Our couples are more excited than ever these days to plan their Dominican Republic Destination weddings. There are so many amazing areas to choose from when it comes to exchanging your vows. Firstly, to the popularity of our couples over the years, La Romana, Cap Cana and Bavaro are our top contenders. Secondly, all three are conveniently accessible from the main Punta Cana International Airport. Thirdly, all three areas are guaranteed to provide a unique and colorful pallet of fantastic beaches, resorts and activities. Best of all, we’ll offer flight tips and our best travel agency tips. Lastly, who doesn’t want to show off those once in a lifetime white sand, turquoise ocean wedding photo memories?
Bavaro – A wealth of resort options
Bavaro, is located in the heart of Punta Cana and so popular for wedding groups. There are a plethora of outstanding resorts to pick and choose. You’ll also find endless miles of sensational beaches. A long coral reef line creates calm shallow waters perfect for careful vacation swim days. Enjoy fun-filled golf days, shopping at San Juan Shopping Center (accessible Downtown Center). There is a wide variety of beachfront properties such as Paradisus, Hard Rock, Melia, Barcelo and Iberostar. For the private ceremony and reception venues, check out fantastic options such as: Kukua Punta Cana Restaurant. You’ll be amazing at Jellyfish Restaurant. And be sure to check out Huracan Cafe. All three of these trendy venues are located in the heart of Bavaro.
Cap Cana – Perfect for off the beaten path vacations
Cap Cana is well known for offering outstanding 5-star luxury resort options. Where you’ll find some of the best all-inclusive adult-only resorts. Winding roads aligned with signature palm trees bring a welcome element of luxury and privacy. Cap Cana is the ideal antiquated private beachfront community. Best of all, Cap Cana, located just 15 minutes from the Punta Cana airport. It offers over 30,000.00 acres of flawless beachfront. The bluest of the Caribbean ocean is your scenic wedding backdrop. For the golfers in your group, they’ll find proximity to the famous Punta Espada Golf Club. This exclusive area also boasts private homes, clubs and cherry-picked wedding venue options. And don’t forget to check out Scape Park while you are here. This fantastic park is home to zip-lining, a natural sinkhole and amazing ancient caves.
La Romana- Your dream destination wedding starts here.
La Romana offers a lovely and scenic 50-minute drive from the Punta Cana International Airport. This quiet, tranquil area is worth the trip. Minutes from La Romana, you’ll discover high-end property villas and resorts such as Casa de Campo. You will also find the famous beach Playa Minitas. There is an abundance of charm here, including a 16th century re-created Mediterranean village – Altos de Chavon. Fantastic tours to Saona Island begin their journey from Bayahibe, a neighboring village. Many new resorts have vied for the hearts of destination wedding couples. This is unequivocally due to the sublime beachfront. Also noteworthy are the Iberostar, Bahia resort chains and beloved Dreams chain of resorts.
Punta Cana Airport – How fast can I get there.
If we haven’t yet sold you on the location’s beaches and activities, then let’s take a look at how affordable and easy it is to fly to Punta Cana. Because of its popularity, there are direct flights from most Canadian cities. You can also book many direct flights as well out of the US. Otherwise, one-stops are readily available through most North American cities. If La Romana is your chosen destination, seasonal flights may be purchased directly into La Romana airport. Round trip group and individual airport transfers can be set up by your travel agent to all three stunning locations.
Travel Professionals- Make it so easy.
So, you’ve decided that Punta Cana is the perfect destination to exchange your wedding vows. Wedding travel planning can be daunting. We highly recommend working with an experienced destination wedding travel agent. They know the locations well, can make fantastic recommendations for all-inclusive resorts as well as those cherished private wedding ceremony and reception locations. Liz Moore Destination Weddings. Consider that guests may be arriving from North America as well as abroad. This makes having a dedicated travel agent, your best friend during the booking process. It’s also wonderful to have that your dedicated agent by your side before departure, once on property and even post-travel if need be.
Popular Venues-Offer Unforgettable photography
Last but not least, we highly recommend consulting with a reputable Punta Cana wedding photographer during your initial planning stages. Many destination wedding photographers live in the destination they shoot. This makes them an invaluable resource. They can offer valuable information about not only your chosen destination but the resorts and venues that provide ideal photography options and cinematography. Photo Cine Art. We love working with Milan from Photo Cine Art. Milan and his team offer up a wealth of experience in these regions, as well as capturing those once in a lifetime wedding photos. Additionally, they offer must-have wedding photography tips.
We hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about one of our most cherished wedding locations, for your Dominican Republic Destination Weddings. If you choose to marry here you’ll no doubt cherish your wedding memories and photographs for a lifetime.
Altos de Chavon is a little picturesque cobblestone village situated in the southeast of Dominican Republic. It is near La Romana town and 110 km away from the capital Santo Domingo. Even though it looks a lot like very old Mediterranean village, it is actually quite young. It was built in 1976 by Charles Bludhorn. The best stonecutters, woodworkers, iron-smiths combined their crafts to create this rich architectural landscape. One simple stroll through the narrow passageways will transport you in time, to the mid-16th century and make you madly in love with this absolutely gorgeous place!
