jessicachantel

I just got back from my wedding and yes they do give you a low res cd with ALL pics (almost 500 in our hour and forty five minute shoot) taken with a stamp on them. This is because you have not bought the rights to them. We bought a package (70 pics plus 6 free with the wedding pics- ended up being approx $800) These pics Michael will either give to you on a disc before you leave if they have time to retouch them or send them to you in the mail or over skype. These 76 pics are high res and DO NOT have the stamp on them. I think they give you the ones with the stamp so that if you are at home and decide you want to buy some other ones you can email them and let them know and they will send you the high res. He will also give you a form releasing the rights to the one you bought so you will not encounter any problem trying to print them at home. I thought $800 was a bit high but they do a lot of retouching. They retouched my sunburn (I had an x on my back) on all my pics and took out all the extra people, beach chairs, jet skis, vendors, etc...) Hope this helps:)

I have been to both Punta Cana and just got married at the ROR in Jamaica. Both have nice beaches but I found the Dominican to be kind of depressing (it is dirty EVERYWHERE outside of the resorts and I mean everywhere!) We stayed in a really fancy hotel in dominican with a high price tag ($3000 pp) and had a good time but the ROR far exceeded our expectations. I think we paid 2000pp to go to ROR and people complained at first. Everyone had their two cents about where is cheaper (Cuba, Mexico, etc...) But trust me, you get what you pay for! The food is amazing at ROR- you never have to worry about the sanitary conditions- the grounds are beautiful and relatively new. In the end all the guests decided next trip is to a RIU and completely forgot that they had to spend an extra few hundred more than Cuba or another location:)

Here are some more pics: A few more professional ones (We have to wait a month for the other ones as he is editing out my sunburnt back and all the people who got into the background) Non professional pics taken by family: Me without makeup after my hair appointment The ceremony: The wedding party: Our centrepieces (bought at the dollar store so we could just leave them there at the end- we also had sparklers) The cake and topper: Silly pic from the end of the night when we were alone on the beach together:

