LUCKYSTAR!! i need your help!

[cbs102]

I have been engaged for 7 months already and my FI and i are finally ready to book our wedding. we always knew that we are going with the DW, we just could not figure out the location. We have decided on Sandals Ocho Rios Jamaica.. and i was wondering if you could fill me in on the process you went through.. what package you went with etc... Did you speak with the wedding planner before arriving? how far in advance did you book everything??

thank you in advance!

 

[luckystar112]

Yay Jamaica! I had such a blast there and would go again in a second (although I have heard others that weren't that impressed with the country). We got married at the sandals in Negril, but I'm assuming that their policies are pretty much the same.

When you book your trip they will ask you if you plan to get married. If so, they tell you that wedding planner will be in touch with you sometime that week. Except...no one ever got in touch with us, so we had to call them. This might be because we went though a travel agent, or perhaps there was a miscommunication or something...but it was no big deal. We had to put $200 to reserve our wedding and pick our day (note: my cousin didn't have to do this since they were running a special when she booked).

They ask you to book (and pay for) any extras that you want as soon as possible to guarantee that they will be available on your big day. That part was kind of stressful...trying to piece it all together in your head to figure out what it will look like. So basically, until you actually get there there isn't much to do besides pay for stuff that you haven't seen and panic a little bit each time.

But if you email the wedding coordinators with your questions they are usually get back in touch with you the next day.
The real "planning" happens as soon as you get off the shuttle to the hotel. While you're waiting in the lobby for your room key someone will approach you and give you a huge binder of wedding stuff to look through (extras, no prices listed. heh) and then set you up for an appointment with your wedding planner (usually the next day). The meeting with the wedding planner goes by REALLY fast, so you don't miss much of your vacation. Word of caution: Look around the grounds to find out where you want to get married before you meet the planner. I hadn't done that when we met mine, so when she asked us where we wanted to get married we were like "uhhhh?".

Will you be having guests? We had 11 guests, so we went with the dinner. My cousin, who got married the day before me (and is already getting divorced!

) did a simple elopement and my DH and I were their only guests. I did a very long review on trip advisor about both of our expierences:

We chose Sandals Negril for our destination wedding because my cousin was also getting married there the same week. In fact, she got married the day before us! I found that when planning this whole thing it was so HARD to find a good review on how everything went, although I did talk to many brides from here that were willing to elaborate if you just shot them an email. So here is my attempt to detail everything as much as possible, and if I leave anything out or you have any questions please feel free to message me!


My cousin's wedding:
Simple weddingmoon package
No extras
Ocean View Gazebo
2 guests (myself and my husband).
11am


My wedding:
3 hour private cocktail reception
Extras were the island band, bridal spa package, videographer, photo package from a la' carte
Ocean View Gazebo
11 guests not including ourselves (all but my cousin and her husband stayed at different resorts)
4pm (the next day).

I don't want to review her wedding in case she wants to come on here and do it herself (she was the bride after all) but I do want to say that it was beautiful, quick, and from a guest's perspective, it seemed very well put together and elegant. She had an 11am wedding, and we were back in the water as soon as it was over! TOTALLY the way to go (unlike mine where it seemed like appointment after appointment, lol). Like I said, it was beautiful and magical. If you have any questions about the basic wedding, email me and I can ask her (if she does not do her own review).

Now on to my wedding. I will review each part:

Consultation:
Since we arrived on a monday afternoon and wednesday was our wedding, we had to have our consultation on tuesday morning (right before my cousins 11am wedding). This was extremely frustrating because not only had my mother and I both emailed Tina (the contact in Miami for Sandals) to let her know that we'd rather do it in the afternoon, but I had notified the front desk the moment I arrived, and even left a message for our planner at the wedding office. Yet, somehow, I was still forced to go the morning of my cousin’s wedding and forgo helping her get ready. The meeting was quick and to the point, but it still would have been nice to be there for her.


Bridal spa package
This package costs around $270 I believe, and I do feel it was worth it, although it was a little inconvenient at times. Included in the package is a hair and make-up trial, a french mani and pedi, and hair and make-up done the day of your wedding.
I had to get my hair and make-up trial done the day before my wedding (my cousin's wedding day) because that was the only time they could do it. It took longer than I expected, and I was jealous because while I was at the spa my cousin and our two men were all out sailing! My hair turned out great (the stylist is willing to try anything you want), but the make-up trial was not very pretty...at all! I was actually pretty scared after I left there.

