Iberostar Rose Hall Brides - Post all info/questions here!

[Jaciv2000]

My photographer told me that the time of year I am having my wedding (October 25th) is a fantastic time of year to go. So that's pretty close to November

[Sjay]

Okay, my turn to rant...

 

We just got a response to our final details document from Nicole (yes, ONE week before our wedding) and she is trying to tell us now that we can't hang paper lanterns at Aunt Ruby's with a semi-private dinner. What?!?! Nowhere in any of the wedding details docs, and at no time in our correspondence over the last year has she every mentioned any exclusions or limitations to decor!! In fact back in May 2012 we asked questions about decor at Aunt Ruby's (when we knew we would have semi-private) and their response was "yes we will do the decoration according to how u want it."

 

The lanterns are the biggest piece of our whole decor plan and we went to a considerable expense to purchase so many - and lights for all of them - that we are FUMING right now. I wrote her back and said this was completely unacceptable, and then I located an email address for a PR manager at Iberostar and wrote her/him too. I am 100% positive that I have read posts/reviews from other brides who had lanterns at a semi-private Aunt Ruby's, and that's why I'm up at 1:30am searching (unsuccessfully so far ) for those posts to share them with Nicole. We will have them if I have to damn well hang them myself!

 

Nicole also gave us some BS about not necessarily being able to accommodate our requested seating plan. We are 27 people. We have THREE tables. We've asked to be in a corner of one of the patios at Aunt Ruby's. And they don't know if they can do that "because there will be other guests dining there"??? Are you kidding me? How else would she set up three tables for a wedding if not together? After all of the money we are spending over and above what we're all already spending to be at an AI for a week, and her concern and focus is on the OTHER hotel guests?? 

 

On top of all this, Jodi-Ann @ Tai Flora's gone MIA on us. We leave in the wee hours of Friday morning (FOUR days!) and we don't have our flower and decor order finalized. ARGHHH. She's been so slow and so late providing us with answers, information, photos - all the stuff we need in order to finalize - and now she isn't even responding to us. 

 

I keep hearing that everything turns out wonderfully once you are there...but I honestly can't believe it right now. IF we get our flower order sorted in the next few days and even IF we get all our decor set up the way we want, Nicole and Jodi-Ann won't get any more than a 'D' grade from us. It's shocking how they conduct themselves and run their business in a customer-focussed industry. 

 

Okay, I'm done. I hope I can sleep now. Thanks for letting me rant.

[heather1214]

Originally Posted by Sjay 

 

Okay, my turn to rant...

 

We just got a response to our final details document from Nicole (yes, ONE week before our wedding) and she is trying to tell us now that we can't hang paper lanterns at Aunt Ruby's with a semi-private dinner. What?!?! Nowhere in any of the wedding details docs, and at no time in our correspondence over the last year has she every mentioned any exclusions or limitations to decor!! In fact back in May 2012 we asked questions about decor at Aunt Ruby's (when we knew we would have semi-private) and their response was "yes we will do the decoration according to how u want it."

 

The lanterns are the biggest piece of our whole decor plan and we went to a considerable expense to purchase so many - and lights for all of them - that we are FUMING right now. I wrote her back and said this was completely unacceptable, and then I located an email address for a PR manager at Iberostar and wrote her/him too. I am 100% positive that I have read posts/reviews from other brides who had lanterns at a semi-private Aunt Ruby's, and that's why I'm up at 1:30am searching (unsuccessfully so far ) for those posts to share them with Nicole. We will have them if I have to damn well hang them myself!

 

Nicole also gave us some BS about not necessarily being able to accommodate our requested seating plan. We are 27 people. We have THREE tables. We've asked to be in a corner of one of the patios at Aunt Ruby's. And they don't know if they can do that "because there will be other guests dining there"??? Are you kidding me? How else would she set up three tables for a wedding if not together? After all of the money we are spending over and above what we're all already spending to be at an AI for a week, and her concern and focus is on the OTHER hotel guests?? 

 

On top of all this, Jodi-Ann @ Tai Flora's gone MIA on us. We leave in the wee hours of Friday morning (FOUR days!) and we don't have our flower and decor order finalized. ARGHHH. She's been so slow and so late providing us with answers, information, photos - all the stuff we need in order to finalize - and now she isn't even responding to us. 

