My Riu Ocho Rios wedding - Feb 12 08

jmhein · February 26, 2008

Hi everyone!

We are back! Our wedding was Feb 12th and we spent two glorious weeks in Jamaica! Our first week was at the Riu Ocho Rios for the wedding and our 2nd week at Sandals Whitehouse for our honeymoon.

None of you will have ANY regrets about choosing the ROR for your wedding. The place is breathtakingly beautiful! Many of our guests have traveled a LOT and all said this was nicer than anything they've seen!

We were very, very lucky, and somehow scored the JACUZZI SUITE when we arrived! This suite is amazing with walk-in closet, king bed, bathroom the size of a palace, Jacuzzi tub between the bedroom and bathroom, and a 2 level balcony with a 6 person jet tub on the top level. Amazing! Views were stunning!

We met with Chandlyn Monday morning and it went quickly and smoothly. She is extremely nice and answered any questions I had before I even asked them! She gave us a coffee mug and bottle of rum cream. We went with the free package but upgraded the decorations (I'll post a pic), hired the steel drum band, got bouquets for the bridesmaids, and rented the disco for our reception. We had the "free" dinner at Mammee Bay Steakhouse (Semi-private). The total cost for these items was $1756. Spa charges were separate and not included in that total.

We did a rehearsal that night which I am really glad we did! It really helped everyone know where to walk and how to time things.

The day of the wedding I was terrified it would rain since the day before had been rainy. But we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, although it got EXTREMELY windy. Windiest day we were there. But I'll take wind over rain any day and it ended up being nice and kept everyone cool. At 11 AM I had arranged for the hairdresser from the spa to come to my room and do my and my 3 bridesmaids' hair. Her name was Nicole and she was wonderful! So nice! We all got our hair done and she did my makeup and one of my bridesmaid's makeup. We cut it really close to the 4 PM ceremony time and ran a few minutes late to make our big appearance!

Just before 4 PM Chandlyn came up to get us and my dad came up to walk me down the aisle. We walked down as all the other hotel guests started cheering. So much fun! Michael the photographer greeted us right away to take pics of us walking down. From there it is just a blur, so many people taking pictures, and me being in my happy little bubble. I didnt even really notice the steel drum band but all the guests said they were awesome and really added a great touch! Michael took photos and we had the DVD done as well so there was a videographer. Everyone was kind of directing us the whole time on where to stand and where to look, it was pretty funny. The minister was very nice and did a great job. Michael did great with the photos and very shortly after the ceremony was done he informed me the hour was up and would I like to continue with another hour? I told him I would for the photos but not for the videographer. (Didnt want to pay for both).

The photos turned out great and so did the DVD. I love them both.

Dinner at Mammee Bay Steakhouse was EXCELLENT. There were 42 of us in total and we had 2 waiters and they were fast and friendly and bent over backwards for us. The meal was seriously the best I've ever tasted! It far surpassed any meal at the Sandals resort the week after, and any meal I've had in Canada! Everyone said their meals were delicious. The waiters brought out my 3-tier cake (Included cake, didnt pay for an upgrade), and it was DELICIOUS! Black forest cake! Michael showed up again to do cake cutting pictures. My whole family loved Michael, he is a very nice guy. We gave the waiters a really nice tip for being so excellent with us.

We then headed to the disco which is just a short walk from Mammee Bay. We had a lot of fun at the disco!! I had gone to check it out beforehand and did find it a little dark, but when I met with Chandlyn I told her I'd like it to be brighter and that was done, no problem mon! Our DJ was excellent, we had brought our own CDs and he did an excellent job of gauging the crowd and playing stuff everyone would like. We all had a fabulous time dancing and the two hours went very quickly. At 11 PM the rest of the guests can come in, but most of us stayed and danced all night!

My only regrets about the week and the time were it went too quickly! I was so busy with wedding stuff I felt like I was missing out on some of the fun everyone else was having! Monday I had to meet with Chandlyn, then try to hunt down Michael, and he was always busy with other weddings so I didnt meet with him until very LATE that evening. But I did go into the Photoshop to discuss packages and had to pay the initial fee at that time. The PhotoShop is always BUSY and I always had to wait. I also had to go to the spa to check on our appointment, and definitely do this, because they didnt have me written down even though I'd booked and paid 50% online!! But once I went there, all was good. So Monday was a blur, Tuesday was wedding day and went SO quickly, and then Wednesday I had to meet up to pay Chandlyn, pay the spa, and tie up all the loose ends. Thursday we did an all-day excursion, and Friday we spent 2 hours viewing all our photos and narrowing them down from 600 at the Photoshop!!!! I was SO glad we stayed a 2nd week because it all went so quickly.

I also felt a little pulled in different directions by our guests. There were 3 main groups - hubby's family, my family, and our friends. We felt like we had to spend time with everyone and ended up running around in circles. In my perfect dream world I thought everyone would just hang out together but it didnt really happen that way. Anyway, by the end of the week, we figured we would just let people come to US if they wanted to hang out with us and then we had a much more relaxing and fun time.

My advice to ALL future DW brides - slow down, breathe, enjoy every moment, and take it all in! Enjoy your vacation too, everyone else is!

It was perfect though and I really wouldnt change a thing!

I never did get my fruit basket. I mentioned it to Chandlyn and she sent up another mug and rum cream, so that was OK! Everything about the Riu was great. The key cards do have problems, we only ever had 1 key card at any given time that worked between the two of us. At one point our room fridge broke down and that took 3 days to get fixed. But those are very minor issues and it's really an amazing resort. The Sandals Whitehouse was very nice as well, but for the value for your money, I'd say Riu Ocho Rios all the way!!! Hubby and I are aready contemplating going back for our 1 year anniversary!

Anyway, I hope this helped some of you and feel free to ask questions! I'll post my photos now.