2bebridejamaica

Quote: Originally Posted by Amber_Oglesbee Hey! I am new to this so I may not be doing it right. ha ha. But I was so excited to see all of the information given here about your wedding at Beaches in Negril. I have learned so much from reading here. I have a question and it may sound crazy, but did a doctor from Jamaica come to the hotel to take your blood in order to get married? This freaks me out. We were thinking about getting married in the Bahamas and that is what they did there. Amber you are sooo welcome and congrats again!! I just sent you a note and then came here and realized you already left a comment. LOL..... Your question is not crazy at all.... Actually... no need for blood in Jamaica. Only things you need are your Birth Certs and Divorce decree if you had been married before along with the rest of the stuff in the wedding packet. Jamaica is super easy to get married at. One of the reasons we picked was you don't need the blood and only need to be in the country for 72 Business hrs before your wedding to become a "resident". Very simple steps for having the wedding of your dreams.

Congrats and welcome to the forum Amber!!!! Check out the thread on Beaches Negril .. it has tons of Q & A's. I was married at Beaches in Nov 08. We have alot of BN brides coming up this year and next. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t35847

Quote: Originally Posted by alvogel I love all of your ideas!! How did you diy the ring shell, glasses, and fans? Thanks for the input! The shell was super easy with just a glue gun and scrap ribbon. I got the glasses from a woman off of Etsy.com. Her info is by them in the top of the planing thread. The fans were from OT, The Flowers were from Micheals on clearance, and ribbon from Target, I just kept wrapping till things looked right and looped through the actual fan to get the covered look. Took a bit more ribbon this way but I like how it covered the raffia knot on the fan.

Awww thanks Danielle... it's really awesome to help you girls out in any way that I can. Since I was the only BN bride here ... I was just beyond frustrated when I was planning all this as there was no bouncing off ideas or pictures to assure me things would be fine. I promised that I wouldn't let another BN girl go nuts like me. But I worked through it like a champ and had a damn near amazing wedding.. minus the hurricane.. but I guess that makes it pretty darn special in its down right... WHO else is crazy enough to ride down on a luggage trolley... OOOO ME!!!!! Now Jay on the hand .. thinks I am completely insane for still coming on like I do... But I can't help it... Gotta help out my girls!!!!! Once the next girl happens... I will pass the torch to her ... Let her be in all her brand-new-ness glory!!

HAHAHAHA emailing would have worked too ... not like you have NEVER done that before... LOL

Hey Danielle. I did use them and they were great ... My dress really wasn't all that wrinkled and you prob would have never noticed but I wanted to make sure it was stick straight and ready to go for the wedding. They came and picked up both my veil and dress on Thursday late afternoon and they had it back to me on Sat morning after Jay had left the room for the day. They actually had it ready Friday night but I told them to keep it as I wanted to wait till after Jay left in the morning.. just incase of him seeing it. The resort has their own dry cleaning on property and they are quick and it was actually really cheap too. $20 for the press of the dress and another 8 for my veil. Not too shabby.

]Congrats and welcome to the forum Rhonda!!! Woooo HOOOOOOOOO!!!! I was the 1st Beaches Negril here on the forum. Here is the link below for the thread with all the other Beaches Negril brides. Lots of Q & A's.... http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t35847

YAYYYYY another happy customer!! Lynn is just sooo talented and right down to the little details of your dress. Everyone just loved our topper in Jamaica and at the AHR. Such a conversation piece to have... prob the best thing I could have bought for the wedding!

Jill, Congrats and welcome to the forum from a past Negril Bride.. you will not be disappointed with Negril!!!! We have alot of girls here on the forum getting married at Sandals Negril.. Check through the Sandals/Couples Threads along with the Jamaica threads. I was a Beaches Bride ... and since they are sister properties, I might be able to help out. Good Luck and Happy Planning!!!

Ash did you use a TA or your guests?? I read the post lastnight and I called my GF who is actually a TA and she called back this morning telling me that you should see if you can have your guests moved to any of the Riu properties in Negril. The travel time in the vans from MoBay to Negril is at least 90 min one way (all depends on the driver). You might have a little wiggle room as you still have a decent amount of time to see if they might be able to switch the properties. Granted this might be great for you as well .. they are so far away from where you are going to be ... so in a sense it's like a romantic time... KWIM?? Feeling the "wish we eloped" is all apart of being a bride.. it's the easiest saying to cope with the messes we deal with.. 8o) .... I said this oh so many times myself.

