NegrilLB

Hi Robyn, We stayed at Jamaica Inn for 3 nights for our honeymoon last month. Even though it is in a fairly busy part of town, it is very quiet there and feels 'off the beaten path'. The grounds are incredibly well-kept. We had a premier verandah suite on the West End, which I would recommend. The verandah is great for relaxing on, but the rooms are very basic. (I thought that they looked better on the website than in person.) But if you're looking for a rustic kind of feel then it will be perfect. There are no TVs or radios in the rooms so you definitely feel unplugged and can just relax. We didn't do the all-inclusive meal plan because we thought it wouldn't be worth it since we planned to have some meals off-site, but we probably should have. Dinner there is very nice, but pretty expensive. We had dinner there our second night there and it came out to over $150 including 2 glasses of wine each. The 3rd night they had a beach bbq buffet, which was good and had a beautiful set-up and that came to about $250 including 1 glass of wine each. Overall I think it just depends on what kind of atmosphere you're looking for. After being at Iberostar Rose Hall, going to Jamaica Inn was a huge change because it is so quiet there, and they cater to an older crowd. But the grounds are very beautiful and will make for gorgeous background for your pictures. If you have any questions on the place let me know.

Quote: Originally Posted by jonesr1979 Thank you sooo much Lisa for all your help! i know this means alot to all the upcoming brides for calming nerves since Nicole is so busy with events to get back quickly. BTW your dress was beautiful! I was showing my mom some of your pics for flowers and location and she kept saying " what a beautiful dress she is wearing" I agree Thanks! I looked at just about every store in my city and couldn't find the right dress, so I finally went to Miracle Mile in Miami and fell in love with this one

Quote: Originally Posted by Jules23 Hey Lisa, Just wondering how many months in advance did you get your guests to book their stay? I already have our wedding date reserved but do they set aside a number of rooms for your guests or still first come first serve? I didnt think about this when reserving my wedding date! Also, does your florist have a website? Im highly considering him as well because Flower Studio is going to be expensive for centrepieces! The hotel doesn't set aside any rooms for your guests after you have a wedding date reserved, so it is first come first served. Getting guests to book early wasn't easy... we sent a save-the-date e-mail in September (6 and a half mo. before) and I don't think anyone other than our parents and bridal party booked soon after that. I sent an e-mail to everyone in mid-October recommending that they book ASAP and letting them know that the rates were not locked in until they made a deposit, and that got some people to book. Then about a week later our travel agent told us the rates were going up the next day, so we sent another e-mail letting people know, and that got a lot of people to book. We still had a lot of people who didn't book until the last few weeks or even days before the wedding. The resort has a lot of rooms, but still when we got there we heard that they were over-booked during our time there, so some guests who were not with our wedding group were up-graded to the Grand. I don't think the Grand property is usually full, so they can use it for over-flow guests a lot of the time. Unfortunately Godfrey doesn't have a website...he can barely handle e-mail, lol. Like I said he is very old-school but he is very attentive. He sent me a few pictures from weddings he's done before, and also my friend whose family worked with him was able to vouch for his work. He did an excellent job for us and his prices were about 1/3 of what we were quoted with the other florists. The prices at Flower Studio, Tai Flora, and Grand Garden were just way too high to me, especially since we had a lot of tables that would need centerpieces.

We had Irie Connection play at our cocktail hour at Iberostar Rose Hall Suites and our guests loved them! We missed the whole cocktail hour because we were taking pictures, but our guests raved about them and the dancefloor was full. Most of our guests were Jamaican or are at least familiar with reggae, so we requested songs by reggae artists (Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Beres, etc.), but they are a really good band so I wouldn't be surprised if they can also reggae versions of other songs. They were $460 for the hour and so well worth it. This site has a samples of a few of there songs and contact info: SoundClick artist: Irie Connection Band - page with MP3 music downloads Their manager is Courtney Green and can be reached by this e-mail address: [email protected]

Quote: Originally Posted by jonesr1979 WOW Lisa soooo beautiful. Would i be able to get the contact info for the florist? Many thanks! Godfrey's e-mail address is: [email protected] His phone # is: 876-341-0706 or 876-356-8130

Quote: Originally Posted by lmuze Lisa, Thank you so much for your prompt replies and you explain everything so well. Thank you. No prob, glad to help other IRH brides

