Beaches ~ Turks & Caicos Roll Call!

[Lizzdee]

Thanks for the idea about renting a jeep!!! $144 seems pretty resonable for 24 hours!!! I am definitly going to remember this for me and honey during the 'honeymoon' phase of the wedding!!! Sounds like fun!

 

Originally Posted by Jordana 

Well Ladies - I have finally found the time(althought now trying to complete last min details on our at home reception set to happen in 2 wks) to complete that Review of the Beaches Turks that hopefully will benefit some of you.

 

My husband & I booked the Governor's Honeymoon Suite- well worth it. Absolutely gorgeous. Perfect location in the Caribbean Village. Large & Spacious with 2 balconys (perfect for our large group for gathering) full stocked bar, sitting area, separate bedroom, walk in tiled shower, nice jacuzzi tub. Girls definitely bring your IPODs - IPOD docking station in this room was perfect.

 

Our Suite was room 810.

 

FOOD - Was amazing, having travelled to numerous Caribbean resorts prior I was a little concerned about the food for our group. Trust me when I say that there is something for everyone. We never had to wait longer then 15 mins for a table even with a group as large as 26, and we never really had any difficulty getting 2 large tables together. The resort is very accomodating. The pizzas just great especially for just ordering a few and then they are boxed & you can take them right to beach.....try the jerk chicken & mango (was such a hit we are recreating for our late night buffett at the reception here) Le Cafe de Paris- amazing specialty coffees - I am a Starbucks fanatic and I was starting to panic about going to be having caffeine withdrawl, no worries the "Beaches Caramel" is amazing..........The hibatichi restaurant was just awesome , Fortune cookie was our chef and with a large group it was perfect so interactive. The Sushi was some of the best I have ever had ( try the Rocky Road :-) Barefoot on the Beach was great for Breakfast

Just remember that you are at a Caribbean resort and there is what you call being on "island time" its definitely not the expedited service that we receive or expect but you are on vacation and we were not disappointed.

 

The wedding co-ordinator - PATRICIA REID - She was amazing. I know that Monica attempted to sell me all these additional things before I went and then tries to get you worried by saying that they may not be available once you arrive. Ok girls trust me when I say that this is just a sales pitch..........What ever we wanted or didn't want Patricia made happen. She wasn't pushy or rude and completely understood our expectations. We made Spa appointments for ourselves and our wedding party without any issues. She was constantly there checking up on us and calling us just to make sure everything was up to par even after our wedding. She definitely went above any of my expectations and is very experienced. She assisted us to the best of her ability even without spending $6000 on a package.

 

CONCERIGE- Having booked a suite we were introduced to "ENOCK" . Regardless of what anyone states that tipping is not necessary, if you hook them up I know that they will take care of you. ENOCK ensured that as our room was the gathering room that when we requested additional bottles of rum, tequilla, ameretto etc, a case of budwiser, coke, water, 3 bttles of champagne on the day of the weddin that it happened. Whenever he saw us around the resort he was calling to see if there was anything we needed. He definitely took well care of us.

 

LOOT BAGS- were a hit. Everyone used the beach bags and the double insulated cups with straws people were coming up to our group asking everyone where they got them from. Our group could definitely be identified by our cups. I would also recommend bringing your own snacks down. As everyone congregated in our room I ensured that our room was fully stocked. Including, nuts, trial mix, sour candies, chips etc. Beaches does offer snacks for sale in rooms but I wasn't about to pay $8 for a small bag of peanuts.

 

BEACHES PHOTOGRAPHY- Not worth the expense or the aggrevation. My sister-inlaw took pics with our camera and they turned out better then the Beaches Photographer. We did receive the complimentary 5 x 7 but not without much hassle and speaking with Particia after they lost our photos.

 

TAXIS on ISLAND- very expensive, we spent $150 for 9 people to travel to the church for the rehearsal that was only approximately 3 miles away. In the end we rented some jeeps for our groups and toured the Island ourselves - well worth the $144 US per Jeep for 24hours from HERTZ rental.

 

GOLF- my husband and the guys went golfing. Defintely look into rates after 1pm they are cheaper. The guys had an amazing time and said the course was great.

 

CEREMONY - We were married in Our Lady of Divine Providence Church on the island

 

RECPETION DETAILS -Initially I couldnt wrap my mind around paying the extra for a cocktail reception or for that matter the full reception like you had stated at an all-inclusive resort. Basically what you are paying for is the convience of having a location all to yourselves and the bar and servers set up at your location.

