Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[Tekeya Thompson]

Paula was unavailable so I went with the associate.  I had Antoinette (AG) and Clayton, and they were great.  We did the TTD session that Monday morning also. 

 

Originally Posted by tamandrob 

Thanks for your advice! I think I will be doing one I just hope it's done right!!! I see that you went with Sungold did you hire an associate or Paula? I can't wait to see your pictures!

 

 

 

[acw271011]

Congrats!! In spite of the little things it sounds like it all turned out well. thanks so much for the all the details and tips!! can't wait to see photos!!

 

Originally Posted by Tekeya Thompson 

Hello Ladies,

This will be a short message but I promise to give more details later...just got back and tired.  In the end, the wedding was gorgeous, Chandlyn was awesome, and I couldn't ask for a more perfect day.  I had some ups and downs prior to the wedding...(the bus driver let my carryon bag with all my wedding stuff off at the wrong resort) but once the kinks worked out, everything was lovely.  I know there are lots of questions, feel free.  I noticed the string about the birth certificates/passport copies.  Technically the process works faster if you have a notarized copy of your birth certificate and passport.  The short form people are referring to, is when birth certificates were more like a "card" and didn't have the notarized seal.  A long form is just the full size paper version with the state's stamp seal (of live birth) on it. Most banks (if you have an bank account with them) will notarize for free, I know Chase and Wells Fargo does.

 

 

Our wedding was AWESOME.

 

We had our rehearsal dinner (only allowed to do 20 for our party) at The Grill.  Okay...the grill....salmon was good. A couple people had the steak but was feeling the effects of it later. IT is SUPER HOT in the restaurant..no air at all, which made it very uncomfortable.  It was roaches and bugs in the restaurant also, so don't be alarmed when you see something crawling lol.  My bridesmaid napkin actually moved (a bug was crawling underneath), so she never ate anything else.
The food was good prior to that but it's just the heat and bugs that are disturbing.

 

Rehearsal, I met Donnalee...she walked it thru but it wasn't in good detail, so it was a little confusing.  This was my first time meeting or even speaking with her, I only worked with Chandlyn prior but she was away handling a 152 party wedding. 

 

Wedding:  Everything was put together well but everyone was running a
little late including Chandlyn.  The DJ had to restart one song because he played the
wrong one, but my lady in waiting got him straight. I had my own officiator but the Jamaican minister was supposed to do the sand ceremony and pronounce us.  He was very "off" on the
program.  He had us signing documents, blessed u and we hadn't even did the sand
ceremony or been pronounced.  My cousin who was also officiating had
to tell him that he forgot it.  Donnalee forgot to set the sand ceremony
up, so it was like a LONG period of silence until they brought
everything (which the sand was still in the bag)...so ghetto.   I was
irritated about that part.  Once we got it going, the sand ceremony
itself took FOREVER...make sure you have music for that.

 

The WIND is FIERCE at the gazebo, fyi for your hairstyles.  It wasn't that hot at gazebo because we were
inside of it, and the wind was blowing like crazy. We finished taking pictures and had to
head to reception dinner at Dolce at 6pm.  The reception wasn't set up yet, so we had to
wait.

 

Dolce was great...we had the semi private area...we was able to play
our music and do our photo guestbook which the guests really enjoyed.
They also played with the cootie scavenger hunts which was cool.  I
hate that I didn't do the 1st dance and stuff there because when we
got back to gazebo, it was HOT as heck and we were dripping sweat.

 

The chicken at Dolce was great.  The salad and desert that comes with that option
was horrible.  The squash soup was decent. You have the option to
change it, which I recommend.

 

The pool does close at 7pm but the nude beach and regular beach is open
all the time.  They do have washclothes but they only give it to the
honeymooners after the wedding, not to the guests....they only have
bath towels and handtowels.

 

FYI, your reception dinner, Donnalee and Chandlyn are NO WHERE around,
so you need to have your own announcer and program set.  We had to
wing it and it killed me, i hate when stuff isn't organized.  I wasn't
aware they didn't "coordinate" during the event. And I didn't know
what was next, etc.  So the cake came in last...it was nice.  They end
up putting flowers on it (which I didn't paid for, but it was really
nice).

