JM2010

Glad to hear it!! = )

Thanks everyone!

Thank you = )
 

Originally Posted by surprise4us 

I am so glad to hear that you are recieving something for all your trouble. Have a great time in Costa Rica!

Originally Posted by want2gosouth 

You look amazing!! Beautiful wedding!

Thank you! Hope your wedding goes well!!
 

Originally Posted by lisa203 

Great review! Sorry that you went through some of the things you did but it was a gorgeous wedding regardless. You looked fantastic! Great choices all around, especially with your hair and dress! I reached out to your baker. Hopefully she's interested in delivering to Negril for my wedding. Thanks so much for sharing. Enjoy Costa Rica!

Thank you!
 

Originally Posted by surprise4us 

I am so glad to hear that you are recieving something for all your trouble. Have a great time in Costa Rica!

Hi Jenna,

 

All of the decor was by Tai Flora.  We didn't have to bring any of it down.  If you email them a picture of what they want they'll let you know if they can supply it all for you or not.

 

Originally Posted by JennandMike08 

Jennifer, did you bring down all the decor with you, or was that all supplied by Tai Flora?

Hi,

 

Thanks!
 

I used Sheila's Bakery.  Our cake was $350 and we asked for a size big enough for 40 people even though we had 79 guests and there was enough for everyone.  We even got to keep the top tier for ourselves.

 

The flowers on the cake were provided by Tai Flora.

 

Sheila's email address is: [email protected]

 

Telephone number is: 1-876-974-2743
 

Originally Posted by Mrs. LowUFO 

Wow sorry to hear your wedding did not go as planned; however, the pictures look lovely and I am happy to hear you have been compensated.

 

I absolutely love your cake! Do you have an email or website address for the person who did your cake? If you don't mind me asking was it expensive? I am getting married at Couples Swept Away and I am a little worried about how the cake might turn out but also don't have a huge budget for the cake.

Hey,

 

Thank you = )  It's mango buttercream.
 

Originally Posted by MissSimone 

your cake and dress looked beautiful. i want a similar cake for my wedding. is that fondant or buttercreme?

Thank you = )
 

Originally Posted by KaytlinJean 

I am sorry to hear your wedding day didn't go as planned. That is never good to hear!  I am so glad to hear they are doing something to apologize but it doesn't really make up for it. Hopefully your trip will go well though!

 

You looked lovely on your wedding day! I absolutely love your dress and cake!

Thank you!  We're looking forward to it.

So I just heard back from RIU today.  They have offered us a free week all inclusive stay at any of their resorts in Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico or Costa Rica.  Sunquest also sent us a $300 travel voucher for our flights as they're not included in the RIU offer.  We're happy with that.  We decided to go with Costa Rica as we've already been to all of the other countries.  We have from now until August 2011 to use it so we have time to plan. 

 

It was a pain to get in contact with them but it paid off to keep on them!  They were really apologetic for the crap we had to deal with on our wedding day.

 

Another suggestion for anyone who has any problems while they're at ROR, speak with one of the Sunquest representatives while you're there.  They're at the resort everyday and then they can also forward your complaints along or try to help with the situation.

 

Hi,

 

Sorry for responding so late but I just checked back at this post.

 

The site for my husband's ring is www.tungstenworld.com

 

Originally Posted by Tropicalbride01 

Love your thread everything looks beautiful congrats..I have one question what website did you get your hubby's ring me and my fiance are looking for are bands and he wants something like that...it's beautiful... thanks in advance....

Email your complaints to ALL of these email addresses:

 

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] and [email protected]

 

I'm not sure what the actual prices are either because when I was there for our wedding, other couples were charged different prices for things we had booked as well.  The WC I had to deal with when we were there told me all the prices I had been quoted were wrong except the $1000 to book the Plantation restuarant for 4 hours.  And these were prices that were listed on the RIU site as well.  I really don't know how anyone can really know what things cost!  :S

 

If it makes you feel any better, I still haven't heard a response to my complaints about the problems on our wedding...which was July 5th.  But on the other hand, they already have my money.

Sorry to hear about all that. 

Even though we save a tonne of money by doing a destination wedding, we still bring a lot of money to the resort.  It was just over $1600/person for our guests to come and we had 79 people.  RIU makes a lot of money off of weddings because that's 79 people who would not have been going to the ROR if it wasn't for our wedding.  They should take that into consideration for everyone.

