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Congrats! It sounds like it was all great! Can't wait to see more pics!! Isn't it just amazing!! And to have guests surprise you, that's awesome. Glad it all worked out. We are wishing now we had done 2 weeks instead of just one. Good choice!!

just a word of caution from experience. be absolutely certain they realize you're trying to book 2013 and not 2012.

Congrats! Glad everything went well. Hope you get some pics soon to post! Would love to see some!!

First word of advice - relax! Everything moves a lot slower in Jamaica! We got married Oct 20th at Gran Bahia Principe and loved it!! It was nothing short of perfect! The resort was first class, weather was fantastic and our wedding turned out to be more than we could have hoped! Good luck!! I would highly recommend Merrick Cousley Photography. He's local to Jamaica and did our photos and we absolutely love them We couldn't do a TTD because we had an AHR, so I wore my dress twice but Merrick was wonderful!!

we didn't have it but I think the concern with the cesar is the dressing. jamaica is just not a place where cesar salad is a common thing except for people on resorts! sorry I can't help with the tiramisu or caprese salad either - i seem to remember someone having the caprese but not sure who. standard cake is 2 layers. extra layer is $40 to give you 3. and design wise, pick one then hope for the best. there isn't anyone I've seen here that got their design for a cake, including me. they like to go a little over board with their designing lol I don't think they get any other opportunity to be creative. it makes for a lot of icing on the cake but it is really good cake!!! the raspberry one seems to be the favourite so far and it's what we had too.

We ended up being only 2, but even when we were originally having a group of about 16, we were told 1 choice for everyone unless vegatarian or food allergy. they will send you the choices but I understand you can mix and match from each selection - if that's not right ladies, jump in pls - as long as it's still only one complete menu for everyone. we were booked at the Grill but they were replacing the floor when we were there so they moved us to one of the buffet restaurants instead. A bit disappointing, but since we were 2 it wasn't really a big deal. Our food was great even if I don't remember exactly what we ate! lol I know we had the Mixed Grill but I would have to go back to my paperwork to see what the other selections were. I have no memory of eating dinner whatsoever!! lol

totally off topic ladies... but I just have to do this. we just got our most amazing wedding gift. I have't had time to put it here until now... but here is our brand new granddaughter Madisson who arrived just after our AHR... an early surprise since she wasn't due until yesterday. sorry - I know this isn't a baby site but this little one is the reason one of our kids was missing from our reception so she really is a gift! the pic doesn't do her justice... she really is gorgeous!

Congrats! happy it all went well. you get a different perspective on this site now that you've been through it! isn't it just amazing! your review is great!

all the best and have an amazing time!! can't wait for your review! and remember... RELAX!! don't sweat the small stuff. it will all turn out fine!

We received 2 copies our our marriage certificate from the resort but were advised that it was not the proper documentation to change my name, which I'm not doing anyway. We were more concerned with just having something to show to customs at the airport on our way home if we were questioned, which we werent. All the world loves a wedding and newlyweds, and all we were was congratulated lol

well I guess for me it is really official now. we had our reception on saturday and it was just awesome. it didn't quite make up for not having family with us in jamaica, but we really had a blast. super food, great DJ, lots of drinks... can't ask for anything more than that. we had our photographers doing pics so now we get to be excited about a second group of pictures!! and on top of that we have a new grandbaby on the way that was announced at our reception! we also got our photos from Merrick which I will post shortly, and our video too but I haven't figured out how to upload it due to the size. Roxroy did a great job!! part of me is really glad it's all finally over, but another part of me is just a little bit sad. all that planning and it's over so quickly...

Congrats on being a new Mrs!! glad to hear everything went well and I agree that there was no reason to sweat the small stuff. it's just too beautiful of a place to get stressed over things. your pics are stunning and the water shot is incredible!!

our tablecloth was white, but I bought a pink table runner and splurged at $15 but only because we had nobody with us. if we'd had a bunch of people I don't know if I would still have spent the money. I think all of the tablecloths are white. ours was sprinkled with reose petals too, again I think because they took pity on us being by ourselves lol and candles too. it was quite nice. I don't have any pics until we gt ours from Merrick, which is supposed to be tonight because there was no one else to take pics for us!!

it will all go just fine. relax and ENJOY!!!!! easy for me to say now lol but truthfully, I stressed about a lot of things for nothing and it was a wonderful day. things will fall into place and don't sweat the small details. remember - we're all going/went to jamaica to get away from all the stress of a wedding. this is supposed to be fun and relaxing! and it will be if you let it!!!

