Back from our ROR Wedding

[geology_rocks]

We've been back now for a few days from our May 5th wedding and I waffled about wether to write a review or not and whether I should start without pictures. I figured since I found everyone else's reviews so helpful that I shoud share my experience too. Now, I want to start off saying that we did have a wonderful time and chose a destination wedding because I didn't really care about matching table cloths and centre-pieces etc. We were however, a bit disappointed with the service we received from the weddings department at ROR.

 

I pre-arranged a meeting time with Chandlyn so that I could plan an excursion with some of our guests and not have to worry about double-booking myself. We met at 9am on Saturday, kinda. I was directed by the front desk staff, up the stairs to Chandlyn's office. We actually didn't meet with Chandlyn at all, but with her new assistant Kenisha. We went through the standard checklist and chose our location (beach gazebo), ceremony type (civil), music type (steel drum band), cake flavor (chocolate), flowers (light pink roses & orchids) and when we wanted our champagne toast (at dinner.) I gave Kenisha a box with our cake topper, some shells for the cake and our sand ceremony vases/sand. She then told us our dinner would be at the Plantation which I thought was weird because we didn't request this, so I questioned it but she assured me that this is the location of our dinner. Only as we were leaving the meeting did Chandlyn realize that Kenisha had made a mistake and corrected it. I would have felt really bad if we, and our 26 guests, had crashed someone elses wedding dinner at the Plantation, problem solved though.

 

On the wedding day, I woke up and ran to the balcony to check the weather, sunny and clear, AWESOME! My MOH and I had a breakfast date, then went to the spa for the total bridal package. We got manicures, pedicures, make-up and hair styles done. We had Nicole and Karine and they were fantastic, so friendly! They did a great job!

 

After we were all beautified, we went by to my parent's room where Chandlyn was to meet us and escort us to the beach. Kenisha was to meet my husband on the beach. Well, with 2 minutes before the wedding is supposed to start, there is still no Chandlyn in our room so we walk down to the beach on our own. We'd seen a couple of weddings take place earlier in our trip so we kinda knew what to do. Once I'm down there, Kenisha tells us to line up at a certain point and wait for the music to start walking down the aisle. Once I get to the gazebo the minister (yes, i said minister) starts reading from his Bible about gathering in the prescence of God and made us repeat our vows saying "in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." He went on and on with this religious ceremony, the whole time, I'm feeling quite uncomfortable because we are not religious in the least. Obviously, the wrong officiant was called out to perform our ceremony. Oh well, it got the job done, we're married, we're on the beach, lets enjoy it!

 

As soon as our guests behind's left their chairs, Chandlyn and Kenisha start taking the chairs to set up the next wedding at the arch next to the gazebo, actually, we have maintenance men setting up in the background of our ceremony pictures too. They also had taken down the standard white tulle that is normally wrapped around the gazebo to use on the arch and used some frayed pink fabric instead for our wedding. I asked Kenisha if we will see her at our dinner and she assures me she will be there.

 

FFWD a couple of picture-taking hours later and me, my husband, the MOH and best man are outside of Mammee Bay waiting for either Kenisha or Chandlyn to give us a bit of direction on how the evening will play out. Kenisha rushes past us saying she has to go to a rehearsal but will be back as soon as it was over. This is that last we saw of either Kenisha or Chandlyn on our wedding day. I thought this was a little ridiculous since the co-ordinators felt another couple's "practice" run was more important than our actual wedding day.

 

Earlier in the day I had asked our photographer to take a few good pictures of our cake toppers since they were custom made and I loved them. When we got into Mammee Bay, he asked where the cake was, I had no idea! As we were finishing up dinner I asked the waiters about our cake and he said he didn't know anything about a cake. I took a few deep breaths and figured we could do without cake since there's a dessert buffet but I really wanted my cake toppers back. We also inquired about the champagne, which of course, the waiters hadn't received any instructions about either. After about 20 minutes or so, the waiter comes out and says they've found a cake and would we like for them to cut it up. I explain that it's kind of traditional to have the bride and groom make the first cut into a wedding cake so they plunk the cake down onto our dirty table and left us to cut and serve the cake with a butter knife. I wasn't surprised when we cut into the cake and it wasn't the flavor we ordered. It was white cake with strawberry fillilng and was delicious, but still another mistake made - at least I had my cake toppers back! I gave up on the champagne and told them not to even bother but the best man insisted we have our champagne and eventually he rounded up a couple of bottles.

