Lovestruck couples should be careful not to let wedding bells drown out the
warning bells when planning to get hitched down south, a Halifax travel
agent said Wednesday.

Danny Almon, whose company Almon Travel specializes in destination weddings,
said anyone who wants to tie the knot somewhere hot should make sure to go
with a reputable resort and leave lots of time for booking.

"Brides can opt to do an off-resort wedding, but that's a little more risky,
in my opinion," Mr. Almon said.

"If you're doing it on the resort, then you have the general manager, and if
it's a large chain, you have places to go to complain if you have concerns.
Whereas if it's an independent, you're dealing with a small business in a
foreign country and that could lead to problems."

One such problem, although Mr. Almon admitted he's never encountered such a
thing, presented itself in the Dominican Republic recently.

A wedding scam was uncovered in Punta Cana where a wedding co-ordinator
colluded with a fake judge to swindle about 200 newly wed Canadian and
British couples. The scam, involving only one resort, had been going on
since last July.

"Certainly in that situation, the resort who was responsible for it has
gotten an enormous black eye," Mr. Almon said.

The name of the resort has not been released.

Officials with the Central Electoral Board, which oversees civil weddings
for the tiny Caribbean country, have said because the marriages were
performed in good faith, a real judge will validate the unions and issue
marriage certificates within three months.

Charles Tibbo and his fiancee Laura Jo Arsenault were planning to tie the
knot at a resort in Puerto Plato in April.

The Antigonish County couple recently tweaked their plans, but not because
of news of the scam, Mr. Tibbo said.

"We decided to get married in the morning here (in Nova Scotia), prior to
leaving . . . later in the day," he wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle
Herald on Wednesday.

"We have concerns on what paperwork and legal stuff we'd encounter by
getting married outside the country. For this reason, and to accommodate
family members that couldn't come with us, we opted for two weddings."

According to the Foreign Affairs Canada website, the department has not
issued any travel warnings for the Dominican since Feb. 7, when it suggested
vacationers exercise a "high degree of caution" due to a rise in the country
's crime rate.

Mr. Almon said people shouldn't worry too much about the isolated incident,
especially if they plan things carefully at home.

"You have to make absolutely sure that your wedding co-ordinator is someone
that can be trusted," he said.

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