susan1672
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Posts posted by susan1672
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I also got married at the Grand on the same weekend as Shannon and Leah and wanted to weigh in on my experience with Janielle, as this seems to be a hot topic.
I had high expectations for Janielle after seeing some post-wedding reviews, but I really can't say I had the best experience with her. She was very slow to respond to my e-mails and wouldn't fully answer my questions throughout the planning process. The main issue I had was that I wanted to have a buffet at my reception and the prices are based on 30-50 people and then increase by $1,500 for 51-75 people. Well, I of course, had 51 people and tried to get her to budge on this extra $1,500 for MONTHS! There was no way I was paying $1,500 for 1 extra person. She didn't budge until the day I actually arrived and met with her and Angellie which really pissed me off because people have to budget for weddings and I really had no idea if they were actually going to let it go. It was just way more stressful than it needed to be. I also wanted to extend my reception for an extra hour and was told that I would have to pay the staff $250 in cash to pay for their transportation home!!! I still don't understand why. The worst part is that she provided me with an updated invoice a few days before the wedding but the $250 wasn't on it so I accidentally forgot to pay it prior to the wedding and she had the NERVE to come up to my new husband and I during our wedding reception at 9:30PM and demanded we pay $250 in cash before 10PM. It was TOTALLY UNPROFESSIONAL! She could have asked before the wedding or waited until the next day instead of asking us during our special time. We didn't have that much cash on us and didn't want to go up to our room so we had to open up a wedding card from one of our guests to get her the money. It was just very rude in my opinion. We also wanted to get some appetizers for our informal cocktail hour on the lobby terrace but were told we had to pay for the option with the open bar AND appetizers ($25 per person) and not one or the other. We were not going to do this since the lobby bar was about 10 feet away and our guests already paid to be at an all-inclusive resort. To top it off, she never once followed up with us after the wedding AND she forgot to give us back half of our things before we left the resort for our honeymoon. Thank goodness my outside wedding coordinator was able to gather the stuff and get it to us.
I also provided a very detailed list to both Janielle and my outside wedding coordinator and had no issues with the decorating or setup...it was mostly just the extra fees! I also used Tai Floral and they did an amazing job. One thing I would recommend is copying Janielle or Angellie on your e-mails to them if you aren't getting a timely response.
On a side note, beware of Godfrey Guy!!! I lost a $250 deposit to him and I would never recommend him to anyone...he is a horrible vendor!
One thing I do recommend is hiring an outside wedding coordinator if you can afford it. The communication process with the resort was way too stressful so I would recommend hiring a local wedding planner in Jamaica to assist with this. I found Sadeki from Chic-Events a few months before my wedding and wish I had hired her sooner! She is truly amazing and made it so much easier for me. Her prices are reasonable too. You can contact her at: [email protected]
Our wedding really was amazing and I wouldn't have changed a thing. I still would have chosen the Grand but just wanted to warn you to be prepared for some hiccups. I'm glad Shannon didn't have any issues and it could be that Janielle is just hit or miss.
I will post a more detailed review later...as soon as my professional pics arrive : )
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The DJ was pretty good. I met with him the day we arrived and also gave him CD's with songs already on them just so he knew what type of music I wanted. He did a great job MC'ing and I didn't have to have any family members help.I didn't bring receipts with me either.
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Originally Posted by kfarkas26
I don't know! I really want an updated review (esp for the grand)
Just got back from our wedding at the Grand and I will try to post an updated review as soon as possible! : )
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Thank you! Our wedding was absolutely amazing! I've done so much since I last updated this thread so I will try to update it as soon as possible. We didn't ship anything, just took extra bags. In total, we had 9 bags lol. Let me know if you have any other questions!
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Sorry - they are sold already.
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We booked a private catamaran cruise for the day after our wedding through Island Routes. I think they quoted us somewhere around $3,300 for a 3-hour cruise WITH transfers to/from our hotel. We will have about 40-50 people so I thought that was pretty reasonable.
Hope that helps!
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I have 40 of the blank totes without any logo and 15 of the totes with the Montego Bay, Jamaica logo for sale. All are new and never been used.
Make me an offer! : )
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I accidently purchased 2 sets of orders for these Sky Wishing/Chinese Lanterns for my wedding and need to get rid of them. I have 60 available and they are random colors (Red / Orange / Blue / Pink / White). I would like to sell them all together if possible. Please make me an offer.
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Just purchased my shoes! I searched everywhere for fuchsia peep toe pumps and I finally found ones I love:
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Ladies,
I absolutely LOVE this dress and its uniqueness but unfortunately, I am on a new quest for a dress that is more fitted/mermaid style.
I'm asking $250 or best offer and will ship it for FREE!
It has never been worn or altered.
Description:
Ruched organza shapes a slimming sweetheart bodice.
3D floral detail adorns the side-draped waist for a touch of femininity.
Split front A-line skirt features printed flower inset for added drama.
Chapel train.
