Wedding 8 April 2009 at ROR

[kitty_kat_uk]

Hi Ladies

 

Well, we’re back home now after our amazing wedding at the ROR.

 

The hotel is wonderful, and the staff are constantly walking around cleaning etc. One thing that did disappoint me was the bar areas. I had imagined that they would be well spaced out. This is not the case. The Lobby Bar (a.k.a Blue Mountain), Bob Marley Bar and Dunns River Bar are all within a close proximity to each other, so much so that the chairs and tables for these are all in the area and set out so you can watch the shows every night. This would be the only thing I would change. We didn’t end up doing a Stag/Hen party the night before the wedding as we would have been able to see each other in the bars – not really the point is it??

 

On our first day in the resort we had to meet with Chandlyn at 9am. As everyone else mentions she says to meet at reception but is never there. This is no trouble as the stairs to her office are just opposite the reception. We didn’t meet with Chandlyn, instead we met with Nikki who is a very nice lady. These guys are fantastic and as you can imagine are very busy with up to 3 weddings per day. We only met for 20 minutes as I’d already organised most things from home via email. Thats all thanks to you guys for all your great tips!! Our free wedding gift was one mug with Jamaica 2009 on it, along with a small bottle of rum cream. We were given an upgrade to Suite. We had already booked a junior suite and Nikki rang reception whilst we were at our meeting. We were upgraded 4 days before our wedding. The room was amazing.

 

We then went to the photoshop to meet with Karen and arrange the photo package and video. Again, I had already booked this from home so it was just the formalities of paying. However, we did not manage to have Michael as he was already booked for the wedding before ours.

 

We did have a problem with the Spa services for our hair. It was not very clear that I should go and see them once arriving in the resort, and I assumed as I had paid 50% upfront and had a confirmation voucher that this was ok. I added my mother in law before we left and she was on my amended voucher. However, when we popped in for them to see our hair (as it states to do so on the voucher) they didn’t have my mother in law on the booking system. They did agree to squeeze her in though. I upgraded my manicure/pedicure to a French polish at a cost of $12 and had this done the day before the wedding. BE WARNED – the women doing the nails and hair talk in English about nothing other than receiving tips and gifts from people having treatments. They then ignore you and talk in Jamaican to each other and laugh alot, making you feel very uncomfortable. I realise that they get a pittance of a wage and live for their tips, but I would have given them a tip anyway. As they were about to put the polish on they said to me and my BM “is there anything in your bag you need to get out before we polish†i.e. your cash!! In England when you go for such services you pay at the end and usually give a tip if you’re satisfied with the service. We felt we had to tip whether satisfied or not. It happened again when we had our hair done. My mother in law was sat waiting and they were trying to get her to have her nails done. When she said she hadn’t brought any cash down with her the looks on their faces said it all!! Ok, rant over! They did do a great job on all our hair though, just be warned!

 

ON the wedding day, the photographer (Lincoln) went to the guys room to take some shots. He then came to my room about 1:40pm. At around 1:50pm Nikki brought my bouquet to the room and made sure I was ready.

 

The steel drum band were fantastic, though its all a bit of a blur to be honest. I know that they did play the wedding march for my entrance but other than that I think it was reggae style.

 

The minister (even though we wanted a civil ceremony) did a great job too. I did give Nikki specific vows for our sand ceremony but he didn’t use these. No problem though as what he did use was just fine anyways.

 

After the photo’s were finished (about 3:30pm) we hung around in the lobby bar area until the reception at 6:30pm. The time flew by as we took more photo’s on everyone elses cameras.

 

The reception was at Mammee Bay. The favours I gave It does say somewhere that the Bride and Groom are served their soup and salad whilst the others have to serve themselves. This was not the case for us! Our waiter for the evening (Renford) passed out and had to go see the Doctor. Thankfully he was ok and had handed in our order before this happened. However by the time he returned we had still not had our main course – we waited nearly 2 hours!! They didn’t seem to be able to cope being one member of staff down, our starter plates/dishes were not cleared away and we couldn’t get more drinks. Renford did save the day though once he came back.

 

After the meal we headed to where the entertainment shows are and ended up doing our first dance on the dance floor to Bob Marley’s One Love, as it was Reggae night. It was great!

 

We arranged with Nikki to have the breakfast in bed the morning after the wedding. It arrived on time and was delicious. It was a huge tray full including 2 omelettes, 2 orange juice, jug of coffee, pastries, meats, cheeses, fruit….

 

All in all we had a fantastic time and I would thoroughly recommend the ROR for a wedding.

 

Big shout out to sarah.cullen and jessjes – 2 other BDW brides who attended my wedding. Lovely ladies!

 

Not got time to post all the photo's so hope this link to facebook works!

 

Claire Speight's Photos - Wedding 8 April 2009 | Facebook

[KHarrod]

Congrats, thanks for sharing your review and pics.

[divadivine25]

You were an amazing bride!!! So beautiful! But I did notice a few things...

 

Your hubby and his dad look like twins, and whoever the lady is in yellow, I frickin love her!!! LOL! Looks like she would be so much fun!

 

Congrats and thanks for posting!

[YoursTruly]

congrats--you were BEAUTIFUL!!

[fmsmith423]

Your photos are amazing!

I have one question, did you have to bring your own your own unity candles? If so, where did you get them? They are really cute.

[baj]

Thanks for sharing your review claire, you looked beautiful and your photos are great

[jamin2010]

Thanks for sharing, you look lovely and your photos are great. Did you just let Chandlyn know before you went that you wanted a sand ceremony and then take the vases with you? It is something I am thinking about. Certainly very cheeky what you have said about the spa as like you say you would have tipped anyway. Just a couple of things, did you upgrade your flowers? Also, is it OK to use the short version of birth certificates or does it have to be the long version?

Thanks

[jrodsgirl]

Congrats. Thanks for sharing.

[ukbride]

Congradulations! Great review, Your photos are beutiful.

 

Just a question where did you get the great bridsmade parisols from? As I have been searching all over for similare ones

 

Thanks

[kitty_kat_uk]

Thanks for all your kind words!

 

Divadivine25 - the lady in yellow is my mum, she is a great lady!

 

FMSmith423 - I bought the sand ceremony set from Angelic Weddings in the UK, but their sister company also sell them at weddingstar.com

 

Jamin2010 - I didn't tell Chandlyn before I left home that I was doing a sand ceremony, I just brought everything with me and asked when I arrived. I had the Caprice package but none of the 'free' bouquets were in my colour scheme, so I upgraded to the other bouquet at a cost of $98. Tai Floral were very helpful as I emailed and organised this and the wedding party flowers before I set off.

 

UKBride - the parasols were about £5 and I got them from balistyle.co.uk