 

I keep hearing that everything turns out wonderfully once you are there...but I honestly can't believe it right now. IF we get our flower order sorted in the next few days and even IF we get all our decor set up the way we want, Nicole and Jodi-Ann won't get any more than a 'D' grade from us. It's shocking how they conduct themselves and run their business in a customer-focussed industry. 

 

Okay, I'm done. I hope I can sleep now. Thanks for letting me rant.

 

I'd e-mail Floral Fantasies.  They got back to me right away, within 3 days I had everything under contract. (I sent pictures of everything I wanted and they priced it out) I bet they could put everything together for you for this week.  I do not trust TF, their communication is so terrible!  Are you doing a lot of flowers?  It's 1 week before you leave what are they thinking?!  I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I were you!!! Sorry to hear they have added stress a week before the wedding!

 

As for decorations, I think I read in these posts that they don't allow you to hang lanterns with a semi-private.   If you asked her specificially about hanging them and she said yes, print those out and take them with you!! 

[Mo Bay Bride]

Is anyone planning (or has already) to wear their wedding dress to the disco on your wedding night? Since apparently small groups can't book the disco, I wanted to do some dancing with my dress on at some point.

[Ploman]

Originally Posted by Mo Bay Bride 

 

Is anyone planning (or has already) to wear their wedding dress to the disco on your wedding night? Since apparently small groups can't book the disco, I wanted to do some dancing with my dress on at some point.

I have a large group but we are not renting out the disco. I am definitely planning on wearing my dress to the disco after our dinner and cocktail party

[WendyJune]

Hey Guys! I'm planning on getting married at the Beach & having my reception at the steakhouse. I'm wondering about the decorations for the steakhouse. We're having about 20 people and are going to do the semi-private dinner. Do you know how they set up the tables for that? Maybe one long table for us? I was also thinking about doing centerpieces if they don't have any, but I have no idea how many I'd need. Any help would be great! Thanks!!!

[Sjay]

Originally Posted by heather1214 

 

 

I'd e-mail Floral Fantasies.  They got back to me right away, within 3 days I had everything under contract. (I sent pictures of everything I wanted and they priced it out) I bet they could put everything together for you for this week.  I do not trust TF, their communication is so terrible!  Are you doing a lot of flowers?  It's 1 week before you leave what are they thinking?!  I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I were you!!! Sorry to hear they have added stress a week before the wedding!

 

As for decorations, I think I read in these posts that they don't allow you to hang lanterns with a semi-private.   If you asked her specificially about hanging them and she said yes, print those out and take them with you!! 

Thanks Heather. See and I absolutely remember reading reviews of semi-private dinners where lanterns were allowed. I've been planning our wedding for a year, so I would've read through BDW posts going back 1-3 yrs if not further, so trying to find those posts now is difficult! Those brides really aren't active on BDW anymore so I doubt I'll get a response from any of them.

 

I had reached out to Floral Fantasies earlier. They were good to deal with however their quote was substantially more and they couldn't bring it down or match Tai's, and we couldn't justify paying that much more for the same thing. We're not doing a lot of flowers or decor, we've just been at the bottom of their priority list for some reason. I leave in less than three days and Jodi-Ann just emailed to say something she ordered for us hasn't arrived and she doesn't know if it will be in in time!! ACK! We submitted our order to Tai in September so there is no excuse! TERRIBLE customer service, just terrible.

[heather1214]

Originally Posted by Sjay 

 

Thanks Heather. See and I absolutely remember reading reviews of semi-private dinners where lanterns were allowed. I've been planning our wedding for a year, so I would've read through BDW posts going back 1-3 yrs if not further, so trying to find those posts now is difficult! Those brides really aren't active on BDW anymore so I doubt I'll get a response from any of them.

 

I had reached out to Floral Fantasies earlier. They were good to deal with however their quote was substantially more and they couldn't bring it down or match Tai's, and we couldn't justify paying that much more for the same thing. We're not doing a lot of flowers or decor, we've just been at the bottom of their priority list for some reason. I leave in less than three days and Jodi-Ann just emailed to say something she ordered for us hasn't arrived and she doesn't know if it will be in in time!! ACK! We submitted our order to Tai in September so there is no excuse! TERRIBLE customer service, just terrible.