 

After our champagne toast and cake cutting we called it an evening. Those who wanted to, stayed to watch the evening's entertainment, other's went to bed. Depsite all of the mistakes made, we were married, we were in Jamaica, the weather was beautiful and we got to share it with our closest family and friends. It was a great day.

 

Now, I realize I come across as bitter, high-maintenance, hard to please etc but I'm really not and that's why I wasn't sure if I wanted to write a review or not. We felt very disapointed after having read the many fantastic ROR wedding reviews here, and how great Chandlyn was on your wedding day. I felt that we were treated like we weren't as important as her other brides. I know she's got multiple weddings per day to co-ordinate but she should have only been 2/3 as busy as normal as there were only 2 weddings on our date.

 

At this point, I wasn't the least little bit surprised that we never received our fruit basket, spa gift or "surprise gift". I didn't let it ruin my wedding day though! We did have a great time and I will post some pictures as I receive them.

 

Again, sorry to be Debbie Downer, I just thought I owed it to all you great ladies on BDW to share my experience since I learned so much here!

 

 

After the Ceremony

 

How many people does it take to bustle a pick-up skirt?

 

the elusive, slightly pale (but delicious) "chocolate cake"

[kitty_kat_uk]

you look stunning, and your cake topper sets off the non chocolate cake really well. Welcome back and I'm sorry you had such a hard time out there!! Hopefully you have lots of good memories to share too.

[Heidi]

Oh, I'm so sorry your experience wasn't what you expected! I would've been disappointed if that was my turnout as well, and I think it's great that you posted your candid review.

 

We did a rehearsal before our wedding, and I think that helped A LOT. And I will also add that I asked Chandlyn to allow us to run through the rehearsal two times, so we ALL knew what to do. Chandlyn was also about 15 minutes late in picking us up at the room. We just did a few shots of rum and she eventually got there. I had read about the non-punctuality before going there and kinda expected that.

[Heidi]

On a different note, you look STUNNING!

[Mrs D To Be!]

lady your dress is sooo lovely!

 

and your cake - all i can say i waw!!! hope it tasted as good as it looks!!

[Camille]

I'm so sorry to hear about all of that! I will have to say that I truly admire the optimistic attitude you had!!! And you look gorgeous in your pictures!!!

 

Thank you for posting that! I understand that nothing is ever perfect and I think I needed to read something like that to give myself a reality check since I have heard only wonderful reviews so far!

 

I can't wait to see more pics! At least those turned out well!!

 

CONGRATS!!!

[alex]

You did not come across as a Debbie Downer at all - in fact I think you sound incredibly positive & happy for all the "glitches" that you came across on your special day!!!

You look absolutely beautiful in your dress & that cake looks tasty!! Can't wait to see some more pics!!

Congrats on being a MRS!!!!!

[Birdie07]

I'm sorry that happened. If you read my review Chandlyn never came to my room either! We called down ....it was more b/c we were stalling the wedding though and she thought we wouldn't start without my mom. So it was just mass confusion. But if I had a minister instead of the Judge I would of flipped. I might of stopped the wedding. I did NOT want a religious wedding. I'm so sorry that they mixed it up for you. But hey "no problems mon" You look gorgeous in your dress! And I LOVE the cake toppers!

[serena]

congratulations you looked beatiful,

we just got back from our ror wedding and i was not too impressed with the wedding departments services either i will post my review soon!!

[ACDCDCAC]

i'm sorry it didn't turn out as you'd hoped, but i love that you had a great attitude about everything in the end. sometimes a situation is what you make of it. thanks so much for sharing your experience!

 

also, where did you find your dog and cat cake topeprs? soooo adorable!