I got married at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites on October 14, 2010. I stayed there from October 9-16th, and had a group of 37 people in total. I will go through everything hopefully in a nice organized fashion so it's easy to follow. In a quick few words - this was the best experience of my entire life, and it was by far the most amazing wedding and exceeded my expectations.

Check in: My group and I arrived at the hotel around 6:30pm on a Saturday night. We were greeted by the porters who organized all of our luggage. We made our way inside to check in - our group took up the entire bus so we were the only people in the check in line. Check in was quick and efficient. The staff were friendly and accommodated my guests who were placed in double rooms and preferred king rooms. We were also greeted by the servers from the lobby bar with a tasty frozen drink called a Miami Vice. After check in we all went to our rooms to settle in, then met at the lobby bar for drinks before dinner.

Rooms: We arrived at our room - my husband (then fiance) and I were upgraded at no cost to an ocean front room. It was beautiful! It was very clean, had a fabulous view of the beach and ocean, and I loved the rain shower head. We also had a jacuzzi tub in the room but we never used it other than to soak my very sore feet in one night. Beds were very comfortable, and our mini bar was restocked every day (maybe it had something to do with the generous tip we left on the first day for the maid.

Food: We ate at the buffet a lot - I found that there was a large enough selection that I never had to eat the same thing twice if I didn't want to. I loved the different soups each night. My husband loved the morning omelette station. The jerk pork and chicken was a hit with my guests. A few of them even tried the curried goat and said it was great. We had our rehearsal dinner at the mediterranean restaurant which was good. I don't eat seafood so I stayed with the vegetarian pasta option but the people who ate the fish said it was very good. Our wedding dinner was at the gourmet restaurant "Calabash". This was by far the best meal I ate all week. The asparagus soup was delicious. People commented that the steak was like butter, and the lamb was outstanding. The people who selected the red snapper loved it. The service here was outstanding as well. Most lunches were at the beach bbq or at Aunt Rubies steakhouse. I loved the fries at Aunt Rubies, as well as the salad selection. The beach bbq was fantastic. The rice and the pork were outstanding!

Drinks: The drinks at IRHS were incredible! My favourites were the dirty banana, the rocket (we invented this one) and the Miami Vice. The service at the bars was all fantastic. Jules and Glenroy at the swim up bar were amazing, Garfield at the disco bar was quick and very friendly, and all the waitresses and servers were wonderful.

Service: In a word - OUTSTANDING! The best service I have ever experienced at a hotel or resort. Special thanks to Klema and Kadian - they are so quick and friendly, and always remember what you want to drink. They even brought us drinks on a few occasions without us even having to ask them. Every staff member at this resort seemed to go out of their way to make you feel important. No request went unheard and even though I heard that the Jamaicans seem to run on "Jamaican time", we never experienced this. Also, I had heard that the Jamaicans will flat out ask for tips. Never once did I experience anyone even expecting a tip. The service was so great everywhere that we were tipping left, right and center.

Beach and pool: There were plenty of lounge chairs in both the sun and the shade. Never did we have to fight for space in the shade. The ocean was clear and warm, the beach was well maintained - no weeds washed up on shore. The pool was clean and refreshing. It was big enough for people to float around, and not have to participate in the activities if they didn't want to. The lazy river was a great addition too. The only problem at first was that there were only 3 tubes for the whole resort to float on in the lazy river. They quickly brought in more floats for people to use in the river. A nice alternative to the busier pools.

Spa: My husband and I received a free couples massage with our wedding package, so we used it the day before the wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed the massage. I also used the spa services for my hair and toenails the day of the wedding. They do an amazing job, but they all seem to be a bit unhappy or something. They are very kind to spa users, but they don't seem to smile very much which is too bad. I loved my hair on my wedding day!

Wedding: Nicole the wedding coordinator is amazing. She is so kind, organized and darn good at her job. My parents, FI's parents, FI and myself met with her on the second day we were there. She took us around and showed us the ceremony location, the dinner location and the backup location in case of rain. Plus we covered all the details that we had previously discussed over email. We made a few changes when we arrived at the hotel, and right up until the day before the wedding, and every one of them was accommodated, no problem. The beach area where the ceremony was supposed to take place looked like it had been partially washed away by the rain, but Nicole assured us that it would be taken care of - it was perfectly filled in and groomed for our ceremony. I used Tai Flora for the flowers, and we paid extra for some extra decor and flowers - they were well worth it. They made the most beautiful floral arrangements I have ever seen. The only time I got a little teary the entire day was when my flowers arrived. Even the table settings for the dinner were spectacular. I had white, fuschia, turquoise and yellow flowers, and fuschia chair bows and flower petals. Staff at the hotel told me it was the most beautiful wedding they had seen all year. I highly recommend Tai Flora! The ceremony was fabulous. The minister was very well spoken, and said such beautiful words that even my dad cried during the ceremony. The DJ timed the music perfectly and used all the right songs (we brought our own cd). We cut the cake immediately after the ceremony. We chose the Jamaican rum fruit cake which was delicious! We also had an open international bar, and hors d'oeuvres served on the beach right after the ceremony while we did our pictures. I think our guests appreciated this aspect of the wedding since it took up the hour we had to wait until dinner. We did not use the hotel photographer, we brought our own, so I can't comment on that aspect of the wedding. Our dinner was at the gourmet restaurant, which was beautifully decorated with pink sheer overlays on the tables, hurricane vases with candles, surrounded by flowers, and small tealights. The head table had a backdrop of pink fabric, pepper lights, hanging orchids and tealights. It looked fabulous (thanks to Tai Flora)! The dinner food was excellent. My guests had a choice of red snapper, lamb or steak. My only complaint is that I should have requested a microphone for our speeches. We only had a group of 37 and the restaurant was private so I figured we wouldn't need one, but there was background music playing that was rather loud, and no one could seem to figure out how to turn it off. Lastly, we had the disco private. We did our first dance, father-daughter, son-mother, bouquet toss and garter toss, plus we had about 2 hours of dancing with just our group before the disco opened up to the rest of the resort. Most of my guests were having such a good time that they stayed even after it opened to the public. My hubby and I retired to our room around 1am and found that Nicole had covered our floor in flower petals, our bed in flower petals, and lit little candles all over the room - it was so romantic! The next morning we woke up to breakfast in bed. They brought us so much food, I started calling our other guests to come over and join us to eat it. It was a really nice touch! A perfect ending to a perfect event!

All in all, I cannot really say one bad thing about the resort. All of my guests thanked me for picking such a wonderful resort as there was something for everyone to do - all the way from our youngest person (20) to our oldest (79). I would go back here in a heartbeat! I miss it terribly and we would love to go back some day! As the commercials say about Jamaica - "Once you go, you know".

Ya mon!