Hey.. you are a busy gal today with posts... LOL!!! So I was thinking ... why not run over to the Beaches Negril post and it will tell you everything that has been asked about this already since Beaches/Sandals are the same properties anyway. I'm a bit long winded but I also wanted to make sure that I got everything out for all future brides. Here is the link... Lots of girls have asked questions like you and I too went with the 30 min ... but in reality its more like an hr .. but check out the post and see if that might help you out. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t35847

I did the tour that they have set up. It was a great time!!! From Negril it will take about an hr and a half to get to the location for the canopy tour. We left at 9 am and did not get back to Negril till 430pm. It was a longer day than expected. They orig said we would be back into town by 2. So we missed our reservation for the spa. But they corrected that the next day. So plan a later dinner for that night .. depending on which day and which time you decide on going. I wish they had something closer but this is where they offer. You got a FB? If you do ... PM me and I can send my info and you can see the pics of the tour and such.

Now that's an awesome cake ... sounds yummy too!!!

Your welcome Kris!! The beach party is for everyone at the resort to enjoy the night. I took down all my music with me. I brought a small Ipod speaker set up ... but they actually ended up just transfering everything from the cermony to the reception area so I used their sound system for all the important songs for the dances. I switched over to the Ipod after all that was done to make it a little more intimate. While we were playing some of the songs through the other speaker set up they provide ... other guests of the resort were off in other areas dancing too ... quite cute if you ask me. It's still really awesome that you were able to get the familymoon and all the free goodies to go along with it. Nothing is better than free!!

Ash where are they staying If you don't mind me asking?? See, that is the reason I didn't really give our guests much of a choice as I would have felt obligated like you do right now to pay for the day passes. When we chose Beaches we knew that some of our guests wouldn't be able to afford Negril... but Sandy Bay they could. It is right down the street and they have shuttle service to and from both locations. Also we had Jays sister and her boyfriend stay at Sandals Negril because they were making it a first vacation for them too and they wanted romance. So with that all said and done ... no need to worry about day passes. And this all came from our TA as she was the one to tell us about it. Beaches Negril is the most expensive of the 3 Beaches on the island and having friends and family mixed worked out nice.. we had great family time together and alone time too. Now personally I would not pay for the day passes for anyone to come on the day of the wedding knowing now that you can have people at different Sandals/Beaches resorts for the need of different price points. Maybe this will help and maybe not so much ...

Kristen No worries about your reception type things. I did my cake cutting, toasts, dancing with my NEW hubby, his dad, and my son all in our 30 minute cocktail. I will tell you, it's more like an hr at least as mine was over an hr. No one is going to kick you out from you finishing up with what you want to accomplish. The photog will be there with you the whole time to finish working on these things too. The Beach Party for us was on a Thurs night and I think Monday nights too. But I am not sure as we checked out on Monday to go to our HM resort. The Party starts at about 6ish with a HUGE HUGE buffet right on the beach. The tables were decorated, Tiki Lights, and deocrations everywhere. Music from a Dj and live bands too. Once dinner was done, they started with the show. This had acrobats, stick jumping dancers, fire eaters, and such. Then after about 9:30.. most of the little ones had headed to bed and they started with games and dance contests. This lasted till about 11ish. It was an awesome night to be out on the beach soaking in the music and entertainment. MAKE SURE you COVER yourself in bug spray ... espec your legs. Sand Fleas will get you during this time. Night is the only time anyone in our party even said anything about it. We had no problems during the day .. but night is when we got it the most. I can't say anything about the rehersal dinner thing. We didn't do any real rehersal as they really don't think its needed. This to them is totally carefree and when I asked about it they said we didn't need to do it. I don't think I remember anyone having rehersals at all.. I kept watch for any wedding on the property as I wanted to see all the locations done up. Like I said in the above post... we just had a big group dinner Friday night with everyone. K I bounced around a bit on that one ... but I think I covered your ??'s for now.. Keep them coming!!

Danielle... Yessss any drink you want they will get for you!! I had them 2 fist for my BM and I so we wouldn't run out. But they do offer a "Booze" Tea and Mimosa's in the salon. As for the hair thing.... I think we chatted about this in email... but for everyone else too... The girl I got was very helpful and worked well with what I was looking for... but was obviously in another place Friday afternoon for my trial run. It was pouring like mad because of the hurricane arriving and all I wanted to do is cry... and did she never really said 2 words to me... My BM was trying so hard to supe me up but it didn't help... my girl was busy chatting away with one of the girls in the salon ... none of which you could understand.. annoying and she was takiing a million years to do anything. But my orig hair idea came out amazing!!! I wish I had pictures of that to show you. My day of hair is NOTHING like what I had planned .. but with the wind and possible of sprinkles through out the day ... it all had to go up and back with a ton of hairspray. In total for my trial session which included - mani, pedi, parafin treatment, hair and make up trial = 6 hrs WFC!!!! But day of hair ... I was in and out in 2 hrs. Now I am a hairdresser ... I do weddings and formal events all the time. These girls know exactly what they are doing that is for sure...So no worries there.. but they are on island time!! My BM was done with everything on the day of the trial (same options as me) in 3 1/2 hrs. This is all I thought it would have taken also. I'd say if you are looking to book a trial.. make sure you do in the morning to get it out of the way. I booked 1 and was there till almost 7. We were late for our group dinner by an hr.

