JesseLyn10

Thank you! We didn't complain. To be honest, I didn't think about it at the time. We were having a great time regardless

Thanks! Because we received a license from Jamaica, we didn't have to get documentation. It is written in English and recognized in Canada (I know for non-English speaking countries, it has to be translated and notarized before it is recognized). We just had to bring our long-form birth certificate (we mailed notarized copies and then brought notarized copies with us - DO NOT bring your original because they'll keep it). If you have been divorced, you also need to bring proof of divorce. good luck!

Unfortunately it was done all on email. I itemized my emails and made my own lists though and it was a huge help when I got to the ROR and had the meeting with Antoniette. I can't stress enough how important it is to bring all email correspondence, especially if you dealt with Chandlyn. Â I was so surprised that we were deciding things the day before the wedding and everything was perfect on the wedding day. I am such a planner but I had to reign it all in and go with the flow because it was really out of my hands until we got to the resort. Â Good luck! Â

I just wanted to let everyone know that I received my marriage certificate/license (I am not sure what it's called) from Jamaica today! We were married July 20th so it took about a month and a half and it was couriered to my house.

Thank you! I left the cake topper at home and bought the one in the photos at the gift shop. When I got home, the one I had forgotten just didn't fit the cake and I am SO happy that I used the wooden one. Â Â

I am making Mango jam for our favours. They will also act as place cards - on the label I am going to put the flavour, a thank you note and on the other side I am going to have the guests name and the first line of our wedding song "strange and beautiful are the stars tonight". Â Our ahr invites are green and brown, a change from our champagne and navy colours we used in Jamaica. I am doing an 'autumn at the beach' theme for our ahr (it's October 1st) which is why I decided to make preserves out of a tropical fruit to kind of meld the 2 together. I hope I can get 100 jars made in time! We are also using the beach chairs with tealights and small pumpkins for centrepieces. Â

I don't think they told anyone of the policy change. I didn't know about it and didn't think anything of it because I assumed they were trying to correct the troubles that firing Chandlyn caused. Â I really wish they would have at least sent out a mass email explaining the changes. Â Good luck to everyone getting married! Everything will turn out, think positively!

The reason I chose Tai Flora was because their reply time was so great. I was really happy with them. Â I have read on this site about floral fantasy but my FI and I decided to pay the extra for Tai thinking that 'you get what you pay for'. I couldn't have been happier with them. Â I don't know what the 'vendors fee' refers to. I had asked Chandlyn about Tai and she said that they do a lot of work with them. I was comfortable knowing that Tai knew the wedding venues and reception sites so when they suggested decor, everything was exactly how they explained it. Â The beach party was the best! Â

When I met with Antonette, she went over everything and told me that what ever I had confirmed with Chandlyn is what she will honour (locations, prices, etc.). Bring all your correspondence (I arrived with stacks of printed emails) that you had with Chandlyn. I think that their 'new policy' will mostly pertain to new brides who hadn't been in contact with Chandlyn. There was also another wedding on the same day as mine but they didn't want to book a reception venue (we chatted with them earlier), they were happy with celebrating at one of the bars. You never know what the plans of the other couples are and they may surprise you  good luck!  Quote: Originally Posted by eddieandsheila Hi Ladies,  I'm another bride who's having serious issues with the change of WC. In March, Chandlynn confirmed the poolside reception for our Wedding, but after she was fired they changed a few of their policies (and the BIG one is confirmations). Basically, you can only confirm your location once you arrive - but because it was already confirmed to us, we put that information on our Wedding invitations, which have already been sent out. There is another Wedding happening on our day, so our planning has turned into a free-for-all... first come, first serve.  I'm really unhappy that ROR did not contact brides to notify us of the change in WC. Seems very unprofessional. If they want to change the policy, it should be moving forward - rather than jeopardizing plans any bride made before the change. I've already got quotes from vendors for the poolside reception and now it seems I have to start from scratch.  Sorry for venting.... ROR could have/should have handled this situation better!

