Sjay

We used these for our recessional and they looked great! We had a windy day so people just held the wands up in the air and there were lots of bubbles. Don't worry, they very likely won't hit you at all... but hopefully they'll look great in the photos!

Oh no, sorry to hear! I honestly can't say that happened to me at all. No jealously, worrying what he was doing, etc. so it doesn't happen to all brides-to-be. I did wonder what he and his buddies were getting up to and if there'd be crazy stories and if he could share any of them with me afterwards! I was sooo excited for him and hoped it'd be lot of fun! The only (serious) thing I wondered about, is if/when he'd come home as he didn't know where he was going to be spending the night (home or at a friends) so that was the only thing on my mind. Thankfully he txt'd midway through the evening to say he'd be home so then I at least knew to expect him.

Hi there, I just did the 'walk' 13 days ago, and I was so excited it felt like about 10 sec, but it was more like 1.5-2min. You exit a side door of the west wing of the Suites, go down a short flight of stairs (if you have a train get Nicole to fix it at the bottom of the stairs!!) and then you walk across an interlock pathway in front of Aunt Ruby's and take a 90-degree left turn on to the sand, where you'll be facing the ceremony set up (and water) and in line with your aisle. From there, there's still a short walk across the sand until you're actually at the top of your aisle (and runner) unless you have a lot of guests and therefore many rows of chairs. I had only one attendant, my sister and MOH, so we walked in to the same song and it was about 4 min in length so it worked out just fine. I too wanted to hear most/all of the song, and I did!

Hi there, I've recently returned from our Suites wedding and we did semi-private at Aunt Ruby's. I wasn't taking photos myself that evening, but I'll see if I can find any of our set up from the photos that friends and family have shared with us since our return. They are flexible with seating to a certain extent. You can absolutely use their square tables to create rectangular tables. We had two guest tables, one seating 12, another 10, and our head table of 4 was at the top of them, so we were set up like U but not actually attached. How many are you in total? The long 'arms' of the U can't extend too long because there is a set of stairs that lead into the interior of Aunt Ruby's. These stairs need to be accessible to your group (and anyone else seated nearby) as starters are self-serve at the indoor buffet. I'd say you could fit max 14, maaaaybe 16 ppl on each 'arm' of the U, so assuming you'd have a head table, you could do a U shape if you had no more than 32 guests. Another thing to consider is that there are interior pillars at Aunt Ruby's. You can only do a U shape if you're set up closer in to the building (interior of the resto) so if you had your hopes on being against the railing, unfortunately that space is too narrow to set up a U. I'm not sure if any of this is making sense, so I'll try to post photos soon!

We're using Merrick on Monday! When we get our photos I'll post some so you can see his amazing work.

We're on our way to Jamaica tomorrow!!! (Don't usually use animated emoticons, but that about sums up how I feel right now ) Thanks to all who've helped, advised, brainstormed, reassured, laughed with me, cried with me, listened patiently while I ranted (just once...I think? lol) and of course shared invaluable info/photos/reviews/menus/maps/etc, etc! There's no WAY we could've planned our wedding without your help. I'll be back in awhile (hopefully before the holidays hit full swing) to post feedback and photos, and of course to continue to pay it forward to all the brides still in the planning stages. What would we do without each other and this forum?? Take care, and please send good wedding karma (and weather!) our way! Sarah

We're on our way to Jamaica tomorrow!!! (Don't usually use animated emoticons, but that about sums up how I feel right now ) Thanks to all who've helped, advised, brainstormed, reassured, laughed with me, cried with me, listened patiently while I ranted (just once...I think? lol) and of course shared invaluable info/photos/reviews/menus/maps/etc, etc! There's no WAY we could've planned our wedding without your help. I'll be back in awhile (hopefully before the holidays hit full swing) to post feedback and photos, and of course to continue to pay it forward to all the brides still in the planning stages. What would we do without each other and this forum?? Take care, and please send good wedding karma (and weather!) our way! Sarah

You'll get it done, just keep at it continuously. Everything we had total control of we got done early, so my stress in the last few weeks has really been with the resort and (still) with the florist, so I'm sooo glad the rest is settled. This past week has had it's stressful moments for sure, but I've also had time to relax, go to the gym, meet up with friends, etc. without feeling panicked. Gotta keep a balance right? With just a couple of days to go, I almost don't care about what's left to do - I just want to be there!