 

Email your concerns/complaints to these email addresses:

 

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] and [email protected]

 

You have to be on them like crazy to get a response.  The first address is the most important one to use but do email all of them at the same time...and keep on them!

I think Tina was just a temporary replacement for Chandlyn until they found a new WC.

Yeah, unfortunately.  I really liked her just from the emails and was looking forward to meeting her.  She probably would have done a lot better a job with my wedding!  I wouldn't have even minded being ripped off if it meant a perfect wedding day!

Hi ladies,

 

I was told Chandlyn was fired for pocketing money from the cash payments she requested.  Apparently NOTHING needs to be paid in cash and Chandlyn was telling people otherwise.  She was also giving inaccurate prices.

 

Tina Dunbar was useless and pretty much ruined the way our wedding unfolded.

 

There are new WCs at ROR.  Tina's gone.  Hopefully they'll get their @h*t together now!

 

I've demanded to be compensated and was informed yesterday that I will be contacted 'very soon' from someone at RIU.  I would suggest that anyone who had problems on their wedding day should send their concerns to: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] and [email protected].  I had to email all of them several times to get a response but it finally worked!

 

Good luck to all the future ROR brides! 

Beautiful!  I love your flower girl!!

Glad to hear Tina is gone!!! Even more glad that everyone's weddings are going as planned now! = )

I was married on July 5th at ROR.  Same thing happened to me with no response from Chandlyn.  When I went to our scheduled meeting, that's when I found out Chandlyn had been fired a couple weeks before (for scamming people out of money and asking for cash payments, apparently).  It was Tina we met with and she told me that nothing had been booked or finalized for our wedding despite Chandlyn telling me weeks before that everything was booked and confirmed.  Thankfully, Tina got everything we wanted booked/confirmed and honoured the prices Chandlyn had quoted us (which were apparently cheaper than what ROR is supposed to charge).   I was pissed that no one had informed us of the change and even more pissed when Tina turned out to be a pathetic wedding coordinator. 

I really hope that you don't have any problems with her but she was terrible for our wedding.  You can look up my wedding review to get all the details.

My suggestion to everyone getting married at ROR would be to not pay for anything until after your wedding day because if you end up in a situation like mine, you don't get what you pay for.  And once they have your money, they really don't care about you or your wedding at all.

Thank you. = )

Yes, Tai Flora did all the decor.

 

We just got back from our honeymoon and our wedding was on July 5, 2010. 

 

The ROR resort was great!  Our 77 guests and my husband and I had no complaints about the resort at all.  The food, wait staff, beach, cleanliness etc. was great.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the sub wedding coordinator or hotel management that we had to deal with.  Below is a copy of an email I had to send to complain about what happened with our wedding: 

 

Hello,
 
My name is Jennifer Yearwood and I am trying to get in touch with someone from the RIU company who could help with some problems we encountered on our wedding day at the RIU Ocho Rios.
 
Firstly, management did not inform me that our original wedding coordinator, Chandlyn Edwards, had been fired prior to our arrival at the resort.  We arrived on the 30th of June and was informed that she had been fired when we went to meet with her on July 1st.  I had been emailing Chandlyn prior to our arrival and had not gotten a response and no one from the resort's management responded in her place or tried to inform me of what had happened.
 
We met with Tina Dunbar and she informed us that she would be taking over for Chandlyn.  She told me that nothing had been booked/scheduled for our wedding and that she would have to confirm everything, which she did do.  She also honored the prices that Chandlyn had quoted us, which were apparently cheaper than what the resort is supposed to charge.  We felt confident after meeting with Tina that everything was going to run smoothly and that she would be a great wedding coordinator.
 
However, on the day of our wedding, I did not hear from or see Tina until 3:30 when she brought us our bouquets.  Our ceremony was at 4pm at the beach gazebo.  The ceremony was perfect and everything went as planned except for the fact that the steel pan band did not play for an hour as we had paid for.  Tina was supposed to have them start playing when our ceremony ended for one full hour and that did not happen.
 
