soontobemrsdow

The pass is only required if the guest isn't staying on the resort. I think they'll be happy either way! A group excursion is so much fun too! We didn't book one for everyone but once we got down there a bunch of us talked about who was interested in what and about 14 of us went on an excursion the day after the wedding and it was a blast! We did the ziplining and white river tubing and we were pretty much our own group with the exception of like 4 or 5 other people. It really was an amazing day and you and your guests will llove it! Its something fun to do off the resort! This must be a new thing or something because I never once heard anything about it when I was planning my wedding. All we had to do was scan and email the copies and just make sure we brought the orginals down with us which she then took a photocopy of then. Are they telling you girls you don't need to bring down the originals then? Because I was always told even though I sent copies weHAD to have the originals present with us in Jamaica. Ok so just a heads up about the squirt guns. My sister was packing my nephews toys when we were getting ready to head down and soemthing told her to check the airlines restrictions and it was a definate no no to pack any toys that resembles a gun, grenade, knife, etc Basically anything that looks like a weapon you aren't allowed to pack because when it goes through the scanners they can't tell if it's plastic or real so they'll tear your luggage apart and most likely confiscate it as well. So I jsut wanted to give you a heads up about it because I never would have though about it but it does make sense! We had 4 bags total. 1 each of our clothes and stuff and 2 with wedding things (which to be honest 3/4 of those bages was our oot stuff lol) so you should be good!

I got married on the 11th and while we were getting married it was windy and we weren't hot at all, but afterwards the wind stopped and it did get a bit warm but nothing unbearable because it was almost 5 and the sun sets pretty early like 630ish. Also if your getting married under the gazebo you will be out of the sun so that makes it even cooler the resort doesn't have a steamer on site so basically you're renting it from tai floral and they come and do it for you. I was quoted prices start at $90 like everyone else and then when i got there they wanted $120 for my dress,25 each dress, 20 for each suit and 10 each dres shirt!! It was gonna be like $200....Totally didn't happen so the guys ironed their stuff and our dresses honestly weren't even wrinkled that bad. We just put the shower on high and shut the bathroom door and used our own makeshift steamer to get the tiny wrinkles that were in it lol the long form stuff confused me a lot too because i was told they needed it because it has your fathers name on it which is on the copy of your marriage lisnce you sign during the cermeony. the short form doesn't have that info so thats why i sent the long one. about the paying the minister (and whoever gets the steel drum band as well) in cash bev bascailly told me that they are outside vendors and need to make sure that their funds are recived before the wedding. Thats why you cant pay with visa. if say it didnt go through they wouldnt know until it was too late and then you got your stuff for free. how it works is she takes it off the price of your package..when she hands you the invoice just make sure its done because she didnt do it at first for me and i noticed so she cahnged it. i got blissful love so it was 1350 but minus the 400 i was only charged 950 on the hotels invoice and there was a side note that the other 400 was taken in cash for the minister. I couldnt believe when i read that beverly left!! how sad you ladies wont be able to meet her! but chandlyn did an amazing job helping my husband on the day of the wedding (bev helped the brides and chandlyn the grooms) and he said any probelms he had he brought to her attention and she fixed them right away so she will do an amazing job. She does every wedding there as well so its not like she sat in an office and wasn't out seeing how the wedding works. shes super nice and will take care of you all very well im sure!

Transat kind of did the same thing to me. We had our rates/seats guaranteed until the end of august or something like that and about 1/2 of our group had put down there deposits and then with less then a week or two before our cutoff they called mea nd said the lfight is filling up fast, either get the rest of your people to pay their deposits or else risk them not getting on your flight. I was so furious because I had to put a $2000 deposit down out of my own pocket to hold the seats for the rest of my guests which was non-refundable if they ended up cancelling so I was taking a huge risk. Luckily all booked plus a few more so I got my money back but still I totally understand how frustrating it is because they shoulnd't be able to get away with it but they do...and constantly it seems. Everyone had an awsome time at our wedding and about half of us are trying to plan something again for next year but we all agreed...no more group bookings!! It might save a few hundred bucks but we're not sure if we want another chance of a run around like that.

We were over budget by just under 2,000. Not bad in my eyes seeing as it paid for a vacation for 2 weeks plus a wedding!

