Punta Cana Destination Wedding

When I think about having a beach wedding in the caribbean, Tanya and Gaetano’s wedding is exactly what comes to mind. I picture a warm celebration with my family and friends in attendance, a clean and neutral palette to complement the breathtaking views, lots of dancing, and of course, a fire show to close out the night. Asia Pimentel Photography captured all of Tanya and Gaetano’s elegant beach festivities and Val’s Weddings made sure the day came together so beautifully. Now pretend you’re at the beach with a fruity drink in hand as you take a look at these beautiful photos.

From the photographer, Tanya: We wanted our wedding to be elegant with rustic elements. I envisioned a very neutral palette of grey, ivory, and green to really let the beauty of the location shine through. We wanted lots of flowers and candles to set a romantic setting for the guests and create a cozy and relaxed atmosphere. We also wanted some unique items to tell our family story so we created a custom display of our family tree with photographs from both sides of the family. To capture memories from the wedding, we had a Polaroid wall, where all our guests took their pictures and we also had a wooden anchor made so guests could write their wishes on it, instead of a guest book.

We chose the wedding venue because of the beauty of the surrounding nature. The beautiful Caribbean Sea and the waves breaking right at our ceremony site made a lasting impression on our guests. We also loved how private the location was, we had the entire restaurant and beach to ourselves. The ceremony was our favourite part of the wedding because we wrote our own vows. This made it very personal and we were both crying by the end. Our pastor was great as well, incorporating very meaningful messages throughout our more traditional vows. Since we had a destination wedding, we also included a sand ceremony to commemorate the moment.

Our main goal for the reception was to incorporate both of our cultural traditions into the evening and also make it a very fun and entertaining party for our guests. I am Russian and Gaetano is Italian, so we hired a singer to perform our favourite songs from both cultures. We also wanted the father daughter dance to be special. Since Gaetano is very close with my father and plays the piano, I asked him to play the song for our father/daughter dance, which made everyone tear up. After that we really got the party started with some amazing Caribbean dancers and a fire show, everyone danced until the very end and had a blast! To create an elegant rustic feel, my amazing decorator created floral table runners and beautiful chandeliers covered with greenery and candles. Flowers were mostly white and ivory with lots of interesting greenery for accents and texture.