yumyum90

Thanks for answering! As for the DJ did you bring a cd with your first dance songs on it, or were you able to give him the names of the songs and he has them. I'm worried about the selection of music that he has.

Hi, welcome to the forum, thats a common question that alot of brides have. what you may want to do is search through the "wedding reviews" forum and you'll find alot of reviews and pics of brides who had a private reception. The set-up will vary depending on whether you have it on the beach, by the pool, or at the plantation restaurant. my wedding is on friday and i'm suppossed to have a poolside reception so i'll post pics when i return, but in the meantime there are alot on here.

Oh and I left my questions out, lol. I hope you don't mind answering them... 1) It rained alot, was it just 10-15 minute periods or was it hours of rain? 2) I also ordered chairs from Tai Flora can I use them at the ceremony and the reception? We are having a private poolside dinner reception. 3) Were the pillows in the rooms hard and lumpy enough for me to bring my own w/me? 4) With the junior suite, is there really difference between ocean view and ocean front. I was looking at expedia and it lists the oceanfront junior suite as having more amenities than ocean view? 5) Lastly (sooo sorry for so many questions) did you get upgraded or a wedding "surprise gift" the next morning after the ceremony? THanks for any questions you can answer.

I'm so glad to see that your wedding turned out beautifully. It's good to know there's no worries w/chandlyn gone. I love your decor, everything looked gorgeous!

thanks for such a through review, would love to see your pics. I'm sorry about your lost luggage that had to suck! Thanks for the tip about the guys in the red hat too!

Quote: Originally Posted by Shakara yea it was a REALLY nice resort! Don't worry your guests will thank you for picking this resort. You must be getting soooo excited! When do you leave? What airline are you taking? I am starting to get really excited! We leave on the 27th from Baltimore, Md and we're taking US Airways. I have been debating whether or not to get the raffia fans. I'm wondering whether guests will use them or if it would just be a waste. Did you use them at yours?

Quote: Originally Posted by Shakara Okay so when you check in they have EVERYONES luggage in the main lobby and then they give you stickers to put on your luggage with your room number. I didnt just want to leave my dress in the main lobby with my luggage so I asked them to hang it up in the back and they did and it was fine. We got there around noon. Just asked them to hang it back there for you. If your dress is as big as mine your really not gonna want to walk around with it (it got heavy) Thanks Shakara! I read your review and it looks like you had a great time. Up until about 2 months ago, I was only reading the reviews of ROR on here and then I started to look at Tripadvisor so now I'm worried my guests will hate it. Your review made me feel better though.

I will be going on my honeymoon to Secrets Wild Orchid in MB at the end of July, I'll write a review on the forum. They both have facebook pages and there are a couple of weddings on the Wild Orchid page. Also if you look on "Elite Travels" website (florida based company) they just did a wedding at Wild Orchid that you could see. Being that they are basically the same property I'm sure everything would be the same. Also there is a review on here somewhere about a wedding at Wild Orchid, I think it's by TA Maureen.

We will be arriving to ROR before the 3pm checkin. I've heard everyone mention that you can just leave your luggage with them...well what about your dress? What did past brides do with your dress, did you trust them to lock it up or carry it around the resort with you? I haven't seen this mentioned yet and just wondering....

I know it's frustrating but agree with everyone else, alot of people wait until the last 2 months or so to book because they are waiting for a deal. When I initially announced our wedding everyone said they were on board and slowly month by month people dropped off. At first I was upset and then I decided that as long as the most important people were there everything would be fine. Don't worry you are going to have a great wedding!

Shakara, what did you think of the overall service at the resort. I keep reading Tripadvisor and its scaring the crap out of me. I'm scared my guests are going to have a horrible time.

I chose the Riu over Beaches because the Riu seemed more affordable. I knew I'd have at least 50 people coming and when I inquired about a Beaches reception I was told it was like $72/pp which was way to much. If you have under 50 ppl at the Riu you can get a free wedding dinner which is what pretty much sold me. The other thing that persuaded me was this website, there were so many Riu weddings that went really well. You should read through some of the wedding reveiws, it'll give you a lot of insight and help you narrow down your choices. SN, even though I'm getting married at the Riu I seriously wish I would have checked into Iberostar Rose Hall Suites.

I'm so sorry for you loss, you will be in my prayers tonight.

Quote: Originally Posted by JesseLyn10 That mskes a lot of sense because I keep emailing the Chandlyn account. What's funny is that my TA emailed that acount a few weeks ago and got a reply in 2 days but since then hasn't been able to contact Tina. I really just need to know that we will still get married and that our reserved spot is still booked. Thanks for this info! Jesselyn10 i emailed the [email protected] email today (which i found on the main riu weddings site) regarding questions that I had and got a reply from the sales office and he copied the main weddings manager, jose (in mexico). jose replied back and answered my questions. you might want to try that route. it's [email protected] if you want to email either of those addresses that may get you a confirmation and some answers.

