Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[acw271011]

our tablecloth was white, but I bought a pink table runner and splurged at $15 but only because we had nobody with us. if we'd had a bunch of people I don't know if I would still have spent the money. I think all of the tablecloths are white. ours was sprinkled with reose petals too, again I think because they took pity on us being by ourselves lol and candles too. it was quite nice. I don't have any pics until we gt ours from Merrick, which is supposed to be tonight because there was no one else to take pics for us!!

 

Originally Posted by FleetMac bride 

Thanks ACW as always I need to relax, I am trying my best LOL. So much to do so little time but I am getting organized and getting er done!!!

 

Does anyone know if they put tablecloths on the tables for you reception dinner??? Not that I'm bringing any down but wandering what colour they may be.

 

Also does anyone know of store that sells white battery operated tea lights, the ones I bought from the dollar store are orange and dont' really go with my colour.

 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

I used Sungold photography, Antoinette and Clayton were my photographers. Here is the link to see my photos. Most of our trash the dress shots were towards the end. http://wpajamaica.com/show/assoc_ag/Tekeya-Telley/

So, I'm in need of a new photographer for my TTD session.  We had hoped to use Merrick, but I left him hanging for too long and he booked another wedding.  Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on a good photographer?

 

Thanks!

[toesinsand30]

Here is what i did for mine (our events didnt go as planned as oct 17 was a holiday in jamaica and most places were closed, but thats ok we just changed somethings around )

 

 

Originally Posted by ashley490 

Hi Ladies!

I noticed some of you had made pre-travel brochures for your guests.  I was thinking about making some of these but I don't know where to start.  If any of you have any suggestions on what to write/include or if you'd be willing to let me use your's as a template I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[FleetMac bride]

Thanks Acw good to know.  I really want to see your pics you must be very excited to have them come in I'm sure there gorgeous

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I am getting pretty pumped now too 16 days to go and I'll be in Jamaica and 19 days now till I get married. Me and the FI are going shopping tonight as he still doesn't have a white short sleeved shirt for the wedding. I love him but boy is he a procrastinator LOL

[FleetMac bride]

Tekeya I love love yuor pics especially the one with you in the water flicking your hair it looks like sparkles and you look like a goddess in that pic.

[Tekeya Thompson]

Thank you much!  That is everyone's favorite.  A photographer here told me that it took some skills (and a great camera) to get that to look as good as it did.  Thanks to my hubby helping us with the process.  One good thing I liked about our photographer (well 2)...not only was she fun and professional, she was creative and she knew the areas very well (because she lives there)...so she knew when the water would be a certain color, or when the clouds/sunset would be at it's best. 

 

Originally Posted by FleetMac bride 

Tekeya I love love yuor pics especially the one with you in the water flicking your hair it looks like sparkles and you look like a goddess in that pic.

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

They did put tableclothes down, but it looks like they had like an underlying layer that was printed.  Here's a picture at Dolce:

 

Not sure if you have a TJ Max, but they normally have them or even Walmart.  IKEA may also have them.

Originally Posted by FleetMac bride 

Thanks ACW as always I need to relax, I am trying my best LOL. So much to do so little time but I am getting organized and getting er done!!!

 

Does anyone know if they put tablecloths on the tables for you reception dinner??? Not that I'm bringing any down but wandering what colour they may be.

 

Also does anyone know of store that sells white battery operated tea lights, the ones I bought from the dollar store are orange and dont' really go with my colour.

 

 

[ashley490]

Thanks for sharing your brochure!  Between yours and Jaykay's I think I have a really good idea about what I should write/include.  Thanks again ladies!!  You both rock

 

Originally Posted by toesinsand30 

Here is what i did for mine (our events didnt go as planned as oct 17 was a holiday in jamaica and most places were closed, but thats ok we just changed somethings around )

 

 

 

 

[futurejohnson]

Hi everybody!!

 

I’m finally married and back from the GBPJ!!  I had the best week of my life so far, and for all you ladies who will be getting married at GBPJ, you made a great choice!

