Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[exquisite02]

Mekanabr, Congratulations on your beautiful wedding!!!  I really love your dress and veil. Your hair style is exactly what I want my hair to look like so i'm so glad that they can do a good job at it. I was worried about having a long veil but your's is so beautiful in the wind. I'm having a cathedral veil so it might give some problems.

 

I'm really interested in your decor. I was wondering if you can post more pictures of the decor  for the ceremony and reception. I didn't think that they would put up lanterns. I would love to see pictures of your luminaries if possible as well.
 

You also mentioned that you bought your liquor at a local store; do you remember the name? and how far is it from the resort? you wouldn't remember how much you paid for a taxi there would you?

 

did you have to ask for the table/cups/cooler set up? did you set up the ipod station or did they help with that?

 

Also, how far was Mahoe falls? again, do you remember how much it cost to go there? So sorry for being rude and asking about money but i want to budget extra money costs like travel to shops and Mahoe falls. I want to do my trash the dress there like other brides have done there before.

So very sorry if I offended you, it is not my intention at all.

 

Overall, your wedding sounds so beautiful and it is nice to see that everything turned out so nice for you. Thank you for the information that you have already provided and thank you for taking the time to answer all my rude questions.

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

Hi girls  I'm back!!!  Our wedding was absolutely amazing and I've been so excited to share all the details with you all!  So here goes...

 

We arrived on Wednesday (our wedding was on Saturday).  We got there one day before all of our guests which was really nice bc it gave us a chance to get familiar with the resort, which is HUGE!  It's a really beautiful resort and we were blown away by it's size, cleanliness, and how such a big place with so many people there could still not feel overwhelming.  The only issue we ever really had the entire time we were there was towels, but really no one cared.  My parents never even got towels the whole week bc they were always out, but it wasn't that big of a deal, we shared and at the end of the week my husband (yay!) and I ended up with 4 extras! lol.  I saw some ppl stressing about the reviews but honestly don't waste your time.  The resort was amazing, the staff for the most part were always pleasant, friendly, and helpful.  Tipping certainly helps get better service though!  It's amazing how a dollar here or there def goes far here.  But you have to consider that the people working at this resort are prob making a fraction of what we do so I don't mind tipping, esp if it gets me good service.  And, they work there butts off!  You will see the same guys doing entertainment all day in the hot sun by the pool and then still up doing the entertainment at night til 11pm...it's crazy.  The food was great, everyone that came with us said they were all really impressed with the food and the drinks were always flowing.  Our room was beautiful, right above the lobby with a beautiful view of the ocean and the whole resort. 

 

We had 39 people travel to Jamaica for our wedding, it was incredible.  Everyone told us that they had an amazing time and couldn't believe that we had found such a beautiful and fun resort.  We made it a priority to greet each guest as they arrived so we spent a lot of Thursday in the lobby but everyone really appreciated seeing us right when they had arrived, especially after traveling from all over the US.  And we were so excited to have our best friends and close family coming that we didn't mind at all.  The only drama we had was that my parents missed their flight on Thursday.  It was awful!  Airtran wouldn't let them on their flight bc their computers crashed the morning they were trying to leave and they waited in line for over an hour to check their bags and then Airtran wouldn't let them on bc they had closed the flight.  It was a fiasco, but they were able to get to the resort on Friday.  I had a little breakdown after I learned my parents wouldn't be there for the first night but I calmed down and had a great evening with friends and family who had arrived.  Thursday we met with Chandlyn and she was wonderful.  Like everyone says, you really don't have anything to worry about.  She has all your info in a file and you meet with her to go over everything to finalize the details.  We had our rehearsal that night and ran through all the details.  Then after dinner, we all met for drinks on the terrace and eventually made our way to the disco.  Haha...what a night.  It was a lot of fun but it was so loud!!  By the time we left, our ears were ringing.  But it was a great night regardless.  The next day, we took everyone zip lining in the White River Valley and then to Mahoe Falls to climb and splash around, it was so fun!  Everyone loved the excursion. 