Thanks, we will! Oh I'm big into photography - I'll be the one with a drink in one hand and camera in the other, lol. If I get any Beach shots, I'll definitely share.

Thank you, and thanks again for finding that post that was eluding me!

Yes, very happy. Now to get the flower order FINAL before our plane takes off, lol!

Update! We will have lanterns at our semi-private at Aunt Ruby's! I presented my argument (via email) to Nicole, and she wrote back saying they would accommodate the request. Yahoo! and phew! (I do wonder if the PR Manager who I emailed about this and another issue had anything to do with the decision. I'm not sure as I haven't heard from her today but if that's what it took, it was well worth it.)

Thanks Kassi! I will definitely post a review and photos when we're back. Wow did that year go by quick, lol.

I have been searching but with no luck - but Papoue just found the post I had been looking for!! (See above). I'm not an unreasonable bride - if they have done for one, why can't they do for others? I actually came up with another idea to meet them halfway - use some (but not all) of the lanterns at dinner, IF there is a way to use the rest at our beach cocktail party. I know there really aren't any trees, but if we're set up right by the pool bar we could hang some there and along the wall that skirts the beachfront. We'll see what happens! I got the sense that FF is a much smaller operation. Tai appears to have some items on hand to rent out, whereas FF had to outright purchase some items so they jacked up the rental rate to offset the purchase costs. You are right - the only thing consistent is that nothing is consistent! LOL Oh believe me, there are a few tips that are hanging in the balance right now. We will decide based on what happens in the next six days. And you're not rude, they do work for us, we have hired/rented/booked them for our weddings. So much to pay for, so many charges on top of things we've technically already paid for...so we're fully entitled to expect good customer service and that they will deliver on what we are paying for.

OMG! Papoue, thank you SO much, this is the post/review I've been looking for! You have no idea how happy I am right now - thankyouthankyouthankyou!!

Thanks Heather. See and I absolutely remember reading reviews of semi-private dinners where lanterns were allowed. I've been planning our wedding for a year, so I would've read through BDW posts going back 1-3 yrs if not further, so trying to find those posts now is difficult! Those brides really aren't active on BDW anymore so I doubt I'll get a response from any of them. I had reached out to Floral Fantasies earlier. They were good to deal with however their quote was substantially more and they couldn't bring it down or match Tai's, and we couldn't justify paying that much more for the same thing. We're not doing a lot of flowers or decor, we've just been at the bottom of their priority list for some reason. I leave in less than three days and Jodi-Ann just emailed to say something she ordered for us hasn't arrived and she doesn't know if it will be in in time!! ACK! We submitted our order to Tai in September so there is no excuse! TERRIBLE customer service, just terrible.

