pask454

Oh and by the way brides! I DID NOT pay the $800 vendor fee for my photographer. He came with us from Ontario, and we paid his stay for the week. At the meeting, the co-ordinators asked if I hired my own photog, and I just said that he is our family friend, and he will be taking the pictures. They then asked if he was a professional, and I said, "well...he has the big cameras etc, but he's just starting out..." and they didnt say anything else. If there was to be anything said, my photographer agreed to say he was our family friend/uncle. When I was booking my wedding, I emailed complaining about this vendor fee, and the response was "friends and family are allowed to take pictures" ....so I printed that off and brought it with me incase I needed to put up a fight!!!! Also, for Rashel Edwards, I didn't have to pay for a day guest pass....before my wedding, I emailed the co-ordinators and told them she will only be there before my wedding, then leaving...(some brides have her stay until after wedding to fix up make-up). So they told me they would waive the guest pass fee.

Do any of the "past" brides know how long it takes to get the marriage licence mailed? Thanks

I think you can have your reception at the Grill or Dolce Vita...or rent out the snack bar. The Dolce Vita is alot more private. We scanned our passports aand birth certificates before, and sent them off. We brought them with us, and again, they didnt even ask to see them. The gazebo rental was worth it to me, and you could have your first dance there. The only other place that is remotely nice is the Disco....which is tiny, and the music is LOUD!!!!! and very dark. I know some people rent out the snack bar for the night, to have dinner...then dancing at the same place, not sure about cost though, and not sure if you need a DJ or you can bring your own there... They play your CD for free during the wedding, but you should bring your own. Yes, the aiport let me pack my sky laterns in my suitcase (checked). I ordered them from justartifacts.com turned out great...bigger than expected. Order a few extra, some of ours didnt have the fuel light....

Samantha -- I had the Dolce Vita for my reception dinner, it was great! I had my welcome dinner at The Grill, and my rehersal dinner at the Japanese Restaurant (only fits 12 at the table they cook in front of you). You have to book your dinners closer to the date. They wouldnt book mine until the week before I left for Jamaica, although they will book your reception dinner in advance, but it still takes a while. Lisa -- The menu for the Dolce Vita was good in my opinion, I forget everything that was the options, but I can tell you my menu so you can get an idea of what types of things they have. We started with Tomato Basil soup & croutons, then had Spinach Ravioli, then we chose chicken with a bacon and walnut sauce (with potato and veg), then for dessert we had a cream puff like thing, along with our wedding cake. We went on the Karanda Tour, the Catamaran excursion that takes you snorkelling, Dunns River, then party on the way back. Its an affiliate of Cool Runnings, so you do the exact same thing on the same boat, but I beleive that Karanda Tours was a bit cheaper. You get a discount rate. I emailed them before hand. Let them know your a wedding group..they will take pictures for you (although to buy is expensive) and we got one of the "smaller" (still big) boats, that fit 34 of my wedding group along with 8 other people that werent with us, which was better than an extra 50 people we dont know. Goodluck!

FutureKeese - The DJ made the night at the gazebo! We rented it for 830, and he was there, already set up for it. While we were walking up to the gazebo, all you could here was bass! It was so exciting. He has a labtop set up with a microphone and a big speaker....he played all the "in" songs right now, and people were asking him for requests, and he had most of them...a lot were the party songs, and typical wedding reception songs, like 'old time rock n roll' etc. We didnt have a first dance or father/daughter...so if you want that, I would bring your own just in case he doesnt have them. At one point, the DJ was playing songs that I wasnt fond of, or didn't know, like techno, so we simply just asked him for pop/rap, and he was awesome! He doesnt use the microphone, but we did a couple times...like to announce we were setting of sky laterns, or last dance of the night. At the meeting with Chandlyn, we asked if they could set up the table with ice, and cups, etc...and she said no problem, I think a lot of people ask for it. Then at the rehearsal, we asked if it was possible to get a jug of rum punch..or pop...or anything! She said, no problem, that she'll try her best...but its not usual. When we got to the gazebo, there were two huge jugs of rum punch...it was great! Along with everyones beer and extra liquor, it was MORE then enough...we had soo much extra! Make sure you bring the big water bottles from your room too....it gets hot out there dancing so much!!! They also set up chairs around the gazebo for people who wanted a break. We never sat down, we only had the gazebo for 2 hours, we tried to make the best out of it! Everyone said it was the highlight of the trip. At the end of the night, we werent sure who cleans up, so a bunch of us just collected all the beer cans and cups, and cleaned up....they left clear bags, and a box...so we just quickly seperated garbage/recyling. It was windy, so we didnt want them flying all over the beach...

FutureKeese- Thanks! Yes, I did. I gave them there OOT Bags in the parking lot before the airport (we all "convoyed") with a letter in there, as well as a duotang with home-made cross words/word searchs about us, wedding day info, tips, excursion info, resort info, pictures of each of the guests...etc.

