allieplask

i have her booked - how is she free to get in the Suites?

Court, I agree with you about staying at IRHS. My TA is keeping me updated on the dates our guests are staying in Jamaica... we are staying Wednesday-Wednesday, others are coming Thursday or Friday but staying until Wednesday. Originally we had wanted to stay at the Grand the entire time while our guests stayed at the Suites but the more we thought about it, we didn't think it was fair to stay at a different hotel. We also didn't want to switch hotels since all of our guests were coming to Jamaica for us/our wedding and we didn't think it was fair to them to leave right after the wedding. We will go on a honeymoon at a later date too - guess that's when we will get our alone time hahaha.

question for past brides... did guests bring wedding cards to your wedding? my mom suggested getting a box/something cute to hold all the cards but then i was thinking - will people bring cards since they are on vacation/with us for a week??

I'm from Jersey - we are using a friend of the family's in Ohio.... You can always check the prices on our wedding website for the group - allienick.com... She is going through a company called FunJet and it seems a few other brides I've spoke too are using them too

so cute! where are you getting these from?

I don't.. but I know you can rent chairs from Tai Flora, that's what I plan to do.

we were also on the fence about formal invitations... but my mom talked me into it saying not everyone is as "tech savvy" as we are. our engagement party invites AND our STD's had our wedding website on them. we have a ton of travel information on the website and we have also send 2 emails explaining the travel booking process to our guests. but, a lot of our older relatives do not have email access/don't understand the whole email thing and even though they might not be making the trip we wanted to have a paper invitation to send to them so they could feel a part of the wedding. for our invitations, we are doing a "z-fold" which is like an accordian-style. the front is the actual wedding invitation, the middle is a design and the last page tells about travel information, how to contact our travel agent, what there is to do in jamaica, the wedding week events and how to get to our website. the back is also designed as a filler with a "how-to-speak jamaican" lesson. we think the are informative but don't have TOO much information - very to the point - and they add a little more in terms of details than what we have on the website and what has been in our emails. we sent out our save-the-dates in mid-June and i am hoping to mail the invitations mid-september or early october. we just finished designing our wedding suite - invites, luggage tags, welcome letters, door hangers, table numbers, escort cards, bridal shower invites (because it DRIVES ME CRAZY when bridal shower invites do not match the wedding at all), OOT tote bags and a few other things. my FI is a graphic designer and owns an apparel printing business so we will be making our own OOT bags thanks to our fabulous wholesale hookups and will have business associates do all of the paper printing. i think the decision of formal invitations could go either way, depending on your guest list. i do think it's nice to get a card in the mail though and have something to put on your fridge as a reminder of your upcoming AMAZING vacation as oppose to mass emails.

harley... can you post a pic of your reception set-up! thanks!

I've contacted the people running the facebook page - FYI its not the hotel or the WC, it's run by photographers on the island... Still an awesome page to look at and use but it's not in by the resort

Thank you!

I jut want to add to your question.... What about any input on a reception at the outdoor restaurant vs one of the indoor restaurants? I think it'd be fun to have a reception in the open air restaurant but I don't want everyone sweating, hot and miserable hahah.... Thanks!

Thank you, thank you! Were the sandboxes there or did you bring them with you? As I start to look at decor and stuff I am overwhelmed by all th stuff I potentially might want to bring - even just the escort cards, wedding programs, ceremony signs, table numbers and welcome bag stuff is more than I want to lug on a plane with me.... What does the hotel have, if anything? And did you bring stuff down or rent it from someone down there, thanks!

Anyone whose already gotten married at the suites... what have you done for escort cards? I'm sure there is a table to use but I want to check - if they use something specific or if I can request round vs. rectangle. Also, are the tablecloths the same ones used for the dinner tables. We are in the middle of designing our escort cards and before I finalize the design, I want to make sure the set-up can and will be what I want. Also, did anyone bring their own table clothes/runners? I had emailed Nicole right after 4th of July about a ton of things but haven't heard back yet....

I also got the Lacie shoe but have since returned it. Since I am wearing flip flops (from Lilly Pulitzer) for the beach ceremony, I didn't want a huge heel for the reception - and because I don't want to be stepping all over my dress during the ceremony.... but the more wedding blogs/websites I've looked at, I noticed that EVERYONE is wearing the Lacie for their wedding too! I couldn't bring myself to wear a shoe that I see everyone else wearing and wanted my own "special shoes".... Shoes have been driving me crazy for the past few weeks but I am finally decided on a pair from J. Crew that I am in love with.

heather, do you have a wedding website or anything with your rates/what are your "perks" - i just want to see in compared to us since we are the same weekend....

thank you! i'll check it out...

has anyone gotten group rates/discounts on airfare? i am waiting to hear back from my travel agent regarding what she will do for us but i've spoken directly to us airways, delta and american airlines and all of there groups seem unflexible and a lot of work on my part (or my TA's part)... why can't i just get a group discount code from the airline for flights? also.... has anyone booked their flights yet?? not sure if we should do it now or wait.....

i agree - for all of the jamaicans i have felt with in planning so far she is so quick! most emails come from her phone but i love that she gets right back to me! do you know if the hotel is going to charge you a fee to allow her to come to the resort? i read it's a $100 fee, which is fine - i just wasn't sure how they really check that or if there is a way around it......

let me know how rashel is.. i just sent her a deposit for my wedding

I'm exactly with you.... our number is looking around 100 but again we'll see! and i reallly don't want to have to bring things, that is why i want to get in touch with the florist... it's bad enough i am packing OOT bags and we are filling them when we get there but i just don't want to have to lug decorations, etc. and have to worry about all that - i just want it set-up and done for me!

have you heard from tai flora at all? let me know whatever pricing they give you.. i have emailed them a MILLION times and still no response except from the initial "congratulations on your wedding." i just want an idea of everything to budget... after your ceremony, are you having a cocktail hour so they have time to move the chairs/set-up? we weren't going to have a cocktail hour after the wedding - we were going to do a pre-cocktail wedding cocktail hour, ceremony, reception so i am just thinking when they would be able to move everything over? leah, do you know if for all weddings they use the same chairs for both ceremony & reception?

Good idea, never even tout of that... You were quoted $5 a sash from the resort?

i have also been looking to rent chairs from the hotel - i don't like chairs with chair covers and sashes, just not my thing. i have spoken to nicole about this and she told me you can rent chivalri chairs from tai flora. i have not heard back from tai flora about pricing but read somewhere else that tai flora charged them $8 per chair for chivalri chairs.... i know the hotel doesn't have pretty plain white chairs either (no seat covers) and also asked tai flora if i can get those from them or plain benches for the ceremony.. i want chairs for both my ceremony AND reception - my dad is ok with $8 per chair for one of the events (i'm thinking the reception) but we'll see....

i think i would rather rent/use what the resort has... i have seen a lot of wedding pictures of wrinkly sashes/tablecloths that i assume are wrinkly from being packed in luggage?? that's my worry!

kfarkas26, have you decided what you are doing about your wedding? have you sent out std's or anything or are you still trying to finalize the hotel? leah22 mentioned half moon bring cheaper and i can tell you that half moon was our first choice - the property is beautiful and i have ALL the wedding information BUT i received itemized bills, invoices for what we were going to pay for the wedding and it was ALOT. the rooms/villas (which were what we really wanted) were much more expensive per person, also we were going to have our guests on the all-inclusive plan and they wanted us to pay $180 per person for our wedding reception dinner/open bar! and that was a discount that was applied if you have over 30 guests at the wedding. the normal price was like $230 per person which i found to be INSANE! just saying... but the property is beautiful