April 2013, Sandals Grande Riviera Ocho Rios, Jamaica

[Marymack]

Sounds like a good plan! I had thought to do that as well,but didnt want to leave my guest hanging...

Thanks, MaryMac. We moved our ceremony to earlier in the day and contracted with a local photographer who will meet us and then go off campus for photos. I'm hoping to get some good ones!

[valaug]

Hi justchrissy - sorry to be late in replying. We went through a travel agent, and she sent out a packet to all of our guests directly. Our guests just called her up to book their own rooms and airfare. No pressure, no worries for us - totally easy!

[sgquick]

Hi! Wondering if you wouldn't mind sending me the wedding extras pricing you received. My email is [email protected]. I'd really appreciate it! Getting married Nov 2013:)

Hi Chrissy, I received the wedding extras document from Sandals and they do offer a 3 hour reception for $75 per person. A seated dinner, open bar, and some other things are included. Let me know if you would like me to e-mail the document. I am considering Sandals also but I am trying to get more info in the photography issue.

[tonyaml0619]

We are getting married at the Grande Riviera on April 13th! Have you ironed out your reception details yet? I think it is so expensive to have the formal reception, but they really discourage making a reservation at one of the restaurants. I don't think I'd want to be there in our formal attire with all the other guests anyway. We wanted to use the reception money to do a charter boat for our group on 12, but they don't have any small party boats... only huge ones that cost thousands to rent.

[tonyaml0619]

We are getting married at the Grande Riviera on April 13th! Have you ironed out your reception details yet? I think it is so expensive to have the formal reception, but they really discourage making a reservation at one of the restaurants. I don't think I'd want to be there in our formal attire with all the other guests anyway. We wanted to use the reception money to do a charter boat for our group on 12, but they don't have any small party boats... only huge ones that cost thousands to rent.

[Katie McLean]

Phew,

 

Since my last post I can officially say I feel ready for our wedding! I had a couple of good conversations with Deidra and we got everything ironed out and paid for. I can't believe that we're less than two months away...where does time go? 

 

We decided to go with the 3 hour reception because we realize that with 35 guests it meant alot to us to be able to spend some private time with them to celebrate. I switched up the flowers a little bit and chose to get a regular held bouquet and we order star fish boutonnieres for the guys. We're still decided on what we'll serve for meals...I don't love that everyone has to have the same meals except those who have allergies...but we'll make it work for sure. We're working on getting our playlists together now...we're renting the speaker system etc so we're just going to load up different playlist for the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, dancing etc.

 

We've also started ordering some really fun things....tote bags, t-shirts and koozies for all of our guests, we've really had fun designing this stuff...luckily our crew has a great sense of humor  

 

4/12 cannot come soon enough

[sherrie23]

Hey ladies, just making sure you all are aware that Sandals changed their photographer policy & now offer you a few choices of *real professionals* that are not Sandals employees. They didn't notify me about this, it just came up in the last month. None are local to OR & they don't have pricing online, but at least now there are professional options. My local photographer is a wedding photographer & they aren't willing to work with him still. I didn't want to lose my deposit & his photos are amazing so I'm hoping for one or two good ones from the ceremony and then we're meeting him for offsite pictures. We will be there from 4/20 thru 5/1, wedding on 4/22. Would be cool to connect with other brides while there.

[MRSPWILSON]

Good to know!

[emilyj]

Hi Sandals Brides, I know some of you recently had your weddings!!! Congrats and I hope all went well. I would love to hear any reviews and advice. Good luck to all of the soon to be brides!!

[Katie McLean]

We leave in 3 days and we get married in 7, i'll be happy to give a review when we get back