Review on Our Lucaya Wedding April 2011 ---- Its was Fabulous!!!!!

[ladebug577]

 

Hello everyone!!!

 

I just got back from my wedding at the Raddisson Our Lucaya Resort and I can't thank them enough for everything they did to make my day so perfect.  I have been worrying about my wedding day for over year and it intensified when the hotel was going through some changes.  However my wedding planner Kevin Clarke made all my wishes come true!

 

Here is my review:

The hotel itself:

Only the Raddisson is open.  They have decided to temporarily close the Reef due to low volumes.  The hotel is listed as 4 stars.  It’s really 3 star rooms with 4 star accommodations.  The rooms are clean and have great beds.  I believe they still have the Westin's heavenly beds.   But compared to a lot of hotels rooms these are just average rooms.  The views of the ocean rooms are very pretty  and completely worth the extra cost. The rooms were always stocked and cleaned.  The doors need some maintenance but if you pull on them they will close and lock completely.  Overall the rooms are very comfortable but nothing spectacular.

 

The grounds for this hotel are really beautiful! The common areas are kept well maintained as well.  There is free WiFi in these areas.   The pools are wonderful, plentiful, and very clean. ( 4 for the resort with plenty of beach chairs and towels for the guests to use! )  The hot tub is large enough to fit 15 people and it is a great temperature!   The beach is very clean and the water is a gorgeous shade of blue with plenty of room for strolling or laying out. 

 

There are numerous places to get married as this resort.  All equally as beautiful.  The main wedding gazebo is where I got married.  There are two other smaller but very pretty gazebos as well as numerous places on the lawn and on the beach to get married.  No matter what you choose the setting for your wedding will be amazing.    

 

 Vendors

 

 Florist

 I used a woman named Volice who was wonderful!  She put up with my inconsistencies the whole year I worked with her.  She made things look very simple but oh so pretty.  She listened and did just what I wanted her to do.  I loved working with her and now I can say you can trust her completely she will make your wedding look beautiful.

  

Cake:  Used Cindy at Take the Cake.  She was very easy to work with and very accommodating.  My husband and I have very different tastes in deserts and she was able to let us do every layer in a different flavor to suit our tastes.   Our cake was so appropriate for the wedding.  It was white layers with perfectly colored star fish and seashells.   OH and it tasted GREAT.  Oh on a side note...have someone designated in your party to cut the cake after you do the initial cut.  If you don’t the hotel will charge you 3 dollars a slice.   That’s was a little ridiculous by my standards.

 

 DJ:  Used DJ Duffy!   He was so sweet!  He just wanted to have everything run so smoothly and he played such great dance music.  He even gave us a copy of all the songs that he played that night.  Which was such a nice touch.

 

 

Food:   We had our food for the reception catered by the hotel.  This food was so good.  It was very pretty to look at and very good to eat.  We served salads, med well filet mignon and grilled salmon all of which came with steamed asparagus and dill mash potatoes.  A high class meal that was very enjoyable to eat.  

 

Reception:   This hotel has so many areas to hold a reception of 10 people to 200 people.  We had a rather small group on 40 people and I had a hard time choosing rooms due to loving the room but it seeming too big for 40 people.  This is when Kevin came up with the suggestion to hold it in the lobby of lighthouse point.  This place was a great space with a built in bar and wonderful columns that set the room into sections.  We had white draping added to the ceiling and with the hard wood columns the place look regal.   It was the perfect location for such a small group. But as I said they have plenty of rooms and outdoor space to choice from. 

 

Spa:  The spa was nothing to look at but it was clean.  The workers there are top notch.  They kind of run on island time so give yourself time to wait a bit but their work is worth the wait.   My hairdresser Sandra knew just how to style my hair and just how to put enough curl in it that it would last 2 hours until the ceremony.    And it lasted most of the night too even with me dancing around like foul!  The lady that did my nails also did a great job and I am back 3 weeks from my wedding and the toe nails still look great!  So even though the spa doesn’t look like much they do good work for a price.

 

Music.  The hotel provided steel drums players for the ceremony and reception. They were awesome.

 

Wedding Planners

Yes planners.  The first one you start with to get a contract written up is Faye.  She is very very slow!  Be patient with her and things will get better.    The first actually wedding planner was very sweet she but she wasn’t as efficient as I would haved liked but it’s the Bahamas.  She let me have as little or as much control over the process as I wanted.. And of course with my type A personality I wanted as much control as possible.  She unfortunately no longer works at the hotel so Kevin Clarke stepped in as her replacement and I really think that was a wonderful thing. He is quick to respond and he will let you do anything you want to do regarding your wedding.  He is on top of things and very present while you were in the Bahamas.  I met with him all 5 days I was there including 5x on my wedding day.   He even upgraded us to a suite when we got there which we did have to turn down but he tried.  He is an excellent planner and will execute your day in just the way you want it.

 

Overall this is a fantastic place to have a wedding.  They will take care of you and make your day as special of a day as you deserve.    The staff at Our Lucaya gave me my dream wedding!  Don’t hesitate to book your wedding at Our Lucaya. 

[ladebug577]

I wanted to mention that the Marketplace is literally right accross the street and it has wonderful places to eat.  We had our rehersal dinner at Zorbas. Great food and a good price for the islands.   They accomindated a group on 40 while giving us the back room and having more staff at hand to get our food out quickly. 

Also for an excursion use Pat and Dianes snorkling trip. They are fantastic.  We went on their 5 hour snorkeling deserted island tour and wow is all I have to say. They feed us an amazing grilled up lunch and they always had free booze a flowing.   Dont hesistate to use this company for your excursion needs they do snorkeling trips and booze cruises as well as a dinner cruises!  They are top notch!

[JenArge]

I have to add that I had my wedding on May 21st after Lauren....You will not be disappointed in Our Lucaya! I will write more later but we couldn't have had a more beautiful and fun weekend!

 

 

[KCABERTE]

hi ladybug,

 

Sounds like your wedding was fabulous. I was just wondering if you can tell me an estimate of how much your wedding was? I am planning mine for 2012 in June and I'm still looking around at different places. I was thinking of having it in paradise island at the RUI. but it's still up in the air. Thank you

[GatorGirl1]

Hey! Your review on Our Lucaya was very helpful. We are planing a wedding there for next summer and having some of the same delays with Faye. We are reserved the lighthouse point beach for the ceremony and the pavilion for the reception. I'm totally stressing about food and what vendors to use without being able to visit them- I was wondering if you had any photos online of your ceremony or reception?

Thanks again,

Chelsea

[wood]

Yes, please post more pictures. My fiance and I have considered the Riu as well.

Also, for you 40 guests, did you have activities planned for them outside of the wedding day?

finally, how much did it all cost??

Thanks so much!

[GatorGirl1]

I was considering having activities planned for outside the wedding, but asked around and it seemed like for a lot of people- this was going to be their family vacation for the year. And also there was a generation gap and not everyone had the same interests.. so instead we included lists of popular activities with contact information and recommendations in their welcome bag and on the wedding website and let people do their own thing- whether that was with us, with others, or on their own