Quote: Originally Posted by NikkiT. Lisa, Congrats and you wedding was beautiful!!!! I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. 1. I was told that the music room was kinda open and I just wanted to know how Nicole enclosed it to make it private for you guys during the cocktail hour. 2. Did you guys have to pay for the reggae band beforehand, or at the time that you paid the invoice? 3. How did the cake taste that the hotel baked for you guys? Thanks 1. The music room is totaly enclosed and only open to guests at night when they have musical performers in there. I don't remember what time it opens (but it is definitely after 8pm) so if you have a cocktail hour or other event before it opens then it will be private. 2. We paid the reggae band directly in cash when they came for the wedding. That's how the hotel does it for the violinist and any other band also. Actually we forgot to pay the violinist when he was there since he left after the ceremony, so we just gave an evelope with the cash to Nicole when we met for invoicing the next day. 3. It tasted pretty good! We got the Jamaican rum cake, and I've seen other brides on this board mention that they got the cheese cake and they thought it was really good too.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jules23 Thanx Lisa for the quick replies! Hope your not feelin too over welmed, lol. By the way, from the pictures your dress looking very pretty! Do you plan on posting more pics? Or perhaps a link to where you have posted some? Would love to see more! Esp more of the reception set up and the dancing outside. Thanx! Thanks Unfortunately I hardly have any pictures of the reception set-up so far. I posted the best ones I could find, but I will look thru them again and see if there are any more that might be helpful. Most of the pics I have now are close-up pics of family and friends, which doesn't help anyone much.

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 Lisa you are soo good to answer all our questions!! Thank you so much! Got another one for you... How much was it for the bigger cake? Was the cost of having a bigger cake included in the $18US per extra person at the dinner reception, or did you have to pay more by slice or something? Yes, the cost of the bigger cake was included in the $18 per person. So the bigger your group is, the bigger they will make your cake.

Quote: Originally Posted by lmuze Congratulations Lisa, you looked beautiful and I am so glad everything went well for your wedding. Well, except the cake! I laughed so hard. I am glad i thought of this and ordered a fake cake from Fake Wedding Cakes for show/pictures and we'll use the hotel cake to serve the guests. Question: Did you get your bouquet from Flower Studio (since they are included in the wedding package) and the rest from Godrey Guy? Do you mind passing along his contact? I just got a quote from Tai Flora yesterday and almost fainted. Thanks! Wow, I never heard of fake cakes - That's a cool idea. I thought about getting my bouquet from Flower Studio, but I wanted pink roses and they charged $120 to get that. Which I didn't understand because supposedly you can choose from tropical flowers or roses for free, but the roses were either white or red only. Godfrey's rose bouquets were only about $58 US so I just got mine from him, and they were exactly what I wanted. Godfrey's e-mail address is: [email protected] His phone # is: 876-341-0706 or 876-356-8130 (he called me from both numbers so either should work) I should warn you that he's kinda old-school and isn't great communicating by e-mail. He's very responsive, but my friend told me that since he's not very e-mail savy, he has his daughter do his e-mails for him... I think that's why a lot of times his e-mails were hard to follow. He is very attentive though, and gave me quotes by e-mail right away, which never happened with any of the other florists. Since he prefers talking on the phone, he'll most likely follow up the e-mail with a phone call. Seriously, I felt like I was his only client because there were days he called me like 5 times, lol, but I think he had several other events the week before my wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jules23 Congrats Lisa on your wedding! Everything sounds like overall it turned out perfectly. Thanks for the very detailed review, I was looking forward to it for awhile now! haha. I just have a few quick questions for you: 1. In terms of choosing your locations for your welcoming party, rehearsal dinner and cocktail hour; did you choose these prior to your arrival? Im just concerned about choosing prior to arrival that I may change my mind once I see the different locations in person. 2. You mentioned you used your own DJ for the welcome party, how about for your wedding reception on the beach? Or did you use the resort DJ (any feedback about the resort DJ as we know theres mixed reviews about him). 3. Since it rained during the day - how was the sand at night for the beach party - wet or dry? And was the extra cost for the beach party the same pricing structure as it is to have for the cocktail hour or welcome party? Thanx! and Congrats again! Thanks! 1 - We visited Iberostar twice in the last year because we were in JA for 2 other weddings at ROR, so we were able to choose our locations in advance. Also, about 2 weeks before the wedding date Nicole sends a "Final Details" worksheet that asks about where/when you want your welcome party, cocktail party, etc. They are pretty flexible there though, so if you choose a place but then decide on somewhere else once you get there, they could probably work it out as long as no one else has that area reserved. Only thing is that you'll have to notify your guests of the changes after you get there. Let me know if you have any questions about the different locations and I might be able to help (and might have a picture). The main ones are the lobby staircase, lobby terrace, Mango Walk club, and Blue Moon music room. 2 - We used our own dj for the reception also. He's a friend that was there for the wedding, so he was there the whole weekend. If you use your own dj, you still have to pay to use their equipment, and their dj will be there also. I think it's to kind of supervise the equipment and make sure it's not playing too loud. He wasn't in the way or anything though. 3 - I was worried about the sand being wet for the reception also, but by then it was dry enough and totally comfortable to dance on. I think it stopped raining around 3:30 and we were on the sand around 9. There wasn't any extra charge for having the dancing on the beach during the reception. We just had a bar set up out there instead of using only the one that's inside (that one was open also) for the regular $8 per person per hour, and the dinner was still included at no cost.

