Private Reception or Steak&Seafood Restaurant

[FutureMrs.McKerrall]

This question is for all of you who are having a DW or have been to one.

I am planning a DW at the Majestic Colonial in Punta Cana, DR and we have two options for the dinner:

1 - The group (around 30) can be seated together, semi-privately, in the restaurant and eat off of the set menu at no extra charge.
2 - We can book a private reception for 300 (US dollars) for the rental of the room and then 55 (US dollars) per person for the meal and then 20 (US dollars) per person/per hour for the open bar. Basically, this option adds up really quickly!

I am wondering if anyone has done the restaurant route with a large group? Was the set menu good? How was the service, because your group would be taken care of by a waiter/waitress who has other tables?

Thanks guys

 

[wannaBMrsH]

Hmmm...

This seems high to me....

We were given the same option at the Iberostar Punta Cana, but our private dinner will be $1575, and that INCLUDES the DJ and all the food for 45 people!

I don''t know if you have checked out any other forums, but if you google best destination weddings (dot) com forum those girls have a wealth of information and there are tons of MC brides in the Dominican Republic section.

I know when I went to a DW last year, the way that the bride got around that was that she had three separate groups book at the nicer locations, each room was allowed to book for a party of up to 12 at no additional charge, so she booked one party for 12, her mom booked another for 10 and her MOH booked another for 10. It was also an all-inclusive resort, so there was no additional charge for food or bar...

That sounds suspect and $2500 on top of whatever the wedding package fee is with nothing other than food, which is already included, sounds not so good to me.

 

[dani2142]

I am getting married at Beaches Negril in Jamaica and at it costs $75 per person for a 3 hour private reception. That only includes your food, drinks, wedding cake and standard resort lines and centerpieces. It cost extra for a band/dj and all that stuff. It is a lot cheaper then getting married at home and doing the big wedding thing, but to me I just can''t make sense of spending that kind of extra money at an all-inclusive resort. However, if you are a bride that has their heart set on it being a more private thing instead of having people around you I would definitely do it. I think we are just going to have a private dinner on the beach (just my fiance and I) because we are getting married at 10 a.m. and have all day to hang with our family/friends

 

[pocahontas]

Welcome to BWW and congrats on your engagement

DH and I were married three months ago in La Romana, DR. We had a group of 27 and chose to go the private reception route. You're right that the costs can add up quickly, but for us it was totally worth it. We wanted a dj, dance floor and privacy to celebrate with our guests. If you're interested in this route, but are concerned about the costs maybe you can cut costs somewhere else. Are you and your guests staying at the hotel? I don't understand why you'd pay for alcohol that would be covered under your stay at an all-inclusive. Also, have you looked into wedding packages? When DH and I were considering our options it made a lot more sense to upgrade one of the wedding packages rather than trying to put together a reception from the hotel's "banquet/convention" menu and services list. Good luck!

ETA: Ditto Wannab's comments about the pricing sounding quite expensive.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

We didn''t do a destination wedding, but we did have a semi-private reception at a restaurant and to tell you the truth, we didn''t even know the people were there. We had part of the space and we were separated from the other people by a curtain. But we shared bathrooms, a bar and the servers walked through our space to get to theirs. We really had no problems. Actually, it was funny because a bride who was considering the space for her wedding came for dinner with her parents. So she was able to peek in to see what it looked like in wedding mode.