Honestly I'll try to help you ladies out as much as I can. With Beverly not returning emails promptly I know how frustrating it can be waiting for an answer. I'm still waiting for all the pictures from our photogs those are the only ones I've seen so far too but am very excited to see the rest! You must be getting so excited! Time will fly and before you know it you'll be on that beach saying 'i do' Yes- You can honestly bring whatever you want down and tell them how you want it and they will set it all up for you. But you can also go with the ideas you have and try to arrange something with her there to get the stuff, because bringing extra suitcases gets expensive. I brought 2 totally full extra suitcases filled with wedding stuff and it cost me $180, granted one suitcases was pretty much just my oot bags alone with like flowers and other things that weighed nothing. Also, If you're bringing your own stuff down I'd pack a glue gun or something just incase something breaks you can fix it. My cake topper had a cute starfish attached to it and it broke off during transit, luckily I packed the glue gun and all was fine!

we tipped beverly and brought her some lotion and perfume from bath & body works (but gave it to her the day after the wedding to make sure she did a good job. If she didn't we were only going to give her the bath & body works stuff, but she was amazing so we gave her some money as well) When we gave her the money we said you and chandyln did an amazing job so we hope she gave her some of the money but who knows. we tipped the steel drum band, the waiters/cooks from dinner, the bartenders, and the DJ. We were planning on tipping the minister as well but the day before our wedding we had our rehersal and we found out that his daughter had broken her leg that day so he was only there for like 10 minutes. He disappered right after the ceremony on our wedding day so we think it's probably because he was going to be with his daughter. Plus we had to pay him the $400 cash from the package so he got paid pretty well if you ask me lol Quote: Originally Posted by lmarie Soontobemrsdow.. who exactly did you tip? Thanks Thanks! It really was the most amazing week of our lives. everyones already asking if we can do it again next year for our 1st anniversary and we're actually thinking about it! lol. You will have such a great week! lol my ttd is actually from sears. I was going to use my actual wedding dress for our ttd but then with like a month to go changed my mind and needed something quick and ordered that one for only $70 on sale! Up close the beading on the front was a little tacky I will admit (and freaked out about it when i first saw it lol) but it doesn't show in the pictures so far, so I'm happy! I'm pretty sure it's 18. But honestly their so laid back there everyone will be fine. But if they've never or rarley drank before tell them to take it easy because the drinks are strrroooong!!! Also just a tip,The cups are really small they serve there so pack a travel mug or hand them out in your oot bag which I'm sure you've read all about in the other forum topics. They really do come in handy and is a nice souvineer for the guests to take home!

Honestly not going to lie, it totally does suck to pay extra for a bar when you're at an all inclusive but I definatly think you should get it. I had 40 guests and it cost $810. Just a word of advice though, if you don't want to pay the money for the bar then I would say don't rent the gazebo because people will want to drink and the closest bar to the gazebo is the lobby bar and that's an easy 5 minutes walk away. Now I'm not positive because you have the free package but I was able to switch out the photographers they would give me to get flowers instead. Just ask Bev when you get down there, she is really nice and tries her best to do whatever it is you want. We had some people we food allergies and they were really good about it. You just have to have a list ready of the people with the allergies and then even on the day of the wedding beverly spoke to me first confirming the people with allergies and even went and spoke to them personally to let them know they were being taken care of. It was awsome and everyone had a great dinner! You get a certified copy of your marriage certificate before you leave and they will mail the i guess...real copy? when its ready. i got married jan 11th and haven't heard yet about it being ready but I've also had no problems yet changing my name with the copy that I got before I left so i guess its not a huge deal when it comes. Who cares do it anyways! Its the last time you'll ever be involved in that part of a wedding! We had like 6 or 7 single ladies and 4 single guys and we all had a bunch of fun doing it! we used mywedding.com for our website and honestly it was AMAZING. i started doing one on the knot and it was confusing and i hated it. mywedding is laid out so well and easy to use. Everyone knows i'm not that great with computers and so when they saw our website they were like how did you manage to make it so nice? lol. I joked around and said i spent weeks working on it 24/7 but really it was so easy and would recommened it in a heartbeat! I paid and got a wedding package with the hotel but still never had to put down a deposit and all was fine. There was even a wedding i think at like 11am on the day of mine that Beverly told me how they wanted our time slot from the start (4pm) but we had asked first so it was ours. You should be ok they seemed very organized. Drinks are included during dinner. House wines and beers but Beverly said if someone really wanted a mix drink she could arrange it but eveyone drank the wine and was fine. As for striking a deal I was hoping the same to just be like hey here's xxx amount of money but Beverly does it all on her computer and makes up a big invoice the day before your wedding that you pay then with the breakdown of everything so come the day of your wedding everything already settled up you just have to bring tip money. Which on that note ladies please desginate someone to do your tipping for you before hand and give them the money the day before the wedding (parents or bridal party). I was so wrapped up in getting ready and just all those emotions of the day I forgot my money in the hotel room. Luckily my dad loves me and had thought about it before hand and brought some with him and took care of all the tipping for the night as a little extra gift to us. I was planning on running back up to the room to get some but I was so busy between pictures and dinner and everyone wanting to speak to you I never had time so it was my saving grace that my dad thought of it. Congrats and have an amazing time! I know you will!! On another note our photographers set up a really ncie page for us on their website with some pictures from the day of the wedding so I figure you guys can go there and check them out if you want! twofortwophotography.com and it's under the Love in Jamaica section. We still haven't gotten the pictures from them so this is all we have to look at too from what they shot so far during the week and am sooo excited to see the rest. They contacted us a few days ago and said it's almost ready. soooo excited!!! Then I'll try to figure out how to upload some here for you ladies to see! I'm not gonna lie I might need help though! lol

