HELP! May be starting all over with only 3 months to go!

[J2K]

It sounds like things are going to sort themselves out, which is great. Our travel agent told us about the wedding coordinator being on maternity leave, so we haven't tried to contact her in a while. When she was there, before going on leave, she was pretty quick (for Jamaica at least) about returning emails and such. I think it's fairly common (not saying that it's right) for the coordinator to not act in urgency for a wedding that is several months away.

 

Hopefully your site visit irons everything out. I would suggest that you take pictures of any area you plan to discuss further via phone/email with the resort. Doing so will allow you to email a picture and actually draw onto it what you're thinking. An example would be drawing your decorations onto the beach chapel, etc.

 

Hopefully there will be a wedding during your stay as well, so you can see one and then possibly talk to the bride about her experiences, good or bad.

 

We're only going to have between 24-30 guests, so we're just planning to get married, have dinner at one of the restaurants together, and go to the disco as a "reception". We'll be having a large reception back home when we return, so the expense isn't worth it for us in Jamaica.

 

While you're there, can see if you can get any information about their onsite photographers? That's the one area where we have only received a few sample photos, but it would be nice to see some more.

[jhakimi1]

Have a great trip and I want ALL the details!!!

[stessa82]

Hello BRB Brides!

 

I'm back!! And VERY happy to report that the trip was a success. Not only did I get to spend two days with the wedding coordinator (now back from maternity leave) but also met with the Food and Beverage Manager, Guest Relations Manager and Resort Manager. I also had the opportunity to meet the minister who will be performing our ceremony!

 

We finally got prices for the cocktail hour and private reception (6 months later ...) and I was able to select the locations for each while touring the property with the wedding coordinator.

 

As far as the resort is concerned, the property is relatively small but nicely maintained. They claim to have spent billions in renovations although I can't say I noticed all the differences. The rooms were clean, bathrooms had been updated and the furnishings were basic. There are 3 pools, 4 bars (including a swim up bar) and 4 options for dinner (although they are open on a rotational basis ... not all are open daily).

 

There is a full time entertainment staff which coordinates daily beach volleyball and other various games. Additionally, they provide nightly entertainment from talent shows to toga parties.

 

I took about 40 photos on the property but I'm not sure how to add them to the forum - still a newbie ; ) but I'd be happy to email them if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks all!

 

[Nov-09-Bride]

I'm so happy to hear that everything worked out for you! When my FI and I started planning our DW we were debating on using a TA or not! We have a group coming with us, not as large as yours, but either way we decided to us a TA that we know if our community!

 

Enjoy the rest of your planning and keep us all updated!

 

Pat & Nancy's Wedding - wedding website by mywedding.com

[MGERSH]

hahaha...ok, im not laughing at you... i just wentthru it all too.... did u get the prices yet? i had to fight for them... and yes they are very generic in their responses... i actually did get a handle on all of it this last 2 weeks... have u called and spoken to keisha? private message me if you want n i will give you my email or phone # to chat. we r getting married march 28 there.

[boscobel]

Glad to hear everything worked out for you!

 

Check out the link in my siggy for tips on how to add photos and other helpful links for maneuvering around the forum...

Quote:

Originally Posted by stessa82 Hello BRB Brides!   I'm back!! And VERY happy to report that the trip was a success. Not only did I get to spend two days with the wedding coordinator (now back from maternity leave) but also met with the Food and Beverage Manager, Guest Relations Manager and Resort Manager. I also had the opportunity to meet the minister who will be performing our ceremony!   We finally got prices for the cocktail hour and private reception (6 months later ...) and I was able to select the locations for each while touring the property with the wedding coordinator.   As far as the resort is concerned, the property is relatively small but nicely maintained. They claim to have spent billions in renovations although I can't say I noticed all the differences. The rooms were clean, bathrooms had been updated and the furnishings were basic. There are 3 pools, 4 bars (including a swim up bar) and 4 options for dinner (although they are open on a rotational basis ... not all are open daily).   There is a full time entertainment staff which coordinates daily beach volleyball and other various games. Additionally, they provide nightly entertainment from talent shows to toga parties.   I took about 40 photos on the property but I'm not sure how to add them to the forum - still a newbie ; ) but I'd be happy to email them if anyone is interested.   Thanks all!

[J2K]

We're just back from our wedding at BRB, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

[scottgm2]

did everything go as planned and to your satisfaction. Would you do this the same way if you had to do it again

[J2K]

Everything went great with the wedding and Keisha and her staff were very helpful when needed. We had our wedding in the beach chapel, which was very nice. Our "reception" was in the garden gazebo. The reception consisted of a champagne toast and cake cutting/eating. From there we went on to take pictures and then had dinner with all of our guests (total group of 25 people) at the main terrace.

 

If you're planning to have a group larger than 6-8 people, don't expect to be able to eat your wedding dinner anywhere except for the main terrace buffet. The will section an area off for you, so it's not as bad as it sounds. We thought we'd be able to get reservations at one of the "reservations required" restaurants, but they're really not setup to take a reservation for groups. I'm sure if we would've tried harder, we could have gotten them to do it, but it didn't matter much to us... the food at the buffet was great anyways.

 

The one thing that was a little bit disappointing was the way they handled the photography. We had flown in Misti Abner to handle the photography for us. The resort has a policy to charge $1000 for the use of an outside photographer for your wedding. We had contacted SuperClubs headquarters to verify this and were told that as long as the photographer was a registered guest of the hotel, that the fee couldn't be enforced. We though, great!... until we got there. In our pre-wedding meeting, we were asked if we wanted a photo package, at which point we answered no. We were then asked if we had hired an outside photographer, to which we responded that we were just going to use our guests photographs. Well... then they say "no high tech cameras from your guests, or you'll be charged $1000". This created an awkward tension and was left unsettled at the time. They also said that a resort photographer would be assigned to take pictures of the wedding anyways, so that if wanted to order a package later that we could. When it was time to meet everyone for the wedding, Misti was taking pictures and such and Keisha told us to have her "take it easy" during the ceremony, but after that she could take as many pictures as she wanted. So it ended up that Misti didn't take any pictures during the actual wedding ceremony. The resort photographer took plenty of pictures though, so we did end up purchasing a package from them (which is really all they wanted in the first place).

 

So everything was great, other than the little bit of stress created by the photo stuff. I would suggest to anyone getting married there, that if you want to bring in an outside photographer, budget in the extra $1000 so that the resort photographers will stay out of the way. I will also add that the resort photographers were actually better than we expected, so using them for your pictures wouldn't be the worst thing either.

[CHAKLIT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhakimi1 I am new to the boards but I am looking into having my "off-site" wedding because my future hubby has lots of family in Jamaica and most hotels charge a fee for guest not staying at the hotel. Our wedding is in June 2010 and we will have around 50-70 guests. Anyways I am also awaiting pricing from venues but I found a few that look good and can handle big amount of guest - The Ruins at the Falls (Ocho Rios), The Coyaba Gardens and Mahoe Falls, and The Shaw Park Beach. Look these places up online. Hope this helps.

Fast forward 9 months later! Who did you end up going with?? I'm in the same boat...possible 200 ppl with both our families.