I found Chandlyn to be one of the most concientious people I think I've ever met. She is calm, cool and collected and very, very professional! I had a wack load of paper I took with me and didn't a single page of it except our NOTARIZED birth certs and divorce papers and our music. Other than that she had a file folder that had everything in it, along with hand written notes that she had made. I honestly wouldn't worry, but if you're like me you'll take all the paperwork with you anyway! lol Best of luck and enjoy your day!! It will be done and over before you know it!!!!

We had absolutely no complaints about the weather. We had one afternoon that it rained for about 20 minutes, then the sun came back out and it was really humid after. We had a quick shower the day of our wedding that lasted about 10 minutes and that was it. It was hot and sunny and great! The gazebo was really windy on our wedding day, but it helped to cool things a little. The rainy season is generally October so you shouldn't have any major problems. Can't wait to hear your review! Best of luck!!

hey ladies. if anyone is still looking for the Jamaica book for OOT bags, I have I think 18 or 20. it's the free one from the tourist commission in Jamaica. I intended to use them but of course ended up not needing them. if you pay the postage I'll send them... pm me and let me know.

I found it was so windy on our wedding day that it kept me cool. it was only when we got away from the beach/gazebo area that I started to get hot even with strapless. the park we went to got really warm and that was at 4PM. that's when I was desperate for something cool to drink. but if you stay down near the beach you should be fine, and the restaurants are cool inside.

That's what we had - all the internet access in the club room along with the robe and slippers, etc. and we were in the "new" tower on the 7th floor, plus yes - our safe was free. I didn't do like Vicky and get the internet access only because we had the free 30 mins per day from the club room. it let us check in with elderly parents, etc. and watch email, which we only did every second day or so. we paid for this with our Transat package. we also bypassed the front desk when we arrived and got taken straight to our room.

hey Vicky it was really good to see you down there!! I wish we'd been able to get a night to drink!!! the week went way too fast!! thanks so much for taking the pics for us - can't wait to see them!! I told you already but am quite happy to say it again - you looked absolutely stunning girl!! your dress was fabulous and I love the colour that you had!! doug has some video for you and he took a couple of cool pics all the way up from our balcony of your wedding lol got one of you being dipped!!! pm me an email that we can send the stuff to. congrats again to both of you!!

thanks everyone for the best wishes. I will say this... after all of our stress I really am glad it's all done even though I really enjoyed our experience there. now we just have to get through our reception on nov 5th and then life can, hopefully, return to a little bit of normal! lol maybe we can start planning our return trip to GBPJ!! thank you too everyone for all of the support over the last 8 months. I probably couldn't have got through without this site. reading the reviews of the brides and the questions, etc of the "soon to be's" was truly helpful for me and it let me know some of what I was in for before we arrived in Jamaica. and it also helped me keep my sanity when everything was falling apart. I want to wish all of you the very best for your upcoming weddings. I will definitely watch for your reviews to see how you get on but after being at GBPJ I know you'll have a wonderful experience and a wedding that you'll never forget. and to all the newlyweds wishes for happy lives with your new husbands!

and here's the teaser from Merrick...

Here's another pic...