I am back and married woohoo! I thought I would leave an honest review of the resort/wedding for all you planners out there. We planned this wedding quickly (in two months) after cancelling a big at home wedding because I am currently 7 1/2 months pregnant:) Resort: Was gorgeous! It rained a couple days but never for very long. The one exception was our wedding day which I will talk about later. The food was excellent. You are in great hands in this resort. I have travelled a lot and this was by far the best food. The customer service was good overall (the only problem I had was with the photoshop lady and a tour booking lady who do not technically work for the hotel so no complaints) Now down to the wedding: Meeting with the co-ordinators: We met with the Chandlyn the wedding co-ordinator two days after we got there (she must have been busy because we went immediately there upon checking in but was not available until wednesday while our wedding was on friday) We are really laid back and didn't mind though. Once we got there she showed me what was included in the free package but never mentioned ANY upgrades. If I hadn't have read about them on here I would have never known. I upgraded my bouquet (it cost $150 I believe) and ordered two rose petal bags ($40 each) which seemed expensive but we had two flowergirls who would have been very disappointed if they had no petals. We also ordered the aisle runner for $45. We were told our reception would be at the steak house (again given no other option). My fiance said Mammee Bay? They said yes and everything was Irie. I was told my party was to be in my room fifteen minutes before the wedding and the guests and groom on the beach fifteen minutes before. We also gave them the ceremony we had written to give to the minister and told them about our ipod and let them know we had hired the photoshop for the wedding. Meeting with the spa: I had booked my hair appointment a month before but decided to check in the day we got there. They didn't have me in the system so I was relieved I did. Meeting with photoshop: We also checked in with them when we arrived. We reconfirmed our package and made an appointment to view them the day after the wedding. Day of the wedding: It was raining like mad when we woke up! We went to drop off our centrepieces with the co-ordinators who weren't there so we just left them in their office with a quick note explaining how to set them up. We then got the front desk to call them to ask about the backup in case it was still raining for the ceremony so we could let our guests know. They said Mammee Bay which we were fine with. I had made my hair appointment for 11:00 am which the spa ladies thought was too early for a 4:00 ceremony but I assured them it would be fine. I really wanted to relax and eat before the wedding. I was worried about the rain though so my wonderful fiance went to the front desk and asked if there was an umbrella I could use. One of the front desk men lent me his personal umbrella which was so kind!! Nikki did my hair perfectly which I was impressed with because we didn't do a trial and I just brought her a pic. I was out of there by 12:30.I then spent about half hour with the family and then me and my fiance went and had a liesurely lunch at the buffet. By then it was 2:00pm and time to go upto my room as my flowergirls and ringbearer were meeting me to get ready. It was around this time the sky decided to clear up and it was absolutely gorgeous! We were back to the ceremony at the beach:)I did my own makeup and got dressed while my sister in law did the two girls hair. My fiance also got ready in the room with us. At about 3:30 my fiance went downstairs with the other guests to get the music ready. I sent him with a spare copy of the ceremony just in case. At 3:45 the co-ordinator rung up that she was coming to get me. My dad and I, along with the two flowergirls and ringbearer were waiting. She showed up with my bouquet but not the boutounniere for the ringbearer or the flowergirl petals. When we got down there she brought the bags of petals, which were LITERALLY two Giant bags of petals in crappy plastic bags! We had thought they would be in little mesh bags or something for $40 dollars! They were like sandwhich bags lol. So just a warning, bring baskets or bags or something to put them in:) There was also so many petals 4 flower girls would have had enough to throw! Looking back I wonder why Chandlyn didn't let us know that one bag would probably have been enough.... Anyways that aside when we got there the co-ordinator was ushering us to start going but when I was looking I didn't see the photographer so I insisted we stop (not like you can do it over again). We had to wait a little bit but Michael showed up (this was a surprise as we didn't pay for the head photographer- he was just available). We then started the ceremony and all went smoothly. The only thing that was odd was the minister sounded like he was reading our ceremony for the first time but it was still beautiful. Immediately following this, we toasted and did pics with the family and us. We had an hour and forty five minutes of time but decided to save 15 minutes for the reception. It was around this time that I asked my fiance about the minister not knowing the ceremony. He said that he came down and asked him and the co-ordinators had never given him the ceremony!! My fiance said the minister was quite peeved! I feel bad for the poor guy, but considering all this he did an excellent job. We really wanted to tip him but he was gone so fast and we didn't think the co-ordinators would actually give it to him. After al of tis we had about an hour to kill so everyone just had drinks by the pool bar. At this point my mom went to go bring the cake topper from our room to the restaurant (It was really expensive so we were being extra careful with it) She brought it to Mammee Bay and was told there was no wedding there tonight so she tried to find the co-ordinators to sort things out. In the end, me and my fiance ended up having to walk all the way across the resort to the plantation to see if we were there (they didn't know) then get front desk to get the co-ordinators. When we finally found them she said she had said she had told us the steak house and we were like ya, Mammee Bay! and she said no the plantation! But I swear to you, she DID say Mammee Bay because I remember being like good, that is where I want it. The change in restaurant really wasn't a big deal with us, what really had us exasperated was that all of our guests including the photographer were told Mammee Bay so we had to go hunt them all down to tell them the "new" location. At 6:30 we all arrived at the plantation (same menu as steakhouse) There were two other wedding partied there but we were all pretty separated and couldn't hear each other. The food came quite quickly (all fed within an hour). We had our own music via an ipod and stereo. The photographer said he would come around 8:00 for the cake cutting and first dance but we probably waited until 8:30 which was fine. This time however, it was someone different than Michael and the shots he got weren't great. I think we ended up picking out one or two out of maybe 35 taken. The free cake wasn't the greatest tasting which is weird because we ate all the different kinds of cake there and they were GREAT! It wasn't all that important to us anyways but if it is to you, you might want to upgrade to something other than the sponge cake. After this, the hunny and I went for a walk on the beach while the rest of te guests continued the party by the entertainment. All in all, I was pleased with how everything went. You just have to be laid back. My advice though is be well informed of your options before you go (maybe I am just used to people trying to upsell to me:) and have BACKUPS! As for the photography, I thought the price was a little high at first and I am picky about photography (Who likes cheesy shots?) but I thought Michael did a fine job. I think there were about ten pics that took my breath away and many other good shots (We got 77 in total). Another note: My parents tried to set up a surprise breakfast the next morning for us but were told only we could so in between the ceremony and reception we asked Chandlyn to set one up and she said no problem. We had no clue about cost or anything but my parents were prepared with over $100. The next morning promptly at 9:00 am we were brought a HUGE breakfast: Coffee, orange juice, two omelettes, bacon, two cheese plates, two meat plates, two salad plates, toast, a basket full of pastries. We were pleasantly surprised when we checked out and told it was complimentary:) If you have any more questions for me, just let me know! A pic from the day:

