit metro area) and the kindest human being ever. And she made me feel like a Victoria Secret Angel on my wedding day!

Photographer: Shauna Wear Photography, also located in Detroit and we’ve done so many shoots with her, so we just had to bring her along. She is incredible so highly recommend if you want to bring her along to Kukua or if you’re in the Detroit area needing an engagement shoot, she’s your girl!

Videography: Wedding Films Punta Cana. Though we have not seen any video content just yet, they were incredible to work with and it definitely seemed like they were getting all the good shots and all the good angles! Joel and his assistant were so sweet! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

Save the dates and Invitations: Truly Engaging- can’t recommend enough. Affordable and worth the extra $ to have envelopes addressed for you.

Travel Agents: Kristen Bullock and Patty Jordan from Unique Romance and Adventure Travel. Cannot recommend these two enough! They coordinated travel for all of our guests and ourselves, answered every question along the way, and were on top of it 24/7. They were so friendly and so wonderful to work with! I would highly recommend them for your wedding room block, and personal travel in general!

Private Boat Tour- Renny Travel. We did a boat for about 30 of us (parents, grandparents, groomsmen and plus ones, bridesmaids and plus ones, siblings and their kids) and it cost about $1500 and it was soooo worth it! We were questioning if we had it in the budget, but I’m so glad we found a way to make it work! It was so nice to sneak away with just the bridal party and we had a blast on the boat. We did it as part of their gifts and everyone was so appreciative, with everyone saying it was one of their favorite days. The onlyyyyyyy thing I would say is ask them to skip the dolphin island- its basically dolphins in the middle of the ocean locked in areas. It’s sad and we hated it, and had I known we would’ve skipped. But otherwise they did a great job. They also brought a photographer and we got roped into buying all the photos but they were so good and we loveeeee photos, so we budged and bought over 500 photos for $250.

Bridesmaid dresses: Azazie Eucalyptus Stretch Satin. I’ve been in chiffon and pink for every wedding I’ve ever been in so I knew I wanted to do something different. These popped sooooo good against the sand and everyone was obsessed! My bridesmaids were really nervous about the stretch satin, a few of them concerned being a little bit more curvy. But they all looked AMAZING in them and all of them unanimously agreed the material was the best for the climate and these were dresses they would actually wear again! We let them pick out whatever they felt best in and I highly recommend. Cant recommend these dresses enough.

Men’s suits: men’s wearhouse light grey linen suit. Only the groom and dad’s wore full suit and remainder wore just pants with brown (belt, shoes) and it looked amazingggg. I’m just not a fan of khaki so im so glad we went with this decision and it’s something he will definitely wear again! It ended up costing groomsmen about $150 for nice pants, shirt, belt, and shoes that they’ll all wear again they said!

Dress: Lillian West, bought at The Bridal Collection in Centennial, CO

Resort: RIU PALACE PUNTA CANA. Ok, so mixed feelings about the RIU. We loved how close it was to Kukua and that they shared a property line with Kukua so it was just a few steps and you were there. We loved how cost affordable it was for our guests. Would we have liked to stay somewhere a little nicer? Maybe. But it did it’s job of being cost affordable, having decent food, great pools, and a beautiful beach! It was easy to find everyone within the resort. The pools were seriously so great! Food could’ve been better- but is all inclusive food ever really incredible? Steakhouse was okay- get the chicken. Japanese restaurant was bomb. Italian had good food but terrible service- went like 3 times and each time wondered why we went back lol. Bartenders and servers poolside were AMAZING. They also had daily entertainment and activities! We did a room block with our travel agent and because of it, got some freebies so highly recommend doing that! We paid to privatize the steakhouse for a “toasts and roasts dinner” the night before the wedding, and also had a welcome cocktail party. A few guests ended up with some upset stomachs, but a lot of us were there for a week, so I feel like it’s bound to happen at some point anywhere you go!

We had our wedding back in April and I’m still over the moon about it. Every single thing was absolutely perfect. From the start with my planning process with Rachel to my taste testing with Mayte and the day of, it all ran smooth and everything came out better then I had imagined. The decor was to die for, the food was amazing, the venue was breathtaking, the service was outstanding, the kindness from each staff member was unmatched, everything was top tier and I cannot say enough good things. It was the wedding of my dreams.

The most perfect day! Kukua was everything and more than we could have imagined. From the initial contact with Rachel, down to the final day put together by Mayte and her team. We couldn't have asked for a better wedding. They literally think of everything and really makesure your day is as perfect as it possibly can be. Our guests said it was the best wedding they have ever been too. We would highly recommend! And wish we could do it all over again. 🤍