Okay here we go. We booked with Transat Holidays, and flew with CanJet. Everything was awesome, we got a few perks, like priority boarding, free drinks, champange etc. When we landed in Montego Bay, we got on a shuttle provided by Transat, and on our way there, they check you in to the hotel. So on the bus, you already get your room key/map/etc....TIP - they say water & electronics de-activate your room keys (it did happen) When we got to the hotel, we went straight to the rooms. We were in room 18524 (building 18, 5th floor, 24th room) The rest of our party were close by, down the hall or next floor down. Lucky us -- we were beside my father in law, and mother in law :| oh gawd. The rooms are pretty good, a few problems, but nothing major. Heads up, the shower drains extremely slow...we found out the day before leaving, there is a “cup†inside the drain that is suppose to be there, so if your not to grossed out, before you shower you can pull it out so it drains fast, then when your done put it back in. I think it helps with keeping that sewer smell down. Our toilet never leaked, but it did run all night...not loud, just trickling water. Our room had an alarm clock, but no body else had one. We just used the wake up calls anyway, and clock on the TV. (btw, channel 78 is weather) The power went out a few times while we were there, only for a minute or two. There was a note in our room when we arrived, to meet the wedding co-ordinators in the lobby the next day. They are very nice people, we sat with Chandlyn and the other one (cant remember name! Not Donalee) They will go through step by step instructions, ask how many ppl, music, menus, times etc. I gave her my bag or rocks, petals ,chair ties, picture of us, and ceremony music on a CD. She asked if I had my own photographer, I told her my “uncle†was doing it. I had all the confirmation emails with me, but didn’t need them. I DID NOT pay the vendor fee for the photographer. After that, we relaxed for a few days before the wedding. The night before the wedding, we had rehearsal with Donalee, she is also very nice. Everything went smooth, your only there for like 15 minutes, she walks you through everything. I hired Rashel Edwards for make up and hair. She is AWESOME! I didn’t pay for a guest pass for her either because she was leaving the same day, right when she was done. She came to my room at 1030AM. There were 5 ladies getting hair and makeup done. We JUST made it on time. My wedding was at 3pm. My colours were pink and orange. At 245 we met Donalee in the lobby, and she took me, bridesmaids, parents and MIL in the golf cart to the gazebo. I wrote my own wedding ceremony and the minister (??) was very good, he would goof up a little on words, but it was very natural and he was very well spoken. There was a microphone we used, and apparently everyone could hear us fine (VERY windy that day). After the ceremony they hand out champagne off to the side. We just had the “DJ†play out our CD, as we put some songs on there purposely for this. We had enough time to take pictures after ceremony. Dinner was at 6 at the Dolce Vita. They were kinda slow getting food out.but it was delicious, and we found it pretty warm in there. Luckly, there was NO ONE else in the restaurant for some reason, so it was perfect to do speeches! The cake was very nice, and DELICIOUS. I asked for vanilla, but got vanilla with some sort of strawberry or something, but it was great, everyone loved it. They give you a cake knife etc. Then they will serve it to your guests, with regular dessert as well. We rented the gazebo and DJ for 830-1030. This was the highlight of the trip. The DJ is awesome, and knew everything we wanted to hear. It was perfect. During this time, we brought sky lanterns down and set these off, it was great. (if u have these, tell ur guests to b patient while it fills with air...it takes a few minutes) some of ours crashed and burned. We had Donalee set up a table with ice, cups and a cooler. We also asked her to sneak some jugs of rum punch (we had 2 huge jugs) we also had our guests collect extra beer from there room fridge and bring it down that night, as well as pop and water...it was more then enough! The bar IS very far away from the gazebo. It was a great night. Perfect! Relax and enjoy. We did the Karanda Tours Party Cruise – this was another highlight of the trip. EVERYONE loved it. Cool Runnings is the same company, different vendor. Anyways, takes you to Dunns River, and snorkelling. You never have an empty glass, this was amazing. I recommend it for your group, you also get a group discount – we each paid 83 dollars US, and there were 34 of us. A few randoms came on the boat with us, but we were majority. Have your cameras ready, because they have photographers on the boat, they take good shots, but they make u pay an arm and a leg for one picture to b printed, so have someone get the shots. My parents went on the Mystic mountain tour and said it was awesome too! We just stayed and relaxed most days. The day after our wedding, we went off resort with our photog and hired Kevin Morrison to drive us around. It was his partner that ended up taking us, but he knew exactly where to go. Bring some money with you if you do this, we were taken to the Botanical Gardens ($10 pp), Fern Gulley (not much here..) and a little Dunns River Falls...its a place off to the side, perfect spot. Bring tip money for the people there, they treat you like royalty (very cute). We also stopped on the side of the road and got pictures at a broken down wheel house...very awesome. While driving around, the driver was telling us everything about the area, so its like your own mini tour. Im not a big drinker, but I will let you know some amazing drinks. The Bahia , the Guacamaya (like juice!), Tropical Sunset...and there is a drink of the day, these are usually pretty good. We had dinner at The Grill for our “welcome†dinner for 36 of us – it was really good, again, with that many people they have you make a set menu for everyone. We just went with mixed grill so it pleased everyone, the other options are all seafood. We had rehearsal dinner at the Japanese Rest. And it was amazing. So much fun. It was perfect for that night, as the table only seats 12, if you want the “show†(which you do..) GET THE DEEP FRIED ICE CREAM! The Don Pablo was our favourite. We went the night after our wedding, just the two of us. The Brie is great!!!! And my husband said the Prince & Princess is great, (surf and turf). I had spinach ravioli – soooo good!!!! Try the donuts at breakfast, in the buffet (the big buffet is much better then the small), they go like hot cakes there!!! Anything else, feel free to ask! I love being able to answer questions now! I can’t believe its over! Huge Tip – My mom told me as I was approaching the gazebo, take everything in..everything. Take your time to look at everyone and everything around you while you’re walking, and while you’re up there. It goes by super fast, just soak it in!!!!!

