2015 Iberostar Rose Hall Suite Bride

[Mcamille]

@@beckys98 - Less than one month away, are you super excited!!! Is everything taken care of, what's left for you to do. I have 103 days left so I am knee deep and wedding planning :-)

@@WesnKris congratulations! How was EVERYTHING! I'll be there in another 103 days! Whot-whot!

[beckys98]

@@Mcamille - We're in pretty good shape! Working on seating arrangements/place cards for the welcome dinner and wedding reception this week. We still need to pick our songs for the ceremony and a few other odds and ends. I'm a wee bit anxious because I sent the wedding coordinators a couple of easy questions 10 DAYS ago and they haven't responded, and we also sent our notarized documents for our marriage license application and haven't heard any confirmation of receipt. I'm trying not to worry, but 10 days is a long time when your wedding is in 28 days!

 

I also haven't heard from my photographer since I signed the contract. I sent a note over the weekend and haven't heard back. Payment is due in less than 2 weeks, so I'd kinda like to hear from her before I fork over all the money!

 

My biggest thing right now is packing! I need to get some new clothes for the trip. I HATE packing so I'm trying to do a little bit at a time so I'm not a crazy person right before we leave!

 

I put together a travel tips document for our guests and I'm happy to share it! I don't have it here at work with me but I can post it later.

Edited May 13, 2015 by beckys98

[budgetbride2015]

Hi fellow brides. FYI be mindful when bringing items to decorate (linens, napkins etc) customs will charge you a fee (duty) to bring it into the country

[Mcamille]

@@beckys98 - Glad to hear everything is going well. Bummer about the photographer, this is one of my biggest fears, someone contracted not showing up. I’d wait before paying anything else until you hear back from them.  What are you doing about your reception? I’m having a small dilemma, where I want to rent a tent and have the reception outside, but the thought of passing up the meal that’s included in my package and purchasing the same food to be served outside, is sickening to me. I really didn’t want a semi-private, as I don’t know if the patrician a section of the restaurant or not. I’ve been in contact with the wedding planner, and they are returning my emails, a little slow, but they are getting back to me so I kinda expected delays.

 

Are you having a reception with a DJ and music or just a dinner? If so, where are you having it? What about the welcome reception? I’m thinking of doing a meet and greet the night everyone arrives. I’m considering the Lounge Terrace, but I’m not sure.

 

Yes, the travel tips document is a good idea. I have a wedding website where I posted a similar document.

 

Packing-This hopefully won’t be an issue for me. I have ‘stuff’ to bring for the wedding and gifts for my guests. Other than my wedding dress, I didn’t even think about things that I will need for myself, such as clothing while I’m there. Ok, now I know that’s another expense I’ll have to consider….thanks for the reminderJ

Hi fellow brides. FYI be mindful when bringing items to decorate (linens, napkins etc) customs will charge you a fee (duty) to bring it into the country

Wait, what!? I have a lot of 'stuff' to bring. Good to know.  Thanks for sharing!

[beckys98]

This isn't entirely accurate - You can bring goods in as long as they are for your personal use and you aren't reselling them. It is wise to bring receipts for bulk wedding items (like linens) to show that taxes were paid on them in your home country - versus acquiring them duty free - and the value of the items. Even duty free you can bring in a "reasonable" amount of goods without paying taxes.

 

You should declare any "gifts" you are bringing into the country. I plan to declare the items I have for my welcome bags even though the value is negligible. You declare them, but you shouldn't have to pay tax on them unless they are items of meaningful value. If you don't declare something you should have, get searched, and they find it - then they'll probably try to charge you a tax to stick it to you So better to just be up front about it.

 

My fiance is Jamaican and most Jamaicans coming home bring back shoes, clothes, electronics, etc from the US for their family in Jamaica. So he'll definitely get searched and I'm not risking it.

 

Hi fellow brides. FYI be mindful when bringing items to decorate (linens, napkins etc) customs will charge you a fee (duty) to bring it into the country

[beckys98]

We have 60 guests staying at the resort and then another 7 coming off resort just for the day (family members). The extra costs for the tented reception were just too much for us to justify. Plus, I sweat a lot so I REALLY wanted air conditioning for my reception!

 

We are paying the extra $800 to rent Calabash for a private reception from 6:30 - 10. We are doing a DJ because it was $150 per hour to rent the sound system (to use an iPod) or $190 an hour for the DJ. So we might as well do the DJ and not have to worry about it! We are not doing a formal cocktail hour in between - we're just directing people to the lobby bar.

