Hello All!

I am back from my wedding at the RIU Montego Bay – May 11, 2012 I had a FABULOUS and AMAZING day. I was the most amazing 10 nights of my life!

US AIR – A

We flew US Air from Burlington, VT to Philadelphia.  That flight was on a smaller plane and took about an hour.  They do not have closets on those planes so I had purchased a luggage garment bag to put my dress in.  I just did one half fold and put it over head. No problems.  We flew US Air from Philly to Jamaica which took a little over 3 hours. I also put my dress above my on this flight too. No problems…all in all US Air was perfect.

Weather A+

The weather was soooo amazing. We were in Jamaica from 5/9/12 until 5/18/2012.  It rained only 2 times while we were there…Once it poured for about 30 minutes cleared up and went back to being perfect weather. On the day of the wedding is sprinkled right during the ceremony for about 10 minutes. Which was fine. Its good luck to have rain on your wedding day!!

JTL Tours and Jamaica Tourist Board A+

They were absolutely the best. From the moment we headed off the plane, through customs and baggage claims, we were escorted by a team from the tourist board that was sent to escort us PERSONALLY and thank us for visiting Jamaica. We thought this was a very nice jesture, with posted signs welcoming us to Jamaica.

The JTL tours team were very professional and we were through customs and off to the hotel within 40 minutes of landing. Since the RIU was a short 10 minute ride from the airport, we were the first stop.  We also used JTL tours for our excursions…more on those below..

 

RIU Hotel Check-in - A
When we arrive at the resort our room was not ready. It was not a problem for us. They gave us wrist bands and we were free to explore the resort. Luckily we were already wearing the right clothes to be in hot weather so we didn’t have to change. While checking in they gave us rum punch which was so refreshing…then we went and grabbed some drinks and food. By the time we got back our room was ready. It was perfect

Rooms – A

Our room was great! We decided to only purchase a garden view room since we heard we would get upgraded. We were upgraded immediately to an ocean view. It was perfect. Everything was great with the room and I have NO complaints!  A couple of the people staying for the wedding had a musty smell when they walked into their room. It was only a couple of the rooms but as soon as they were in there and aired it out it was nothing to complain about. I think because its so humid they get that way.


Hotel accommodations - A

The hotel is new and the staff work very hard to keep the grounds well maintained and new. From the landscaping to the restaurant, they work night and day to maintain the surroundings and also see to it that requests are addressed in a timely fashion.

Flowers

Tai Flora – A

I made my own fake bouquets with Calla Lillies and brought them with us. Since there was a free bouquet and boutineer included in the wedding package I got them anyways. The groom wore the boutineere and we used the flowers as decorations at the reception. They were great!


Wedding Coordinator - A

We worked mostly with Nekeisha. She was GREAT! She arranged everything to be done.  I think they have everything already figured out they just aren’t so great at telling you before the wedding. There were a bunch of things I was wondering like where we are gonna walk and where people are gonna stand but I just let it all go and said to myself she does this for a living, I am sure she has it all figured out. And SHE DID! She told us exactly what to do., And before the ladies for there she had already told the guys what to do.

Ceremony A+++++++

There was a DJ set up on the beach who played the songs we chose. You can either bring music or play songs that they have. We chose to just see what they had. They had a great selection. While the guests were arriving and sitting there they were playing other music for them.

We also decided to bring our own decoration for the beach gazebo. We brought white Tulle, ribbon that matched the girls dresses and we picked flowers from the garden. We borrowed a staplegun from the resort to set it all up.

We did a sand ceremony which was perfect. Our officient was perfect and what he was saying was fantastic!  I would not write your own ceremony…he has a way of saying things that are amazing.  A couple planes flew over during the ceremony but we just paused till they went by. We got free rum punch after the ceremony with was amazing.