 

I’ve received a lot of helpful information from BDW over the past year, so I will do my best in providing a thorough review in the hopes of “paying it forwardâ€.  So this might be kinda long lol. 

 

Wedding Planner: We dealt with Donnalee for the last few months leading up to the wedding, and we also met with Donnalee the day we arrived at the resort.  Throughout my entire experience with Donnalee, I never had any issues with her being rude, or unhelpful, etc.  On the contrary…she was always very nice and polite, and always had a smile on her face.  So it’s unfortunate that other brides have had issues with her….she was great with us!  There were 2 weddings on my wedding day, so I think Chandlyn was more involved with the other wedding, whereas Donnalee was more involved with mine.  Donnalee was very helpful and ensured that all of my requests were met.  Since I brought my own flowers, she gave me a centrepiece for the head table free-of-charge.  I didn’t bring any decorations for the gazebo or any chair ties, but since my colour was bright pink, the resort had pink tulle on hand and Donnalee ensured that the gazebo and chairs were decorated nicely.  (We originally weren’t planning on doing chair ties, but I’m glad we opted to pay the $2.50/tie because it really made a difference in the pictures.)  Also, we had 4 surprise guests on our wedding day, so even though we hadn’t accounted for them, Donnalee made sure that they were included in our wedding dinner.  (Sidenote: I don’t think she even charged me for the 4 extra people afterwards!)

 

Weather: If you’ve been to the resort, you’ll know that it rains for about 10 minutes every afternoon….no biggy, the grey clouds come and go.  Plus it’s super windy out by the gazebo, so it keeps you cool.  However, 2 hours before our ceremony, it started thunderstorming and it proceeded to downpour for about 1.5 hours.  Totally freaked me out, because I really didn’t want to get married in the lobby.  Chandlyn called me 45 minutes before the ceremony and asked whether to move the wedding to the lobby, so I begged her to wait another half hour because I finally started to see some blue sky in the distance.  Thank goodness I waited, because 10 minutes later, the rain stopped.  Chandlyn and Donnalee quickly set up the chairs by the gazebo, and everything turned out perfect.  Only downside is that the wind stopped dead after the storm, so it was extremely hot and humid.  I stuffed a handkerchief into my wedding bouquet and used it as a sweat napkin throughout the ceremony LOL. 

 

Hair Salon: Loved my hair!  I didn’t even have to show the salon a picture, but they did a great job and the hairspray/freezing spray they used was so crazy heavy-duty, nothing moved all day/night.  

 

Ceremony: We wrote our ceremony script ahead of time, so I sent it down to Donnalee a few days before we left and she gave a copy to the minister.  The minister was awesome and everything turned out perfect, except for a couple things:  1) This is pretty ridiculous, but they don’t stop the poolside entertainment during your ceremony, so throughout my ceremony, I could hear club beats and guys on microphones coming from the pool.  I tuned it out and was off in my own little world, but I know a lot of my guests complained about this afterwards.  I wrote this in my comment card after the wedding, but I’m not sure if this will change in the future. 2) Some stupid kid was snorkeling by the wedding gazebo and at one point, started yelling “SHARK!  SHARK!† Again, I was off in my own little world and didn’t even notice, but a bunch of guests told me afterwards.  Other than those 2 issues, everything was great.  Our ceremony was at 3:15pm (originally 3pm, but there was a slight rain delay), which gave us enough time to take pictures before the sun started setting.  (Sun started setting around 5:15-5:30pm….it was pretty dark by 6pm.) 

 

Cake: Delicious!  We added an extra layer for $40, and we’re so glad we did since we had 65 guests with us.  We chose vanilla, vanilla raspberry, and coconut.  Everybody told us it was delicious.  Downside: We didn’t get any of the extra cake afterwards, which we didn’t care too much about, but it would have been nice to try the other flavours.  I spoke with Donnalee about this a few days later and she felt really bad…she had instructed them to leave it in my fridge after the wedding, but they never did.  Oh well.  If you care about saving the cake, I suggest you bring your own container and have somebody scoop it up for you. 

 

Steel Drum Band: They were awesome!  They played for the entire hour after our ceremony and really added to the Caribbean setting.

 

Dinner: We had our dinner at the Dolce Vita and the menu we chose was: caesar salad with chicken, roasted thyme and squash soup, stuffed chicken and risotto, and tiramisu.  Not many people liked the Caesar salad, so I’d probably avoid ordering that.  Everybody loved the soup, and the chicken was also really good!  Our dinner was supposed to be at the Garden Grill, but when we got to the resort, we found out that the Garden Grill was under renovation so both weddings were held in the Dolce Vita.  Since our wedding group was larger, we were in the main room while the other bride was in the circular room off to the side.  It was a little awkward having 2 weddings in the same restaurant and I felt really bad because our wedding group was a little loud.  We originally planned to do all our wedding speeches at the gazebo after dinner, but the best man brought a bunch of Bristol boards with him with pictures on them, so he asked to do his speech at the restaurant since the lighting was better.  So it was a little awkward because the other wedding probably heard his entire speech, and all the hootin’ and hollerin’ from the pictures. 

 

Reception at the Gazebo:  AMAZING!!!  So so glad we booked out the gazebo and hired the DJ.  We didn’t pay for the bar set-up because I thought it was ridiculous to pay $1,800 for liquor at an all-inclusive resort.  So instead, we just asked Donnalee for a table to be set up in the gazebo with ice and cups, and our groomsmen left the dinner 15 minutes early to set everything up.  We brought our own inflatable palm tree cooler (http://amazingpartystore.com/storefront/productdetail.aspx?idproduct=33301&idcat=2597) which we filled with ice and bottles of pop/mix.  For the liquor, the gift shop sells 26ers for $20USD, which is pretty expensive considering you’re in Jamaica, so one of our groomsmen spoke with a bartender the day before and managed to get 1L bottles of vodka, rum, and whisky for $10/bottle!  Ended up spending $60 on 6 litres of liquor, another $25 on bottles of pop/mix (which we just got at the gift shop), and we had around 60 cans of Caribe beer, which the groomsmen got from the maids since they stocked the mini fridges daily with Caribe.  I think they left her $5USD and a note asking for their fridge to be stocked with beer instead of pop/water.  Worked like a charm!  As for the music, we had an entire playlist prepared on our iPod, but the DJ was awesome so we never even used our playlist!  He played all the newer top 40 hits, and a few requests that we had on our iPod.  The gazebo rental was supposed to be from 8:45-10:45, but our groomsmen kept slipping him money for more music, and we ended up having the gazebo until almost 11:30-11:45!  Everybody had a blast at the gazebo and kept saying it was their favourite part of the night. 

 

All in all, even though there were a few minor hiccups, we had an amazing wedding and our guests kept telling us it was the most beautiful wedding they’d ever been to.  Yes, there were a few things that could have been changed, and I could have complained about a lot of stuff…. (ie. not getting the leftover cake, not getting a room upgrade, or robe/slippers, or a welcome fruit basket, having 2 weddings in the same restaurant, etc), but in the end, that stuff didn’t matter to us.  The resort was beautiful and everything turned out perfect! 

 

Just one tip: Bring Tide-to-Go and make sure you have it handy on the wedding day!!!  I got a bleeding nose when I was back in my room changing for the gazebo reception, and two long streaks of blood fell down my wedding dress.  I quickly took the dress off and used Tide-to-Go, and not one trace of blood is left on my dress.  Amazing!!!  Plus one of my groomsmen spilled red wine on his linen pants, and again, Tide-to-Go erased everything!! 

 

Anyways, I’ll attach a few pictures that our photographer gave to us….we flew him down with us and he took over 6,000 pictures during the entire week.  He edited around 200 while in Jamaica and gave them to us as a teaser, and will be giving us another 1,000 pictures shortly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tamandrob]

Congrats on being a Mrs!!! Thanks for the great review, they are always so helpful. I am glad that you had a wonderful wedding even though there was a few minor hiccups!! Reading a review like this just makes me even more excited to go I can't wait!!!! Your pictures are gorgeous! I love the one of you two in the pool!!! How much was it to rent the gazebo and dj? I wasn't planning on doing that but think I will look into it. Thanks again and congrats!!!!!
 

Originally Posted by futurejohnson 

Hi everybody!!

 

I’m finally married and back from the GBPJ!!  I had the best week of my life so far, and for all you ladies who will be getting married at GBPJ, you made a great choice!

 

I’ve received a lot of helpful information from BDW over the past year, so I will do my best in providing a thorough review in the hopes of “paying it forwardâ€.  So this might be kinda long lol. 

 

Wedding Planner: We dealt with Donnalee for the last few months leading up to the wedding, and we also met with Donnalee the day we arrived at the resort.  Throughout my entire experience with Donnalee, I never had any issues with her being rude, or unhelpful, etc.  On the contrary…she was always very nice and polite, and always had a smile on her face.  So it’s unfortunate that other brides have had issues with her….she was great with us!  There were 2 weddings on my wedding day, so I think Chandlyn was more involved with the other wedding, whereas Donnalee was more involved with mine.  Donnalee was very helpful and ensured that all of my requests were met.  Since I brought my own flowers, she gave me a centrepiece for the head table free-of-charge.  I didn’t bring any decorations for the gazebo or any chair ties, but since my colour was bright pink, the resort had pink tulle on hand and Donnalee ensured that the gazebo and chairs were decorated nicely.  (We originally weren’t planning on doing chair ties, but I’m glad we opted to pay the $2.50/tie because it really made a difference in the pictures.)  Also, we had 4 surprise guests on our wedding day, so even though we hadn’t accounted for them, Donnalee made sure that they were included in our wedding dinner.  (Sidenote: I don’t think she even charged me for the 4 extra people afterwards!)

 

Weather: If you’ve been to the resort, you’ll know that it rains for about 10 minutes every afternoon….no biggy, the grey clouds come and go.  Plus it’s super windy out by the gazebo, so it keeps you cool.  However, 2 hours before our ceremony, it started thunderstorming and it proceeded to downpour for about 1.5 hours.  Totally freaked me out, because I really didn’t want to get married in the lobby.  Chandlyn called me 45 minutes before the ceremony and asked whether to move the wedding to the lobby, so I begged her to wait another half hour because I finally started to see some blue sky in the distance.  Thank goodness I waited, because 10 minutes later, the rain stopped.  Chandlyn and Donnalee quickly set up the chairs by the gazebo, and everything turned out perfect.  Only downside is that the wind stopped dead after the storm, so it was extremely hot and humid.  I stuffed a handkerchief into my wedding bouquet and used it as a sweat napkin throughout the ceremony LOL. 

 

Hair Salon: Loved my hair!  I didn’t even have to show the salon a picture, but they did a great job and the hairspray/freezing spray they used was so crazy heavy-duty, nothing moved all day/night.  

 

Ceremony: We wrote our ceremony script ahead of time, so I sent it down to Donnalee a few days before we left and she gave a copy to the minister.  The minister was awesome and everything turned out perfect, except for a couple things:  1) This is pretty ridiculous, but they don’t stop the poolside entertainment during your ceremony, so throughout my ceremony, I could hear club beats and guys on microphones coming from the pool.  I tuned it out and was off in my own little world, but I know a lot of my guests complained about this afterwards.  I wrote this in my comment card after the wedding, but I’m not sure if this will change in the future. 2) Some stupid kid was snorkeling by the wedding gazebo and at one point, started yelling “SHARK!  SHARK!† Again, I was off in my own little world and didn’t even notice, but a bunch of guests told me afterwards.  Other than those 2 issues, everything was great.  Our ceremony was at 3:15pm (originally 3pm, but there was a slight rain delay), which gave us enough time to take pictures before the sun started setting.  (Sun started setting around 5:15-5:30pm….it was pretty dark by 6pm.) 

 

Cake: Delicious!  We added an extra layer for $40, and we’re so glad we did since we had 65 guests with us.  We chose vanilla, vanilla raspberry, and coconut.  Everybody told us it was delicious.  Downside: We didn’t get any of the extra cake afterwards, which we didn’t care too much about, but it would have been nice to try the other flavours.  I spoke with Donnalee about this a few days later and she felt really bad…she had instructed them to leave it in my fridge after the wedding, but they never did.  Oh well.  If you care about saving the cake, I suggest you bring your own container and have somebody scoop it up for you. 

