Iberostar Rose Hall Beach Brides 2013

[jsamaras1]

Hey girls!! I figured since there is an Iberostar Rose Hall Suites thread, I would start another thread just for the Beach brides   Post all info, questions, comments, etc here!!

[Laura2013]

Great idea! I am a March 2013 Beach Bride. Planning is currently in full swing. Right now we ae in the process of booking our stay. Haven't got much else figured out, a lot is going depend on the number of guests we have. So hopefully in a few months, I will know a lot more and be less stressed!

[albellis]

Thanks for starting this thread! I am getting married at the IRHB April 27, 2013. Our Save the Dates went out earlier this year, and I am working on the formal invitations which will be sent in August. My FI and I booked our trip earlier this month. I have a pretty good idea of everything that I need to do and have tried to space it out over the next several months to avoid too much stress. We are having a fairly casual wedding & reception, so I haven't had to ask the WC a lot of questions, however the couple of times I have reached out I actually got a pretty quick response (within a day or two). I know they are busy working on weddings that are taking place now, so I am just keeping a list of questions or requests, and will work with the WC to finalize next year as my date gets closer.

[jsamaras1]

I am getting married August 25, 2013, so I have a bit more time than you guys have! What are you guys doing for the reception? I have no idea what to do. My fiance and I are going down to Jamaica the 1st week of September, so hopefully we'll be able to figure everything out once we see it.
 

[Ploman]

I'm on January 20, 2013. Glad to see this thread!

 

I haven't planned the reception or ceremony yet. After 6 months of dealing with tour companies, travel agents, guests, etc., we have just not finalized the bookings for all of our guests. We are at 91 people. If any more people book (and they might since it's still 5.5 months away), then they will likely have to leave the day before the rest of the group. Since we have so many people booked on the same flight, the price to go on January 18th has skyrocketed (meaning that my fiance and I have had to pay nearly $5000 out of our own pocket to keep the price the same for guests). If guests leave on the 17th then the price is much lower. 

 

I have bought chair sashes, some minor decorations, and some gifts for our guests. 

 

My next big task is to figure out the order of things. I know we want a steel drum band at one point, but not sure when. 

 

I'd like an open bar for guests after the ceremony  but WOW is it expensive for 91 people!!!

[albellis]

Originally Posted by jsamaras1 

 

I am getting married August 25, 2013, so I have a bit more time than you guys have! What are you guys doing for the reception? I have no idea what to do. My fiance and I are going down to Jamaica the 1st week of September, so hopefully we'll be able to figure everything out once we see it.

 

We are having our reception at Uncle Tony's. We have a smaller group, probably 20-25 people. As I previously mentioned, we are keeping things casual, so we are fine with a semi-private dinner, we won't have the typical speeches or dances, and aren't doing anything extra for music during the dinner (although I'm not sure that we could unless we rented out the restaurant).

 

We are planning for the ceremony on the beach at 5:00pm, followed by a cocktail hour on the beach around 5:45pm, then dinner will be at Uncle Tony's at 7:00pm. Right now I am planning to have a DJ at the cocktail hour, but if we have some extra money I may upgrade that to the steel pans band.

 

That's great that you are able to go down there ahead of time to see the location and plan from there. It just isn't in our budget to make the additional trip. But I've heard so many great things about the resort and I have had good experiences at other Iberostar Resorts, so I believe everything will work out great

[Ploman]

I've heard that the sun goes down early in Jamaica.. do you think it will be sunset at 5 when you are getting married? 

 

I would like yo do a cocktail hour, but I think that I read in my contract that it cost so much per person, per hour, for a minimum of 3 hours... Do you know if that is true?

[jsamaras1]

Yeah, we're looking to have a more formal reception, so I'm still trying to figure all of that out. I know we want to have a 5 pm or 5:30 pm ceremony, followed by the cocktail hour. Then we will have our reception. We're probably going to have around 60-70 people. jreist - you guys are having a lot of people!!
 

[albellis]

I haven't seen anything that said the cocktail hour was for a minimum of 3 hours, I just see it listed as a per hour price on the extra services sheet. I figured one hour would be enough time to keep our guests busy while we take some photos. When I emailed the WC about the location options, she was the one that suggested we do it on the beach since it will be immediately following the ceremony, and she knew we were having dinner at 7pm. I checked our contract, which does include a private cocktail section, but I didn't see anything there about a time requirement either.

 

As for the ceremony time, the hotel recommended a 5 or 5:30 time from March - September. That way it isn't too hot, and there is still some sunlight left to take pictures afterwards. I also found a website that will tell you sunrise & sunset times for any month in any location: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=120&month=4&year=2013&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1 This link uses April 2013, but you can change the month to March to see what time the sun is expected to set for your date.

 

Are either of you planning to do a Trash the Dress session? I'm on the fence about doing one the morning after the wedding or not.

[Ploman]

OK i re-read my contract and yea there is nothing about that in it.

 

I think I was looking at this: http://www.weddingsbyiberostar.com/iberostar_rose_hall_wedding_packages.htm

 

There is says that it is minimum of 3 hours for international bar at dinner, no minimum for cocktail hour.

 

Does anyone know if we can have the bon fire at the Beach resort, or only at the suites/grand?? And I think I read at one point that the bonfire came with a DJ and a bar... I assume those costs are extra? anyone know? 

 

I'm doing a trash-the-dress, but only because my photographer said she would do it for free as a wedding present. Otherwise I wouldn't have spent any extra money on it. I found a dress from a lady on here, for $50+shipping and it looks similar to my real dress, so I'm happy with that