Nikadawn

No to mention all the freebies! Lol.

I just had this discussion with my wedding coordinator at the resort. I was going for a start time of 5pm as sunset is supposed to be around 6 on our day but she said to plan for a start of 4:30 instead because there's always little delays here and there, guests trickling in late and what not. You don't want to risk it getting dark before you're done with your pictures, better to have to watch the sunset a little while because you finished a bit early.

Just wondering if any of you ladies have been to the big bridal show they do Montreal every year (MarionsNous). It's coming in September and I was wondering if it's worth the ticket price. I went to the spring one in Ottawa and they didn't really have much that appealed to me as a destination bride. It looks like the Montreal one is much much bigger though.

Oh know, people are already giving me a hard time for being addicted to this site. Now I have an Etsy problem too!

Has anyone seen pics on the bonfire on the beach option? I'd really like to do this but I'd love to see some photos first to see if it's what I'm imagining.

Add me to the list! 1.18.12 at the beach!

I have a date! We got it!!!! Wow is ever a big relief to have your date booked. Soemone snapped up the 19th but the coordinator at RHB was nice enough to call personally and offer us the 18th. How about that RyGuysBride? Two Ottawa girls getting married on the same day at adjoining resorts in Jamaica! Hmmmmm, maybe we can go in on one order for flowers together to save money, lol. Yay, now I can start planning the fun stuff!

Ooooh! That comment gives me a great idea for a stag & doe, lol. We'll have people racing allover the place!

Here's MY plan. For the local invites we are dividing them amongst the members of the wedding party who live in our city and we are having a race to see who can deliver all of theirs the fastest, winner gets free dinner. For our Nova Scotia guests we are sending all the invites in a single Purolater package to my FI's aunt in Halifax who will hand deliver to the guests out there. We have a couple in Edmonton and New York who already know they are coming and understand that they will probably only get a paper invite if the strike ends, otherwise they're getting a very nice e-vite. Good Luck!

So just an update: We went with Louise and did she deliver! We are booking the Rose Hall Beach for January 19th and she got us an awesome price. Thanks again for the reccomendation Janet1480!

May I ask how much you are paying for just the trip? (room+airfare) We were hoping to keep the cost to our guests around 1700 or lower for the week. I know the Suites is a little higher than the beach of course...

Awesome thanks! I will give her a call as well. I do like Sunquest's service, we've travelled with them before. Have you booked your date with the Rose Hall yet? Their website says they only do 1 wedding a day so I'm getting antsy to book. My FI thinks he needs to look at every single resort in the Caribbean before making a decision though. And I thought I was supposed to be the picky one!

Thanks Ladies! I just sent emails to Pauline and Louise. Hopefully I will have a fantastic TA by week's end. Feeling better about things already

Thanks Ladies! I'm leaning towards Jamaica (the Rose Hall Beach is a front runner) as we've been there and I know I loved it. Costa Rica was my first choice but I know it would cost more. May I ask who your TA is? I've walked into a couple who just shoved brochures at me like that would magically narrow the choices, GRRRR!

Hi from Ottawa Ladies! I noticed alot of you are planning for Next April. Are my fiancee and I being a little ambitious in hoping to book for February? We also still haven't picked a resort. Our TA told us to wait til August as prices would come down then and we want to keep the cost for our guests around 1500-1700 for the week. It will most likely be Jamaica or Mexico for that budget as we don't want the D.R. or Cuba. There are so many decisions to make already... and we've only been engaged for a week!

So when my fiancee and I first started discussing a destination wedding about four months ago we agreed that February 2012 would be the best time for both us and our friends and family to travel. At that time I went to a local TA who told me that we had plenty of time to make up our minds where we wanted to go as most resorts don't typically even release their room rates for the new year until around August/September. Now that the "official" engagement has happened a couple of weeks ago and I have started doing some research I see that many have already booked their weddings for next year! I'm trying not to panic here but am I justified in saying that I may have chosen the most clueless TA ever? Are there TA's out there who will help us choose a resort or do we need to figure this out on our own and then have the TA just arrange travel for our guests? I'm at a total loss as to where to start and I've only been engaged for two weeks!!! We just don't want to have our hearts set on something and then find out that they are fully booked for weddings already. I've looked up most of the resorts that are popular in the reviews here and they are all coming up at $2000 per person from our city (Ottawa, ON) with airfare for a week. We've been to weddings in the past 2 years in Riviera Maya and Jamaica and they both cost us 1500, is that due to normal increase in travel expenses or is it just because a good TA can get us a better deal? Sorry for all the questions, let's just narrow it down to, "Where do I start?"