amee

I got married last April at Half Moon and had a great time. Its a beautiful property and the staff is wonderful and very friendly. We had a large wedding - about 120 people - and I thought they handled this quite well. I'm sure they would do a great job on a smaller wedding as well, I would just ask if there are other weddings the same day/weekend..There weren't any others as far as I could tell when I was there. My family and friends still tell me how great a time they had at HM. Congrats and good luck! Amee

Been back and married for a couple months..and so far its been great! Forgot to mention that the kids, especially, loved these cups and their 'magic'. We had a bunch of extras and ended up bringing them home. Now whenever I ask my husband for a cold drink he asks me "What color drink do you want?"

What's your price range? We stayed at Half Moon - in the villas - which are anywhere from 4 to 7 bedrooms - price will vary from high season to low and how many rooms you're booking. About 10 of our guests stayed at Rose Hall Resort and I stayed there during my site visit. It was updated, modern, clean and easy to get to and had reasonable rates.

We got married April 18th, and got ours about a month ago.

One more thing - i thought Fern Tree Spa's rates were reasonable (they - and they gave us a discount as well - just ask, probably depends on how large of a party you are and how busy they and the resort are.. http://www.halfmoon.com/pdf/fern-tree-spa-menu.pdf

Herga at the Fern Tree Spa - at Half Moon Resort - I didn't meet her or know of her until I had my trial a few days before the ceremony - but she was great! She did both my hair and make-up. I wanted a 'natural' look and she absolutely came through.

I forgot - I didn't really personalize anything, but the person who made my invitations printed small square cards with our names and the date, and I tied them onto the bags w/ ribbon.

Our OOT bags - Although they took a fair amount of work, I'm still happy we did these. One thing I would stress is figure out a plan for how you're going to districute the bags, we had a bunch of snafus with this. Wouldn't have been a big deal except that we included the itinerary and schedule in the bags..and some people didn't get their bags until the day of the event..had I known it was going to be a problem I would have walked around distributing them... Anyway, the contents - I got random chapsticks with SPF at Target, hand sanitizer in various scents from bath and bodyworks ($1 each I think). Once we got to Jamaica I got plaintain chips in individual packages, small bottles of appleton, small bags of blue mountain coffee and candy. Beverly -from the Jamaica pages - organized a group of people to buy plastic color-changing cups in bulk - this was a fabulous idea on her part - the cups went in too. For those who like coffee - the blue mountain coffee (I think we got Jablum) WAS a hit. The bags - were from a charitable organization in India - handcrafted by children w/ autism. Brought over by my relatives - understandably not accessible to everyone, but I'm sure there are other organizations that may do this sort of thing. I gave one bag per couple, if it was a single guy I just used regular paper gift bags.. This is the link for our bags if anyone's interested. Product Gallery We had about 14 little kids at the wedding and I went a little overboard with their bags - mostly activity books, sand/pool toys, sunglasses - from Michael's, Target and $5 store- but they enjoyed so it was worth it. Overall, I really enjoyed doing the OOT bags - it was "my" thing and those were the most fun shopping trips since I didn't have to try anything on, I was buying toys for kids and I could use it as an excuse for some alone time!

I used the florist at my resort (Half Moon) and told them I only wanted local flowers, we ended up using mostly ginger lilies - in different colors, which were perfect, very tropical and definitely cheaper than imported flowers. My decor, overall, was pretty minimal and I was aiming for just using a few flowers, so the decor actually ended up being one of the 'less' expensive aspects of our wedding. Will try to post a pic..

We're back from our wonderful Half Moon wedding. We, and our guests, had a wonderful time. The highlight of Half Moon is the amazing, super-friendly staff. Of course, the beaches, water and sunsets weren't bad either! We had gone for a site visit a few months before, and most of the details had been settled. A few things were up in the air until we got there, but everything turned out great, especially once we were on site. Shanoya and Simone were both great to work with. We had a lot of special requests and everything was handled with professionalism. I think there are always a few small details that might bug the bride and groom who put a lot of effort into planning - but no one else could tell anything was amiss. We had our rehearsal dinner/Mehndi at Oleander Terrace (absolutely beautiful). We had a buffet - all of our food was custom (Indian/vegetarian) - and Chef Ravi and team did a great job. Ceremony, cocktails and reception at the Royal Pavilion - again we had a buffet - its generally easier with Indian food..and the food was again quite good. The decor was exactly as we had planned during our site visit - we used the onsite florist (I forget her name We had a steel pan band - Dean Barnett - at the rehearsal dinner - and they were a lot of fun. We used HM;s DJ for the wedding - my husband had put together and down loaded all the music - all the DJ had to do was play - there were some issues/mix-ups - but again, mostly only things we would notice. Day after wedding brunch at Seagrape Terrace I also used the Fern Tree Spa a couple of times - hair/makeup with Herga - I highly recommend - she's a whiz and totally understood the 'natural' look I wanted. We also had a couples massage (complimentary with 50 rooms booked) which was very nice. Other things: -Ate once at the Pub in the shopping village - average -Did not eat at any of the formal restaurants as we were staying in the villas and had all of our meals prepared there. -Used the gym once (before I gave up on last minute 'toning') - it was pretty nice -Lots of tennis courts -Bike rentals for $5/ day to get around the huge property. -Children's village - heard from one family it kept the kids busy for a couple hours -babysitters - we had a lot of little ones at the wedding - my cousins were very comfortable leaving their kids with the nannies at HM - I only heard good things here -VILLAS - amazing!! wonderful staff, private pool, lots of space - was great for our large extended families -If you stay in the villas you can buy groceries at the commissary - but it is overpriced - if you're willing to leave the property there's a more reasonably priced grocery store in the Blue Diamond Plaza -If you're not staying in the villas - I would ask for some details about the rooms you've booked - they're all wonderful - but there are some variations (some had full kitchens, some not etc.) I imagine this is b/c its an older property and different areas have been renovated at different times -Half Moon is very village-like - you really don't have to leave the property for anything, unless you want to. Some of our relatives went to Ochi for the day and had a nice times. Others did canopy tours, horseback riding, dolphins. -I'm sure I forgot some things - feel free to ask.. -lastly if pina coladas are your thing the poolside bar (by the jacuzzi's) makes a mean (I mean great) one.. Amee