Hi ladies. Yes - we're home. And married!! It still sounds so strange to say that!! After all the "trials and tribulations" we actually made it! I don't know where to start. I'm going to try and give you helpful information if I can along with what my impressions were overall. I'm sorry if it will seem long but after being there (finally) and thinking about all the past messages that I've seen here, there is just so much! I have to say the very first word is WOW!! Maybe it was because we were only 2 and didn't have a group to contend with, even though I wish we had, but the GBPJ far exceeded our expectations. We have travelled extensively and this was by far the best vacation we've had in terms of what the resort provided and what we got out of it. We had the 7th floor of section 23. It's a bit of a walk for some things (not all) but it's the top floor and the view is spectacular. We would get up in the morning and just watch the waves coming in and cruise ships going by if it was really early in the morning. We were surprised by how hot it got very early. If we were out in the sun by 10am, we needed a break by noon, sometimes a little earlier. The sun really is strong. I had to get out of the sun for 2 days before the weddng because I got too much too quickly and I was worried about a sunburn with my dress so be careful. The other thing is pack your patience. It's Jamaica. And while it's your wedding, it's also a vacation. Don't sweat the small stuff. It will all work out. Ok. First of all. The one thing we noticed about the resort is that the front desk for some reason doesn't seem to be very organized. Arrivals and departures are a complete zoo so be prepared. We arrived with 2 busloads, which is a full airplane plus I think another flight as well. Thankfully we were on the Royal Golden upgrade and our tour company had everything prepared ahead of time for us. We had our bracelets and a room key in an envelope package they gave us right on the bus. A bellhop got to us when we arrived, realized immediately that we had everything, put our bracelets on and took us up to our room. We bipassed the front desk completely and were in our room with our luggage in about 10 minutes flat. A lot of other people weren't so lucky and for you Canadian ladies, I hate to say it but Sunquest for some reason seems to be a problem tour operator. I truthfully don't know why. But they seemed to have mutliple problems with their passengers hotel check in and we heard stories about it taking as much as 4 or 6 hours before getting settled in rooms, rooms being scattered all over instead of all together, room requests being wrong. So like I said - pack your patience. But don't hesitate if things are really, really wrong to get to the tour operator's little office (they're all in the same room) and take a strip off of them and let them know how you feel. The rooms are exactly as they look in the pictures and very pretty. We loved ours. We had a fantastic maid that did a great job on our room the whole week. I took a couple of little bottles of Bath & Bodyworks and we tipped her twice through the week, then a good tip before we left. NOTE: The staff are not allowed to take things off property so don't take large gifts. They are not allowed to keep them. They will be confiscated and there is a security guard that sits on each floor when the maids are cleaning to watch them. The money they can have, but we tried to offer a couple of things and only found out at the end that they are checked when they leave the resort. The staff work hard so we tipped where we felt it was warranted. We did for all of our a la carte dinners and a dollar each time we were in any of the bars having a drink. Budget for it. It is worth it. We had a bartender that because of the tip we gave him, every time we went to that bar, he knew what we were drinking. Chandlyn is truly an absolute saint. This lady went so far above and beyond for us I can't tell you. She is one of the sweetest, nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Very calm and cool. She doesn't seem to get stressed, at least not that I saw. As an FYI, I didn't tip her directly but I took something personal for her that I picked out that cost me about $75 and she seemed very happy with it. That was because I had no one with me so she did a few extra things for me that I wanted to give her a gift for, not pay her. I think because of her job it's a bit different for gifts for her compared to the other staff. I had no real dealings with Donnalee and saw her for about 15 mins at our ceremony so I didn't take anything for her. But I will say this. Some of the comments may have found their way to her because she was very pleasant. Not at all rude as I was expecting and Doug said she was good with him. I had given him the heads up so he was prepared but he said she was only helpful and polite with him. Do yourselves a favour. Put your music on a CD and do a simple little list of what they are in order and what part of the ceremony they're for. Don't fool around with an IPOD. It actually is more aggravation for them and things will go more smoothly if you put together a CD. And make more than one copy. We took 2. We provided one ahead of time and kept the other as backup that Doug took down with him just in case the first one got lost. They will turn the sound up so you will hear it from the long walk down the stone walkway. And take your time and enjoy the walk. It really is fun. Yes - you can manage heels for that. It's a smooth surface and you won't have any problems. But if you're like me and not used to heels, take