Danielle's (DaniScales2B) Planning Thread - Iberostar Grand Rose Hall (Montego Bay, Jamaica) **PIC HEAVY**

[DaniScales2b]

Best Destination Weddings has been such an awesome resource for my wedding planning this past year.  I felt it only appropriate to make sure that I shared any and all information from my wedding with this wedding community.  Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope this information helps! 

 

 

 

The Proposal

 

 

Robert has always done an exceptional job of planning and celebrating Valentine's Day with me. I knew that this year would be no different. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary at first was that he changed our reservations from February 14th to the February 11th. He explained that he wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day over the weekend instead of during the week and asked that I pack a bag for our Saturday night getaway. Not thinking that this sudden change of plans was odd (blonde moment!) I went with the flow and prepared for the evening ahead. We had reservations for Oceannaire in downtown Baltimore where we shared a nice dinner then headed to our hotel at the waterfront nearby. We walked into the hotel and I began to head to the front desk to check in. Robert steered me away saying that he had taken care of that already. I was impressed with his attention to detail and followed him to our room. When we arrived at the door, he opened it and moved out of the way so I could enter. I looked down to see a path of red rose petals leading down the hall to the bedroom. There were floor to ceiling windows that overlooked Federal Hill and downtown Baltimore. The base of the windows were adorned with even more rose petals. I was overwhelmed! It was absolutely beautiful and I STILL didn't suspect a thing! I walked into the bedroom and saw more floor to ceiling windows and rose petals scattered across the bed. I turned around to say thank you and let him know how amazing this all was and he was down on one knee with my hand in his. He told me that he wanted to share the rest of his life with me. In shock, I kept asking, "Are you serious?!?!" My answer was of course YES! With lots of tears and hugs, we shared a bottle of our favorite wine and chocolate covered strawberries and talked for hours about our future together.  He also gets extra points because he wasn't aware that you could purchase rose petals by the bag so he hand plucked each one.  Love this man!!!  I'm still in awe over this man that I can now call my husband and blessed and honored to share the rest of my life with him.

 

 

 

Color Inspiration

 

My wedding colors were coral and tiffany blue.  Here is my inspiration.  You are also welcome to look at my pinterest board as well for my wedding ideas at: www.pinterest.com/daniellel81/wedding-ideas

 

 

 

 

Wedding Location

 

We did a site visit to the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica in April 2012 and fell in love.  We had the opportunity to meet our wonderful wedding coordinator, Janille, who gave us a tour of the resort and pointed out locations where we would be able to hold our ceremony.  We instantly fell in love with her and the dome location (pictured below).  We wanted something private and this provided the perfect location for us.  Everyone was so hospitable to us and it was a no-brainer as to why we chose this location for our wedding.  Janille also made sure the floors in the dome were freshly stained prior to our wedding.  The entire staff went above and beyond to ensure that our day was absolutely perfect from beginning to end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Invitations

 

 

I used a vendor recommended by a former bride (proti007) on this site for my wedding invitations.  My colors were coral and tiffany blue so I opted for the blue to be the primary color in the invitation.  The proof of what it looked like is below and the vendor that I used was Paper Stories (www.paperstories.com).  Correspondence with Kelly was excellent and I highly recommend using them for your invitations.

 

 

  

 

Wedding Brochure and Luggage Tags

 

I used the attached template for the brochure that I sent out to my guests about one month prior to the wedding date.  I also sent two luggage tags per couple in the package and it was very well received and everyone found it very informative.  I purchased the luggage tags from Michaels and purchased DIY business cards to print the name and address of the resort.  I also included an extra line on the card for the guests to print their names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OOT Bags

 

I loved my OOT Bags and while they were a ton of work, I was so happy with how they turned out and the response they received from the guests.  They were truly a labor of love.  Here is a list of items that were included as well as links to where I purchased the items from.  I went to Staples and purchased the AVERY Printable Bag Toppers with Bags and printed them on my printer at home.  So easy and everything fit perfectly!  I made my own folders and labels using scrap book paper I purchased at Michaels and AVERY labels I purchased at Staples.  I did have to cut the labels down to size, but everything turned out perfectly.  I've attached the template for those at the bottom of this section.

 

Wedding Weekend Survival Kit

​First Aid Kit (www.ebay.com) user: chumley63

Motrin (www.ebay.com) - user: firstaidsuppliesdiscount

Pepto Bismol (www.ebay.com) - user: firstaidsuppliesdiscount

Orbitz Gum - CVS Pharmacy ($0.69 cents per pack)

Tums - CVS Pharmacy ($2.99/3pack)

 

Fun in the Sun Kit

Sun block - Dollar Tree

Ben's Bug Repellent Wipes (www.ebay.com) - user: skipper_blue_sea

Hand Sanitizer - Bath and Body Works

Mini Tide to Go Pens (www.ebay.com) - user: jobrids

 

Tote Bags - Liberty Bags (http://www.jiffyshirts.com/libertybags-7002.html) 

 

I turned my mother's house into my DIY central!  I made packets for "Tears of Joy" for during the ceremony, raffia fans I purchased from www.orientaltrading.com with ribbon wrapped around the handle, folders for the welcome bags, along with a host of other projects below.  I also opted for the sand dollar escort card.  I don't have pictures of those, but have a picture below of my inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the template information for the First Aid Kits:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wedding Facebook went over very well!  It gave everyone the opportunity to check everyone out and learn each others names and what they looked like prior to the Meet and Greet.  I used a brochure template in Word and used a paper slicer to cut them all down to size.  Then I purchased some rings from Staples and punched a hole in the "book" to bind it together.  