 

On the day of our wedding, my sister (maid of honor) and I got our hair done at the salon at 9:30 and then my mom and mother in law had an appointment at 10:30.  Everyone was finally done around 12 so make sure you give yourself plenty of time for hair.  They did a great job on everyone's hair and they have some super hairspray.  My hair didn't move all day!  The girl that did my hair redid it about 3 times until she was happy with it...I didn't have any pics (I forgot) but described to her what I wanted and she pretty much got it spot on.  We got ready in our room and then met Chandlyn in the lobby at 2 to head down to the gazebo for our 2:30 ceremony.  Not everyone was seated yet so we ended up hanging out in the Club Golden room bc of the AC in there (we were dying from the heat!) until she was ready to take us down.  My parents, MOH and BM and I all rode down in the glorified golf cart down to the steps before the long path down to the gazebo.  The long walk down to the gazebo was great, it gave me a chance to get myself together before I was at the alter and surprisingly I kept it together for almost the whole ceremony (I choked up a bit during the vows).  Chandlyn and Donnalee were so sweet and put all the chair ties on that I had brought down, decorated the gazebo with pink, white, and orange tulle, and also put up lanterns in the gazebo (I was expecting them to put them on the light posts along the pathway but it still looked great!).  We had the steel drum band and it really made the ceremony amazing and very Jamaica!  The minister was ok...I wrote our ceremony and he only saw it minutes before the ceremony started, even though I tried to get his contact info before hand to give it to him in advance.  He skipped the first reading and I had to correct him to mid ceremony which was interesting and explain to him the order (even though it was pretty clear).  I left a section for him to  do a serman, which he didn't do but overall it was nice and no one seemed to notice any major problems, they all told us the ceremony was beautiful.  We had three readings, which turned out to be a good thing since he didn't do a sermon...without them there wouldn't have been much substance to the ceremony besides our vows etc.  We had champagne and pictures after the ceremony and we cut our cake and everyone had a snack before we got a great group pic and then left with our parents and bridal party to drive around St. Anne, the local town to get some awesome pics.  I can't wait to get them from our photographer (Laurie Tennent, we brought her with us from Michigan...she was AMAZING!).  We stopped at a fishing village, got pics with some adorable children swimming in the ocean, got pics at some ruins, and stopped at a local restaurant for a drink, it was so fun!  THe only non-fun part was when our driver lost his keys at the bar for 25 mins....no problem mon! ha!  Anywho- After taking pics for a bit, we returned in time for sunset at 6:45 and went straight to dinner (it was supposed to start at 6:30...oh well!).  We had dinner at Dolce Vita and it was delicious.  Everyone loved the food!  We had the caprese salad, squash soup (YUM!), chicken with risotto, and tirimisu.  My husband had the beef with fungi sauce and it was sooooooooooo good (he has a nut allergy so couldn't have the chicken) and I had the vegetarian mousaka which was again, delicious.  We were totally impressed and delighted with the food at Dolce Vita.  We brought our own table runners and centerpieces which turned out great.  We also brough our own guest book pages for everyone to fill out which worked out well since we were late from taking pics...everyone really enjoyed them. 

 

Phew...this is getting long! haha.   Sooo... after dinner we headed back to the gazebo for dancing and drinks.  We rented out the gazebo from 8:30 to 10:30...didn't arrive until 8:45 but Chandlyn and Donnalee did a lovely job setting up the gazebo for us.  the re-hung up the paper lanterns in the gazebo and set up paper luminaries we had brought down with tea lights all around, it was perfect!  We didn't hire the DJ, instead we brought a BOSE sound dock and an ipod and it was perfect.  We also didn't get the bartender, instead we picked up beer and wine after gettting pics from a local store.  They had set up a table, cups, and a cooler of ice for us.  My friend went up to the lobby bar and bribed the bartender to give him a gallen jug of rum punch and it was perfect!  We brought wine chiller wrapper things for the bottles and this inflatable raft-like container that was a few inches deep and held all the ice and drinks, it was great.  Everyone had so much fun dancing at the gazebo, and when the lights went out at 10:30, we just kept on dancing for another 40 minutes! hahah.  The tea lights from the luminaries provided just enough light that it was perfect.  It even started to down pour half way through dancing and it was actually a relief bc it had been so hot.  So after dancing and drinks, we all went back and changed, then headed to the disco til prob 2am, then we went swimming until amost 4:30am in the pool.  It was amazing and so fun.  My friends stupidly stole a few bottles of liquor from the pool bars and we were set, even with the security watching us the whole time, they didn't care!  We weren't super loud and it was only 10-15 of us by that time so no one cared that we were swimming.  It was the perfect end to such a fun day. 

