Marlena

Don't waste your money on the liquor at the reception. They serve beer and wine. The house wine is ok, and they put that on all the tables. If you like to drink wine, you can pay for different (upgraded) bottles (which is what we did, we had a wine from Chile, I think casilo diablo or something like that, which was $25 per bottle, and about $15 per bottle at LCBO) By the time your guest's sit, mingle, eat, etc...its 930. You can dance around for 1 hour, then everyone (if you have a party crowd) moves on to the lobby bar or goes to the disco to continue celebrating! The rest of the crowd goes to bed. Then, if your crowd is adventurous, you can go on to the midnight buffet and get snacks!! Wear your wedding dress the whole day until you drop! It's the only time to wear it, and be prepared that EVERYONE at the resort will talk to you, congratulate you, they might even try to hug you etc...even the rest of the week, some random lady told me at the breakfast buffet that my wedding was the best one she's seen and she's been there for 2 weeks! Its hot. Bring baby powder so you can put that on before you put your dress on. I had a beautiful tulle/organza type wedding dress, and I was sweating, My cousin helped me powder places I didnt think could sweat! The steel band was worth the $$. We had them for 2 hours. The only thing we forgot to do was pick out music, which we did the day before the wedding. Think about songs you want to walk down the beach to, have your bridesmaids walk down to, the signing of the registry song, and then the recessional song!!

wrap your wedding bouquet in a hotel towel and pack it in the middle of your suitcase. Do not declare it on your customs card, and Voila!! your bouquet makes it home in one piece!! Make sure you get it out of your suitcase when you get home, or it will get moldy wrapped in a towel!! Mine travelled home very nicely!

A few tips...so I was snooping at the last posts! - dollarama sells hanging paper lanterns, and definitely use them to decorate the beach's steak house. I did and it looked great ( i also left all of my decorations there, i didn't want to bring them home) my colours were silver and turquoise and they sell nice blue coloured lanterns, and they don't weigh alot in your suitcase - costco has LED tea lights that you can put into luminere bags (i got mine at party packagers very cheap),then I made one of my bridesmaids fill up a ziploc bag of sand, and we used a bit of sand in the bottom as a weight and put them all around the ledges of the restaurant, since it was open air and was beautiful) - wear your dress to the disco!! I did! it was a great time! I also jumped in the Santa sleigh they had in the lobby! - Tai Flora - yes - they are slow as anything, but the flowers are beautiful! don't waste your money on flowers for the huppa, the ceremony lasts only 15 minutes or so, and everyone is busy watching you, not the $500 floral arrangement. I used silver and blue tulle and tied it around the huppa, it blew around in the wind and looked very pretty (cost me $5 !) - Go for the steel band! they are worth the money! and after the ceremony, most go to the beach bar and get drinks while you are off getting photos done. They give you champagne right after the ceremony, but i think the bar is a waste of $$ when its an all inclusive resort, most of our wedding guests went to the lobby bar until dinner anyways Happy planning, it's totally worth it to get married on the beach!!

YAH! It's my ONE year anniversary today!! Oh how I miss Jamaica!! Congrats to all the brides who chose Iberostar. My wedding was perfect, so relaxed, beautiful and a wonderful week with our closest family and friends on the beach! You've all definately made the right decision on having a destination wedding!! (I was just thinking about the wedding, and then decided to log in!!)

And I ordered the turquoise table runners at efavormart.com for like $1.50 each, and they don't take up space in your suitcase! We used them to tie around the huppa on the beach, it made everything look great! happy planning!!

What I paid At Tai Flora.... Bridal Bouquet... white roses & orchids with a hint of blue hydrangea $150 Bridesmaids Bouquets....same as bridal, with no hydrangeas for $75 Orchid boutinere $20 Mothers corsage's (white orchids and blue hydrangea) $40 each Petals for the flower girl....$50! (for about 2 cups worth. go with bright colours, otherwise you won't see them on the beach) Centerpieces- I told them my budget was $60 per table, and I had bright pink orchids in submerged vases (3 cylinders of different heights) with 4 votive candles on each table ( I had 8 tables, so just centerpieces were $480 USD!) I recommend the orchids for your hair, they come with bobby pins in them and they lasted the whole night and made everything seem tropical! (i think it was $20 for 3 orchids) i decided against any flowers on the huppa on the beach. They wanted alot of money for flowers that you only see for 20 minutes in the mid day sun! So we had turqoise and white tulle wrapped around it and it was beautiful. Tai Flora doesn't respond quickly, especially if your wedding is more than 6 months away. Once you get about a month in advance ( I know, it took me a while to wrap my brain around this too) they send you everything you need. My total price tag for flowers was $1500.

