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Quote: Originally Posted by tiffandmarv Thanks a bunch for this info...it really helps! So how long did your reception last before you guys headed to the Infinity Bar? I have to be honest - I wasn't paying close attention to the time. We were at the restaurant for a long time. We went back to our room afterwards - our room was right by Poseidon so it was easier - brought the flowers back and the gifts (we didn't get very many of those) and changed clothes. Did I mention that the resort is HUMONGOUS? So our rooms being close to Poseidon meant that they were not close to the main building and it's a hilly walk - they have golf carts that you can call for - but we were in buildings 39 & 40 - the furthest away from the main pool/buildings/restaurants but closest to the beach that has the snorkeling, scuba and catamarans and Poseidon. There are also no elevators in the buildings with the rooms so if you have any older people that can't do stairs, make sure you request 1st floor rooms for them.

I voted for #1 as well - if you are ordering it - they should order it to your height, which should not change the shape of it. If you need to make so many changes to both dresses, maybe neither one of them are the right dresses for you?

Ahhhh - Happy Wedding day Erin and Mell!!!!

Congratulations!

Quote: Originally Posted by tiffandmarv Thanks for this info ladies. So did it take 3 full hours for them to serve three courses to 31 people or was a lot of this time spent socializing after the food was consumed? Right now I am at 60 people and I have a DJ planned for the reception but I would hate to waste all that money if he never gets a chance to play any music. In my case it definitely took a while to get served all of the food (23 people). We had great waiters - we'd actually requested one whom my parents really liked from lunch one day (Dafton) but they are just not super fast there - the drinks were constantly being filled though which kept everyone happy. It may be different if you have a DJ - they are good at controlling the flow of a party. But, they do have live music every night at the Infinity Bar - and people are dancing. Depends on your crowd and what you're looking for - I don't think any of my guests were upset that we didn't have music.

Seriously, you look amazing.

Welcome to the forum Pazzesca! I know exactly where Imperia is. I agree that everything happens for a reason - and having just had my DW - it is definitely the way to go! I am not sorry at all that I did it.

Quote: Originally Posted by SomersSK Hi Ladies, We have booked our wedding at the Grand Palladium for Jan 12 2011! I was at this resort last May with a friend, and fell in love with the beauty of it. I have chosed the "Pearl Package", but have a few questions about it (its proving VERY difficult to communicate with the wedding co-ordinator). Would love to hear feedback if possible! 1) I see that the package includes a bouqet and boutinere for the bride and grooms. However, I do not see an option for "add-ons" for bouqets and boutineres for the bridesmaids and groomsmen Maybe I am missing something - do you know if these are provided as part of the pearl package? They will send you a catalog with all of the bouquets - if you want something more or different, you will be charged for it - I would suggest dealing with the florist directly - it's Tai Florals 2) Does the "sparkling wine for toasting bride and groom" provide enough for all in your party? Does this generally happen immediately after the reception? It happened right after the reception and yes there was enough - but as the other ladies said, it comes out of the per person that you're paying for 3) What does the "wedding bliss decor" entail exactly We are getting married at the lovers bluff gazebo, and I want to have chairs with covers for the guests...Im hoping this package covers this? the decor was actually so nice - our room had rose petals everywhere, on the bed, in the jacuzzi with bubbles - a bottle of champagne and fruit tray - I still need to download my pictures of it! 4) If I want to have a private dinner/reception at the blue lagoon restaurant. Is any of this covered in the pearl package? Or is there a per person rate? 5) If you hire the reggae or mento band for instance...do you have the option of when you want them to play? Can you choose to have them play specifically at the dinner/reception? What did most people do for music at their ceremonies? I think I would prefer to hire the reggae band to play at the reception. You can probably talk to them about some "must have" songs. The bands I saw at the Infinity Bar were very good Thanks so much...please bear with me and my million questions That's what we're here for!!!

I ended up having one guest stay at another resort with her family. she took a taxi 45 minutes to come to my wedding - I paid for her guest pass, which was $70 - she met me and my friends in my parents room while I was getting ready and I had her OOT sg for her there. then she went back to her resort to spend the week with her family. It worked out better for her and her family but she still went out of her way to come to the wedding. what you will find is that, all of these people are coming to your wedding, but they are also going on their own vacation. The majority of our guests spent a LOT of time with us - ate 2/3 meals a day with us for the time they were there and hung out at the pool, beach, lounge, whatever with us, but there were a few people that did not. they were on vacation and they wanted to see the sites and do their own thing. They spent a lot of money to be with us - could I be mad that they weren't with us the whole time? in the end, they will be there for the wedding - which is supposed to be the important thing. and really, they don't care what YOU get if they do what you want - it shouldn't be about that.

