sweetluna

Great review, thanks for posting it! May I ask a question? When you say you rented the DJ equipment did you have your music on CD or iPod or laptop? I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do and was hesitant to rent the DJ equipment because I didn't know what that would include.

When searching for a TA I didn't have to put down a retainer but I also wasn't as specific as your list (which is a great list by the way!) Instead, I gave some general VERY important information such as I want an AI for a wedding in November, what do you recommend. The TA I selected was able to provide a reasonable rate and was very helpful answering my questions so we decided to go with her. Unfortunately, after we put down our deposit & started to work more directly with the resort, did we realize how little our TA knows. It's unfortunate because we did a lot of research on our own before selecting our TA and worked closely with her at the beginning but once we started to run into a little issue with the resort our TA became "hands off" and did little to help us. I guess the story is you do your best to select the right person but sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want. But you still try.

My apologies, I'm not sure where I got TA Raymond. TA Maureen you've been great help, thanks. You'd be surprised at how anal I am about giving my Credit card out or any personal information for that matter. However, I did talk with my credit card company and went through a few security features with them. I'm still not comfortable with it but at this point in time I don't have it in me to put up a fight. I've taken steps to protect myself but at the end of the day it is still high risk.

Thanks TA Raymond. I'll give them a call. I don't put my credit card information in the form because I've worked on the back-end of those types of forms and I've seen whats happens with that information and I'm not comfortable putting my information into a database like that. It's not secure. It's not so much about the payment part, that's already been arranged. Thanks for your help!!

Hello! I have a question/concern I'm hoping someone can answer for me. Today I received a message from my TA asking me to go to the RIU website and submit my confirmation number she gave me and fill in the information requested. I was fine with all of that until the last page that was asking for my credit card information - my VERY detailed credit card information (including the security code) I DO NOT put my credit card information into ANY online database form, I especially will not provide such detailed credit card information. I talked to my TA and she agreed it was strange they were asking for the information especially since payment has already been arranged however my TA didn't have any information on alternatives for me. She's looking into it but I thought I would ask my BDW friends for their thoughts. Did you have to do an online confirmation? If so, did you provide the credit card information? Do you know if there is another way I can confirm without providing my credit card information?? Thanks for any help/advice you can give!

Thanks for the reassurance!! Have fun! Can't wait to read your full review when you return.

We're having a small reception when we return. We weren't going to but one of the girls who was supposed to be in the wedding party wasn't able to afford her & her husband going to Jamaica (they just adopted their first child) so she backed out but felt really bad so she asked if she could host a reception for us when we return as her wedding gift for us so we agreed. It is a really sweet offer and I know my friends/family who can't make it will really appreciate it. My FI and I will too, I'm actually quite excited for it.

This is great information. Thanks for sharing.

My girls are paying for their own dresses ($150 each) but I bought their shoes and I'm paying for their day at the spa the day of the wedding. Plus I am giving them their jewelery.

great question!! I have about 4 kids coming and I didn't think to ask about that. Hopefully someone will answer.

Weather is the last thing to really be worried about. You have no control over it and you can go during the best time of year have it rain on your wedding day. There is NO WHERE in this world you can go without the risk of less-than-ideal weather for your wedding day and you'll drive yourself nuts over it. I say, relax, plan for what you can control and deal with the weather when you get there.

Welcome!! You've come to a great site. There is tons of information on our resort plus everyone is so helpful. Review the Jamaica forum and you'll get lot of ideas and lots of questions will be answered.

wow, your dress is gorgeous, you were such a beautiful bride and the pictures are so nice! Michael did a great job and I'm glad because I've booked him too and I was a little worried they wouldn't be nice. Did you get the actual pictures before you left or only the proofs? My wedding is on a Friday and I leave the following Wednesday. I'm hoping he'll have our actual pictures on CD because I'll be having a reception as soon as I get home and I would love to share the pictures with our guests. Can't wait for your review!! Congrats!!