Bellow the steep cliffs and abundant vegetation, the Chavon River or Rio Chavón is flowing slowly towards the entrance of the Ocean on the Altos de Chavón village side all the way to the Casa de Campo Marina. When you get the glimpse of the gorgeous jungle like nature surrounding the Chavon River it became clear why the movies like Apocalypse Now, Anaconda and Rambo II were filmed there.
The Roman styled, 5000 seats, open air, amphitheater at Altos de Chavon hosted many world stars from Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias to Sting and Elton John, and nearby exclusive resort Casa de Campo is the place for rich and famous favorite getaway.
With the Gallery and Altos de Chavon School of Design the village is known for its valuable multicultural contribution to the artistic expression of the island.
Sitting in the heart of Altos de Chavon village, the church St. Stanislaus is one of the area’s most beautiful tourist attraction. The church was consecrated in 1979 as roman catholic church. To commemorate the occasion, Pope John Paul II sent the ashes of Poland’s patron saint, St. Stanislaus, as well as a hand-carved statue from Krakow. St. Stanislaus was the place where in 1994 pop star Michael Jackson exchanged vows with the King of Rock and Roll only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
Talking about weddings, your guests will surely love dining and dancing under the stars at this luxurious destination. Have your ceremony in a luxury setting surrounded with a stunning view. There are endless possibilities of Casa de Campo, so it doesn’t matter if you chose a beach, private villa or St Stanislaus church as a setting, your wedding day will be absolutely perfect! Even if you chose to do a wedding somewhere else, you can arrange to have eye popping photos at Altos de Chavon. Many of our couples have decided to do additional photo shoot couple of days after the wedding in Punta Cana, which prove to be an excellent choice!
”Wedding photography and wedding videography belong together. They’re like two peas in a pod, two people doing the tango and two soulmates getting married. A photograph of both of you exchanging your vows is beautiful, but in years to come, will you remember the beautiful words you said to each other? The tone of your voices? The gentle break of a sentence when emotion overcame you? Wedding videos trigger your five senses, memories and emotions like no other medium can; coupled with wedding photography, they provide complete memories of your wedding day.” – as ‘marrymemovies’ said very accurately.
Often seen as not obligatory, wedding video frequently doesn’t survive budget cuts. But as much often that exactly is one of the biggest regrets we often hear from brides – that they didn’t hire a wedding videographer https://www.brides.com/story/brides-share-wedding-regrets.
The idea to have a video from your wedding day is that when you re-watch it every anniversary, to feel transported to that wonderful day when it all begin. But, if you have an idea of a wedding video as a guy with huge shoulder-camera standing still in the corner for a couple of hours from which you’ll receive looooong video saga that you’ll watch only once in lifetime, we have news flash for you – that time is long gone!
A beautiful and professional video can do wonders, it will let you listen to your own voice reciting your vows, it will bring back, quite literally, the in-between moments, the sounds of Caribbean breeze and ocean, all the action on one of most important day in your life.
Why you should have a video from your wedding?
Here are some of the points:
Wedding videos are easily sharable. Sometimes it’s just too hard to get everyone you love to come to your wedding, especially if its destination wedding. If you have one of the family members that couldn’t attend, it would be really special to send them your wedding film so they could enjoy in your day too.
The quality of wedding filmmakers in Punta Cana is on high industry standards. The films we are producing are cinematic, compelling, made with latest equipment. You’ll be receiving creative product up to latest, modern standards in world wedding cinematography.
Absolute truth is that a wedding day is over in a flash. Very common comment of many brides is that “wedding day was a blur” and it will become hazier as the time pass. A film can help you remember all the little details, preserve the big moments and experience some of the things you didn’t see the first time.
There is a reason the film industry is worth billions of dollars. It’s because films move people. They can inspire you, provoke you or move you to tears. Why not capture your wedding this way? Imagine that someone makes a movie about moments that you lived, intense experiences that you went through and feelings you had on your wedding day so you can relive them whenever you wish.
How to chooseyour wedding videographer
Like wedding photography, wedding videography also has different styles.
Did you know that there are virtually endless ways of making a fantastic wedding video? However, since we are human beings, we love to categorize things into genres or styles. Every videographer has his own signature style (light and airy, dark and moody, romantic, fast, slow…) but at the same time we all follow some general rules. There are many, many styles in wedding videography, specially regarding editing style of the final video product and it would be impossible to present all of them so, here are couple of popular styles you might like to choose from:
Cinematic
A cinematic wedding video is filmed and edited to have that cinema movie feeling, with a goal of emphasizing the emotion and feeling of the day. It may rely more on the style of editing and music to present the wedding with all video tricks and transitions, but also the personality of the couple in an interesting and compelling way. The video might not be in chronological order, skipping from the vows, to getting ready, to your walk down the aisle, to toasts, to dancing. They can be fast and funny or slow and romantic, or all the combination in-between, depending on the ‘feel’ of the wedding and the couple. The “cinematic” style has definitively become the new norm in wedding videography.
