any RIU Negril brides? questions!

[inunez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamaicabride Thanks pearly girl for your response. inunez.. I have been in touch with Dionne. She will reply to your emails if your wedding is near but dont expect to get much information. I understand she is extremely busy but it is hard not to stress out when they dont supply you with much information and expect you to decide on everything once you get there! We have booked a private reception for 4 hours. So i was told the meal would take 2 hours and then we are hoping to have a some sort of dance in the other two hours. As for the decorations, I am not expecting much for the reception but that is okay with me. I think you can buy centerpieces from the florist though. When is your wedding? Would you mind posting the menu options, I think I read above that you said you had them..

i totally agree with you! i think she would make her job alot easier if she would take some time out to throughly respond to all ur questions! i do understand she's busy...but thats just how i would approach it! anyway...thats good to know that you have the option of having the dancing portion at the same place.

i'd be happy to share the menus with you...i just don't know how 2 do that here! can u give me some guidance or @ least tell me where i can find directions on how to do that?

[jamaicabride]

No worries, I am not too concerned with the menu options anyway. I'm sure whatever they have will be fine. Yep she did tell me that we can have a dance after the meal part in the same space. But she also said that bar service would not be included so now I am just wondering how that will work. We are paying for AI so I would like to know where the closest bar would be that we could use. Either that or we will need to pay an extra $12 per person for a bartender. I guess we can decide on that when we arrive. My biggest fear was having a private space so she has confirmed with me that is reserved.

[inunez]

i can email them to you if you want.

 

i kinda dont like that option she gave you! i mean like u said it is an all inclusive resort! the menu option we are thinking about is $45 per person. which is suppose 2 include bar service. omg...i'm getting so worried right now!

[inunez]

jamaicabride...i wanted to keep you updated on my conversation with Dionne. i got my TA involved and i think we have come up with a great option.

Dionne has honored the rental for the private area at shadows to cost $500 for 2 hrs and $1000 for 4 hrs. that includes the food that shadow already offers as a sit down dinner. the difference is we will have the area to ourselves. which i love! that also includes red and white wine with a bartender for the first 2 hrs. after that...we do still get red and white wine (i think) but we wouldn't have anyone to serve our guests. we'd pretty much be on our own at that point.

 

my FI and i wanted to just have an IPod playing, but we would need a system to play the music. Dionne said they do not have a system included in that cost but if we wanted to rent one it was $300 but that does not include a DJ. i did the calculation and for $30 more we can just rent a DJ.

 

so basically if we rent the lower level of shadows for 4 hrs we would be looking at ...

$1000 rental of provate area

$600 hiring a bartender for the last 2 hrs ($12 pp)

$300 renting a music system

 

or we can have....

$500 2 hr rental of private area of lower level @ shadows

$300 2 hr rental of disco which includes DJ and bartender &

mixed drinks

$250 private cocktail hr for 50 guests (only includes beer and

wine)

 

let me know if you need any more help!

[jamaicabride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inunez jamaicabride...i wanted to keep you updated on my conversation with Dionne. i got my TA involved and i think we have come up with a great option. Dionne has honored the rental for the private area at shadows to cost $500 for 2 hrs and $1000 for 4 hrs. that includes the food that shadow already offers as a sit down dinner. the difference is we will have the area to ourselves. which i love! that also includes red and white wine with a bartender for the first 2 hrs. after that...we do still get red and white wine (i think) but we wouldn't have anyone to serve our guests. we'd pretty much be on our own at that point. my FI and i wanted to just have an IPod playing, but we would need a system to play the music. Dionne said they do not have a system included in that cost but if we wanted to rent one it was $300 but that does not include a DJ. i did the calculation and for $30 more we can just rent a DJ. so basically if we rent the lower level of shadows for 4 hrs we would be looking at ... $1000 rental of provate area $600 hiring a bartender for the last 2 hrs ($12 pp) $300 renting a music system or we can have.... $500 2 hr rental of private area of lower level @ shadows $300 2 hr rental of disco which includes DJ and bartender & mixed drinks $250 private cocktail hr for 50 guests (only includes beer and wine) let me know if you need any more help!

Thanks inunez.. you are awesome!! Looks like we have the same ideas in mind and we will have roughly the same size wedding (we have 42 people attending). We were also going to do the ipod thing but we will need equipement as well. $300 to rent a system? Ouch... I wasnt thinking it would be that expensive.
So have you decided to go with the disco option? Has Dionne gave you any times for the dinner and rental of disco? I assume the disco would become open to public at a certain time? That would work ok, give us time to ourselves and then once the party gets going others can join us..

[inunez]

my FI and i have decided to pay for the 2 hr private dinner and then rent the disco for the other 2 hrs. i havent told Dionne that yet b/c we decided that last nite. but she did tell us we have it all 2 ourselves until 11pm. then it's open to the public...which i'm totally okay with!

 

what do u plan 2 do for a cocktail hr. my FI doesn't wanna do anything. he'd rather just tell ppl meet us 4 dinner @ such and such time and thats it. i guess i'm ok with that. just curious 2 know what u plan 2 do...

 

when is ur wedding date anyway?

[inunez]

by the way...those menu's i emailed u r usually used for pool side dinners or beach dinners. since you plan 2 use the restaurant...the foods already included.

[jamaicabride]

Yeah I agree with you, that seems to be the best option. I wonder why Dionne didnt suggest that to us, would have been helpful!!!

I am just wondering what time the dinner will be. I am thinking 6:30-8:30. Then the private disco from 9-11 or whatever. I wasnt planning on a cocktail hour.. I figured we would just meet up at the dinner as well. Our wedding is at 2pm so after the pictures and stuff there wont be much of a break until dinner and Im sure people will find somewhere to sit around and drink anyways! It would probably be a waste to pay for the booze when it is already included in AI. What time is your ceremony? Our day is quickly approaching.. April 22.

[inunez]

o ok....it's very close! our ceremony's at 4pm. i agree..i don't really feel like spending a couple of hundred dollars on liqour thats already being paid for!

 

i think that Dionne offered that to us because i got my TA involved. we began to pester her and my TA was telling her it was a bit ridiculous to have us pay for food when all we wanted was to have a private dinner at the restaurant. my TA was asking her why they are asking for so much money. i guess that helped!

 

well...let me know what Dionne says once you get ahold of her to rent the Disco and how much she wants to charge you for the food...if any.

 

keep me posted!

 

are you bringing your own ceterpieces or are you just doing away with them?

[jamaicabride]

inunez.. I heard back from Dionne. She confirmed the same prices as you gave above for the equipment rental and the disco. And she did say the disco would include a dj and bartender. So that is definitely the better option.

She said the dinner would start @ 7pm so now I am thinking that maybe we will need a few orderves or something before then, seeing our ceremony is @ 2. I have to think about that some more.

there isnt any extra charge for the food @ the reception, it states this in the royal package, you can see it online under RIU weddings.

I am not bringing centerpieces but I do have some extra candles that I am using as favors that i plan to use @ reception and I may get some shells or something to decorate the tables. And if not too expensive i may order some flowers from the resort when we get there.