amagee

Hello! For a small group, I would not recommend the Seagrape..only because it is too close to the nightly entertainment stage. It is so loud!! I would think the plantation would be nice for a smaller group. We had our dinner there and it is not open to the other guests only to wedding parties. They would only have one after dinner reception there at a time, so it would be very private. I am not sure of the price for the Plantation?

Quote: Originally Posted by jesjess Awsome pictures. I loved watching them! You looked beautiful! I have one question, Didn't it bother you that all the people watched you during the ceremony and the picture taking? Im am sooo scared for that part.. I actually didn't even notice? But it is definately going to happen, unless maybe you are getting married at the pond gazebo. It actually feels nice!! I was more worried about the drug dealers at the side of the resort but we didn't seem to have them in any pictures!

Thanks everyone! I wished the Trash the dress photos turned out a little better, but what can you do? Also I found that in the bright sun my bridesmaids dresses looked neon orange but they were actually more of a dark red?

Here was the cost of my wedding: Free wedding - $350.00 Gazebo Decorations (upgraded) - $412.00 Flower Pedestals x 4 - $340.00 Aisle Runner - $45.00 Chair covers/sashes - $540.00 Flowers (Tai Flora) - $195.00 Hair - $170.00 including the trial We brought our photographer $3333.00 Dinner - FREE Poolside reception - $690.00 ($15/person) I definately would not have changed one single thing!!

Quote: Originally Posted by kelleylove did you do OOT bags? If so, which items were worth it and which would you skip if you had to do it over again? We did not do OOT bags, I really didn't want to bring extra stuff with us, we already had to bring our I-Pod speakers which were huge. What we did is before the trip we mailed everyone a travel package, I basically had made a travel brochure, and I gave them each a personalized luggage tag. That was kind of their gift. I really think it worked out well because whenever we were trying to find our suitcases at the airport we all had the flip-flop luggage tags!!

Sorry Everyone for the delay!! But they are finally here, these are just the proofs so some of them are pretty rough. It is just the wedding, we are still gathering ones of the resort! www.pictage.com/605652 Amanda

I booked mine a few months in advance. You have to remember that they do three weddings a day, I know that my wedding was at 1:00pm and there was another wedding at 2:00pm, so I am not sure when that bride was able to get her hair done because we were there from 9:30 until 12:00pm? So my advice would be to book it as soon as possible!

Pictures are coming I promise! Just waiting for my photographer to send me the website!!

Quote: Originally Posted by kitty_kat_uk sounds like you had a fab time! The poolside reception, do you have to pay extra for this and if so what is the cost? Can't wait to see your photo's For the poolside reception we had already payed for the Seagrape so there was no extra cost...I guess altogether it was $10/person...the chairs and tables are already around the pool.

We had to fill out some papers when we met with Nikki, and she told us that was to prepare our marriage certificate....then the officiant gave us a certified copy of our marriage register, I coud actually use this to do most of my name change stuff!

I also used a credit card...my father had a american one so we didn't get hit as badly with the Us exchange.

Not too worry! The free cake I thought was beautiful. It was just white with three tiers , then they put some of my flowers on it, they were roses. The cake itself tasted amazing, it was vanilla with strawberry in the middle. I don't have a picture yet Iam still waiting for the photographer!

Quote: Originally Posted by Scott-Pierre Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to see your pics! I just have a few questions... Since you got married at one, and the sun is usually pretty bright at that time, did you find yourself squinting alot during the ceremony? My contacts make my eyes pretty sensitive to sunlight so I am a little nervous about this. I don't want to mess up all of my wedding ceremony pics! Did you have tables at the Poolside reception? Did you feel like you had enough room to dance? I was going to do the Seagrape, but now I am rethinking after you mentioned the noise from the main stage. Did any of your guests get to eat in the other restaurants? Are tips kind of expected to make a reservation? You aren't the first bride to mention that reservations were only available after a tip was offered. Overall it sounds like you had a great time! Congrats! Thanks so much! The beach gazebo is actually right near the side of the hotel, so that it is always shaded, except early morning. I was shaded walking down the aisle and didn't have any problems with squinting during the ceremony, the sun wasn't on us, it was nice because then you don't get so hot!! As for the poolside reception, there are already white rod-iron tables and chairs there, then Nikki brought some extra chairs. There was plenty of seats for everyone, and the dance floor was definately big enough. Again I had 50 people, but you have the entire pool area to yourself, we were really glad we switched. I didn't switch until the day before the wedding, but with our I-Pod speakers you definately would not have heard our music at the Seagrape. Not to say teh Seagrape wasn't a nice spot Only a few of my guests ate at the A La Carte restaurants, but were only able to get into the Mammee Bay or the Japanese restaurant. They had to go at the time of the first or second sitting and pay to get in...most of my guests didn't want to put out the extra money. This is the one thing that realy upset everyone that went to my wedding. I would say they are waiting for people to offer money, because every night we would walk by the restaurants and they were EMPTY!

