AquaCait

We got our bags from Creative Bag in Pickering, Ont. They are the kind of bags that you would get from Mandarin, but we just put a nice tag and bow on them. They were super reasonable too...

I know the feeling!! I hace been dying for the Chefs Pasta, and even asked Mayte for the recipe, but she never answered me Hey, if anyone is going soon, could you try getting it for me??

We kept our wedding cake as our dessert, plus our candy table, and it was more than enough.

I think I chose Aqua 1 from the swatches I was sent...

Hi Kaylin! We got my husbands suit at Stars menswear in Vaughan Mills (if you are in Ontario). I did make all of my appointments, including the bridesmaid and moms, before we left. I just emailed Sandra the details when I sent my paperwork down. Good luck!!

Hi Lala, I used Michael and Pascal of Caribbean Emotions, and honestly, they were so fantastic!!! Plus we had all of our pictures, our wedding book and our video (and copies) back 5 days after the wedding. Our "trailer" for Jellyfish is on here (just a bunch of pages back) and there is a photo slide show too. Both can be found on Youtube if you want to see them. I'm pretty sure you can search "Caitlin and Joseph May 9, 2012". One is the ME and the other is Jellyfish...

I think we had maybe 2 bartenders and maybe 3 or 4 waitstaff, plus mayte was out and taking orders too...

25 minutes. We had our ceremony at the Elegance...

General rule of thumb: If your photographer is in business for his/herself, then the fee is enough. If they work for a parent company, then you tip them (then the fee goes to the company, not the photographer). Tipping, I tended to go with 10% of the cost (fire dancers - $300, $30 tip). We tipped Mayte separately from the bar/waitstaff (they also got 10% of the food and bar cost). I think we spent about $1000 in tips total (we had Mayte, bar/waitstaff, cigar rollers, fire dancers, MC/DJ, Bus driver, I know I"m missing people....) For the fixed menu, everything is a choice of one or the other, but it's all really good... Congrats on booking!! You made a great choice!!!!

My dress was so dirty after walking around the resort, on the beach, etc. and it came out beautifully after our TTD (and I did a full face-plant in the water...). We were rolling in the surf-line, about knee- to waist-deep in the water in some of the shots... Now, if you are planning on doing those shots on the same day (most TTD are the day after), my only warning to you is the weight of your dress easily triples once the bottom of the skirt gets wet and sand-filled... My dress also came out nicely because of the fabric that it's made with (mine was a chiffon). If your dress is a silk or taffeta, then don't do it. You will literally trash your dress... Here's some pics to help...

MissKLR - we did a wire transfer, Mayte will send you the bank info that you need Smithk79 - Not sure about the beach cost, but for reserving our date, we (obviously) had to get mayte to confirm that it was available, and then send our deposit (10%) down to hold it for us. She will hold until your deposit is in. Mayte can arrange to have taxis pick you and your FI and bridal party up, and then the bus for everyone else (she had offered this to us, but we opted to go with everyone else...)

Mayte only does 1 wedding a day, and if you don't rent the whole restaurant, then you get the downstairs and everyone else eats upstairs (the stairs are outside the restaurant...) You can actually download the wedding brochure off of the Jellyfish website. I would recommend emailing Mayte now, it can take a while to hear back from her, but she's awesome. I honestly think she's one of the nicest people I've ever met. Good luck!!

I would go for a veil with some sparkle to it, hitting right where your dress flairs. That's what mine was. If you look back a few pages, there are pics of my dress with my veil on... I wore my train full out for the ceremony. I think it just adds another romantic element to the day. It wasn't bad at all in terms of dragging sand around or being full of sand, it honestly got dirtier walking around the resort itself. I also had my dress crazy bustled for the reception, there were 46 bustle points to help get rid of the train...

I'm sure that she could get them for you. She's extremely accomodating like that. All you can do is ask and the worst she will say is no. Just keep in mind that there is most likely a cigar store at whichever resort you are staying at. I know there was one at the Majestics. That way you at least have a back-up plan. My dad bought a box of 10 torpedo cigars from the cigar rollers for $25, and my FIL bought a box of 25 skinnier cigars for $80. Hope this helps...

Everything is amazing!! People are still talking about our weddinf and especially the reception and dinner at the Jellyfish. I would say, if you are going to do it, do it soon. Plus, it's way more affordable than resort receptions...

My only advice with the paper lanterns, if they are the ones for candles, we had a dress fire on our day. My MOHs dress blew over a candle and the back of her dress caught. It was probably a 4" line that melted. If they are they LED ones, check out Pier One online. We bought some last summer, but they were normal sized. I've also seen the 12" or 14" lanterns online from canadian sites, then you can just buy the lights separately...and then they are maybe $5-$10 each...

