NegrilLB

Hi everyone! I'm back from our wedding and honeymoon and in the process of writing a detailed review. It may take me a little while because it's going to be long and I need to upload the pictures, but I'll try and have it within the week. In a nutshell, we had an absolutely fabulous time and so did our guests. The things that were most important to us actually exceeded our expectations (and they were pretty high to begin with). We truly feel that we could not have chosen a better place to have our wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by magz88 Best of luck to you!!! i know your wedding will be wonderful...can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it!! Thanks magz! I will be sure to post pictures when I get back. Speaking of pictures, I think some people on this thread were looking for more info on the photographer...Nicole sent me a link to their website, so here it is: DIGIPIX LTD The pictures in their portfolio actually look really good, but I don't know if we get the specific photographer that took those pics. We're bringing down our own photographer...he's a friend of ours who did the pics for another friend's wedding in Jamaica and did a good job. He does photography as a hobby/side job and we just had to pay for his air fare and hotel. He's still working on his style, but I like the fact that we already know him and so do most of our friends, so everyone will feel comfortable with him around. We're thinking we'll use the resort photographer to take the pics during cocktail hour while we're doing the after-ceremony pics, since we still get 12 pics free from them.

Don't worry ladies, I won't abandon the board after the wedding!

I'm so glad to hear that about Go Smile, thanks!

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to post my experience with BriteSmile Spa so that it doesn't happen to any other brides planning to whiten their teeth before the wedding. Back in January I made a teeth-whitening appointment with Brite Smile spa in Atlanta. They were running a special at the time for $299, and when I called them and told them I was getting it done for my wedding, they said I could get it done for both me and my FI for $399 total. The only catch was I had to pay in advance to get this deal. This made me a little uncomfortable, but the spa was located in a mall just 5 minutes from my house and had been there as long as I've lived in Atlanta. Also this was a very well-known chain, so I went ahead with the pre-payment. Our appointment was last Saturday, and that morning I got a phone call from a Private number. The person said our appt. was cancelled and that someone would call us back to reschedule. She was pretty abrupt and rude about it, and didn't offer any further explanation. When I didn't hear from anyone after a while, I called the location directly, and got a busy tone. That went on for a couple hours so I decided to just go in person. When I got there I found that the place was completely closed down! I was furious and tried calling the other location...same busy tone, and when I called that mall they told me it had been closed for the last few months. Luckily when I called my credit card company they were very helpful and credited my account for the full amount while they do an investigation. But since I'm so close to my wedding (in a week and a half), I don't have enough time to research other professional whitening options and get an appointment. I ended up getting "Go Smile" from Sephora to do at home, so hopefully I will get some decent results from that. After some research I found out that the BriteSmile spas are actually not affiliated at all with BriteSmile whitening, even though their logos are exactly the same. With BriteSmile whitening, you go to a professional dentist for them to do the procedure. When I called them they didn't mention anything about pre-paying for services, but they did say that they were involved in a law suit with BriteSmile spas so that they can't use that name or logo anymore. They also said they've been receiving a lot of calls in the last few weeks from people in my similar situation, who thought they were the same company. I hope this helps someone looking for teeth whitening for their wedding!

Hi, the rooms themselves look the same as the Ocean view and Ocean Front rooms... the only difference is in the view. I still am not completely sure about the difference between the views in the standard (garden view) rooms and the ocean view suites. I know that the ocean view rooms have a view of the pool and the ocean looking straight ahead. I believe that the garden view rooms can either be facing the pool or the garden, and you have to look to the side to see the ocean. Hope this helps...

Hi Taylorbride, your date is coming up soon! I will be leaving for Jamaica on your wedding date and I can't wait The only dress code requirement for the a la carte restaurants I have seen is that men must wear long pants. I just checked something I got from Nicole and it says "Please be reminder that long pants are mandatory in all the specialty restaurants for gentlemen and children over 12 years old as well as appropriate footwear 9sandals are allowed"...so I am taking that to mean you can't wear the type of flip flops you would wear by the pool, but you can wear sandals. Hope that helps... I wouldn't be able to help you on the other questions but hopefully one of the previous brides will visit the board soon. I hope everything goes well for you next week!

I don't think they've ever done a dinner reception at the poolside, but as breeze said, you could have a cocktail reception there. Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 Terutor - They do section off the area of the beach where the ceremony will be held, but its definetly not private and you will have sunbathers nearby. I've also heard that you have to 'recruit' someone to ask people to not walk along the water's edge, between the alter and the water, possibly causing strangers to be in your photos. I am either going to tip the staff to do this (if possible) or recruit a few of my big cousins to play bodyguard Great idea to get someone else to do this! I've seen beach weddings where people actually stop and gawk at what's going on, and they don't seem to realize they're ruining all your pictures. But as the bride I wouldn't want to be the one yelling at people to get out the way...

