We got married at Iberostar Rose Hall Suites on April 23, 2011 and it was by far the best day of my life! I will go through all the details as best as I can remember and I hope this will help all the fellow brides as much as this site has helped me! 

We flew out of YVR Vancouver International Airport on April 29th and arrived April 20th around 1pm. We had the majority of our guests on our flight and some who arrived a day prior to us and some who arrived  a day after us. We had 23 guests in total. 

Check in (A+) - It was everyone from our group checking in at once, so the wait wasnt very long. The bell men were very accomodating in getting our bags in order (we had 9 in total just for the two of us!!!). When checking in, I informed the clerk we were getting married their and if Nicole had left any messages for us. As soon as this was mentioned, her attitude changed and was extremely polite (not that she wasnt already) and informed us we will be getting an upgrade from ocean view to ocean front (one level). Quite a few of our guests were upgrade from junior suite to ocean view and we were all placed on the same side of the hotel (which was nice). Also, I had a last minute guest book at the Beach because the suites was sold out, I informed nicole of this two weeks prior to get a day pass and upon arrival we found out they got upgrade to the suites to stay with us! All thanks to Nicole! So that was very nice. We then made our way up to our room and met the bell man there.

Rooms (A+): Our room was right on the ocean and had a fabulous view and a large balcony. The rooms are very clean and spacious! We had a bottle of wine, fruit platter and welcome letter from Nicole. We did have a broken shower door so the water leaked out when we showered but nothing that bothered us. The rain shower head is nice! The mini bar was fully stocked with red stripe, juice and soda. It says they restock every second day but to be honest, ours was stocked every day! The AC in the rooms gets VERY cold - which is a good thing. Just keep the balcony door closed. Beds were super comfortable. We also always left $2 a day for the maid. We then spent the next 3 hours assemblying our OOT bags, unpacking, organizing all our decorations and documents for our meeting with Nicole the next morning. 

Air Canada Vacations Rep/Guest Services (A+): The next morning we had our meeting with our Air Canada vacations rep at the hotel (Helen). If anyone is flying air canada, Helen is amazing. She is super nice, organized and knows her stuff! We planned all our excursions through her and even booked our restaurant dinners with her (even though you normally book your al la cartes through guest services). Strongly advised to book these first as they do fill up quickly. It was also hard because we wanted to do "group" dinners and they normally will not allow to book more than 4-6 guests at a time and wanted us to all book individually but luckily Helen solved this for us and booked all our group dinners!

Meeting with Nicole and Tammy (Wedding Coordinators) (A+): Nicole sent me an email a few days prior to arrival to inform us of our meeting at her office. Her assistant Tammy was also present. They are both lovely, nice and have a great sense of humor. They are VERY busy and constantly running around. I think in the 1 week I was at the Suites there was a wedding every second day! During the meeting we went over all the details that were discussed prior. About a month prior to your wedding, she will email you a form called "last wedding details". Fill this form out with EVERYTHING you want! Cause this is the form she reviews with you. If its on the form, you will have no issues. Its alot harder for you to present more ideas once you arrive in person because with how busy they are its hard from them to run around and figure out if "its possible" to work for your wedding. For example, I am vegetarian, along with some of my guests. Our dinner I wanted another fish option and it took along time for her to find out from the chef. Finally, it was confirmed we could do grilled snapper as another option and this was outlined on the form. I could only imagine this would not have happend if not discussed prior to our arrival. We also went over the invoice and everything was correct. They just bill it to your room and you pay when you check out. Nicole also told us just to call the bell man the night before our wedding to pick up all the decorations and bring it down to her office. I had a few pictures and descriptions of how I wanted things set up which I also advise doing. Nicole also took us around to show us the ceremony location and set up for the beach reception. Nicole and Tammy will do anything to make your day special, so dont worry, everything will work out once you meet with them!

Welcome Dinner (C) - We had our welcome dinner at the Gourmet (Calabash) restaurant 2 days before the wedding when all our guests had arrived. We had met in the lobby bar for drinks prior and then down for dinner at 7pm. Dinner seating and taking our orders wasnt an issue and was done fast. However, ordering drinks (even just to get beer or wine) was very slow. I think I only had one glass of wine cause the waiter never remembered to give me a refill when I asked. We had two large tables and the table I was at had its appy and first course and it wasnt until 20 mins later than the second table even recieved their appy. The service was really slow! After eating (the food was ok) we waited 35 mins for dessert and coffee before we just decided to just eave. I dont know why the service was so bad because there was only two other small tables asides from us, and about 4 waitors working. It was the only bad experience we had the whole trip! Oh well, it gave us an opportunity to give our "thank you" speech and our gifts to the wedding party and parents!

Food (A): The food is simply amazing! Large selections of ... well.... anything!!! My fiance and I are foodies, and his brother is a Chef, so food quality if very important to us! The main buffet is where you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner (if you havent chosen an a la carte for that night). It always had different selections everyday and was great! We even met there a few times with our large group and there was always room for all of us to sit together. For lunch and afternoon snacks Aunt Rubys is also open. There selection isnt as good as the main buffet so we only ate their once. They also have beach bbqs every few days but being a vegetarian I never tried it. The four a la cartes are : Gourmet (which is mentioned above), Aunt Rubys (I will review in my wedding section), Mediterranean (amazing for dinner- their seafood selection is massive and the service was the best we had from all restaurants), and Mexican (food was ok here but the service was good! They also had a late night buffet we did a few times but nobody was ever there - probably because they would just order room service!). The room service food is ok, not the highest quality but it does the job after late night drinking! 

Drinks (A+): Always good! They love putting rum in every drink they make for you (which I didnt mind) but by the end of it I had to switch it up, lol. We tired alot but my favs were jamaican smiles, blue hawaiis and BBC's. You can also order cappucino's and ice coffees after dinner which I loved. The bartenders were all amazing. We hung out at the lobby bar alot, shout out to Ricardo, Richardo, and Jules!!! They made our trip a blast. To find out good drinks, just tell them the flavors you like and they'll make you something good!! Also, make sure you get them to make you the bob marley shot! All the bars were great and its never hard to get a drink!

Service (A+): Everyone is very accomodating and will also try to meet any requests you have! We were tipping ALOT because of the excellant service we had. 

Entertainment (B+): The resort has "Star Friends" which is basically employees that walk around to make your stay engaging and interactive. They were all very nice and funny. Loved Juice Box, Tweetie, Mo Mo and Crazy Kenny! They also had nightly shows that start at 930 every night. Some were very good and others were just ok but always a good time. Because I live in Vancouver and its the stanley cup playoffs, on hockey nights the boys which watch the game in the "games" room while the girls went down the hall to watch the show, so it worked out perfect! The casino is small but still entertaining. The music bar is also good, they have nightly karokee which me and about 6 girls went up and did one night which was fun! The lobby also has music every few nights (piano etc). The beach party was the night of our wedding so we didnt see it. However, we saw it the following week when we were staying at the grand and it was also fun with dj, fire dancer and the star friends. 

Spa (A+): I had an appointment for 11am (which Nicole made for me prior to my arrival) and my two bridesmaids. I had brought some pictures of what I wanted and they did a great job! I loved it and it only took them an hour to do all of us and we all have LONG hair! We also did the couples massage in the package and it was amazing - I definatly recommend it! They also have a wellness pool you can use for free which we did a couple times! 

Tai Flora (A): I had communicated with Jodi-Ann prior to arrival and sent her picture of what I wanted. She sent me back a quote and everything was what I wanted. Yes, prices do easily add up but I figured it only happens once so I didnt really mind. Plus, I thought about making my own centerpieces but glad I didnt, we had enough luggage to bring with us! Jodi was supposed to be at our meeting with Nicole but didnt show up. However, the flowers arrived on time the day of the wedding and they were beautiful. I had my bouquet, bridesmaids, groom and grooms bouts, and then some corsages and bouts for parents and grandparents. We had cake flowers and flowers for signing table included in our package. For our centerpieces we had 3 tiered vases, filled with water and floating candles and flowers. They were beautiful! Payment was a bit confusing because we would have preferred to pay cash rather than getting dinged with a 4% surcharge if using credit card but oh well! 

Wedding (A++): Best day of my life! Woke up early and met with all the girls in the buffet for brunch. All the men went atving so I didnt have to worry about them or my man seeing me! The girls then went to the spa, while the rest of them went shopping. We had marica roberts photography who also met us at the spa to take pictures. We got back to my room around 1:00pm and started our makeup. Marica paused us and made us get on the bed, turn up the music and had a dance party! It was alot of fun and helped me relax!!! After getting ready, we took pictures on the balcony and my parents came up to the room to join us. Nicole came and delievered the flowers and touched based about the set up (it was really windy, always is, so all the fabric for the huppa wasnt staying put so they could use it all). Marica then went to the guys room to take pictures while they got dressed and my MOH brought a few shots for us to do while sitting and relaxin! haha. Once ready, Nicole came and got us and we made our way downstairs. Our ceremony was set up on the beach to start at 4:00pm. As far as I know it started on time, except one of the groomsmen had to run to the washroom! We all laughed as it was radioed in to Nicole when we were waiting inside, lol. We hired the steel pans band to play during the ceremony and they did a great job entertaining everyone and setting a good jamaican beach vibe. The girls walked out to "one love" and I walked out with my parents to "somewhere over the rainbow". The ceremony was beautiful. I wrote the whole script and we did our own vows. Eveyone was crying!! But im glad I made it through my vows. The pastor was great - rev. conrad thomas. We did a sand ceremony and even though we brought a funnel it still blew everywhere! Once pronounced husband and wife, we exited and were brought champagne a-sap. We all toasted and everyone congradulated us. Our guests went inside for cocktails while the wedding party went off and took pictures. 

We had our reception dinner at Aunt Rubys. We were supposed to pay to make 50 people but once we got the bill - it wasnt on their - just for the extra people we actually had. We did not pay the $800 to rent it out - I thought that was a rip off and didnt bother. Everything was set up beautifully, just the way I wanted it! The tables were rectangle (not round like I was orginally told) so my linens didnt fit that well but I dont think anyone noticed. They also didnt hang out paper lanterns cause we didnt rent it out. There were other guests dinning but we didnt notice as we were so loud ourselves and they would cling their glasses so we would kiss, so it was fun! We had myself, my husband, MOH and best man sit with us. The other wedding party sat with the rest of the group. We had our own private watior for our table which was nice and food and service was great! We also had the restaurant manager check in every so often to make sure everything was well. We did not pay extra for the other cocktails but their is a bar right inside aunt rubys that my guests just went up to. It was not a biggy because we had to go up for appys and salad bar anyways! So glad I didnt waste my money on that! Dinner started at 630 and after eating our moh and best man gave speeches, along with both our dads (very touching! first time I saw my dad cry!). There is no microphone but we didnt need it as we all sat fairly close. We then did the cake cutting. We had a two tiered cake (cheesecake on top and vanilla on the bottom). It was so nummy! We were supposed to have the top tier sent to our room but this did not happen. I didnt really mind but it would have been a nice midnight snack! 

At 815ish everyone headed to the beach (right outside aunt rubys) and we had the resort dj (DJ DEMO) set up, bon fire and open bar. We did a fun entrance with the wedding party to get everyone dancing. We did out first dance, father/daughter, mother/son dances and it was all very nice! Then - our surprise entertainment for the guests was the fire dancer. He put on a good 20 min show and it was amazing. Definatly worth every penny!!! He got us involved to. We then all danced on the beach for a good couple hours. What a work out! We gave the DJ a cd of all our songs which we played most of along with some of his own more interactive dance songs which were great. DJ (A++)!!! Hes a super nice guy, we chatted with him after, he also does all the entertainment shows as well. He played until about 11pm. Some of our older guests went to bed and the rest of us met in the lobby bar for drinks! We headed to the disco around 12pm and it was pretty bumpin. DJ demo was their again and was happy to play any songs we requested. We stayed until about 2pm (thats when the crowd died down) and headed back to our room! 

Overall, our experience was amazing. We transfered to the Grand for 5 days after staying 7 days at the Suites (after all our guests left). We paid extra for this (ALOT extra, lol) but it was worth every penny. I highly recommend doing this. It was so easy to move next door yet it feels like a whole new resort! The service and food is outstanding, and you get your own butler, cmon!!! lol.

All our guests were pleased and did not have any major complaints (and we travelled with some very picky people!). Nobody wanted to leave!!! It never rained once (expect overnight) while we were there! The food, service and people are all amazing.My words of advice, fill out the last minute wedding details with everything you want, so when you get their, it is all set and then youll have nothing to worry about. Cause trust me, when you get their, the last thing you want to be doing is working out final wedding details. Im happy to answer any questions and Ill post some pictures when I get them back!!!