I looked into this as well because I had had enough with not getting a reply. There is a company that caters to cruise ship guests who port in Jamaica, get married and then get back on the ship in the evening. They also don't require you to be in the country for 48 hours.  http://www.tropicalweddingsjamaica.com/about.html  I think this is the one I looked into (it's been a while!) but this company is in Ocho Rios so it's close to the RIU. If you are thinking on getting married off resort, then I would also suggest having the reception there as well. I was worried more about the reception part and was ACHING to have it at Coyaba Gardens. When we heard back from the WC, we abandoned this option.  Â

We were also double booked and had to get married at 2. We had the champagne reception at the wedding site which took us to 3pm. Our guests were grateful for the break between ceremony and reception - mostly everyone hit the beach/pool (including myself and our wedding party) and the kids went for a nap. Everyone was refreshed and ready to go for the reception. Â I don't know about other weddings you have gone to but almost every other wedding at home has a huge break between the ceremony and reception while the wedding party/bride and groom have photos done. The scenario I had at ROR wasn't any different and it was what my guests were used to from weddings at home. Â I have told a few brides on here that the hours between ceremony and reception are a gift because it was SO hot and everyone had a chance to freshen up before the dinner/party. Â You can also do your planning when you get there! Don't stress out about that! I was exactly where you are in June and I was going crazy!!! Because I had booked everything with Chandlyn and then she got fired, I was super stressed out about what we had actually booked and what never got done (it turned out that nothing had been booked). Antonette sat down with us the day before the wedding and was so patient and went through everything three times with me to make sure it was exactly what I had planned. We started from square one the day before the wedding and everything was perfect! Â Please don't stress! I know it's hard to believe after dealing with the WC there but it really will all work out. I was pulling my hair out leading up to our departure date and it all worked out! Good luck! Â Â

1. We wanted beach, beach, beach which is how we chose our reception venue. We had dinner at Mammee Bay and wanted a whole change of scene for the dancing and the poolside looks nice but it's something we could have done at home - the beach fit our vision perfectly! I didn't even find out about this forum until after we had decided on the venue. Â 2. For my decor for the ceremony, dinner and reception (including all the flowers), we paid $2460 US. Â 3. The packages are based on the number of guests. We had 51 people and the Caprice was the only package that accomodated a large group. We did get a complementary couples massage, breakfast in bed the morning after the wedding, some discounts on our flowers, a RIU gift (t-shirts, a mug and booze). Â Hope this helps!

I dealt with Antonette who I believe is the full time WC now. I never met Tina when I was there, makes sense that she has left because I believe she was just on loan from the RIU Negril. Â I also think that they reply to brides in order of weddings. They get swamped with emails and I didn't hear anything from them either in the months leading up to my wedding but as soon as it was super-close, all my emails were replied to promptly. I don't agree with their way of doing things but they have a teeny tiny office and there are only a few women working there so I kind of get it. If your wedding is in March, you have TONNES of time. Don't stress! I didn't even start planning my July 20th wedding until April.

I love your photos!! You look so beautiful!! Â I totally agree that you have to be informed about what this resort is all about if you want to get married here. I didn't see a poolside reception while I was there - yours looked wonderful!

I wondered why Antonette kept asking me how much Chandlyn quoted us for the steel drum band! We paid $350 for it. Â We paid for everything the day before the wedding and although it was a little stressful, we had to believe that it would work out and it did! My friends who have gotten married in Mexico also had to pre-pay for their wedding so I think it might be a resort standard. They may be afraid that if they do everything as asked for your wedding, they won't get paid in the end.

We cleared out our credit cards just in case we didn't bring enough cash, just for extra back up (and on the advice from friends who got married in Mexico). The WC is very cool and understanding! I really don't think pre-plans need to be extensively made because it was that part that freaked me out the most! We went over everything once we were in Jamaica because we had booked with Chandlyn (who was fired) and the new WC wanted to make sure that everything she promised us was honoured (which it was!) Â I did order our decorations from Tai Flora about a month before we left for Jamaica. I had budgeted $2500 for flowers and ceremony/reception decorations and got everything I wanted (ceremony chairs, bamboo arch, bouquet, BM and mother's corsages, boutonnieres, dinner and reception decorations) for less than that! Tao Flora does a great job of sending spreadsheets with each item broken down into amount and cost. We had the Caprice package (the price in on the RIU website) and paid extra for the private beach reception ($15 per person), steel drum band for the ceremony, champagne reception at the ceremony site and dj for reception. I think we paid half in cash and half credit so we wouldn't use up all of our cash in one shot and not have any for tips etc.

