Back from Jamaica but late getting on here

Sharonie · 05-02-2008, 08:19 PM

Hi ladies, we've been back from Jamaica for a few days now but been so busy trying to clean up the mess left behind from packing for the trip and catching up at work. Anyway, better late than never.

We got married at Couples Sans Souci (CSS) at Ocho Rios and honeymooned at Couples Swept Away (CSA) at Negril. Both resorts were great and have charms in their own ways. I will mainly be writing about CSS in this post and have a review for CSA separately. Sorry, it will be a long post so be patient with me.

CSS - if you are looking for great beach, lots of night life, and modern feel this is not the place for you. If you are looking for a secluded, beautiful, and romantic place to relax away from home, you've come to the right place. Many times/places you will feel like you have the whole place to yourself!

Now on to the wedding part:

Weather - when we arrived, it rained on and off all day for the first 3 days and I was really worried. So all the ceremony, dinner and reception locations were chosen with rain in mind. But it cleared up on the wedding day and turned out gorgerous.

Resort WC - all along I've been exchanging emails with a lady named Debbie. She's actually not resided in CSS but she's always great with responses (same day) - every question was answered and every promised request was ful-filled. Natalie the actual WC was also very nice. The appt w/ her was delayed for 2 hrs but that's because there was mud flood in Ocho Rios due to the rain and traffic was really bad and everything backed up.

Getting ready - I didn't do a trial run. On the day I just brought some pictures to show them what I liked to be done w/ my hair and Judith the lady that did my mani/peti and hair did a great job.

Flowers - although we brought the Angel's Accent bouquet, I ended up paying a small amount and got the resort ones cuz we used the other bouquet in our catholic ceremony at home so I wanted something different.

Ceremony– the wedding gazebo on a little cliff overlooking the ocean. It is very pretty and kind of hidden. The place where the guest chairs were set up had trees and branches covering overhead keeping it very cool and in case of a light rain, guests wouldn’t even feel it. They put a 'wedding in process' sign on both entrances to keep the wedding private.

Wedding was at 4pm, but it was delayed for an hour. People thought I was getting cold feet while I was nervously/impatiently waiting in my room for the WC to come escort us! When we called to find out what was going on, she said that they wanted me to come down in this elevator but the thing was broken. I was like I could've just walked down the stairs didn't have to use the stupid elevator. But two other stories I got later was that there was another big wedding going on by the mineral pool and the guests were using the bar by the pool. They didn't want us to run into each other. And the priest was coming late from that wedding. At the end, we ended up entering from the other entrance. But the funny story was that while we were waiting for the signal to go in, I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and it was one of the guest! He came alone and drank too much, took a nap and missed the 4pm ceremony time! I was like 'Adam, what are you doing here?!' and he was like 'I stay here' pointing to the building (we were waiting outside the building his room was). I rolled my eyes and told him to get down to where all the guests were sitting. As he was walking down the steps, I thought that the guests would be thinking 'here comes the bride'. Sure enough when they heard/saw someone coming they thought finally it was us then found out it was just Adam the mexican guy with a beard. I could hear them laughing and joking about his entrance.

Ceremony music - we hired the steel drum band. Turned out to be a GREAT idea. Since the ceremony was delayed, they ended up playing for the entire hour and kept all the guests entertained! The MOH walked down to Canon in D and they played Wedding March for me. That was the best money spent.

Sharonie · 05-02-2008, 08:20 PM

Photographer - we were both not big into photographs so by the time I thought about maybe spend the money to bring in more professional ones, it was too late and the ones I looked at were all booked up. We ended up using the resort photographer. Not the best in the world but did captured some memories. Also because of delay from the ceremony, we got to take pictures when sun was setting.

Dinner - we weren't sure it would be raining like the day we went over details with WC, so we chose to have dinner indoor in the French restaurant. It ended up being a nice day so we were the only ones inside and felt like it was a private dinner. Food was wonderful and since we had it set up in the restaurant we didn't have to pay extra.

Reception - we had it set up above the fitness center where they normally do yoga and stuff. We didn't have too many guests so we just bought our ipod and speaker. They set up a long table with some candles and flower pedals in the middle. It was pretty but the light over head was too bright and if we turned it off it would've been too dark so we let it be (I wasn't prepared for this location since it was the backup in case of rain). Here we cut the cake, had some champagne and did some dancing. It was a great night and everyone enjoyed it!

Rooms - CSS is in the process of upgrading their rooms. Every room in this resort is a suite just differ in the size. There are 7 buildings and they've upgraded the lowest category suites already so all those rooms had jacuzzi bath tub and separate shower. We and our wedding party were upgraded to higher categories. So although Paul and I, we had a huge suite with a big living room and patio, our bathroom wasn't as nice as our guests'. We still loved it though, it was quieter with a great view.

Other times, we hung out on the beach. We did some snorkeling, windsurfing, and kayaking but didn't get to try scuba diving cuz of the rain. These were all included. We also climbed the Dunns River Falls as that was included as well. All of our guests had such a great time we were talking about having a reunion trip next year to Couples Ocho Rios. That was my first choice but was shut down for renovation. Because of that, we including the guests are getting two free nights for use next year. We are so looking forward to it.