albellis

Here are the invitations that I sent out. There were additional details about the resort on our wedding website. I am also sending a pre-travel packet that will include a brochure with an updated timeline (I am changing the ceremony time to 4:30pm) and some additional info on Jamaica in general.

First of all, breathe The fact that you have your date set is a great start! Now picture your wedding day and use that as your main list to work the details from. For example, I'm having my ceremony at 4:30pm with dinner at 7:00pm. I want our guests to have something to do between those times while we are taking pictures, so I am hosting a cocktail reception after the ceremony. We have a smaller group, and I'm not sure who will want to party afterwards or call it a night, so I'm not planning anything additional after the dinner. Therefore my main events are Ceremony, Cocktail Reception, and Dinner. From there, I worked on each one separately and decided what was important to me and what details I wanted to include. Once you break it down, it isn't so bad. If you take a look at your guest list and who you are inviting, I'm sure you can come up with a relatively close number of people that are likely to come. Is it going to be 25 people, 60 people, or over 100? That will help you with some of the plans as well. As Jamaicanmecrazy mentioned above, you will need a minimum number of people for a private reception, so if you're guest list is going to be much smaller, that may eliminate that option. I have heard from the resort that they begin their planning with you to finalize the details about 3 months out from your wedding. That's why I have been working on the items that don't depend on the resort details (wedding attire, AHR plans, pre-travel packets, etc). If I come across something that I need to confirm with the resort in order to add it to a piece I am creating, I'll send them an email, but I don't want to send them one every day since I know they are busy with weddings coming up in the next month or two. Good luck with your planning! There are some great ideas on this forum and keep asking questions, we're all here to help each other

Have you tried to call the woman that doesn't have email? Maybe she'll be easy to work with once you get her on the phone. Otherwise is there a neighboring town that isn't too far away that might have catering options? If you are still in their delivery area the cost may not be too bad. Another idea is to find a place that will make the food and you can pick it up. I'm planning my AHR at a local golf club. It's a nice casual place and one of the least expensive options in my area. When my FMIL heard this, her recommendation was for us to have people at our place instead and save money. I personally am not interested in having to do any more work than necessary for our reception. It is still a celebration for us, and I want to enjoy it versus having the stress of cooking, cleaning, and playing host.

Hi Laura - Did you include an RSVP section on the website? If you did and people have already been responding on the website, you may be able to avoid the invitations. Are you inviting the same people to your wedding and your at home reception? If so, you could combine the invitations instead of doing two separate versions. Since the invitations are a lower priority for you, check into some of the standard invitations kits that you print at home. They are probably less expensive than having someone do something fancy for you, and would be less time consuming than creating something from scratch on your own.

Welcome! I am getting married shortly after you on April 27 and will be arriving on April 24, also at the Beach. It's going to come up so quick! I already submitted the details sheet to the resort, but it sounds like the WC reviews everything with you on-site anyways and I'll probably check that they have everything set sometime in March just to confirm. So I have been focusing more on the items that I have control over such as our attire, flowers (I'm bringing real touch bouquets & bouts), centerpieces for Uncle Tony's reception (I'm bringing the items for ours as it was a less expensive than renting through Tai Flora), our pre-travel packet, and finalizing details for our at home reception. We have a smaller group going, probably 15-20 people. What time are you planning to hold your ceremony? I was originally going to have it at 5pm, but my photographer seemed concerned about the amount of time for pictures before the sun sets. I have decided to move the time up to 4:30pm to be safe.

Are you planning to have a private reception? I am having a semi-private reception and we had to work with the standard seating times, therefore I was told I had to start at 7pm as well.

Is your bouquet actual flowers, or are you using fake flowers? I am bringing my bouquet, but it is a real touch bouquet (fake flowers). I have seen other posts that mention you can't take flowers on the plane OUT of Jamaica, so I would think there may be similar issues with bringing them into the country if they are real. But you could give your airline a call to verify. They should also know about the wish lanterns.

My travel agent gave me a copy of a flyer from the Beach Resort. It lists late night snacks are available at the buffet restaurant Little River from 11:00pm - 7:00am. Here is the flyer in case you are wondering about other times, events, etc. It's a scan of a copy, so if anything is too fuzzy to read just let me know and I can reply with what it says.

