Ocean Blue - May 5th 2008 Wedding Review

Let me start off by.... I LOVED IT!!

We arrived late Friday night and on Saturday morning around 10:0am we went to Guest Services to get a meeting with Julissa. They called Julissa right away and she said that she wanted to see us in 15 minutes. So Sébastien and I hurried back to our room to get all our wedding stuff together.

We went back to Guest Services and they was a bitchy looking girl that said she would bring us to Julissa. She had nice blue eyes.. so I told her... She was really happy for the compliment and from then on was super smiley and funny.

She brought us to Julissa and stayed with us. Julissa gave me a great big hug and kiss. Julissa then told us that this was her assistant and that soon she will be taking over the wedding coordinator job... because Julissa will only be organising special events etc....

The meeting took about 20-30 minutes. Julissa and I had already taken care of lots of little details via email. We confirmed the ceremony at 4:30 and that the reception dinner would be at 7:00pm at LaBrase on the terrace outside. I asked for the speaker-microphone for the ceremony and the white chair covers.

I handed over my bag with all my wedding stuff in it:

Palm Fans and Programs to be put on every chair (Rotating Pink fans, Blue fans, Pink, etc...)

Two decorated champagne flutes

Wedding favors (beaded bookmarks I made), postcards (to be used as guest book), pens... these items were to be put at each person's place at the dinner table (Rotating Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue, etc...)

Monogram Cake Topper

Ribbon to be put on the wedding cake.

I then asked about the setup. She said that there would be two white pillars with a grass-leaf arch and said she would decorated the two pillars with pink flowers and blue ribbon to go with my color scheme. I thought it was awesome that she offered to do this, however... this is suppose to be extra no?? But she said it would be no charge.. and I was never charged either.

At the end of the meeting Julissa asked in what room I would be in the day of the ceremony because she would come pick me up at 4:30. I gave her my parents' room number.

We saw Julissa a couple times before the wedding and each time she would run up to us and give us hugs and a kiss. She's really sweet.

The day of the wedding I need to speak to her to have her add two places at the dinner table for our photographers. When I spoke to her on the phone about it.. she said that she's glad I called because she was looking for me. Oh no!! ehe She just wanted to tell me that they are closing La Brasa for us. It rained a lot the previous weeks and they had a hard time bringing in the reception dinners from the terrace to inside because there were people having supper inside. To avoid this problem they closed the restaurant.. so in case of rain we could go inside with no problem. She also said that we would have a set menu but with two options for the main course. All this sounded perfect to me... and at no cost because they decided this on their own.

Sébastien got to the ceremony location for 4:15 like Julissa had asked. Her assistant only got to me at 5:00. She had forgotten what room I was in.

The ceremony was perfect!! The microphone and speaker was great... however Julissa and the officiant kept it for them. It would have been nice if Sébas and I could have used it for our vows and stuff. When it was toasting time.. Sébas and I had regular champagne flutes and not the ones we brought... Which kinda sucked. The two bottles of champagne was suppose to be enough for all of us.. but they didn't have enough so the man went and got another bottle.. again no extra charge for this for some reason.

During the ceremony there was a topless woman in the background.. ARGHHH!! hehe Also during the family photo.. there was a man right next to me that was not family!! I gave him a dirty look and he went away hehehe Try to remember to ask Julissa to have security stop people from going in the background. We had talked about it.. but I forgot to confirm it with her. But quite honestly... you're so into the moment you don't even notice them that much.

After the ceremony we all went on the terrace at LaBrasa and had drinks. Julissa's assistant was setting up the table for us. The assistant came up to me and said that there's some bookmarks missing. I told her no.. they are all there. She was like no no there's missing 6 of them. Then tells me that Julissa and her never counted them and trusted that I counted them properly. WHICH I DID!!! So ends up.. they put my bag with all my wedding stuff in the back of LaBrasa and I guess some people (employees) thought it would be ok to go through the bag and steal some favors!! I was soooo mad!!! Luckily we had a few extra in our room so Sébas ran to the room and got what we had left. They stole 5 blue beaded bookmarks and 1 pink beaded bookmark.

When the table was all setup everything was placed exactly like I had imagined. The two champagne flutes I had decorated for us were at the table (at least they weren't stolen hehe). The menus had our names inside.

Around 6:15pm I asked Julissa's assistant if she got news about the room upgrade.. she made a call. Came back and saw me and said Sébastien needs to be at the reception for 7:00pm to change rooms. This was a big hassle... Sébas was gone for over an hour just packing and running from Villa Three to reception. The bell boy never came to help him.. so he moved everything with my Dad to Villa 6. If I would have known it was going to be this complicated we would have stayed in our room. The view was a lot better in our old room. The only difference was we had a big bathroom in the new room.

The cake was really cute.. They wrapped the ribbon like I had asked and put the cake topper on it too.

The only thing that didn't work out like I wanted was the music. The ipod speakers my sister bought were not loud enough for the reception. We had worked hard on our playlist and we couldn't hear it. HOWEVER since they had privatized LaBrasa for us.. the background music was fine for dancing.

-- We never had a chance to do the romantic dinner for two on the beach.. so on the last day Julissa sent us breakfast in bed

Wow thanks for the good info. I'm due to get married there next Sep. Glad you had a good time

Nice review...Congrat's!

Congrats! Great review.

LeXie - can I ask for personal questions such as costs etc.

I'm looking for info on anything I need to get

flowers

table decorations

meals etc

We've got no WC - our TA is unbelievebly rubbish. They are still trying to confirm date!

CJEB

I can give you the WC email address if you would like. However, you are probably best contacting her when everything is booked. Are you for sure going to Ocean Blue?

I brought my own silk flower bouquet.. and the flowers at are on the ceremony table didn't cost anything... Julissa put them there no charge.

Table decorations - They put some vases here and there... again.. they did this on their own.

Meal - This was free also... we used the reception package that is included in the free wedding. It was at the La Brasa restaurant outside.

Let me know if you need more info

Thanks Lexiee. The email address would be great - btw your slideshow photos are excelllent

Thanks!!!

I'll send you a PM with her email address.

BTW.. if you are on FACEBOOK.. there's an Ocean Blue/Sand Group all about weddings

Great review! Congrats & Welcome home!

Great review. I can't wait to go, only 1 month and 1 week. Congratulations