Okay, my turn to rant... We just got a response to our final details document from Nicole (yes, ONE week before our wedding) and she is trying to tell us now that we can't hang paper lanterns at Aunt Ruby's with a semi-private dinner. What?!?! Nowhere in any of the wedding details docs, and at no time in our correspondence over the last year has she every mentioned any exclusions or limitations to decor!! In fact back in May 2012 we asked questions about decor at Aunt Ruby's (when we knew we would have semi-private) and their response was "yes we will do the decoration according to how u want it." The lanterns are the biggest piece of our whole decor plan and we went to a considerable expense to purchase so many - and lights for all of them - that we are FUMING right now. I wrote her back and said this was completely unacceptable, and then I located an email address for a PR manager at Iberostar and wrote her/him too. I am 100% positive that I have read posts/reviews from other brides who had lanterns at a semi-private Aunt Ruby's, and that's why I'm up at 1:30am searching (unsuccessfully so far ) for those posts to share them with Nicole. We will have them if I have to damn well hang them myself! Nicole also gave us some BS about not necessarily being able to accommodate our requested seating plan. We are 27 people. We have THREE tables. We've asked to be in a corner of one of the patios at Aunt Ruby's. And they don't know if they can do that "because there will be other guests dining there"??? Are you kidding me? How else would she set up three tables for a wedding if not together? After all of the money we are spending over and above what we're all already spending to be at an AI for a week, and her concern and focus is on the OTHER hotel guests?? On top of all this, Jodi-Ann @ Tai Flora's gone MIA on us. We leave in the wee hours of Friday morning (FOUR days!) and we don't have our flower and decor order finalized. ARGHHH. She's been so slow and so late providing us with answers, information, photos - all the stuff we need in order to finalize - and now she isn't even responding to us. I keep hearing that everything turns out wonderfully once you are there...but I honestly can't believe it right now. IF we get our flower order sorted in the next few days and even IF we get all our decor set up the way we want, Nicole and Jodi-Ann won't get any more than a 'D' grade from us. It's shocking how they conduct themselves and run their business in a customer-focussed industry. Okay, I'm done. I hope I can sleep now. Thanks for letting me rant.

Yes please - past brides, do tell where you found them!!

Thanks. I'd thought about those but didn't realize they could be created with something as simple as white lunch bags (thought they had to be specialty paper so as not to burn and thin enough to really see the glow.) Appreciate you sharing! I hope you find the bags too!

We're doing a few small things as our way of saying thanks - both with gifts and an experience. - A welcome gift: a small photo album with a welcome/thank you letter from my FI and I, a map of the Suites that we personalized with our own events, and an itinerary of our planned events over the week. The welcome letter invites them to fill their album with photos of the wedding/trip afterwards...and we plan to send everyone a photo to include in it with our wedding thank you cards. - Bubbles and fans at the ceremony - Jerk seasoning and Blue Mountain coffee favours at dinner - Wish lanterns at beach party following dinner - 2 hr catamaran cruise the day after the wedding Our thinking behind everything was: a) we have a small group (27 incl us) so we deemed we could afford to do all of this we didn't want to have to cart 25 OOT bags of stuff with us, along with all the other decor items we're already bringing c) it was important for us to reflect us, our interests/personalities: photography (photo albums), bubbles (childhood nickname, plus they're fun and will pretty for photos!), and we're foodies (jerk and coffee) d) this entire trip is really about creating a memorable experience with our friends and family, hence the catamaran cruise (read: likely not something they'd treat themselves to) Hope this helps!

Anyone have ideas around doing something special for a first dance? Since sparklers are likely not going to happen, we'd like something else fun that would look great in photos. Not into glow bracelets or the like, and we're already bringing a bunch of candles with us (some of which will be moved from dinner to our beach party). I thought about little flag things...ribbons on pieces of dowel, but I don't know how well those would be seen in the semi-darkness. If only we could somehow easily bring our lit paper lanterns from dinner to the beach and hang them somewhere..?! lol

Just as an FYI, Tai Flora sourced some sparklers - $5.50 ea + tax, ouch! That's how many 30 of them cost me in Toronto.

Thanks. Did you tell him lots of people do get them into Jamaica and all over the Caribbean? I'm curious what he'd say. Clearly they are not found!

Have any recent brides attempted to bring sparklers into Jamaica? I had planned on bringing them in my checked luggage (even knowing they're not allowed) but I'm not sure what happens if they find them - are they just confiscated? Has anyone experienced this? I have asked a couple of my vendors to source them for me, but I know they'll be expensive...especially compared to the ones I bought from Dollerama! Not sure what to do...

I hear you! I'm also car-less and downtown. There is a GO train stop right there - could bring a backpack to lug it all home. Oh wait, Lug bags are there...could warrant the purchase of a new bag for you! (I love Lug...<sigh>)