I thought I had it from Mayte, but I actually got it from another bride here. Anyone wants it, PM me with your email and I can send it to you.

I emailed Mayte and asked her for it. I got the entire menu though...I will check and see if I still have it...

Ours cost about $150 for cocktail hour, $250 for dinner open bar, and about $550 for the bar for the rest of the night. So that's about $950 plus tax...we were looking at about $1100 for just the mid-range open bar for 33 people for 3 or 4 hours...running a tab saved us huge!!!

That's Narelle, isnt it?? I loved that one...Maggies are the best!!!

We did split people beforehand. We had 5 tables and between 6 and 8 people/table. I just tried to group families together and friends. I think it worked out well...I think our tables were mostly 7s and 8s...

Here's our review (finally!!). First things first. The drive to the Jellyfish in the cab was a little bit scary. We had no idea where we were and you have to go down a very bumpy, secluded dirt road to get to the restaurant...but it all worked out OK. This was about 25 minutes from the Majestic Elegance, and round trip cost us $50. We met with Mayte on May 6 at 11am. Mayte showed up around 1140, but explained that she had a very busy wedding the night before. The fact that she came in early (for her day) to meet with us, we really appreciated it. We went over our colour selections, had our drink tasting (the blue Coco Loco is awesome!!), and our menu tasting. We also got to test the wines that would be served with dinner. One thing that I loved, Mayte even tried to keep our drinks for cocktail hour colour co-ordinated. So we had the Coco Loco and a Mojito. We went with Menu option 4 (lobster and filet mignon) but we traded out the salmon pasta for the Chef's pasta (sooooooooo worth it, this is AMAZING!!!!), We had the dinner Open bar, and then we ran a tab for the rest of the night (worked out quite well, cost us about $500 less than Open Bar would have...). The portions are huge, so don't worry that anyone will go hungry, they won't. The pasta was served family style, so it was like another side dish...everyone loved it...yet another Mayte idea!! Our cake was identical to the picture that we had sent to Mayte, and from what we tasted, it was fantastic. Our top layer was vanilla sponge with chocolate filling, and the bottom layer was vanilla with lime. In terms of the decor, we had sent Mayte the ideas that we had and things that we liked. And she was ready with ideas of her own, and a perfect vision for our day. We had originally wanted chair covers, but she suggested to not use them, and just use the chairs as they are with the sashes, and I'm so glad that we listened, it looked awesome!! We had also wanted to use a mirrored tile under our centrepieces and candles, Mayte suggested a wooden tray. We just said to do whatever she thought would be best. We loved everything about our reception. We brought our placecards down with us, they were little white buckets with names on them. We had jellybeans prepackaged, and Mayte just did the finishing touches on them (glued on starfishes that we brought with us...she also used them on menu cards and napkin rings, which she made). We took green paper lanterns, our guest book, candy, placecards, etc. to Mayte on the Sunday. I just used my Heys carryon suitcase, and left it with her. I got it back on Wednesday night, when we were packing up from the wedding... We had the cigar rollers from about 7pm to 11pm. They were great! Everyone really seemed to enjoy having them there. And, as a great favour or keepsake, the cigar bands are actually personlized with our names, which we didn't know (or ask for) until Mayte told us. It was a great added touch. We had the fire dancers too, but this was kept as a complete surprise for all of our guests. They LOVED them!!! I have nothing bad to say. How many weddings in Canada have fire dancers?!?!? We used Mayte's house DJ and MC, they were great. We had burned some CDs with some of what we would like to hear through the course of the night, and most of it was played. We did separate CDs for our first dance, intros, mother/son, and father/daughter. They do have hook-ups for Ipods/Iphones/Ipads, etc. Ariel (the MC) was great. We handed him the list of what and who he needed to introduce and when, and everything went off so smoothly. And his english is perfect for those who are wondering... We had about 3 different groups try to come into the restaurant through the course of the night (we paid for exclusive use). Mayte met them at the door, explained the situation, and it never went beyond that. There is security on the beach. There is security for the restaurant itself, and there are Marines that patrol the beach. Yes, they are armed, but they are there for your protection. Don't worry about them... OOH! Big tip! Anyone getting married on the resort and having the reception at Jellyfish, try to do your beach pictures at the Jellyfish....waaaaaaay less people....we did and I'm really glad for that. Plus we were less rushed.... I think that's about it...if anyone has any questions, please, don't hesitate to PM me. Now some pictures!!!!!

My veil was 60". It had all little crystals in it with a pewter edging. It looked fantastic, but once I turned around to sign our papers, it twirled like a tornado. It looked great though. Thankfully my MOH untwirled it for me... Good luck with the veil!!

I've posted my dress on here a long time ago. But here it is on the wedding day!!! 46 bustle points, it was soooooo worth it for the reception to get rid of the train....