Sparkles8300

So much detail went into your wedding planning!! I love love love the black and white/demask!!! Great job!!

Ocho Rios is BEAUTIFUL but it is a LONG drive from the airport. Your guests who are not staying very long might be more inclined to come to your wedding if you did it somewhere closer to the airport. Just a thought!

VEIL!!!! I was not going to do one but my BFF told me it was a big regret of her not wearing one in her wedding. It is the only day of your life you will be able to wear one and it really does make you feel like a bride!!! (I did both a tiara and veil).

I wanted to re-post the private messagne I sent to Maura, in case it will help to answer anybody else's questions: Hi Maura, Thanks for the compliments! I am so glad you pickd IGRH!! If you get married on Dec 4th that will be our exact one year wedding anniversary and we will be there at the Grand when you get married!! I can tell you, it is hot, but with the breeze off the water, it's not TOO hot to wear your dream gown. I was able to wear my dream dress down the isle, for pictures, and for the first half of the rececption. It does get mighty hot in the open air restaurant that you are planning on renting out, so you will def want to do as I did and bring a shorter dress to dance in after your first dance. Even with all of the fans going, when you have that many people in one space dancing, it gets hot. I actually brought that short white dress last minute "just in case" not really planning on using it, as it was a few years old, and I am SO GLAD I did!! I was dripping with sweat in the gown and felt so much better in the short dress!! We did use all of the services that were listed on the package, too! They don't cut much of a break since each vendor is individual. I think at one point they were trying to make us pay not only the extra $20/pp for the ceremony and the extra $1,500, or whatever it is, to rent out the restaurant but then an EXTRA $20/pp for the dinner! I was like NO WAY. I told them that we will pay the 20/pp for the ceremony and rent out the restaurant but we were not going to pay ANOTHER $20/pp for dinner/drinks, and they OKed this, as we had 55 people with us. They also gave us our cake for $150 instead for the $600 they wanted for it. The flowers on the cake were another $60. I did upgrade the cake and I was suprised at how great it turned out, and it was SO GOOD! We did not do a cocktail hour, because with only a 55 person wedding, all of the guests are so involved in the photos that there really was no point of doing a formal one. Everyone hung around and watched our photos and then went up and took over the lobby bar for the hour in between. Nobody cared that the lobby bar was not "formally rented out" & with such a big group you will just take over wherever you go anyway! We did have a champagne toast, which is included in the 20/pp, right after the ceremony which was a nice time to mingle and get some good hugging photos. As for the DJ, you have to use him to get the equipment, but he was so Jamacian nobody could understand him so Angellie steped up and took over the mic and was our MC for the night. My cousin brought her ipod with all of my playlist on it as backup, Thank God, because he did not have our first dance song. So just be prepared with your songs backed up on an ipod just in case. The butterfly release company is so flaky that I did not know until the morning of that we actually got them!! They are very hard to deal with and the WCs did their best, and it worked out, but the company does not return phone calls, etc..!! But be warned that it is out of the WCs hands and this may be something that won't work out so try to keep the release a suprise from your guests so they won't be dissapointed if it does not happen. To hear the GASP form our guests when we released the butterflies was so awesome!!!! I hope your wedding date is able to be changed and we are there to see your wedding!!! Yes, my hubby is from Philly!!! He is the BIGGEST Eagles fan ever!!! He is on an Eagles blog bleedinggreennation and he is as obsessed with that blog as I am with this one!!! Where do you guys live now? We live in Baltimore, downtown in Canton. Please let me know if you have any questions!!! Who are you using for photogs?? I HIGHLY recommend Sungold!!!! They are worth every penny, and then some!!!! Happy Planning Let me know if your date is able to be moved to the 4th!!!

Great slideshow!!! We also used Sungold and loved them!!! We ordered a canvas print and it is AMAZING! I reccommend doing the same with your print credit they give you....we get so many compliments from everyone who comes to our home and sees it! Congrats!!!

I got ours super cheap from asianideas.com and I also got our paper lanterns from there as well! If you google for a coupon code, you should be able to save even more $

Welcome!!! I am not sure about wheelchair access but we stayed at the Riu in Ocho Rios and it was a great experience. A lot of brides on here had their weddings there and really liked it.