Quote: Originally Posted by vjenesis Hello Ladies, I am still a newbie to this site but have read through most of the old posts and I love this forum! All the information is so helpful and it helped me to decide on IRHS for my wedding. Although I have decided that I am most likely going to have my wedding at IRHS, it won't be until the beginning of July 2011. I just wanted to know because I am having a July wedding and want the ceremony and cocktail outside, is there an indoors for the reception that is air conditioned because I don't want my guest to suffer all day and night in the heat. Also how long does the cocktail and reception last for (timing wise)? Thanks :-) !! Congrats on choosing a resort! If your group is under 50 people, you can use one of the indoor restaurants for the reception. The time frame for the reception is 7-10:30 PM, and cocktail is usually before the reception for an hour.

Quote: Originally Posted by mekanabr --Which resort is best for weddings (Suites or Beach), in everyones opinion? I really really wanted a reception or cocktail hour on the beach so I"m kinda bummed that I don't think they offer it Thanks so much!!!!!! In the latest package of Extra Services that I got from the Suites, it says that the 'Sunset Bay' pool and beach bar is a location option for a cocktail hour, available after 6:30 pm. I'm not sure if that would mean the group would be on the beach itself or on the pool side. As for the reception, we're having it at the steakhouse, which is a terrace with the beach in front of it. So we're having the meal on the terrace and the dancing on the beach. I know that the Grand property offers beach parties, so you could probably get one at the Beach or Suites also. Here's the link to a review from someone who did a beach party: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...c-heavy-53105/

Quote: Originally Posted by BostonBride2010 Hi Jules- we are having a movie/slideshow at our rehearsal dinner. It's $300 which includes a projector, 10/8 ft screen, DVD or laptop and 1 tech Cool, didn't know that was possible! Is your rehearsal dinner private, or is your group going to be put together in one section of the restaurant? What restaurant are you doing it at?

We're doing a cocktail hour in the jazz room between the ceremony and reception. We wanted to give our guests something to do while we're taking pictures. We also wanted to make sure they get something to eat before the reception, so we're probably going to go with Menu B of the appetizer choices. I know some people are having everyone meet at one of the bars, which can work out great if you're group isn't too large, especially because it's free.

We're most likely doing an informal rehearsal dinner at one of the restaurants. We'll just make a reservation for the wedding party and their dates, and tell everyone else that if they want to join us they can make a reservation for the same time. Since they are alll staying at the resort, it won't cost anything. I'm not sure if we'll be able to have a designated area for us, but I'm planning to ask Nicole about that. We're doing dinner and dancing at Aunt Ruby's. You can be there until 10:30, so if you'd rather have dancing for longer then you can always go to the club afterward. Or, you can also rent the disco from 8:30 to 10:30 and go right after dinner. After 10:30 it won't be private anymore. The least expensive JA photographer I've found is Diana Campbell. She quoted us $850 but we decided to use a friend instead. I have a friend that used her for their wedding and they were very happy with the results. If you are willing to pay $1500 to $2500, there are lots of options that you can find mentioned on this board.

I've had the same dilemma. Since the wedding is pretty soon, I don't think it would be too long to wait. You can just make sure you send theirs out first. I like the idea of using postcards with a picture instead of a regualar card! No envelopes to stuff and seal, no stamps to get. And I could maybe even run it through a printer so I could print the notes instead of writing them by hand (still personalized though). hmmmm...

Thanks for the Thank You note tips! I definitely don't want it to sound generic or impersonal, so that format is great My FI's hand-writing is even worse than mine, and he seems to think this exempts him from having to write any of notes...I wanted to argue with him on this, but really his hand-writing is pretty bad, so he will probably win that battle, lol.

Just as a comfort to all who are having trouble getting answers from the WC, as my date has gotten closer Nicole has been very responsive...several times getting back to me within the hour. So I guess she has to prioritize based on how close the wedding is since she probably gets a lot of questions.

wow April 3 is just around the corner! I can't believe the roof collapsed on your AHR site...hopefully you can find somewhere else just as good. I am truely dreading writing all the thank you notes...I have terrible handwriting and I never know what to say other than "thank you" lol. I'll have to look online for some tips. After getting our cups and 24 huge 24" lanterns delivered, we're seeing that packing is going to be an issue. Luckily my parents are bringing down my dress and the reception favors, but still, I completely filled the biggest duffle bag I could find with the cups, and still couldn't fit about 25 of them...we were able to stuff 90 in the bag. If anyone is looking for large luggage that's cheap, Walmart has a 32" long duffle bag for $14, and it even has wheels on one end so you can drag it. The nice thing is that it's collapse-able, so on the trip back you can just stuff it into another piece of luggage.