 

If you go into a thread that you think it may have been discused at the top of the thread under the headline (in a yellowish orange) there is a blue link search option "Search this Thread" you can type in key words and it will pull all of the posts in that thread that have them in there.  I tried looking yesterday at lanterns & semi-private in some that I've posted in. No Luck.  Maybe you can try some that you posted. That's so frustrating. 

 

I'm surprised FF was higher.  I honestly think it depends who you talk to down there.  Nothing ever seems consistent after reading posts from other brides on here.  I think everyone just makes up their own prices.  I hope it all works out for you.  Try to enjoy your last few days, I'd definitely take into consideration the lack of communication when tipping these people!! Do they forget that they work for us? (not to be rude, but it's true)

[papoue]

Originally Posted by Sjay 

 

Thanks Heather. See and I absolutely remember reading reviews of semi-private dinners where lanterns were allowed. I've been planning our wedding for a year, so I would've read through BDW posts going back 1-3 yrs if not further, so trying to find those posts now is difficult! Those brides really aren't active on BDW anymore so I doubt I'll get a response from any of them.

 

I had reached out to Floral Fantasies earlier. They were good to deal with however their quote was substantially more and they couldn't bring it down or match Tai's, and we couldn't justify paying that much more for the same thing. We're not doing a lot of flowers or decor, we've just been at the bottom of their priority list for some reason. I leave in less than three days and Jodi-Ann just emailed to say something she ordered for us hasn't arrived and she doesn't know if it will be in in time!! ACK! We submitted our order to Tai in September so there is no excuse! TERRIBLE customer service, just terrible.

 

Hi Sjay, look to Missee17's review ("Resort Reviews" section)...She said that her lanterns were installed enven though she didn't rent out the restaurant:

 

..."Reception:

We had our reception dinner at Aunt Ruby’s Steakhouse. We didn’t rent out the restaurant because we didn’t have 50 people, but that actually worked out for us money wise. The décor looked amazing. Nicole and her crew did a wonderful job. They even put up my 12 lanterns I brought even though we didn’t rent out the restaurant. I was so pleased on how everything looked."

 

Hope this can help!

[vbbbtk]

Originally Posted by Shauna253 

 

Hey Ladies,

I just need to rant. I finally got back in touch with the wedding coordinator at the suites after sending a bunch of emails over the last month. I called her and tracked her down rather than continuing to send and ask for a response. I went through all the details I had worked out with Tai Flora regarding my beach reception and now out of nowhere she tells me I require minimum 50 people. I told her this was in none of the correspondence we went through over the past 8-9 months. She said oh well, that is there policy. I told her the whole reason we were discussing doing the beach reception was because we didn't have the numbers for the private reception we wanted. She looked through some paperwork and then said 'well it doesn't matter anyway because you definitely do NOT want a beach reception in January'. Its their winter time and she said it is crazy windy on the beach after 5:30pm. So why did Tai Flora tell me it would be fine? Maybe because Tai Flora makes more money from us for a beach reception? So my question is to anyone who has been to Iberostar in January or even better anyone who has had a beach reception in January. How windy is and cold does it really get? We are from Alberta Canada so are use to wind and cold in January, but at the same time we will all be wearing summer dresses. Any input would be very helpful so I can make my final decision this weekend.

On another note, the coordinator told me that she does not send the overall wedding package where I confirm all the misc. details (ceremony & dinner time, guest list, food choices, rehearsal dinner requests, beach welcome party, etc) until 1 month before. I asked if she could send early so I could take a look at what they require and she said no because this is their process.

Oh and I asked about scanning in and sending the Notarized documents (because I heard the Grand and Beach accept this). She said this is not an Iberostar requirement but rather a requirement from the Government of Canada. So Fed Ex they went for $82.

So back to square one I go with planning of the reception!

I was not in Jamaica in January but in the first part of March.  Almost every and evening it got windy on the beach around the time of your reception and sand was blowing everywhere.  Dont get me wrong we were very comfortable temp wise.  Someone had a dinner on the beach and it looked like it was going to be miserable.  The chairs and everything set up looked great but I am sure sand was everywhere.  Towards the later evening the wind typically dies down and we had a bonfire on the beach after our dinner and had a wonderful time.

 

As a side note to the ladies that want crystals on the huppa make sure to have some way to fasten them down.  I would say that most early evenings there was a steady breeze and those crystals will be flying and tangling in the breeze