Back from ROR wedding - awesome!!!!

[chicago88]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm back from my wedding at ROR in Jamaica and it was awesome!!! We stayed 9 days from 2/12 thru 2/20 and had a group of 51 people. Let me start by saying that the resort is absolutely beautiful!!! So if anyone is worried about this don't - you'll know what I mean when we you get there. It's simply perfect!

 

Wedding

Chandlyn was awesome!!! We met with her the morning after we arrived. We went over everything I wanted and I gave her all of my favors, etc.. and also gave her a checklist with everything. She arranged my welcome dinner at St. Anne's for 51 and set up my travel mugs & hats at the table. It turned out really nice cuz it was Valentine's day and they had lobster! She did everything exactly the way we wanted. Our ceremony was at the beach gazebo (awesome) with recorded music - she did this perfectly! I picked the tropical flowers and they were beautiful! We took a ton of pictures & guests had rum punch. Cocktails were at the Dunn's River bar at 5 (where Chandlyn set up a nice area with tablecloths just for the wedding guests) (free). Then at 6:30 we went over to the plantation (upstairs) for the private reception. The food was great, the DJ was awesome (we even had the workers dancing with us by the end of the night). Then some of us went to the Disco for a few more dances. It turned out wonderful!!!

 

Photograhy/Videograhy

Michael was really awesome, very nice & professional! I highly recommend him. We hired him for before the wedding in my room, thru the ceremony, & after. Then we also had him come back to the reception for a couple hours. He ended up taking over 900 photo's! When we went to go view the photos a couple days after it was just taking way too long so we ended up buying about 750 pictures on the CD after deleting about 200. It was a little more than we wanted to spend but honestly did not want to spend the rest of our trip going thru every photo! We got 10 5x7's & the raw cd when we left. He didn't have time to edit all 750 photos before we left so he'll mail the edited CD in a few weeks. The pictures that we looked at (we didn't even go thru them all) were abslutely beautiful. The lighting, scenery is awesome - it looks like a postcard - I am very very pleased with them.

 

I highly recommend the videographer too. We picked up our DVD in the photoshop a couple days after the wedding and watched it while we waited in the lobby on our last day for the bus. It was so beautiful. I was not expecting it to be that nice. He incorporated our songs, photos with the group after the wedding - it was just fabulous!!!!!! It's so worth it. Definitely do it if its in your budget, $300.

 

Weather

The weather was great. It was high 80's but there was a strong breeze during the day so you weren't too hot. There was no breeze at night. The only day it really rained was my wedding day, yeah awesome huh. I woke up and the sky was dark and the rain was coming down. I freaked out for awhile but then it cleared up in the afternoon and it was beautiful - all that worrying for nothing. There was a few 5 minute showers a couple of the other days but nothing major.

 

Hotel

Like I mentioned the hotel is absolutely beautiful. Two huge pools, we were mostly at the suite side pool, a ton of bars, restaurants! The shows at night were pretty good and the beach party was cool! The food overall was good. Obviously after 9 days it's a little repetitive but that's expected. We ate at 2 of the specialty restaurants, Mammee Bay & Sir Richard. They were both good. Everything is very laid back so please remember to just relax as it takes a little longer than were used to. Oh, the chicken at the jerk hut was pretty good too.

 

We didn't end up getting our room upgraded. When we checked in the first day the full suite wasn't available and they said come back the next day. Well, we came back & they said something about a mildew smell & the room had to be totally stripped. Kind of a bummer but oh well. We had a jr suite and it worked out fine. They did tell us to come back the day after our wedding but at that point we were already settled and didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of moving.

 

A couple of our guests had some problems with their key cards but in a resort of 850+ rooms that's to be expected. We used our safe and had no problems with theft. One guest booked a jr suite and received a regular room - not good but they didn't let it ruin their trip.

 

Excursions

We arranged a bus with Chukka tours for tubing, dunns river, & then margaritaville. My friend organized the trip for 16 of us and we ended up getting a good deal, only $60 person! The tubing was awesome - I highly recommend that. It's not a bunch of rough rapids, its more relaxed but super fun with a group, you also cliff jump too. Dunn's river was a little scary but its worth it to do it once! Margaritaville was cool - they have a water slide in the restaurant. It is kind of expensive though so bring cash! We also did the zipline tour - scary but so worth it. It's $80/ person and just a ton of fun. I screamed all the way through the first 3 but then I got used to it. We also kayaked & did the paddle boats for free thru the resort.

 

Salon

Jay & I had an ocean harmony massage at sunset on the beach - it was awesome! I recommend doing this. Also, my sister & I had our nails done the day before the wedding (mani & pedi). This took about 21/2 hours so plan accordingly. The salon is really small and they like to take their time!

 

 

 

All in all everything was great! A couple guests even stayed an extra day! Everyone talked about how great everything was & how this was the best wedding they had been at. How cool huh! I do wish we stayed a couple more days but I'm sure everyone does! We drank a lot of cocktails, ate a lot of food, & had a blast!

 

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this review helps!!!

 

Link to Pro pics: (Tons of pics - reception was at the plantation)

Snapfish: Share:Registration

 

Link to my pictures throughout our stay: (includes scenery shots & pics of the restaurants)

Snapfish: Share:Registration

[Spazz]

Welcome back and Congrats!!! I was just thinking about you earlier today and wondering how everything went. It sounds like you had an awesome time. I'm getting really excited for my wedding because everyones reviews have been so great. I'm sure I have questions, I'll read over your post again tonight and let you know. I can't wait to see your pictures!

[KHarrod]

CONGRATS!!!!!!!! Everything turned out wonderful, can't wait to see the pics.

[Betsy]

That sounds so great!

[JUSTUSTWO]

Congratulations & Welcome back.

Thanks for the review. Glad to hear that everything was great. You're the 2nd bride back today & both of your reviews have me excited.

Ofcourse, can't wait to see your pics.

 

Oh, I know we continue to talk about this, but what did you think about the disco? Good for a reception or just for nightly entertainment?

[lucy106]

Congratulations and welcome back! Everything sounds fabulous!!

[Bride010101]

Congrats and welcome back Thanks for the review... everything sounds perfect! Can't wait to see the pics!

[FinallyMrsBeckermann]

So glad to hear how wonderful everything went!!! I don't know about you, but I can't believe it is already over! (our wedding was on the same day)

[amandalovesryan]

i am so glad you had a great time! I can't wait to see your pics!

[PrecisePlans]

yayyyy!!! Chicago's back!! We've been waiting.........update us......congrats!!!!