I'm a Recent RIU NEGRIL Bride!!!! Questions????

[Lua]

Hi Ladies!!!

 

I've just returned from my INCREDIBLE wedding at the Riu Negril (Club Hotel) and would love to pay it forward.

 

If anyone has any questions about the resort or my wedding in general, I'd be happy to help out in any way I can!!!

 

I hope to get my official review up in the review section by the end of the week and will post here once I get that done

 

My week at the Riu Negril was the best week of my life!!! My husband and I loved it so much that we're already planning on returning for our 1 year anniversary!

[deannamarie85]

Hi! I loved your review! I am not getting married at RIU but am getting married in JA in less than three weeks! Could you give me your opinions on JA travel in general? How was the airport? Weather? Any fun tours or activites that you would recommend? Thanks!

Congrats!

[Lua]

Hi deanna!!

 

Airport was great in my opinion -- we landed early (9:20 JA time) and my husband and I were the first ones off and in line at immigration. The only wait was for our luggage -- which was expected since we were the first ones off!! (my brothers came mid day on a friday though and said it was much busier for them)  Nothing too impressive in the airport on the arrival end, but that didn't matter as we were in and out.  As for the departure area, it was actually pretty fantastic. Again, we made our way through security and such very quickly. TONS of duty free shops and lots of options for food.  We were there early 7am and ate breakfast at this Margaritaville restaurant right by our gate - fantastic prices and great food.

 

Weather was PHENOMENAL!!! in the 30s every day (celcius) ... seemed to get very cloudy and dark every day around 2pm, but we were fine with it because that was the one of the hottest parts in the day.. only rained once and that consisted of it spitting for about 15 minutes. No issues there!

 

Travel between the airport and resort was fun! haha we had a private bus to the resort because we were such a big group.  Many of us wanted a drink en route and in his words "no problem!"  we made a stop half way there to stretch our legs and have a drink. They drive on the left side there which was interesting and they drive FAST!!!! lots of serving and such. but it was fun!

 

As for tours and such, my husband and I didn't bother with any, but the majority of our group did go on a catamaran trip to Rick's Cafe one day which included 2 snorkling stops.  Everyone RAVED about it and said it was the best part of the trip.  We're a bit sad we didn't go, but we took advantage of that time to get our much needed ALONE time on the resort!  It's hard getting honeymoon time in when all of your best friends are there too!  We do plan on returning next year and that trip will be a must.  My great aunt and uncle (in their 70's) also made a trip to Ocho Rios for zip lining and bobsledding at Magic Mountain and said it was incredible!!!

 

You're going to LOVE it there!

[deannamarie85]

 

 

Originally Posted by Lua 

 

Hi deanna!!

 

Airport was great in my opinion -- we landed early (9:20 JA time) and my husband and I were the first ones off and in line at immigration. The only wait was for our luggage -- which was expected since we were the first ones off!! (my brothers came mid day on a friday though and said it was much busier for them)  Nothing too impressive in the airport on the arrival end, but that didn't matter as we were in and out.  As for the departure area, it was actually pretty fantastic. Again, we made our way through security and such very quickly. TONS of duty free shops and lots of options for food.  We were there early 7am and ate breakfast at this Margaritaville restaurant right by our gate - fantastic prices and great food.

 

Weather was PHENOMENAL!!! in the 30s every day (celcius) ... seemed to get very cloudy and dark every day around 2pm, but we were fine with it because that was the one of the hottest parts in the day.. only rained once and that consisted of it spitting for about 15 minutes. No issues there!

 

Travel between the airport and resort was fun! haha we had a private bus to the resort because we were such a big group.  Many of us wanted a drink en route and in his words "no problem!"  we made a stop half way there to stretch our legs and have a drink. They drive on the left side there which was interesting and they drive FAST!!!! lots of serving and such. but it was fun!

 

As for tours and such, my husband and I didn't bother with any, but the majority of our group did go on a catamaran trip to Rick's Cafe one day which included 2 snorkling stops.  Everyone RAVED about it and said it was the best part of the trip.  We're a bit sad we didn't go, but we took advantage of that time to get our much needed ALONE time on the resort!  It's hard getting honeymoon time in when all of your best friends are there too!  We do plan on returning next year and that trip will be a must.  My great aunt and uncle (in their 70's) also made a trip to Ocho Rios for zip lining and bobsledding at Magic Mountain and said it was incredible!!!

 

You're going to LOVE it there!

Awesome! Thank you so much! Now that I am only two weeks from leaving it is getting so exciting!

 

 

[weddingaway]

Congrats, Lua!  I'm glad to hear it went so well.  Where did you have your ceremony and reception?