Quote: Originally Posted by nashidab Congratulations Leslie!!! What an amazing thread. Your wedding was gorgeous, love the colors. Since seeing your pics I've decided to add accents of fuchsia to my orange and green color palate:-) Your photography slide show turned out great, makes me so happy that we decided to go with sungold for our photos. Your huppah flowers, bouquets and centerpieces all are very pretty. I'm getting married at the Iberostar suites in October and had contacted Taiflora for a quote before I learned that they lost the resort contract. I've emailed Jamaica flower studio but haven't heard back from them yet. How much were your huppah flowers? Centerpieces? Bride and bridemaids bouquets? Also what size paper laterns did you use? 20 inches? The ones you chose were the perfect size. Thanks so much for sharing!!! Thank you! You made a great choice with Sungold! Huppa flowers were $150 each side. The arrangements are VERY large, they don't show up as large as they really are in the photos. Well worth the $$. The papers lanterns were 20 inches.

Thanks for the compliments ladies. Yes, I did pick this song as it is very fitting for what has been going on in our lives right now. Thanks for your continuing support. This slideshow makes me so happy and makes me believe that there can be a happily ever after, after all.

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 GORGEOUS Leslie! Seems like that song was picked especially for you guys hmm? It looks like you had an amazing time and you look so beautiful!! BTW - Who is this Art? (aka the bouncer) and how can I hire his services?? HAHAHHAHAH Art is my MOHs boyfiriend who is a HUGE MAN that looks like a NFL football line backer. He almost had to kick some ass b/c these ignorant Russians kept kicking a soccer ball around my wedding and flicking off the camera. He told them that if they don't stop he is going to murder them and throw them in the ocean LOL and let me just say they stopped!!! I don't know what we would have done with out him!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by blckrevpower thanks for sharing! do you mind telling me how much you spent on photography? We got the platinum package with both Paula and Damien. It was $5,500, which is a lot of money!! However, the pictures are worth it and they are what you have to remind you of the wedding day for the rest of your life. It included 10 hours of shooting on the wedding day, 2 hours for a TTD shoot the next day, 2 slideshows, CDs of all of your prints (so you don't have to buy them you can print them yourself...as many as you want), and a wedding album, plus at $250 print credit which we are using to buy a wall canvas of one of our wedding photos. I cut down in other places in order to afford this...I did a lot of DIY projects instead of ordering things like Save the Dates, Menus, Programs, etc... I also cut back a lot on flowers and I think I made the right choice b/c in the end the day is a blur and all we have to rememer it by are the photos! They do offer cheaper packages that do not include as much as we got.

SunGold Wedding Photography | HOT, HOTTER, HOOTERS! HOME Our slideshow is up on Sungold's blog. It is amazing and brings happy tears to my eyes every time. This reminds me of why I wanted to use Sungold so bad and I am so glad that I did! Be sure to watch with sound on....he set it to Taurus Riley's cover of Stay With You and it turned out beautiful.

Quote: Originally Posted by cyclegirl77 Leslie - Thank you for sharing all your pics & Ideas!!!!! We are getting married in July & finally got our date 7-30-10 @ the Grand We should hire you! ha! It looks like everything turned out fabulous! Congrats Stacie Stevenandstacie.com Congrats on booking your date!! You will have an amazing wedding at the most beautiful resort on earth!

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 Hi Leslie, I happened to notice you had nice silver chargers under your plates at your reception - did you bring those or arrange for them, or were they standard at the resort? I want to ensure they will use simple/nice china at the Beach resort and will request those chargers if possible... They were included. They gave me 3 to choose from. They had really pretty hand blown glass blue ones if you have blue as a color they would be perfect!

Thank you all for your words of advice and support. It means the world to me. Honestly it was just too hard for me to even deal with this situation for sometime. We have decided to begin counseling and give this marriage a real true try. I am going to give this counseling about 4 months and then revaluate the situation. I do believe him that he is not talking to her anymore and he has tried to work out of another office as well as signing into his emails and giving me his Blackberry password to build trust. Thanks again for being so caring and understanding, it means so much to know you ladies are here!