Hello Everyone, This is going to be a lengthy review and please feel free to ask me any questions or concerns you have! Here it goes! We arrived at the resort around 12:30am, so we all basically got there and went to bed! But the Lobby was gorgeous and the staff was there waiting for us with some rum punch! They were really organized and got us all checked in quickly and not one person had any problems!! Rooms: I will say that the hotel is HUGE! The walk to our rooms seemed to take hours and because we upgraded to a Junior Suite all of our other guests were at the other end of the hotel, miles away!! I have to be honest and say that I was a little disappointed with our room. Like I said we did upgrade to a Junior Suite, but I was hoping for a bigger room than what we got. The view was amazing it was ocean all around. We were close to one of the pools and really close to the beach. We went to front desk the next day to see if we could upgrade to the honeymoon suites (with the jacuzzi on the balcony) but they wanted to charge us $75 per person per night, so we settled with what we were given. Food: The food was the only part of the trip that we had problems with. As soon as we got there we wanted to reserve our A La Carte dinners, but unfortunately all of the restaurants were already booked so we were only able to eat at an A La Carte the last night we were there and only because we had to pay them to let us eat there. The only one we could pay to let us in was the Mammee Bay Steakhouse and it was amazing!!! The steak was perfect and the desserts there were awesome!! The Wedding: Most of our wedding was handled by Nikki not by Chandlyn. She was really great and met with us the day after we arrived, this is when we payed for everything. I had planned on having my reception dance at the Seagrape, but realized the night before the wedding, as I watched another reception going on at the Seagrape, that the main stage is just above the Seagrape and you couldn't here their music over the Show happening on the stage. We just brought our I-Pod speakers so we knew you would never hear our music!! So the day before the wedding I had to rush around and find Nikki so I could change, and she was very accomodating and changed us to the poolside dance reception. So the morning of the wedding I went to the Renova Spa, I was very nervous because I had a hair trial a few days prior and it went very horribly wrong, I cried for hours because the girl in the Salon (Nicki) just was not changing my hair the way I had asked. But the day of the wedding she did an amazing job!! I suggest not doing a hair trial!!! I changed the style completely and wore my hair down, it looked exactly the way I wanted it to!! It did not fly away or get fuzzy at all!! I did my own make-up. Our wedding as at 1:00pm at the beach gazebo, the weather was perfect!! My flowers arrived at 12:40pm, so I was getting alittle nervous, but I was so happy with them when they came!!! I ordered them all through Tai Flora, mine were a dozen red roses and the girls both had white roses, they were absolutely amazing and definately were way better than I was expecting. At 12:45pm my decorations for the gazebo were still not set up, or my chairs, so I was in my room pacing!!! My room was 1262, and a perfect spot if you are getting married on the beach because it overlooks the gazebo and the beach arch!! But they got it set up just in time!! It looked amazing, again it completely exceeded my expectations, the flowers were amazing and the tuling and I got the chair covers and sashes at the last minute. The officiant was amazing and read everything perfectly!! I would definately suggest getting the microphone for the ceremony, we had it and everyone said they could hear us so clearly! The music was nice and loud!! There were lots of on-lookers but I really wasn't even paying attention, the gazebo is at the far end of the resort so it is fairly private. For the rest of the day everyone just kind of hung out, pictures took a couple hours (but I brought own photographer) we all changed into our bathing suits and hung out at the pool. Around 5:00pm we got dressed again and did alot of pictures at this time of day, it is nice because it is sunny but not so much that we were squinting. Then we ended up going to the Plantation for dinner, we had 48 people and they said they could not accomodate us at the Mammee Bay. So dinner was kind of a mess, we didn't finish until 9:30pm, they were really slow and we got our food, and some people didn't eat until an hour after us? But we did speeches in between salad and dinner. We could have used a microphone but they told us this wasn't possible. No one really heard the speeches because there were two other wedding dinners going on, so it was really noisy!! The cake was amazing!!! I went with the free one I think it was vanilla with some srawberries in it, the perfect size for 50 people. They brought all my decorations and chair covers up to the Plantation for the dinner, so it looked great!! The reception: Wow! It was so much fun and completely out of control!! We changed last minute to the poolside location and I am so glad! It is at the far pool and therefore completely private!! We had a blast! We used our I-Pod and brought our speakers with us, it was plenty loud enough! The bartender wanted to close up around 12:00pm, because we were only suppose to go until 11:00pm, but dinner was so late they gave us some extra time. Anyways the bartender left at about 12:00pm, but we definately didn't stop! Actually my father got behind the bar and started bartending (like I said everyone was out of control)!!! They left the booze there for us!! So finally at 1:30am security came and shut us down, but we had a really amazing time!!! The entire wedding was amazing and I would not have changed a thing!! Nikki was amazing to work with! I have to say that it is really important to have a wedding rehersal!! That definately saved us! The week was awesome, it was great weather. The nightly shows were really good too, but got a little repetitive by the end of the week. I didn't do any of the excursions because I felt like the wedding kept me busy enough. My biggest problem was getting time to fit everyone in, and that was my own fault. The first three days I spent my day walking up and down the beach and between both pools trying to visit with everyone. But you really have to try and relax, and just let your guests come to you!!! All-in-all it was an AMAZING trip!!! Amanda

