DaniScales2b

Rose Petals I used freeze dried rose petals that I purchased from www.NYPetals.com. I couldn't see spending a ton of money for fresh rose petals that would be thrown away and these were great quality and are actually REAL petals that turned out to be beautiful. They have a great selection of colors and the price was very reasonable. I purchased three bags. Photography We used a friend of mine for our photography. He was awesome and was able to offer a personalized touch which we loved. Here is one of our favorite shots:

Thank you Cara! Thank you also Chelsea! I printed my own brochure using brochure paper I purchased from Staples. It was pretty easy to do and didn't use up as much ink as I thought it would. You're welcome to use the word document template that I included for yourself and change the wording to make it personalized for you. The wedding "Facebook" went over so well! I used a postcard template I downloaded on Avery.com's website. Here is the template I used. You can add more pages and format it the way you liked. I used the font from my wedding invitations. Let me know if you have difficulty opening it. Wedding Facebook (shared).docx

Here is a picture of the wedding brochure. I finally figured out how to do a screenshot picture on this site. The word doc link for this is above:

Peter-Gaye and her assistant did the makeup for myself and my two bridesmaids. They were so easy to work with and correspondence with them was really easy. I used PayPal for payment and sent her pictures of ideas for my hair and makeup prior to the wedding. She was very responsive and so sweet. If you would like to use her, she can be reached at [email protected]. Here are a few shots of her work:

Hi 1stmarriage, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! We used a local travel agent and we were able to get money back for each person that booked through her once the final deadline had been reached. Make sure you chose a travel agent that works well for you. I had great communication with mine and even when she was off, there was someone answering her emails/phone calls which was great for me and our guests. We had four guests staying at the Suites and 4 guests staying at another resort completely. We had a total of 46 people (including ourselves) and had our rehearsal dinner at the Surf and Turf restaurant and our reception at the Port Maria. We originally planned for our rehearsal dinner to take place at the Suites so we wouldn't have to pay for the day pass for the Suites guests, but our wedding coordinator and property manager were able to work it out so we could hold it at the Grand with no fee. We did have to pay for our guests staying at another resort to attend both days (rehearsal dinner and wedding day). These fees are added to your final bill. The Port Maria was a little warm so we didn't do much dancing at the actual reception. After dinner and a few dances, we all went to change and met at the lobby bar for drinks before heading down to the Mango Disco where we stayed until around 2:00 - 3:00 AM. We had so much fun! We preferred to do something private for our ceremony so we held it in the dome. I have pictures in my planning thread: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/86158/danielles-daniscales2b-planning-thread-iberostar-grand-rose-hall-montego-bay-jamaica-pic-heavy#post_1904340 I bought chair sashes and centerpieces with us in our luggage. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be more than happy to help! Dani

Hi Vanessa, No, I didn't do the trash the dress, just a few shots on the beach before sunset. Thank you so much! One of the best days of my life.

Rehearsal Dinner We held our rehearsal dinner at the Surf and Turf restaurant at the resort and released lanterns with a note to send up a special prayer/wish to the bride and groom. Here is a pic of my husband and I releasing the lantern. Each of our guests got to release them as well. We used biodegradable lanterns I purchased on www.justartifacts.com.

