atalanta

@delgadot, I laughed when I read your message. We wondered the same thing but were assured by Alisha that in fact they will cut the display cake (the one that comes in the package) for the buffet line. What HH will not do is cut wedding cake and package it in little boxes for favors or to be distributed for guests to take home. Ceremony script? I haven't seen a ceremony script with wording from HH. Did you get that with your concept questionnaire? All we received were the order of services (ceremony and reception) so we started editing that to fit our vision of our wedding. I'm sure my FI will want to have a hand in that,too. He's amazing with words. I would recommend you go with the script of the wording you love. That will make your ceremony very personal and special. I just want to reiterate what you have already said. It's so exciting to have other HH brides with whom to talk about the wedding. I love it! Did you ever hear back from reggae tours about transporting your bridal party to the beach? What other transportation will they be providing for you and your guests? Happy planning!

@Excellindy, I need to take some notes from you. I can manage to take the most streamlined process and make it more involved and complicated. For example, we are making our own website rather than using the HH wedsite because we'd like our guests to be surprised at the venue. In addition, I spend hours a day thinking about/planning our wedding (dresses, shoes, bouquets/no bouquets, invitations, STDs, monograms, accommodations, reading threads on BDW).

Wow! I've been a lurker to this thread for a while, too. I felt compelled to comment on your post though. I think your dress looks better than the original. The sweetheart neckline and the way they layered the "tulle/organza"-like fabric in my opinion is superior to the original. I would agree with Fabiola Cadet, embellishments would work well along the sweetheart neckline. Congratulations!

@digiovine, How did everything turn out?

@degaldot, Congratulations on the getting the three colors approved by the A-team (my new nickname for Alisha and staff). You make a good point about staying at the beach to be close to family and friends. I guess we decided to consider the suites as a way to have a real beginning of a honeymoon after the wedding without necessarily running into family and friends. Happy planning all!

Thanks futuremrstgun. I'll let you know if we decide to go through him.

First, let me make a disclaimer: having professional pictures and videography is not as important to us as staying within our budget. Every bride and groom I've checked with rarely to never looks at their wedding photo albums or their videos, with facebook and the like this might be changing, though. My parents didn't have pictures taken of their ceremony but a few of their friends have taken pictures at their AHR. My mom and dad can tell me verbatim how the ceremony went and what each other wore. I like that I have to imagine what happened. I've also heard countless examples of when the pictures taken by friends and family are better than the ones taken by a low-cost professional. I wonder whether that happens because of the price point or whether the people who know you also know to capture what moments are truly special to you. Maybe these are the reasons that professional photography and videography aren't as important to us. Maybe they don't matter because we value experiences over the documentation of the experiences. Maybe we are just too frugal. Whatever the reason, we have decided to ask a couple of friends who like to take pictures to take bridal party and family pictures at our wedding and to ask that everyone else share their pictures with us by uploading them to our computer during the cocktail hours and reception, our reception is 6 hours. For videography, we have been considering going without or having two still cameras capture whatever they capture during our ceremony. In the end, you have to decide what you can afford and need. If your aunt and good friend can take lots of pics and you are comfortable with that, choose that and spend your money on videography. Great still shots can be captured from a professional videographer if you choose to go that way. Good luck deciding. I know it will be hard since pictures are really important to you.

@Miss K, I remembered you asked about suggestions for planning a catamaran cruise. I came across this review from an Iberostar bride, Princess J, that might be of use to you. "We organized a tour with Dream Catamarans to take our group out for a half day. We didn't book in advance and we planned the trip with our ACV rep at the hotel. We were able to negotiate a 10% discount for our half day trip and it came to $60/person. The boat was fantastic and takes you out to a croal reef for snorkelling then to Jimmy Buffet's Margariteville to swim and go on the slide/trampolines in the water. The boat was open bar as well which was awesome! We had an amazing time and I would HIGHLY recommend this day trip!" Happy planning!

@DeAngelis2be, I loved this post. Could you please pass on Beach Bum's contact info. Would you mind sharing the $/days/nights you got from Beach Bum? Thanks!

BridetwoBe, You are right. I meant to right this to DaisyMable I think, but from her recent posts she seems ok. Sorry about the mixup.

Dear BridetwoBe, I hope you've found some good news since your last post. Please update when things settle down for you. I wanted to suggest to you to have your travel agent, if you used one, contact the hotel WC. I've read on several threads that the resorts are more accommodating to travel agent requests than requests from individuals. It seems outrageous to me that you would only be notified of these expenses a few days before your wedding. Something should be done to accommodate your original requests because of the late notice, especially if you have brought them several rooms of service. I hope this helps.

I understood your question, bruceg05, and am eager to hear the answer. Unfortunately, I do not know myself.