Sjay, blue mountain coffee is a great idea, but it will cost you $15-$20 per bag! That's why we went with the Jamaican Rum Cream (made by Sangsters) and grater cake.

to answer a few questions...we got married on the beach, at 330, we had the steel band from 3-5 pm. Our guests drank champagne and danced around on the beach after the ceremony, and the photographer took us and the wedding party to take some pictures on the dock with the gazebo on the end (which I highly recommend!) We had the DJ at the reception at the steakhouse, and it was great. He played whatever we requested. At the end of the night (1030) we all went to the lobby bar and then a few more of us ended up at the disco (yes, in my wedding dress!!) to continue the party!! They include house wine and red stripe beer on tap for our reception, however, if you drink wine, the house brand is not that spectacular. You can order wine for the tables, they just charge you for it. We ordered several bottles of Cassilero Diablo (its from Chile) and they charged us $25/per bottle, which I was fine with ( I think its 13 or 14 dollars here per bottle) I think it's a cash grab to pay $10 per person per hour for liquor, when you can roll to the lobby bar post reception, and you've paid all that money to come to an all inclusive resort for the week. My wedding favours...I will have to look into that for you....we had a bottle of Jamaica Rum Cream and a small grater cake (which is a Jamaican coconut cake with pink on the top!) delivered the day we arrived to the resort. We paid 300 dollars for 65 favours and they wrapped them in a clear plastic and tied a raffia bow on them with a thank you tag...I will find my contact... I also ordered hand fans as a favour, and had them personalized with our names and wedding date on them, I had my aunt place them on every seat for the ceremony, since it was pretty hot, even in December! The ladies at the resort move all of the speedo wearing old men out of the way, so you don't have to worry about having them in the background of your wedding pictures!!

Ladies, Its been 5 months since I got married at the beach resort! I was just thinking about it so I thought I'd see how much fun everyone else is having planning their wedding! A few tips for you nervous brides! Don't stress that the WC don't email you back right away. They function on Jamaica time! They didn't even tell me the time for my hair/makeup until the day before the wedding, but they treat you like a princess and do everything for youask for when you are there tell TaiFlora your budget for centerpieces. They will rip you off with pricing, but I told them I wanted to pay $60 USD per table (8 tables, prices add up!) and they came back with 3 cylinder vases with floating orchids and 4 votives on the tables, which was beautiful we had our wedding favours delivered in Jamaica. We ordered them from a company down there so we didnt have to drag 20 extra pounds of junk down there, and it was worth it. Or you can buy all kinds of appleton rum in different sizes at the gift shop and tie ribbons around it at each place setting (which i would have done, if i had have known!) the spa did a great job on my hair/makeup, and prices were the same as what we would pay at home (i think around 175 for me, since i was the 'bride', i was more money) we did a welcome booklet and handed it out on the plane...some old ladies on the plane asked me for it, they thought it had coupons or travel advice! made me laugh...but i didnt do welcome bags. we had 62 people, and it was better to just spend time with everyone while we were all together in paradise! the steel band was definately worth the money! we had them for 2 hours on the beach, and it was perfect marcia roberts did a great job with the photography. my photos arrived within 3 weeks of the wedding, and i went to costco with a disc and printed multiple copies! we ended up wtih over 1,000 shots! Her price was decent, and the pictures turned out fabulous! The only thing we forgot was to pick the songs for the ceremony! make sure you have thought about - walking down the aisle/beach, bridesmaids song, bride song, an interlude for singing the registry and then your grand exit as husband and wife! I hope this helps!

we booked through Air Canada, last year. Sent out the STD's in February, this was our pricing...$1800 for garden view room, but if you paid in full by March, it was $250 off per person. (which works great since most of our family and friends were definately coming!) The suites was well over $2000 per person for a December trip, which is why we booked the beach resort. And trust me, it's beautiful. If people have bad things to say, they must be extremely picky! We did have some guests book in September, they paid around $1700 per person to go. And a last minute guest paid 1500. All flying out of Pearson. I have no idea what DJ we had, but I just kept asking him to play songs I wanted to hear, and he did. It was great. I guess no one says no to the girl in the wedding dress! I left all of my decorations down there, I hope they go to good use!!