Best Destination Weddings has been such an awesome resource for my wedding planning this past year. I felt it only appropriate to make sure that I shared any and all information from my wedding with this wedding community. Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope this information helps! The Proposal Robert has always done an exceptional job of planning and celebrating Valentine's Day with me. I knew that this year would be no different. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary at first was that he changed our reservations from February 14th to the February 11th. He explained that he wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day over the weekend instead of during the week and asked that I pack a bag for our Saturday night getaway. Not thinking that this sudden change of plans was odd (blonde moment!) I went with the flow and prepared for the evening ahead. We had reservations for Oceannaire in downtown Baltimore where we shared a nice dinner then headed to our hotel at the waterfront nearby. We walked into the hotel and I began to head to the front desk to check in. Robert steered me away saying that he had taken care of that already. I was impressed with his attention to detail and followed him to our room. When we arrived at the door, he opened it and moved out of the way so I could enter. I looked down to see a path of red rose petals leading down the hall to the bedroom. There were floor to ceiling windows that overlooked Federal Hill and downtown Baltimore. The base of the windows were adorned with even more rose petals. I was overwhelmed! It was absolutely beautiful and I STILL didn't suspect a thing! I walked into the bedroom and saw more floor to ceiling windows and rose petals scattered across the bed. I turned around to say thank you and let him know how amazing this all was and he was down on one knee with my hand in his. He told me that he wanted to share the rest of his life with me. In shock, I kept asking, "Are you serious?!?!" My answer was of course YES! With lots of tears and hugs, we shared a bottle of our favorite wine and chocolate covered strawberries and talked for hours about our future together. He also gets extra points because he wasn't aware that you could purchase rose petals by the bag so he hand plucked each one. Love this man!!! I'm still in awe over this man that I can now call my husband and blessed and honored to share the rest of my life with him. Color Inspiration My wedding colors were coral and tiffany blue. Here is my inspiration. You are also welcome to look at my pinterest board as well for my wedding ideas at: www.pinterest.com/daniellel81/wedding-ideas Wedding Location We did a site visit to the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica in April 2012 and fell in love. We had the opportunity to meet our wonderful wedding coordinator, Janille, who gave us a tour of the resort and pointed out locations where we would be able to hold our ceremony. We instantly fell in love with her and the dome location (pictured below). We wanted something private and this provided the perfect location for us. Everyone was so hospitable to us and it was a no-brainer as to why we chose this location for our wedding. Janille also made sure the floors in the dome were freshly stained prior to our wedding. The entire staff went above and beyond to ensure that our day was absolutely perfect from beginning to end. Invitations I used a vendor recommended by a former bride (proti007) on this site for my wedding invitations. My colors were coral and tiffany blue so I opted for the blue to be the primary color in the invitation. The proof of what it looked like is below and the vendor that I used was Paper Stories (www.paperstories.com). Correspondence with Kelly was excellent and I highly recommend using them for your invitations. Wedding Brochure and Luggage Tags I used the attached template for the brochure that I sent out to my guests about one month prior to the wedding date. I also sent two luggage tags per couple in the package and it was very well received and everyone found it very informative. I purchased the luggage tags from Michaels and purchased DIY business cards to print the name and address of the resort. I also included an extra line on the card for the guests to print their names. OOT Bags I loved my OOT Bags and while they were a ton of work, I was so happy with how they turned out and the response they received from the guests. They were truly a labor of love. Here is a list of items that were included as well as links to where I purchased the items from. I went to Staples and purchased the AVERY Printable Bag Toppers with Bags and printed them on my printer at home. So easy and everything fit perfectly! I made my own folders and labels using scrap book paper I purchased at Michaels and AVERY labels I purchased at Staples. I did have to cut the labels down to size, but everything turned out perfectly. I've attached the template for those at the bottom of this section. Wedding Weekend Survival Kit ​First Aid Kit (www.ebay.com) user: chumley63 Motrin (www.ebay.com) - user: firstaidsuppliesdiscount Pepto Bismol (www.ebay.com) - user: firstaidsuppliesdiscount Orbitz Gum - CVS Pharmacy ($0.69 cents per pack) Tums - CVS Pharmacy ($2.99/3pack) Fun in the Sun Kit Sun block - Dollar Tree Ben's Bug Repellent Wipes (www.ebay.com) - user: skipper_blue_sea Hand Sanitizer - Bath and Body Works Mini Tide to Go Pens (www.ebay.com) - user: jobrids Tote Bags - Liberty Bags (http://www.jiffyshirts.com/libertybags-7002.html) I turned my mother's house into my DIY central! I made packets for "Tears of Joy" for during the ceremony, raffia fans I purchased from www.orientaltrading.com with ribbon wrapped around the handle, folders for the welcome bags, along with a host of other projects below. I also opted for the sand dollar escort card. I don't have pictures of those, but have a picture below of my inspiration. Here is the template information for the First Aid Kits: The Wedding Facebook went over very well! It gave everyone the opportunity to check everyone out and learn each others names and what they looked like prior to the Meet and Greet. I used a brochure template in Word and used a paper slicer to cut them all down to size. Then I purchased some rings from Staples and punched a hole in the "book" to bind it together. Everyone also found this very helpful. I also used the brochure template for this as well, printed them out and used my paper slicer to cut these out. Here is the template: This insert was just a welcome that I used Vistaprint.com to print out for our guests. This helped guests to keep track of all activities that took place throughout the week. The doorknob hang wasn't used by most, but I thought it was adorable and had this printed via Vistaprint.com as well. Share Your Pictures insert was a nice touch so we can keep track of all of the photos. Facebook, obviously, is an option that most people have chosen to use. These were a big hit! The ladies and guys used these and I purchased both the plastic name badges and lanyards on ebay.com. Reception Location We held our reception at the Port Maria Restaurant at the Iberostar Grand. It was covered, but open air and allowed for the evening breeze to blow through. I also ordered sand dollars for the escort cards and purchased purse hangers and money clips for the wedding favors. I purchased both favors for the ladies and gentlemen on ebay.com. I used tiffany blue ribbon for the escort cards and placed each favor in a tiffany blue box tied with a white ribbon. Escort card Wedding Favor - Ladies Purse Hang - These were used the night of the wedding at the reception which was really nice to see! Wedding Favor - Mens This was pretty useful for the guys while on the resort because it was able to hold their tip money. Groom/Groomsmen Attire My husband found the suits at Macy's. They are Tasso Elba and we were able to get them at a great price of $139.99 for both jacket and pants. Here is a picture of what the suit looked like. It's not on the website anymore, but you should be able to find it in the stores. My husband added the vest to complete his look. I purchased the coral stripped tie from www.weddingtonway.com. The groomsmen LOVED them. HUGE HIT. My husband opted for a bow tie he purchased himself. And now the guys! Bridesmaids Dresses I fell in love with these dresses from the moment I saw them. They are from Watters and I purchased them in coral. I don't have the pictures back yet of my girls, but here is what the dress looks like. Wedding Dress I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Kleinfeld's in NY to purchase my wedding dress. It was the fourth one I tried on and I fell in love instantly. It was a Lazaro that was a silk charmeuse with a ton of intricate beading in the overlay. Here is the back of the dress Here is the front of the gown. Wedding Brochure.docx First Aid Labels.doc Wedding Day Timeline.docx