The photographer on the resort stands WITH you and your husband at the top, right infront of the "crowd" he moves pretty quickly, but I dont like that...its about you and your husband, and my photgrapher took from afar, with a really good lense/camera...also when the ceremony was over, my photog re-positoned us as if we were putting rings on each other, and "first kiss" , that way my family/friends could see the whole ceremony. As for the reception, I only brought little pink diamonds, flower petals, chair ties and rocks to sign as the "guest book". They set up everything for when we got there. Although, the rocks were supposed to be put on one set table as a signing table...they spread the rocks out on each dinner table, but my bridesmaids collected them, and put them in there proper place...no big deal.

Just a side note....the resort photographer gets in ur face big time... We watched a couple weddings before ours then during our meeting we asked not to use him... We broguht our photog down and told them it was a family member and he was also a guest for the week so we disnt have to pay and fee. Also went off resort with kevin morrison , the taxi driver... Amazing time, they know exactly where to take u!

Hey ladies! Im a mrs!!! Im sitting at the resort in a lobby bar! I cant wait to share everything with u all. We fly home tonight. Ill b writingy review soon! Any questions feel free to ask! Ladies its true.....u dont have to worry about a thing!!!! Our day was perfect

Love your ceremony JayKay! Does anyone know if you can put the rest of what you owe for the wedding on a credit card while your down there? I leave in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was reading Sbelland's note, and i was just wondering about the music a little bit more. I think I know the answer, but we have hired the DJ, so this should mean that he'll have speakers for the music, correct? I would imagine so...but I might as well check. By the way, sbelland, they didn't move your chair sashes over to the reception? I have heard they have...I wonder why they wouldn't. I am definitely putting some one in charge of getting my decorations back! Its not much, I only have chair sashes anyway.

JennS -- I would love to talk more about it...we get there Jan 6th and my wedding is Jan 10th, Thursday. Could you email what things you have/colours? kahnesgirl9@hotmail.com

Thanks! Yes, I figured if I get down there and its at 4pm Im not going to worry to much. Yes, I will send you a copy of the booklet! Should be done really soon!

I leave in less than ONE MONTH! Ive been going through my lists like crazy, and I may have asked some things before, or it may have been mentioned on here already, but any help would be appreciated! 1. How do I book rehearsal dinners/welcome dinners, through email? Welcome dinner at the Grill, and rehersal at the big buffet??? 2. I am having my wedding dinner at Dolce, will be using my bouqets as center pieces. Do I need to bring vases for table, or any other decorations, like candles? 3. Any tips about this resort...Im making a booklet/guide for the guests, putting tips in, like, try the "Purple Rain" drink....and about tipping...where the best beach is....etc, is there anything else anyone has heard or had expeirence with? Thanks!!! And by the way -- ladies, be careful with these wedding co-ordinators. I had a huge blow out with them...I booked my wedding at 3pm since the beginning stages...Ive sent 2-3 emails confirming the time of the wedding, and always was told I have the time correct. Then, they sent my TA (who is my sister) the details, with wedding at 4pm...we sent emails saying "no its booked for 3" they sent emails bak stating they never confirmed 3pm with me, even though I kept all the emails with PROOF! we sent the proof off to them, and still they denied it, and came back with the excuse that 4pm was a better time anyways, and that another bride was booked for 2 pm so it would be to rushed to have mine at 3. They also said that they "checked" with Chandyln (who I had been emailing with) and said she never said any of that, even though I HAD THE EMAILS PROVING IT! I was about to give up alll hope and go with 4pm, when RANDOMLY I recieved an email from Chandyln saying that she was on vacation for the week, and she was just sending out an email to let me know my wedding was at 3pm. Very confusing -- very dissapointing -- disorganized. Im just hoping my wedding didnt screw up this other brides wedding....and im hoping mine is indeed at 3pm , as my invites say 3pm. I hope everything goes fine when Im down there -- all the other brides say there is nothing to worry about. fingers crossed.