JesseLyn10

It did rain but it was enjoyable rain. All the locals that we spoke with said it doesn't rain this much in June and this was some weird weather they were having. I actually preferred the overcast because it was comfortable and we didn't have to deal with the sun's intensity. Our wedding day was the one day it didn't rain! but it was still cloudy so it was comfortable to be outside all day. Good luck in your planning! I would totally do it all over again in Jamaica!

We ended up tipping the 2 hairstylists that did all the hair and makeup, $50 each. We tipped the waitstaff (can't remember the amount) but we only had 2 servers so we just gave them equal amounts. Our WC received $50 at the reception once we were sure that everything had worked out for the day, the steel drum band received $100 to split between the 4 of them, the 2 bartenders received $100 each for staying an hour past their quitting time, as did the dj. We were going to tip the judge who married us but he hightailed it out of there as soon as we walked back down the isle.

[email protected] This is the address that I wrote to and received emails from after Chandlyn left. I did hear from the resort a few days before I flew down to Jamaica. I think they probably respond in order of wedding date (?). I know it's hard to do but breathe and don't stress. I was exactly where you are and I was pulling my hair out because I hadn't heard from anyone in over a month. Everything worked out and they WC Antonette was nothing but professional and completely wonderful. If your wedding isn't for a few months still then I really don't think you should worry. We did all of our planning once we got there and I realized that all this pre-planning stress was unnecessary. I had pre-planned and it was all lost when Chandlyn left so we had to start from square one once we got to the resort. Your weddings will be beautiful, don't drive yourself crazy from worrying

Junior member - yay!!

Thank you! I didn't use my camera and I am still sifting through my guest's photos on FB so as soon as I find a decent picture of the dinner set-up I'll post it! I was actually told by Chandlyn that we would have a long table in the shape of T so that we would sit at the top and our guests would sit along the length of the table. Because we were at 51 people and needed a few highchairs, the restaurant changed the set up into a more traditional wedding dinner arrangement (I think there were 6 tables, 3 on either side of my and my groom's table all angled in towards my table). My MOH and her mother set up all the placecards and called my room to let me know that the table arrangement had changed but that it would work out better, which it did. We were able to circulate to all the tables and talk to everyone rather than having a camp-style communal table (which I was also into, don't get me wrong, but I did prefer the arrangement that we ended up with). Our wedding cake and guest book tables were right across from my table. Tai Flora provided the table linens for the dinner. We also had table linens for the tables at the beach reception and I think the RIU provided these because the tables were set up before we had dinner so they definitely weren't brought down from dinner like our centrepieces were. Hope this helps!

Thank you! Did you get married inside Mammee Bay on the poolside with a woman minister? I was on the beach doing our engagement pictures (in the rain!) right below your ceremony (if it was yours!). Your wedding put my mind at ease about the rain venue because I had no idea what the set-up would look like and I really liked how they did yours so that it was still open air. Congratulations!!! Jesse

Thank you!! The lit palm trees, lit cocktail tables and bamboo arch were rented/set up by Tai Flora. I contacted Jennivie at Tai Flora and told her what I wanted the wedding to look like and the venues we wanted to use and she sent back all sorts of suggestions which included the decor we ended up using. We had 8 wrapped trees and 3 lit tables. The beach venue is a white gazebo and I really wanted a romantic castaway-esque wedding with lots of wood and natural materials so I asked the WC if I could have a ceremony set up next to the gazebo instead of using the gazebo itself. No Problem! This is why I had the arch (BTW, my TTD is total castaway wedding! I can't wait to post pictures from it) If there is one tip I can give you it is to relax and believe that everything will work out! I am such a planner and I couldn't believe that the WC wanted to meet with me the DAY BEFORE my wedding to finalize details. I was breaking out in stress hives! Well, I stressed out for nothing because a slower pace is just what they are used to and it all worked out wonderfully! Antonette is amazingly detailed and showed up at dinner and at the beach reception to make sure everything was perfect. You just have to trust that it will turn out wonderfully

I wanted to bring sparklers down for my wedding as well (from the Dollar Store - super affordable!) but found out that we couldn't fly with them. I hope it works out for you! It really would be beautiful!

Getting married in Jamaica was the best thing we did! My new husband is Greek and we would have a wedding with 500 people if we had it at home. We had 51 people vacationing together for a week and it was amazing!!! Our wedding was perfect, laid back, beachy and wonderful! I am a total supporter of getting married in Jamaica. I have also been to weddings in both Cuba and Mexico and DW are the way to go!