 

The rest of our time was spent relaxing by the pool or the beach, getting up to say good bye as our guests left and just had a great time.  After our week at GBP, my husband and I went to the Negril coast and stayed at Tensing Pen for 3 nights.  It was just what we needed, relaxation and alone time! 

 

I know I skipped around and rambled on a lot so sorry for that!  Let me know if you have any questions, and don't worry about a thing!!! Gran Bahia was the perfect choice and I coudn't imagine having our wedding anywhere else.  We drove past a few of the resorts and GBP was so much nicer than all of them, especially for the price.  I'll try to attach a few pics, sorry I don't have any pro pics yet! 

 

 

view from our room!

 

 

ziplining!

 

walking down with my parents

 

cutting the cake

 

at the gazebo

 

[Natalie2012]

Mekanabr....I forgot to say CONGRATULATIONS in my last post!!!!! I am so happy to hear you had a perfect, amazing and such a special day!!!!!

[ashley490]

Mekanabr: Congratulations on becoming a Mrs!!  Your photos are beautiful, I can only imagine how gorgeous the professional ones are going to be.  Your hair is similar to the way I want mine done.  Given that it's somewhat down, did you find the wind messed it up at all, or did the super hairspray glue it in place?  Did you have your makeup done at the spa as well?  Did you arrange the excursion ahead of time or once you got to the resort?  I'm so glad everything turned out so great for you!  I can't wait to hear a little more and see a few more pics.  Congrats again!

[greatbritain]

Gorgeous!! Oh man thank you SO much for this review. It just made me really excited and feel even more secure about my decision!! Congrats
 

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

Hi girls  I'm back!!!  Our wedding was absolutely amazing and I've been so excited to share all the details with you all!  So here goes...

 

We arrived on Wednesday (our wedding was on Saturday).  We got there one day before all of our guests which was really nice bc it gave us a chance to get familiar with the resort, which is HUGE!  It's a really beautiful resort and we were blown away by it's size, cleanliness, and how such a big place with so many people there could still not feel overwhelming.  The only issue we ever really had the entire time we were there was towels, but really no one cared.  My parents never even got towels the whole week bc they were always out, but it wasn't that big of a deal, we shared and at the end of the week my husband (yay!) and I ended up with 4 extras! lol.  I saw some ppl stressing about the reviews but honestly don't waste your time.  The resort was amazing, the staff for the most part were always pleasant, friendly, and helpful.  Tipping certainly helps get better service though!  It's amazing how a dollar here or there def goes far here.  But you have to consider that the people working at this resort are prob making a fraction of what we do so I don't mind tipping, esp if it gets me good service.  And, they work there butts off!  You will see the same guys doing entertainment all day in the hot sun by the pool and then still up doing the entertainment at night til 11pm...it's crazy.  The food was great, everyone that came with us said they were all really impressed with the food and the drinks were always flowing.  Our room was beautiful, right above the lobby with a beautiful view of the ocean and the whole resort. 

 

We had 39 people travel to Jamaica for our wedding, it was incredible.  Everyone told us that they had an amazing time and couldn't believe that we had found such a beautiful and fun resort.  We made it a priority to greet each guest as they arrived so we spent a lot of Thursday in the lobby but everyone really appreciated seeing us right when they had arrived, especially after traveling from all over the US.  And we were so excited to have our best friends and close family coming that we didn't mind at all.  The only drama we had was that my parents missed their flight on Thursday.  It was awful!  Airtran wouldn't let them on their flight bc their computers crashed the morning they were trying to leave and they waited in line for over an hour to check their bags and then Airtran wouldn't let them on bc they had closed the flight.  It was a fiasco, but they were able to get to the resort on Friday.  I had a little breakdown after I learned my parents wouldn't be there for the first night but I calmed down and had a great evening with friends and family who had arrived.  Thursday we met with Chandlyn and she was wonderful.  Like everyone says, you really don't have anything to worry about.  She has all your info in a file and you meet with her to go over everything to finalize the details.  We had our rehearsal that night and ran through all the details.  Then after dinner, we all met for drinks on the terrace and eventually made our way to the disco.  Haha...what a night.  It was a lot of fun but it was so loud!!  By the time we left, our ears were ringing.  But it was a great night regardless.  The next day, we took everyone zip lining in the White River Valley and then to Mahoe Falls to climb and splash around, it was so fun!  Everyone loved the excursion. 