Loved the Infinity Bar and the Manager's Cocktail hour - it was a lot of the same foods we had at our cocktail hour.

We are planning to meet at Jose Tejas in Woodbridge, NJ on Saturday, June 12 at 11:30am. Please Respond if you'd like to come so we can keep track of who will be there - Love to see and meet all of you Jersey Girls!!! Of course NY and PA girls, please feel free to come too - this is very close to Staten Island. Here is a link to Jose Tejas - location and directions: Border Cafe: Locations

Hey ladies - I was thinking i'd post our meet up in the BDW Get together section - that way more of the NJ ladies would see it and we could keep track of who's coming better and keep it separate from our other chatting on this thread. And here it is http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...12-10-a-58454/

Quote: Originally Posted by mswhatever Jerseykitten, Had you requested a private reception prior to arriving in Jamaica? you know, I THOUGHT I did. I spoke to Phyllicia on the phone and asked her if it was private and she said yes. I asked her if I could use my IPOD to play music and she said yes. I picked Poseidon because it was away from everything - she said it was a PRIVATE restaurant. then when we got there she (Phyllicia) said no it wasn't private and it would be another $45 per person. My husband was FURIOUS - unfortunately he hadn't been a part of any of the planning - had the picture in his head of what I'd told him and now it was wrong. not good. That was the day before the wedding. The day OF the wedding we talked to Nina - told her how we were told one thing then another and felt wronged - I think that's why they played the music at the cocktail hour and didn't charge us.

I'm going to add that Sephora brand Waterproof worked extremely well for me - I use that plus their waterproof eyeliner - no running at all!

you look gorgeous - I love the pics with the candles!

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd Hiya ladies!!!!!!!!!! I'm back and we had the MOST AMAZING time!!!! Actually we got back late Friday but we spent the weekend unwinding (and trying to prolong the honeymoon) and I wanted to catch up on this thread before I posted anything. Ha, that's laughable! There's just not enough time. But from what I've read so far, it seems like everyone's weddings were amazing, as we all knew they would be! I've loved some of the pictures I've seen so far. My photog just posted our pics today both on fb and on here, but I haven't gotten to see them yet! It's kinda funny that other people are looking at them and commenting on them but I haven't yet! DH (weird to use that instead of FI) wants us to look at them together and that won't be until tonight. So we got to see a few teasers this morning but that's it! Unfortunately, it rained and rained and rained our first 3 days there. Not just sprinkles or mist but full on side-blowing rain. We had to cancel a sailing trip we had planned and ended up renting vans to take our guests into town for dinner instead. They were getting a bit stir-crazy with the rain. BUT, somebody was looking out for us because we went to bed the night before the wedding to pouring rain and woke up to blue skies on wedding day!!!!!! The clouds rolled in around ceremony time but the first drop didn't fall until the final blessing. Perfect timing if you're going to have rain on your wedding day! I'll write a full review later with all the details but I just wanted to pop in and say that our whole experience could not have been any better. Superb everything: food, staff, beaches, onsite team. Absolutely perfect! Jodi- I'm really sorry to hear that volcano changed your entire wedding! You're probably already in Cyprus, but if not, chin up! A friend of mine got married there and she just raved and raved!! Someone a few pages back (Tracy maybe?) mentioned that we should all post links to our pics together once we're all back. FABULOUS IDEA! Well, since everyone else is looking at them, I'll share with you all, too! Here ya go: If you click on 'Featured Images' I think our photog put together a slideshow of just his favorites. andrew jordan photography Welcome back and congratulations! GREAT PICTURES!!!!! I love your aisle runner - gorgeous - you look so good - your photographer did a great job!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by eel2011 So, you didn't get to dance at all at the reception or play music?? Gulp! I'm really expecting music & dancing. I was considering using the blue lagoon though, so not sure how much they vary. Did you guys play your ipod during cocktail hour? Did you have any troubles getting your photographers on the resort? I'm so anxious to hear your review and see your prof pix Congrats again! Erin No dancing at the reception at Poseidon - believe me we were disappointed - you can do that at Blue Lagoon definitely - it's much bigger and they can block it off much more easily than Poseidon. We were disappointed, but again, I was somewhat misled/misinformed. so make sure you clearly understand when you discuss with the WC. They wanted to charge us $600 for playing our IPOD during the cocktail hour but they didn't - they played our music for the ceremony and since the setup was already there, they continued to play the music - seriously - try and negotiate that with them - ridiculous to get charged for that. so we had music for the cocktail hour. No problem whatsoever for the photographers - Mine told me they generally book rooms but they were sold out that weekend so they got day passes. The wedding coordinators know them and are fine with it. What they need to purchase is an event pass - this is what anyone who isn't staying at the resort will need to get into GP The day pass goes till 6pm - event pass covers till 10 pm and of course costs a bit more I think the day pass was 50 and the event pass was 60 the onsite Photographers aren't huge fans of the off site photographers but they have no choice. i got my 8 pictures that came with my package and it was nice because we had some pictures right away. And you can take your bracelet off for the wedding and pictures - just save it and they will give you a new one the next day. I can't wait to see my pro pics either - I heard from Paula monday - it should be soon !