Hi, the information I have from them says to e-mail or fax a copy of both sides of your credit card along with a copy of your ID, so that's what we did.

Thanks for sharing the review! I didn't know that they had a free shuttle to Margaritaville, so that's good to know. I didn't even think about the wristband on the wedding day...will definitely not want to be wearing it in all the pictures.

Hi Brenna, I was looking at some necklaces that I liked on their website, but I was also a little wary of purchasing online from a place I'd never heard of...especially because the reviews I saw on them were mixed. But then I realized that the Anna Bellagio store is actually only 20 minutes from where I live (Atlanta). A few weeks ago I went there and the customer service was really good, and the store was very well put together and in a nice part of town. The owner dropped in when I was there and seemed nice. I didn't end up buying anything from there so I can't help as far as issues after purchase, but I can say that the jewelry looked as nice in person as it did online in my opinion. Hope that helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 The girls were all keeping it a surprise but yesterday my sister told me because she was just too excited! Haha! We're going to play PAINT BALL and then go to her house and get cleaned up, hot tub, get ready for dinner and then go ROLLER SKATING!!!!! Both of those were my suggestions/requests for events to do and I get them BOTH so I'm really pumped. We're all dressing up in 70's costumes for roller skating too so it should be pretty funny to see everyone. Paint Ball and Roller skating for your bachelorette party sounds like sooo much fun! That was very cool of your friends to plan that (even if it was your idea

hoyt75, brilliant idea to use a vacuum seal bag for the towels! I so wish that I could do OOT bags for everyone - they look like a lot of fun to put together. But yeah, it would be really expensive and hard to bring all that stuff too. So I decided to just do the travel mugs, and have them handed out when they check in along with a welcome letter. Hahaha I know what you mean about the 'free' wedding packages. It was so frustrating when I first started researching resorts because they tell you it's free but that's only if you get no frills at all and only have a few people attending. I like the resort we chose because they are pretty straight-forward with their pricing, but it's definitely not free. It's $18 pp for the wedding set-up and dinner, and $8 pp/hr for open bar. It adds up, but it's still going to be less than half what it would cost to have it at home, and that wouldn't even be on the beach or somewhere that nice. So that makes me feel better Yup, we're doing a private reception, and we're bringing a friend down to be the dj. Looks like your bachelorette party was fun!

If I ordered the cake from the resort then I would have to wait until I got there to choose it, but we're most likely going to get it from an off-site bakery, if I get around to ordering it in time! Yeah we definitely have a lot of guests for a DW, lol. I knew before we even started planning that between my dad and FI, neither of them like to leave out anyone, and just as I predicted the invitation list just kept growing daily, until it reached 280! That's one of the reasons I knew we had to have a DW, otherwise we would go totally broke trying to host all those people. Both of our families are from Jamaica so we still have a lot of people who want to go, since a lot of them haven't been back in a while or want to visit people while they're there. But still the numbers and cost are soooo much better than if we tried to do it at home.

Your To Do list looks very manageable! I still have quite a few things left to do, but I think I will be able to get it all done. I did manage to get a few small random things checked off the list in the last few days such as: - Order paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling of the reception restaurant (Paper Lanterns, Party Supplies and Chinese Paper Lanterns - PaperLanternStore.com) - Order cups with logo on it (4imprint Promotional Products, Promotional Items, Advertising Specialties and Imprinted Promotional Products) - Get earrings...but I might return them because they seemed like a bit too much when I tried them on at home with the necklace - Get cheap waterproof watch from Target. Is anyone else getting this? I just remember never knowing what time it was when I was at 2 other weddings in JA, and just as a guest that drove me nuts. The one I got was $15, and actually kinda cute with light pink straps. My full to-do list is just too long, but the major things are: - Get escort cards (and matching table name cards and menu cards if I can find them) - Decide on centerpieces...I can't get any cost info from the florist, very frustrating - Pick out and order a cake - Send the marriage application documents to the WC (will do that this week for sure) - Order favors - Seating chart (by table only, not by seat)

Hi Bren, I'll be there next month too and that menu looks the same as for the Suites, except they didn't say there was a hot buffet...hmmm I'll have to ask about that! That's true about them just needing a count...we didn't want the same entree for everyone so they said to get them a good estimate 2 months before with a final count by 2 weeks before the date.