Our CSA Wedding 7/11/08

[ziggy_bo43]

I posted this review on the Couples MB, too, but here it is for all of you lovelies!!!

 

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We had such a wonderful wedding experience - I can't gush enough about how lovely CSA is for weddings!!!

 

Check our our pictures here: Snapfish: Share:Registration YE/otsi=SALB

 

I have a full review of our trip on the regular boards, but here is a more detailed wedding review:

 

We couldn’t have been happier with our wedding! When we checked in, we were given a packet of information telling us when we would meet with the wedding coordinator and showing us the menu of services that we could add. Our certificates for our massages were in there, as well (go early for your massage & sit in the relaxation pool – it is lovely!)

 

We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, with a Friday morning wedding, so we met with the coordinator, Tamika, Thursday, the day before the wedding. It couldn’t have been more simple! She ran through every element of the wedding – the flowers, the music, the location, the décor (we opted to add flowers to our arch for $100 – SO worth it!), the cake, the photogs, everything. We found out that they’d even made our dinner reservation for that night at Feathers because our party was so small (only 7 of us)! They were very accommodating - I was not thrilled by my choices of complementary bouquet (but didn’t want something huge in an upgrade) because none of them came in my favorite color. She asked what color I wanted, I said orange, and she suggested a small bouquet of orange lilies. She called the shop to check availability, and voila! I had a complementary bouquet (just a simple hand-tie of a single type of flower – lovely!) in my favorite color. My bouquet, the arch flowers, and my husband’s boutonniere all coordinated very well! The wrist corsages for our mothers looked great, too. We brought a sand ceremony & our own toasting flutes, gave them to her at our meeting, and she took care of having them set out on the wedding day.

 

The day couldn’t have been more smooth; they are pros! The whole proceeding is a well-oiled machine – seriously!! We chose the beach at 10 am – the water and sky were gorgeous and we didn’t have to stress about rain. Tamika showed up at my room about 10 minutes before the ceremony (my photographer came earlier to take shots of me getting ready in the room, as you will see) with my bouquet. She walked me back to my little hiding spot and grabbed my dad to come escort me down the aisle. The site was perfect; the aisle was freshly raked, arch lovely, chairs set up, music ready… we just had to show up! The minister conducted a very nice ceremony; short and sweet. I honestly don’t remember much because my adrenaline was through the roof!

 

After the ceremony, we walked back to our sand ceremony table, took part in that, and then signed our certificate registration. Quick advice if you’re doing a sand ceremony: if you want to use some Jamaican sand, get it when it’s DRY! It was HILARIOUS watching our mothers try to pour in our “foundation†sand (we brought colored sand for ours, used actual Jamaican sand for foundation). It was damp and would NOT come out!! They eventually got enough out, but man was it funny.

 

After the signing was complete, we were taken to a garden setting where a table was set up with water glasses and champagne flutes and our cake. You HAVE to get the Jamaican fruit cake – it was so yummy!!! And you can get chocolate and vanilla cake anywhere! Our only concern that entire day was our flutes & cake after the reception – we asked to have them brought back to the room, and neither was. I was able to easily retrieve our flutes with a phone call and a quick trip to the wedding office, but we never got to enjoy the rest of our cake. Oh well – pretty minor in the grand scheme of things!

 

Once we were done, our family left us to our photographers’ mercy for a while. The photographers are pros; they do this all the time, so they know where to go and how to have you pose! We ended up using an off-site photographer because I couldn’t bear the thought of not getting all of my images. I was very, very happy with them. They were even prepared to dab my face and décolletage with a napkin to keep me picture perfect in the intense heat (the sweat marks on my family in the group shots are pretty hilarious! That’s what we get for getting married in Jamaica!).

 

Ultimately, we were so happy with our choice for CSA. The wedding and the trip itself were both incredible. We plan on going back for our one-year anniversary next summer!!

[2winks]

Hi Ziggy! thanks for the review! I'm planning to get married in Jamaica/ Sandals too... I just have a quick question for you. You mentioned that you used an off-site photographer, I thought they don't allow this @ Sandals?? Did you have to buy your photog a day pass??

 

Thanks in advance and congratulations!

[melody]

Congratulations! lovely pictures.

[ziggy_bo43]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2winks You mentioned that you used an off-site photographer, I thought they don't allow this @ Sandals?? Did you have to buy your photog a day pass??

Hi! We didn't get married at Sandals, we got married at Couples Swept Away. They require you to pay an off-site "vendor's fee", plus purchase ceremony passes for them. Regardless, we only paid about $50 more than we would have with the resort photo package, and we got to keep ALL of our wedding images.

[KHarrod]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing.

[ErinB]

Great review! I got married at CSA about 2 weeks beofre you guys did! I couldn't have agreed more!

 

We are also planning to go back next summer, we had such a wonderful time!

[DanielleNDerek]

great review.

[caroline]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing! I especially like your BM's holding spot for bubbles!