Quote: Originally Posted by blackrock We just had our wedding on June 25 at ROR. When we got there we tried to track down Chandlyn, only to find out she no longer worked there. Her replacement was Tina (from a Montego Bay Riu), but Tina did not have any of our documents that we had sent prior. We still got married and everything, although I'm trying to track down a new e-mail address to resend the documents because she told us she didn't have access to the other account that I emailed Chandlyn at. Thank you for taking the time to post this! I appreciate it. It's also good to know that she came from another Riu property so she can easily just break into it.

Quote: Originally Posted by JesseLyn10 Is Tina easy to find? I arrive at ROR next Friday and the wedding is on Tuesday but I don't want to spend days hunting her (or any coordinator) down. I am preparing for emergency situations as well - I haven't heard from the ROR in a month so I have no idea if we are on file somewhere, where we stand in our plans etc. We have a fall back plan of an off-resort wedding ...just in case JesseLyn10 will you have internet access while your down there? If so, could you let us know if she has it together or not? I hate it that I can't get any answers anymore. I have alot of guests arriving on different days. I wanted to be able to tell them before hand where to meet for a welcome dinner and since Tina won't respond I can't pre-plan anything.

I'm getting married 10 days after you and I'm worried as well. I hope this doesn't change anything planned w/Chandlyn. I'm going to bring the email exchanges I had with Chandlyn. what's even more annoying is that the email address at ROR is a generic one, so why isn't the other coordinator at least responding to emails.

As you've already read Chandlyn is no longer at the ROR. Is anyone else nervous about this besides me? I'm getting married on the 30th and I'm freaking out because I don't get any replies to the emails that I've sent to confirm the receipt of my documentation, reception, or anything else. I know that wedding coordinators come and go but Chandlyn seemed to have it all together. I read a review on tripadvisor that the new WC wouldn't decorate and Chandlyn always did that. Maybe this is just pre-wedding stress, but I just wondered if anyone out there felt the same.

I agree with TA Maureen, we invited about 100 people and so far we have between 60-70 coming. We are about 27 days away and still have a groomsmen that hasn't booked yet as well as a couple of others that say they are coming...yikes! We won't have a final guest count until a few days before the wedding.

Thanks for writing this review. I will surely bring down all of my email documents with me. The whole Chandlyn not being there thing scares me because I have the poolside reception booked. I'm scared they will give it to someone else since they don't seem to have record of anything. But it sounds like your wedding went well and you didn't have too many problems. Congratulations.

holy crap! now i'm scared about my wedding thats in a month. what if nothing is set-up with the requests that I had. I thought she had an assistant or something named nicki...maybe? you should change the title of this thread to "ror-chandlyn fired" because it will get alot more attention and there are many brides getting married very soon! on another note, i'm so sorry this happenned to you when it did! were you stressed out, going crazy! what happenned w/the chairs in the end?

I was on tripadvisor the other day and came across a posting about the kids club. It was more of a complaint that it was only open from 11-1 and 3-5. The parents were upset because that didn't allow anytime for an excursion. If you can't find it on this forum, I'd reccommend searching Tripadvisor. They have an Ocho Rios forum and alot of people ask questions regarding the Riu.

yeah it takes a while to search. One day I just sat down and went through the Jamaica forum and just clicked on the topics that interested me and I found a ton of information. I've also looked through all the wedding reviews of ROR dating back to 2008 and I found even more info. but, then again I was bored at work and didnt' have much to do, so I didnt' mind spending a couple of hours doing that.

Quote: Originally Posted by JesseLyn10 I have some questions about weddings at the RIU. The response time from the coordinator is too slow for my liking (they're on Caribbean time!). If there are any brides who have gotten married here or are going to marry here please help! 1. Does anyone know about the dj equipment? is it ipod ready or do we have to bring cds? 2. Tipping - do we tip the steel drum band, wedding dinner servers, wedding coordinator, reception bar staff? I have no clue on how to proceed on this. 3. Where is the rain venue? our ceremony is on the beach at 2pm and if it rains, what is the fall back? I really don't want to get married in a conference room. I don't care what day it is, conference room lighting is never flattering and I didn't picture my wedding day with carpet. Any tips/info that we should know about would be much appreciated! We leave in 24 days! Hi you might want to use the search function on here and it will yield alot of information. As for the DJ you have a choice, you can bring your IPOD or you can have the DJ play or bring your CD's The rain location I'm not sure of I've seen pics of people who did it at the plantation though, which is the open air restaurant. As for tipping it's not a requirement but its reccomended. I hope this helps, but again looking thorugh the forum yields alot more detailed info from brides who've been through it.

Great review and pics! I love the flowers your bridesmaids have. Did you have them specially ordered or did you pick them through the resort?