After the ceremony, all of my guests moved to another location to have a group photo taken.  The chairs from our ceremony were supposed to be moved to our reception location and Tina did not make sure that that was done.  The excuse given to us was that they couldn't move the chairs because our guests were sitting in them after the ceremony, which is not true because we were all doing the group photos.  I was under the impression that, as our wedding coordinator, Tina would be there to make sure that things went as planned but she wasn't.  Then there was some talk about us only having 30 chairs booked for the reception, which was also not true because we had 77 guests come to our ceremony and reception.  The chairs did not make it to the reception venue on time even though there was 2 hours in between the end of the ceremony and when our reception was supposed to start.
 
Furthermore, Tina was supposed to lay out the place cards and table numbers prior to our guests coming to the reception.  She was also supposed to put out wedding candies that we had packaged on every guests' plate.  My husband's cousins were asked by us to give out the wedding favours (wine stoppers) to lessen Tina's load at the reception but that obviously did not help.  When my bridal party got there, none of that had been done.  I had given her a floor plan of the table seating arrangement as well.  My bridesmaids, who were supposed to be enjoying themselves at this point, had to step in and do Tina's job.  They had to do the place cards and table numbers and make sure that everyone was seated where they were on the floor plan.  Tina and the other assistant coordinator did not make any effort to help or fix the situation.  They also were very rude to my bridesmaids.  I was really disappointed to find this out and it was completely unfair that my bridal party had to run around and get everything organized and set up properly while Tina stood on the sidelines watching.  I realize that she was stepping in for Chandlyn last minute but that's no excuse for her to take on a 'I don't care' attitude.  When my husband and I arrived at the reception she greeted us by saying 'I wasn't ready for you to be here yet' as if we were supposed to know that she didn't have things running according to plan.  We had been doing our own photos at this time.  Then she tried to sell us on the idea of having a buffet dinner when we had clearly stated that we wanted the meals served.  It was obvious that the kitchen staff was not ready either because nothing was set up and ready to go at 6:30 food wise either.  My guests had to wait around until my bridesmaids had the table seating figured out and Tina just disappeared.
 
We were supposed to have a buffet salad bar and a dessert bar after dinner.  Instead, they put the dessert out with the salad and cleared it all away before anyone finished the main course.  No one got to have any dessert.  And again, Tina was not around to consult.  The staff started clearing everything away at 10:40 even though our reception had started late because of the chairs/seating problem.  Our cake was served to only a few guests who were dancing on the dance floor which was rude and just plain tacky.
 
Aside from Tina's lack of wedding coordination, the resort had some maintenance issues as well.  We had rented out the upper level of the Plantation restaurant and some of the lights/fans were not working and it was uncomfortable for our guest who did not have a working fan over their table.  Furthermore, my husband and I had requested an ocean view suite because all of my bridesmaids were to get ready in our room for our wedding.  That is the only reason we had requested a suite- to accommodate all of the people that would be in there.  Our air conditioner was not working and we asked to have someone fix it on July 2nd.  Someone came and played around with it and said they would come back and never did.  We called several more times and we were assured someone would be there to fix it and no one ever came.  By our wedding day, still nothing had been done to fix it.  My father had to contact the hotel manager, Edgar Ortiz, and he finally sent another person to come and look at it.  He realized that the room needed a whole new AC unit altogether and a new ceiling fan.  The fan that was in our room was defective and did not go faster than the first speed so we didn't even have that to help cool us down.  The bottom line is that my bridesmaids and I, my mother, my photographer and our hair stylist were left to sweat in a suite that was 28 degrees Celsius (Suite 1061). 
 
Then, the day after the wedding, we finally get a letter from the front desk asking if we'd like to change rooms.  This offer was a little late as our wedding had come and gone.
 
We tried to find Tina to discuss the issues we had with our wedding but had no luck.  Instead we were referred to Antonette (not Antonette Fowler) , who was apparently new to the resort.  We sat down and spoke with her and she took a photocopy of our complaints, assured us that something would be done to help fix the situation and then she never got back to us.  My husband searched her down again the next day and she said that she had not been able to talk to Tina about anything, even though we had seen them having lunch after we'd spoken to her the day before.  We then had to search down the hotel manager again on the day we were leaving and he too assured us that something would be done.  That was on July 9th and I still have not heard from Antonette or Edgar.  They have my contact information on file, and they also had the photocopy of our complaints/issues.  I assumed a resort of this caliber would have much more impressive management and customer service skills and we are really disappointed with how things were left. 
 