Okay so I haven't been really active on this site especially since we planned the wedding in two months! We cancelled our more traditional wedding because I became suprisingly pregnant halfway into our engagement (7 and a half months now!) for a much more laid back wedding at ROR. But I have constantly read all your helpful info and thought I would do a final breakdown of everything before I leave in case it helps some of you or if you have questions or even if you have tips to give me before I leave! Dress: Altered Graduation dress in bright pink that makes me feel very pretty in my very pregnant state:) Groom is in white button down shirt and khakis. Wedding Party: Two flower girls and a ring bearer. We affectively fired the rest of them hahah We originally had 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen but that is half of the people coming so we needed someone to watch! They understood:) Guests: 17 in total including 3 children Ceremony: Probably about 15 minutes in length. We wrote it ourselves and finished our vows last night. Dinner: Going with the free Mammee Bay reception (planning to do our first Dance there. Has anyone done this or know if it is possible? Music: We bought an ipod stereo for $40 and downloaded all our playlists. I also made a backup cd in case the ipod decides not to work. Photography: Booked Michael for an hour and 45 minutes Videography: We bought a video camera for $300 and will have FH mom tape it. We thought it was a better investment since we will soon have lots of baby firsts to videotape! Guestbook: Impromptu last minute addition. We made it out of a scrapbook and put fun pages in it like draw a pic of yourself, give the couple some advice, what is the most embarassing thing they have done ect... We will pass it around at supper since I hear it can go for 2 1/2- 3 hours long so people have something fun to do:) Flowers: Need to decide those when I get there... Hair appointment: Booked- will do my own makeup Centrepieces: 4 glass bowls with floating tropical flower candles and three small candle holders that will hold sand and sparklers for our first dance. P.S. do you think they will allow sparklers at Mammee Bay? I cannot see a reason for them not to but what do you guys think? Favors: These were my favorite part hahaha Personalized BPA FREE waterbottles in red for everyone. We filled them up with mini hand sanitizer, herbal essences shampoo and conditioner, jolly ranchers and life savers, a map of the hotel (That I got from here!) and an informational newsletter for everyone. On the newsletter we included: The time and date of our wedding and a general what to expect such as a reception following and such Names of drinks to try Exchange rate average temp How much a taxi should cost to certain places people want to go like dunn's river, margaritaville etc... Where atms are located plus their associated fees. Foods to try What type of souvenirs to get such as rum cream, appleton rum, etc... Numbers for private tours such as lee's And then just little tidbits like what night to expect beach party night and all that jazz... And I think that is it! Do you guys think I have missed anything? We are not having any extras like chair covers or anything because we have lots of baby stuff to buy when we get back:) We also have one whole suitcases full of sand/beach toys for everyone hahaha When we went to Dominican Republic last year we were sad we never thought to bring any so I think we are prepared this time. Well that is all. Any questions or advice is welcome!

User name: jessicachantel Name: jess and james Wedding Date:may 1st, 2009 Location: RIU Ocho Rios, Jamaica in JA: April 27 - May 3, 2009

Hi there, Here is my intro post. My name is Jess and I am getting married May 1st of this year in Ocho Rios Jamaica. Only 20 days to go!

I picked 4 pm too so I could still enjoy the day and not have to wait too long before supper. I like to get things over quick haha

We had problems but most likely because we decided to go so quick! We decided in January to quickly go and get married before I was too pregnant to fly. Half of our guests are from Nova Scotia and half from Sask (where we are). We have kids coming so we were trying to work around a school schedule.We were originally aiming for your guys spring break in March but couldn't get enough seats. Then we were trying for Easter Break and not enough seats. Finally we all decided to go April 25th (last possible time I can fly). My FH parents in NS booked their seats on the Friday, we went in on Monday to book the Sask relatives (9 in total) and there were only 8 seats left! and my FH parents still had not booked for their side of the family (5 more). So as it is right now half the guests are going on the 25th and half (including me and FH are going on the 27th) . It was a big gong show but in the end we will all get to spend 5 days together at least lol.