 

Steel Drum Band: They were awesome!  They played for the entire hour after our ceremony and really added to the Caribbean setting.

 

Dinner: We had our dinner at the Dolce Vita and the menu we chose was: caesar salad with chicken, roasted thyme and squash soup, stuffed chicken and risotto, and tiramisu.  Not many people liked the Caesar salad, so I’d probably avoid ordering that.  Everybody loved the soup, and the chicken was also really good!  Our dinner was supposed to be at the Garden Grill, but when we got to the resort, we found out that the Garden Grill was under renovation so both weddings were held in the Dolce Vita.  Since our wedding group was larger, we were in the main room while the other bride was in the circular room off to the side.  It was a little awkward having 2 weddings in the same restaurant and I felt really bad because our wedding group was a little loud.  We originally planned to do all our wedding speeches at the gazebo after dinner, but the best man brought a bunch of Bristol boards with him with pictures on them, so he asked to do his speech at the restaurant since the lighting was better.  So it was a little awkward because the other wedding probably heard his entire speech, and all the hootin’ and hollerin’ from the pictures. 

 

Reception at the Gazebo:  AMAZING!!!  So so glad we booked out the gazebo and hired the DJ.  We didn’t pay for the bar set-up because I thought it was ridiculous to pay $1,800 for liquor at an all-inclusive resort.  So instead, we just asked Donnalee for a table to be set up in the gazebo with ice and cups, and our groomsmen left the dinner 15 minutes early to set everything up.  We brought our own inflatable palm tree cooler (http://amazingpartystore.com/storefront/productdetail.aspx?idproduct=33301&idcat=2597) which we filled with ice and bottles of pop/mix.  For the liquor, the gift shop sells 26ers for $20USD, which is pretty expensive considering you’re in Jamaica, so one of our groomsmen spoke with a bartender the day before and managed to get 1L bottles of vodka, rum, and whisky for $10/bottle!  Ended up spending $60 on 6 litres of liquor, another $25 on bottles of pop/mix (which we just got at the gift shop), and we had around 60 cans of Caribe beer, which the groomsmen got from the maids since they stocked the mini fridges daily with Caribe.  I think they left her $5USD and a note asking for their fridge to be stocked with beer instead of pop/water.  Worked like a charm!  As for the music, we had an entire playlist prepared on our iPod, but the DJ was awesome so we never even used our playlist!  He played all the newer top 40 hits, and a few requests that we had on our iPod.  The gazebo rental was supposed to be from 8:45-10:45, but our groomsmen kept slipping him money for more music, and we ended up having the gazebo until almost 11:30-11:45!  Everybody had a blast at the gazebo and kept saying it was their favourite part of the night. 

 

All in all, even though there were a few minor hiccups, we had an amazing wedding and our guests kept telling us it was the most beautiful wedding they’d ever been to.  Yes, there were a few things that could have been changed, and I could have complained about a lot of stuff…. (ie. not getting the leftover cake, not getting a room upgrade, or robe/slippers, or a welcome fruit basket, having 2 weddings in the same restaurant, etc), but in the end, that stuff didn’t matter to us.  The resort was beautiful and everything turned out perfect! 

 

Just one tip: Bring Tide-to-Go and make sure you have it handy on the wedding day!!!  I got a bleeding nose when I was back in my room changing for the gazebo reception, and two long streaks of blood fell down my wedding dress.  I quickly took the dress off and used Tide-to-Go, and not one trace of blood is left on my dress.  Amazing!!!  Plus one of my groomsmen spilled red wine on his linen pants, and again, Tide-to-Go erased everything!! 

 

Anyways, I’ll attach a few pictures that our photographer gave to us….we flew him down with us and he took over 6,000 pictures during the entire week.  He edited around 200 while in Jamaica and gave them to us as a teaser, and will be giving us another 1,000 pictures shortly.