ROR 11:00am ceremony HELP!

aelliott · May 7, 2010

Hi there,

I'm brand new to this website and have found it amazingly helpful so far!

I have a dilemma though,

My wedding is on Jan 27/2011 at the ROR and I'm so disappointed that the only time available for the ceremony during the entire week is 11:00 am. We were hoping to do the semi-private meal which is included, however 6:30 is a terribly long time for my guests to wait. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can schedule our day? Should we do the ceremony, then pics, then have some music and champagne sometime during the afternoon and then go to dinner? Or, is it possible to do a lunch reception? I liked the idea of having a poolside or beach reception after dinner but this would definitely make the day too long. PLEASE HELP ME! Any ideas would be appreciated.

Leigh17 · May 7, 2010

I can't speak to the specifics of your resort since I'm getting married elsewhere, but I had the same problem. We just recently booked our July wedding so all of the evening times were taken & we got 11 am. We're planning on having a cocktail hour immediately after the wedding on a terrace next to where we're getting married. We'll have appetizers & drinks there (& the wedding party will also be taking pictures for part of this time). And then since July will be so hot, we're going to have an indoor reception from 1-4pm & we'll serve lunch there.

yumyum90 · May 7, 2010

If you search through the Jamaica forum you will come across alot of brides who have had this dilemma. What some of them have posted is that they did hours'de ovres afterwards for about an hour and then either let the guests enjoy the rest of their day and come back together at 6:30, or some brides have chosen to do a group acitivty such as chartering a catamaran cruise for a couple of hours. If you had lunch somewhere on the resort then it would only be a lunch buffet so your group could pull a bunch of tables together at one of the restaurants but it doesn't seem to exciting to do that for your wedding day. You could also consider going offsite for an earlier reception but with that option you have to pay and defeats the purpose of an all-inclusive.

btn1091 · May 7, 2010

Wow... the catamaran idea would be great... your pictures would be beautiful and soo original!! We did a catamaran trip the day before our wedding and it was fantastic...everyone loved it!! Good luck deciding!

aelliott · May 7, 2010

Thanks for all of your help.

I've been reading a lot of other threads and wanted to clarify a couple of things that I don't totally understand.

1) If I have over 50 guests, am I still able to book a semi-private (included) reception? or do I have to book a private reception that costs $500 for 2 hours? Also, is there a $55.00 charge/person on top of that cost?

2)My wedding is Jan 27/2011. Should I be looking into booking Michael for photography services now? or do I wait to hear from the wedding coordinator? Not sure how quickly he books up or how to go about this.

3) Since the wedding is at 11:00 am, if we served some appetizers afterwards, is this done at the location of the ceremony? or could this be done as a poolside reception for $15.00/person.

I know some of this has been previously discussed but I just need some clarification. Thank you so very much for any input