Well hello ladies!!! I am a MRS!! We got married at the ROR on April 19^th, 2012 and stayed there from April 14^th -21^st. We had 33 guests and overall had a fantastic time.

Majority of the guests that attended the wedding flew out of the Toronto Airport. We ended up getting a great park and fly deal thru marlin travel $99 for the hotel room, transfers to and from the airport and parking for 8 days!! We put up to 4 ppl in a room but didn’t tell the hotel. Don’t worry about needing passes for the shuttle to the airport (they try to get you to pay an extra $10pp over the 2 that are allowed in the room but you don’t need them to get on the shuttle).

We flew out of Toronto with Sunwing and myself and my husband we upgraded to their first class (which is basically just more leg room but much needed on these planes) because of the number of ppl we had travelling with us. My dress was prebooked by the TA but they didn’t have closets on the plane and instead had an overhead bin reserved for wedding dresses. Luckily I was the only bride on that flight so my dress was the only one in there. The meals served on the flight were yummy but small and the champagne was a lovely touch! They also provide hot towels and free ear phones and movies (hold onto the earphones for the trip home as they don’t hand them out again on the return flight).

When you arrive in the airport in Jamaica there isn’t a room for the riu’s but a booth where they will direct you to your bus. The ride to the hotel takes about an hour and a half (with a stop on the way for a “pee” break). As for the trip home we had to be on our way to the airport by 5am so no one got breakfast L at least there were places open at the airport to get something to eat!

ROOMS

Well this is a point of contention for us. When we arrived they didn’t have a room for my parents (who then had to wait 3 hrs to get a room). They were upgraded to a suite but decided not to take it since they would be on the total opposite side of the resort from everyone else.

We booked an ocean view room (which is really only a partial ocean view room) and was not impressed. The room itself was great but our view was of a tree. Just a tree. When I called to complain they said if I went to the corner of the balcony I should be able to see the ocean!! Wth! I was soooo not impressed. After looking at some other rooms we noticed out of all our guest we had the worst one!!! So after lots of complaining and hunting down the manager we finally were upgraded to an ocean front.

Building 3 is where most of my guests stayed but it is a bit of a walk if you get one of the rooms in the middle so if you are staying in building 3 ask for rooms on the ends. Building 2 is where we stayed and it was perfect! It was close to everything and right in the middle. The suites (building 1) were on the other side of the resort and a walk to the restaurants.

The housekeeping was excellent and they kept our fridge and liquor well stocked!

FOOD

I loved the buffet (which was good since it was soooo hard to get reservations into the restaurants). We ate dinner there 5 nights out of our week. The selection was great and the quality was amazing. My husband is a chef and food is very important and he was very happy with the food.

We ate everyday at the jerk hut! I LOVE IT!!! Sooo YUMMY!!! The plantation also had a great lunch spread!

Entertainment

I have been to a lot of resorts and by far this is the best entertainment staff!! You have to watch the big bamboo show they put on during the day. Every day they had entertainment at the pool around 3pm (which wasn’t good when there was a wedding in the garden gazebo) and they got everyone involved and were defiantly entertaining!

Every night the shows were good! They were worth watching and it seemed like everyone did! The disco opened at 11 every night and it quickly got packed!

POOLS/OCEAN

There were always lots of beach chairs available. We spent a lot of time at the swim up bar and the staff there was awesome!! The ocean and beach are beautiful and HUGE! There was snorkeling and other water sports available.

DRINKS

You must try: Blue Ocean, dirty banana, purple rain

WEDDING

I went with the free package and didn’t add anything to it! It was perfect!! We only took flowers for me and the groom and the girls all carried sun parasols.

We arrived on a sat and met with Keisha on Monday. The meeting only took about 30mins. We picked my free bouquet and told her to get a matching boutonniere. We gave her our chair ties and she took care of getting them on the chairs for the wedding and then the reception.

We had our wedding at 3pm on the beach…. It was so beautiful nothing extra was needed. I did request a microphone but never got it. Also I requested the white chairs for the wedding (otherwise they are brown).

We got our hair done at Renova spa. They can only do 2 at a time even though they told us they could do 3. They did a great job and want to make sure you are happy.

I refused to pay $500 for the steel drum band and was quiet offended that they overcharged sooo much for it knowing that if that was something we wanted we had to pay. So I decided not to go with one. Instead they provided a dj for free. I gave them the music I wanted and it went off without a hitch!

We brought our own photog and she was AMAZING!!!!! Her name is Jill Wilhelm and you can check her out at realimagephotography.net. I couldn’t have asked for a better photog or photos. They are beautiful!

Everything on the day of the wedding went perfect! When I was planning I was unsure why there was a $10.50 charge for any more than 10 guests. When I emailed Keisha and asked she said it was for champagne and cake…..I asked what if I don’t want extra champagne or cake….. She then tried to say it was $5.50pp for chair rentals….. Huh?! So in the need she didn’t charge me anything extra!!! And they gave us all extra champagne!!! The cake that came with was plenty to feed 33 people.

Dinner was at the plantation with the steak house menu. The staff moved the chair bows to the chairs at the reception and I gave them table runners that matched and menus. The food was very good. Although there were three other weddings in the plantation and we all started at 630 meaning the salad/soup and dessert buffet was very busy.

The cake was yummy and simple. Cake was not important to me so it was just fine being basic.

Please feel free to ask any questions!!

the wedding gazebo on beach:

the dinner setup

my hair done at the spa:

our wedding ceremony:

the girls and their parasols:

the rui building 2 on right and 3 on left: