SUNWING/SIGNATURE VACATION

Awesome vendor to work with and the airline was great. Even though it was a small plane, it was comfortable and the food was pretty good. Staff were very friendly and had a dedicated overhead compartment for my dress and for another bride that was on our flight. There were no extra/hidden fees, you get fed well and get a glass of champagne or a glass of wine with your meal. Check in was slow, with lots of different flight checking in at the same time (leaving Toronto) but leaving Jamaica the process was quick and more organized. No luggage was lost from anyone on either flight.

RESORT

The resort is large and beautiful, with a wide open lobby. It was the first time we stayed at a 5 star hotel and we were very happy with all of it! It has 3 a la carte restaurants and we ate at all of them. Sir Andrews had a variety of items on their menu and it was all delicious. The brazilian restaurant was okay, the different meats were a bit dry and over cooked. The Shadows restaurant (steakhouse) is where we had our wedding meal and everyone loved the food, it was delicious. Steak was cooked perfectly! The rooms were clean, not overly large and we got upgraded for free to an oceanfront room with a king sized bed. The room got cleaned everyday, but they didn't always replace our hand towels. Seems like towel shortage was a common problem everyone had. Some of our guests had issues with their rooms (for a variety of reasons) but the staff we great at accomodating all the requests, even though they were full to capacity all week. The latest the bars are open is midnight, unless you go to the disco where it's open till 2am. We went to the disco a couple of times and it was a lot of fun, and surprisingly full. There were a couple of large parties staying at the resort and a lot of young people (20-30 year olds) so it was fun to hang out. The night of the wedding the disco was closed but we didn't want to go to bed, so my husband's friend's paid off the bartenders and they organized a DJ to come in for us and gave us lots of drinks and let us party on the stage where all the shows are performed. It was a lot of fun. There was about 30 of us that stayed for this part and then a bunch of guests from the resort joined us as well!

The beach is man made but it's not bad, the sand is rocky but the ocean itself is nice. You can go for nice, long walks and do some shopping. The locals will try to sell you lots of different things, including drugs, but if you're nice and just say no thanks, they leave you alone. One end of the beach is a fish sanctuary and you get to see lots of sea life.

The staff and all the locals are very friendly, respectful, and nice.

We did an excursion to Rick's Cafe, it was a catamaran booze cruise and it was a blast.  Prior to the boat ride we hung out on 7 mile beach and I definitely recommend going, it's beautiful!

The pools are nice but they are cold. The pool with the swim up bar is a bit cloudier than the other one, but I think it's cause a lot of drinks get spilled in it.

My main complaints are that you have to get up at 7am to get beach or pool chairs and to make reservations for the a la carte restaurants. Very annoying! They also kept running out of beach towels, so if you get one then keep it till you get another one, don't get your towel card back.

WEDDING

We had 63 guests so I really wasn't sure how things would go over, but it was perfect!

The correspondence with Dionne prior to the wedding was great, she always responded within 1-2 days. Once I got there, she arranged for me to meet her the next day. During our meeting we went through all the details and reviewed everything we had pre-arranged. She was pretty organized, but she did forget to charge us for some things and then on 2 separate occasions we had to go to the reception to pay for them. We had an outside DJ come in so first she forgot to charge us the outside vendor fee ($250) then she forgot to charge us the fee for having a private dinner ($2000).

The ceremony was beautiful and exactly how I wanted. Dionne was very relaxed, and not picky on the details so I really wasn't sure how things would turn out. It ended up being perfect! The ceremony was exactly what I pictured and the setting was gorgeous. We had it on the beach and the great thing about this is that it's at the end of the beach so it's fairly private (although we did have some spectators) and there was lots of trees around so I'm sure the pics will be beautiful!

After the ceremony we had about 1 1/2 hours, so we took pics and then went to the lobby bar for a couple of drinks until the restaurant was ready. They did provide some drinks at the ceremony site at no extra charge.

We had a private dinner reception at Shadows so that meant that we had the entire upper floor but some resort guests still were eating downstairs. It was still very private cause we never had to go downstairs, they brought everything to us. It also allowed us to set up a dance floor and have a DJ. We had a head table and 8 guest tables. I had 2 friends help me out by setting up the wedding favours, table numbers, placecards, etc. Our reception was at 6pm so they went at 5:30 to do all that.

The dinner was delicious! For salads, they set up a buffet upstairs but they served the head table. They also served wine and beer to all tables. The entree choices were Steak, Chicken or Shrimp and then wedding cake for dessert.

After dinner the party started, and the dancefloor was packed all night! The best decision we made was to have a private dinner with DJ, everyone had a great time!

Overall we were both impressed with the resort and the wedding. We'd definitely go back again. If you're getting married here, don't worry...you'll love it!