[FutureMrzMalone]

Congrats, Lua!!!!!! I loved your review. I have a ways to go until my wedding but hearing about the great time you had has me SOO excited. How did the actual cermony go? Were you able to have a private reception?  Thanks again for sharing this with us. :-)

[Lua]

I posted this reply in another thread but thought i'd post it here too

 

Originally Posted by weddingaway 

Congrats, Lua!  I'm glad to hear it went so well.  Where did you have your ceremony and reception?

thanks!!!! we had the ceremony right on the beach at the arch.  They have 2 beach ceremony sites. 1 - at the gazebo, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's literally right in the main area of the beach and you'll be guaranteed to have others surrounding your wedding.  The other beach location is where they have the arch .. it's in front of the fish sanctuary (where you're not allowed to swim) way at the far end of the beach where it was QUIET and pretty private.  We found people were very considerate and pretty much stayed away for our ceremony. We didn't opt to pay for any extras on top of the "FREE" package so this is how they decorated the arch for us.

 

Our reception was at Shadows steakhouse. I believe they do all of the receptions there because that is where there is space (unless you opt to pay for the beach).  Our dinner was deemed "semi-private" but it felt so private for us! It was held on the upper floor and before the sun went down we had a gorgeous view of the ocean.

There was another wedding on the same day/night as us. Even though they had their supper at the same time, they were way on the opposite site of the resaturant and in all 100% honesty, we didn't even know they were there. For the meal, guests went down the stairs to the buffet for their salad and then the meal was served -- they had a choice between steak, chicken, shrip and i believe 2 or 3 other dishes. My hubby and I both had the steak and it was fantastic (all of our food was brought to us at the head table). 

 

We aren't the traditional wedding-type couple (hence why we went away for our wedding) and aren't really into the dj+dancing thing so we didn't bother with any of that. After supper we just made our way over to the nightly entertainment with our guests and everyone had a great time.

 

 

[Lua]

 

Originally Posted by FutureMrzMalone 

Congrats, Lua!!!!!! I loved your review. I have a ways to go until my wedding but hearing about the great time you had has me SOO excited. How did the actual cermony go? Were you able to have a private reception?  Thanks again for sharing this with us. :-)

Thank you!!

 

The ceremony was perfect!! although I can't remember it entirely lol that who afternoon went by in a flash!! Hubby and I need to watch the videos still!    In all honesty though it was very well done.  We had a meeting with Dionne (the WC) the day after we had arrived to go over details, but we still weren't 100% sure how things would play out.  I'm glad I didn't worry because she knew how to do her thing.  She dropped off the bouquet (which i didn't end up using because i made/brought my own real touch one) about half an hr before the ceremony then went to bring my hubby his bout.  She then came back to get me and my dad (we didn't have a bridal party) about 5 minutes before our 2pm start time.  She walked us through our building through a back way so no one could see me coming and we sort of hid until she gave a signal and the music started.  My dad and I had a nice long walk (well dance hehe) to the ceremony site and down the aisle. It was awesome as it allowed for more of our song to play out. We had the ceremony and signed all the paperwork and then, as per our request, we had a champagne toast and our cake right there on the beach. I just LOVE the pics of us and the cake on the beach.

 

here's our cake btw. nothing fancy but OMG SOOOOOOO moist and tasty. we got chocolate   and the topper is one of my extra turquoise real-touch gerberas that i brought

 

We did NOT have a private reception as we didn't want to spend the $$$ (i think it was $2000 for a private reception).  Due to our budget, we stuck to our semi-private reception and wouldn't have done it any other way. As I mentioned in the post above, it felt private anyway so we were happy.

 

If you guys want to see any more pics, you're more than welcome to browse through ours. there's only about 2000 of them!!!!

 

We decided to forgo a photographer, again, to save $$$ due to our budget. So we just asked our guests to take shots and upload to our photobucket account.

http://s1201.photobucket.com/home/chrisandlaurawedding/index

 

 

[deannamarie85]

Wow! those were a lot of great photos! I felt like a creeper looking through so many of them! lo But with just eight days to go I am just so excited to be in Jamaica!

[JA143]

You don't know how happy I am to stumble upon your amazing reviews of your wedding at the RIU Negril! 

I just got back from Ocho Rios Riu and I fell in love with the resort however we decided Negril will be our destination spot for our wedding day.

After being able to take a look at the different areas to hold the ceremony.....I've come to realize the pictures you may see online are not the best to go by!

Can you make any suggestions of where on the resort is best for the ceremony - private as possible :S

Also, how was the weather during April?? 

 

Thanks so much for any help you can be!