The next morning (the day of the wedding) I had an appointment at 10:30 am to get my mani and pedi done. This was disappointing because my wedding was at 4pm and yet it seemed like the whole day I was getting ready while everyone else had fun (they went on jet-skis this time...lol). However, the mani and pedi came out beautifully and I was able to have a couple of mimosa's while waiting! I had about an hour to kill after that, so we went to each lunch at the bayside restaurant since most of our family had arrived by that point. Then it was back to the spa for my hair and make-up! I must say, my hair was beautiful, and the make-up scare I had the day before was in the past because she took her time and made it right. Everyone is friendly at the spa, and they all remember you by name when they run into you. I can't even tell you how many times I ran into a spa girl who called out to me by my first name. It made me feel really special. Yes, they do accept tips. The lady at the counter will ask you if you want a tip added to your bill. I always just told her to add 20%.

Wedding location:
We chose the Ocean View gazebo without seeing it first, but luckily it was the best one. As a matter of fact, most weddings we saw posted on the board in the main lobby took place at that gazebo. The others were in weird locations. The garden one was beautiful but it had a main road right behind it. The one with the iron wire-looking roof was right next (and I mean RIGHT NEXT TO) the scuba shop, and looked kind of dirty. I really recommend the ocean view gazebo. It is right on the beach, and has a smaller gazebo right behind it where you eat your cake, sign your certificate, etc. Yes, it is next to the volleyball net, but I found that during both my wedding and my cousin’s wedding that people were VERY respectful and gave us our space. No drunken idiots screaming in the background or anything. Also, although the volleyball net is close, it is not THAT bad. You can’t see it in any of our photos and to tell you the truth I barely even acknowledged its presence. I mean, it’s a net! You can see through it!


Flowers:
My mother had a silk bouquet made for me at home, so that is what I used. However, a free bouquet does come with the wedding. You get a choice of either daisies or a cascading carnation bouquet. My cousin chose the daisies (they were yellow and white) and they were very beautiful. BONUS, her dress for my wedding was yellow she used the bouquet again. You can’t take it home though. Although I had my own bouquet I asked our planner to bring up the carnation one just so I could see. It was really beautiful, but I was really impressed that when I asked her opinion, she told me to keep my own. Another thing I can say is that the staff was not pushy at all and did not try to get me to purchase any extras. Their upgraded bouquets are really expensive. I recommend getting one made with silk flowers at home if you do not like carnations or daisies. We did get my husband a carnation bout though, but no other flowers. My opinion is that you really don’t need them! The gazebo is decorated with flowing tulle and the scene is picturesque enough.


Photos and video:
Man…we were SO HOT and it TOTALLY shows in the 8x10s. They dabbed my husband off, but left me alone so they didn’t smudge my make-up. I REALLY recommend having someone keep a powder poof on hand to dab you randomly during picture taking. Looking back I wish I would have! However, our photographer Dainya was GREAT and we totally loved her. The pictures DID come out beautiful, except for a couple sweaty ones and some had that obvious hot “glow” to them. We did NOT get a package since the lowest one was $1300. Instead we got eighteen 5 x 7s and six 8 x 10s. Then we got a picture for free, so that was 25 total. I was worried about not getting the negatives. DON’T BE. When you are choosing your photos at the shop the next day they make a "secret" deal with you. We got 44 pictures total on a CD for $290 (including all of the ones we had printed). So we own all the good pics now, and it ended up being WAY cheaper than the lowest package! Our videographer was Vincant and he did a great job as well. If you do this, don’t forget you’re wearing the mic! Haha. One of us is telling each other how sweaty we look like three times in the video. We are really glad to have it though, it came out wonderful. It does sound a little windy, but you can hear us and the minister clearly. And there was a bonus jet-skiier in the background. Haha.



3-Hour cocktail and dinner reception:

After the ceremony, the cocktail hour was held in the game room. We had champagne, hot and cold hor’ however you spell it, cake, and our island band played. The hor’ dourves were okay. I thought they were yummy, but not 5 star quality if that is what you are hoping for. I believe they had some type of turkey and cheese on a cracker, some type of crab cracker, veggies, fruits, etc. I really can’t remember now! We had a sweetheart table with our cake on it, and the rest of our guests had their own big table. It was air-conditioned and SO NICE. We cut the cake and were whisked off to take pictures. So, we really didn’t get to see the island band for that long although our family LOVED them. They purchased two CDs! Luckily the island band roams the resort a lot so we did get to hear them play again and again. If you see them, ask them to play “big bamboo”.

