acw271011

My husband and I got married there in Oct 2011 and we ended up being only two of us. We still had a great time and still had a proper wedding. Whatever you want to know just ask.

there are quite a few past brides that have used the steel drum band and been very happy with how they played. I don't know if this helps anyone out or not, but we found a site by a man in Florida and he does ALL the traditional wedding music on steel drum and sells it for $6. that's what we did and put it onto a CD and they played it. it was wonderful and exactly what I wanted. The sound quality is GREAT!!!! and it's a long way from paying $800. I tried to attach a sample here but it won't support uploading an mp3 file. if anyone wants to PM me I can email a sample that way. and like I said, he has all of the standard wedding stuff and in steel band, it sounds beautiful!!

We used a Jamaican by the name of Roxroy Gough. he did the video for another past bride on this thread and it was gorgeous! his prices are very reasonable and we really liked him. I can pass on the contact info if you like. I think back in 2011 he charged us about $400 and he was there the whole day

I found this website for wedding invitations and did use it. It isn't Vistaprint but they have some nice designs and they're really inexpensive. If you have somewhere you can get the cardstock and a print shop, it works out to be less expensive than an invitation printer. http://www.printable-wedding-invitations.com/ this is a little of what I did with Vistaprint. The card is what we sent out to everyone that didn't make it to Jamaica. Inside I inserted a photo that was one of our wedding pics and I had it printed at Walmart. We used a Jamaican photographer so getting actual thank you cards or announcement cards wasn't part of his package. This is a business card that fits perfectly into luggage tags if you're doing them for OOT bags. I think it was 250 for about $4 and then I got the tote bag for free with the order.

If you're asked, I would just tell the WC that the person doing pictures for you is a family member that is travelling with you from home and is staying at the resort for the week with you. I would even throw in a comment to the effect that you had to ask around to family members for someone to do it for you because the cost of a photographer plus the resort vendor fee was too much of a cost for you.

Sorry - this was meant to be that anyone CAN rent the gazebo for a spot to have dancing and a dj, not can't.

To clarify again, anyone can't rent the gazebo for a spot to have a dj and some dancing up to 11 pm and for a 2 hr period. if anyone goes way back to the beginning of these posts, you'll see that it's an option that a lot of brides have done and has worked out really well. Unless you rent the Piscis open location which is private or ask for the Dolce Vita privately at a cost of $2500, all other reception locations are semi private. Yes there are other diners there, but the resort really does work hard at trying to make sure the wedding groups are as close to private as possible and the Dolce Vita has a semi private room where they put wedding groups. I've never seen a single complaint about uninvited guests at a reception held there. Ladies - you have to remember this is Jamaica and it's a resort. it's a different wedding experience and a wonderful one. you're going there to have a special no stress wedding. don't try to make it like a wedding you would plan at home. that's not the idea. Enjoy the planning experience and the fact that you're on a beautiful island in the Caribbean marrying the love of your life.

Just to clarify, the vendor fee is for anyone coming to and staying on the resort to provide a service, i.e. a photographer. For both Tai Flora and Jan's, all they do is drop off the flowers so there is no vendor fee. They are the 2 accepted florists for the resort. My understanding, although I didn't use her, for Rachel and her assistant is that if they just come in, do the hair and makeup and leave, there is no vendor fee. I know there was one bride that said that if she sticks around through the day to touch you up, then they will charge the guest pass rate for her, which is $75 US.

Hi, I just wondered what your colours are? I have a beautiful little flower girl dress, never worn, with matching shoes and flip flops, matching hair band with a flower and a coordinating sash that goes around the waist of the dress. The tags are still on everything. If the colour is right, I could send you pics if you want.