Journalistic
This is the option that is closer to more traditional wedding video. Sometimes referred as ”documentary” or ”reportage” it is basically a chronological video of the wedding, the way it happened, in its most extended form. This style is one that is more straightforward, capturing every aspect of your big day, from your preparation to your march out. Wedding videos that follow the journalistic style are essentially the summary of the day, without as many effects or transitions seen in the cinematic style.
Let’s talk prices
First, one part of the price depends on the final video product/s that you’ll receive. It can slightly differ from company to company but mainly you have two final video products: short – Teaser, Highlight or Feature Film, and long final video product – Documentary Film. To keep it simple, short video product is modern, sweet, highly edited product suitable for social media sharing and long video is more traditional, slower form, with complete ceremony, vows and speeches included.
Second part of the price would be with how many videographers the day was covered and for how long, whether you would like aerial footage taken etc.
To recap, the number of hours filming, how many videographers will be working and which video products are included in package will all influence the pricing.
Last, but actually the most important, take in consideration the quality of work.
Do you want to get an idea of the things that we film and the stories that we tell? Please check out our show-reel film below. I suggest you to watch in full screen and don’t forget to raise the volume :).
Your wedding day is fast approaching and now it’s time to select which wedding photographer you will trust with your most precious record of the day! There are so many out there, each promising that your photos will be the ones you’ve dreamed of, each one with similar awesome reviews, so choosing can become very difficult. If you’ve been following us you’ve seen how each photographer is different. So how DO you finally decide which one to use?
Consider Style
First of all, give some thought to the style of photography you’d like for your images. To help you, we’ve discussed this in detail in our previous article which can be found here. Take inspiration from portfolios to decide which suits you best, do you want a glossy editorial style or perhaps something more laid back and natural? Hands down best choice will be a photographer who can combine various styles depending of your wishes, available light and situation.
Don’t forget to give some thought to your location also, as it will play a major role in your wedding and you’ll want to show it off in all its glory!
Choosing a Wedding Photographer
Sweeping natural landscapes can create gorgeous and dramatic shots when handled by an expert, intimate and cozy venues may need to present a completely different vibe. Lots of decoration details are a must in any case. Capturing each of these to produce incredible results requires different skill sets from your photographer. Therefore, you need to make sure that you pick someone who has the knowledge and expertise to cover all aspects of your wedding.
You’ll have a lot of fun consulting recommendations and reviews to hear the opinion of other couples! Making a decision may seem difficult among a sea of five star reviews, but take time to read each one! By spotting key words and phrasing you’ll start to build a profile of the photographer to get an idea of not only how they work, but also their personality and if it suits you. Once you’ve found someone who sounds like a perfect fit, move on the next stage!
Get to know person behind the lens
Get in touch! Send an email, a message on social media, or simply call! Once you’ve narrowed down your search, start talking! Ask all the questions you have and photographers will be happy to help. Also, you may find that the photographer’s availability will play a key role so make sure in your first contact you provide your chosen date, you wouldn’t want to be decided only to find out that your perfect photographer is not available!
A perfect “match”
Finally, select a photographer that puts you at ease, someone you ‘click’ with – no pun intended :)! As with any service work, sometimes you find someone who simply blows you away with who they are, how they work, how they deal with you! There are some incredible photographers who are able to connect with couples leaving lasting memories of not just the wedding, but also with the whole experience of being photographed. If you find the right photographer, even the shiest of brides and grooms can become confident in front of the lens!
A great photographer’s personality has the power to make you shine, completely relaxed and focused on your day, and a great photographer will also become invisible when needed, creating an environment that will produce gorgeous natural looking shots, from places you never thought were even possible. The end result will be the wedding album you’ve always dreamed of, and a whole lot of fun making it!
Thanks to handsome groom Corey Nicholas and out of this world beautiful bride Jennifer Laga, who put their trust in us to shoot their wedding at mother of all beautiful sunsets – Hilton La Romana and even took us to a place where all the fairy-tale movies are filmed – Altos de Chavon, we again raised the bar a little in wedding photography! It was a magical journey full of emotions, laughter and love. I’m always a very-happy-photographer when I know that I’ll shoot a wedding at Hilton La Romana. Located close to the picturesque, small fishing town Bayahibe, at the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, the hotel has a very amazing feature, which I’m sure every wedding photographer appreciate very much: the sun is setting in the ocean on that coast! We did our best photos ever in that hotel! Of course we took advantage of that fact at this wedding too.
Hope ya’ll enjoy in these pics as much as we enjoyed in making them! Congrats Jen & Corey! Love… M&N…
