LolasMom71

Hi Court, I at first thought it was a bonfire as well but it is a beach party that they throw on the beach at the Beach Resort on Thurs and on the beach at the Suites on Saturday. Hope that helps a bit!

Hi Court, Daily activity list? No idea. I would let it just fall into place when you get there. Planning too many activities doesn't make it fun anymore and can burn one out. I read on Oyster.com that IRHB sells day passes to cruise ship travellers and the resort fills up with these people which makes it noisier and more crowded than usual and also hard to get drinks, etc. If concerned you should read up about it on Oyster's IRHB review. Supposedly the Suites & Grand are not affected by this. Personally, I would find out what day of the week this is and plan an excursion to get away from that commotion. From what I read you pay the wedding costs the day before your wedding. It is in the paperwork somewhere although I understand it is hard to keep on top of everything. I believe it goes on your credit card. Tai Flora charges you a 4% commission if you use your credit card. I heard one bride write in her review that she wanted to pay Tai Flora in cash to save the 4% but was refused. I think the other way they except payment if you are paying them from home is by wire transfer. I paid in full to get rid of the expense and bit the bullet and paid by CC. I read that you pay the musicians in cash on the day of their performance. Don't forget tipping!! I found a few different articles for destination weddings stating who you should and should not tip and they are not all consistent which is frustrating. Such as: tip the minister? 1) If you're using a nondenominational officiant, no tip is required because they will charge you for their time. Protocol: Expected (depending on officiant) The $tandard: Donate $500+ to the church or synagogue, or, for a nondenominational officiant, an optional tip of $50 - $100 2) To tip them is to trivialize their profession and extremely bad etiquette. Generally you pay your fee and that's it. If you wish to make a financial contribution to the church, you can do that separately. $100-$200 ... and there were a few more articles going back on forth on this. I asked the WC and was told you may tip if you wish. Also, Oyster.com states that they found IRHS staff seemed to pressure the guests to tip. I'm getting married one month from now at IRHS and will definately put up a review when I get back.

Thank you so much for sharing! You looked absolutely beautiful! I now have some confidence in going ahead with the spa for my hair & make-up. I had enquired about this on the board a little while back as well.

It also included flowers for your cake and a small arrangement for the registry table at the ceremony. If you decide to still go with Tai Flora but not go for these freebies they give you a whopping $48 credit to your floral bill.

I asked my travel agent about this and she says she thinks that your father's last name being your maiden name is already on the birth certificate so that should suffice. I sent notarized docs (costing $56 to notarize) by UPS to Jamaica on slow service and it is costing $78!!!!! Unbelievable!!! Everything sure adds up. If I get notifyed by the WC that there is an error with the birth certificate I will surely let you guys know.

I asked Nicole to start pestering Tai Flora and she replied that she would get Jodi-Ann to contact me today and of course she did not! I have received a response from the owner (Sasha) of Tai Flora once (not saying much, just supplying me with the measurement of their huppa that they rent out, but not the price which I also asked for) and once a reply from Staschell. Nicole said Jodi-Ann was on vacation and today was her first day back. She was gone for a MONTH?????? They could have advised their potential clients about that or at least have someone take over in her absence. I was of the impression that we were not allowed to use any other flower vendor. Can you please give me your contact info for Floral Fantasies (email preferable) because I think I am going to forward to them my flower proposal and see what they can do for me. Hopefully Staschell gets on the ball and gets you the info you need quickly! Good luck!

I read that the $30 per day is for EVENTS therefore if she is just visiting you otherwise and it is not a private function (i.e. welcome party, rehearsal dinner) than I don't think she has to pay. You may want to doublecheck that with the WC though.

Is anybody else having difficulty getting ahold of the florist rep at Tai Flora (Jodi-Ann Miller). The last time I received a response from her was on Aug. 24th. My wedding is in less than two months and I still have no idea what my flowers are going to cost or if they are able to complete my order..... Makes me nervous!!!! With respect to tipping, do we tip the minister? (I don't think so but what do I know). Also, if you are having a bonfire and hiring a Fire Dancer do you tip him too? It is $250 for a 20 minute performance but then you never know how much he actually gets. Please ladies, let me know your opinions on this. Thank you!