Yes, I believe that if you have over 50 guests you have to go with a private dinner and that costs more. If you review many of the current posts, you'll find the details on cost - at least for 2010. About cost, you can use 2010 prices for budgeting purposes and just pad it a little. My wedding is in 2010 but I used 2009 pricing when I first started the planning process and found the prices only increased by a little. As for packages, my suggestion is to book with the free wedding for now because you can always go up to one of the other packages when you get there but it's harder to drop down a package (you have to make the arrangements with the RIU headoffice rather than the WC) Good luck!! Enjoy the planning, it will go by faster than you think.

We're arriving a day before our guests. It was only because we had planning a Wed - Wed trip with our guests but found out that we had to be there 48 hours before our wedding so me and my FI had to be there a day earlier than we expected.

Wishing you all the best!! Have lots of fun!!

Hi Mirelle Anne, my wedding is in November so I think my rates will be much different than yours for March. However, what I did want to mention is that if you or your guests are near the US border, close to a US airport, I highly recommend looking at that option. I'm in New Brunswick and looked at the cost of flying out of Bangor vs. Fredericton/Moncton and the price difference was $400! (even with exchange when it was .10 on the dollar) So for a couple it worked out to be $800.00 savings to fly out of a US airport. It will be difficult for anyone to give you actual costs for flights/resort yet because it's too far in advance. Like I said my wedding is in November and I couldn't get definate numbers until January of this year. However, back in Aug 2009 I asked my TA to give me the prices for Nov 2009 and used those numbers to budget for Nov 2010 - I knew that prices might change depending on econamics but my TA was fairly certain that it wouldn't change by much so those were the numbers we gave to our guests as a "rough estimate". Then, in Jan 2010 when the prices came out for Nov 2010 we found there was only a couple dollars difference so my guests were happy with that. I wish you all the best, the year is going to go by so fast! (and some days, not fast enough! LOL)

fantastic idea!!

yeah, some of my guests wanted to do the same thing and I basically said, Do what you want, it's your vacation, you know the date/time of the wedding. I don't get the "perks" which would be nice, but they are spending a lot of money to come to the wedding so I'm letting them do their own thing. In the end, they are all staying at the resort but they said they appreciated me giving them the choice. (I wasn't about to pay for their day pass if they did stay outside the resort!!)

I'd be leery of sending all coworkers an invite to the wedding because it could be perceived as a gift-grab. I think only those who are close friends should be invited. I work in a small office and that's how it's done where I work. Everyone knows who hangs out together after work so we know who would be invited to events.

Quote: Originally Posted by JanineA Thanks Sweetluna! I try to post it in all the forums I can just so brides are aware....our wedding dates are close!! Are you done with all your preparations? I'm still buying things for my OOT bags! I haven't even started OOT bags yet. I have done pretty much all I can until I have the number in my group confirmed. Once I have that, then there will be TONS of more planning to do.

Your list of questions will be directly related to what, exactly, you want for your wedding. How simple/extravagant do you want it? That's really where to start. It's hard for anyone to answer questions without knowing what vision you have. Also, I highly recommend reviewing all the posts on here because it might provide you ideas to help you develop your vision. And it will give you an idea of what each resort has to offer. I wish you all the best.

Quote: Originally Posted by bahiabride2010 So I've known I was going to give Boudoir pics but I've been debating on how to give them to him. Here's what I've come up with....I'm getting an letter size paper print of one of my pictures. I'm going to cut it into puzzle pieces and leave one piece each day for the week before we go away (maybe even just a couple of days) then once we get to Punta Cana...that evening I'll put out the last piece and hide the book in our room. I think it will be a super fun way to start our wedding week and I can't wait. My book was just ordered this week so it should be here soon! Here's the pic I'm using for the puzzle: Now that is FREAKIN' awesome!! What a great idea to build up to that special day. Mind if I steal that idea

it's a great idea. Too bad my mom can't make it to the wedding. I'd still like to do something special for my FMIL. Since moving so far away from my own mom, my FMIL has really stepped in. She came with me to find my wedding dress and we've become close so I'd like to do something to honor her. Do you think this would work with only one mom present? I love my own mom very much but she can't afford to go to the wedding but will be at the reception when we return. Maybe I can think of a different idea to honour my mom at the reception?? Gosh, I have so many things to consider.

I can't wait until I can open attachments! Congrats!! Sounds like it was a great time.