Hi ladies, I don't know if this will be helpful or not. I got married Oct 20, 2011 at 1 pm. Originally we were set for November 17th, but had a lot of difficulty with people booking. We knew we were going to be a very small group - we're a lot older and it was the second time around for both of us - but too many people bailed at the last minute. In the end we decided we would go ahead and we went just the 2 of us in October instead and had a great time. When it was going to be a group in November, we had an early ceremony time too so we asked about having some hors d'oeuvres put together up at the Terrace Bar so that everyone could go from the ceremony site to a shady spot, sit and have a drink and something light to eat while we were off having pics done. It isn't that far from the gazebo for people to get to, it's in the shade and would allow people to relax before the dinner. It would be easy to kill a couple of hours and the prices are really quite inexpensive for the hors d'oeuvres. I don't stop by here much anymore since we've now been married almost a year and a half, but I check in every once in a while and thought I would pass on the suggestion. I had so many good ideas from this site, and then when our entire wedding fell apart and we had to put it all back together, this site kept me sane! lol Good luck to everyone and I'll say the same thing I said in my review. RELAX! In Jamaica, it's no problem mon and the coordinators really do know what they're doing. Your wedding day will be perfect! I am a true testament to that after everything we went through and still had a beautiful, wonderful day. I got really sick 5 months ago and had major surgery and was told that if I had gotten to the hospital just a couple of days later than I did, I wouldn't be here to tell about it. My husband spent hours and hours sitting beside me in the hospital for 23 days so believe it or not, we're actually thinking about renewing our vows on a beach somewhere, maybe next year. I still have more surgery to get through so we'll wait to see how all of that goes to make sure we really have something to be thankful for before we make a final decision.

Hi. We got married at GBPJ on Oct 20, 2011 and used Merrick Cousley for our pics. He was fantastic and like JayKay we didn't pay the rates that he charges now! But he is wonderful to work with and his work has progressed so much that he's well worth what he charges! We were horribly disappointed with the resort photographers and they had just taken over when we were there. It had only been a couple of weeks. They did about 75 shots and we looked through and had a tough time picking the 5 freebies. In the end we found 10 and they gave them all to us for free. They were ok and were actually one or two shots that Merrick didn't get so that was why I wanted them. We actually got talking to a bride to be at the resort and she was stuck for a photographer - she actually arrived without one booked - and we talked her out of the resort people just because of how horrible they were and how expensive. We gave her Merrick's info on the off chance that he was still open but we never heard how she made out. I would NOT recommend the resort people. My husband actually sat and talked to the new "owner" and she went on and on about how they wanted to improve the service, blah, blah. The whole sales pitch but we didn't see it translated into their work and there was another wedding 2 days before ours that was in reviewing photos at the same time and they seemed just as disappointed. They are located in other resorts as well, specifically the Dominican that we know of but I have no idea what the quality of their work is there. Hope that helps out. As an FYI, I was looking at Mexico for some information and the resorts there definitely have vendor fees - some as high as $800 but the general seems to be $500 unless you use their "recommended" photographers. The fact that GBPJ has now gone to charging isn't surprising but the fact that their "recommended" people are crappy is. At least Mexico seems to recommend people that take good pictures!

I took a gift down for Chandlyn. she really is wonderful to work with. as JayKay said, they concentrate on the weddings that are the closest. believe me when I say you will get the full attention when your wedding date gets closer. and yes, it is Jamaica. everything down there moves a lot slower. other girls have picked up Bath & Body Works gifts for both Chandlyn and Donnalee. we didn't really have any interaction with Donnalee until our wedding because she only came on board after our planning was pretty much complete. Donnalee is Chandlyn's assistant.

hi ladies. I don't know if any of you are able to answer this or not. the website is really hard to figure out. my husband and I are looking at renewing our vows next year (2014) but our anniversary falls on a Monday. I gather this is considered their symbolic ceremony. what I'm wondering about is how far in advance you have to arrive since you aren't doing a legal marriage ceremony? the next possible "anniversary" date for us would be that Friday but we aren't looking to pay $400 extra just because it's on a Friday. there doesn't seem much point in having an anniversary celebration that doesn't fall on your anniversary. we would be a small group of probably only 6 but it seems the packages all have minimums of at least 10. it would be fun to do everything - ceremony, cocktails then a reception but if they would nickel and dime for a small group of 6 I'm not sure it would even be worth it. thanks for any suggestions. any recommendations if we're looking at October 2014, when would it be a good idea to contact the resort if this is the one we ultimately choose? I'm actually looking at 3. this one, the Royal and Dreams Cancun but I'm hearing it's full of kids and we would be an adults only group. thanks again.

I used Vistaprint for our "At Homes". We had ours 2 weeks after we returned from Jamaica. They have a ton of styles either in a folding card or a flat style. I used the flat and you can edit it however you want with colours, fonts, etc. I think mine totalled about $35 for the number we needed. they turned out great and were just what I wanted.

I had my wedding dinner there because the Grill was being retiled so they closed it. Here's the pic. It's nice enough and would be fine for 60. We were only two plus our photographer so this is how they set up the table for us.

