Tekeya Thompson

Hi ladies, I am still planning my AHR, so I really hadn't had much time to put a real deal "planning thread" together but wanted to show you some of the things that I had or used for my wedding: Travel packets: It included Jamaica guide, 2 luggage tags per person, excursions brochure, and the handmade invitations. I sent these out 1 month prior to our departure Welcome Bags: I had a Lot of goodies in my bags, and believe it or not, the guests used every bit of it. I included a list of the items below. Because some rooms had 2 -3 single folks and some rooms had couples, we had to do a lot of strategic planning on how we were going to organize the bags. Gran Bahia did give each person who checked in their bag, so I didn't have to worry about going to each and every room. We gave each person a cup, a rum cake, a lollipop towel, and room card necklace...but other items had to be 1 per room (all the items we put in the gable box). I had the rum cakes handmade by this local company in Atlanta and they were AWESOME!!! Contents of Welcome Bags: stadium cup Homemade Rum Cakes from Rumtastic Lollipop towels Chapstick (with our wedding logo label on it) Flip flop key chain 1st aid kit which I added advil, chaser, alka setzer, and pepto bismol tabs too. Bath and Body lotion Moist wipes Hand sanitizer Room key lanyards Travel tin scented candle flip flop playing cards M&Ms, reeces cups, and rice krispy treats Gatorade I ordered the poly. tote bags and put our tags on that also. I used our logo for just about everything and ordered labels from Onlinelabels.com (they give you a free software for 3 months which made it easy to use.

I am still trying to reach the resort photographer (after 2 weeks) in regards to my photos (the free ones)... In regards to the flowers, I did use the free bouquet in our package as a toss bouquet (all purple orchids) and it came out fine.

Hi FoxyRoxy30! Yes the bug thing did cramp the moment. Like we were in the middle of eatting dessert and my bridesmaid's napkin moved...it was little critters under it. We didn't want to spoil everyone's elses meal so we just stopped eatting. The food was good, but I guess because it's so hot in the grill (no air conditioning), it's probably hard to control the pests. The atmosphere itself is nice, but it is real open. Buffet style for the appetizers then you order your main course. I wish ole I wish we had did our First dance/mother son dance at the restaurant because it was hot as HECK at the gazebo that night. There wasn't much room for the toss in the restaurant but I think we could have done the dance there. We were sweating bullets inside the gazebo. When it was time for everyone to dance, we had to dance outside of the gazebo. I didn't know that about the night time air, never really experienced that before. I know my photographer will have to do major editing to the photos there because of us both sweating so hard. So it wasn't a breaker, because we still had a good time, but if I could have done it differently I would have. Oh make sure if you do the toss at the gazebo to tell them to leave a chair...we didn't have any chairs, so I had to sit on his knee. It would have even been better to do the dancing and stuff during the ceremony (the wind was blowing fierce, but it wasn't nearly as hot.

Hi ladies, I am still planning my AHR, so I really hadn't had much time to put a real deal "planning thread" together but wanted to show you some of the things that I had or used for my wedding: Travel packets: It included Jamaica guide, 2 luggage tags per person, excursions brochure, and the handmade invitations. I sent these out 1 month prior to our departure Welcome Bags: I had a Lot of goodies in my bags, and believe it or not, the guests used every bit of it. I included a list of the items below. Because some rooms had 2 -3 single folks and some rooms had couples, we had to do a lot of strategic planning on how we were going to organize the bags. Gran Bahia did give each person who checked in their bag, so I didn't have to worry about going to each and every room. We gave each person a cup, a rum cake, a lollipop towel, and room card necklace...but other items had to be 1 per room (all the items we put in the gable box). I had the rum cakes handmade by this local company in Atlanta and they were AWESOME!!! Contents of Welcome Bags: stadium cup Homemade Rum Cakes from Rumtastic Lollipop towels Chapstick (with our wedding logo label on it) Flip flop key chain 1st aid kit which I added advil, chaser, alka setzer, and pepto bismol tabs too. Bath and Body lotion Moist wipes Hand sanitizer Room key lanyards Travel tin scented candle flip flop playing cards M&Ms, reeces cups, and rice krispy treats Gatorade I ordered the poly. tote bags and put our tags on that also. I used our logo for just about everything and ordered labels from Onlinelabels.com (they give you a free software for 3 months which made it easy to use.