I am also over 150, haven't lost my Noob status and can't open some attachments.

Hi! We had a private beach reception at the Seagrape and a semi-private dinner at Mammee Bay. We had 51 guests in total and sat at the ocean side of the restaurant. It felt like a private reception! We had the entire length of the restaurant and my groom and I sat in a table for 2 (sat side by side) in the center while the other tables sat 8 people (rectangular) each are were angled in towards our table. We were toying with the private reception but the semi-private was so fantastic! I have photos of the centrepieces on my resort review. For our beach reception there were 4-5 rectangular tables set up to the side of the area with table cloths and chairs. I also had lit cocktail tables placed around the reception area. I hope this helps!

We got engaged after midnight and called our parents/close friends. My FI posted it on FB and we were woken up at 8am by friends who had read it and called to congratulate us!

I know what you mean - I said that the white chairs are free. I was never given a price for the white chairs and I didn't ask because I wasn't considering them. I just assumed that those are the standard chairs and that they are included in the package. They could be $5 per chair as you said.

I received emails from many different people at the RIU (Tina included) but when we sat and had our meeting, it was with Antonette. She is the head WC who took over for Chandlyn and I believe she is from the RIU Negril. I don't know anything about the cost of white chairs. I upgraded to the mahogany chairs through Tai Flora for $9 per chair immediately and didn't even consider the white chairs from the RIU. My reception chairs were brown but they were not the same chairs I had for my ceremony. There wasn't any other wedding that had a beach reception while I was there so I couldn't even compare what I had with anyone else. Glad I can help you!!

* Antonette is the new WC. I brought all the correspondence with me when I met with her. On the wedding day she had an assistant but I don't know if I was ever introduced to her. *The 4 post bamboo was provided by Tai Flora and cost $250 for rental and set up. We cut back on some things and slurged on others and this was a splurge *PLEASE BREATHE When I said that I had guests set up some things at the wedding/reception I meant that 3 guests placed my fans and confetti bags on the chairs prior to the ceremony (all of 5 minutes of work) and then I had them set up the place cards/guestbook prior to dinner (again, it took no time at all). The flowers, centrepieces, wrapped palm trees, chairs and everything else was set up by Tai Flora. They did a great job and I didn't mind paying for the service they provided. Because the Montego Bay airport has a luggage restriction for airlines during specific times so we couldn't pack decorations because of the weight. Tai Flora did an outstanding job with everything!! The reception chairs were different than the ceremony chairs but they were still dark wood and fit the decor wonderfully. * The RIU will give you white chairs for the ceremony for free. I had a specific picture in my mind of what I wanted the wedding to look like - very beachy with dark wood and natural materials. The mahogany chairs and white cushions were provided by Tai Flora and cost $9 per chair. Everything will work out beautifully!! I stressed out about every possible thing and the wedding was perfect!

PARASOLS: Wedding Favours Canada-Wedding Party Gifts-Bridal Shower Gifts-Weddingfavours.ca Weddingfavours.ca is in Ingersoll, ON and I bought 5 parasols from them. I had them in my hands within a week ( I am in Toronto). The prices are great and they are really nice! OOT BAGS: I stalked Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall for a while checking when they had sales on their travel sized stuff or on regular sized stuff that would be useful (makeup remover etc) I managed to put together some great BM gifts. Bath and Bodyworks is also a great place for travel sized, inexpensive gifts. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by 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. We had cds with our wedding song, parents song and traditional Greek music (my new husband is Greek) that we wanted to play. We found out at the reception that the cds didn't play in his equipment so my friend who had made them ran back to his room to grab his ipod which had the same playlist on it. The dj didn't have a problem playing the music we specifically requested and he announced the individual dances. He would then play a variety of music which sometimes we had to ask to change (club anthems are not wedding music in my opinion) and he would change it to more family-friendly, fun music (Michael Jackson medley, oldies etc) which was more appropriate to my wedding guests. In my opinion, you should bring both cds and an ipod with the playlist on it. He does have the cables to connect an ipod to the equipment.