 

We went back to the gazebo after dinner (rented it out) to do our first dance, mother/son dance, party ;-)...OMG it was SO HOT!!!  We were told later that when the sun goes down, the temperature rises (so it gets hotter after dark near the beach).  We still partied.  Our paper lanterns were hanging and it was so nice.  FYI, if you want it back, I would advise you to take them down yourselves....we didn't and they were torn up by the wind.

 

Other than that, everything was gorgeous.  It was a perfect ending to the perfect week. 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

Ladies,

I forgot to mention, the resort only have hand towels and bath towels in rooms (no smaller washclothes).  After our wedding, they decorated the rooms and they made animals with the washclothes so they do exist, but not until after the wedding (only for the couple I guess, unless you requests them).  I made towel lollipops for my guests so they were okay with after that point.

[tamandrob]

I booked AG too!!! I would love to see some of your pictures when they are ready. Did you give them a list of certain photos you want or did they suggest/tell you what to do? I haven't booked a TTD session yet but I keep thinking I want to more and more.
 

Originally Posted by Tekeya Thompson 

Paula was unavailable so I went with the associate.  I had Antoinette (AG) and Clayton, and they were great.  We did the TTD session that Monday morning also. 

 

 

 

[LJMedic]

Hi Ladies,

                Just joined the site. We have choosen the GBP resort and now have to decide when to get married. I would love any suggestions or experiences you have had with certain times of year. I have been warned away from Aug to Nov due to hurricane season. I see alot of brides are booked for Sept Oct weddings so I am wondering if there really is reason to worry. We will be booking airtransat and have the 3 wedding packages to choose from, any information on your experiences with these would be great as well. Thanks

LJ

[Tekeya Thompson]

Hi Tamandrob,

I wish I had, because I was so brain fried with joy that I couldn't remember anything ;-).  But Antoinette and Clayton asked plenty of times if there were any other shots that we could think of that we wanted so they were very accomodating.  They suggested and told us to do a lot of the shots...then a lot of the shots was just us being silly ;-), which came out really good.  I got the Gold package that included the TTD session.  My wedding and stuff actually went over, so I was able to take 1 hour out of the TTD session to accomodate.  They were very accomodating.  The TTD session was WORTH IT!!!  AMAZING pics. 

 

Guess what ladies!  I got my sneak peak pics!  I will post them in another post

Originally Posted by tamandrob 

I booked AG too!!! I would love to see some of your pictures when they are ready. Did you give them a list of certain photos you want or did they suggest/tell you what to do? I haven't booked a TTD session yet but I keep thinking I want to more and more.
 

 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

My Special Day!!!  9.3.11  51 guests, Romantic, Fun, Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tekeya Thompson 

My Special Day!!!  9.3.11  51 guests, Romantic, Fun, Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

We got married in September, but it is hurricane season (even though a hurricane would never hit jamaica due to the reefs (or so they say))...it does have rainy periods.  It's a risk, but the rates are cheaper.  We used destinationweddings.com (Christina Brancato was our agent) for all the travel (and guest travel) arrangements.  She was great!  For 4 days, 3 nights, 2 people in a room...it was about $560 for the room total.  Flights vary depending on location.  Airtran offers special occasion group rates (that you can setup yourself).  It's 10% of the ticket rate, and if so many people book under your group, you can get a free tix.

 

Originally Posted by LJMedic 

Hi Ladies,

                Just joined the site. We have choosen the GBP resort and now have to decide when to get married. I would love any suggestions or experiences you have had with certain times of year. I have been warned away from Aug to Nov due to hurricane season. I see alot of brides are booked for Sept Oct weddings so I am wondering if there really is reason to worry. We will be booking airtransat and have the 3 wedding packages to choose from, any information on your experiences with these would be great as well. Thanks

LJ

 

[CdnBeatPrincess]

Tekeya, you look AMAZING.

 

WOW!!! that's all that came to me when I saw your pictures.