My ring bearer was 3 and refused to wlak down the asile alone because it was too long and he was scared lol...so my mom and grandma ended up walking with him holding his hand. Hopefully they wont run off the side and start playing in the sand altough it'd be really cute and funny to see! lol hi ames, no you don't have to worry about playing the music yourself. I honestly never saw who was doing it but the day before you give Beverly everything for the wedding to be set up that you brought yourself including the music and it's all done for you! It's so not stressful its wonderful...just enjoy your day! Ok so I wore the smallest heels ever because im 5'9' and if i wanted to wear 1.5-2 inche shoes i would have had to order an extra long gown so i wore like .5inch lol. But that being said you can totally wear heels if you want. The way to the asile is werid you walk along the grounds then you walk across sand then get to the pathway. that being said though on the day of your wedding Beverly picks you up in the lobby in a van and drives it across the sand right to the steps so you can wear the biggest heels you want and not have to worry about the sand for the ceremony. Afterwards when you go to the side for your champange thats sand though and may be hard so maybe if u wanna wear heels for the ceremony do it then take them off afterwards if its hard to walk

Hey Akua if you want the whole song to play then 5 minutes is too long. If you don't mind it being cut off then you'll be good! My song was like 1:40 and we ended a bit early so maybe like 1:30 I guess it depened on how fast you walk. We started slow but as we got closer I started to cry and my husband was crying my parents, his were, bascially all 40 of us at the wedding were crying lol so we started walking faster near the end. I would use the same general guideline though for 1:00-1:30 per couple who has to walk down the asile before you to pick a song for them. Mine was 4:30 and I don't know exactly where it got cut off but it was long enough for 3 sets of people. Hey Espe & Erin, we had 40 people total at our wedding including myself and my husband. My husbands brother was supposed to be our mc but with a month before the wedding we found out he actually couldn't attened so we totally forgot to replace him but luckily Bev did it for us, but for sure you can have an MC! We had our dinner at the italian and there are kinda like 2 seperate room areas so one area was for dinner then we all went into the other section that they cleared everything out of and made our dancing area and bar in there. It was pretty cool. We had brought a cd for the dj to play some of the songs we liked and he also mixed in some he liked. It was a really fun time and we were supposed to only have the restaurant from 6:30-10 but they actually let us stay until about 10:45 because we were all dancing like crazy! A bunch of us went to the disco after and even though my and my hubby left there around 12am we heard everyone else pretty much stayed until it closed! Quote: Originally Posted by Espejo2be soontobemrsdow: CONGRATS!!!! Thank you so very much for the extra info, i have been back on fourth on weather we should spend the extra money on the private reception or not. It seems as if we'll have about 40 or more people coming now so i'm thinking that we may go ahead and do that if it's still available. Did you have an "MC" at your recepetion? seeing there was a podium and mic... We're thinking about getting someone to say grace and say a few words, besides us saying our thank yous. Was your dance still at the gazebo or was it in the resturant? Did you give the DJ CD's of certain music to play? I was thinking about bringing a USB stick of music when I go but wasn't sure if he actually had anything to plug it into or if he just plays good music on his own. Thanks again for the template info, what a great idea! akua420 - I agree with missy&eric2011, i think it would be great if you had a song afterwards that you and you FI's dad and him and your mom could dance to, then everyone is involved Well i finally got some things figured out... the TA got back to me today saying that the resort sold AirCanada Vacations enough rooms for my bridal party and immediate family but anyone extra will have to take their chance if they aren't on the list already... i can't believe that the resort would be booked up in August so fast?! I thought it would be "low" season...

