Reviewed on May 23, 2020

Hello! My husband and I are a young African American couple from Houston TX. Choosing Sanctuary Cap Cana was the best decision for my husband and I! We had an intimate wedding of about 75 people, and everything was perfect. Our wedding planner, Rosy, was an absolute gem. We had a few last minute changes to our wedding: my husbands mother died just a week before and we wanted to honor her, Rosy was very understanding. We ended up having to find a new DJ literally the day before, and rosy recommenced someone and he was great and we are very particular about our music selection! I wasn’t feeling good the day of, I requested ginger root tea and rosy got it. My Wedding dress had a small stain and they took care of it right away! It was important to us that all of our guests felt special and well taken care of. As you know, when you’re the bride and groom you don’t get to enjoy all of the daily activities because of wedding obligations, so we definitely want to go back! But All of our guests LOVED the activities, their rooms, food, and service. As for our bridal party, we new that things can add up quickly financially, so we wanted to make sure all of their attire was reasonably priced and still timeless. We also hosted a 90s themed Welcome party the night before, and the party continued as we ended up at the club on the resort. The DJ took all of our requests so it really felt like home! Our venue was beautiful, we decided to do the balcony around sunset. We were worried about the weather forecast but Rosy assured us no matter what things would go just fine! The weather was perfect, it stormed after our reception lol Thank God the weather held up. Our butler, Amillio, was our family by the end of the trip. He took great care of us and our guests the entire time. Overall, the staff were extremely delightful and made us feel like family. All of our guests said the same. We hired our own photography, videographer and make up artist - all of whom made our vision come to life. The resort itself is very safe and secure, every vendor had to have a daily guest passes (which can definitely get pricey). But for us, photography and videography was very important. Overall, I would definitely recommend Sanctuary Cap Cana for the food, the people, service, and beautiful Spanish colonial architecture.

Guest Type: Bride
Wedding Date: Nov 1, 2018

Reviewed on Oct 12, 2017

My husband and I were married in February 2017 at Sanctuary Cap Cana. We began communicating with venues in December 2015, after deciding to have our wedding in Punta Cana. We loved the pictures on Sanctuary's website. When inquiring for additional information on their website, we communicated with the Alsol Events Booking Staff, who I believe was located somewhere in Canada. In order to reserve the date, we had to put a deposit down and reserve a room block of at least 10 rooms. We were provided with a timeline of when we were to begin working with our wedding coordinator to narrow down our decisions for the wedding. We were informed that Sanctuary Cap Cana only hosts one wedding per day, which was also appealing to us, as I know some venues host multiple events/weddings per day. We were introduced via e-mail to the wedding coordinator and the events staff at Sanctuary Cap Cana, and we subsequently began making decisions regarding our wedding. We decided to visit Sanctuary Cap Cana in April 2016 to tour the venue, complete a food tasting, meeting with the DJ, etc. When we arrived, we were introduced to another wedding coordinator, as the first wedding coordinator we worked with was either fired or quit. The hotel was absolutely beautiful. The staff were incredibly friendly and we became even more excited to continue to plan our upcoming wedding. Upon returning home and continuing our planning via e-mail, we were introduced to our third wedding coordinator (the second coordinator either quit or was fired). Unfortunately, NONE of the plans we previously determined were passed on to the third wedding coordinator, and we subsequently had to re-plan our wedding with the third coordinator. Along with re-planning our wedding, the third wedding coordinator was quoting us prices for items/services which we were previously informed were included in the initial price. My husband and I then had to go through our old e-mails and paperwork to have Sanctuary honor our original agreements, which was frustrating. Sanctuary Cap Cana tried to charge fees for practically everything ( $800 fee to use a photographer who is not Sanctuary Cap Cana staff, $40 to put out place cards, $500 to use a specific location for our ceremony, etc. etc.) The next few months were good - we were able to communicate frequently with our newest wedding coordinator, who was very helpful. We arrived at Sanctuary Cap Cana several days before the wedding and were pleasantly surprised that the hotel upgraded our room to a castle suite (the wedding package did include a room upgrade for the bridge and groom, depending on availability). The hotel staff was once again amazing and all of our guests were really happy with the hotel. We hosted a welcome reception the evening before the wedding, where our guests were able to meet, drink, and enjoy appetizers. The bartenders and waiters who worked at our welcome reception were so friendly. The on-site wedding coordinator, Marisol, was AMAZING. She went above and beyond her role and we were so appreciative of all of her hard work. The wedding day was stressful (for me, the bride) however, I was very pleased with the location where the ceremony took place as well as the reception. Marisol made sure everything was set up the way we discussed and was great about ensuring that everything was running on time. We were shocked to find out the day before our wedding that there were in fact two weddings being held on our wedding day. When we questioned Sanctuary Cap Cana event staff, they stated that they never informed us that the policy is only one wedding per day. Once returning back home, I forwarded them the e-mail correspondence with the event booking staff for Sanctuary in Canada which indicated the hotel's policy of one wedding per day. In addition, the DJ who we met in April 2016 and that we had been corresponding with since, did not work at our wedding. Instead, we were provided with a replacement DJ who experienced several technical problems. Overall, we were very happy with the hotel, the location, and the staff; however, we felt we were blindsided by the other wedding being held on the same day as our wedding.

Guest Type: Bride
Wedding Date: Feb 1, 2017