Marie

I think the free package just covers the "legal" part of it, along with the minister fees...back 2 years ago when we got married we used the free package but paid so much more...we paid ofr white chairs, additional decor, private beach party, speakers......we ended up with 2 grand worth of stuff maybe..we had about 30 people.......I think back then, the basic package was 250? I had great service-and I had booked and requested things about 9 months in advance....and it was worth it..I saw other brides upset that what they wanted their wedding day was already booked up (and it was by me! lol)..and they tried booking 6 months in advance...she wont really worry about little things, but she'll book out specific locations for you-once I had a booking conf number she was able to help me...but for actual wedding details...it really wasnt confirmed until our meeting down there..I spent way too much time worrying about the tiny things..it can all be taken care of there once you arrive..Id just suggest you research the places to be married etc..and book that....along with a time....and if you need a photographer, book that too-that was another 1500 on top of our 2 grand....not too mention hair..lol..rememberingit all now...lol...if you have any questions at all Id be happy to answer them, and give you my email.

Hoping you could help me. As a former bride who used this site for my wedding in Jamaica, I thought it would be an excellent site to ask a few questions for a friend of mine. Everyone was so helpful here a couple years ago-just looking through all the threads, I miss being here! LOL So to the point...Shes gets married April 26TH, not too far away...and still hasnt been in contact with a WC...though shes made many attempts through the facebook group, calls, emails....Im pretty sure final payment was suppose to be made 45 days prior? And i DONT believe shes been able to even arrange that yet...you can imagine that nerves are setting in, and this situation is frustrating. Im sure once she arrives it will all work out, but if anyone of you have been through this before, or know a secret as to how all this can be settled..please let me know. iM REALLY looking forward to your responses and helping our bride to be. Thanks.

Ana...so sorry about not answering your questions in time..I havent been on here in awhile!!! Hope everything went smoothly! Im sure it did!

Thanks a lot hockeymom97..... It makes me so sad to think its all over! Its all I can think of since we re back..Im on red tag everyday looking to go back to Jamaica. I miss it so much and its almost been 3 months. We truly had the time of our lives. That day was a dream come true for me, its exactly how I would have wanted my wedidng! I woke up with my groom, went to breakfast...we parted ways and I met up with my girls..had drinks getting ready, laughing the whole time..I chatted with my dad the whole way to the gazebo laughing...we laughed through our vows..and I cried lol..so relaxed though....and seriously..as soon as we said :i do: ther was someone handing us a glass of champagne...you dont get that at every wedding!!! We actually got to chat and mingle n get pics with our guests...the supper was fun, we had a few toasts etc..the beach party was a riot! I never laughed so hard....I LOVED cooling off and laying in the sand...loved dancing, doing shots....our friends brought out their guitars later and we had our own beach party! The amount of people coming up to us, random people fromt he entertainment area was halarious...said they were watching u s all week and were looking forward to seeing our wedding, it was the sweetest!!!!!!!! Ill keep ya posted on the vow renewal! lol Thanks again for your sweet comments.....8sigh* you just brought me back lol

PLEASE do not wory about choosing this resort. It was by far the best we, and a lot of our gusts have stayed in. Everything about this place was fabulous, i COULDNT GET over how everything was so clean, staff so pleasant, food so good, pools great, beach awesome..I loved it......I still dream about going back.......we'll be going back to Jamaica next year, and i wanna go back to ROR! As for the dress, the above is correct, all your bags are placed in the centre of th elobbyand you place your stickers on them, you re suppose to go about your buniness and let them take your bags. We didnt. I was paranoid. SO I took my bags and my dress to someone elses room ....my parents I believe, they re room was ready before ours. I had no intentions of leaving my dress anywhere tho. Id suggest taking it to get something ot eat, immediately to your right theres the italian restaurnt which will be open, if not, st. anns down the hall will be. Once I was done eating Id prob lounge in the lobby...enjoy the warm breeze, wait for your room....Or go to one of the pool bars, and lounge on the die of the pool..I saw lots of girls do this stuff.......and I would have had my parents room not been ready.....

RIU Ocho Rios Wedding pictures by gmcgrath - Photobucket this link will take you right into our pics on photobucket.

wow--breath taking..I love the phtoshop work done to by the photag.....its all truly amazing, I looked into this for our wedding, I believe a set up cost close to 5 grand when I checked...

RIU Ocho Rios Wedding pictures by gmcgrath - Photobucket copy n paste this link..should go straight to 100 pics that I chose from the photag.....

I keep trying to post pics...but after reviewing the thread about posting pics, Ive decided to go ahead and join photobucket..Ill post the link when I get all my wedding photos uploaded......I plan to do a wedding album, Jamaica album, along with pics from my shower and stagette.....

