Ok girls, I finally had a chance to sit down and write my review! I will break everything down in categories but bear in mind we did a bit of a non traditional wedding and got married off-site so I will review the ceremony portion separately. We were married Wednesday, Feb 2nd, 2011 and it was truly the best day of my life! We arrived with our guests on Friday, Jan 28th so we had more than enough time to meet with our wedding planners, have meetings, etc. If you can arrive before your guests I think it would be less stressful but if you can't just give yourself a few days ahead.

 

I started planning my wedding almost right after we were engaged Dec 2nd, 2010 and found a fantastic travel agent to help us book our wedding group which were coming from Toronto and Vancouver. We ended up with 51 people (including bride/groom) attending our wedding which was a perfect size for us

 

Air Canada Vacations: C+

 

We ended up going with Air Canada Vacations (ACV) as they were the only company flying direct from Vancouver on a Friday. A direct flight was very important to us as we had older people in our group and also children. Our agent dealt mostly with ACV but we found that the company wasn't the easiest to work with. For example, when the prices dropped ACV wanted to give the new price to new booking guests only and NOT to pre-booked guests. Luckily our agent fought for us and we ended up having the lower price apply for the entire group. ACV also overcharged some guests and then didn't charge others which was a big hassle for the agent to staighten out. The plane we flew in was also really old with only 1 TV at the front of the cabin and guests were not even served a snack for a 7 hour flight.On the plus side they did upgrade the bride/groom to Business Class and offered us some promotions due to our group size.

 

Iberostar Rose Hall Beach Hotel Overall: A

 

I decided on this hotel as I knew I wanted to stay in Montego Bay, it was well rated on TripAdvisor, it was nearby the airport (15 minutes away), allowed children and had flexible plans for weddings. We looked next door at the Suites but felt the increase in price may deter some guests (e.g. our friends) and so we decided to stay at this hotel and we were more than happy we did.

To put our rating into perspective, my husband and I are huge travelers and have been all over South East Asia, the Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Cuba) and Mexico. This hotel is BY FAR the best we have ever stayed at for an all-inclusive! If you choose this hotel don't worry, you did the right thing!

 

 

 

Food: A

 

I LOVE food, it is by far one of the most important things about a hotel and I wasn't disappointed here. There is a beach BBQ on Saturdays with yummy jerk everything and other local treats. The buffet is also really good, even I was surprised, it had good food and great variety. Even the picky eaters and the crazy dieters has a lot of options. I would rate the 'Steakhouse' as the best restaurant, followed by the Japanese and finally the Cajun. Room service was just ok and sometimes it took over an hour to get your food, sometimes it never came, and sometimes it came twice!

 

Uncle Tony's in the day

 

 

Beach: B+

 

The beach was fairly good, it is hard to compare this beach with beaches I have seen in Thailand, Malaysia, Phillipines, etc. There are no waves so it is perfect for swimming but there is a bit of seaweed in the water and it washes up on shore. They spend a lot of time raking it up but by late afternoon it is back. My cousin was stung by a jellyfish but no one else had a problem. The beach is also pretty small only about 15 minute walk. This may be ok for most people but I love power walking the beach so it became a bit boring. Don't worry though as you can always hit up the pools too.

 

Hotel Room: A

 

We booked an Oceanfront room which was a suite and had a beautiful ocean view. It was large and spacious and didn't has any smell at all.  The room was cleaned twice a day and we found that if we put $$ in the fridge it was refilled daily (instead of every 2 days as it says in the brochure). The bathroom was really large and had double sinks. The hairdryers are terrible though!  Bring your own and you will be much happier!

Note: if you open the doors the AC turns off, we found this out on the wedding day when our room was BOILING as we kept having the doors open and close with visitors, room services, etc.

 

Us getting ready for the wedding

 

 

Service: A+

 

Everyone at this resort was SO friendly and nice! We had a great time getting to know the 'star friends' and my bridesmaids loved one of the scuba instructors who was very hot!

We never felt pressure to tip anyone but I was tipping EVERYONE as they were so fabulous and friendly, not in a fake way, just genuinely nice people.

 

Weather: A

 

We choose February as it was in the 'dry season' and we wanted to minimize our chance of rain. It is also the 'high' season though so prices are higher. Weather was gorgeous all but one day, sunny and hot in the morning but then clouds over in the afternoon. This was pretty standard weather for the whole 2 weeks. There were only a few scattered showers in the late afternoon and evening on a few nights. The temperature was pretty nice too 22-27C and the humidity was bearable which was great.

