Help!

[tish]

Hey everyone im a complete newbie when it comes to planning a destination wedding and am having trouble understanding how to go about booking...i am goin with a travel agent but do i have to contact the hotel first to see if the date we would like to be married on is available then book our vacation later?

Also we are having a handful of children ranging from ages 1-14 and wondering what resorts seem the best and why?

We were considering GBJ & ROR if we wanted to go to a fancier resort, and then we were also considering one of the Sunset Resorts.

I know that you have to book a cetain amount of rooms to book with ROR but does anyone know if there is a set amount of rooms for GBJ or the Sunsets?

[tish]

oh and im also interested in the "free" weddings so if anyone went with this option at any of the hotels please give me some details, and also photography im considering paying for a friend to come do our pics for free, but wondering what the costs are for the hotels photographers

[Michelle-2]

Welcome to the forum!  I know it can all seem so overwhelming in the beginning - but at least you are in the right place.  You will be able to find tons of helpful info here on this forum.  Try one of the travel agents from here (the link is up top) - I know they can be very helpful.  We are getting married at Beaches Turks & Caicos in April, 2011.  I have a daughter, so I needed some place that was kid friendly, and I also wanted the free wedding. 

 

good luck with you planning. 

[akua420]

Welcome!  It is ov erwhelming.  I found a lot of resorts didn't do the kid thing, and the ones that did were very family oriented, I wanted a mix which is why I picked the Gran Bahia, also Lady Hamilton is really nice too.  First you need to decide what part of the island you want to go to.  My travel agent  got basic information from the resort for me but I had to call to actually book the date.   And not too many resorts do a free wedding, we're paying abuot $1000 for our package. 

[murmel]

Welcome, and good luck with your planning! We found the area we wanted (1), then researched the resorts (2). After narrowing it down to 2 resorts, got prices from our Travel agent, and when we were happy with the price, choose the resort. Our travel agent called the resort on our behalf (while we sat there ) to make sure the date we wanted was available, and then we booked. Expect to have to pay a small deposit to hold your date.

 

There are lots of kid friendly resorts, but to make sure your adult guests also find some peace, try resorts which offer adult sections.

[tish]

thanks everyone for the great info, this is my second wedding so my FI and i aren't having any help from my parents so we kind of want it to be as inexpensive as we can get but we also want a beautiful wedding, photography is VERY important to me as i indulge in the hobby, if i could take my own pics i prolly would.LOL...trying to decide if it would be better to take someone with me or hire one down there or go with the resorts photographer SO MANY DECISIONS! 

[akua420]

Photographs aren't that big of a deal for me.  We're going to just use the resort photographer, I think I must be the ONLY person on here that is.  We have a professional photographer coming to the wedding as a guest, so sh'ell take pictrues, but other then that we don't really care. We want a nice pic of us kissing on the beach, couple during the ceremony but to spend thousands of dollars on photographs that are going to get put in a box in my basement, I can't see its worth it.  I'm not really a 'picture' person thuogh, I prefer to live in the moment rather then rushing to capture it on film.  It will always be in my memory and nothing else matters.  And I find it hard to believe that the resort photographer won't be able to take 5 nice pictures of us out of the couple of hundred they take.  Its not like we're ugly, we will be happy and smiling and I want us to look like us in the pictures. 

 

Wow that turned into a rant, hahaha.  But as I said, I think I'm the only bride on this forum that is going with the resort photographer. 

[katelynn]

GBJ has a free wedding package -and it includes 16 people dinner, brides flowers and grooms boot, along with a champagne toast after the ceremony...however it doesnt cover the judges fee's but they are only like $250us. We are going with this package as I think its pretty good. 

 

We have a couple of kids going and the GBJ has a kids club..also it is okay to bring your own photographer while places like Beaches dont or make you pay a fee to bring an outside vendor.

 

Hope this helps!

[tish]

oh i am considering goin with the resort photographer but i dont want to get ripped off, one of my ffriends got married at the Sunset Grande And payed only 500us for her pics she was able to pick out 100 to put on cd and got 2 5x7s free. i like that deal, BUT im sure the GBJ prices for pics are a bit higher.
 

Originally Posted by akua420 

Photographs aren't that big of a deal for me.  We're going to just use the resort photographer, I think I must be the ONLY person on here that is.  We have a professional photographer coming to the wedding as a guest, so sh'ell take pictrues, but other then that we don't really care. We want a nice pic of us kissing on the beach, couple during the ceremony but to spend thousands of dollars on photographs that are going to get put in a box in my basement, I can't see its worth it.  I'm not really a 'picture' person thuogh, I prefer to live in the moment rather then rushing to capture it on film.  It will always be in my memory and nothing else matters.  And I find it hard to believe that the resort photographer won't be able to take 5 nice pictures of us out of the couple of hundred they take.  Its not like we're ugly, we will be happy and smiling and I want us to look like us in the pictures. 

 

Wow that turned into a rant, hahaha.  But as I said, I think I'm the only bride on this forum that is going with the resort photographer. 

[tish]

Katelynn or akua .... have you looked into prices for pictures? im wondering what their packages are like.