Fuji Instant Film Camera ( you will have to purchase your own film ): $70 Only used once, to create a photo guestbook. $

found more stuff ;-) Got BRIDES silver favor boxes (50 ct) never used, originally $24, will sell for $10

I only have the 2010 prices...you may want to request the 2011 prices if your wedding is next year. I think you get cheaper rates for stuff in those packages.

humm, I got a quote directly from Paula not the associates. I wouldn't think the prices went up that fast because I didn't get them until around March. It was definitely the gold. OH, but you know what...they were running a special at that time because Antoinette and Clayton were fairly new with Sungold...so that may be why. So now it's the regular rates that the associates charge. I had the 8 hours and the TTD session

I used Jan's Floral, Tai floral quoted me a higher price. The only thing I didn't like about Jan's is the whole deal with them "painting" something on all the calla lillies (to create the colors, instead of just telling me they couldn't get the flowers needed). It wasn't an issue until it started rubbing off everywhere. It wasn't the exact bouquet I sent her, but she charged me as if it would be. It was still a pretty bouquet (I actually like the bridesmaids bouquets better). I think Jan is a sweet person, but I just wish she would have let me known...I just recommend you be real specific about the flowers you want.

We reused our cake topper too, so we made sure we got all our items after the reception dinner Saturday night. The only thing we didn't get because we thought the Chandlyn was going to break it down since we paid the money for the gazebo was the paper lanterns, and they were destroyed by the high tides and winds thru the night. So I read about cake issue that the other bride had (disappearing cake) so I made sure I brought cake boxes with me. Chandlyn gave all the guests cake and gave me the remaining cake on the plate. I recommend you bring your own cake box for your topper, I changed resorts for our honeymoon and we end up taking their glass plate covered with plastic wrap. So I can see how her cake took missing. I had a lady in waiting and an usher that kept tabs on that stuff for me.

Hi Ladies, Found a couple more items while digging ;-) (2) floral hair clips (12 pack) $3 3 sand ceremony vases (to hold the sand) $2 a piece I also added pics of the chair signs:

Hi Daphodil, I hope I didn't sound negative, but I don't like to sugar coat anything. Don't get me wrong, my wedding was AWESOME! We had the best time of our lives and everything was gorgeous...but I like to tell it like it T.I.S...and give the good, bad, and uglies to everything. Thats the only way to keep it real. I know we want to stay positive, but I agree with you, reading this stuff will help the next person know how to handle the situations we encountered and didn't know about...for instance: in the package it offers: room upgrade. I read a few posts where some people say they didn't receive this...so I actually made sure I didn't miss out. And it's sort of a gimic because I was told they don't upgrade your room, but upgrade you to the next floor (which made NOT a BIT of sense!) The thing about the washclothes...even though I had already made towel lollipops for all my guests, I was glad that they REALLY appreciated them since there were no washclothes...I was aware of that and knew how to handle the situation. We both had gorgeous weddings, and I appreciate EVERYTHING Chandlyn has done for me...and yes, I would probably stray away from Donnalee (I know my officiator wasn't too fond of how she did the rehearsal), but hey, it comes with the territory...in the end, I married my best friend and that is all that matters.

Hi Monarch! No we didn't have to rent out the entire restaurant. They have an area to the side of the restaurant that was sort of semi-private that you will be in, but the hotel guests will still be dining in the opposite areas. It was still pretty private where it was no distractions for us (but we may have distracted the restaurant guests a little, but no one complained ;-). Oh, one more thing...the food was a little slow coming out, so I recommend if you are like me and don't like dead silence, plan a program. We didn't and we had to wing it. I thought Chandlyn stayed and actually MCed the reception (because normally thats what the coordinators do) but that was not the case. One thing I regret is that we didn't do our 1st dance and mother/son(s) dance in the restaurant...because at night, it's drastically hotter outside, so it was blazing at the gazebo. We didn't have much room to do the bouquet toss and garter toss in the restaurant, but if we moved some tables around, I am sure we could have got the dance out the way. We were not able to turn our music up too loud, because of the hotel guests, so that is why we did all that at gazebo. No I do not recommend you renting the restaurant out...that's a waste of money for 40 people. I had 51 (including us) and it was comfortable. I am just not sure how they would do the tables for 70, it could be a little tight. I got the Gold package with Sungold and I think it was like $1900 which included pretty much all day wedding day and the TTD session (I did mine 2 days after). My honeymoon was at Lady Hamilton (part of Grand Palladium) in Lucea, so Antoinette actually picked us up on that Monday and took us to the site for the TTD. I was a little nervous about using the associates, but Antoinette and Clayton did a great job. I honestly didn't even look at the hotel pictures...when I saw the camera man, and he had ONLY the camera, no lighting or any equipment, I can imagine what the pictures look like. I asked Chandlyn to pick out the pictures for me and send them to me ;-)