Thanks! I was thinking the same thing that I need to change my name but have nooo idea how to! lol. So the private reception includes the restaurant for your guests, chair covers, table cloths, mic, podium & dj. The bar was extra. The same as if you rent the gazebo...$15pp. The dinner is already included in your wedding package so it really doesn't effect that. We ate the Italian and it's right on the ocean. I've tried before to upload pictures and it's never worked for me but I'll try to figure it out because I have some nice ones of where the Italian is located. The garden grill (the other option) is smack right in the middle of the resort by the pool area overlooking the garden area. If I can't figure out how to do the pics here once I add all my pics to facebook if any of you ladies want to add me I'll be more than happy to accept...just lemme know your from here! Quote: Originally Posted by mekanabr Congrats Soontobemrsdow!!!!! (prob need to change your name to THEmrsdow ) hehe. I am so happy to hear that your wedding day was so perfect!!! and thanks for all the details in your review, they were very helpful. How did your private reception work? Did you have to pay extra for bar or food or anything like that? I was all set on having our reception at the gazebo, but I am now worried that we might have too many people for the semi-private dinner. Is the restaurant near the ocean? That was my biggest thing about the gazebo was that I thought it would be so cool to be dancing by the sea...and now I'm worried that you won't get that Jamaica vibe at the restaurant. I can't wait to see pics!!! missyanderic2011- ditto to what lsmith211 said!! Hey Tris, thanks so much! Honestly she really is super once you are down there. She is everywhere all the time and when she does finally get a minute to herself her phone rings or someone else is looking for her. It's crazy how busy that woman is but she is always so delightful to be around with a big smile on her face! She really does need someone to answer all her emails because alsmot everytime I needed to speak to her I found her speaking to someone else and then by the time we were done speaking to her someone was waiting for her to finish with us! Hey Missy, Heres the template I used http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/guest-directory-how-to There are 3 different choices but obviously I picked the sea one. And no your not missing anything. You don't know where your guests are going to be so what I did with the template was just type in everyones names and erase the room numbers and left it blank and then all the guests just hand wrote it in when we got there and had our welcome get together on the lobby terrance. As for our room we were upgraded to the highest floor in our buiding (5) and was given an amazing view of the beach and ocean. It was really a wonderful view. But other then the view the room was the same as everyone elses. Oh and just an fyi for everyone because we were all getting confused. Everyone gets a mini bar fridge but some of us were getting pringles and some were not. Finally someone asked their maid one day why they weren't getting pringles in their fridge and she said it's free for people who are on the top 2 floors of their building but for everyone else it's a charge if you want it. Just so you all know.

well ladies the month is almost over so we're all pretty much married now! Hope your wedding was everything you guys dreamed of and congrats to us all!