In the end we ended up going with the BB package(most elegant & simple) it was perfect especially with the location of our 1 hr cocktail reception that we decided on. We had 23 guests + 3 kids and then ourselves. We paid the additional $25 per/person for the 1 hr cocktail reception and it was definitely well worth it. It was a private location- boardwalk overlooking the Ocean with 1 table decorated and then they set up additional cruiser tables for other guests to mingle. There is quite an extensiive selection of hot & cold Hors d'heures plus cheeses, fruits and dips. They also supplied a set up bar & bartender for that hour. We did our speeches at this location & cut the cake too.

I then made a request to Patricia to see if it was possible to make a reservation at a restaurant that we had loved. This is not something they typically do but she completely came through. They had all of our tables set up together and we paid nothing extra. She escorted us to this location once our reception was complete.

I know that they list all these additional costs and quite honestly it is ultimately your own decision but coming from someone who was concerned about every little detail right down to the particulars of the loot bags for my guests, everything turned out perfect. The setting alone is enough without all the extras. And girls dont hesitate to ask your wedding co-ordinator for things once your down there.

 

Hope this helps girls, I could have gone on and on......BEACHES was everything we had hoped for and more.......You won't be disappointed, the expense was def. worth it.

Good Luck

Jordana

[TimsWife2B]

Thanks for the review... I have been very frustrated with the whole pre-planning sessions with Monica.  I am super annoyed with the flower situation, she sent me a MS flower collection book, but claims she doesn't have the pricing for all the flower bouquets in it.  Most of the bouquets I have asked for the price for were $450 -$550, which seems utterly ridiculous considering you can't even take them with you, press or preserve even one of the flowers & bring it back home.  But yet, I really don't want silk flowers, nor do I want to try and carry silk down trying to keep them from getting crushed.  SIGH.... I have not found Monica to be accomodating at all. 

 

I would have loved to have the "seaside serenade" theme, but I just think it's ridiculously expensive at $3500 + $500 for each additional table + reception cost....just crazy, and you really get nothing for that cost.  So we have decided on the beautiful beginnings package.  We are having our wedding at noon on Sunday July 3, so we are doing a buffet lunch $40/pp.  I question whether it's really worth it...considering it is an all inclusive resort. 

 

We just found out (as we just sent out our invitations) that the hotel is sold out for the weekend of our wedding, and now we have people who we never expected would want to come the the wedding, wanting to come to the wedding and found out that they will cost us another $200/pp just to come to the wedding (since they will have to stay at another resort) not to mention the $40/pp for the buffet lunch.  Oh why oh why did we not elope!?

 

We are planning on having the steel pan player for the wedding on the beach, and I was wondering how private the beach location will be?  I would think they would have made an area away from the regular portion of the beach, but I don't really know....anyone?  We decided on a having the calypso band for 1 hour of the reception, unsure of the location, but the boardwalk sounds nice.

 

I keep hearing that all thise stuff has to be booked 60 days prior to the wedding so is that not true?  And it all has to be paid 60 days prior too?

 

 

 

[barefootidos]

Thanks for the review... So glad you had a fabulous time and everything worked out for you and your guests. It's great to know that not everything has to be booked in advance and that the wedding coordinator is accommodating. Thanks for sharing your info and congrats!

[ceproto]

Well we are back and everything was wonderful.  I have some video and pics and wanted to share with everyone.  Like LIZDEE said PATRICIA REID IS THE BEST hands down!

 

I will post something as soon as I can.  For now here are some pics and vids

 

 

Our wedding ceremony   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7kSmpcJl3E

    The surprise Fire Dancer   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p20yOpXXQe0     Charity Being Funny at night club   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj2cyr7gWuY   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAEcyKKGq0k   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynA4tD9g7Rk     Pictures https://picasaweb.google.com/Michael.Cannella/WeddingPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfumsqq4LzJDg&feat=directlink  

 

 

[ceproto]

First, let me start by saying it was truly the best Wedding/Honeymoon that we experienced from beginning to end.  I would love to share with you guys our opinoins on everything

    1.  Travel-  We live in Raleigh so we flew from Raleigh to Charlotte, NC then on to Turks.  The plane ride was nice and quick and everything went smooth.  We had several guests coming from NYC and they took American out of JFK as it was direct and there flight was smooth also. If you don't have a TA would highly recommend it.  You can do this on your own for sure but Leslie's knowledge of the place was worth everything in GOLD!  I will glad PM you here Info if you need it   2.  Arrival-  We arrived on the island and everything was very organized, customs cans sometime be a pain but it went well as there were only 2 planes that landed.  If 4 planes land at the same time look out you can wait up to 1 hr to get to hotel.  Very small airport Our friends had butler service room so we hoped on there private car and went to resort. If you have regular or concierge service you will be driving in one of there air conditioned vans...no biggy there   3.  Check in-  This went extremely smooth, they had taken our luggage to our rooms we were located in the PARROT CAY Concierge Suite ROOM 614.  If you are in this village (section) I would recommend room 620.  It is the room directly above.  Both rooms have views of ocean but the upper one is a better view.  You will see pics of the room here https://picasaweb.google.com/Michael.Cannella/WeddingPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfumsqq4LzJDg&feat=directlink NOTE one thing.  All of our guest were in the Caribbean village and some rooms had ANTS,  after going to the front desk they were automatically upgraded to Italian village no question asked. Once you get there the Italian village is the best! 

