We had our wedding at Melia Caribe Tropical on May 29th 2006. It was wonderful and I'm so glad we chose to have a destinantion wedding. The gazebo at the Melia is great because it is more secluded and away from the foot traffic of the hotel guests. Everything went so well. We had about 55 people there and they came from different parts of the United States. People used different travel agents and websites for their packages including Expedia, American Express Vacations, Liberty Travel, Continental Airlines Vacations and American Airlines Vacations. People also went to traditional travel agents. About half of us booked rooms in the Royal Service section. This was totally worth it. We've stayed in the regular section before and it is certainly very nice, but the Royal Service section is true luxury and pampering. It's just a higher level of service and the pool and Gabi restaurant are so good you barely need to leave the Royal Service area. Prior to arrival, I had various communications with Angelica, the wedding coordinator. She's great, but don't freak out if it takes her a few days to respond to your emails, it is what it is.
Everything worked out well. No one got sick or anything like that. We advised our guests to take acidophilous pills for a few weeks leading up to the trip as well as during the trip. It has the same "good" bacteria that yogurt has so if you don't want to eat two yogurts a day, just take the acidophilus. We are convinced it's one of the reasons we've never gotten sick all the times we've visited DR. If you live in the NYC area, the consulate is in Times Square. There are a few in the U.S. but if there isn't one in your area, Angelica can provide you with the name and website of a service that takes care of all your paperwork translation in the United States. The wedding was beautiful, we had the musical trio, and the horse and carriage, it was definitely worth paying extra. We had a separate reception at night with open bar, hors d'ouevres and music because we had so many guests, but if we had a small group with just our family, like 15 or less people, we would have had a quiet private dinner, so if you have a small group, definitely talk to Angelica about all the options. You have a choice of the type of flowers you want. I wanted a tropical bouquet with colorful flowers native to the DR because I felt it went with the scenery, but if you are more into roses, you definitely can chose a more traditional bouquet. Basically, everything was beautiful, the ceremony started on time and without a hitch, our photographer took beautiful pictures, but we also had so many guests that we now have over 1,000 photos in our computer. Here's a link to the pictures of the wedding
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/queen_.../ph//my_photos