uk brides that have gone to Excellence Punta Cana!

Hey Amber! Congratulations on your engagement!

The first thing you should do when planning your wedding is to set a budget. By doing this, you will be able to then determine how much you have to spend on your venue and flights, as well as any other vendors that you will need to hire.

Have you contacted the hotel to ask them about their wedding packages? You should also ask them whether they will be subject to any changes between now and your wedding. This will help you plan. Resorts like this will most likely have an on-site wedding coordinator to work with you when you arrive in the Dominican Republic. You should ask the hotel when is involved in their services.

Have you checked out flights for a similar time of year for 2020, just to get a feel for how much they could cost when it comes time to book your flights in 2021?

Are you planning on honeymooning in Punta Cana also? I actually checked out WeddingWire.co.uk and found a couple of articles that you might be interested in!

Your Essential Guide to Destination Weddings

Why Punta Cana is one of the best honeymoon destinations

There is also a Budget Tracker Tool that will definitely help you out!!

Hi Amber, I am not from the UK (from the US) but am also in the process of planning my wedding at Excellence Punta Cana for May 2020. We have been their twice in the last 3 years and absolutely loved it. Your profile says May 2021, have you already booked with the hotel? When we originally booked the resort we were in the same boat as you since flights were not yet available for that time frame, so we had to pick our date based on the hotel's availability for the wedding and our schedule. We had spoken to the wedding coordinators while we were their on a prior trip and they were also able to give us some feedback on the best time of year in DR (weather, number of guests typically in the hotel etc.). I did do some research on flights before booking to see what the prices were looking like during that same time period but a year before (May 2019) just to see what the trend was for that time frame and hopefully I will have been able to avoid spring break time frame when flights from the US to DR are very expensive.

The good thing about this resort is that they didn’t require any deposit, only that you book your room at the time of reserving your wedding date. I didn’t have to pay anything upfront as they won’t charge you for your room until a month prior to your stay.

I have found it a bit difficult to do anything related to travel until 1) i know how many guests will be coming and 2) it is close enough to the date that i can look up actual flights. So I began notifying my guests shortly after I booked my date/room. I now have a better idea of how many people will be coming and I can look up flights now so i have been periodically checking how many flights are scheduled from the US to DR on my guests expected travel date and how much they cost. I have heard that some airlines offer group travel rates so I plan to check with a travel agent on this.

I am not working with a wedding planner in the states, only the coordinators that are at the hotel and they have been responsive with all of my questions. I decided to go with outside vendors for photography/videography and hair/makeup so I am handling this separately on my own.

I am sure there is so much more that I am forgetting but I would love to hear how your planning process is going! I have not found many people on here who have gotten married or plan to get married at EPC and would appreciate hearing about your experience with them.

Marisa