If someone had told my 20-year-old self that I would one day be planning weddings on Caribbean beaches, I probably wouldn’t have believed them.
Back then, I simply knew two things: I loved travelling, and I loved weddings.
It turns out those two passions would eventually become one career.
Like many wedding planners, my story starts with a movie.
I watched The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez when I was in my twenties. While most people probably saw it as a romantic comedy, I saw something completely different. I saw a profession that combined creativity, organisation, logistics, people, emotions and problem solving.
For the first time, I could clearly picture the career I wanted.
A few years later, in 2013, I completed my diploma as a certified wedding planner through SAWI Zürich in collaboration with the Association of Independent Swiss Wedding Planners (VUSH).
That gave me the professional foundation.
Life would provide the rest.
Long before I planned weddings here, I fell in love with the country itself.
At 21, I came to the Dominican Republic to learn Spanish and spend some time abroad. What was meant to be a short stay turned into several years of discovering the island, its culture and its people.
I later returned to Switzerland, worked there for several years and completed my wedding planning education. But something never quite felt right.
Switzerland would always be home, yet my heart kept pulling me back to the Caribbean.
So I made what became one of the biggest decisions of my life.
I packed my bags once again and returned to the Dominican Republic.
This time, I stayed.
Over the following years, I built a new life here. I worked in tourism, met my former husband, became a mother of two, and eventually founded my own wedding planning company.
Looking back, every chapter prepared me for what I do today.
Many planners know weddings.
Destination weddings require something more.
Planning a celebration in another country means understanding how that country actually works.
You need to know the seasons, the traffic, the local traditions, the suppliers who consistently deliver, the ones who don’t, and the countless small details that visitors simply can’t see.
Having lived in both Switzerland and the Dominican Republic allows me to bridge those two worlds.
I understand the expectations of international couples while also knowing how to make things happen locally.
That combination has become one of my greatest strengths.
After hundreds of weddings, a few lessons have stayed with me:
That’s what I work towards with every wedding I plan. Not just creating a beautiful celebration, but giving my couples the freedom to experience it.
Although couples often work closely with me throughout the planning process, no wedding is ever created by one person.
My colleague Michaela has been part of my life since childhood and today is an important part of our planning team. Behind the scenes, my partner Gustavo leads our setup crew, supported by a trusted team that helps transform each venue.
Around us is a carefully built network of photographers, florists, caterers, musicians, rental companies and many other professionals we’ve worked with for years.
These relationships weren’t built overnight. They’ve been earned through trust, consistency and hundreds of weddings together.
People often ask whether planning weddings ever becomes routine. It doesn’t. Every couple arrives with a different story.
Different families.
Different cultures.
Different dreams.
I still feel butterflies before every ceremony. I still smile when I see a bride step into her dress. I still quietly solve last-minute problems without anyone noticing.
Because that’s my job. Not to stand in the spotlight. But to make sure you never have to worry about what’s happening behind it.
There is one moment at almost every wedding that reminds me why I chose this career. Usually between the ceremony and the reception, the couple pauses for just a second. They look around. They take everything in. And for the first time all day, they realise: “We’re married.” That moment never gets old.
And after all these years, it’s still my favourite part of every wedding.
If you’re planning a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic and want clarity before committing to a resort package (Click here) , working with a local planner early can change the entire experience.
You don’t need more options.
You need the right structure.
Contact us for more information: hello@anniroth.com
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The Quiet Panic Moment. It almost never happens at the beginning. At the beginning, couples are excited. Confident. Motivated. They’ve got Pinterest boards. Google Docs. A shared Notes app called “Wedding Stuff.”
They think:
“We’re organized.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Do we really need a planner?”
And then… there’s a moment. ….
“Don’t worry — we have a wedding coordinator.”
And in that moment, it feels like one big thing is checked off the list. But here’s the part that usually comes later — often after weeks of emails, restrictions, and rising costs: a resort wedding coordinator and a wedding planner are not the same thing. And then ….
Every year I watch the flowers change before anything else does. Before the dresses, before the color palettes, the florals tell me where weddings are heading. And in 2026, they’re heading somewhere I love: away from the soft, symmetrical bouquet and toward something bolder.
This year, the flowers aren’t decoration. They’re architecture.
“Where should we actually get married?” It’s the first real question almost every couple asks me. Not the date. Not the budget. The place. After ten years of planning weddings on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, I have opinions. Strong ones.
For years, the question was always the same: how do we fit everyone in?
Lately, I’m hearing the opposite. Couples come to me and say: we want it small. Really small. Twenty people, maybe fewer.
A Caribbean wedding at Melody Village, Puerto Plata. Stefanie and Cody were nervous at the start. By the end, they said they’d do it all over again.
Some weddings stay in your memory because everything went perfectly. Others stay because something almost went wrong — and didn’t. Simona and Tautvydas flew to the Dominican Republic from Lithuania to get married on November 11th, 2023. They had planned for months. They had a vision. They had everything ready. What they didn’t have, when they landed, was their luggage.
It always begins with a vision, something effortless, beautiful, and deeply intentional. Maybe it’s a beachfront ceremony in Punta Cana, a stylish villa weekend in Las Terrenas, a cultural celebration in Santo Domingo, or something more intimate, like the mountains of Jarabacoa or the untouched beaches of Las Galeras.