 

Wedding Ceremony at the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course Aqueduct Location: A+

Planner: Almarie, Tropical Wedding Jamaica A+

 

I decided that I did not want a 'traditional' resort wedding and instead I wanted to hold my wedding at a nearby location the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course at the historic Aqueduct location. I had seen other brides get married here and I really wanted to have it for my special day. To do so was a bit more difficult as I had to hire an outside wedding planner and I choose Almarie from Tropical Weddings Jamaica due to good reviews online. Let me just stop for a minute to say she is nothing short of AMAZING. In the land of 'island time' she would respond to my emails within hours, answering each question well and with detail. She organized every aspect of the ceremony from transportation of the guests from the hotel to the site, to flowers, chair/ties, steel drum band, decor, officiant, everything. It was truly perfect and Almarie was such a great wedding planner! Bear it mind it was quite expensive to get married here but I felt it was well worth it to have my dream wedding in a private location!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me with Almarie (below)

 

 

There is also a small, private beach right beside the Aqueducts (still on the golf course property) which is not the best for swimming but gorgeous and private for a TTD

 

 

 

 

Hotel Wedding Planner: Tameica B-

 

Tameica the WC at the Beach hotel planned the reception portion of my wedding. She does work long hours and has few days off,  I will give her that, but she wasn't in the same ballpark as Almarie. She was able to accommodate most of my requests for the reception but I felt she kept wanting to add extra charges to my bill. I think this was because we did our ceremony off-site and so the hotel lost out on the revenue but I still brought 50 guests with me so I thought that would count for something! She didn't offer us a room upgrade even though we booked the Oceanfront (I think there is A Penthouse Suite) and ignored my request for an upgrade for the wedding night. She also didn't offer or provide a room for the groom for the night before the wedding and wanted over $200 for a separate room for him. She also tacked on an unexpected $500 for 'set-up' for the reception regardless of the fact that we had multiple people will to set-up for me. I wasn't impressed with her, maybe girls who plan there whole wedding will have better luck.

The set-up for my reception was done well though, thankfully! I gave her a decor plan and told her everything I wanted e.g. hanging lanterns, card table, table decor, etc. and it was all done perfectly! But I also made sure to have a few friends check up on things and fix any errors (e.g. table seating).

 

 

 

 

View from outside

 

 

 

Cake: A

 

We ordered a very small cake for $35 USD for our wedding and it was good. I personally don't like eating cake and it wasn't important to me to have a big cake with so many other desert options available at the restaurant. We did want some pictures though so we ordered a mini one and put the slices on the desert buffet table. It tasted pretty good and we decorated it with fake flowers from Angels Accents.

 

 

 

DJ: A+

 

We hired DJ Kevan Vaugh for our DJ services and he did a great job! He kept the party rocking! I reviewed him separately under vendors so you can check out the full review. Of note the hotel charges $100 vendor fee and $75 day pass fee for an outside DJ. We also were able to book a projector and screen for our slide show which was $150, much cheaper than the hotel.

 

 

Photographers: A+

 

We brought our photographers with us, Chadwick and Camille Bensler, from Jonetsu Photography and they were fabulous! They were amazing to work with and they did our second day of photos with no extra charge. All of the amazing pictures in this review are thanks to their magic

 

Here's a few we love

 

 

 

Rose Hall Great House Day 2: A+

 

 If you are interested in 'other' locations for photos Rose Hall Great House is nearby (5-10 min away) and made for some great shots. We contacted the manager in advance and booked a time slot of 1 hour. It costs us $10 pp (so $40 total including 2 photogs). We took a cab there for $40 (all-inclusive there/back and they wait for you) and had a great time! Don't forgot to buy the 'Witch's Brew' rum punch to loosen you up if you go there for a shoot. It is humid though as it is off the ocean and on a hill. Bring water too!

 

Day Trip: A+

We organized a tour with Dream Catamarans to take our group out for a half day. We didn't book in advance and we planned the trip with our ACV rep at the hotel. We were able to negotiate a 10% discount for our half day trip and it came to $60/person. The boat was fantastic and takes you out to a croal reef for snorkelling then to Jimmy Buffet's Margariteville to swim and go on the slide/trampolines in the water. The boat was open bar as well which was awesome! We had an amazing time and I would HIGHLY recommend this day trip!

 

 

Ok I think that is it for my review, I will update with pictures as I get them! If you have questions you can let me know! Thanks, Princess J (aka Jenn)