Well, for all of you wondering what to do about your marriage license when you get back, I have an answer! (for those in Ontario anyways) I emailed the city of Toronto and this is my response.... Marriages are only registered in the jurisdiction that the event occurred. Your marriage is registered in Jamaica. The only place you will "register" your marriage in Canada is on your Federal Income Tax Return for the year of the marriage. You will simply indicate that your marital status has changed. You will require the Jamaican marriage certificate for name change, banking and insurance purposes. Hope this helps! Now I just have to wait for the marriage certificate to arrive....

sunshine2413 I used Taiflora, and they had a simple arrangement that was on the signing table with orhcids and roses, they moved that inside to the cake table after the ceremony on the beach! There's no reason to order all kinds of flowers when you can move your ceremony decor to your reception! As for photography, I used Marcia Roberts. I'm sure digipix would do a good job, but they are also the same people who run around the resort, taking your pictures at dinner, with the parrots etc and charging you $15 for it...

Noreen, Marcia did my photos as well, and yes her assistant did take quite a few, she was standing there telling him what to do and she did most of the posing, capturing of moments shots. At one point he was so close to the water his shoes got wet! And he climbed to the top of the lifeguard tower to take a group shot looking down on the beach!! Just make sure you get it in writing what you would like covered...ie. cake cutting, at the reception, bride getting ready etc. and make sure your family is right there ready for their shots before they take the 2 of you off by yourselves for your own shots!

Congrats!!! Morgan, your dress is beautiful! I got home last week, but I don't have any photos yet.....

Starrysim, Your pro shots are absolutely gorgeous!! Marcia did a great job! I can't wait to get mine!! Oh yes, I'm back from Jamaica....I don't have any pictures to post, none of my guests have sent me any yet!! The wedding was beautiful, the weather was perfect....and I wish I could have stayed longer!!

Ok ladies...It's my turn to say goodbye!! I'm heading to the spa for mani/pedi/waxing good times and then off to the airport this afternoon!! I'm so excited and scared at the same time, so much planning for one day, and Im hoping it turns out perfect. Thank you for all of the ideas/posts that I 'borrowed' and I will be sure to share all of the details when I get back !! so far it looks like sunny weather for Monday!!

ladies, I too am off to the spa for waxing, and I know better from previous mishaps to pay a professional ! Then I have to finish packing and head out to the airport!! I can't believe it's here! The forecast says no rain for monday, so hopefully we get married on the beach as planned!! I will post all kinds of pics when I'm home!! good luck to you all!!

clonedtwice, Don't worry, I told Sylvia I wanted the steel band for the ceremony and DJ for the reception, and she just confirmed yesterday! And we leave on Saturday!! I know it will all turn out perfect in the end, but I like to know when everything is happening and that it's all planned ou. I still don't know what time I'm getting my hair/makeup done!

Well ladies, I leave on Friday!! That's 3 days from now! I just started getting out everything I have to pack, and forgot that I've spent a year planning this wedding and didn't realize how much stuff I have to get down there! I really should have made a planning thread, then i would have remembered everything! I have postcards, welcome booklet, personalized fans for the beach ceremony, ordered earrings from etsy, cake topper, table runners, mini starfish, luminary bags, paper lanterns....the list goes on and on ! All of this was made possible by everyone's contribution from this site! I couldn't have done it without you all!

Kimberli, You are staying at the suites, right ? So I will be at the beach resort, and our wedding is monday on the beach! unless it rains....so if isee some random people waving, I will know who it is!!

daizyduke, We are thinking about it now.. I mean, who do you cut out ?! People that I work with, and just have family there ? And then they all wonder where we are the night before ? That kinda sucks since we are spending the whole week down there together, that's the whole point of it!

I got my suitcase out! There are clothes everywhere in our spare room! I can't believe we go on Saturday!! All I have to do is pack, and make sure that I have everything (favours etc) accounted for!

On another note, for those ladies who have a large group of people going to their wedding, I have run into a problem trying to book the 'rehearsal' dinner the night before the wedding. Initially, they tell you that you can book a dinner and it will use 1 a la carte option for your guests, but they don't tell you the guest limit! So, my group is 60. I tried to book the rehearsal dinner at the cajun restaurant and they tell me that it's now called a semi private dinner because its more than 40 guests, so its an additional $400 USD! OMG. I'm spending how much on the package, the flowers, the steel band, the DJ, the favours, the alcohol, and now you want $400 for a dinner that is in the contract ?!

OOOOOOh Starrysim!! The pics are beautiful ! I'm so happy for you!! I can't wait to see Marcia's pro pics!!

I have a question, do we have to do anything here (as in Canadian brides) to make the ceremony legal ? I know they give us a marriage certificate in Jamaica, but do we have to register that when we get home ? Does anyone know how that works ? I just want to make sure its all sorted out....only 2 weeks to go!!