I'm back - My 8-8-08 ROR Review!

I am back from Jamaica and OMG I am soooo tired!

 

Below is the link to all the pictures thus far:

Shutterfly

 

Spirit Airlines - A-

I have no real complaints about Spirit except that all the flights were overbooked and since everyone has to pay for their luggage people were carrying two of the largest carry on suitcases, which was painful when you are trying to carry a wedding dress on the plane.

 

 

Riu Ocho Rios Resort - B

The resort is absolutely gorgeous! The open air lobby is a welcome change to a stuffy bus when you get there and it has to be the coolest section of the entire resort. The problems arose when my air conditioning went out and almost spoiled all the fruits and cake I had in the room, or the maintenance response time for all the issues I was having in the room. They also tend to have electric outages often on the resort so dont be surprised if you come back and your alarm clock has been reset. Of course all of this could have been contributed to the fact that the entire resort was overbooked for Jamaican Independence day (8/6).

 

Chandlyn – B-

She was great during the interview and did a good job with the centerpieces (since I did bring all the equipment with me). However, she does not call to come and get you during the rehearsal or the wedding, so make sure you make your plans as firm with her as possible.

For the rehearsal she didn’t bother to call and we couldn’t find her in the office but she then said she noticed people looking down from my room. My MOH (who has way more guts than I do ) said “Well why didn’t you call the room the only one who knows you I the bride and she wasn’t on the balcony”

She is really hard to get in touch with and as a heads up does not work on Sundays. I had to on numerous occasions raise a stink with the front desk so that they could find her for me. She also does not carry a hotel walkie around with her so if she is not in her office or doing a wedding they will not be able to find or reach her.

When you are telling her how things should be done, be as specific as possible. I think the centerpieces came out so well because I went to her the morning of the wedding took out all the supplies and laid it out in front of her so she could see. Then she drew her own diagram and helped the waitstaff set up.

 

Beach Gazebo – A+

Forget all the people staring and the random beach goer crying. This beach gazebo was absolutely gorgeous! It doesn’t take much to make the gazebo look good. And all I did was bring extra birds of paradises that I bought from save-on-crafts to make the free ones that they put up for me look a little more full. Add some fans for the guests and a monogrammed aisle runner (which I highly recommend since they charge you to use theirs) and everything was perfect. I didn’t use the steel band and just bought a JBL sounddock for the ceremony with playlists on my ipod.

 

Mammee Bay Steakhouse – B

The food was great and the tables can be set up however you like, they do not have to be set up as one long table. Just make sure to ask chandlyn to set it up in a different way. I had to give it a B though because we wanted to do the speeches there and no one could here each other. I would recommend asking Chandlyn to setup the mike and speaker there too or springing for your only little amp and microphone set. I saw one in the Skymall catalog with an ipod doc on the way home and wanted to kick myself.

The waiters are really nice and go above and beyond to make the bride and groom are happy and get everything they want. I realized late that I should have asked for champagne for the tables and when they couldn’t accommodate that they were nice enough to get the blue dream drinks that I asked for, for the guests.

 

Michael – B

Michael takes amazing pictures and way better than the ones I saw last year. But he does tend to block guests from taking photos and also will forget photos if you don’t remind him. I highly recommend having someone as the picture list holder andguest wrangler if you want to take photos with your guests.

He also made sure I had the lo-res photos on cd the next morning after the wedding. Hows that for above and beyond!

 

Jewelry – A+

I got my jewelry made from another BDW member Agape Gems and all I have to say is OMG THANK YOU!

The BM’s loved the sandals and everyone thought my necklace was the best part of the dress (funny right, it wasn’t even a part of the dress! But someone really said that). I cant express how much I loved the jewelry.

I wanted to take more closeup photos of the sandals but by the time Michael got there he did the jump photos first and I popped one!

 

 

Overall I am happy to be home though, and waiting on getting my official marriage certificate in the mail. Keep your fingers crossed that I get it soon!

Sounds like you had a great time. All the pictures are great.

Congratulations and great review! Where did you buy your own aisle runner from? Your cake is also beautiful, did you upgrade it or get it from somewhere else? I also loved your flowers, did you take them with you?

Your pictures look great! Congrats and welcome back!

Congratulations! Your wedding was beautiful.

I actually bought my aisle runner from oriental trading and did the monogram myself.

The cake oddly enough was made by my mother in her hotel room! She brought all her cake decorating supplies and designed it in the room.

The flowers were actually from the free package. they just added white orchids to the list of available bouquets.

Congratulations! You looked beautiful. Great pics.

 

Your mother did a fabulous job on the cake.

Your pictures look great! Congrats!

Wait! How the heck did you mom make the cake in her room? Its amazing! It looked perfect!

First off, your Mom needs a high-five for the cake. Good job.

I love the brown and blue, especially the parasols. Congrats! Looked beauty!