redsoxgrl

So I'm getting hair/makeup trial and day of. I know our butler gets tipped at the end of the week but I'm not sure how the spa works

 

Will the same person be doing my makeup both days?

 

Do I tip for trial and day of or just once? (Guess that depends if the same person is doing both days...which I hope it would be bc how would it match the trial look??)

 

Thanks in advance!

Thanks - I did email one of them for their prices and one of their first questions was "where are you getting married?" I said I'm not sure yet lol and I'm still waiting on a price list.

 

I mean honestly, some of the differences between what the photog charges and what Sandals charges for them are close if not more than what it would cost to pay for 3 nights lol

That is true no one said u have to put them in the most expensive room!

We just opted for the Beachfront concierge room in the Riviera building.. I like oceanview

 

So I asked my wedding planner what the prices were for the "partner" photographers and was BLOWN AWAY.

 

For 4 hours of shooting and UP TO 200 edited images on a CD...

Anywheres from $2,800 to $4,250!! Holy crap..

Yup and the sad part is, once I picked my jaw up off the ground I emailed a few of them thru their websites and didn't tell them I was getting married at sandals and the prices were almost 2k cheaper so obv sandals is making lots of money anyways off these people! Crazy. The biggest problem with sandals is the photography. Just charge a vendor fee and let your guests bring whomever they want like other resorts!!

 

I hope you can find a option that works for you

thanks. and yea, we're locked into sandals. we (and all the guests) put a deposit down for the week. i really like it there so i do want to stick with it.. just makes it hard with photography.

 Yea, i agree.  I had heard of the photography crap before booking so i already had my contingency plan.  haha.  We had to get sandals bc we wanted a butler room....i can't wait for have a butler for the week! lol

We thought of eloping too.. but we have 10 other people in addition to us going..

I would talk to your WC and see what can be done. Sandals has photography partners which are real photographers (not snapshots ones) but they are OUTRAGEOUS. Are you super locked into sandals? I know a lot if other resorts DO allow offsite photogs. Otherwise maybe you can see if you can get samples of some of the snapshots work

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

 

So I'm torn on what to do about photos.. I skyped with a local photographer I'd love to bring to my wedding, but the $$ he wants in addition to covering his expenses (flight, hotel stay) is just crazy He's really incredible, but I don't know if I want to swing it or not. I wasn't exactly prepared for that quote.

 

He inquired about coming/leaving the same day but I really don't think that will work - not only with flights but also with the resort. He'd be willing to stay 1 night - but Sandals charges and arm and a leg for one night! He does leave behind his wife and 4 kids, so I guess I can see how this wouldn't be a fun awesome vacation for him, even though it is Jamaica. I thought by paying his flights and stay for 3-4 nights that'd be great - or maybe even a little bonus, but not quite what he was asking for.

 

Any suggestions?? I just can't see myself trying to pick out photos at the photo shop and hoping I'm satisfied with them. What if I hate them all? I can't redo my wedding...

Are you having a wedding with people? We are eloping (litterally just us) so that's why the local photog in Negril works for us. We just leave and take our wedding portraits all over Negril and still get a few pics of ceremony. I do know one photographer I talked to wanted to try and sneak in lol but since it would just be me and him that wouldn't work.

That's really weird.. right in the Sandals wedding packet it lists the photography options.. I think the lowest package is called "Simply Romantic" and it's $1,200 and it comes with 42 photos (36 5x7's, 6 8x10's and a photo album of purchased photos and all 42 photos on a disc).

 

I spoke to my wedding planner last Thursday and that was the cheapest package offered. $1,200. It blows my mind. And I might HATE the photos. Or even worse, spend hours trying to pick out 42 out of the 200+ photos they probably take.

 

I'll have to ask about having outside photographer if the photographer I know locally can't come.

 

Do you know who you spoke to that quoted you those prices?

I hired an offsite photog and they aren't allowed on sandals property. In order for a photog to come on property they need to be a paying customer for 3 nights (I'm sure you prob already knew this). So we are having our ceremony at 3 and the snapshots people will be there and take some shots. We will pay PER PIC which I believe is 20 or 25 per pic. Directly after our ceremony my photog is picking us up and heading all over town to take wedding photos (much more fun and interesting than resort!) ending with TTD pics at sunset.

 

They do have a cheaper package than the 1200. I know this bc I inquired before I asked the per pic price. I want to say it's between 400-600 I just can't remember.

 

EDIT: found the email from WC

Also what is the smallest photo package that sandals provides?

Please see attached we start as low as 24 images on CD or 5x7 prints for $460

 

Can we just pay per photo?

Is $20 to 25 per picture the 24 can cover the pre wedding and the Ceremony photo

Sandals doesn't offer outside vendors...the photographer I'm using is counted as a guest as she has a room for the week. That was the way to get around not using their photographers.

