NJ Bride's Wedding Review Couple's Swept Away

NJ_bride · January 13, 2009

Hi Everyone! I have so many things I want to comment on because I know how hard I felt it was to find info so here it goes...

Planning

1st of all BDW was my best friend, the info on here simply can't be found other places.

All my supplies, favors, ect were purchased from the following: Michaels Crafts, The Guestbook Store, The WeddingChannel Store, Wedding Accessories online, Smarty Pants Boutique, Jordan Almond Flowers, and Advantage Bridal. All suppliers get an A+, quick shipping, great products, and fair price. My STD and Invitations came from a local stationary store, The Write Touch, super personal service.

Attire

His- linen suit from Macy's Tasso Elba line, same for father's suits and shirts. Looked great and good price. His shirt -Tommy Bahama, worth the $

Bridesmaids & My Mom's dresses- from Nonchalance in Morristown NJ beautiful, we loved them. Girls were Jim Hjelm, Mom's was a B2.

Me- the dress, an Elma Reis couture, worth every cent A+++! I will not recommend Dressed to the Nines in Morristown, the shop was rude, messed up the dress in alterations and ripped us off for them too. Buy Elma Reis from another shop!

Shoes- Nordstroms- super comfy. Veil-made by Mom, pretty but too heavy took it off after pics.

Rings- A+++, our rings were custom made from a local Jeweler, Classy Diamonds, they also made the gifts my Mom gave us on our wedding day and my engagement ring.

Travel

We used Liberty Travel, most guests did as well and all were happy as far as we know. Our agent Dawn was great in helping us with a lot of room changes, getting guests in other hotels when CSA sold out, and flights being canceled. Flights- Air Jamaica was pretty good, liked the free champagne! Warning to brides though, they have no closet so your dress will go in the overhead bin. The attendant was great though and put it on top and shut the bin so no one could place things on top of it. Everyone arrived on time with all their bags. Flight delayed coming home, but was expected.

Welcome Dinner

Please see my separate review of the Negril Escape

The Wedding

We stayed at Couples Swept Away from December 2-9th for our wedding. We had almost 40 guests staying at CSA and 50 there for the ceremony day. I really canâ€™t say enough good things about this resort. It may be a little more $ than others in Negril but worth every cent. All our guests who stayed at other resorts were disappointed and wished they had been able to get into CSA. We are already planning our next trip.

- Believe me when I say every single detail was perfect! Kenisha, the wedding coordinator was awesome we had a meeting scheduled with her the day after we got there. She had all my email communication from the last year and we reviewed everything. She helped me assemble my welcome bags and had the front desk give out the ones to guests arriving that day. I picked the flowers, CSA uses Floral Fantasies who is the same florist I got the coffee/rum items from. The flowers were gorgeous, I picked my own, a bouquet of purple orchids which was an upgrade and got Anthony a matching bout which was complimentary. I had a memorial centerpiece of mixed tropical flowers for the sand ceremony table and then moved to cake table. I let them make up the bridal party bouts and bouquets of mixed tropical flowers and had corsages made for parents and grandparents.

-We had a 4pm ceremony on the beach with a sand ceremony. The weather was perfect. I choose not to upgrade the arch or aisle; the standard white tulle and palm plants were very nice. After the ceremony we had a 2 hour private cocktail reception with hot and cold apps in the garden. Cocktail hour food was great. We had our cake cutting and champagne toast in the garden with the knife set I brought from home. We got the chocolate cake which was complimentary and decorated with my cake topper and purple orchids. The cake tasted like a ring ding- we loved it. All the items I brought were put out as requested and tables for cocktail reception even had sunken flower centerpieces complimentary!

-For dinner we had tables reserved for the resortâ€™s weekly Beach Party and show with all our guests. It was not private but it was free with many choices for food and drinks. This was the best choice for our large group of people with many different food tastes. It is a huge event with ice sculptures and all. It was fun to eat right on the beach and the show was really cool with fire walkers, bands, pirates and others.

- My Mom, 2 bridesmaids, and myself all had our hair styled at the resortsâ€™ salon for the wedding, I brought some pics with me and they duplicated it perfectly. The girls just let them do updos for them and were very happy. Everyoneâ€™s hair survived until we called it quits at 4am. We all did our own makeup. I was able to duplicate my MAC trial run and it looked great.

Photography

We used Sungold photography. Paula and Damian arrived about 45min before the ceremony and shot all the prep pics, ceremony, alone shots of hubby and I, cocktail party and some Beach Party. They were great to work with as I am not photogenic and they tried to make me feel at ease. I choose the digital package which included 5hrs of shooting all images on a copy right free disk. I have not received my pics yet, so I will review Sungold separately when I get them.

Music

We had a DJ for our ceremony and 2 hour cocktail party. I arranged them through the resort. We brought a burned CD of songs we wanted for the processional, recessional, sand ceremony, 1st dance and dance with Dad/godmother. The DJ also took requests during the cocktail reception and seemed to have a nice variety.

Resort

Please see my resort review under the Coupleâ€™s forum! We loved this resort!

Overall despite many prewedding problems with family our wedding turned out perfect! I donâ€™t know a single person who had a traditional wedding at home who can say the same. We will always be happy that we stuck to our dreams when it came to a destination wedding. If anyone has any questions please feel free to PM me.