Very confused on a few issues with ROR and booking wedding

[sunstarsmoon]

For all those that have booked their wedding. I have spent the last few days reading which seemed like thousands of posts on everything I could find on the ROR. I realize that 2010 dates are not available until early next year.

 

My question is, At what point is it necessary to book your guest rooms. Do you have to have your room booked when you make the date request. I read somewhere about 3 months to hold the date until rooms are booked is this right.

 

Any information would be very helpful. I am just confused right now because I know that some tour operators will not have their dec 2010 rates and packages available when I am able to book my date with ROR. I hope I am making some sort of sense. I will be going with a travel agent (I am a travel agent but very new) and I will be getting a group rate thru a tour operator. I am just worried to reserve my date only to have it cancelled because I have not booked anyrooms at the resort.

 

Also if I have to at least book my room do you know what kind of a deposit ROR requires for the room?

 

Thanks everyone in advance

 

Chris

[chicklet]

Here is what I did.

I booked my wedding date as soon as I could (I believe it was march). You fill in all the info (names, parents, witness names and secure with credit card). You pay the minister fee when you meet with Chandlyn ($350.00).

You then have a three month grace period to have your room booked.

We decided to do a group rate as well so that required me to get 10 people booked all at once to secure the rate (we did this end of may). Everyone needed to put down a 200.00 (with Sunquest) to secure it and the remaining is due in Dec.

Hope this helps.

[sunstarsmoon]

Thanks so much chicklet, as you probably know there is so much information available that the more you read the more you get informed and sometimes very confused lol.

 

Chris

[chicklet]

Yup..its happened to me many times (aka birth cert convo).

The booking and securing the wedding was the stressful part for me.

Hopefully its smooth sailing for you.

[sunstarsmoon]

I hope so I am pretty stressed about the whole thing and I can't even book it yet lol.

[christenew]

I did the exact same as chicklet. Acutally she did the same as me cause she is a copy cat. She even copied my wedding date

 

I asked my 10 special people if two weeks in January were good for them. We then set our ideas of the date to a Wednesday or Thursday. When the dates came open on Riu's website I requested and got my first choice. I then let everyone know what day it would be and the approx. travel days. I contacted my travel agent and she was able to use the 3 month grace period to get us a group quote. Those 10 people then booked, including us and that confirmed our group. We then just opened it up to anyone else to book.

 

It was lucky for us that Riu didn't open the wedding bookings until about 10 months before and Sunquest was even later for the group rate at about 8 months. It worked out well.

 

Happy planning.

[chicklet]

Don't stress its actually a fairly easy process . Just try and get an idea who might want to go forsure (and be willing to put down the deposit) before you secure your wedding date

I actually picked my date because 22's are just the way we roll. Both our birthdays are 22nd's (April and June) so I figured our wedding might as well be too . It was funny cause when I was trying to secure that date I didn't realize that if someone has chosen a time then you couldn't go within two hours of that time frame? (I think that is how it goes) so I thought I couldn't get the 22'nd and was all upset. Then I realize I was just a JackA and needed to pick a different time.

One suggestion I have for you, get your guests booked fairly quickly. We ran into a little blunder with my MOH..she has to stay in our room for the week (which is fine cause we are there 2 weeks) as she didn't book till beginning of Oct. Resort sure did fill up fast!

Holy I guess I am a wind bag!!! I'll shush.

[sunstarsmoon]

Thanks everyone, I just hope at least 5 couples are willing to put their deposit down quicker than we thought. We all are going on a group cruise next August and our final payment will be just around the time for the deposits for the wedding. OUCH!

[sunstarsmoon]

Well I feel better. At work today (work at travel agency but very new lol) I discovered the Sunquest RUI brochure and saw that the brochure was good for May 2008 to December 2009. What a relief I had been worried that when I requested the wedding date for December 2010 in that 3 month grace period Sunquest would not have released the December 2010 rates. Going to be close but I will have my 10 people ready to book as soon as the packages are available in May. Which if the 2010 wedding dates are available sometime late feb or march I should just make it

 

Whew! my fingers are crossed.

 

Chris

[chicklet]

Its crazy how early you need to book the wedding to get your date eh?? I had to book in March for Jan and the month of Jan filled up not too long after I booked (I would say within a month.

Have you booked your date yet? Did you have a specific date you wanted?

Which travel agency do you work for?

I have friends that live in Oshawa so if we want to go on another trip (after jamaica) I will send them to see you