 

On the day of our wedding, my sister (maid of honor) and I got our hair done at the salon at 9:30 and then my mom and mother in law had an appointment at 10:30.  Everyone was finally done around 12 so make sure you give yourself plenty of time for hair.  They did a great job on everyone's hair and they have some super hairspray.  My hair didn't move all day!  The girl that did my hair redid it about 3 times until she was happy with it...I didn't have any pics (I forgot) but described to her what I wanted and she pretty much got it spot on.  We got ready in our room and then met Chandlyn in the lobby at 2 to head down to the gazebo for our 2:30 ceremony.  Not everyone was seated yet so we ended up hanging out in the Club Golden room bc of the AC in there (we were dying from the heat!) until she was ready to take us down.  My parents, MOH and BM and I all rode down in the glorified golf cart down to the steps before the long path down to the gazebo.  The long walk down to the gazebo was great, it gave me a chance to get myself together before I was at the alter and surprisingly I kept it together for almost the whole ceremony (I choked up a bit during the vows).  Chandlyn and Donnalee were so sweet and put all the chair ties on that I had brought down, decorated the gazebo with pink, white, and orange tulle, and also put up lanterns in the gazebo (I was expecting them to put them on the light posts along the pathway but it still looked great!).  We had the steel drum band and it really made the ceremony amazing and very Jamaica!  The minister was ok...I wrote our ceremony and he only saw it minutes before the ceremony started, even though I tried to get his contact info before hand to give it to him in advance.  He skipped the first reading and I had to correct him to mid ceremony which was interesting and explain to him the order (even though it was pretty clear).  I left a section for him to  do a serman, which he didn't do but overall it was nice and no one seemed to notice any major problems, they all told us the ceremony was beautiful.  We had three readings, which turned out to be a good thing since he didn't do a sermon...without them there wouldn't have been much substance to the ceremony besides our vows etc.  We had champagne and pictures after the ceremony and we cut our cake and everyone had a snack before we got a great group pic and then left with our parents and bridal party to drive around St. Anne, the local town to get some awesome pics.  I can't wait to get them from our photographer (Laurie Tennent, we brought her with us from Michigan...she was AMAZING!).  We stopped at a fishing village, got pics with some adorable children swimming in the ocean, got pics at some ruins, and stopped at a local restaurant for a drink, it was so fun!  THe only non-fun part was when our driver lost his keys at the bar for 25 mins....no problem mon! ha!  Anywho- After taking pics for a bit, we returned in time for sunset at 6:45 and went straight to dinner (it was supposed to start at 6:30...oh well!).  We had dinner at Dolce Vita and it was delicious.  Everyone loved the food!  We had the caprese salad, squash soup (YUM!), chicken with risotto, and tirimisu.  My husband had the beef with fungi sauce and it was sooooooooooo good (he has a nut allergy so couldn't have the chicken) and I had the vegetarian mousaka which was again, delicious.  We were totally impressed and delighted with the food at Dolce Vita.  We brought our own table runners and centerpieces which turned out great.  We also brough our own guest book pages for everyone to fill out which worked out well since we were late from taking pics...everyone really enjoyed them. 

