Hi BDW. This site was extremely helpful to me so I really hope that this helps someone else…Sorry for the late review but we had our AHR on October 24^th, so I was still pretty busy packing up and sending Thank You Cards and such until recently. Here goes…

GETTING THE DATE AND DETAILS

Pre-Date Wedding Coordinator Communication (D)

It took several weeks of emails and calls by our TA (LeAnn Decker, AAA Travel) for us to get our date of Friday, September 24, 2010. Of course, we were a little concerned by this initially but our TA assured us that this was due to “island time.”  And I am so glad that we bought into that! 

Post-Date Wedding Coordinator Communication (B)

We secured our wedding date about seven months in advance...(Yes, we planned a DW in 7 months!) Nicole and I started exchanging email regularly about two months before the wedding. Some responses were same day while others took much longer. I didn’t get all “worked up” about response times though because I was very busy myself at the time. Nicole responded to everything in detail when she responded and when she was out-of-office on vacation, someone else responded on her behalf.

SITE VISIT

Tour (A)

I went on a site visit about a month before the wedding. Nicole met with me to tour the property and to discuss our wedding details. Iberostar was everything that I thought it would be so I was very pleased with our choice.

Wedding Location (A)

There is nothing like a site visit to confirm or eliminate choices! For instance, if the hotel is full and you get married at the beach, gazebo or lazy river, random people might very well be in your pictures…unless, of course, it’s raining, about to rain, or it just finished raining.  We chose the Terrace…but we had a small group (19).

Wedding Dinner (A) & Reception Location (A)

While site visiting, I ate at the restaurants that we were considering for our wedding dinner: Calabash and Mare Nostrum. This was very helpful because I used this visit and tour to make some great changes to our wedding details. I learned during the site visit that if you have your wedding dinner at Mare Nostrum, you should probably rent it out because it is small and has an odd layout that will not work if you want your tables in a T-Shape for 19 or more guests…If you have your wedding dinner or reception at the beach restaurant, your guests should be “cool-natured” since it’s open air. My guests were not. We chose Calabash for the dinner and the Disco for the reception. Both locations were air conditioned and worked out very well for us. The food at Calabash was elegant and excellent and the Disco is a great place to entertain lively guests.

WEDDING WEEKEND

Check-In (A)

We arrived at Iberostar three days before our wedding and check-in was fast and easy-- as the hotel was nearly empty. Our first room (ocean front upgrade) had a musty smell so we asked to be moved. They moved us and transferred our luggage with no problem.

Lost Luggage (A)

After checking in, we met with Nicole briefly to say hi and to go over our wedding details one last time. She was ready and there were no issues…EXCEPT that we forgot one of our nine bags at the airport…The one with all of the wedding favors in it! Luckily, the good citizens at Sangster International Airport returned it to us the next day. The Iberostar front desk staff and manager were extremely helpful in helping us locate our lost bag. Thank goodness!

Dress Steaming (A) and OOT Bag Delivery (D)

Nicole helped me send my dress out for steaming a couple of days before the wedding. It was returned to me the next day. Also, I had asked to have our OOT bags delivered but some guests never got theirs...Word of advice, do not T.I.P. until all of your O.O.T. bags are delivered! No problem though, my MOH ended up delivering the rest of them. After that, I did not interact with Nicole very much. But only because I had assigned one of my bridesmaids to take care of details from that point on so that I would not have to stress about anything. 

Salon and Spa (B)

To me, the salon was overpriced for both the trial and wedding hair. Where is a coupon when you need one? However, they are very customer service oriented at the salon so it was 'sort of' worth it. The manager checked in with me during both services and offered me very much appreciated refreshments. (We used an offsite makeup artist.) My hair held up very well in the heat and humidity so I can’t complain…The couples massage included with our wedding package was a very nice touch too. We really enjoyed it.

Officiant (A)

The Iberostar officiant, Reverend Gallimore, was great. It sprinkled on us a little bit during the ceremony and he kept it moving without missing a beat.

Florist (A)

We used the Iberostar florist. The bouquets, boutonnieres and flowers were all very nice. We actually went light on the flowers and decorations since the Terrace had such a beautiful background.

DJ (A)

We used the Iberostar DJ. He had great taste in music and everyone was on the dance floor---even my dad. I gave him a few special songs to play at certain times and left the rest up to him. He did a great job!

Photographer (A)

We used Digital Memories Collection for photos. Loved them! My full review with some of our pictures is here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/65500/diana-campbell-richard-brown-digital-memories-collection

Overall (A)

This was the wedding of our dreams. Getting married in Jamaica and at Iberostar, in particular...AWESOME! I highly recommend both. Our guests loved it. We loved it. It doesn’t get any better than that.