Wooo Hoooo Congrats Kristen and welcome to the forum!!! I just saw your post and I will be responding shortly to all your questions... You are going to love Beaches!!!!

Congrats Vicky and welcome to the forum!!!

Congrats and welcome to the forum Kristin!! I was a Beaches Negril bride ... T & C Beaches is amazing from what our TA has said. She just went down in Dec. So now we are thinkin of going for our 1st Anni...

Yes Ash that is the free cake! I think for the flowers I paid maybe 20 bucks.. and that included the flowers for my BM's hair too. I wanted to make sure that I had the fondant icing for it but that was about it. As for the arch.. they have a standard one that is up all the time in the beach location, unless a wedding is using something different for that day. It is a white scroll-y one. (makes me think of something you see in a garden at home where flowers grow over/around/in it. It does have simple chiffon on it covering and 2 small palms flanking it on each side. Up close you can tell it's been used ALOT.. but in pictures you can't even tell. Minus the fact of our hurricane... when we planned for the beach we purchased what was on the Gazebo on our day to give you an idea. I think if they were used on the arch ... the top arrangement would have been too big.. but I never got to see the actual outcome only on the gazebo so I guess it depends on how big you want things in the upgrades. The orig Chuppah I was in LUV with .. I was quoted from the Miami WC $900 to recreate it.. NUTS!! When we got to Jamaica they quoted ONLY 600 but with the flowers and such we would have needed to purchase anyway... I still couldn't see spending that much. One girl 2 days before my wedding .. opted to just go with the beach and floral arrangements that looked like one of the Preston Bailey Centerpieces and then had chiffon draped to the small palms to give an alter effect. It was very pretty.. but who knows how much it was. She did not go with the PB Package either.. it was an afterthought when she got to Jamaica.

Oooo this is the site my girls used for my shower invites.. They were awesome!! I ended up purchasing my tags for my fans and OOT Bags along with Thank yous. So much stuff and super cute.. SUPER fast and the company in it self.. just adorable to work with. Big Dot of Happiness - Making life's occasions fun. It's about time.

Hey Ash! CONGRATS!!!!!!!! Oh this def can be done We had 13 people in total for our guests. all depends on which restaurant you are thinking of ... We only made a reservation for The Mill was because we wanted to have full seating prepared for our dinner. Also learned when speaking with Andrea and Nikki at my consultation that by having the "reservation" this makes sure on you being able to pick exactly where you want your seating in the restaurant. You won't have more than a 10 minute wait for seating in the Mill at high times. But, they do spread people out through the area to have an open feel as possible as it is open air seating. The Japanese Restaurant you WILL need a reservation for.. Sandals Negril and Beaches Sandy Bay guests can visit this restaurant since only open in the evening and type (I think) in the Negril properties it is booked all the time. You will not be disappointed on choosing the 15pp either... it actually works out nice... just enough and a nice small extension to the ceremony. My guests thought it was perfect. Ooooo Ash, what day is your wedding Because certain days have themed events which they close some of the restaurants .. but in a sense you could make it memorable by having your dinner on the beach with candlelight and Tiki torches.. for NOTHING!! YAY! This happened for 2 brides during the time I was there .. they just offered it up to them as an option.. it was beautiful too.

Congrats and welcome to the forum Kris from another Boston gal and Jamaican bride... We were at the 6 yr mark when we got engaged... FINALLY your big day will be here before you know it!!

For us, we were engaged on Dec 8 2007 and both knew that we wanted it to be in less than 12 month thing or very close. We orig planned a local wedding on Dec 20th because I wanted to have a fairytale christmas wedding with my flower girl being an angel.. LOL.Silly silly me .. new england and snow at christmas.... Well that all changed by the middle of Jan and immediately we were on the DW route, with that being said .. a big holiday was out as everyone on Jays side is in healthcare or in the FD/PD with unions... no one gets vacas. Then I started to look at dates and under the International calendar our date looks like this 08-Nov-08. That was it ... it was our date ... 11 months after we got engaged.