 

Phew...this is getting long! haha.   Sooo... after dinner we headed back to the gazebo for dancing and drinks.  We rented out the gazebo from 8:30 to 10:30...didn't arrive until 8:45 but Chandlyn and Donnalee did a lovely job setting up the gazebo for us.  the re-hung up the paper lanterns in the gazebo and set up paper luminaries we had brought down with tea lights all around, it was perfect!  We didn't hire the DJ, instead we brought a BOSE sound dock and an ipod and it was perfect.  We also didn't get the bartender, instead we picked up beer and wine after gettting pics from a local store.  They had set up a table, cups, and a cooler of ice for us.  My friend went up to the lobby bar and bribed the bartender to give him a gallen jug of rum punch and it was perfect!  We brought wine chiller wrapper things for the bottles and this inflatable raft-like container that was a few inches deep and held all the ice and drinks, it was great.  Everyone had so much fun dancing at the gazebo, and when the lights went out at 10:30, we just kept on dancing for another 40 minutes! hahah.  The tea lights from the luminaries provided just enough light that it was perfect.  It even started to down pour half way through dancing and it was actually a relief bc it had been so hot.  So after dancing and drinks, we all went back and changed, then headed to the disco til prob 2am, then we went swimming until amost 4:30am in the pool.  It was amazing and so fun.  My friends stupidly stole a few bottles of liquor from the pool bars and we were set, even with the security watching us the whole time, they didn't care!  We weren't super loud and it was only 10-15 of us by that time so no one cared that we were swimming.  It was the perfect end to such a fun day. 

 

The rest of our time was spent relaxing by the pool or the beach, getting up to say good bye as our guests left and just had a great time.  After our week at GBP, my husband and I went to the Negril coast and stayed at Tensing Pen for 3 nights.  It was just what we needed, relaxation and alone time! 

 

I know I skipped around and rambled on a lot so sorry for that!  Let me know if you have any questions, and don't worry about a thing!!! Gran Bahia was the perfect choice and I coudn't imagine having our wedding anywhere else.  We drove past a few of the resorts and GBP was so much nicer than all of them, especially for the price.  I'll try to attach a few pics, sorry I don't have any pro pics yet! 

 

 

view from our room!

 

 

ziplining!

 

walking down with my parents

 

cutting the cake

 

at the gazebo

 

[greatbritain]

I know this is semi off subject, but is anyone or has anyone flown on Air Jamaica? I am trying to figure out if I should book through them or US Air. My TA is semi hesitant about Air Jamaica because they just got bought out but she said they don't charge or your first checked bag and US Air charges for each checked bag and is a little more expensive than the Air Jamaica flight. I'm just curious if anyone else has any opinion or suggestions. Thanks ladies

[jenandmark]

Thanks SO MUCH!!!
 

Originally Posted by Natalie2012 

 here is their email and the spa price list I recieved when I booked my appt....

 

 

 

 

 

[email protected]

 

 

 

BAHIA SPA 4 TAXINCL.pdf

[mekanabr]

Thanks everyone for the congrats!  It was such an amazing day!  I'll attempt to answer some of the questions..

 

Exquisite02:

 

-as far as the decor goes, I brought with us pink and orange chair sashes, pink, orange, and white 8" paper lanterns, and pink and orange paper luminary bags with electronic tea lights to go inside.  Chanldyn and Donnalee set up the chair covers and lanterns for hte ceremony and it was beautiful.  After our wedding since there was one after us, they took everything down and then to my surprise set up the paper lanterns in the gazebo again for our reception.  THey also put our luminaries around the outter part of the gazebo and along the inner step and a few alnog hte pathway leading up to the gazebo.  I'll post the pics I have that were posted on fb, sorry I don't have any other ones.  I originally wanted them to use the luminaries to light up the entire pathway to the gazebo, but it worked out better the way they did it bc ppl just cut across the beach to get there, so noone would have appreciated the pathway anyway.  Plus, when the lights went out they provided just enough light to allow us to keep dancing!

ceremony decoration

 

gazebo at night, hard to see sorry!  but you can see a few lumiaries in the front along the pathway and they they were put around the outter edge and along the inner part that raises a little bit

 

table decor, we didn't get the package inclusive flowers, bc we went through Jan's so instead they gave us a centerpiece for our table and it was used on the table during the signing of the register.  We brought with us the table runners in both pink and orange and they transferred the chair sashes from the ceremony to the dinner.  We brought with us tea lights and the centerpieces which were photos printed on vellum and set up in triangles, everyone loved them.

