Any Half Moon Brides??

[sweetnlow]

Congratulations girls! We are getting married at Half Moon in June 2013.  I can't find any wedding reviews from Half Moon brides.  Can you girls let me know any suggestions/tips and please please please write a review and post some pics?  Any help you can give will be SO appreciated!

[mrsrrobinson]

Ladies - my wedding at Half Moon is in 19 DAYS! Holy crap....time truly does fly!

 

All major details are set, although we need to send our photo shot list to the photographer, pick readings/write vows for the ceremony, and finalize our bridal party gifts. (I ordered these cute "Team Bride" tank tops and some jewelry for the bridesmaids, but for the groomsmen we keep going back and forth.)

 

We arrive to the resort in 15 days and plan to assemble our welcome bags right away so that we can (hopefully) relax and enjoy all of our wedding weekend events. We're doing a welcome dinner at Sugar Mill, we have a private section at the Friday Beach BBQ with an open bar, Saturday is the wedding day, and we have a farewell brunch on Sunday.

 

The countdown is on!! Wedding in 19 days but we leave for JA in 15 days!! After a year of planning, it's finally here

 

 

[mrsrrobinson]

Hey! If you're looking for Half Moon wedding pics, Michael Saab has several blog posts on his site. Go to blog.saabwedding.com and type in "Half Moon" into the search. Have you visited?

[sweetnlow]

I have seen Michael Saab blogs and LOVE them!  I was just hoping one of you ladies could give a more personal account of your experience. My travel agent (Kim) called me today to say that Danielle gave me the best room price and wouldn't give Kim the same price.  Did any of you experience this? 

[mrsrrobinson]

Hmm I didn't work with a travel agent although it sounds like it's more common to do so. So I'm not sure about that one. I'm sure your room rate is going to be much better than mine since we are traveling during peak season!

 

I will try to find a way to post some pics from my scouting trip. Have you visited?

[sweetnlow]

We haven't visited.  We just fell totally in love with Half Moon and the unique Jamaican vibe.  Thanks for any pics you can post!

 

Can I ask; how far in advance did you send out formal invites?  Did you send out save the dates or create a website or anything?  Evidently to get the price Danielle quoted me we can not use a travel agent.  I want to make sure our guests have plenty of time to think over attending and  time to save up if they need to, but I also need to know how many we will have attending to make sure the wedding comes in on budget.  Help!

 

 

[mrsrrobinson]

We sent out save the dates in March 2011 for our March 2012 wedding. We wanted to give people enough time to make a decision and plan accordingly. For a lot of destination brides I've met, this is earlier than they've done it. I also sent out formal invitations during the 1st week in November with the RSVP deadline for December 10. Since our room block closed on January 10, we wanted to give people enough time to RSVP/make a decision to come, and then enough time to make their hotel reservation before the group rate was done. If I could go back, I probably would have pushed everything back by 1 month and mailed invites in Dec for an RSVP deadline of Jan. This way, people would have to commit to come to the wedding AND book their room all at the same time. What ended up happening was people RSVP'd yes (or no in some cases) and then changed their mind!

 

We made a wedding website back in March too, and included the link on the save the date. I loved weddingwindow.com...

 

Someone told me to expect a 50% drop off rate. We budgeted for 70-80 people and felt comfortable inviting 150. At one point we were nervous about getting more than 80 people since a lot of people were saying they wanted to come. But once they realized the expense, many of those people dropped off and ended up RSVPing "no". We ended up with exactly 76 people, so this 50% drop off rate was spot on.

[sweetnlow]

thanks so much!

[kbarchas]

Hi ladies!  We just put our deposit down for the Royal Pavilion in April 2013!!!  We had originally planned for MLK weekend, but the room rates were just too high (as is airfare in January) and we felt like it was too much to ask of our guests.  Rates drop in April, and the weather is still amazing, so it was a no-brainer.

We'll be visiting this April on the PYSD package.  I think it will be great for planning and the package seemed worth the extra money since it will be applied to our master account if we decide to commit to Half Moon.  I'm hoping I love the resort and venue as much as I think I will.

Danielle has been great to work with so far and I strongly recommend a la carte pricing to build your own package.  Also, putting an early deposit down now means not only securing the date and venue we have in mind, but securing current pricing (which have already gone up for food/ bar since I first started exploring this as an option).

We plan to have a welcome cocktail reception on Thursday, do the Manager's BBQ with a private section/ sunset bar as our rehearsal dinner on Friday, ceremony and reception on Saturday, and then some sort of breakfast/ farewell on Sunday.

We'll be using the Royal Villas for family, wedding party, and probably some groups of our friends.  I thought for Sunday it may be easiest just to host an open house in one of them with coffee/tea/juices, fruit and pastries.  That way people can come by at their leisure and we won't be shelling out for brunch at a set time when everyone is on different departure (and hangover) schedules!

I think we'll also just do drinks/ heavy apps for the welcome reception on Thursday.  Again, not sure how many people will have arrived at a given hour and if it's worth trying to do a sit down dinner.

I too think I will send out Save the Dates almost a year early.  It seems with destination weddings like these, the more time people have to plan, the better.

Plus, we have a lot of other friends who are planning to get married in 2013, and this is a nice way to "claim" the date

Mrs. Robinson, good luck on your upcoming wedding!  Let us know how everything goes!

 

 

 

[DanielleDunfee]

Thanks for the compliments Katie! 

Ladies - Katie was just able to book an April 2013 Wedding; however dates in April book the quickest for a few reasons - 1.) weather is still cold up North, but fabulous in Jamaica, 2.) this is the first time of year that our "summer" rates are offered.  What she said was so true about locking in lower rates now though as our Summer 2013 rates aren't yet published.