Beaches/Sandals brides...I need the lowdown!

michelle6114 · April 30, 2009

Hi! I am getting married at Beaches Boscobel in October, then honeymooning at the Sandals Ochos Rios. Some of their rules and policies have me stumped. Photography....is it any good? The prices are a little extreme and all I really want is the CD. Does anyone know if just that is allowed? Also...the Reception thing. Since all our guests will be staying at the resort, all their meals are included. So where does the "$75.00 pp reception come in Has anyone just done the cocktail hour and then all went to one of the nicer restraunts as a group for a dinner? What is the difference, really? I am trying to justify the expense for the reception but a having a problem.

Does anyone know if there is a garden or walkway are at Beaches Boscobel with the ocean in the backround? I am not too sure about the arizona gazebo since I think it will block out a lot of light and natural beauty. But...I don't actually want to be standing in the sand either. From the photos I've seen, their wedding gazebo is surounded by buildings.

Any suggestions? My dream has always been to be married with the ocean in the backround, with beautiful picctures,,,,but wow is the cost adding up!!!

JamaicaBride2009 · July 15, 2009

Hi Michelle!

My husband and I were married at Beaches Boscobel this past January. Let me see if I can answer some of your questions...

Photography- We hired the Beaches photographer for the bare minimum. To be honest, we were not overly impressed with these photos. As it turns out, one of our family friends is a fantastic photographer and was able to get great photos for us during the entire trip. My cousins, my sister, and my aunts also added to the collection. We created a website and asked all guests to upload photos of the trip. The negative of that... I have about 1000 photos, it is a lot ot search through. The positive... I have some really great photos. To me it was worth the time to look through them all and pick the ones that I like best. All of our guests had access too... so everyone came away with exactly the pics they wanted.

We chose to do the private reception as we had 50 guests, which is too many for a dining room. In my opinion, it was worth every penny. We used standard linens, minimal flowers, and hired the DJ. All of my guests said how much they loved it. I would do it exactly the same way if i had to choose again... The location of the reception is the terrace off the Italian restaurant. Beatiful setting.

We chose the garden for our wedding. It was so beautiful, no flowers were really even needed. The photographer did take us down to the beach to do some photos, so we do have some with the beach in the background.

The cost did add up... but it was still less than we would have paid for a home town wedding. My cousin is planning her home town right now... and i am even more happy that we did the destination. Much less stress!!

pm me if you want to see the link to my photos.

islandbride317 · July 18, 2009

Hi, Michelle!

I am also a Sandal Bride (Grande Ocho Rios, in May 2010), and I had the exact same concerns about photography, believe me! The prices are insane and I don't think the quality lives up to the over-the-top charges whatsoever, but they've got us between a rock and a hard place (since their outside photography policy is so strict!)

Here's what I am going to do: we're getting the a la carte (6) 8x10 pics for $150, and the $500 DVD of the ceremony/cocktail reception, plus my future Mother in law just bought a professional-grade Nikon camera, so she will be snapping pics throughout the ceremony as well.

And then, a few hours later, my guests and I are going to be going OFF THE RESORT PROPERTY with Alain Hottat of Brian Nejedly Photography (Brian is an American Photographer that lives in Ocho Rios, so you don't have to pay travel fees -- he's already there and he's been a DREAM to deal with so far! Total professional!) Alain will be taking us to both a beach location and a falls location to do some portrait shots with our guests in my ceremony dress (and then I'll change for a TTD session, just my FI and I) right around sunset. And I think you will be shocked by how reasonable his prices are....check out his site at Jamaica Wedding Photographer - Brian Nejedly.

And as far as the reception is concerned, as I mentioned, we will be having a short, one hour reception right after ceremony, and then we'll try to go and get a bite somewhere with everyone (if it can be arranged) before we are being picked up around 4:30 or 5 for our photoshoot. I thought this would be a really fun, creative way to get everyone off the resort for a bit, and keep the wedding festivities going without incurring thousands of dollars in additional cost. I think $75/pp for a sit-down dinner is preposterous at an all-inclusive, when everything is included already. Plus, we're planning to have a local, at-home recpetion, so we need to save money for that, as well!

And as far as locations for ceremonies at Boscobel, sorry sister! Hopefully, someone else will be able to help you, and you could always talk to your Sandals WC to see what can be done to accomodate your request.

Good luck, and I hope this helped!

NYCBridetoBe1909 · July 18, 2009

Hi Michelle, I don't know if it's in your budget, but Sandals does now allow outside photographers if they stay in the hotel for three nights. I'm flying a photographer in from NYC and although it's more expensive, I know the photos will be amazing. Most US photgraphers (I believe) give you license rights to all your photos, whereas I know Sandals does not. To me, that was worth the extra money!

michelle6114 · July 19, 2009

Thanks for the input everyone!

I just spoke to "Barbie" the WC there. She told me for a CD alone of all the photos, is $2000.00. I was thinking of trying to sneak my own photgrapher in but have decided not to due to the amount of stress it would cause.

Almost every question I asked her was replied with "no, we don't do that". They will not even allow me to speak to their photographer until the day of, even though she was trying to get me to commit to a package over the phone today.

Oh well, I am just trying to relax a little but the big day is zooming in!!!