Spa/Hair/ – A+++++++++++++

The spa was so amazing. The day before the wedding I treated all of the ladies in the wedding plus the moms to a spa day. Everyone got massages, facials, wraps whatever they wanted. It was soo amzing and they are the best!!  I seriously Can't say enough. I brought my picture in of my hairstyle and Stephanie worked her magic. You can view the pics and see for yourself that they did an great job.

Food - A
I think that a lot of people say the food is awful but they have so much food available that you can eat something different every day. And yes not everything was to die for but for the most part everything was really good with a lot of selection!  The only restaurant I really didn’t like was Little Italy…it was bad food and bad service.  The steakhouse which is where we ate dinner for the wedding was amazing. Our servers name was Damien and he was the BEST!  If you can request him then do it!!  He made it worth while!

Breakfast is the best and there is so much selection from bagels to hash browns to smoothies to an omlette station!

The jerk chicken on the beach was the most amazing food they had!  It was to die for!! The spicey jerk sauce was my favorite!!
 

Cake – A+

The cake was great! We got vanilla cake/frosting with a raspberry filling. Everyone was so full that we didn’t really each much of the cake…Also I wanted to put my own decorations on the cake but it was so hot that if the cake came out early it would melt. So I had the decorations ready and the cake came out right before we were going to eat it and I decorated it quickly and it was perfect!!

Photoshop A

We used the assistant head photographer name Lincoln. He was the best!! We were able to view our photos before we left but there were so many we were unable to choose which ones we wanted! So he is supposed to email us the unedited files so we can choose. I wrote an email on Saturday and I had all of my pictures by Wednesday! But Lincoln was ontime, has some great ideas and very funny! I would highly recommend them.

Booze Cruise Catamaran A++++

This was so much fun!! We went through JTL Tours and we traveled about 10 minutes to get on the boat. From there we cruised for a little while then we went to a reef where we snorkeled which was AMAZING! Then we went to Jimmy Buffets Margartaville which was also amazing. Then back on the boat to cruise and drink as much as we want! FUN!

ZipLining A++++

This was amazing. Soo scary at first but so awesome. The guides were hilarious and they made it so much fun!  I would recommend this to anyone going !

WEDDING DAY
My wedding day was perfect. The night before the wedding I slept in my sisters room to keep it traditional..Since the wedding was not until 4pm that day it was hard to keep us apart but we did it. The girls and I hung out in the pool ALL morning which the guys hung out in the sports bar and casino.  I went to get my hair done at 1:30 and the girls went their separate ways to do their hair. My hair was done right around 3 and I went to find the girls…The photographer was scheduled to meet me at my room at 3:30. When the photographer got there I wasn’t anywhere near ready. I did my own makeup and then put on my dress around 3:45. Then photographer took a bunch of pictures of the girls in the room. Then he went down to the gazebo and took pictures of the guys and family members. Nekeisha met me in my room at 4 with all my girls and my dad.  We walked down to the gazebo. There was this special route that we took that I hadn’t been on before. There was a DJ set up on the beach playing music for the guests. They had roped off the whole section of the beach where the wedding was which was soo nice!  The girls walked down one by one to a song that I chose. Then I chose here comes to bride for my song and my dad and myself walked down. The ceremony was great and so was the officient. After he pronounced us man and wife we did our sand ceremony and signed the paperwork. We were immediately served rum punch which was great! Then  we took pictures until around 5:30. From there I told everyone to go to the lobby bar to have drinks to wait until the dinner at 6:30. I went to my room and took my Spanx off..LOL they were soo hot! Then we went to dinner at 6:30 and it was amazing. It seemed like it was the hottest night the whole time we were there so we were roasting!  After dinner they brought out the cake and we did the cake cutting. After dinner everyone headed to the disco which I rented out from 9-11. I went to my room first and changed into another white dress which was much cooler!  The disco was fun although everyone was soo tired from the day that we all just kind of relaxed, danced to some songs and drank.  Immediately after the disco my new husband and I called it a night and went off to our room ;-)

I hope this helps everyone!