 

 

Everyone also found this very helpful.  I also used the brochure template for this as well, printed them out and used my paper slicer to cut these out. Here is the template:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

This insert was just a welcome that I used Vistaprint.com to print out for our guests.

 

 

This helped guests to keep track of all activities that took place throughout the week.  

 

 

 

The doorknob hang wasn't used by most, but I thought it was adorable and had this printed via Vistaprint.com as well.

 

 

Share Your Pictures insert was a nice touch so we can keep track of all of the photos.  Facebook, obviously, is an option that most people have chosen to use.

 

 

These were a big hit!  The ladies and guys used these and I purchased both the plastic name badges and lanyards on ebay.com.

 

 

Reception Location

 

We held our reception at the Port Maria Restaurant at the Iberostar Grand.  It was covered, but open air and allowed for the evening breeze to blow through. 

 

 

 

 I also ordered sand dollars for the escort cards and purchased purse hangers and money clips for the wedding favors.  I purchased both favors for the ladies and gentlemen on ebay.com.  I used tiffany blue ribbon for the escort cards and placed each favor in a tiffany blue box tied with a white ribbon.

 

 

 

 Escort card

 

 

  Wedding Favor - Ladies

Purse Hang - These were used the night of the wedding at the reception which was really nice to see!

 

 

 

 Wedding Favor - Mens

This was pretty useful for the guys while on the resort because it was able to hold their tip money.

 

 

Groom/Groomsmen Attire

 

My husband found the suits at Macy's.  They are Tasso Elba and we were able to get them at a great price of $139.99 for both jacket and pants.  Here is a picture of what the suit looked like.  It's not on the website anymore, but you should be able to find it in the stores.  My husband added the vest to complete his look.  I purchased the coral stripped tie from www.weddingtonway.com.  The groomsmen LOVED them.  HUGE HIT.  My husband opted for a bow tie he purchased himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now the guys!

 

Bridesmaids Dresses

 

I fell in love with these dresses from the moment I saw them.  They are from Watters and I purchased them in coral.  I don't have the pictures back yet of my girls, but here is what the dress looks like.

 

 

 

 

Wedding Dress

 

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Kleinfeld's in NY to purchase my wedding dress.  It was the fourth one I tried on and I fell in love instantly.  It was a Lazaro that was a silk charmeuse with a ton of intricate beading in the overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here is the back of the dress

 

 

 

 Here is the front of the gown.

Wedding Brochure.docx

First Aid Labels.doc

Wedding Day Timeline.docx

[DaniScales2b]

Rehearsal Dinner

 

 We held our rehearsal dinner at the Surf and Turf restaurant at the resort and released lanterns with a note to send up a special prayer/wish to the bride and groom.  Here is a pic of my husband and I releasing the lantern.  Each of our guests got to release them as well.  We used biodegradable lanterns I purchased on www.justartifacts.com.

 

 

 

 

[DaniScales2b]

Peter-Gaye and her assistant did the makeup for myself and my two bridesmaids.  They were so easy to work with and correspondence with them was really easy.  I used PayPal for payment and sent her pictures of ideas for my hair and makeup prior to the wedding.  She was very responsive and so sweet.  If you would like to use her, she can be reached at [email protected].  Here are a few shots of her work:

 

 

 

[carajoe08]

Great planning thread! Congrats!

[DaniScales2b]

Here is a picture of the wedding brochure.  I finally figured out how to do a screenshot picture on this site.  The word doc link for this is above:

 

 

 

[ChelseaCat802]

Great job Danielle! So creative. Congratulations to you and your husband! Did you order your brochures or did you print them yourselves? Do you have a template that you used for the Facebook? What a great idea!!

[DaniScales2b]

Thank you Cara!

 

Thank you also Chelsea!  I printed my own brochure using brochure paper I purchased from Staples.  It was pretty easy to do and didn't use up as much ink as I thought it would. You're welcome to use the word document template that I included for yourself and change the wording to make it personalized for you.  

 

The wedding "Facebook" went over so well!  I used a postcard template I downloaded on Avery.com's website.  Here is the template I used.  You can add more pages and format it the way you liked.  I used the font from my wedding invitations.  Let me know if you have difficulty opening it.

 

 

 

Wedding Facebook (shared).docx

[DaniScales2b]

Rose Petals

 

I used freeze dried rose petals that I purchased from www.NYPetals.com.  I couldn't see spending a ton of money for fresh rose petals that would be thrown away and these were great quality and are actually REAL petals that turned out to be beautiful.  They have a great selection of colors and the price was very reasonable.  I purchased three bags.

 

 

 

Photography

 

We used a friend of mine for our photography.  He was awesome and was able to offer a personalized touch which we loved.  Here is one of our favorite shots:

 

 

[StephLB]

Beautiful! Congratulations

[pzl101]

I love the coral striped ties! The guys look great. Congrats