Quote: Originally Posted by magz88 Lisa, Thanks so much for answering my questions. Did you have to bring your own string to hang the lanterns with or does Nicole have that? Also, did you have to bring your own votive candles and holders or does Nicole have them there for an option? No prob - glad I can help! I just realized, your date is coming up soon! I didn't have to bring string, I just gave them a box with the lanterns and the LED light terminals and they took care of the rest. We did bring our own votive candles since they were only $40 for a box of 72 (including both the candle and the holder). I'm not sure if Nicole has any there for people to use. For the welcome party they put those battery powered simulated candles on the tables, which was nice because we didn't even ask for it, but I don't know if they have any regular ones.

Quote: Originally Posted by TanyonL Hi Negril LB. Your review: A++++. I am so happy for you. Your wedding was so beautiful, your hair looked amazing. That cake...well ummm uh...your centerpieces looked spectacular :-) Quick Question: Can you rank the ceremony sites (including the rain location) in order of beauty? Best first. Thanks and congrats! Great question - I love ranking things! This is a tough one though because it totally depends on what you're looking for. I think that the beach, lazy river island, and lobby are the prettiest locations they have. The beach and lazy river are beautiful when the weather is nice, but if it's rainy or really cloudy then the lobby would be prettier. 2nd tier in my ranking would be the lobby balcony. It's nice up there because of the view of the pool, but the balcony itself doesn't have much to it. If it's raining and you still want to do it outdoors though, that would be a good option because I think it's covered (not totally sure though). The other 2 locations I know of are the gazebo in the pool and the "rain location". The pool gazebo looks plain to me, and you would have to worry about people swimming by, lol. The "rain location" is an area between the Suites and the Grand. It has natural light because of the dome overhead, but to me it feels a little claustrophobic, and there's not much to it, so I would rank that location last. Hope that helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by magz88 Lisa!!!! Many congratulations to you! It was beautiful. I'm sorry to hear you didn't have your beach wedding...its actually something i think about alot since we are in may which is start of rainy season. It's good to hear that your alternative worked out and you were very happy with it. It looked beautiful. It seems like the lobby balcony would be a nice option too in case it rains?? Couple questions: are we allowed to have the cocktail hour w/ hor d'eourves right on the beach after the ceremony? that was my hope. In the steakhouse, is there room to set up 8 tables of 8 and have room to dance? I am hoping to keep everything on one side. how did it feel to have the party kinda separated? thanks so much for your help. can't wait to see more pics. congrats again!! you were a beautiful bride. Thanks Magz! I haven't heard of anyone using the beach for their cocktail hour, but since they let us use the beach for dancing and the bar, I don't see why not. We had 8 round tables on one side of the terrace (7 on the other), and there wasn't much room left for dancing, unless you use some of the area that's between the 2 terraces. We actually used that area for our first dances so that everyone could see. Here's a picture of the terrace with 8 round tables: If you used the rectangular tables for 10-12, that might leave enough room. Having people on 2 terraces for dinner wasn't bad at all. The wall doesn't go all the way thru the restaurant, so the people at the tables closest to the beach could still see the people on the other terrace, and just about everyone could see our table which was set up between the two terraces. Also, the way we set up the seating was so that people were sitting on the same terrace as all their friends and/or family, so they didn't miss the people on the other side For dancing after dinner, everyone on both terraces could see the beach, so it wasn't separated for that part.

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 YAY YAY YAY! finally a wonderful detailed review from IRH!! Thank you so much for posting! That Cake made me pee myself laughing!! OMG I would die! Thank goodness the resort was able to whip one up for you! I have a few questions for ya! 1. Your welcome party on the lobby terrace, did you have appetizers served at it? Do you know if they allow appetizers on that terrace? 2. How did your make-up hold up in the heat/over the night? The only reason I would consider using the resort make-up artist is because maybe they know what to use to make the make-up stay put while your sweating and stuff Thanks again Lisa! So happy your wedding went well, and that even though you weren't married on the beach, that staircase is GORGEOUS. It was meant to be!! Congratulations!!!!! Thanks Sabrina! We didn't have any appetizers for the welcome party, but I'm sure you are allowed to have them on the terrace if you want. They are extremely flexible with everything. I was surprised they let us have a dj playing out there until 10:30, but there was no issue at all. My make-up stayed on pretty much all night, but I don't know if it stayed on any better than if I did it myself. I just made sure not to rub my face at all, and only used blotting paper to soak up the sweat.

Quote: Originally Posted by wendyjd Lisa, THANK YOU for the thorough review. Its good to see a review from IRHS. Everything looked beautiful (well, except the cake, my FI thought it looked like an ice cream cake that was left outside for a couple of hours), but the resort cake looked good. I really like that you had the wedding on the great staircase. Did you have random people walking thru? I hear that onlookers are common at DW. Congrats on a wonderful wedding and for having a terrific outlook, not worrying about the weather and laughing at the cake, I envy you. Congrats and thanks for the thorough review!! Its so reassuring. Thanks! Actually due to the layout, we didn't have any on-lookers at all. You pretty much have an enclosed area to yourself. I was worried about people walking in the lobby hanging over the glass balcony at the top of the stairs, but they had signs set up saying it was a private event, so no one went in that area.

Hi everyone, I posted my review of our wedding weekend the Suites last night. I don't have any pro pics yet, so I used pictures we've gotten from friends. Here's the link: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-review-58425/

Outside Cake – F Oh boy, the cake. I was recommended to a local Montego Bay bakery called Heavenly Delicious Treats (Home ) by a friend of a friend. Her website is professional-looking and she was great to deal with over e-mail and the phone. I chose a cake very similar to one she already had a picture of on her website, figuring that would make it easy. So this is the cake that I asked her for, with some minimal changes (this is a picture from her website): And here is the cake that arrived: I think the pictures say it all, lol. Nicole saw it first, and came out to tell me she had some bad news about the cake. When I saw it, all I could do was laugh because it was so bad. Luckily the cake wasn’t all that important to us, and we still had the cake from the resort. Resort Cake – B- The resort’s standard cake isn’t the typical layered wedding cake, but after seeing the other cake we were glad to have it! It comes on a metal stand instead of being in layers. We got the Jamaican rum cake flavor and planned to serve it as the ‘groom’s cake’ along with the other cake. It tasted pretty decent, although I think most of our guests were either too full or too busy dancing to have any of it. Reception Dinner – B Normally with the group menu you get 2 entrée choices out of the 3 (Chicken, Steak, Salmon), but I requested 1 Jamaican dish of Escovitch Fish in addition to the Chicken and Steak, so we had 3. We just had to get everyone’s entrée choice ahead of time. She also replaced the side dish of baked potato with rice and peas, which was nice. The plates came with a silver charger, and they had a personalized menu card on it. That was a nice touch, and we didn't have to ask for it. The one issue we had with the reception was that the food took a really long time to be served to everyone. We were already done eating our desserts when some people still hadn’t gotten their entrees yet. Luckily this was mainly the case for our tables of friends only, who complain much less than our family would, and they at least had gotten to get food from the appetizer buffet. Reception Party – A Luckily the rain let up by the time of the reception, so we were still able to do our beach party! The dinner was still on the two terraces, but we wanted the dancing on the beach. They set up the dj and another bar out there, and it worked out great. Some of the older folks stayed on the terrace and talked, but our friends loved that the dancing was on the beach and they were all out there. They set up colored lights and it was the perfect amount of lighting. The reception is really supposed to end by 10:30, but Nicole said we could go until 11. People were still dancing at 11, so we talked to Nicole, and since the dinner went long she allowed us to go until 11:30. After Party – A Right after the reception, everyone went to the Mango Walk club on-site to party some more. I went in my full wedding dress because that would be my last chance to ever wear it, and I love it But once we got down there I realized that wasn’t a great idea because the place was super crowded and my dress was getting stepped on and dirty. Also I was exhausted…so my new husband and I went back to the room so I could change, but we never made it back down However from what I heard, the club was a great time and everyone stayed until it closed. So it was a great end to the weekend. Invoicing – A+ When I met with Nicole the next morning to go over the bill, I was nervous that there would be charges on there that I didn’t expect, or that I wouldn’t even understand what was on the bill. That was not the case at all. The bill was very clear, and she didn’t charge for anything that we didn’t specifically discuss the cost of. She didn’t even charge us for having the bar open an extra hour at the reception. We paid the bill when we checked out, along with our room charges. Overall, my new husband and I are thrilled at how everything turned out, and we still can’t stop talking about it

Reception Décor – A+ I was stunned at how beautiful the reception turned out to be. We had it at the steakhouse, and during the day it looks so regular. But for the reception it looked gorgeous. We had 24-inch lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and I think this made a big difference in how the place looked. We had 12 lanterns on each terrace, with just the 3 bulb LED terminal inside. This was enough to make the lantern glow, but not really light up the place. We had the fan lights turned off and the column lights turned on…this with 4 candles on each table and the lanterns was just the right amount of lighting. We had color lanterns in dark purple, aqua, and dark pink. On the beach we had square paper lanterns on the picnic tables. Because we used a lot of candle-light and lanterns, the pictures with the flash don’t capture how beautiful it really looked, but I loved it! I was also amazed at how beautiful the table arrangements turned out. I researched Tai Flora, Grande Garden, and Flower Studio (who the hotel works with), and none of them could quote me a floral arrangement for less than $60 (that one was from Tai Flora). It also took forever to get any quotes from any of them. A friend recommended a local flower vendor (Godfrey Guy) that has worked with her family before, and from the moment I contacted him he was calling me constantly. A little too much actually, lol, but better that than having to chase him down all the time. We got tropical flower centerpieces from him for $2,500JA each, which is about $28 US. The votive candles and holders were expensive for him to get in Jamaica, so we brought our own that I got on Amazon.com for $40 (set of 72), and he set them out and lit them at no charge. Amazon.com: Set of 72 White Unscented Votive Candles and 72 Holders: Home & Garden He also decorated 16 tables plus the cake table with flower petals for $40 total. Our table and my bouquet The downside to working with him was that he required us to send him the money by Western Union prior to the wedding, so he could use that money to purchase the flowers and vases he needed. That made me nervous, but since he’s doing my friend’s wedding in July and does business with her family all the time, I went ahead with it. It turned out there was nothing to worry about because he did a fantastic job, and it was even more beautiful than I expected. Nicole is well-acquainted with him now (I think he called her constantly too), so maybe something can be worked out with him through her. We brought down our own table runners, which I got for only $2.68 each: 13.5x108 satin table runner Eggplant53645 They hardly took up any space in my suitcase so they were well worth getting. We brought down table name holders, and we named all the tables with the names of Jamaican towns starting from St. Ann to Ocho Rios (A to O alphabetically). Several of the towns have significance in our families, such as where my dad’s family grew up, so that made it fun.

Cocktail Hour – A+ We had cocktail hour at the Blue Moon Music room following the ceremony. We were out taking pictures and missed the whole thing, but from what everyone told us, it was a blast. Several people told us it was the best cocktail hour they had ever been to. We had the reggae band Irie Connection playing, and I think they pretty much made the party. Everyone was out on the dance floor, and they were having so much fun it was hard for my parents to get everyone to leave and go to the reception. Some people thought that it WAS the reception, haha. We had appetizer menu B ($12 per person), and Nicole let us add mini Jamaican patties to the menu at no charge. With most of the guests being Jamaican, we had to have that  We also did open bar, which was $8 per person. Irie Connection was only $460 but they were worth so much more than that. I asked my dad to give them $60 to play a little longer than an hour, and they were more than willing to do so. If you want to get in touch with them directly, this website has their contact info and you can listen to some of their songs: SoundClick artist: Irie Connection Band - page with MP3 music downloads Nicole can book them, and I also talked to their manager Courtney Green directly to confirm, and also give them some guidance on the music we wanted. The artists we requested music from were Dennis Brown, Tarrus Riley, Freddie McGregor, Beres Hammond, Gregory Isaacs, Alton Ellis, Garnet Silk, Luciano, John Holt, Sanchez, Morgan Heritage, Buju Banton, and Jah Cure… for this band that was not a problem and from what I hear they really came though. I would highly recommend them if you’re looking for an authentic reggae band. Courtney Green’s e-mail address is: [email protected]

Ceremony – A As we were planning the wedding, the only thing I thought would throw everything off is if it rained. April is not one of the rainy months in Jamaica, and also they had been going through a severe drought for the past 3 months, so I pretty much decided I wasn’t going to stress myself out about it. I refused to even check the weather before we got there because the forecast always says afternoon thunderstorms every day, even though it is usually just a passing shower. Well… On the morning of the wedding, I woke up and saw storm clouds. I hoped that it was just a passing tropical rain shower, but I later found out that it was expected to storm all day. I was devastated because I had seen the area they use in case of rain and I hated it, but I never really thought of a good Plan B. I asked Nicole if we could use the lobby staircase area, but she said they had never used it for a group larger than 20, and we wouldn’t all fit. After I suggested putting the altar on the landing, she said she would see what she could do, and later came back and said yes  This was a life-saver, because even though I had imagined a beach wedding, the new location turned out to be absolutely gorgeous! Walking down the stairs and seeing my fiancé on the landing, with all the guests sitting below was just beautiful. Because we were on a raised platform, it felt like it was just the 2 of us there, which made us less nervous even though everyone could still see us. A lot of our guests came up to us after and said they actually thought it was nicer than having it on the beach. I don’t even think the pictures do it justice, but here are a few… We had the violinist playing before and during the ceremony, and he was great. I was worried about the sound not being full enough since it’s just one violinist, but he had musical accompaniment and good speakers, so it sounded beautiful. It was well-worth the $300. The minister who did the ceremony was really nice and did a great job. Nicole sent us the vows ahead of time and we thought they were perfect, so we didn’t change a thing.

Rehearsal Dinner – B We had our rehearsal dinner at the Gourmet restaurant (Calabash). The décor in the restaurant is beautiful and they have a nice bar area. They told us the most they could reserve the area for was 50 people, so we reserved for the wedding party, their dates, and our parents (15 people), and in the Welcome letter we told everyone else to sign up with the concierge if they wanted to come. There were a few people who didn’t put their name on the list but came anyway, which caused a little confusion at the door, but they ended up just adding a few more seats to accommodate everyone. The only reason I gave it a B instead of an A is that the service was somewhat slow, and it was 2.5 hours from the start until we got dessert. We really liked the food and atmosphere though, and we think that was the best place for us to have it. Salon – B I did my hair trial on the day that we arrived. I didn’t have a picture so I was only able to give a description, and she did exactly what I wanted. She did a great job on the wedding day also. Hair Trial I got a French manicure on the day of the wedding. If you’re planning to go for a French, I would recommend getting it done before you get there if at all possible. The white part looked really shaky. She was nice about re-doing the ones that looked really bad, but I eventually realized that was as good as it was going to get and gave up, lol. If you are getting a solid color though, you should have no problems. I asked for natural-looking make-up and she did a good job. I’m not big on make-up and I don’t think she did anything one of my friends couldn’t have done, so I probably could have saved myself the $70. But if you want to have a professional do it, they do a good job.

Room – A+ Because we had so many people staying at the resort (about 100), we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite. It is absolutely gorgeous with a beautiful view. The word had spread about how nice it was, and several of our guests came over just to check it out. The terrace is huge, and it has a jetted tub on it  Even if you don’t get the Presidential Suite, all of the rooms there are really beautiful. View from the terrace Guest Check-In & Welcome – B We had too many guests to do an all-out OOT bag for everyone, so we just got monogrammed travel mugs and printed welcome letters for everyone. We really wanted them to be handed out when they checked in, but Nicole (the WC) didn’t trust the front desk to do it right (maybe from bad prior experiences), so they were delivered to their rooms after check-in instead. Most people got theirs, but there were a few who didn’t. The welcome letter had been tucked inside the packet with the info from the hotel, so some people didn’t see it. The mugs seem to have been popular though, so we’re glad we did it. We requested that everyone be put into wing 3, which is closest to the wedding site, and they did a great job of doing that. One thing you should let your guests know though is that if they arrive prior to 3pm, their room probably won’t be ready, even if your travel agent notifies the hotel of their arrival time. This was the case with most of our guests, but since we warned them ahead of time it didn’t seem to be a big deal. Welcome Cocktail Party – A We had our welcome cocktail party on the night that most people arrived (Thursday) on the lobby balcony from 8:30 to 10:30. We loved this location because it overlooks the pool, which is gorgeous at night. We brought our own DJ, and Nicole let us use the DJ equipment at no charge, which was really nice. The lobby bar is just inside from the balcony, so our guests were able to go inside for their drinks. They also had a bartender that came over and was taking our guests drink orders and bringing them their drinks, which we didn’t expect at all. So we were able to have a fabulous get-together with drinks and music for no charge. Can’t beat that Everyone seemed to have a great time and it gave people a chance to meet each other. View from lobby balcony at night

I know everyone says this, but I can’t believe it’s my turn to do a review. I really have to thank the other brides on this site for helping me get ideas and plan this wedding. We had an incredibly wonderful and fun wedding weekend, and our guests have been raving about it since we got back. It was really important to us that our guests have a good time, and I think both their expectations and ours were exceeded. Our wedding was somewhat unusual in that we had a pretty large group of 120, and also the majority of our guests are Jamaicans living in the US and Canada (and a few still living in JA). It was really amazing being in Jamaica with all of our family and friends. With such a large group and all that we had planned, there were bound to be a few glitches. I only mention them so that you can watch out for them, because really they were minor compared to the great time that we had. If you’ve chosen Iberostar Rose Hall as your wedding resort, you’ve made a great choice. Airline – A We had a direct flight from Atlanta to Montego Bay on Delta. The flight actually got in early, and when we were checking in and the baggage handler found out we were getting married he gave us free drink tickets. That was nice  Travel Agent – A We travel a lot and always just book everything on our own, so I wasn’t sure if we needed to use a travel agent. I got in contact with a few early on, but none of them were offering particularly good deals. Then one of the brides on this site mentioned Amy Pearson of Liberty Travel, and using her was one of the best decisions we made. First of all, her prices were excellent at $150 per person per night (double-occ), and she required only a $50 deposit. At the time, the hotel website was showing $207 per person per night. Also, when the prices dropped closer to the departure date, she automatically gave everyone the lower rate without us having to ask. She was also really easy to work with, and we were able to direct our guests to her when they had any travel questions. I would highly recommend using an agent if you have a group of more than 30. She was able to keep us up to date on who was booking, and I think it made it easier for the hotel to place people in rooms in the same wing. Resort – A+++ We truly feel we could not have chosen a better resort for our wedding. All of our guests kept gushing about how much they loved it, and actually thanking us for having it there. The food, drinks, service, rooms, pool, beach…all are fantastic.

Quote: Originally Posted by daifje CONGRATS!!!! I am so happy that it went well. Makes me feel better. My wedding is one week away and I can't reach Nicole at all!!!! I just want to seal some last minute details but I am realizing htat I may just have to wait until I get there. We have 85 people confirmed. Did you guys get married on the lazy river or the beach? Can't wait to see your pics!!!! Don't worry, we still had a bunch of questions before we got there, but after we met with Nicole we had everything figured out. 85 people is a great number - you guys will have fun! We had planned to have the ceremony on the beach, but it totally rained that day!! I was so disappointed at first, but we were able to talk Nicole into letting us have it at the staircase behind the lobby (which they've never done with more than 20 people), and it turned out to be gorgeous! My hair is very frizz-prone, so having it in an air-conditioned area may have been for the best anyway, LOL. I am working on the pics and review and I promise I'll have it posted early this week