a pair of flip flops. I stuck it out as long as I could then had to switch. Since we were only 2, we put a little bag together that Doug took with him so we put my flip flops in there. Donnalee took charge of it during the ceremony then just gave it back to us afterwards. The sand area around the gazebo is packed pretty hard so even there you should be ok in heels for a short while. But if you start moving around the resort to get site photos you may want to switch to something more comfortable. The minister is a sweetheart. He gets this look on his face like he's being very stern and serious, but I don't think he is. The nice thing for us was that because he didn't have to try and have a crowd hear him, he genuinely spoke directly to the two of us. He looked right at us and spoke quite gently during the entire ceremony. The ceremony itself is very short, unless you add your own things into it. We had a marriage poem that I wanted done and he did that right at the end but it was still only about 15 minutes total. Reverend Watson doesn't waste any time and gets right down to it. We did a sand ceremony and he read what he wanted for that. We didn't have any special requests and were completely happy with what he read. It was perfect and in keeping with what I wanted the sand ceremony to be. You are not allowed to have your sand ceremony on the table during the marriage ceremony. That's why Donnalee is the one that brings it over. I put Doug in charge of it and he was setting it up and they told him not to. They said not permitted and that Donnalee would put it up when the time came. It was the first thing I looked for when I got up to the front and even spoke under my breath asking where it was and was told the same thing. That it would come out at the right time. And when we did set it up the first thing that happened was that the wind blew over the empty vase so that may be the reason they don't allow it set up in advance. There is a waiter with champagne ready and waiting right after the ceremony. We got the chance to be congratulated just by the people hanging around, then they set us up for our first dance right there. They played our song and we just danced where everyone usually sits since we nobody sitting there. If you do they'll do it under the gazebo so it will be just as nice. And you can hear the music perfectly. I would highly recommend this because unless you have the gazebo rented we didn't find there was any other place to do a first dance. If you have the gazebo or are booking out an entire restaurant that's different. We weren't doing either one since we're only 2 so right at the gazebo after the ceremony worked just great for us. It really is very very windy down at the gazebo. It's quite pleasant because it cools things off but it doesn blow right into your face as well. And having lots of hairspray definitely is a must. The spa ladies are excellent. Well worth it and convenient for getting hair done right on site. Their hair spray really is cement. My hair hardly moved the entire time even when the wind was really blowing. It may seem pricey but I had a trial done a couple of days before so it really is worth the price. Send an email and get your appointments ahead of time especially if you know there are other weddings the same day as yours. I had no bridal party so it wasn't a problem for me but if you have bridesmaids and the other wedding has bridesmaids and mums and so on, it will get quite busy down there. Save yourself some aggravation and book it ahead of time. Tell them exactly what you need and for how many people and they'll set it all up. We had Merrick Cousely as our photographer. I cannot say enough about this man. He stuck by us when our plans all went south and promised we would still have beautiful pictures. The man was 200% true to his word. I can't wait to see them. He sent us one teaser and if that's what we have in store for us, I would die truly happy. I also got the same video guy as Tekeya - Roxroy Gough. This man too is an absolute sweetheart to be around. So calm and unflustered. And he worked with our photographer. The two of them really seemed to work well together and Merrick said he had worked with him once before so they were familiar with each other. We did some shots around the resort at different locations. The one shot I'm sorry now I didn't get was the jumping in the air shot. I really wanted that one and completely forgot about it because of everything going on. I should have been smart and sent Merrick a list of what I wanted for pictures, but I didn't think about it so there were one or two things that I missed because of it. If you can, do a list of what you want. I'm going to go off topic just a bit for a reason. I wanted to go to Mahoe Falls to do our pictures and still be back at the resort for sunset shots. People here will have heard about Spencer Taxi. I have the info about him that I will provide later. We booked him to go to Ocho Rios and asked about Mahoe Falls. He asked us if he could recommend a place that he would take us to see. Our choice. No pressure and if we still wanted to go to Mahoe he would take us to see it. We turned up this pothole road through overgrown fields and I thought OMG - where is he taking us, this is going to be a dumpy place. Cranbrook Park. We got there and the guide took us around. Beautiful. Stunning. So picturesque. And the best part is it's 15 or 20 minutes from the resort. No long travel. Mahoe Falls is about 45 minutes away. So it worked perfectly. Merrick said we couldn't have taken him to a better place to do our pictures