 

For our welcome reception the night before, we're doing a semi-private dinner at 6:30. They don't confirm your restaurant location for that until a week before, but my first choice is Aunt Ruby and second choice Maria Bonita. We're going to have people meet in the lobby 30 minutes before for a cocktail so we can say hello to anyone we hadn't seen yet (about 1/3 of our guests arrive that day). Also that way I can do my itineraries NOW without knowing the restaurant location - so we'll meet in the lobby and just walk over to the restaurant together. The dinner is free, it just counts as one of the guests' reservations they are entitled to during their stay. Then from 8-10pm we're doing a bonfire on the beach with a steel drum band!

 

I have heard that for the semi-private dinner they do a good job of secluding you from the rest of the restaurant. We just have a big enough group who LOVE to dance that it was worth the extra $800 for the private restaurant.

 

 

@@beckys98 - Glad to hear everything is going well. Bummer about the photographer, this is one of my biggest fears, someone contracted not showing up. I’d wait before paying anything else until you hear back from them.  What are you doing about your reception? I’m having a small dilemma, where I want to rent a tent and have the reception outside, but the thought of passing up the meal that’s included in my package and purchasing the same food to be served outside, is sickening to me. I really didn’t want a semi-private, as I don’t know if the patrician a section of the restaurant or not. I’ve been in contact with the wedding planner, and they are returning my emails, a little slow, but they are getting back to me so I kinda expected delays.

 

Are you having a reception with a DJ and music or just a dinner? If so, where are you having it? What about the welcome reception? I’m thinking of doing a meet and greet the night everyone arrives. I’m considering the Lounge Terrace, but I’m not sure.

 

Edited May 13, 2015 by beckys98

[Mcamille]

We have 60 guests staying at the resort and then another 7 coming off resort just for the day (family members). The extra costs for the tented reception were just too much for us to justify. Plus, I sweat a lot so I REALLY wanted air conditioning for my reception!

 

We are paying the extra $800 to rent Calabash for a private reception from 6:30 - 10. We are doing a DJ because it was $150 per hour to rent the sound system (to use an iPod) or $190 an hour for the DJ. So we might as well do the DJ and not have to worry about it! We are not doing a formal cocktail hour in between - we're just directing people to the lobby bar.

 

For our welcome reception the night before, we're doing a semi-private dinner at 6:30. They don't confirm your restaurant location for that until a week before, but my first choice is Aunt Ruby and second choice Maria Bonita. We're going to have people meet in the lobby 30 minutes before for a cocktail so we can say hello to anyone we hadn't seen yet (about 1/3 of our guests arrive that day). Also that way I can do my itineraries NOW without knowing the restaurant location - so we'll meet in the lobby and just walk over to the restaurant together. The dinner is free, it just counts as one of the guests' reservations they are entitled to during their stay. Then from 8-10pm we're doing a bonfire on the beach with a steel drum band!

 

I have heard that for the semi-private dinner they do a good job of secluding you from the rest of the restaurant. We just have a big enough group who LOVE to dance that it was worth the extra $800 for the private restaurant.

 

Good point!  My wedding is in August, so I can only imagine how hot it will be. With tent package, they are adding a cooling unit for the bride and groom, but I'll need to purchase more for my other guests. Hmmm. I may need to consider having it in one of the resturants afterall. I am getting a DJ so moving the reception inside will save me a few thousand dollars, (since I would also have to purchase the meal from beach menu). The coordinator recommended the bonfire, but I wasn't sure about that. Ok, back to the drawing board. Thank goodness I have 103 days left to ponder.

[Beachlight]

Beckys98- the same thing happened to me with sending an email wanting verification of our marriage documents. They didn't reply after two weeks so I forwarded them the message again and included Loreto. They replied within the day. My wedding is in a few weeks so I was getting nervous.

[beckys98]

They did finally respond that the received our documents for the license, but the questions I emailed on May 3rd (and followed up on) I still have gotten a response on! I've just given up that I won't have the answer. Haha - ultimately it is better than getting worked up about it

 

We leave in 18 days! Wedding is in 22!

[Mcamille]

@@beckys98 i have a call scheduled with them tomorrow to go over stuff an my day is still 96 days away! Im excited for you, Becky. Please please post again when you return. We'd love an update!