Quote: Originally Posted by luv2sun Welcome back to all the new Mrs! Michelle - It's just so funny seeing all your pictures since they are similar to ours, hope you enjoyed the Palladium as much as we did. Wish I was still there. ;( What a heavenly place to get married! Welcome back!!! We loved it - our guests loved it - the food was so good! Can't wait to see your pics!

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Michele - first off I can't imagine getting married without my sister so you're much stronger than I am. Beyond that, I can't imagine her NOT making a fuss over me on my wedding day, no matter what the situation is! I'm sorry that you felt a little bit let down by her. Funny that you say maybe you need to lower your expectations because hubby is CONSTANTLY telling me that in regards to how I feel about my friends. I don't think that I ask anything of them that I wouldn't expect of myself, but apparently that's a little too much. I will probably never forgive my sister for not coming - but i have to move on - the whole reason I think my parents are making my AHR is so my sister will be at some sort of celebration of the marriage. She's been a brat since we first got engaged - I think she is very unhappy in her life and a little jealous of how my life has turned out - but we've both made choices. I'm sorry she's unhappy with hers - and she's the one who will always be stuck looking at my wedding photos that don't include her. I was there for hers. I was her maid of honor, made her shower, a toast, etc. but in the end, I really think she didn't want to come or she would have found a way. I think my brother in law had a lot to do with it and he has a lot of influence over her - sad but true - she doesn't have her own mind anymore - married 7 years and her entire life revolves around being his wife and doing whatever he says. And okay I'm going to admit that I was totally snickering and giggling about your comment on stopping the officiant during your ceremony. I mean, it's one thing if neither of you have been brought up with those beliefs but for you to have been raised in a different manner altogether, well it just seemed a little funny! We had no idea what our officiant was going to be saying (yah I totally didn't think to ask ahead of time) but thankfully the most he got into was the "love is patient, love is kind" passage that is fairly common and non-denominational despite its origins. the first time the guy said Jesus, we just looked at each other like "OHHHHHH, and FI/hubby mouthed "sorry" to me and we were laughing. The next time, when it would actually mean something, I stopped him. i think my parents would have had a heart attack! Another funny moment - a day or two after the wedding I was at dinner with my parents and my dad mentioned how a few comments were made that it seemed odd not to have all our witnesses sign the certificate with us at the ceremony. Having forgotten to make some account of this, I just passed it off saying that we took care of those details just prior to the ceremony and that its actually somewhat common to do that just to help speed up the actual ceremony itself! OOPS! How bad am I starting things off with a lie teehee! My sister already knew we did our legal stuff ahead of time though so I can always have her back us up if we need to. But funny that people actually noticed it! Okay and this post is huge but one last comment... did anyone else notice that somewhere in my first replies here I kept referring to "FI" and then had to switch to hubby somewhere along the way!?!? I'm SO not used to this husband thing!! It's definitely an adjustment to say Husband rather than Fiance or FI - I'm going to have to get used to it too!

OMG - what a fantastic job - your guests will really appreciate everything you've done!

