Shelly21

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A couple of my favourite pictures

Hello Ladies! Here's my review of my wedding! Arrival: We arrived with a group of 26 people on Monday and were told that our rooms were not ready yet. This was around 7pm, guests were tired and hungry and grumpy. Apparently there was a big staff change recently, the reception staff was new and didn't know what was going on. Everything got resolved that night, but even then there were still some problems with the rooms. The next day, they apologized to all of us and upgraded everyone to the Preferred club, upgraded my husband and I to the honeymoon suite, and asked if there was anything else that they could do. Of course my husband asked for a free box of cigars, and he got them. It wasn't perfect, but these things MIGHT happen, if they do, the staff are on top of it to correct it. Wedding Coordinator: We met with Yessica on Wednesday and she was amazing!! So friendly, and she really helped to make our day special. During our meeting I asked her to have the mic in front of us when we are saying our vows so that our guests hear us and saying our vows. I had brought my own chair sashes expecting them to be used at the reception, but she made sure they were there for the ceremony. One hour prior to the ceremony she came to my room to show me a picture of the set-up and asked if everything looked o.k. I made some kissing balls to be hung on the sides of the chairs, program fans and bubbles to be placed on the seats. She showed me a picture of all of this. Ceremony: What and emotional moment! My husband and I joke around a lot but as I was walking down the aisle with my father I couldn't stop tearing!! When I got to the gazebo, my husband was also tearing! BRIDES!! Don't forget to SMILE and Don't hold your bouquet so high! Yessica played the music as we had discussed, and everything was perfect! 4pm at the Gazebo was a good time, the sun was out and my groom was sweating, but it had rained a little that morning so it was a bit cooler. Reception: We had our reception on the Himitsu terrace. It is such a beautiful place! The Himitsu restaurant is just next door, so as other guests wait for their table they sometimes are in view of the reception. I didn't even notice them though because we were in our own world. We hired DJ Mannia and he was great. He played the type of music that we had discussed, and he was very friendly. I wish he would have played longer though! Our reception ended around 930pm, and we asked him how much to continue playing, and he said $250/hr. We decided it was too much and just moved the group to the disco. We had the Silver cocktail hour and the GOld dinner menu. The steak was so yummy! Just a word of caution. The terrace can get a bit windy so if you're bringing your own centrepieces make sure they can we weighted, and for women wearing dresses make sure they're aware of this. Photography: Michael and Pascal from Caribbean Emotions were amazing!!! We went with the Caprice package and added the videographer. We decided on the videographer last minute and it was so worth it! They were very professional and friendly. Our family and friends love our pictures, many people told us that they have never seen pictures like this before. The book that came with the package was so well put together. The trash the dress session was so much fun! Some of my favourite pictures came from here! I highly recommend Michael and Pascal! When I started planning I read a lot about Caribbean Emotions from other brides, and I booked them immediately. Absolutely no regrets. I had booked them in January for my wedding in November. At the time of booking the resort said outside guests have to pay a day pass. Around April they changed their policy and said outside photographers no longer have to pay a day pass. Apparently they changed their policy again. When I met with Yessica I told her that I was told back in April that I no longer have to pay the day pass fee, she said they will honour that. These guys are great you will not regret it!

Hey ladies, especially those who have been married already. Do you know how long it takes to walk from wherever you are starting to the gazebo? I'm trying to get an idea of how much song time I have. Thanks!

Congrats DRwedgal!!! Thanks so much for the review, I'm booked with Michael as well and now I'm so excited to work with him. I'm disappointed to hear that the ball was dropped so many times, it sounds like they are overwhelmed with weddings and not giving enough attention to each wedding Thanks for the heads up and tips!

I was told that you would have to have a buffet dinner if you have more than 50 because they will need to bring in more staff to cater to your guests. I originally had 50+ people coming, but things have changed and I'm down to ~40. Don't stress, wait and see how many respond, you don't have to make a decision about your dinner right away.

Hey Carly, Check out this link http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/63688/diy-program-fans/20#post_1639363 Mine will look very similar to this:

Hi Ladies, I haven't been on here in awhile, busy with preparations, 4 months to go!! I will be having a symbolic ceremony at Dreams, because I heard that if the judge does not come on time (which is often the case) the WC marries you, and when the judge shows up, he just signs the papers with you. Often times behind closed doors. So I didn't see the point of paying so much $, and going through so much trouble just to basically have a symbolic ceremony. I looked at the programs for other weddings I have been to and put together what I wanted the WC to say, I also asked her (Gara) if I can do a 'fake' signing so that the wedding appears real to our guests, as we won't be telling anyone that we are getting legally married at home. Back to cutting my program fans!

Congrats alykay!!! I'd LOVE to see pics!

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to have a cocktail hour. Any past brides have a cocktail hour? was it worth it?

You can definitely save a lot of money by having a legal ceremony at home. Im going to have a simple legal ceremony and not tell anyone but immediately family.

http://www.papercircle.ca/ I found their prices a lot cheaper than http://www.paper-garden.ca for cardstock.

Who is your wc? I'm working with Gara and she has been pretty good at responding back to me. I once got a reply on the same day! I'm sure they are just giving priority to the upcoming weddings. I have found a lot of answers to my questions on this site and through other brides so feel free to ask @GLAM, sorry to hear that Gara wasn't as organized as you would have liked, it's making me nervous! I'm probably going to ask my brothers gf to be my day-of person to give me some piece of mind.

CONGRATULATIONS Kwaller!!!

Sorry ladies, It's too big. Send me your email if you want me to forward it to you.

June this year? When I booked my Nov.2011 wedding date back in January, I also booked the location of my reception with my WC. Apparently it's first come first serve. I THINK the huppa is $300 extra for the beach ceremony, don't quote me on this though.

Hi I have an email from the WC with all the spa prices. PM your email if you' d like and I can forward it to you.

I'm having my reception at the Himitsu as well, and will be having 40-50 guests. Though I'm not sure how many sit at each table, I know the table is standard size. 72¨diameter and 34¨ height. So I'm guessing 8-10. I have heard that the 2 and 3 pm time slot can get pretty hot, and the 6pm time slot doesn't leave much time for pictures after.

Hello ladies, I'm not exactly sure how to word this properly...Does anyone know what goes on during the ceremony? I will be having a symbolic ceremony, and I know you can incorporate anything you want, but what will the role of the WC be? What does she say during the ceremony exactly?

Welljen, you look stunning! Is your FI's suit linen? Where did you get it from if you don't mind me asking.

Hello ladies! Does anyone know where I can find cardstock paper (for cheap if possible!)? I checked Staples, but they don't have the colour I'm looking for. I found some on a website but unfortunately they don't ship to Canada

I wanted to hang paper lanterns on the terrace as well, but after seeing pictures of the himitsu terrace it doesn't look like there is room. I'm trying to figure out to decorate. This is the best picture I have of the himitsu terrace, so you can see what you have to work with. I'm sorry it's so big! I don't know how to make it smaller

I'm hoping to use the same chair sashes for ceremony and reception. I was hoping they would iron them, but rolling them seems like a good idea!

These look so great! I'm ordering from them also, I'm so excited!