Kim Basinnger-- The Door in the Floor

Hi KaRon, Welcome to the thread KaRon. We are always happy to see another HH bride. I'm like you. Although my family is Jamaican, most of them live overseas as does all of our friends and my fiance's family. I, too, am having a very difficult time finding reasonable accommodations for our guests. With the research that I've done, Iberostar Rose Hall (Beach, Suites, and Grand) continuously gets the highest marks for their respective price points. For this reason, I have been leaning towards using the Beach for guests and having me and FI stay at the Suites. In some ways, I love that it's all inclusive so guests don't have to come up out of pocket once they are on the island. What I don't like is that you still have to pay per person for food for things like a welcome and/or rehearsal dinner, the day-after-the-wedding brunch. I also like the idea of having a bonfire on the beach ($250), but then one still has to pay $350 for drinks when the drinks are already included in the price of the resort?!?!! It just doesn't make any sense to me. I think it would almost be better if they called it a setup fee, but saying it's for drinks just makes me feel ripped off and played. I still need to look into whether we can have these activities without the extra costs by not doing them privately. My uncle offered to host a welcome dinner at his place, but I am really afraid of outside people attending (It's a Jamaican thing) and raising my costs and/or inviting themselves to the wedding. However, if I do take him up on his offer, and we do a group outing, and rehearsal dinner elsewhere, I just don't think that guests will be getting the biggest bang for their buck. As delgadot would say, so many decisions! BTW, we are getting married a month before you.

@DeAngelis2be Was this $200/night/person or just $200/night per room? The link goes to a page that says $227/night/person so I want to be sure I understand. Also, who is your TA? Thanks

@amee, So where did you end up having your wedding? I'm curious because I am also planning a wedding 125+ people. The Solis has a summer special 149/night rate. Any feedback?

@delgadot, You are welcome. Any time, that's what these boards are for--for us to help each other through this process. I haven't chosen my Iberostar location yet. I'm thinking about the beach for my guests and upgrading to the suites for my fiance and me. What about you? I remembered you mentioned staying at the beach to accommodate your guest's price point. But are you and your FI also staying at the beach, too? Ah, yes. We actually put that the accent color for our flowers in our contract (oops excillindy, I forgot about that change, too) so in the concept questionnaire I just put pink and purple with teal accent for flowers as per contract. It didn't seem to be a big deal to have them include a third color in the contract, especially if you only want it for the sky lanterns and the flowers. I would just check with Alisha and her staff. @ everyone, how much input are you getting from your FIs with planning and the concept questionnaire?

@ degaldot, I know how you feel about budget constraints and decision making. We are sort of in the same boat with you for different reasons. We prioritized people, venue, ambiance, food, alcohol, and DJ over attire, photography, videography, extra flowers, and transportation. So now we are trying to squeeze the latter items into what's left of our tiny budget. Thank God for frequent flyer miles and my sister offering us her time share for our honeymoon. To cut additional costs, I'm going for a sample sale dress, having my bridesmaids carry fans instead of flowers, asking our friends to upload their pictures of us for our photography, setting up two still video cameras at all of the venues for videography, considering breaking apart the bouquets provided in the package to make corsages for our moms, floral hair wreaths for our flower girls, and extra boutonnieres for the guys, and having our guests make their own travel arrangements to the aqueduct and HH. I'm open to other cost-saving suggestions, too. Getting back to your question, I think the golf cart tour is 20 dollars extra per extra person. An extra couple of hundred here and there begins to add up so I completely understand your frustration. I have a couple of suggestions. First, could you and your then husband take the golf cart and rent a couple of cabs to take the rest of your bridal party to meet you at the beach for pictures? Second, did you mention something about reggae tours? Are they doing the transportation for your wedding party from Iberostar-HH-Iberostar? Maybe they will do this for you, too, for less than $220? Hope that helps. We opted for having our wedding at the aqueduct and cocktail hour at the gazebo to have the beach be a part of our wedding. Since we'll already be in the vicinity of the beach, neither our bridal party of 14 (not including us) nor any family will be going with us on our golf-cart tour. Also, remember though that we will not have a professional photographer so pictures aren't that important to us. We will just take a few group pictures (family and wedding party) at the aqueduct and gazebo before heading off for our private golf cart tour. We've read that the bride and groom rarely have time for each other on their wedding day so we are taking this "gift" from HH to make sure that we do have some time for just us after the wedding ceremony. We are planning to meet our bridal party with our guests back at HH after the tour. @ delgadot and excillindy, I first heard of sky lanterns through Alisha. She brought it to our attention as an alternative to fireworks as she remembered how disappointed we were that we couldn't afford them for our fourth of July wedding. Alisha didn't mention cost when we spoke, but Lola later mentioned somewhere in the vicinity of $250 for 25. Since then, Alisha has informed us that the police department has revoked their permit for sky lantern releases due to high winds. We are very disappointed about this and hope that the permit becomes reinstated by our date next year. That said, Iberostar brides seem to be able to bring their own lanterns and release them without a permit. I'm really intrigued by this not only because of the independence and cost factor (sky lanterns are ubercheap) but also from a practical standpoint. How are these brides flying from the US with gel fuel in their suitcases? I figured I'd either get more information form the Iberostar board or talk to Alisha about it in more depth as the time nears. The price discrepancy, according to Lola, takes into consideration that HH staff would inflate them all and bring them out to you and your guests ready to release. @ excillindy, we, too, are working on that concept questionnaire. I agree with you about the all-inclusive weddings. They work for some brides, but not for me. I love to be able to ask my questions as they pop into my head, and Alisha and her team have a consistent A+ rating. Happy planning!

