Is this normal?

[microbmen]

Hello,

 

I am going to be booking our Destination Wedding at the Half Moon in Jamaica. We have heard wonderful things, and we think this place is perfect.

 

We worked out an estimate with a wedding planner at the half moon, and the estimate now suites our budget. The next step is to sign a contract and leave a deposit to get everything going. My concern is that the contract only talks about the venue and the rooms being blocked for our guests. There is no mention about the costs associated with the event. The deposit is also non-refundable.

Is this normal? to leave a large sum non-refundable deposit (about 50% of our events estimate) without having the total cost in writing?

 

Thank you for any information you might provide,

Nervous Mike

[J&M]

Hi

 

Not sure about the Half Moon....we got married at Riu and when we booked the wedding time slot we had to give our credit card info in case we cancelled then we'd be billed $250.00 ( I think it was 250)

 

We paid the wedding co-ordinater the total cost for everything when we arrived.

 

your situation sounds kinda odd

[microbmen]

That makes, sense.. $250 isn't bad. Of course they would expect to still be paid for their work in the event of a cancellation.

 

Im talking about $7500.

[RMB12/4/08]

I just got married at the Riu and didn't have to put any money down nor give a credit card.... We got a confirmation # and that was it.... We only paid $250 when we got there.

That situation kinda sounds weird.... I don't know if I would go along with that...Definately check into it some more.... Just to be on the safe side. Hopefully you find someone that has gotten married there before so you can ask them... Good luck!

[montegobay09]

I was the same as the Riu brides so it seems as though you're going to need someone who's not a Riu bride to see how much they had to pay up front! Any non-riu brides want to comment?

[microbmen]

Did you guys block off any rooms for guests? They are telling me that this deposit is to block off 15 rooms for us and will be applied towards the wedding once the rooms are officially spoken for and paid.

[drbrainfreeze]

I am also getting married at the RIU and had to give my CC number, although nothing was charged, but they will charge the $250 if you cancel too close.

 

My friend got married at Sandals, and she DID have to put a deposit down to block rooms. If you are blocking rooms, I think that this is normal.

[microbmen]

drbrainfreeze do you know if your friend had a price for the wedding in writing before the deposit was given? or was the deposit given with just a general estimate of total cost?

 

Thank you very much to everyone for your input.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbmen drbrainfreeze do you know if your friend had a price for the wedding in writing before the deposit was given? or was the deposit given with just a general estimate of total cost? Thank you very much to everyone for your input.

When I was initially looking at Half Moon, I was actually told the same thing. Since we were looking to book the villa's, they said that the deposit was standard procedure & was a room block & once our guests began to book their rooms, the deposit that we made would then be applied to our wedding costs. At the time, I think they wanted a deposit of about 8k.

My hubby was hesitant to do all of this because we really didn't have a clear understanding as to how much the ceremony would cost us. The WC assured as that most weddings there would run over the 8k deposit. She did send us information & a pricelist so that we could estimate how much the entire wedding would cost. After going thru all of that we decided not to book because it just seemed like it would go over the budget that we had set for ourselves.

So all of this is to say, that yes, their procedure of requiring a hefty deposit is "normal" but there are lots of resorts that don't require that much of a deposit.

If you arrange a group block yourself with a group contract, some resorts will make you deposit one nights stay per room. We actually did this for our guests at ROR.
But if you use a TA you can possibly get group rates and you can have your guests put down their own deposits.

[montegobay09]

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbmen Did you guys block off any rooms for guests? They are telling me that this deposit is to block off 15 rooms for us and will be applied towards the wedding once the rooms are officially spoken for and paid.

No I don't think we did get rooms blocked off. We were told that there was plenty of room at the time and they'd let us know when it started filling up. I guess that's why we didn't need that big of a deposit.

I also didn't get charged the $250 but we did give our cc# with the knowledge that $250 was going to be charged if cancelled.