Our Wedding Riu Ocho Rios 8 April 2009

[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

[blckrevpower]

congrats! sounds like it was fun

[jawedding]

great review!! Thank you for posting! and congratulations!

[kris]

Thanks so much for your review and thanks for the spa tips....I am so worried about that part of the wedding. Im glad you had a great time though, your pictures are beautiful!

[BlakleyBrideToBe]

Congratulations! You looked beautiful!

[ajlbuaxo]

Thanks for the info you looked fabulous

[misstrae76]

Thanks for the review and the heads up on the spa! I had initally had our best mans wife coming who is also my hairstylist but now she is expecting something SOOOO unexepected and her due date happens to be 2 days before our wedding! So my wedding party and I are going to have to go and get our hair done at the spa.

[tlogan00]

Thanks for sharing!!! Congratulations!!

[DelightfulDani]

Great review

[ames]

Thanks for the great review.