Scott-Pierre Pics of Poolside Reception ROR

[amqueens]

Looks amazing!!! And lots of fun!! How much did the poolside reception cost? What kind of menu did you have? Your cake looks amazing, is that from the hotel? Thanks! Congrats!

[Scott-Pierre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenna in Jamaica omg awesome. we are doing the poolside recep as well. you just made me so excited. i want fun fun fun and not alot of fuss. the table looks awesome with just a candle. thanks so much for you post. and i hope we are the second people that danced on the pool bar! you go girl.

I am glad I got you excited! You won't be disappointed! Dancing on the pool bar is a MUST!

[Scott-Pierre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amqueens Looks amazing!!! And lots of fun!! How much did the poolside reception cost? What kind of menu did you have? Your cake looks amazing, is that from the hotel? Thanks! Congrats!

The poolside reception was $55/pp. This included everything... setup, dinner, open bar and the 4 hr time. There were at least 4 waiters and 2 bartenders. They took great care of us. Tables were cleared promptly and there were never empty glasses! If you think about how much that would cost back home.. you are saving alot of money!

We used the standard BBQ menu. All the menus are posted under another thread if you do a search. It was a great buffet that included something for everyone. There was seafood, ribs (fantastic), chicken, pork (everyone raved about the sausage), and a vegetarian choice. Several veggie choices, potatoes, pasta salad, etc. I did not hear any complaints about the food and everything I had was great! It was some of the best food I had while staying at the resort.

The cake was from an outside vendor, Sheila's Bakery. It was vanilla with strawberry filling. It was delicious and there was sooo much leftover after we all had a slice. Sheila's was easy to work with. We communicated via email and paid the resort. The cake was $300. I changed my mind several times and they were very patient with the changes.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[angie8119]

everything looked great!! thanks so much for posting!!

[OchoRiosBride2010]

Greetings!!!

 

So we are in the midst of planning our wedding at ROR and the pool reception looks very appealing, however i read that its about $50US extra per person for this option, on top of the wedding package?

 

On top of DJ costs, seems a bit pricey. Would u say it was worth it?

 

 

If u go to the resort on an ALL INCLUSIVE stay, obviously drinks during the reception are all included as well right? ( i read sometihng about an Open Bar charge of $10 per person) as well which boggled my mind, if you are already paying for all inclusive.

 

[OchoRiosBride2010]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott-Pierre Kris- We did have a head table. It was several square tables pushed together to make one long rectangle. We had myself, DH, MOH and hubby, and BM and his girl at our table. They took the floral pieces that were on the gazebo and put them on the table. They also moved the sand ceremony as well: We also had a seperate cake table: And a table with our guestbook for our guests to sign. I made placecards with everyone's name and table assignment. They are tent style, but the wind kept blowing them over, so the WC tucked them under our guestbook: Hope these help to give you a better idea of how the setup looks! We did not use their DJ. We used an IPOD that we had made playlists of all the music we wanted to hear. We had a playlist for dinner, a seperate one for dancing, the garter toss, and bouquet toss. It worked out well. We rented the DJ equipment only which included a mic. I didn't want to bring a sound system with me. Our cousin was the MC. It worked out well. Let me know if you have any other questions!

I wasn't considering the Pool Side reception as we have invited almost 70 ppl, but not sure how many will actually attend, so the price seemed a little steep for us. However after seeing ur pictures its got me a little more excited.

You mentioned you didnt use a DJ but rented the equipment. Did you connect the IPOD to the speakers and then just have the mic for the MC?? how did that work. I really like the IPOD idea!!

[OchoRiosBride2010]

Hey there again!!! sorry for so many questions, but everything is running through my head even tho my date isnt for another year!!! lol

 

How far in advance did u arrange the poolside reception, and order the cake? Thats my biggest problem and stressor. I want to have eveyrthing secured and planned well in advance lol but doesnt see it works that way. Makes it easier to budget that way

[Scott-Pierre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OchoRiosBride2010 Greetings!!! So we are in the midst of planning our wedding at ROR and the pool reception looks very appealing, however i read that its about $50US extra per person for this option, on top of the wedding package? On top of DJ costs, seems a bit pricey. Would u say it was worth it? If u go to the resort on an ALL INCLUSIVE stay, obviously drinks during the reception are all included as well right? ( i read sometihng about an Open Bar charge of $10 per person) as well which boggled my mind, if you are already paying for all inclusive.

The poolside dinner/reception is an extra $55/pp. I thought it was worth it because it was private and such a nice ambience being right by the pool. The charge is for everything, including a bar just for you and your guests. If you have a poolside reception, and no bar, you and your guests will have to walk a pretty good distance, either to the sports bar or the hotel lobby bar for drinks. Then you might have to wait in line to be served b/c the other hotel guests will be using these bars as well. This is time away from the reception and inconvenient. If you think about what you would pay per person back home for a private reception with open bar, it is at least triple that. The $55 includes the setup, a great buffet, wait staff, and the bar with at least 2 bartenders just for your wedding party, and the cleanup.

To keep costs down we went without the DJ. We just rented the equipment and used our IPOD. This way we saved money and made sure that we heard the music we wanted to hear. You might want to think about doing something like that to save some money.

You could also do the free semi-private dinner at Mammee Bay and then just do the poolside for dancing after. I think it is only $10 or $15/pp if you use it just for dancing.

[Scott-Pierre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OchoRiosBride2010 I wasn't considering the Pool Side reception as we have invited almost 70 ppl, but not sure how many will actually attend, so the price seemed a little steep for us. However after seeing ur pictures its got me a little more excited. You mentioned you didnt use a DJ but rented the equipment. Did you connect the IPOD to the speakers and then just have the mic for the MC?? how did that work. I really like the IPOD idea!!

We invited almost 90 people and only 41 were actually able to come, so keep in mind that probably not all 70 will attend, so this will make your costs a little lower.

The DJ equipment was $90/hr compared to $150/hr for the DJ. We did just connect our IPOD to the speakers and had our cousin take care of switching to the different playlists for our garter and bouquet toss. It did come with a mic that our cousin used to MC and then it was used for speeches as well. It worked out great. With the DJ, you are taking a chance of him not having the exact songs you want. If you make him CDs or an IPOD, why not just use the connection and save the money? You have done all the work yourself anyway. I like reggae music, but didn't want to hear it all night. I had read in some other reviews that the DJs use a majority of reggae.

[Scott-Pierre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OchoRiosBride2010 Hey there again!!! sorry for so many questions, but everything is running through my head even tho my date isnt for another year!!! lol How far in advance did u arrange the poolside reception, and order the cake? Thats my biggest problem and stressor. I want to have eveyrthing secured and planned well in advance lol but doesnt see it works that way. Makes it easier to budget that way

I can't remember exactly when we reserved it but it was months in advance. As soon as I knew I wanted the poolside I requested it. If there are other weddings on your day, you may not get it if they reserve first. Requesting it is not set in stone, you can always change your mind. I had initially wanted requested the Seagrape and then switched it. It was no problem. You don't pay for anything until you get there.

For the cake, we worked out everything at least 4 months in advance. I highly recommend Sheila's Bakery, the cake was delicious. There are a couple of other brides on this forum that used them as well and they gave them good reviews.