I went and got a starfish from Micheal's...it really stinks (literally). I am using gold ribbon to tie the rings to it. Really excited!! I can't wait we leave tomorrow!!

He is a little older too, so I am not as worried about him dropping them. I will check out Micheal's and see what I can find...I like the starfish idea also! Lil Miss Frogg: I wouldn't be able to ge the shell from you because we are leaving Friday, but thank you so much!

Alright I went and bought these huge I-Pod speakers for the reception, they are huge and take up half of my Fiance's suitcase, we had the scaled out last night and we do not have a pound to spare....yikes! But they sound great!! The were on sale at Best Buy for $99 called Altec Lansing, there is a built in subwoofer (sorry about the spelling?) and one big speaker with two little speakers....again the sound is awesome! I went and stood at the other side of Best Buy and I could hear very clear!

Thank you for the info!! It is very reassuring, I didn't want to bring cash and I didn't want to have to bring traveller's cheques!!

That would be a great idea!!! Thanks!

So I am bring my nephew and my little sister to be in the wedding. I have my little sister carrying the traditional basket with rose petals to throw...but I have nothing for the ring bearer to carry, I really don't want to use the pillow. Has anyone does something different than the pillow? Can't he just escort the flower girl down the aisle? Any suggested would be great! Thanks, Amanda

I have some people flying in from different places and not coming with the big group, so we used Lee's to get them from the airport. Some are flying into Montego Bay, there will be four in the "mini-limo" and it is costing them $20 per person and they even took their drink orders so they have the drinks for them when they get in the car. They are also picking up my grandparents who are flying into the Kingston airport, a little more pricey, I think it was $150. But they are great to deal with!! I spoke with a lady there called Yvonne and she was excellent!

Thanks! I have started to price them...it is still cheaper than getting the DJ, and this way we can play all of our own music! I guess I am worried about getting one that is loud enough to hear over the ocean?

For my shower my sister just invited the people invited to the wedding, they aren't all coming to the actual wedding but they were invited. As for gifts they had a "gift certificates only" party, I also have a house and an apartment so I really don't need anything, but then I got $1500 worth of gift certificates for all different places!!! I have just kept them and as we have needed something I went and used a gift certificate, it's great!!

Congrats! I would also be lost without this forum!! You will definately see me down there, we leave Sunday and are getting married on Jan.16th. I can't wait!

I am having my ceremony at 1:00pm and thought about the cocktails and appetizers but the resort is all inclusive so there is food and drinks everywhere!! I just bought a little white sundress and after the ceremony and photos I am changing and hanging out on the beach or in one of the bars!