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeymom97 Congratulations on your weddding and thanks for sharing your review!! The pics are beautiful, and it looks like you had a fantastic time You may want to resize the first pic of the view from your room because it's huge, and the mods may remove it. Just a suggestion I have been having trouble with this one! On my screen it is the right size but sometimes it is huge! It's just a tester photo so if it's removed, it's no big deal. Thanks for letting me know though

Quote: Originally Posted by yumyum90 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. No problem! 1) During the day the rain came in spurts, sometimes it just sprinkled and we stayed in the pool/ocean and sometimes it would storm. Regardless of the severity of the rain, it would blow over really quickly - maybe 30 minutes at the most. It was overcast a lot of the week but we actually preferred it because on the days the sun was out it was SO SO hot. Overcast gives you the heat without the sun's intensity. 3 of the nights it poured with wicked thunder and lightening which didn't bother anyone because we were at the bars which are covered, 2)The chairs I had at out beach reception were from the resort, but they looked like the Tai Flora chairs we had for the ceremony. I saw the staff packing up my ceremony chairs about and hours and a half after our ceremony (we were well gone by then). I don't know if you have to pay more to have rent them for the poolside as well, but something tells me that you will have to. Antonette can help you with this when you go to meet with her. 3) The pillows were alright. There is a spare one in the closet that I found softer than the ones on the bed. It wasn't really an issue for us especially since pillows take up a lot of luggage space and there were more important things to pack. I had read this as well before we left but of all the things to worry about, the pillows didn't concern me. 4)The Oceanview rooms are a class of rooms that are a step below the jr. suites (they cost less). Our guests booked into both and we couldn't see any difference, to be quite honest. We were mostly in the same area of the hotel and the rooms looked to be the same size. We did have friends who booked a jr. suite and they scored an amazing ocean front room which was the same size as mine (so just a regular jr. suite) but they were at the very tip of the jr . suite block above the beach gazebe (room #1163) so they had an incredible, incredible beach view. Through Sunquest we had the option of King Suite ($$$), jr. suite, oceanview or standard. It just so happened that some of the jr. suites are in between the king suites so they have the ocean front view. 5) We were already in the jr. suite and I believe that if you are in a standard room or an oceanview, then you are available for a room upgrade. We didn't get one because the next room up is a king suite and (I assume) they are unavailable for an upgrade because of the cost of the room - they are really expensive and there are only a limited number of them. The resort was full for the majority of our stay so it might have been a case of them being unavailable. We received our free gift the day before our wedding - 2 'just married' t-shirts and a coffee mug with a small bottle of rum cream. Our breakfast in bed was amazing!! 2 omelets, coffee, orange juice, a whole plate of pastries, 2 plates of fruit and a plate of toast - we couldn't finish it all and kept it in our fridge in our room. I hope this helps! send any more questions my way if you need to

Just wanted to say thanks again for the slippers! I received them the morning we left for JA and wore them as slippers in my room (that tile floor is freezing!) I am still wearing them around the house as I unpack!

I just got home from my wedding at the ROR. Thank you so much for your review - it helped me tremendously! I posted my review as well with pictures and I hope my review will be as helpful to other ROR brides! We also took a break between ceremony and reception and went swimming with our wedding party in the infinity pool - it was great downtime and totally refreshing!

I posted this on another thread but if there are 2 items that my guests needed in Jamaica are bug spray and afterbite. I think 1 person brought OFF and after the mosquitos the first night, everyone was sharing that one bottle!

If I can make a suggestion about something that my guests didn't bring but wish they had - bug spray and after bite. I didn't do OOt bags but these 2 items were in great demand.

In my previous post, I shared the problems with getting everyone booked and how I stressed about it. Now that I am home from Jamaica (flew in last night) I think the biggest issue with a large group is that there will be people who will never be happy. It rained at least once a day (except my wedding day which was complete luck!) and there were guests who just complained that they were going to go home paler than they came etc. then they complained about the staff (they wanted their room cleaned at a specific time which is totally unreasonable at an 800 room resort) and the list of complaints goes on. These are people who no matter what were set on being miserable. My MOH told me this as I was stressing out over their unhappiness and then it hit me that she was right and the complainers were hell bent on having a bad time. You make your own fun and if people can't have a good time at an all inclusive resort in a stunning location, don't let that get you down. Focus on the positive people and have a great time!

It was hot, hot, hot and windy at my wedding and I want to thank everyone who advised me to wear my hair up. I told the hairstylist that I wanted something beachy but off of my neck and she ran with it!