Marne

We used Michael and Olive for our wedding - and their pictures are amazing. They captured moments that we didn't even know existed! I cried when I saw my wedding pictures - they are truly spectacular.

We chose the Ritz Carlton because it seemed to be the easiest place to plan our destination wedding. We did encounter some snags - as all destination brides do - and were able to made a few well placed phone calls up the chain of command w/in Ritz Carlton to have everything ironed out. It was definitely the right decision for me. I am a New Yorker and needed to deal with a wedding coordinator who was responsive. I went into the planning process knowing that I don't have a Carribbean attitude - and therefore a chain hotel was necessary for my sanity. PLUS, I loved the fact that strangers were able watch our wedding from their balconies and were so happy for my husband and I. It was like we were celebrities for the week!

Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs.B Congratulations! Everything looks great. Your colors are the same as mine. The orange ties are amazing. May I ask where you got them from? Hope it's not too late - the orange ties are from Andrew's Ties in New York. They were not expensive at all! I think I paid $49 each or something like that - and they seem very high quality.

Your wedding coordinator might be able to suggest classical musicians. Our coordinator in Montego Bay had a whole list of different instruments. We had 2 at our ceremony and it was gorgeous. I can't however remember what instruments we had.

New York Magazine always puts out a Best of New York issue - I would suggest looking in there.

I carried my dress on the plane. I brought two boxes of delicious cookies from the bakery - one for the gate staff and one for the flight attendants and got super service. I was allowed to be the first on the plane and my dress took up an entire overhead bin.

I did a hair and makeup trial when I went down to Jamaica for my planning visit - and the makeup artist at my resort was awful. I knew I couldn't use her - so I hired a makeup artist in New York to teach my best friend how to do my makeup. We did a few trials before we left so she knew what she was doing - and it was so much better than the hotel could have done. My sister in law and mother in law both had their makeup done by the hotel - and both had to wash their faces and do it themselves. If anyone is thinking of doing the same, the makeup artist I used in New York is Raychel Wade - Cheek to Chic: Personal Makeup Consulting. She is great.

Pace was $4000 - I didn't have to pay anything else to bring them on the property because they are a preferred vendor of the hotel. They were spectacular and worth every penny. Here is a link to some of the wedding pictures taken by our friends: Marne Loveman Friedman's Photos - Some wedding pics from Dasi & Devra | Facebook If anyone wants to see the pictures from Michael Saab, PM me. They are unbelievable. He did an amazing job.

After MONTHS of planning and some headaches, my wedding at the Ritz Carlton turned out better than I could have ever imagined! Tai Flora created exactly what I wanted - when I saw my bouquet and then saw the reception setup, I almost cried. Michael and Olive Saab were amazing photographers - they were everywhere and I can't wait to see the pictures. The Pace Band was spectacular - every single one of our 80 guests was on the dance floor! The food was out of this world and the hotel staff could not have been nicer. If anyone is considering the hotel or any of my vendors, I'm happy to answer any questions or give more informaiton. If I get around to it, I'll post a planning thread - but I can't rave enough about everything!

My wedding is scheduled for the Ritz Carlton in March - and I'm having a horrible time planning. My coordinator has really dropped the ball. She has not focused on my wedding at all and does not follow through. She says she will send me things by the end of the week doesn't send them. She doesn't call me when she says she will. She doesn't remember things we discussed. This has been since I signed my contract - and I've complained multiple times. To make matters worse, she has recently been promoted and is no longer a wedding coordinator - she's still working on my wedding but it is clear that she is focused on other things. She didn't send me regular updates on my room block - and as a result, many of my guests were told that there were no rooms left in the block. And then to make matters EVEN worse, If you google the hotel and look at news articles, you'll see that about 1/4th of their staff was recently laid off. And, Ritz Carlton does not own the hotel - they just manage the hotel. The owners feel that the property is being mismanaged and are trying to get the Ritz out. It's a mess. I'm pretty laid back - but we're paying a lot of money for this wedding and have over 75 guests coming so the hotel is making even more money on my wedding - and I want to feel like I'm being taken care of. I'm sure everything will be perfect on my wedding day - but it's quite annoying to deal with this. I wouldn't recommend the hotel at this time. They have too many internal things going on.

Does anyone have a source for discount jerk seasoning in bulk?

I met with Tai when I was down in Jamaica last month - and we have already explained exactly what we want. They DO have a great selection - but I was much more confident about them before I went down. The woman we met with wasn't very helpful and didn't offer many suggestions - even when my mom and I were stuck trying to figure out what we wanted. I have since had a conference call with the owner and am waiting for more pictures from her because we need the reassurance. I would definitely press your WC to place the order now. There's no reason not to.

We chose our resort because of the ease of planning and the location. My fiance and I LOVE Negril and would have loved to have gotten married there - but we chose Montego Bay because it's so close to the airport and will be easier for our guests. When they arrive, they can go to the hotel lounge in the airport, check in and go straight to the hotel. Our hotel is also smaller than some of the others that we considered - so we'll be able to hang out with everyone at the pool during the day. The rooms are also a bit cheaper than some others we considered and more reasonable for our guests. After the wedding, the two of us will head down to Negril for a mini-moon for a few days.

The grounds of the Ritz Carlton are gorgeous. We took one look at the ballroom and turned around. We're doing everything outside. The only hitch with the grounds is that they just built the Palmyra RIGHT next door. It's really close - but doesn't bother me. The hotel perfect for my wedding because of the ease of everything - that being said, it's a second tier Ritz. It's much better than the Ritz Carlton in San Juan but the food is not great and my mom used the word tired to describe the hotel. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a dump - it's just not perfect. I fell in love with my coordinator - and have full faith that my wedding will be perfect. If you can wait until March, I can give you a better idea - or if you PM me with your email address, I'll send you my album with pictures. Regarding the shopping, I'm only comparing the airport to the shopping plaza at Rose Hall. We didn't go anywhere else.

Hi Ladies, I just returned from my planning visit with TONS of information! My wedding is in MoBay so we didn't really venture anywhere else. Per the suggestion of other forum brides, I went to Blue Diamond shopping plaza near the airport. The grocery store was great for OOT bag treats. Crackers, cookies etc. The liquor store next door to the grocery store had the little bottles of Appleton rum but they were pretty expensive. I found cheaper bottles at the Rose Hall shopping plaza liquor store - which was suprising because it catered to the tourists - but I have the card for the owner and he can get me an even better deal when I want to buy in bulk. AND I also discovered that everything I saw in the Rose Hall shopping plaza can be bought at the airport prior to departure. The hotel told me about the Megamart - a larger grocery store in MoBay but it was 25 minutes away and therefore I wasn't interested in going that far. Blue Diamond was only 10 minutes away and still cost us $30 round trip in a cab. The majority of my fact finding mission was specific to the Ritz Carlton. Since there aren't many RC brides on the forum, I won't bore everyone with the details - but let me know if you have questions. Marne