 

for the alcohol we got for the reception, we just stopped at a random road side store that our taxi driver took us to.  His name was Michael and he was just a driver the resort got for us.  Since we went all over for about 2 hrs, the trip cost us $10 pp and we had 16 ppl with us (not cheap! but totally worth it).  I'm sure if you were just going to the store and back it wouldn't cost for than $20.  We bought 4 bottles of wine and 2 cases of red stripe and they charged us in Jamaican, so I think it was just over $100 for everything.  When the reception at the gazebo started our friend walked over to the lobby bar and paid the bartender $5 for a gallon jug of rum punch.  Chanldyn set up the cooler or ice, table, and cups for us.  We actualy had cups with us that were from our fav bar back home but they provided everything we would've needed.  THe only thing we didn't have when we got down there was a bottle opener for the red stripe and a cork screw for the wine, but we got one from a bartender and returned it at the end of the night.  If you want liquor, the resort sells it at their shops on site, we didin't trust our friends mixing their own liquor drinks lol.

 

We borought our own ipod dock and just set it up once we walked over from dinner to the gazebo.  My brother in law was in charge of it for the night and just made sure our first dance song came on when needed, other wse it played until the playlist ended.

 

-Mahoe falls is about 20 mins away and it is $5 to play in the falls and $5 to tour the Coyoba gardens that are on-site.  Mahoe was beautiful and I definitely recommend it!  Our tour was through Lee's Tours and I set up everything in advance beofre we were down there.  We had private transportation during the whole excursion and we went zip lining and to the falls and it was $62 per person.  Everyone loved the tour and thought it was cool that we went into Jamaica and saw the mountains etc instead of doing a snorkeling excursion (our original idea).  We were usposed to have had time to go shopping at Ohco Rios but we got stuck in traffic bc of an accident on the way to zip lining and didn't have enough time.  Our excursion left the resort at 9am and returned around 3pm. 

 

and don't worry, your questions weren't rude at all!  I"m happy to help.

 

Ashley490-

 

My hair literally didn't move until I went swimming that night at 2am!  My hair never holds curl and whatever they put on it actually made my hair stay where it was supposed to and was mostly curled the entire day, I was super impressed.  I didn't get my make up done at the resort, although they wanted me to.  I used a tinted primer from Benefit and it was amaizng, even with the heat and humidity, my makeup looked great all day.  I got it from Sephora and highly recommend it!

 

As far as the excursion goes, read above and that should hopefully answer your questions, let me know if it doesn't!

 

Here's a pic of Mahoe!    It's the top portion, there is another part below about the same size.  It was so fun and refreshing after the hot morning in the jungle zip lining to splash around in the falls

 

part of the lower portion

 

 

[Espejo2be]

Mekanabr, Congrats on your wedding!!! Thank you sooo much for all of the helpful information you gave! I leave 1am this Thursday morning and my wedding is one week from today, I got goosebumps reading your review because you have relieved so many of our fears and so much nervousness that now i'm actually excited!!!!
You looked absolutely beautiful and I hope your day was everything you dreamed of.
One question: Did you use Merrick Cousley?? if so, how did you find him?
Thanks again!!!

[MrsAprilDewees]

Congrats Mekanabr!!! Your pictures are lovely!!!! I'm excited to potentially plan an excursion now, at least for our bridal party!!!!

[mekanabr]

Thanks!!  I'm sure everything will be perfect for your big day, it so soon!!!!!!  We brought our own photographer with us, her name is Laurie Tennent from Birmingham Michigan.  I can't wait to see her pictures, I'll be sure to post them once I get a few!!!  I've heard good things on here from other brides who used Merrick Cousley though, I'm sure he will be great!

 

Originally Posted by Espejo2be 

Mekanabr, Congrats on your wedding!!! Thank you sooo much for all of the helpful information you gave! I leave 1am this Thursday morning and my wedding is one week from today, I got goosebumps reading your review because you have relieved so many of our fears and so much nervousness that now i'm actually excited!!!!
You looked absolutely beautiful and I hope your day was everything you dreamed of.
One question: Did you use Merrick Cousley?? if so, how did you find him?
Thanks again!!!