***Go to www.facebook.com/misti.hagemann for pics!!!*** 

Ok, I'm pretty ADD so this is going to be all over the place.  Bear with me

RIU A+

Keisha - WC - B

Keishas asst - A

Jamaica - A

American Airlines - A

My travel agent - VIP vacations - F

32 guests came, it was an awesome vacation!!!!  The guests never stoped thanking me for finding such an incredible place and most had never been somewhere so beautiful.

Pre-wedding communication

Yes, yes, I know.  Communicating with Keisha...well, sucks.  I only started planning my wedding 3 months out (last minute, I know!) and I couldnt get answers out of her.  But, its like this at every large resort that does weddings, and you just have to make your own decisions on the reort based on sites like these.  I sent her one email with 12 questions one month before the wedding (according to other brides, this is the only time she really startes to communicate with you... but remember, shes doing 4 weddings a day!!!  Plus, count 4 brides a day x hundreds of brides trying to plan months to years out and thats a LOT of emails and calls!!!)  Over the next few weeks I sent two follow up emails reminding her that I still need answers, and got those answers two weeks before the wedding.  But honestly, they werent necessities and I wasnt too worried about it.

Travel agency - F

Jennier, the president at VIP vacations seemed like a dream come true.  So was so prompt and friendly.  After two terrible TAs, I loved her. ....well, that is up until our trip.  Once in Jamaica, I found out she was ignoring my guests, didnt send 4 of them vouchers for the transports despite me asking her twice the week before if she sent everyone the vouchers (the lack of a response should have been a clue).  This cost my guests a $150 taxi ride...per way.  Yes, they paid $300 for somehting that was already included in the price they paid her).  Also, she found me a deal for 95 per night for each of the guests (based on 2 guests per room occupancy).  I found the exact same price on expedia (umm, shouldnt we be getting a big dscount for bringing 22 ppl to the hotel for an average of 5 days?), but then went with her company anyway since she promised us deluxe (upgraded) rooms.  Needless to say, after hours and hours of stress and running around trying to get answers, we found out she only gave us the standard rooms.  She made thousands of dollars off us and got me the exact same thing i could have got myself (without a gp discount).  We also booked flights ourself.  So, yeah, that was pretty disappointing.

Airlines

We flew AA there and back.  We saved money by making 2 layovers.  Bad idea.  It made a 3 hr and 40 min flight into a 14 hr adventure in too many airports.  I would only have one layover next time.  hectic.

JTL tours - A+

they transported us from the airport to hotel and back.  super friendly.

***BOOK YOUR RESERVATIONS TO THE NICER PLACES ASAP!! they fill up quick!!!!

Toshima (or whatever its called, lol)

A+++++ best food of the trip

Jerk chicken hut - A+

open during lunch.  some days good....some days fantastic.  heard the pork was amazing, but never tried it

St. Anns A

the general buffet.  Im an experienter so i tried most everything.  only spit a few things out, lol.  I was mostly pleasantly surprised by the new tastes.  GREAT breakfast.  We had two huge gp dinners here, as the place was usually only half full.  We made friends with a waiter in the back and he always had us set up (even put flower petals on the tables both times). 

Sir Richard

I didnt try it, but heard it was amazing from a guest

Mandalay

Pretty good asian food, but it was a buffet when I expected a nice sit down, like the others.  Pretty similar food to the buffet.  If I had to choose between this and another, I'd pick something else

Steakhouse

We had the steakhouse menu during our reception dinner and it was great.  Try the mixed seafood/meat platter.  It wont disappoint.

Pizzeria

Tried it three times and hated it three times.  I couldn't find one thing I liked here and it was the only place open late (closes at midnight)

Sports Bar

The only food after midnight.  popcorn, cold nachos, and mysterious sandwiches, lol.

Day 1

Upon our 10pm arrival we were greeted with big smiles and jamaican rum punch (best drink of the trip).  Check in was 10 min top and everyone was friendly.  We went to our rooms, dropped off luggage and ate before crashing.

