We planned to elope in one month in Punta Cana

Our secret Punta Cana wedding was planned in a month

If you’d have told me, at any point in my 20s, that I’d be married before I was 30, I’d have laughed in stubborn and sour disbelief. In the ‘olden days’ when my parents were my age, if a woman wasn’t married or have plans to marry by the time she was 30, other women would assume there’s ‘something wrong with her’. To be quite honest, I was leaning towards accepting a life as a lonely spinster, until I met my other half, Brendan.

After only a year of dating Brendan, because of all we’ve been through, I knew he was ‘the one’. The idea of marriage had been brought up as a possibility, however, because of complicated situations, I assumed it would come with many challenges and a lot of stress. Planning a ‘big wedding’ was something I had no interest in, and neither did Brendan.

To make a long story short, we decided to elope on our vacation to the RIU Republica in Punta Cana, with only one month to prepare. We kept it a secret for the most part, only telling a few people here and there; we needed to allow ourselves to have some pre-wedding excitement. We agreed that family, friends, and of course, social media, would remain unaware of our wedding until we returned home.

This is how it went down…

A vacation together was well overdue. After almost a year and a half together, and my travel bug starting to really take over, I persistently bugged my boyfriend to get his passport application done so we could go on vacation.

I work at a tanning salon, where from November to March, the ‘base tanners’ come in and I have to hear about at least 20 vacations a day. Sour me could not be happy for people and their Caribbean holidays when I had nothing planned myself.

I’d never travelled with a boyfriend before, and was jealous I’d never been one of those ‘happy couples’ on vacation. Finally, on February 7th, Brendan submit his application for a passport to be put on rush. The next day on Saturday February 8th, we booked a 7 night all-inclusive escape to the Adults Only RIU Republica in Punta Cana- a destination we’d both never been. We planned to depart on Friday March 6th, giving us less than a month to prepare for our vacation.

The next night, after a couple of Sunday evening drinks, we decided to pull up the RIU Republica’s website to take a better look at the resort. I jokingly pulled up the ‘Weddings’ tab, and said something like ‘hint, hint’, meaning I was fishing for a proposal, but then somehow, the idea of getting married there became a thing.

We submit a booking request the very next day for a wedding ceremony during our vacation. On February 14th, Valentine’s Day (romantic, considering this was also the first year I had a proper date on Valentine’s Day) we received the confirmation for our wedding request. We were then contacted by Yessica, the Wedding Planner for all the RIUs in Punta Cana, who kindly agreed to plan our dream wedding on such short notice.

Coming soon, will be a series of sub-blogs which go into detail of the planning, ceremony, and reception:

Choosing the ceremony
Planning the wedding
Finding the dress
Upon arrival
The proposal & rings
Our wedding day
The ceremony
The reception dinner
After the wedding
Honeymoon on quarantine

To wrap it up in as few words as possible, our wedding day went PERFECT. Despite having rain on-and-off throughout the week, our special day, Wednesday March 11th, was sunny with a few clouds, and no rain. We spent the entire day together, a beautiful wedding at 4pm on the beach, and had a reception dinner with a delicious cake.

Yessica was an amazing planner and ensured we had our dream wedding. We were the only two guests at our wedding, and we wouldn’t have done it any other way.

Photography is always important to me, so we paid for a basic package of professional photos from WBA Studios– the best money we’ve ever spent. I have never seen couples look so truly happy on their wedding day.

Upon return to Canada, things drastically changed with the introduction of ‘social distancing’ and businesses closing down due to COVID-19. When we told my parents the news, they were elated and happy for us, but sadly, couldn’t give us a congratulatory hug or handshake.

They will be there when we legally sign the marriage papers at the courthouse once the town hall and courthouses opens up. My Mum is also hoping to plan a celebration in the summer, which doesn’t drain the father of the bride’s wallet.

The past few weeks, Brendan and I have not been working due to the COVID-19 quarantine. We are getting along just fine, because of the bond we know exists between us and our ability to handle major challenges which come our way. Most importantly, we get along on lockdown, because, as we both wrote in our vows, we are each other’s ‘best friends’.

It’s been a strange way to start married life, but we are so fortunate we got to have our dream wedding, just a week before the world changed, and our plans to travel and our wedding would have been cancelled.