When my fiancée suggested the Dominican Republic as a great place to have our wedding, I thought he meant trading in my dreams of a church wedding with lots of family for a beachfront elopement.

But as we explored the idea further, we realized that the Dominican Republic could fulfill all our dreams: a religious ceremony, a tropical reception in the sand and a wedding that our guests enjoyed as much for the great Caribbean vacation as for the marriage celebration itself.

The Dominican Republic’s many large resorts make it easy to plan a wedding, even a long-distance one like ours. Virtually every resort has a wedding coordinator who will take you from start to finish, offering you a variety of packages for every budget. You may want it to be romantic – just the two of you making your vows barefoot on the beach or you may want to get all your friends and relations to join in the fun. You can choose a more formal setting—even arriving at the ceremony in horse and carriage—or an informal ceremony that culminates in a barbecue. Your wedding coordinator can put it all together, usually at rates per reception guest that are very economical.

Choosing an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic means that you don’t have to worry about picking your guests up at the airport, where they will stay, where they will eat or how they will get to the wedding ceremony. All their needs will be taken care of by the hotel. And with skilled salon personnel, photographers and videographers available on-site, all you have to worry about is not getting too sunburned before the happy event!.

The best way to start planning your dream wedding in the Dominican Republic is via the Internet. Choose the region that interests you and then select the resort that offers the package you want. You can plan the whole thing with your personal wedding coordinator via e-mail, saving on expensive phone calls. It’s a good idea to get everything in writing, to avoid confusion on this most important day.

You will need to be flexible in some areas. Packages include the floral arrangements and bouquet; we selected ours the day before the wedding from a limited variety. In the case of religious ceremonies, you may not be able to get married on the beach, but take advantage of the resort’s roofed facilities instead. And you will need to get your documents together ahead of time. For civil ceremonies, this means passports, birth certificates, certification of unmarried status and divorce papers, if either of you were previously married. Your witnesses will also need to present passports. For religious ceremonies, your documents must be sent to the resort a month before the wedding date. In our case, in addition to the civil documents, we needed baptism, communion and confirmation certificates.

In the case of civil ceremonies, the marriage certificate should be ready the next day. It will take longer for religious ceremonies. But, why worry? When you celebrate your wedding in the Dominican Republic, the waiting room is your honeymoon!

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