Hi -
So i went for my prewedding plannign trip and looke dinto a number of different locations for the welcome BBQ option. I can't remember all of the places I went to, but from what I remember:
a) Kuyaba - This is a cute place with some nice island touches. The dinner would be on the deck and they leave the other side of the deck open for the restaurant. This would be for a more "formal" dinner in my opinion since it wouldn't be directly on the beach. The food is supposed to be fantastic though.
Norma's - This is also a more formal environment. I really enjoyed my conversation with Greg, the manager there, and he seemed very eager to please. When I had dinner there during my first visit in Negril, I wasn't exaclty blown away though. Also, I have not heard back from them since my in person visit, but they do have a lovely upstairs deck that would be great for a nicer welcome dinner. They can also arrange something in the beach area, but the stretch of beach is not very big - which can be a concern since all of 7 mile beach is public.
c) Irie on the Beach - I'm not sure if this is the one associated with Rondel Village - in fact I actually went here: Jamaica Connection - The BEST of Negril since 1984 - where there wasn't anyone I could talk to since the planner wasn't on site. The beach is lovely though, and the space pretty nice. not sure about anything else, since I wasn't able to get further info
d) Sea Wind Resort - I talked to Wendy, who immediately emailed us back with a number of different options and costs. The costs were *significantly* higher than what was quoted above, so I'm hoping we can work something out with them. But the property is very cute - great beach, some pretty nice landscaping, not overly stylized, and Wendy seemed really great!
Hope this helps. our wedding is in 2 months at the rockhouse and we have yet to send out invites. I just picked my dress, so we're really trying to cram all of our final decision making process in at the end. That's the point of a destination wedding though, no?