even compared to Mahoe Fals and Coyaba Park. There's a river with a waterfall, flowers, a gazebo, old bridges and PEACOCKS!!!! It's gorgeous. The cost was $10 per person for the 4 of us - Doug & I, Merrick and Roxroy. Now I'm sure if you had a big group for pictures they would work something out for you. I highly recommend it. We got back to the resort in time to take a little break and have a snack then headed back over to the gazebo area for our sunset pictures. It's a beautiful area when the sun is going down. We were booked into the Grill but they were re-doing the floors so they moved us to the Palmyra buffet room instead. I wasn't happy about it but we had no choice. The renovations unfortunately were only going on for 3 days and of course it was the three days that included our wedding day. But it turned out just fine. They had a table for us covered in rose petals and candles and our centerpiece. The cake was so pretty - not quite what I wanted at all or what I had asked for but they still did a beautiful job on it so I couldn't say anything. We did the vanilla raspberry and it's delicious. The food was terrific. The service was fantastic. Since we were just 2 we had an exclusive waiter that couldn't do enough for us so it made it worth it. So unfortunately I can't give you a report on the Grill. I know a lot of you are doing the Dolce Vita for your meal and one of the other weddings we saw had that restaurant and said it was great. We had an a la carte dinner there and hated it. The service sucked, the waitress was rude and the food was terrible but I was told afterwards that the wedding menu was better than what was on the a la carte so don't take what I say as anything to worry about. I had ordered a pink table runner for our table to go with our pink flowers and that cost me $15 but I figured for 1 table I'd splurge. It may not be worth it for a larger group. I had our flowers from Tai Flora and they were absolutely gorgeous. I was thrilled with them and the pricing was great. I had a beautiful upgraded bouquet, the orchid bout for Doug and a glass vase centerpiece and it was $200 plus the tax and delivery so you can't beat that. I've ordered 3 bouts and 3 corsages for our reception in 2 weeks and that's $110 so as far as I'm concerned Tai Flora was exceptional. They arrived on time and beautifully fresh. Now for Spencer Taxi. If you are planning any kind of tour contact Michael Spencer. The man is a true gem. He is kowledgeable about the area and gave us some history on our way to Ocho Rios. He has a beautiful air conditioned 25 to 30 passenger bus so it would work for a group. And his prices are just phenomenal. We had him recommended by someone Doug works with that was married at GBPJ in May and they said he was awesome. They were right. He took us to Ocho Rios directly to an outdoor market that was across from a shopping center. We only wanted a couple of hours to shop. We didn't have time for a tour so we asked for just 3 hours. We found out that he watched where we went to be able to keep an eye on us. There were 2 cruise ships in that day and he said that's usually when you will get the pickpockets or very pushy street sellers out so he said he wanted to make sure we stayed safe. We never knew he was there!! But just the fact that he went the extra mile to watch out for us sold it for me. Ladies - do yourselves a huge favour. Check the cruise terminal schedule in Ocho Rios before you plan any tours. Like I said - there were 2 in the day we went and it's absolutely mad!! There are people everywhere and it's just a zoo!! If you can go on a day when there are no cruise ships in, it's much quieter and apparently you get better deals because they'll bargain more. They figure with the cruise ships that people will just pay whatever and won't bargain as much. To contact Michael: [email protected] Phone numbers are: 876-842-0527 or 876-326-5436 or 876-973-5173 Believe me, you won't regret it. Even if you want to go somewhere for pictures for your wedding, call Michael. His prices are beyond reasonable. And just tell him that Doug & Ann recommended him. He writes down every wedding that he does and all the groups so that if people come back he knows who they are. Well I don't know what else to tell you. If you have any questions let me know. I don't know since we didn't have a group if I can be of any help or not but I'll try. We got our 5 freebies from the resort. They took 74 in total of only the ceremony and we had a hard time finding 5 good ones so they definitely aren't worth it. It was disappointing. Whatever you do don't use them for all of your pictures. And it isn't Digipix anymore. They're gone. It's another company now but they've only been there a month and it's all junior photographers so they're just getting started. Way too many of ours were overexposed and that's using a digital camera so that's definitely someone that doesn't know what they're doing. All in all it was a wonderful experience that I definitely would repeat if I had to do it all over again. We have already decided we're going back to the resort. We loved it that much.

OMG ladies - this place is spectacular!! 4 days to go!! the gazebo is just exactly what it is in the pics. it's gorgeous!! can't wait for thursday!! hair and nails trial on tuesday at 4 pm then the big day. going to do the sunset cruise tomorrow (Monday). sounds like fun. still trying to find someone to take our camera and do pics for us. wish us luck. it's almost here and we're definitely in PARADISE!!!! I'll try to update again later in the week. catching some rays today.