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Ladies,
I absolutely LOVE this dress and its uniqueness but unfortunately, I am on a new quest for a dress that is more fitted/mermaid style.
I paid almost $500 including shipping for this and am asking $400 or best offer and will ship it for FREE!
It has never been worn or altered.
Description:
Ruched organza shapes a slimming sweetheart bodice.
3D floral detail adorns the side-draped waist for a touch of femininity.
Split front A-line skirt features printed flower inset for added drama.
Chapel train.
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I agree that it is just per person from what Janielle told me. As far as where you can have the a la carte option, I just sent Janielle an e-mail asking about that so I'll let you know when I receive a response.
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I think Janielle told me an extra hour for the reception would cost $250. I plan on using the resort DJ too but I had no clue that we would need someone to MC? What is the point of paying for the DJ if he doesn't MC? lol...oh just another thing to worry about! Maybe I'll record myself on my iPOD for the entire reception and just pay the DJ $500 to push play...hahaha right! This place is really annoying.
I did talk to Janielle about the buffet vs. a la carte and she said I would have to pay the extra $1,500 even if I only had 1 person more than the 30-50 person option...so I might be forced to do a la carte just to save money. None of it makes sense to me at all and probably never will. At least we are in this together lol.
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Thanks Shannon. I'm going to try to negotiate with her about it...this should be fun. I agree, the prices are totally ridiculous. By the way - what time are you having your reception and are you doing a formal cocktail hour? I wish we could start the reception at 6:30 since we are having our ceremony at 5 but Janielle said the earliest the reception can start is 7 so I guess I'll just have my guests go to the lobby bar in between for an "informal" cocktail hour and then we are going to extend the reception for an hour to make it from 7-11.
Originally Posted by sunshine2413
Janielle told me if I wanted a la carte I could pay just the per person fee and not the $3000. So if you did that you would only have to pay $3700 but than you would not have a buffett you would have a pre-selected menu (which could be a hassle). I just think it sucks to have to pay so much for the reception when all the guests are paying to stay there anyways (but we have already beat that issue dead).
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It seems there is a huge price difference in renting the Port Maria depending on how many guests you have. I am thinking my final count will be about 53 people but it's an extra $1,500 to rent it out for 51-75 people compared to 30-50 people which I think is absurd. I wonder if I could negotiate to just pay a per person fee for anyone over the 50 person maximum of the lower priced package? Have any previous brides had this issue?
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Hi Maria! We have the same wedding date
Only I'm getting married at the Grand. How is your planning going? Just wanted to say hi since we have the same date and tell you good luck with everything!
Originally Posted by Maria Ramos
Leah,
Your wedding is the day after mine. I'm getting married June 9, 2012. I have nothing done besides dress and of course my guests have booked I am planning of having 50 so far. Still haven't decided on flowers yet and don't know if they have my colors for chairs. I am not going with that photographer I am bringing my own and he is fantastic. So now the stree is trying to get a hold of the wedding coordinators there since they drag on replying to emails.
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I bought the pillow boxes at Michael's and the flip-flop playing cards are from Oriental Trading.
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I spent some more time personalizing my OOT bag items this weekend, so here is a pic and two of the templates. The first item is a pillow box filled with tropical themed candy including tropical fun packs, flip flop gummies, and seashell shaped hard candy. I will post a final pic and prices of everything once my bags are officially complete and when I can make myself stop buying more crap to put in them lol ;-)
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bree - I didn't make the box for the bottles. I actually ordered everything from sandartsupplies.com and then folded the box using the opposite side so it would be brown on the outside. I can't take all the credit for this, so I will refer you to the brides I used as an inspiration for this project....here are the links:
Good luck : )
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I got the tiny starfish from ebay member kawagner101. I'm not going to lie. Some of the starfish were too large so I had to break them off to fit in the bottle but you really couldn't tell once they were in the sand. It was sad because I felt like I was breaking their little arms and legs off : (
Here is the template I used for the chapstick labels. I used Avery Label 5160 and I think they were either from Wal Mart or Staples. I was able to make two out of each label so I just cut the label in half then and wrapped them around the chapstick.
Hope that helps!
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I havee templates of everything except the invitations and response cards bc one of my bridesmaids made them using photoshop and a design program. Let me
k ow what you need : )
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I love these and think I would add some more of my own bling to the heal.
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HERE ARE PICS OF MY FORMAL MIB INVITES! THANKS TO SO MANY BRIDES ON THIS SITE FOR THEIR INSPIRATION! I mailed out 100 of these babies and I must say - it was A LOT of work! In the end, everyone was absolutely amazed by them and I got so many compliments which made the time and effort well worth it!
Iberostar Grand Rose Hall
in Jamaica Accommodations & Site
Posted
The total ended up being well over $1,000 for the extra hour. The $250 was just to pay the staff for their transportation. We also had to pay the open bar fee per person at $12 each and the DJ for the extra hour....we got ripped off for sure but I'd say it was worth it.