Beaches Negril Weddings Anyone?

[KatelynMarie123]

Hi, I am also interested in hearing about Beaches negril. I'm almost positive that will be my destination. I am a little worried that it might be too family friendly. We will only have one person under 18, my FSIL, who will only be 16 at the time. If anyone could help us out with reviews, that would be awesome!

[2bebridejamaica]

HI Dani!!

 

I'm a Beaches Negril Bride... you can see my links below and check out my some of pictures and such. Check out the threads I started one just for Beaches girls and it's got some Q & A's ... We have a few girls getting married at Beaches within the next 6 months. I was the first here for the forum. Congrats and let me know what you need and I will be here to help any way I can!! I'm sooo exicted for you as Beaches was amazing to us and they went up and over on sooo many things to make sure our day was perfect.

[la chapstick fanatique]

Hello!

 

I will be booking Beaches Negril hopefully for october 2010. I have A LOT of questions! Haha.

 

1. We will probably have about 40 people coming and we are trying to make this as inexpensive as possible. Do we have to pay for a private reception or can we just make a reservation for our group in one of the restaurants? I saw online that someone had about 60 guests and were able to rent the Selville restaurant for about 400 dollars and also got a DJ.

 

2. Did anyone use a DJ? How much was he? Did you bring a CD for him?

 

3. Can you bring in an outside photographer? i found a photographer that I love. Is there a fee?

 

4. Did anyone use their videographer?

 

5. Did anyone get married at the gazebo or garden?

 

6. I also read that if you book more than 10 rooms you get a rehearsal dinner for free. Is this true?

 

7. Did anyone pay for a cocktail hour? Is there a bar that is big enough for us to all go to in between dinner?

 

I am sure I will have more questions. Thank you to anyone who can answer my questions!

[BeachBride83]

Chapstick-are you working with a TA? They should be able to answer all your questions for you!! Good luck!

[jennaLynn544]

Do we have to pay for a private reception or can we just make a reservation for our group in one of the restaurants?

We went this route--in order to save some $$ and because it didn't make sense to us to pay $75pp to eat dinner when they can eat at any restaurant anytime without bringing their wallet...AND because we have 2 vegetarians in the group we didn't want to hassle w/ making special orders to the "set menu" you have to pick out when doing the private dinner reception. I am honestly not sure about a group of 40, though, ours was 20 people (including my husband & I).

 

We scheduled a dinner reservation w/ the Mill prior to arriving in JA & once we had already eaten at The Mill & eating at Kimonos our 2nd night, we realized Kimonos was the place we would prefer to have dinner w/ our guests. Since the grills (where the chef cooks your food & entertains you) seats 10, we reserved 2 right next to each other. It was AWESOME! Couldn't have been more fun for our group--everyone loved it & had a great time. We also drank a lot of saki during that dinner (unforgettable time!) Oh, and we were not charged for bringing in a group of 20 to Kimonos but I would check to find out if/what the price would be prior to your arrival.

 

2. Did anyone use a DJ? How much was he? Did you bring a CD for him? Sorry, can't help you on this one. We did not have a dance reception since our group was on the smaller side. We had our ceremony at 4pm, photos, walked about 15-20 from the gazebo to the sand, where our cocktail reception was set up under a hut-like canopy/giant umbrella-looking thing (sorry, poor description, I'm sure..LOL) We made toasts, cut the cake, ate our hot and cold hor' devoures, then continued taking photos on the sand w/ the sunset as our back-drop.

 

After a little over an hour we told our guests to take some time to freshen up and/or change into comfier clothes/shoes if they wished & met back down near the Big-Top bar, in the lounge area. We socialized over more drinks & then watched the live entertainment under the Big-Top amphitheater. Most of us just stood at the top in the back because it was right next to the bar & enjoyed the show. Around 9pm we headed to Kimonos for our dinner reservation (initially, we were a teensy bit disappointed when we found out the only open times for a group of 20 to get in were 5pm--which would not work because of our ceremony time--and 9pm, which we were thinking was a little late for dinner). Turned out that everyone got pretty stuffed from the hor' devoures, drinks, and cake during the cocktail hour which ran from around 5pm-6pm. So, it ended up being the perfect time to eat our larger meal, at Kimonos.

 

Although we did not decide on doing a dance reception w/ a DJ or musician, we still did get to share our first dance as husband and wife following our ceremony. We danced under the gazebo to the song of our choice--which I had burned to a CD (2 copies) & gave to the wedding coordinator when we met w/ her the day before the wedding. The videographer also included part of our dance in our wedding DVD.