I just wanted to correct you here for anyone who might stop in and read the thread. Sandals has photography partners at each resort. They are outside vendors that sandals allows on property. They are also astronomically priced lol. (I asked for a quote from one if them and it was about 2k less than the rate sandals gave me over the phone. Talk about an up charge!)

 

http://www.sandals.com/weddingmoons/weddings/wedding-photographers/

 

Personally, I just ended up hiring an offsite photographer to take me all over Negril for pics after the ceremony and we will be paying per pic to have a few pics from actual ceremony.

I replied on the other thread but I see now you are getting married 5 days ahead of me lol! I booked hair/makeup trial and then hair/makeup day of. I figure it's going to be humid as all hell and they must be good at doing hair (better than I am!) and as for makeup, I was told they use MAC products. I have extremely sensitive skin so I had to do a trial here at a MAC counter and I will be bringing some MAC products with me to use from from the mineralize line. It was 265 for the trial/day of and most of it was paid by the 500 credit for me. I already booked an offsite photographer to whisk us away after our wedding for photos around Negril and sunset TTD bc I heard sandals photogs are not so good so i didn't want to spend more money and have to go off resort for hair and makeup. I figure the trial should help calm my nerves too!

Anyone have any experience with the hair & Make-up done on site at SN? I'm in limbo about what to do! Just do my own? or shell out the cash and hope for the best? I haven't seen any reviews on this.

When is your wedding? I booked hair/makeup trial and day of at the spa. I can report back with a review. My wedding is end of July

I spoke to my WC for Sandals Negril on Friday and asked this very question. She said steaming starts at $80 and goes up from there depending on the fabric/complexity of dress. I decided I'll bring my own hand held steamer instead of adding another cost haha. I would def check with your WC as it might be different prices on diff islands/resorts.

My sexy hubby and I were married 10/26/13 @ Iberostar Grand Hotel Rose Hall and we used Misha Earle. She is amazing, talented and has the best personality-EVER.

 

You WILL not be disappointed.

 

Ciao,

 

Keisha

So glad to see this!! We booked Misha Earle for our wedding in July! She is super responsive, funny (even through email!). So excited!

What days will you be there? We are also getting married July 2014 at Sandals Negril. Not a big wedding at all, just eloping :-) I don't see too many people doing just a private wedding, it's all bigger weddings I am reading about.

We will be there July 26-Aug 2nd!

 

 

Haha, yes! No guests is EASIER!!!!  We just didnt want to honeymoon with our friends and fam.  We also pieced together our own ceremony script and it was just approved by the officiant through our wedding coordinator.  Just letting you know in case you were thinking of doing that...you are allowed to but it has to be approved by the officiant.

 

We just built our own since much of the things didn't apply.  Here's a snapshot of our day...  We have wedding booked at 3 (we plan on using the beachside gazebo). We will be picked up directly after (around 4) for offsite photos all over Negril.  We have the offsite photog for 3 hours. We plan on doing TTD pics at sunset.  We get back around 7:30-8. We take a quick shower and then we booked the candlelight dinner on the beach at 8:30pm.  We just did the beautiful beginnings cake (which i plan on having them change the flower on top to a silk flower real touch topper i bring), and i guess some little reception comes with the beautiful beginnings package so both the cake and whatever else will be delivered to our room.  I guess we could just eat some cake after our candlelight dinner.  I forgot to mention that we are doing a very small sandals photo package.  We were kinda stuck doing this because it was the only way to get any pics of our ceremony since the offsite photog isn't allowed on the resort

 

I think the reason there are not many sandals brides is because of the COST (their room rates are expensive comparative to the amenities), and how RESTRICTIVE the wedding stuff is.  They don't allow outside vendors (unless you pay for them to stay 3 night...um no).  Also, the choices are expensive and limited.  They wanted 1,400 for photography.  Only 110 pics, 2 brag books, yadda yadda.  Honestly i don't really trust them to take my wedding photos, i have seen examples online and i'm not impressed.  I hired my offsite photog for 3 hours at 1500, all images with rights on cd.  And her photos are artistic and professional.  Unfortunately i still have to pay for a small package through sandals to get pics of the ceremony.  I didn't like any of the bouquets offered.  I can't use an outside vendor...so i'm doing the real touch flowers to get the bouquet i want at 1/3 of the price of sandals.

 

Honestly, i dont know if i would have chose Sandals had i known all the restrictions, but i have worked around it and i'm pretty pleased with the results haha. So we shall see  I am pretty psyched about our Butler category room!!!  Its in a newer building and just recently renovated so I think that will definately be amazing!