Hi Jnunez! I'll be getting married 2 weeks after you on April 27th I am planning to take my centerpiece candles with me in my luggage - same reason, Tai Flora's quotes were too high for me. She was charging $45/centerpiece and I was able to pick up the items for $12/centerpiece. Last time I traveled to Mexico, I picked up a gel candle in the airport and had it in my carry on not realizing we had to go through security again once we had our layover in the US. They told me I could put it in my checked luggage, just not my carry on (because of the gel). But since they were the ones that mentioned to put it in checked luggage, I guess there is no problem with candles.

I had a question about the pier gazebo, so I sent an email to the WC yesterday and also asked about the rumor of them having more than one wedding per day. Kymoya responded a few hours later (not sure if Trisha has left?) and said that she wasn't aware of them doing more than one wedding per day. Hopefully that stays the same!

I saw on the webinar thread that Tammy posted this comment about an Iberostar webinar: "We are going to do a conference call early Dec. because they are going to complete some big wedding changes and we will go over the material we would like them to discuss, then we will schedule a webinar, most likely in january after the holidays. Things are a little nuts during the holidays." For some reason this concerns me... they are making some BIG WEDDING CHANGES?? Has anyone heard what those might be? One of my biggest concerns is that they will change from one wedding per day to multiple weddings per day. That was one of the main reasons I selected the Iberostar resort.

Does this comment about the Iberostar resorts concern anyone else? They are going to make some BIG WEDDING CHANGES? Tammy - do you have a heads up as to what this might be? I have my wedding booked at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach for April 2013 and would be extremely disappointed if they change something that was one of the reasons I selected that resort, such as they only offer one wedding per day.

Congratulations and welcome to the forum! I am getting married the same day as you, but at the Beach. I am having a much smaller group, probably between 15-20 people. You will be working with Tai Flora directly, however based on other posts on this thread, you may want to try reaching out to a vendor called Floral Fantasies. The seem to be much easier to work with and more responsive than TF. Good luck with all your planning! There is so much information on this site, I'm sure it will help answer any questions you have

I noticed the wedding details form stated we had an option of an arch or a huppa with greenery and I was wondering what the greenery looked like. I received these images from the WC at the Beach.

There are different vendors out there that do the real touch flowers, I'm sure some are going to be less expensive than others. The main reasons I chose not to go with actual flowers were that I didn't have to worry about the flowers looking wilted in the heat & humidity, and I can keep them long after the wedding. I thought it would be nice to place them near our wedding photos. I couldn't picture myself spending a couple hundred dollars on flowers that would only be used for one day. It's nice to get some additional use out of them.

I ordered all my flowers through http://www.plumeriasweddingflowerboutique.com/ and they came assembled. I found out about them from this website, so you can search the forum for some ideas. The woman who owns the business (Roberta) is selling it and training someone else to take it over at the end of the year, but she may still have some openings for orders at the end of this year. I am really happy with how they turned out and the price is so much better than using real flowers. The picture below is from her website and is the inspiration for my bouquet.

Hi Krista, I'm jealous that you have your dress already! I won't be looking for mine until mid-October. My understanding is that you can have a private reception if you want, but you will have to pay for it. I don't have the price sheet in front of me, but I think it's around $800. And you do get a welcome/rehearsal dinner if you want one. I chose to have mine at the Japanese restaurant since I thought it would be fun and casual. The colors I am using are orange, pink, fuchsia. I am using real touch flowers and once I found a bouquet I liked, I used that as my color palette. I don't have a picture of MY bouquet, but I have a picture of my maid of honor's below. I liked the fact that I could hold onto the flowers after the wedding and keep them with our wedding photos.

We are using a travel agent, who is booking everyone with a FunJet group discount. The pricing doesn't seem to be much different than what I would find online on my own, except with the travel agent we get the group discount (about $100 per reservation) and a few extra perks (one reservation free for every 20 that book, return accommodations a year after the wedding, etc). It's just easier to direct everyone to a single source for booking their travel. The flights came out about 10 months prior to our wedding date. We booked early, and I am glad we did as we were able to get better flight options than what is currently out there. I am actually having a tough time finding an acceptable flight for our photographer that doesn't involve a 10 hour layover someplace, and at a reasonable price.