We had 79 people come to the RIU Ocho Rios for our wedding and we paid to have our wedding there.  We assumed that, as a wedding coordinator, substitute or not, Tina would have made sure we were happy and that everything went according to plan.  This was not the case.  We are left with this feeling that since the RIU already got our money, they don't really give a damn, to be perfectly frank, how our wedding went or if we were satisfied/pleased with the resort.  I also feel like Antonette and Edgar just brushed us off because they knew we'd be leaving in a few days. 
 
Overall, I can't say that I was happy with my wedding day and it's not something you get to do over.  I would like something to be done about all of the problems we experienced that day and for the maintenance/customer service issues as well.  We did not get what we paid for.
 
I realize Tina did not really care about getting the job done, although she tried to assure us that she did when we first met with her on July 1st, but the RIU should have made sure that someone who genuinely wanted to get the job done right was there for our wedding and the others that took place that week. 
 
I have Cc'd my maid of honour, my parents and our wedding MC in case you need to confirm that the bridesmaids had to set up the reception.  I will continue trying to contact someone higher up until someone tries to rectify this.
 
I look forward to a prompt response to this matter.
 
Thank you.~

 

I still have not heard anything back from anyone at the RIU but I'm not letting this go.  If anyone else has any suggestions about what further steps I should take, please let me know!

 

 Tai Flora is amazing and everything from them was exactly what I wanted and gorgeous. Jennivie is great to work with.

 Renova spa did my hair and make up and hair for 3 of my BMs and they did an amazing job as well.  We had Rose and Nicole and they were able to make miracles happen with our hair!!  It lasted the entire day and night.

 

 The steel pan band was great too but they were supposed to play for an hour AFTER our ceremony and they were there at the beginning of it at 4pm.  Tina didn't give them the correct time to be there.  Our ceremony was about 30 mins and then they played until about 5 and left so we really only had them play for 30 mins and payed for an hour.  Which cost us $450.  I'm surprised by this as others seem to be paying $350.

 

The cocktails and hors d'ouevres were good and everyone enjoyed the refreshments after the ceremony.

 The food at our reception was ok, nothing I would recommend though.  I definitely had better meals at the buffet restaurant. Our salad bar was buffet style and our dessert was supposed to be as well.  Again, Tina was not there to keep the staff on task so we never got to have any of the dessert bar as it was served with the salad bar before dinner and packed away before dinner ended.  Our soup and main meal was served. 

 

Our cake was perfect!!  We ordered our cake from Sheila and she made it look exactly like the pictures we had emailed.  It tasted amazing as well and everyone loved it. 

 

Our DJ sucked.  That's the only way I can put it.  We should have just rented the equipment and played our own ipods...would have been more effective.  Because Tina didn't have things running on time, we literally only had four songs to dance to with our guests and then he packed up and left.  We didn't even get a chance to offer him $ to stay longer.  Luckily our MC was amazing and was able to keep the music going and dances on track for our first dance and dances with our parents.  The DJ took off most of the time and just left the music playing.

 

The wait staff did they best they could with Tina's lack of scheduling/organization.  I really can't hold anything against them because it wasn't their fault that they had to rush through everything. 

 

 I am not totally unhappy with the memory of my wedding day only because we had 6 other days in Jamaica to make up for the problems we had.  Everything was great except for Tina Dunbar, the wedding coordinator who did not coordinate everything as was discussed and planned.

 

 We had a great honeymoon in Bali on a good note! 

 

 Here are a couple of the pics from our guests...I will post some of the professional ones when we get them!  Note my photographer putting the petals on the aisle...another one of Tina's tasks she didn't do!  I also have pictures of my BMs setting up the tables/place cards/wedding favors at the reception!

 

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Thanks everyone! = )

Music

The processional is going to be Ribbon in the Sky by Stevie Wonder. I’ll be walking down the aisle to Like You’ll Never See Me Again by Alicia Keys (instrumental version). Spend My Life With You by Tamia and Eric Benet will be played when we’re signing the papers. The recessional will be the traditional wedding march played by the Caribbean Melody Steel Band. Our first dance will be to Stay With You by John Legend. Father-Daughter dance will be to Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion and the Mother-Son dance will be to Mama by BoysIIMen. We have a DJ booked for the night and are hoping to be able to use our own playlist during dinner.

Guestbook

We are using a personalized guest signature frame as our guest book. I found it online on The Knot.