Quote:

Originally Posted by islandbride317 

 

I posted this response in a different thread, but I thought I'd restate my comment here in case anyone would find it helpful:

 

Here's what I am going to do: we're getting the a la carte (6) 8x10 pics for $150, and the $500 DVD of the ceremony/cocktail reception, plus my future Mother in law just bought a professional-grade Nikon camera, so she will be snapping pics throughout the ceremony as well.

 

And then, a few hours later, my guests and I are going to be going OFF THE RESORT PROPERTY with Alain Hottat of Brian Nejedly Photography (Brian is an American Photographer that lives in Ocho Rios, so you don't have to pay travel fees -- he's already there and he's been a DREAM to deal with so far! Total professional!) Alain will be taking us to both a beach location and a falls location to do some portrait shots with our guests in my ceremony dress (and then I'll change for a TTD session, just my FI and I) right around sunset. And I think you will be shocked by how reasonable his prices are....check out his site at Jamaica Wedding Photographer - Brian Nejedly.

 

Hope that helps!

 

This is a GREAT idea!! His pics on his website look amazing! Thank you for this brilliant suggestion!!

I'm pretty much doing the same thing except I went with Misha Earle Photography instead of Brian Nejedly. They were actually the same price but Brian was located on the other side of the island and Misha is located on the same side of the island as where we are staying. We are doing the cheapest photo pkg at sandals to get ceremony photos then are being whisked away for photos all over with TTD at sunset. Pretty darn excited and I see that this is the route most sandals brides usually take for photos I don't really want pics all over the resort anyways! http://www.mishaearlephotography.com

I had my first phone call with WC end of aug. I felt like it went well and she didn't try and push us to purchase anything we didn't need. We are eloping so we are having no guests..but I still wanted to plan something special. I still have some odds and ends to tie up but overall I feel like things are moving right along! The only things I have left to book are sandals photography for ceremony (going with cheapest pkg bc I hired an offsite photog to take us all over for 3 hours after our ceremony and ending with TTD at sunset!) and the candlelight dinner after we come back from photos!

Originally Posted by pongyang2001 

 

 

congratulations!!! let me know how your phone meeting goes. trying to come up with important questions to ask our WC. we are doing the seaside serenade package and it includes the basic sandals photography. i honestly care more about the TTD session so we are hiring an offsite photographer to do it and go to some nice locations on the island. what butler room did you get btw and how much was it for your whole stay?

I have a running list of questions too - they are all on my iphone under the notes app.  Since i'm eloping, i probally don't have the same types of questions you would ask.  We originally wanted a small wedding of close family and friends, but the Negril resort isn't completely renovated, so some of the lower room categories are pretty crappy looking, and we didn't want to be responsible for feeling like people paid all this money and their room sucked.  We booked the "Millionaire Penthouse Oceanview Honeymoon Suite with Ocean View", this building is completely renovated.  As far as i know, there are not many rooms in our building and it is on the "quieter" side of the resort.  I would have loved to book a crystal lagoon swim out room, but those were 3k more than what we paid...LOL.  Have you ever stayed at a Sandals?  We went through the big book of all the sandals when we were deciding to get married, and our TA told us Jamaica was the "easiest" island to get married on - LOL that was why we picked it. 

Hey there! FI and I are getting married at Sandals Negril in July! My first phone meeting with the WC is next Saturday and TBH I haven't looked at any of the selections yet! We are eloping, so I don't have to worry about much of the traditional stuff. So far I have written our ceremony (pieces from all over the web lol) and bought a wedding dress. we have bought our wedding bands. I don't trust sandals photographers, therefore we booked an outside photographer to pick us up after the ceremony. We are going to head to some fun photo spots, then do a TTD shoot at sunset! We are very excited! I figure, we will still have to buy a cheap sandals package, or possibly just pay per pic if we like any of the ceremony. We will have to do something, because ri want a pic or two of the ceremony! I did inquire about the professional "partners photographers" but they were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced:eek: - so after reading plenty of reviews, hiring our own and going offsite was the best idea. We also splurged on a really expensive butler room. I've never been to an all inclusive before, so I'm pretty excited about that too!

I ended up booking with Misha Earle Photography. I called sandals and asked the prices of each "partner" photographer and the prices were OUTRAGEOUS (as one would expect). We plan on leaving the resort directly after the ceremony and taking photos for 3 hours ending with a TTD shoot at sunset! She has been great with communication and her portfolio/style is exactly what I'm looking for!

I am getting married at sandals negron and I am hiring a local photog from Jamaica to pick us up after the ceremony and do wedding photos then TTD photos at sunset. I figure ill let the sandals photog take some photos of ceremony and then if there happen to be any we like we will purchase per photo. Photography was a big deal to me and FI so we decided leaving the resort after the wedding gets us the quality we want. This was an easy decision for us since we are eloping.