We did rent the beach bar for the after dinner reception at $15 per person. The dj was also an additional cost. Tai Flora did my flowers and they have an incredible selection! I don't know how you would pack flowers if you are going to try to get everything into one suitcase especially since my luggage got so man-handled on the trip! I would get in touch with Tai Flora and ask them if they have or can get the flowers you want. I was working with Jennievie - [email protected] Tal Flora also did my centre pieces. We had a luggage restriction of 2 bags per person flying into Montego Bay and there was no way I would have brought centre pieces. I just told them I wanted simple white flowers in vases with candles and they totally delivered! the dinner decorations were also brought down to the beach reception so we got to use them all night!

It was funny because the ROR is a huge resort and wherever we went, we saw people we knew. It was great! I really began to feel guilty because we almost always would end up at a pool and our friends would eventually make their way over but our parents were on the beach all the time so we would kind of shuttle between the two. The only problem with this method is that on the way to the other location we would see so many other people and have conversations so that when we got to the beach/pool, we would only stay there for 1/2 hour and then make our way back to the other spot. It is going to be an exhausting (but great!) week - it was for us for sure! We are packing for a mini-honeymoon in Newfoundland right now just to have time to relax! The central bar saved us! Our guests arrived over 3 days and whenever we greeted them we would just tell them that each evening we will be at a specific bar so they were free to do what they wanted and if they wanted to pass by and see us after dinner, great! We also only ate at the buffet and not at the other restaurants because it was easier to be flexible with the buffet (and it had amazing food!). I also didn't want to plan all kinds of activities and wanted everyone to feel like it was their vacation so having a meeting place made everyone able to move at their own pace.

Do you have the long version of your birth certificate? You need to order this. The small wallet sized BC doesn't have your parent's names on it but the long form (the one that your parents filled out in the hospital when you were born, assuming you were both born in Canada) is the copy that you have to get notarized. You have to go to your provincial government website and there is a way to order your long form birth certificates and have them sent to your house. I had to order them from the Registrar General here in Ontario so imagine the same office in other provinces will provide the same service. It also says that the person whose birth certificate is being ordered has to be the one who ordered it - not true because I ordered my FI's without a problem. Once you get your long form birth certificate - which is a stamped, legal copy of the original - MAKE COPIES OF THEM and have the copies notarized. Do not send the resort the stamped copy that you receive from the government. The reason behind this is that the government will only issue a certain number of the long form BC to you (and it's not many) so photocopy the original and have the copy notarized. This is what I did without a problem!

I did bring all my docs with me and although they did receive the mailed copies, the WC still took the copies I brought. You were SO right about the day running smoothly! Everything was perfect!

Just another point that I thought I'd mention now that my wedding has come and gone. With a large group my FI and I were really stretched trying to spend time with everyone (eating dinner with parents, hanging out with family and friends at the beach/pool, making sure we see everyone at either the pool or beach during the day etc.) What worked for us was to spread the word that whatever activities everyone did during the day, we would always be at a specific bar after dinner (at ROR we were at the Dunn's Bar which is pretty central). This way everyone can stop by for a drink or just to say a quick hello on their way by. It made it way easier to touch base with our guests and made sure that we were easily found on the resort. Good luck to everyone!

Thank you to everyone for your amazing words!!! I am really happy I can share my experience with past and future brides

I did see a wedding that was a few days before mine that had speakers set up to provide ceremony music. I believe that they can accommodate cds and ipods. I would even bring both with the songs you want to play as I did because we found out when we were there that our cds weren't compatible with their cd players - thankfully friends of mine had the songs on their ipod! 6 months will fly by! congratulations!!!

I noticed people as I was walking to the beach ceremony with my girls and parents. Other than that, I have no idea who was watching. The only problem we had was when taking photos, there were 2 teenagers buying what I can only assume to be drugs right behind me. My photographer screamed at them to have some tact and not do their deals when there is a wedding going on (we had 51 guests so it was a large group). They moved right along down the beach.

Our dinner was included in our package but we were charged full price per head for the kids at the reception. I overlooked this charge because we were over the head count for the restaurant that we wanted to have dinner at and they didn't make a fuss over it. I think it evened out in the end.