Day 2

Met with Keisha.  She was really nice and you could tell shes done this a million times, lol.  I picked the free wedding (religious - $350.00, I believe.  Little known fact: on the jamaican gov wedding page, it says weddings are only 75 or so with a minister and that the hotels usually bump that fee up much higher.  Oh well.), plus the bonfire (200.00).  Everything else was generic.  Oh! Despite what you read on here and her telling other brides that the free package comes with unlimited guests and the other packages charging 10.50 per guest after 10 guests, get this in writing FROM HER!  She charged me like $120.00 for extra guests.  That was disappointing since it wasnt anticipated.

Friday - wedding day

2pm Got hair and makeup at Renova Spa (A+).  The girls were super sweet and sooo funny.  They kept me relaxed and laughing the hour and a half I was there.  I touched up my makeup (added more) once I got to my room afterwards, but thats just me being anal.  :)

Bring pics of hair and makeup to your appt....  they have no pics of makeup to pick from and their hairstyles to choose from are outdated and.....interesting.  It made me a little nervous to tell you the truth, but I'm glad I trusted my gut and went ahead with the appt.  The woman glanced at my two pics twice and recreated the looks well.

3:30 finished getting ready in room

4:10 - keisha's super nice asst came to the door with my BEAUTIFUL (FREE!) boquet and escorted us down to the site (beach gazebo).  It was decorated soooo nicely with the pretty flowers and everything (free, free, free!)  The only thing I added was the chair ties I brought (RIU charges 3.00 per chair tie rental, I bought mine for 2.00/each on the internet)

Oh! sidenote: I brought my own CD of ceremony music and had it dropped off 30 min prior to the wedding per keishas request.  The asst overheard me tell my maid of honor how disappointed i was that i completely forgot to upload "marry me" by trainn (the song I realllllyyyy wanted to walk down to).  She radioed the ceremony music fj (15 min before the ceremony!) and had him race to the office where he happened to have it!!  I couldn't belive it.  Oh and as another sidenote, if you dont have music, they play beautiful island music.  they even filled in holes of my ceremony (30 min before the ceremony and music afterwards while we were talking pics for 30 min) with their own music.  They were great.

5:00pm -- wedding time!!

We never had a rehersal, but NO WORRIES! Everyone knows just about how a wedding goes, and the cordinator is right there tapping people's backs when its their turn to walk.  Super easy.

Once I got down the isle, the (reallly nice) minister leaned into Brian and I and whispered, "Ok, its going to be a 5 min ceremony with a prayer afterwards.  Do you mind if I use some scriptures?"

This is when my heart absolutely sank.  I had put together the most beautiful (30 minute!) ceremony script from different brides on this site.  It meant the world to me and every single sentence touched my heart.  I was upset for a moment since I had sent it to keisha two days prior and followed up with her via email to make sure she got it.  I even told her later that day to check her email since I sent it.  I asked her to contact me if there was any probs and she couldn't find it.  *sigh*

Anyway, the minister obviously had no knowledge of the script so I decided to roll with it.  There is always some kind of glitch in a wedding and you have to go with the flow.  He started out with "dearly beloved" and the rest was pretty generic. 

After the ceremony and the signing, we took pics for ten min before the groomsmen tossed my groom in the ocean -- UGGHH! --- and lost his wedding ring.  He looked like a wet dog with see through linen clothes and black undies.  Great.  :(  He switched clothes with the one dry groomsman (thank god!) and we took pics for another hour with my world famous (and super economical!!) photographer (www.ericpozos.com, www.erickpozsblog.com)

We then had dinner at the Plantation (for free since the Mammee Bay steakhouse was full) with the steakhouse menu.  They decorated the reception with the chair ties (from my ceremony) and table runners I brought from home. It was soo pretty!!!!  They really do a great job.  Seriously. 

Best of all???  (once again) It was free!!  ...and we were secluded.  Dont waste your money on a private reception: other than upstairs, we never saw one other person in the restaurant. 

After dinner we had a bonfire.  I highly recommend this!!  I changed out of my dress first though, its a pain getting the smell of smoke out of clothes and I didnt want my beautiful dress (that I want to sell!) smelling like that. 

The next two days were a blur, as was the rest of the trip and we begrudgingly returned home Monday.

***Go to www.facebook.com/misti.hagemann for pics!!!***