Not sure what's going on with my computer but had to post the pictures for some of the items like this:

Hi Ladies!  Sorry for the delay, tried to compile a list and get pictures together also.  Here's a list of stuff that I have leftover for sale: New: (1) 2lb bag Colorfill Vase Filler (clear crystals) $5 (5 pack) Aquabrite Orchid Pink Submersible lights  (actually looks like a bright purple) $8.00 (3) 6-pack gold souvenir wedding frames 0.50 per 6pk-package (1.50 for all 3) (7) fragrant travel tin candles 0.75 each (6 pk) white floating orchids $5 (6 PK) White Slow burning floating candles $4 Not used items (some may have been a part of bigger package but never used/still new): (33) Ladies flip flops in various sizes from 6-10 $25 (22) hard clear plastic luggage tags  0.75 each (4) black and white Groomsmen gift bags $2 (30) Jamaica brochure/booklets from Jamaica's welcome center $0 (free) (50) orange tissue paper sheets $5 mango orange and purple cardstock $5 orchid flower branch (can be used for centerpiece) $6 Gently used: (50) Purple crystalline organza sashes   $0.50 a piece or $23 for all 50 (7) White 4x6 frames (used for the table numbers, can display on both sides)  $1 each almost full packages of cracked ice and water gems $3 together Available after September 24: bride & groom chair signs (one says Mr and Honey on backside and the other says Mrs and Baby) $10 Just married parasol handpainted by my husband himself  $13

Great...I am about to post my leftovers in the sales area

The Airtran discount program is called eventsavers. It's not a booking with hotel, but if those prefer to book their own flights, it will give them 10% discount. http://www.eventfares.com/eventsavers.aspx

I agree...that's the main reason we went with Destinationweddings.com...they offered transfers in all of their packages and according to where you left, some people got free parking at airport. We left out of ATL and the average for 4 days and 3 nights was $700 with air and transfer (and hotel). The hotel will stick you later when you have to pay for the transfer

We had 51 people total and I did the free package...so I only got 16 (which you have to include the bride and groom in the 16 - which leaves you only 14) free guests, and I had to pay $25/guest for each additional. I had one guest that showed up (didn't rsvp, didn't call, text, send a telegram, nothing...just showed up) so Chandlyn actually let that one ride and I didn't have to pay for her. So I paid for all the guests, $220 for the minister and legal documents, $250 for gazebo, and $40 for the extra cake layer (which I wish I hadn't did now, we had too much leftover). That was it. We did Dolce which accomodated 51 people in the room, but I can't say if 70 will fit in the room because they use the long rectangle tables. I had 7 tables total and it was little room for any more.. If you do the grill, it's more open but it's hot as HECK and the bugs was yuky. The food was good in both though.

We got married in September, but it is hurricane season (even though a hurricane would never hit jamaica due to the reefs (or so they say))...it does have rainy periods. It's a risk, but the rates are cheaper. We used destinationweddings.com (Christina Brancato was our agent) for all the travel (and guest travel) arrangements. She was great! For 4 days, 3 nights, 2 people in a room...it was about $560 for the room total. Flights vary depending on location. Airtran offers special occasion group rates (that you can setup yourself). It's 10% of the ticket rate, and if so many people book under your group, you can get a free tix.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tekeya Thompson My Special Day!!! 9.3.11 51 guests, Romantic, Fun, Amazing.

My Special Day!!! 9.3.11 51 guests, Romantic, Fun, Amazing.

Hi Tamandrob, I wish I had, because I was so brain fried with joy that I couldn't remember anything ;-). But Antoinette and Clayton asked plenty of times if there were any other shots that we could think of that we wanted so they were very accomodating. They suggested and told us to do a lot of the shots...then a lot of the shots was just us being silly ;-), which came out really good. I got the Gold package that included the TTD session. My wedding and stuff actually went over, so I was able to take 1 hour out of the TTD session to accomodate. They were very accomodating. The TTD session was WORTH IT!!! AMAZING pics. Guess what ladies! I got my sneak peak pics! I will post them in another post

Ladies, I forgot to mention, the resort only have hand towels and bath towels in rooms (no smaller washclothes). After our wedding, they decorated the rooms and they made animals with the washclothes so they do exist, but not until after the wedding (only for the couple I guess, unless you requests them). I made towel lollipops for my guests so they were okay with after that point.

I am about to post my "leftovers" but I have 22 left. You will have to order the straps