  4.  Resort-  The resort is BIG!  It will take you a day or 2 to get acclimated to everything and where it is, so be patience and explorer.  As far as cleanliness We give it a 9/10.  It is very clean all the time and they do a good job keeping the grounds tidy.  Make sure you check out every village/lazy river/shops/wave/restaurants   5.  Food-  We thought overall the food was good but some of it was salty.  Our favorite restaurants are Sapdillo's and Le Petite Chateu and Kimono's.  I would highly recommend that you make reservations when you get there for these restaurants, unless you have butler service.  The week we were there they were extremely busy, so things were hectic. The brick oven PIZZA is out of this world and if you want a late night snack Bobby Dee's is a great dinner  There are plenty of restaurants and plenty of food to enjoy so take your time.  Kimono's, which is hibachi was awesome!   6.  Wedding-  We had Patricia Reid and if you don't have here for your WC then request her!!  It is a MUST, and if asked tell here Charity and Mike told you to do it  She really goes out of her way to make sure everything is special on your day!  She worked with us on everything and was wonderful.  On your wedding consulting day which was 2nd day we arrived get ready to spend some time going over everything and I mean everything.  We had our rehearsal dinner on the French Village Pavlovian, which was very private.  Our ceremony was on beach which was awesome.  We had a 1 hour cocktail hour and reception was on adult jacuzzi.  We also decided to do the calypso band for 2 hours which worked our really well and they were good.  One of our guest, that had the butler we really go to know him and he is one of the fire dancer and decided to do it for us for FREE!    Like Lizdee said they will take tips at the end, especially when they do something like that! We ended up doing our own table arrangements.  Take a look at the photos all those tables arrangement cost us about 75 buck for everything.  We ended up bringing some on carry on and some in suite cases.  Flowers there are ridiculously priced!  I got one rose and it costs me 28 dollars  We ended up going with beautiful beginnings and did some minor upgrades.  Do not be nervous about anything Patricia, if you have here will make sure everything goes smooth.   7.  Photography-  As you will read they are lack in this department, but there is one photog that works for them called PATRICK!  He is very good and he took about 400 photos (professional) for us and you will see some of the prof. photos on the link but he was recommended by our TA.  So if you bought a package which we did, BTW they will run promo's throughout the year make sure you take advantage of them we got a steal for photo's)   8.  Island-  The beach and surroundings are gorgeous, one thing we were told we have to do but didn't have time was go to CONCH SHACK, it is an island must so were were told.     9.  Check out-  Check out is by 11 am. They have a departure section which has showers/AC/sitting.  Most flights leave in afternoon so the most you are waiting is 2 hours or so.      All and all everything turned out so well!  We were so happy with everything. If anyone has any questions please just shoot me email and be happy to answer them     -- 
Michael Cannella
919.339.3029

[TimsWife2B]

Cannella,

 

Thanks for sharing, I just checked out the videos, but I cannot seem to access the pictures...it asks for a user name & passoword.  I was considering using the beach location for my wedding, but I noticed that it didn't seem all that private, how did you feel about it?

[TimsWife2B]

I also wanted to ask, was the video taken by the resorts videographer?

[Lizzdee]

Cepreto,

 

Great reviews and video!! thanks sooo much! What package did you do? was the arch on the beach included in that or extra?? Did they charge you a fee to put your own centerpieces on the tables?? We are dying to see the pictures, but you need a user name/password!! Congrats and thanks in advance for all the info!

[ceproto]

Sorry here is new link

https://picasaweb.google.com/Michael.Cannella/WeddingPhotos?feat=directlink

 

TimsWife2B,

 

It depends on how busy the resort is but the location is all the way down end so it is somewhat isolated.

[ceproto]

Lizzdee,

 

We ended up going with beautiful beginnins we couldn't see spending more money.  They charged us a $200 dollar fee to do the center peices.  There was no other way around that one unfortunetly...  Try this link   https://picasaweb.google.com/Michael.Cannella/WeddingPhotos?feat=directlink