We used Roxroy Gough of RGWeddings. he was terrific and the price was very reasonable. he was with us the entire day and did both a short "highlights" video as well as one of the entire day/ceremony and covered both bride and groom. I can find the contact details if you want them.

I agree with the Davids Bridal. Mine was also chiffon with a train in ivory. they have a lot of styles that will work for destination weddings. two days before our wedding there was another bride from here that got married and her dress was taffeta. she didn't have any problems with being too hot. that was october but i don't think between april and october there is much difference. just a suggestion...

Yes they have a pressing service but it will cost you about $90 US to have done. Simpler just to hang your dress in the bathroom with the shower on hot and steam it up that way. then just hang it. plenty of places in the room to hang your dress.

Hi. I just wondered if anyone knows what the recommendation would be for how long in advance to book for October 2014? Is the wedding coordinator still Pilar (saw that on another post) and if so, if I email her how long will it take her to respond? Thanks.

hi to all the brides to be that are here and a hello again to the two veterans that I see. Jayne and Krista hope married life is going well for you guys. I lurk here every once in a while and catch up. I'm in the same boat as exquisite02. I don't get regular updates anymore either so when I do have a minute to check things out there are usually several pages to look through. our one year anniversary is coming up in just about 3 weeks - October 20th. can't believe it's a year already! the time has just flown by! we've had some unusual things that have happened to us over the last 11 months so believe it or not we're thinking about a vow renewal already! possibly in 2014 if certain things go ok. we'll have to see what the next year brings for us. we had rather a unique situation with our wedding and we ended up being only the 2 of us. Chandlyn and Donnalee signed our marriage licence and Chandlyn stepped in as my "assistant" and helped me get dressed the morning of our wedding so I have nothing but good things to say about her. I used Tai Flora and they are actually the default florist for the resort, but also offer Jan's as an approved vendor. Tai Flora were wonderful and I would definitely recommend them. I changed completely what I wanted and the price was super. I have no complaints whatsoever. Jennivie sometimes took a few days to get back to me by email but she always did and always answered my questions. I have the catalog for them if anyone wants it. We had planned dinner at the Grill which has a really nice view of the ocean but they were replacing tiles on the floor whiel we were there so the whole restaurant was closed. We ended up having our dinner in the Paloma buffet restaurant instead. they cleared a section for us even though we didn't have a group so we didn't have people having conversations around us. our photographer took pity on us and stayed for dinner with us so we at least had somebody there! we used Merrick Cousley same as JayKay and again, nothing but wonderful things to say about him. we also had a video done. Roxroy Gough of RGWeddings and he is wonderful too! both were very reasonably priced and worked with us after our plans fell apart and we had ot change our date. I will say again what I said when we came back and I wrote my review. don't sweat things and JayKay and Kristo can attest to this. your wedding day will be perfect. just remember you are going to another country and things may not be exactly as they are here but if that's what you want then don't do a destination wedding. you're doing a destination wedding for simplicity, fun and less cost so take advantage of all of that and ENJOY!!!! to the bride asking about the beach, the unique thing about GBPJ is that the gazebo is right on the beach. it's the only resort that does this so everyone takes advantage of it. I know they will do a beach ceremony but I don't think I've ever seen anyone on this site that did it only because of the true beauty of the gazebo right on the ocean. there is a wonderful breeze that comes in off the water and keeps you cool and you get a view of the entire resort as a backdrop. it's great. I would highly recommend the gazebo ceremony. I've added a couple of pics of what we had done. obviously with no guests we didn't have chairs or anything but I thought what they did with the gazebo was nice. we did our cd with our music for the different parts of the ceremony and we also did a sand ceremony. we're older and this was second time around for both of us so we wanted more meaning to things rather than the traditional. it's a beautiful walk down to the gazebo. try to enjoy it!! I have a link to recorded steel drum music that is for weddings if anyone is interested. it's totally cheap and is as good as you would get from a real steel band. they put the volume up for us and it was just like having the steel band actually there. I guess this makes me the oldest vet hanging around but I can still add to anything that JayKay and Kristo put in. they had groups so are probably better equipped to answer questions than I am but feel free anyway. this was our table setting and Tai Flora did the centerpiece: and our cake: this is the gazebo: this was my bouquet. I lost my mom when I was 15 (almost 40 yrs ago now) so I have a brooch that belonged to her that Chandlyn pinned onto my flowers. it gave me my "old" and my "blue"