Ana, GOOD choice move about the cake! If you click that link inlcluded on my review, I think you ll see a pic of the cake, it was tidy, well put together, looked super cute. And was free. I wish I could upload my pics here lol..just cant....but they re all on the facebook group for RIU Ocho Rios. I think 10-12 people had a little piece.....tops.....But it was certainly big enough to feed out group of 38...DEF WOULD NOT BUY a cake, unless it was something of complete importance to the bride......and to be honest, the grooms father ended putting the cake in the grooms face later that night........thats a whole other story........lol....... I loved the beach reception. We went down to the water and got pics too. Something so cool about it, beingon he beach with your own bar. So unless you state other wise, the only chairs they ive you are the blue lounging beach chairs. Unless of course you book to have a private dinner/reception on the beach.....then they leave all your tables n chairs set up. But as mentioned we ate at Mammee Bay...I realized this once I got down there and saw it set up one night. I never ever came across that on this forum before. I just assumed they d give you tables n chairs/?? So durin g my meeting I insisted we get to use the same white chairs we used for our ceremony (white folding ones) Chandlyn said no problem. Without even asking, she got a few of those small white beach stools/little tables, covered them in awhite cloth, and laidout my decor..little beach lanterns n candles...and put the white chairs in a semi circle......If I had my time back, I prob would hav moved the chairs closer together, cause the group was spread across, but tha was no big deal........thinking back, I could have made an actual circle even..or something different, but anywho, no bigge.....we had the cake moved down on a table also and put in the midde, and had the whole beach to dance on! Im really not sure about the system to rent for cd's. We had our ipod..and we ran into trouble with the system we rented, chandlynn says that was bizarre..she didnt understand why.....and as mentioned, she immediately found something else that worked for us. I would imagine they have a lot of stuff on site..and prob just say its rented...they do a lot of entertaining of their own at he resort.....always at it at something on the beach, the pool, plus the nightly entertainment.....I would email her, tell her you 'll be bringing an ipod and cd's, ask if theres equipemnt you can rent to support both (or whatever) and ask what the cost would be. Easy. They'll set that up then just in under the sea grape to the side.........we only had the bar tender for 2 hours, but we were allowed to keep the system for as long as we wanted, .....someone was keepin an eye for when we left to take it and lock it up safely. I would def suggest renting some type of system that has loud volume, &/or speakers.....the nightly entertainment lasts til 11 and is directly above yo....super loud.......I dont know how anyone manages with just an ipod docking station, we certainly couldnt.

IrishGirlInNY.......In regards to the flowers....Im not sure now...I just knew what I wanted, I wants an off white flower...preferably roses, with some white orchids, cause I had an orchid for my hair......and I found the one I wanted in the upgraded binder....its from the same vendor, the one the resort uses...I just personally didnt like any of the free bouquets...-its kind of over whelming too, cause you re just sitting there with binders full of flowers and have to pick one on spot.......it was great that I KNEW what I wanted, just had to find it....I would not waste my money on flowers fro bridesmaids, we got our bouquets for them at Michael s, for $10 ..and they were perfect and matched mine! lol

Ohhh JennandMike08...PLEASE Dont stress over the small dets.....I know I did, and if I could go back Id change a few things, that would be one of them........and I would have tried to let the feeling go of me trying to control everything! lol Little stuff tho, like decor for the dinner table...I had white lanterns, and brow candle holders, the fake tea lights, flowers...I ordered some from online.....picked out matching stuff at stores, the worried about putting the stuff in other peoples luggage, then trying to tr4ack it all down once we were there, then getting it to Chandlyn, it was the little stuff that upset me lol..and I hated wasting my time once I was there.... As for controlling things, I wanted every day planned out..spend this day here, this one with these people....spend less time in the room, eat here, then there......I spent so much time worrying about everyone and palnning the next day....I ruined it for myself!!! I think after planning these weddings and vacations for so long in advance, that we just want everything to go a certain way-and when it doesnt, we get upset,...thats how I was! And wish I hadnt been! So, thats my advice....lol

Hi All! Wow...can't believe my wedding talk and meltdowns are over.....now on to more exciting things-THE HONEYMOON!!!!!! We got married May 6rth 2010 at RIU Ocho Rios. It was fabulous. We went with 38 of our friends and family, so it was the furthest thing from a honeymoon.....we literally had no time alone..ok, maybe when we went to bed, but that was it-and who can blame us-when would we ever get such a big crowd to vacation with? We' didnt book that second week, and we're kind of glad we didn't. We really got tired of the food, and we missed home..(I know I never thought Id want to leave the Caribbean to go home!) But now we're home and wanting to plan another vacay for just the 2 of us....we may do the late honeymoon..and plan our vacation for next year, or wait on a last minute deal. We wanna go back to Jamaica....but to Negril....we're stuck between Couples Negril and Couples Swept Away.....but then Sandals is playing on the backs of our minds.....we reallyy cant decide where to go.......and we want to book asap! We'd prefer adults only....prefer Negril.....but dont want to over spend either..... Anyone have feedback? Suggestions? Fave spots in Negril ??

.....Im not sure how clear that post was lol......it was very odd we had trouble with our ipod originally...you shouldnt bring any cords or hookups or anything, just the ipod and docking station, we have NO idea what went on with ours originally...she said there must have been something wrong with the speakers (our luck).....she had it all plugged in and set up on the side.......once she realized the set up sucked...lol (cause of the crackling) she used another system, where we didnt need the docking station...just like plugging it into the car....lol....it wasnt QUITE as loud as the original speakers we had rented, but it was fine......

Sweetluna....about the docking station.....it plugged in somewhere around the side of the bar...I honestly dont know, Chandlyn took care of all that...all i done was tell her at the meeting that we had an ipod and docking station. She suggested renting speakers because the entertainment up above is so loud (TRUE....DEF NEEDS SOME SOUND SYSTEM) Sooo....she met us there after the meal, actually she met our friends there to ensure the plug ins were correct...for some reason, our ipod was really crackly...she kept telling me not to worry...next thing knew I saw her coming down over the stairs with something, it was her own sound sytem, a different one.....not quite as loud as the original speakers, but it done fine......at this point we didnt use the docking station, we used whatever it was she had..I honestly cant remember that part.....but we plugged our ipod into her set up...................she had no ide why the speakers were crackling,......so i cant explain that part, but either way-as long as you have your ipod and docking station....thats all you should need..............she came to check on during dinner, and my husband got up to chat with her, she asked for our ipod n stuff, so he went to the room and brought it down with her, to set it up........she took care of the rest and made sure we got music.......