(excuse the typos)

My wedding was at Sunset Beach Resort and Spa on August 4^th, 2012 at 3pm.  We stayed from August 2^nd – August 6^th and honeymooned at Secrets afterwards.  We had around 45 guests that came from various places and I have yet to hear of any complaints.  All of my guests had a blast.  I chose Sunset Beach because it was affordable, they allowed kids (we have a 9yr old son) and the basic wedding was essentially free.  I paid for the private reception and extras.

The majority of my planning was done pre-arrival with the help of my travel agent Kathy Calvert (weddingsinjamaica.com).  She was a godsend and I don’t know how we would have pulled this off without her.  She did all of my BEOs so that I wouldn’t be surprised by much upon arrival.

The hotel….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view from our room…..

 

Yes the hotel is not new however, it had been recently renovated and we were fairly pleased with our rooms.  We paid for a standard oceanfront and that’s what we got…no upgrade, that would have been nice L, we were in the towers with many of our guests. My sister ended up in an oceanfront cabana, it was nice but a far walk.  Anyway, everything was clean and in good shape.  A few people opted for the 1bdrm suites and I heard they were furnished well.  But I never went up or got pics.  

 

 

 

 

 

Before I arrived, I had booked an apt with Tanesha Clarke to go over the details of the wedding day. We went over the details that my TA had sent.  During the time I have been dealing with the resort, I went though three different WCs, Natalie, someone else whose name eludes me, and Tanesha, who is actually a manager but I just ended up sticking with her.  When I arrived, I was introduced to LaShaun and Gwynett as well.  Now, they did try to get me to get extras but I didn’t go for it.   I did end up having to pay to bring my photographer on but that was the only additional cost.  I had already arranged for my flowers to be done by an outside florist, Jans Flowers from Ochos Rios. 

 

 

 

The next day, we had a rehearsal at the gazebo followed by a dinner with the family in the Banana Walk.  Sorry I didn’t have time to take pics.   After the dinner, we were given the Tamarind Lounge to have welcome cocktails.  This is where we handed out our OOT bags.  A few notes here, there was no bartender but the bar is right outside of the bar so it wasn’t a big deal to have people bring drinks in.  We also brought our own mobile radio.  This worked out well.

 

 

 

The wedding day

Let me start by saying that there were four wedding scheduled for this day.  Our wedding was scheduled for 3pm. I was unaware of all of the other weddings before I arrived but everything went smoothly for me. I can’t speak for anyone else but I met one of the other brides the next day and she was in tears as she told me about the mistakes from her wedding day.  My experience was the exact opposite of hers. 

The start of the day begin with breakfast in the banana walk for a champagne breakfast.  My BMs had some bottles brought over to our tables for breakfast.  We said some speeches, shed some tears and were off to the spa. I already had my mani and pedi so I just went for a massage. 

As soon as this was over, Rashel Edwards, the makeup artist was knocking at my door.  She and her stylist were fantastic. She arrived with a hair stylist who did everyone’s hair, wigs, braids, you name it.   In total, she did six people’s makeup and hair.

My makeup is not done in the pic below yet.

 

 

 

Afterwards:

 

 

The actual event…

Tanesha ended up injuring herself on Friday night, so she was a no show and Gwynett and LaShaun had to step in.  It was very confusing the morning of as they were not clear on the details that Tanesha and I had discussed.  It all got straightened out without me being involved (what good bridesmaids/hostesses are for).

As I said,  I had Jan’s Flowers provide my decorations for both the wedding and reception.   Here are some pics of the décor.  They were half the price of the resort.  They also did my bouquets and bouts. 

 

 

Now , my MOH flowers came from sunset which is why they are WAYYYYYYYYYY off.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Private Reception

OMG….when I first booked, I envisioned using the Beach Inn Terrace for the private reception but it ended up being unavailable so we had the choice of a few places but we went with the Sundowner Terrace.  This place was fabulous, it was right on the water and provided the perfect views of the sun set that night.  We hired a speaker system for our ipod reception but it ended up being that a live dj came with it.  He was not very good and we had to tell the guy to stick to the music on the ipod. 

I did change my clothes to be cooler:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cake…

I didn’t invest any extra money in the cake but now I regret it.  It was really good and there ended up being none left…I mean none!! It was delicious!!  If only I could have gotten one last bite L

The reception ended at 11pm and many of the guests caught the bus over to Margaritaville. 

Couple of side notes: 

• They will try to nickel and dime you but just say no. 
• We got the video, it was done by Nas Photography and ready in two days.  I was able to take a cab from Secrets back to Sunset (okay I could have walked) and it was ready.
• Sometimes I felt like the WC would try to skirt a question by pretending like you didn’t even ask. 
• All and all, I would do it again.  It was more than I could have asked for.
• One of my bridesmaids would ask the chef (Thomas, I think) to make special dishes everyday, and he would actually do it.  One day, he made us curry goat with cabbage, another day it was oxtails and dumplings.  It was really special because it was not on the menu for that day. 
• Another guests of ours became so popular that they named a drink after him
• Karlene was always a great person to talk to.
• We did honeymoon at Secrets and the experience was great, we didn’t have to go far for a great time.

• We were there during the Olympics and Jamaican Independence Day…there was definitely excitement in the air.

It was a blast, my guests raved about it!  We will be doing it again for our AHR next week.  If you have any questions feel free to ask.