Quote: Originally Posted by taraappl Does anyone know what steps need to take place to make our marriage legal in the US after being married in Mexico? They gave us our Marriage documents so I have those. I was doing some searching and it sounds like I'm supposed to get my Mexican documents Apostilled and that makes it legal in the US as well? I'm all sorts of confused. I just want it to be legal here and just want to know what steps I need to do to make that happen. Any help? I emailed the Vital Statistics bureau in my town - she said you don't have to do anything (at least from getting married in Jamaica) she said just take your marriage certificate to Social Security and DMV if you want to change your name. Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Meghan, how did the music work out for you in the end? Mel, it def feels great having each other to support one another and everyone has the same feelings and understanding. Jodi, How'd everything go with the flights?! My friend was stuck in punta cana for an extra week. really hope it didn't effect you to much and still able to get married. Thank you all for your kind words when I came on here to vent, your all right in the end it really didn't matter who was or wasn't happy, after seeing the husband's face it just all went away. Feels weird to say husband lol. I've got to say tho, there is some people I have no interest in being friends with anymore. I am so happy I did what I did because in the end it does show who is a true friend and who isn't. I'm still trying to get back into normal life mode, but I have no idea where to start, since I don't work and my entire life was wedding for so long. I guess I'll start with laundry lol. I think it'd be amazing if once we're all back we write a small review with links of pics. I know I would love that so much, as I'm having a hard time catching up. And I know I'm leaving people out here, not the greatest feeling. So I hope most of you are up for that. I think I have learned more about who i can count on and who I can't from this wedding process than from anything else in my life. It may seem really stupid, but you all know my sister didn't come to our wedding, and I went back in her Facebook posts, and on the day of the wedding, she posted NOTHING. the day after the wedding she posted, "Congrats to my sister, she got married yesterday in Jamaica". Not for nothing, but I would have thought she would have said a little more...when it's her birthday, my niece and nephew's birthday, I make a huge deal...she makes a huge deal for her friends.... I'm her ONLY sister. I really need to lower my expectations. Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 YAY Tracy's home! Sorry I've been on the dl for a while... we had quite the weekend, my husband has gone out of town AGAIN! and we're getting our floors put in this weekend and I have to to paint my kitchen and get the concrete prepped before then. Oh, and on top of it all I've had a nose bleed for 3 day, been on my period for 2 f*ing weeks... I've never had a period this bad before in my life, I just want to curl up in the fetal position in the tub and not leave the house. AND I've been having massive leg cramps every night to the point I wake up screaming in my sleep and can barely walk the next day. AND my favorite music/drunk festival all the year sucked up the a$s and ruined my all my excitement about the whole stupid thing... did I mention my husband is out of town again he's also decided that he needs a new job pronto b/c he can't do this one (he's an enviromental scientist and tests emissions from smoke stacks at coal plants so he climbs like 500 ft in the air and it scared the piss out of him) so he completely freaked out the other day, but he's got another offer on the table with a diff company so his feet will be firmly on the ground. But that means that I can't quit my horrible (read God awful) pos "job" until he gets this funk straigtened out and I'm totally upset about it. His dad's having some type of problems and he's been going to the dr's for a week now. He can't really feel his left side and he's lost a lot of his energy and they can't figure out what's wrong with him. It sounds to me that he's having some type of little stroke or something. Oh - and his mom told us this weekend that a long time family friend and someone that we love sooooooooooooooooooo much that has been in the hospital with cancer, that it would take a miracle for her to get well. basically, she is going to die, they've done everything they can for her and if this last round of treatment doesn't work, then it's just quality of life. Fan-fucking-tastic. Sorry, I don't usually swear or rant, I've just kinda had enough. Oh Jenna - I'm sorry you have so much coming down on you right after the wedding. Deep breaths and feel free to rant and swear. For those of you who haven't seen my pictures - here's a link to my FB Welcome to Facebook | Facebook you will need to add me as a friend And some other pictures. Best Destination Wedding Forum ~ The Ultimate Destination Wedding Resource My girlfriend videotaped the ceremony so we watched it again last night Really, the wedding and whole day was beautiful. My ceremony was on the beach and we had the cocktail hour out there - totally worth the extra money - the food was fantastic - everyone raved about it. I had specifically asked for a nonreligious ceremony - I was told me they only do nonreligious ceremonies - imagine our surprise when the officant started mentioning Jesus - I was raised Jewish and Jim is an athiest so that was a bit shocking - i had to stop him during the ring exchange - You can see it on the video All in all - the best day of my life - our life - would do it again in a second.

I would be totally annoyed - they should have sent you the invitation. A half-hearted facebook invite is CRAP in my opinion. But, their ettiquete faux pas should not keep you from doing the right thing - if you want to. Send them a card - definitely. send them a gift - only if you think it's neccessary.

Great pictures!

Quote: Originally Posted by taraappl Does anyone know what steps need to take place to make our marriage legal in the US after being married in Mexico? They gave us our Marriage documents so I have those. I was doing some searching and it sounds like I'm supposed to get my Mexican documents Apostilled and that makes it legal in the US as well? I'm all sorts of confused. I just want it to be legal here and just want to know what steps I need to do to make that happen. Any help? Hey welcome back!!! I need to do that too for our marriage - maybe in the BDW general section with the name change sticky? I'll look.

OK here are my additions - Extra sunscreen - I brought 2 cans of SPF 85 - my husband burned wearing 85 - we ended taking everyone elses sunscreen as they left so we'd have enough. body lotion/after sun lotion - for sunburn and peeling Extra shampoo and conditioner - the hotel provided this but i use special - i don't normally wash my hair daily but with all of the salt and chlorine I had to - it barely made it. bandaids I think someone else put tampons/pads - THANK YOU THANK YOU! Although I wasn't expecting it, it came and I was prepared! Definitely do this - stress plays with your hormones.