Reception

It will be at the upper level of the Plantations restaurant from 6:30-10:30. The centerpieces will be groups of 3 vases of different heights with submerged white orchids on a round mirrored plate with 5 votive candles around it. There will be a turquoise table runner on each table. I want to have some hanging candles from the windows looking out onto the ocean as well.

We’re doing tables of 8-10 people and then a head table for him and I. The restaurant is L shaped so it will be interesting to see how it all turns out!! Our head table will be in the corner of the L.

We will be able to dance at the Plantation as well (or so I’ve been told!) so I’m happy about that. If they really kick us out at 10:30 we will just relocate somewhere on the resort! (We’re planning to slip them some $ to get to stay longer than that...hoping that works!)

The plan is to have the wedding party walk in to different intro songs in couples and then we’ll be the last to come in and have our first dance. Then start eating, do the bm’s, moh’s and parents’ speeches during dinner/dessert, cut the cake, do our speech and then dance the rest of the night!

Cake

We want a plain and simple cake (surprise!) but I still want it to look elegant. Here’s a pic of what we hope it looks like... We decided on a 3 tier vanilla cake with a mango buttercream filling/icing. We’ll be decorating it with real orchids. We’re using Sheila’s bakery and have heard great things about her work.

Welcome gifts/Wedding Favors/Bombonniere/Wedding Party Gifts

Each of our guests will be getting a welcome card and travel mugs for the beach when they get to their rooms. They mugs say:

These will be great for keeping drinks cold on the beach ; )

Our wedding favors are sweet tarts in transparent pillow boxes that say ‘love’ on them. I got the boxes at Michaels and the candy at Bulk Barn. I stole the idea from a friend of ours. We had fun making messages with the tarts at their wedding!

We are giving our guests stainless steel wine stoppers/pourers from Urban Barn at the reception. They come gift boxed so all we’re going to do is wrap a ribbon on them and add our thank you tags that came with our invitations.

He bought the groomsmen ‘Leatherman’ utility knives (a very man thing to do)

I got my bridesmaids earrings to wear for the wedding and gift cards for Bikini Village ; )

The Flight

He and I will be flying down on June 30th. The majority of our guests will be flying in on the 2nd. Because we have guests coming from the US, Caribbean and Montreal, there are a few who will be coming in on other days. We were supposed to fly down with everyone on the second but I panicked and figured it’d be better to get there earlier to get organized. We’ll be on the flight back to Toronto together with everyone on the 9th.

Honeymoon

We’re spending 9 days in Ocho Rios, 2 weeks in Bali and one week in the Mayan Riviera. We’ll be back home on the 31st of July. I’m off during the summers and he got the requested time off. We can’t wait for this part!

Thank you all for your help and ideas...this site has definitely been a life saver many times!!! I’ll post my review/pics when I’m back from our honeymoon. Wish us good weather!! = ) I'll be in touch when we're back with my review!

J

(Sorry it's so long and that some of the pics are too big/unclear!! :S)

Programs

We had our programs made by a company called ‘Custom Programs For You’ in California. I found them online (like pretty much everything about our wedding!). What’s great about them is that the programs come in a fan design so our guests will be able to use them if they’re hot during the ceremony

Photographer

I came across an album our photographer had put together at the boutique I bought my dress at, White Toronto. It was of a destination wedding and I loved the shots he’d taken. His name’s Christoph Strube and he’s an amazing person who’s done loads of photography and traveling around the world. His website is Christoph Strube Scroll down on the main page and you can see a couple of weddings he’s shot. I’m so happy he agreed to do our wedding!! = ) He’ll be there with us for the week and will take shots throughout the week as well.

Ceremony

We are doing a non-religious ceremony. I’m Buddhist and he’s not religious so that was the best option for us. We will be doing the unity sand thing. I want to have a white runner going down the aisle and have it bordered with flower petals. We’re having white chiavari chairs with white organza sashes. I think the ocean is the most beautiful thing in the world so I don’t want to have any other floral arrangements for the ceremony because I don’t want it to take away from the perfect setting!

The groomsmen and our fathers will have white orchid boutonnieres, my fiancé will have white calla lily and orchid boutonniere. The bridesmaids will have white calla lily bouquets. I’m having a larger version of the bridesmaids bouquets with a few orchids. Our mothers will have orchid wrist corsages.