The dinner:

We had a table set up right on the beach close to our gazebo. It was GORGEOUS. They set it up with tiki torches and tropical plants. They used white linens and big blue glasses. The contrast was great. They also set up a bar close by. We had about 3 or 4 people on hand to deliver our food and get us drinks. I’ll tell you…watching that sunset was AMAZING. You couldn’t ask for anything more! In the beginning of planning we were going to wing it and try to get a restaurant to seat all of us…but looking back on it I am SO glad we had the dinner. I highly recommend it, especially if a lot of guests are staying at resorts other than beaches or sandals. This is because it costs those guests $130 to get into sandals in the first place. If you have the dinner, your guests’ day pass rate will drop to $75 and then they will have to pay $75 for the dinner….so that’s $150 bucks per person (everyone pays $75 for the dinner, even you!). Not bad, considering the 1-hour cocktail reception would have ended up being $155 per person with the day passes. Each person saved $5 bucks and we got a WAY better reception. Can’t go wrong! Or course, if all of your guests are staying at the beaches or sandals, they get in for free so you won’t get this deal. Sorry if that is confusing.

Dinner food:

Was GREAT!!! Best food we had while there. I can’t remember everything (and it was only a week ago...geeze), but we chose the beef tenderloin. SO good. Our desert was the coconut and chocolate parfait with rum flame fruit. AMAZING! They decorated the plate with a drawn flower. Everyone commented on how good the food was. After dinner we hung out at the piano bar for a couple of drinks and then everyone made their way back to their own resort. It was a beautiful, magical night.

A couple of cons

After my cousin’s wedding she returned to her room to see that it was decorated with flower petals and had towel art on the bed. We did NOT get this service. Actually a couple of other times she’d go to her room and find chocolate covered strawberries or a bottle of champagne…etc. Both of us had basic rooms…neither of us had a concierge or butler service, but for some reason she got these things and I didn’t. I don’t know if she just lucked out, if our maid was lazy, or if it was due to our room level (she was upgraded to one room level higher than ours, but still just a basic room with a garden view). At the very least, after all the money we spent on the wedding, I expected these little extras for us, but we didn’t get them. We didn’t complain but I wish I would have. I was afraid they’d laugh at me and my seaside premium room. Lol. But if these things are important to you (which it turns out I am more disappointed than I thought) I recommend bringing it up with your coordinator beforehand.

One more thing….CLOTHING OPINION AND HOT HOT HEAT

Keep in mind that no matter what you wear, whether it is a thin chiffon destination wedding dress (like my cousin had) or a dress like mine that was satin with crinoline and layers of lace (not a ball gown, but by no means thin), YOU WILL BE HOT. Don’t fool yourself. Wear what you want. I spent WAY too much time before we left for Jamaica fretting about my dress and feeling down because I thought it was too heavy for a beach wedding-- just to realize that you are hot no matter what. My cousin was dying to get out of her thin little dress during her wedding. After the ceremony we jumped in the ocean in our wedding attire and then we got changed for dinner. Before we jumped in the ocean my husband had removed his jacket and switched into some sandals and he felt fine, so your man can stand to wear a suit for an hour if you can stand to be in the dress.

In case you're confused about the highlighted part....

If you have guests and they are staying at any Sandals or Beaches resort, they don't have to pay to come to your wedding. But guests that stay at a resort NOT affiliated with Sandals or Beaches have to pay a day pass which is $130 per person if you have your wedding at night ($75 if you have your wedding during the day). And if you choose the dinner, that's ANOTHER $75 per person (totaling $205 pp).
However, Sandals will work out a deal with you. If you choose the dinner then all of your guests day passes will be brought down to $75 per person. So the day pass plus the dinner ends up being $150 per person instead of $205.

The reason why this is a deal is because if you were to choose just a regular cocktail reception instead of a dinner, that is $25 per person, but you don't get the discount on the day passes. So it totals $155 per person.
So, to break it down, $150 per person for a fabulous dinner or $155 for a cocktail reception?

But these couple of paragraphs are pointless if you aren't going to have any guests, or if all of your guests will be staying at other Sandals or Beaches resorts. In that case it would just be a flat $75 per person for the dinner. Still a good deal.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!!!!

 

[cbs102]

thank you thank you thank you!!!!

you actually answered all of my questions... as of right now i am actually *hoping* that we are not going to have any guest!! i want to elope so badly---jus the tow of us! you went in the summer right?? how was the weather? we are thinking more of december because of hurricane season..

i wanted to do the basic wedding package but have my hair done the day of and upgrade the pictures.... i read that your wedding planner will take some pictures with your own camera...is that true?

do you have any regrets at all about how you did it?