This is my wedding dress I purchased from Kleinfelds. It's a Lazaro and it was absolutely beautiful with tons of beaded detail. Loved it! I need an excuse to wear it again!

Hi Ladies, I'm just returning from the Grand and the wedding was amazing! Janielle and Syrecka are both absolutely wonderful. They have everything under control! We scanned and emailed our notarized documents to them about 1-2 months prior to the wedding and even sent a few last minute details via email to them while at the resort and despite some of my last minute additions, everything turned out perfectly. We got married in the dome and it provided excelled acoustics for the ceremony. Our officiant was wonderful and he kept the mood light while still making sure the importance of our union was recognized. Janielle came and picked up my wedding dress and the grooms suit three days prior to the wedding and also worked with the butler staff to ensure that all of the wedding parties dresses/suits were pressed in time for the event. Janielle also picked up the decorations for the ceremony and reception the night before and made sure they were set up exactly as we asked. My husband celebrated his birthday while we were there and she arranged for a semi-private dinner at the Japanese restaurant for our friends and family and even came in with a cake and balloons for his special day. The rehearsal dinner was also planned to perfection and Janielle and Syrecka assisted in the Meet and Greet prior to that event and made sure that everyone was escorted to the Surf and Turf for dinner. There is a new process in place where the Public Relations Manager for Iberostar will be filtering all emails/correspondence for all three resorts and the Wedding Coordinators will not have direct contact until 45 days prior to the wedding. I'm glad I was able to meet and correspond with Janielle and Syrecka prior to my wedding because it only helped to establish the close relationship that we now share. Brides, please be sweet to these ladies and rest assured that they have your best interests at heart. Aside from saying "I DO", having my wedding at this resort and working with these ladies was the best decision I've ever made. Feel free to ask questions and I'll be more than happy to answer them all. Happy Planning and Best Wishes! Dani

Allie, I was able to scan and email mine to my wedding coordinator. I received confirmation last week that the documents were approved. Have you been in touch with the WC at the Suites to see if she can do the same thing? It makes it much easier. Dani

Brook, You do have to fill out paperwork to request a date. I'm not sure which resort you're planning using for your wedding, but I've provided the link below for the Suites. The email address is also on the website for Iberostar. I do know that the only pricing available right now is for 2013. They generally do not release pricing for the following year until sometime between October and December. You might want to check with the WC once you've made contact. Hope this helps! http://www.iberostar.com/en/hotels/montego-bay/iberostar-rose-hall-suites/extras [email protected] Dani

Hey Courtney! We have almost 40 people booked so far so I ordered 20 lanterns, one per couple. I believe they have matches at the resort so we should be good there. I have a call scheduled tomorrow with the wedding coordinator at the Grand so I'm going to have her answer a few additional questions for me. I'm thinking we will release them around 8 or 9 PM, after dinner. It's going to be a beautiful night .