No problem Court. Once I receive them I will post them all. At this point I have only received the one document so I assume on Sunday when Nicole/Tiffany respond to emails I will receive the missing docs. Once I am in possession of all of the final docs I will post them then.

I totally agree with you. I have put all of the info I collected into one superlong document so I can find it all in one place just by searching for what I need. You know, the WCs would have a way easier job if they just had a FAQ section on the Iberostar website for this group of hotels under Destination Weddings and answered all of the brides questions there. If brides were refered to that link than the WCs could save themselves from repeating the info to every bride who asks. They would just need to update the FAQ link once a week with all of the answers to the new questions and future brides would get the info they need in a timely manner without bugging the WC nearly as often. Sure it would be a lot of questions but so what, at the end of the day it would save them a lot of tedious, repetitive work and help us out too. Anyway, I plan to post my superlong document in the Planning Thread after my wedding. Good luck with school!

Okay... your wedding is 4 months away. (Congrats by the way!) Mine is only two and I don't have these documents yet!! Mind you, I'm getting married at the Suites. They did send me the Last Wedding Details document but not the other three documents. Thanks for forwarding this on. If I have to I'll just use these and change the name to the Suites from the Beach on the documents. I thought two months before your wedding they finally start responding and giving answers. Again, thanks for providing these, this is helpful to know so I can get on them to be more attentive. Specialty Restaurants Group Menus.pdf Final Guests and Table Number .xls Last wedding Details 2012 doc (5) (1).doc Microsoft Word - Wedding Details Rosehall Beach.pdf

Good point!! I'm going to bring that up!! Why wouldn't Jodi-Ann of Tai Flora told me that??? I guess there is a certain type of category of flowers that they are willing to use and 3 cymbidium orchids would not be part of the deal and costs $65 extra. I believe the magenta orchids are cheaper (THEY BETTER BE!!!) so I've asked for a quote for them instead. Waiting forever for a reply!

With respect to flowers, when I found out it would cost $65 for Tai Flora to supply me 3 orchids on the wedding cake I decided, to use Real Touch silk flowers ordered off ETSY.com which will cost a fraction of the price. At this point I am having the ETSY vendor create my bridal bouquet, 2 bouttinieres and flower petals for the aisle runner and it is so much cheaper. I do want real flowers on the dinner table and a few other places but otherwise this will help keep the floral cost down and from what I hear Tai Flora will give you a discount or credit towards what you do want to order if you skip the floral decor you get for free through the package by supplying these things yourself (ie. silk flowers). So upgrading your floral arrangements doesn't give you any discount I believe but say if you want some special floral arrangement on the wedding arch/huppa then I read on here from another bride that she got a discount on that because that is not an item offered in the "Golden Coast" package that you are upgrading.

Hi Niki (I assume, unless it's Jake!) :-) You don't have to get married at City Hall before you go but if you do than you can save yourself a whole $200 and go for the Blessed by the Sea ceremony which I believe is the exactly the same other than no legal paperwork to sign at the Jamaican wedding ceremony and possibly not performed by a minister (not sure on that one). Your guests don't even have to know it is not the official wedding and that you got hitched before. You only get legally married once whether it be at City Hall first or skip that and do it in Jamaica or have it performed afterwards at the service with your grandparents although it would be kind of weird to have a destination wedding and not be officially married when you leave Jamaica. You have to get notarized copies on separate pieces of paper of your birth certificates and passports 30 days in advance of the wedding to the wedding co-ordinator to have the Golden Coast wedding, otherwise City Hall and Blessed by the Sea would be your best bet. I believe you will be reciting vows at City Hall with a Justice of the Peace so then you would be renewing those vows in Jamaica. Double check with City Hall first and please let me know what you decide to do as my fiance might not get his birth certificate translated in English soon enough to get notarized so we can deliver our docs before 30 days prior to our wedding so we may need to do the City Hall thing and renewal of vows in Jamaica as well. Good luck!! Jaqui

Thank you so much Court! This is very helpful to us all I think!