Bev, I finally saw them in person...so cute, i really love them. Thanks! Leaving tomorrow..woohoo!

I wanted to say thanks again, I haven't seen them yet, b/c i had them shipped to my parents, i'll get to see them tonight. My mom loved them! Thanks! We're leaving in 2 days!!

Deadline For Air Jamaica Privatization Gets Pushed to June I feel for you Summer '09 brides, but I have a 'little' more confidence that my guests can travel next week without worrying if they'll get stranded in Jamaica (not that most would mind that!). Air Jam has definitely wreaked havoc with a bunch of my guests travel plans..i still have guests trying to get last minute flights so they can make their connections.. Anyone hear anything about who's buying?..i'm thinking Virgin Atlantic...

Hate to be the party pooper, but i'd rather it just say Jamaica 2009 - even if its the same thing on both sides...

Ditto...seems as though Air Jamaica is days away from being divested by the government...if online news sources are correct. Its one thing to have flight times changed, but I'm worried about last minute cancellation as both my photographer and priest are traveling via AJ. For those that had their flight cancelled, did you get refunded or did AJ re-book for you on another airline? My wedding is in a month, and all the other ticket prices are rising daily...has anyone looked into trip/travel insurance? Amee

This is a great thread. I've tried to be as 'green' as possible too, although I think the carbon costs of everyone traveling to my wedding counter-balances all my efforts!! I bought my seed paper (18 x 24) from Handmade Paper Wedding Invitations - Recycled Flower Petal and Seed Custom Paper and Supplies Resource. I had a wedding card designer print my invites on vellum (I believe vellum these days is made from cotton). She then folded the seed paper around the vellum inserts and inserted some dried flowers in the vellum envelope. I've gotten a lot of compliments on the invites. I'll try to post a pic later. I don't know if the seed paper grows successfully or not, I'm still waiting for someone to try it and let me know We also did online rsvps and save the dates to cut down on paper. I got talked into wedding programs, which I wanted to avoid... We've tried to encourage the chefs at our hotel to use local ingredients as much as possible. I'm using non-paper OOT bags, mine are handmade by a charitable organization in India, Product Gallery I doubt they ship but can't hurt to ask. We're making donations as our wedding favors. Regardless, I feel guilty about the amount of paper and 'waste' I'm creating, but I'm trying...if anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.

If you have an unlocked cell phone (not that common in the US) you can just buy a SIM card in Jamaica and insert it into your cell phone..

We had too many people, but I was enamored with Round Hill and Moon Dance Cliffs in Negril..Good Luck

I would do about 150, but I'm mid-April - so it would have to arrive by April 10th..I'm in NY/NJ...no worries if thats too soon Amee

Amee and Jason Half Moon, MoBay April 18th, 2009 Just 5 weeks to go!!

Anyone know any place in MoBay to get decorative things, like vases, votives, candles etc?

Hi all - I was going to let my hotel do the centerpieces and decor for my wedding, but I can't, in good conscience, pay their inflated prices (especially since I'm doing mostly candles and fruit and very few to no flowers). I was hoping someone knew of a home decor store in Montego Bay that sold vases, candles, etc. I'd rather not lug everything over in my suitcase (shipping is not a great option either since, of course, the resort charges a fee if you want to store anything there). Any thoughts?

I was in Montego Bay a couple weeks ago for my site visit and we found a store called Bedazzled in MoBay that sells small packages of Blue Mountain coffee and Appleton Rum. They were really friendly, and likely to make you a good deal if you buy a large quantitiy, just an fyi

We're also doing donations. My current plan is to print small cards with a choice of 3 or 4 charity organizations that are special to us and our families. We'll have someone collect the cards and make the appropriate donations. If cards get lost, we'll just divide equally..Initially I was looking for some reputable organizations to donate to in Jamaica, but haven't spent a lot of time looking. We're planning on doing OOT bags w/ little bottles of rum, coffee, suntan lotion etc..

I'm on my way to Half Moon for a quick weekend site visit, if anyone needs anything specific from HM please let me know.