Does anyone know if Sandals provides witnesses for you if you are eloping? This thought just literally popped into my head haha. I was planning on meeting people there and maybe asking a few to come, but with arriving on Saturday, wedding on Monday, I don't think there will be much time to make friends!

Redsxgirl, we stayed in the Concierge Level Beachfront Walk-Out Room, it's right in the middle of the resort. We didn't have anyone in our group stay in your level. My fiance didn't like the idea of a butler, so we skipped that luxury. But we did have a couple with us that LOVED their butler in the Lagoon Suites. You get a personal cell phone to call them at anytime.

 

I am a photographer so I was terrified about the Sandals photography. We booked a very small package with Sandals and I had one of my close friends use my professional camera to double shoot. And thank God we did that, because I was extremely disappointed with our Sandals photographer. They do not digitally retouch the images and more than half of them were out of focus. We ended up buying 20 images (because they were shots that our friend didn't get) but I came straight home and had to fix them myself in Photoshop. Although there's nothing I can do about the out of focus images. You don't HAVE to book their photographers, but we did just in case they were good. But with that said, being a professional I look at photos in detail, whereas some may think the pictures were fine.. but for their prices in my opinion the quality does not match the cost.

 

Nina was my WC and I begged the group department for a new WC, but I was told she was the Sandals Negril person. I have read alot of girls on here that loved her and had nice things to say, but not my experience. She always took way too long to answer e-mails, was out of office more than she was in, couldn't give me straight answers, and didn't give the onsite wedding group half of my requests. So once we got there I had to re-do alot. And multiple times that I asked questions, she'd merely send me website links instead of just answering. I hope you have a better experience!!

 

You can write your own vows. You can do whatever script you want. And you aren't supposed to tip anyone else, but I know some people do under the table, But they can get in alot of trouble for accepting tips.Hope this helps!!

Thank you so much lebolton! It was very helpful! I have heard the same about the WC. Thank GOD we are eloping bc I don't think I could deal with planning a wedding over the phone. I'm trying to get my questions in line now. We are just using the $500 wedding credit to make a simple wedding since we plan to go off property with the photog the minute after we sign the marriage license lol! I guess I am hoping ill like 1 or 2 pics from sandals so I have SOMETHING from the actual ceremony! I am so thankful I found this site or I wouldn't have known how BAD sandals photogs are and I would have been so upset with crappy wedding pics! Thanks also for letting me know we can plan our own script/vows! We would have loved a room in the crystal lagoon swim ups but it was almost 2500 more than what we are paying now (and even what we paid is more than I was comfortable spending!) Can't wait to see your full review! Thank you again for your help!

Originally Posted by moodyc82 

 

 

Me in the dress, found it at david bridal and i had the same excitement and love for this dress as i did with my engagement ring. It was orig $1,200 and i got it for $750

You look fabulous!!! AND SO HAPPY! congrats on finding the dress and getting a deal!!!

Originally Posted by lebolton 

 

We just got back from our wedding at Sandals Negril. I'll be posting a review soon, but if y'all have any specific questions let me know!!

 I cant wait to see your review!!!!

 

Me and my FI have booked our wedding at Sandals Negril in July 2014.  We booked the Millionaire Honeymoon Plantation Suites Ocean View with a butler for 7 nights!  We are very excited.  I hear these are on the "quieter" side of the resort.  I really wanted something beach walkout, but my FI really liked these rooms from the pics, so thats what we went with. (most of the beach walkout rooms were much cheaper!!!)  Has anyone here stayed in the room level we are staying in?  Since we were so scared about the Sandals photog, we have decided to hire an offsite photog and they are picking up us directly after ceremony for wedding photos and TTD off site!  I'm assuming that we would have to still buy a cheap package from sandals for the off chance that we like some of their ceremony photos...otherwise we will not have any photos of our actual ceremony!

 

I have my first meeting with Nina in August.  I dislike all our their flower options, so im wondering if anyone has requested custom flowers?  I just want a bouquet of bright orange and hot pink gerber daisies.

 

I forgot to mention that was are totally eloping, just the two of us.  Does Sandals provide a witness?  Can we write our own vows? I have a list of ongoing questions to ask Nina including the script for the ceremony - we aren't religious, if allowed - i would love to pick out my own ceremony script.  Also as for the spa...i plan on makeup/hair trials before the big day.  I know at the end of the week i tip my butler...but who else do you tip while you are there??

 

Is there any excursions we MUST do while in Negril?  We def want to do Rick's cafe.  I want to do a catamaran cruise. We want to do horseback riding thru the water.  Thanks in advance!

Hope you ladies are having a great WEEKEND(not wedding!) is there a way to edit a post (for future reference)?