 

Speaking of the videographer, we loved him! Wish I could remember his name exactly--started w/ an "M" and I do remember he said he was 20 years old. Young man, but very talented and passionate about what he does. He also had a very fun personality which makes you not become annoyed when they are taping you & your guests. We went w/ the $500 video package. The footage was edited and I believe it was around 15 minutes. We were pleased & glad we went with or choice--he got everything we'd hoped would be included in our wedding DVD.

 

 

6. I also read that if you book more than 10 rooms you get a rehearsal dinner for free. Is this true?

Here is what is stated on the Beaches website-->Group WeddingMoon Wedding Package Includes:

*The Carefree Wedding Package

*30 min. Standard Reception (valued at $15 per person)

*Complimentary One Category upgrade (excluding Butler Suites) for Bride & Groom

*Manicure and pedicure for bride

*35 min. massage for groom

*Complimentary room for every 25 paid rooms (26th room comp.)

*Group pre-registration and check-in upon arrival

*Private group rehearsal dinner

 

The list of things above is only included in your package when you have 10 or more booked rooms at the same resort. Not sure what the "30 min. standard reception entails, though, so I would definitely check on that since you will surely have over 10 booked rooms.

 

7. Did anyone pay for a cocktail hour? Is there a bar that is big enough for us to all go to in between dinner?

Yes, we paid for the $25pp 1-hour cocktail reception. It is a private, set-up location. We mentioned wanting this on the beach in the sand at our consultation but it may be possible the location we ended up with is just standard because we held our ceremony at the gazebo (and it was located just steps away from the ceremony location). They will set up a bar for you and your guests and there will be a few staff members to serve you and your guests (but mainly they catered to my husband and I). So, the location of the cocktail hour was not indoors or located in a bar but it was a private, outdoor location. They set up tables, which were $100 per table (since we went with the "Beautiful Beginnings" theme) and this cost covered the set-up, table linens, centerpiece, dinnerware, and of course chairs. One table was included in our "Carefree wedding" package, so we only had to purchase 2 tables at $200 total.

 

Let me know if you'd like to see pics of anything. I have over 500 pictures from our wedding. We did not bring in a pro-photographer and we did not really want to depend on the resort's photographers since we really didn't know what kind of work to expect. We purchased a Canon Rebel XSi Digital SRI camera for $630 and had my husband's brother shoots pics for us. He is not a professional, but a very articulate person who likes things done correctly. He completely understood what types of poses and pics we wanted captured & with a camera designed for "aim & shoot ease of use"...that's literally all he had to do was aim and shoot We did get talked into ordering some of their pictures taken by the resort "photographers" and weren't too thrilled about the photos. All of the poses/pics we ordered (all 12 of 'em...lol) were also captured by my husband's brother w/ our camera and my FIL, stepfather, and other guests captured the same ones. I am making my way through the 500-some pics & doing edits myself. After getting through a whopping 87 pics so far, we have already chalked ordering the resort photographer's pics to "something we wish we wouldn't have done" for our wedding. That may be the only regret I can think of in terms of our wedding day. Sorry for writing a novel as a response..I just get started and can't stop! ha ha Hope it helped nonetheless

[*Meagan*]

Hi there! Although I am not a Beaches Negril Bride.. I am a Beaches T&C bride and they run practically the same way! SO def check out my review and planning thread!

 

I also didnt do the upgraded reception.. we stuck to the beautiful beginnings package and made reservations at a restaurant for after our "free cocktail reception" and it worked out perfectly!

 

The wedding coordinators whom you meet with once on site.. are absolutely fabulous!! Miami wedding planners can be very overbearing and misleading. So dont stress out!

 

good luck and happy planning!

[KGraham27]

We are considering Beaches Negril. Thanks for all the info

[BeachBride83]

FutureMrs-thanks for directing me to your review! VERY helpful even though it is a different resort!

[la chapstick fanatique]

Thank you so much for answering my questions. You are all fabulous!

[katie424]

Yes! thank you for the information - I am getting married at Beaches Negril in 7 weeks (OMG -- where did the 18 month engagement go?!!!!)

Thanks so much for the reviews and information. It is nice to read current reviews since the packages have changed. Very helpful for all of us especially now that the wedding is not that far away!

I'll be sure to post a ton of info too when I return - pass along the favor that all of you other BDW brides have too!

Congratulations!