Well ladies my time has come and gone and boy has it looked like ive missed a lot in the last few weeks. Let me be the clichéd bride who comes back to say don’t stress everything will be perfect! I know its so hard to do but trust me Beverly is amazing and will make your day perfect. Before I get into the wedding day part of it let me just give you a heads up on the actual hotel itself. It is beautiful…but like we all know large. I guess I had my head in the clouds when I expected all 40 of us to be put into the same section of the hotel, luckily I had planned ahead for this and I highly recommend you do the same, even if it’s not a large group of you. I went to Martha Stewarts website and she has a template you can download where you can input your guests names who are rooming together and print them off and then when you get down there give them to everyone (I put mine in our oot bags) and they fill in the room number accordingly. I got many thanks for thinking of this because instead of walking halfway across the resort to knock on someone’s door to find out they weren’t even there all you had to do was pick up the phone and call. Now for the wedding stuff: I know everyone worries about Beverly taking 1 month and 3 emails to reply, but once you are down there and meet her, you know everything will be fine. She was waiting for me and my now husband (weird! Lol) when we arrived to greet us and introduce herself. She told us to get settled into our room which she personally checked to make sure was ready for us because we arrived about an hour and a half before scheduled check in time, then meet her to discuss the wedding whenever we were ready that afternoon. Just like everyone else says you decide everything within 10-20 minutes of meeting her. She asks if there is anything specific you want so if you have a specific look you want for your cake or something bring a printout, if not she has a big book with a bunch of different options. We brought our own photographers so we didn’t want the resort ones so instead she gave us a $150 credit to use towards something else. We chose to get flower arrangements for the gazebo but whatever you want she will try to do for you. Now we somehow got lucky and weren’t charged for the chair covers or ties but you can use the credit towards that as well if you wish but since the total was only like $100 we said we would pay for them but it never showed up on the bill so it ended up working in our favour!! Now I know I’ve read a lot about 2 weddings per day concerns and yes there are. There was another wedding earlier in the day of my wedding and out of the 7 days we were there maybe only like 2 days did we see no wedding at all. But let me assure you, Beverly does a very good job and is there on your day before and after if you need it. I actually didn’t even know there was another wedding until my hairdresser was telling me she had been there since 7am for the other brides 11am wedding. I didn’t even see them once. Beverly keeps her cool and didn’t get anything mixed up between mine and the other couples wedding so even if there is another wedding on your day, don’t worry!! We hired the steel drum band and honestly I probably heard them for like 5 minutes, but everyone else said they were good. We had them play while the guests were being seated then we brought our own cd for the ceremony and then they played for our recessional and what was left of the hour we had paid them for. It actually ended up being longer than an hour though because 10 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start it started raining a bit and Beverly held everything off until it blew over, which I didn’t think it would but she knew it was going to and low and behold it was gone just as fast as it came and then we were blessed with a beautiful rainbow. But just a heads up the aisle is loooong! Pick 2 songs or one really long one because if it stops they will just repeat it. We paid the $2500 to close out Dolce Vita (the Italian) for the night and ladies it is soooooooo worth it to pay the money for a private reception. I know it’s a lot of money but we could have our grand entrance, speeches, music, dancing etc We got to do our first/parents dances, bouquet & garter toss and cake cutting all there instead of it on the beach right after the ceremony which made me really glad in the end because people could come up and congratulate us and we were free to walk around instead of everyone standing on the side waiting another 20 minutes for that stuff to finish as well even though they just watched the ceremony. People really complimented how much fun they had. One of my guests had been to another DW where it was semi-private dinner and she said it was still very nice but the fact that people weren’t watching you, that you could get up and speak (we left the mic open for anyone) that she was more comfortable and ended up having more fun. Obviously I can’t comment on the Gazebo afterwards which I’m sure is very fun as well, but I just really feel if you have a larger group and can afford it to go for it because I really feel like it made the wedding that much more memorable for not only the guests but my husband and myself. I do remember before I left someone was asking about the table set up. I don’t know if it’s the same set-up for semi-private dinners but for ours we had rounds of 8’s and our head table was rectangular. I’m sure there are other things you guys are wondering and I will do my best to help so ask away but just remember try not to stress too much, and know that Beverly will do an amazing job even if she doesn’t email regularly. there computer are soooo slow btw. When she was printing our bill it took about 10 minutes You will all have amazing beautiful weddings. It's no problem mon!

So she said we couldn't decide which restaurant we wanted until we get down there, same with the menu. As for seating arrangements she said I could have tables of either 8's or 10's and I'm pretty sure they are rectangles. I went with 8's and made up a seating chart to give when once I get down there. I'll obviously give u more detailed info when I come back but for now this is all I know! But I'm off to do last minute running around...I'll be in the sand in less than 24 hours for 2 wonderful weeks! I'll talk to you ladies when I come back!

Well Ladies my time has arrived!!! I'm leaving this Saturday for my wedding....excited!! I've been so busy lately I feel like I haven't been on in ages but I know how helpful this site has been to me over the past year and I want to do my best to try and return the favor to all the upcoming brides. I can't promise everything but if you guys let me know maybe one thing inparticular you want to know about, or for me to take of picture of something inparticular because I know some things are like impossible to find, I will jot it down and try my best to remeber and when I come back I can fill you in on all the details! I do promise though to take some good detailed pictures of the 2 restaurants because those were the hardest to find and what I wanted to see the most!

aww all you of you girls are april/may and I'm jan! lol....when I get back though i'll be sure to come fill you in on everything