Hi delgadot, Thanks for the referral. I looked at her site; her monograms are beautiful and priced nicely. Again, I'm so happy to have another bride who is planning her wedding so close to my date at the same venue. How's your planning going?

I'm just beginning to read through this thread, but was amazed at the number of ew and gross remarks about jamaican traditions and I've only gotten to the second page. Growing up Jamaican, I always loved the particular tradition below. I'm not quite sure what the writer found gross about it, and from her description, I am not entirely sure that she fully understand what usually occurs so I thought I'd explain it in a little more detail. The bride feeds a piece of cake to the groom (usually by hand). Instead of eating the piece of cake, he captures the cake so that half of the cake is in his mouth and half is outside of his mouth. (The traditional Jamaican cake is firm so the overhang is sort of suspended there.) The bride bites off this overhang (the cake that is visible outside the groom's mouth). Then the groom does the same thing to the bride. Both exchanges usually end up looking like a very sweet kiss to the onlookers and sometimes the exchange spurs a more passionate kiss. The passing of cake back and forth symbolizes how well the couple will nourish each other through out their marriage--their ability to give to each other, share what they have with each other, and receive each other fully. The couple is supposed to do this without dropping any cake for luck. I haven't talked to my fiance, who is not Jamaican, about doing this tradition yet . I actually didn't think it was a big deal, but I hope he receives this tradition favorably. As for mailing a cake back home, the fruits are soaked in rum from the start of the engagement and Jamaican cakes are bathed in rum after they are baked. If they weren't so delicious I presume they could last a lifetime with re-wetting. Wray and nephew, the Jamaican overproof white rum, is the probably one of the highest strength rums in the world. Nothing will grow on or near the cake with that much alcohol! When we were kids, my mom would hide the leftover cake from Christmas (Fun fact: the tradtional jamaican fruit cake served at weddings is called the Grandmother's Christmas cake) and give it to us on special occasions throughout the year. You only have to be careful to rewet the cake as the rum evaporates overtime. I have talked to my fiance about mailing the cake, which he and his family love (It's a taste you either love or hate), to our our guests that may not be able to attend. He was particularly excited about having our guests have a real taste of our wedding (figuratively and literally)! I hope that provides some clarity about the traditions I've read in this thread so far. If you still find it "ew" and "gross" you are definitely entitled to your opinion, just keep in mind that it might be hurtful to another bride to read that you find her culture repulsive.

Well, I'm really glad I found this thread. I have started Insanity about 4 times over the last year only getting as far as week 1. After reading this thread last week, I decided to start up again. So here I am at day 2 sopping wet from sweat after finishing the plyometric cardio cirucuit. Right now I'm so out of shape I can't do all of the exercises so I just try to keep moving during the parts I can't do. My goal is to complete the 60 day video by the time we get married 07/2012. I'm hoping this is an attainable goal. If there are any other brides just starting up I'd love to buddy up with you. Keep posting ladies. You are so inspirational!

Delgadot, Wow! You are really on the ball! Everything looks fantastic! I like that you put Iberostar on the STDs. That leaves HH a surprise until later! I've seen several brides on here with various monograms. Did you use a template for your monogram? I wasn't planning on making one, but now that I'm seeing them everywhere I can't help but to want one, too! This wedding stuff is sooooo contagious! Happy planning!

How did this turn out?

Who pays for what is really tricky. There is what tradition dictates and there is what makes sense for the couple. My fiance and I decided that we would pay for our wedding ourselves in part because I did not want the wedding that my parents could afford to give to me and in part because I thought asking my FI's parents to shell out for a second wedding for my fiance would be unfair. Because of our fixed budget and what we prioritized (number of guests, great food and alcohol in taste and variety, great venue, and coordinator), there are many things that we will not be able to afford (professional photography, professional videography, new wedding bands, bouquets for bridesmaids and boutonnieres for groomsmen). Like so many of the families of the ladies on this board, my family knows that we are paying for this ourselves and has begun to make offers to help how they can. For example, my mom has offered her wedding dress, my sister has offered us her time share for our honeymoon, and my uncle has offered us his home for our welcome/rehearsal dinner/party. We are so grateful for these offers. Our wedding is not for a year yet, but I'm interested to see whether my FI mother will offer anything. We are not expecting anything from anyone, but I think her offering something/anything would be a nice sentiment that would show that she's interested in helping to make this a happy event for us. As my dad would say, "Put your money where your mouth is".

Good idea subbi, I might just try it with everything!