2014 Iberostar Rose Hall Suites Brides

[DebzGrayMcConney]

Hi Brides to be!

 

Date: November, 15, 2014

Time: 5:00pm

Hotel: Iberostar Rose Hall Suites

Ceremony Location: Beach

Cocktail Hour: The one that is included

Reception Type:

Reception Location: Looking like Aunt Ruby's but waiting until about June/July to see where it would be

Reception Time: 7-10:30pm

Music: DJ

Photographer: Brian Nejedly

Videographer: Haven't decided.  Have to see if it fits our budget.

Travel Coordinator: David at Destination Weddings.com

Guest Amount: Inviting 140, doubt we'll have that much.

[DebzGrayMcConney]

@@CGervaisToBe @@KatMcV I am booked for November 15, 2014 at the Suites! I'm sure we will run into each other! How is the wedding planning going?  I'm trying not to drive myself mad here but i feel like its approaching with every waking day!

[KimiH]

Date: November 15, 2014

Time: Not too sure

Hotel: Iberostar Rose Hall Suites

Ceremony Location: I'm still deciding!

Cocktail Hour: TBD

Reception Type: Maybe semi-private, depending on size of group

Reception Location: Aunt Ruby's maybe

Reception Time: 7-10:30pm

Music: Steel Pan drums for cocktail or reception, undecided

Photographer: Bringing my own (family friend)

Videographer: Bringing my own

Travel Coordinator: Sunshine Tour and Travel

Guest Amount: Most likely only 20!

 

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FRIGGING EXCITEDDD! But i am having big issues contacting a wedding planner at the resort. Does anyone have a contact ?

[Meagan327]

Hello...

I'm in the process of booking November 2014... Has anyone done the wire transfer for the booking fee? I was nervous about sending a picture of my credit card and license, but I'm having issues with wiring money to Jamaica. Has anyone sent the pics of credit card and license to them to book the date. Not sure if I should worry about it or not.

Thanks Meagan

[sfox4214]

I emailed a picture of my credit card and license and no issues !! I would make sure you ask for a confirmation and receipt when they receive it. The only time I wired money to Jamaica was for my makeup artist and moneygram stopped my transfer and made me call them to confirm that I really wanted to send it to someone I did not know.

[FutureMrsNamysl]

Hi everyone. I can't believe my wedding is this month! I've booked it a year ago and before I knew it, it's a few weeks away! 

 

Date: April 30, 2014
Time: 4:30pm
Hotel: Iberostar Rose Hall Suites
Ceremony Location: Beach
Cocktail Hour: On the beach at ceremony site. 
Reception Type: Dinner at Aunt Ruby's
Reception Location: Bonfire on beach after dinner. 
Reception Time: Dinner 6:30-8:30, bonfire 8:30-10:30
Music: Steel Pan drums for ceremony and DJ for bonfire
Photographer: Dean Clarke
Videographer: None
Guest Amount: 52 guests confirmed! 

 

So far planning is going smoothly and the resort wedding staff are great.

The only downfall is Tai Flora - resort associated decorations and floral company. I feel that the email responses are written very rudely. I am just over 3 weeks away and I have no idea what is going on with my decor and flowers as should be organized by Tai Flora. 

[wugambi812]

Hi everyone! We were married at the Suites on January 18th, 2014. We truly had our dream wedding and highly recommend the Rose Hall Suites to anyone that would ask us. I handled the majority of the correspondence with the resort before we arrived because my wife (still weird saying that) tends to stress a bit and I read online about slow response times. We didn't really experience this on our end. Loretto responded within 24-48 hours to all of our emails. Once we were two months out we began corresponding directly with Simone and Nicole. They responded to all messages within 48 hours and addressed each question/concern with bullet point answers. As we approached the week of our wedding the I grew concerned because there were issues we hadn't ironed out. However when we arrived for our meeting with the wedding coordinator she had all my emails printed and noted, and was up to speed with the last minute changes we had. We arrived at the resort a day before most of our guest to get acclimated to the grounds and to deal with wedding meetings etc before people arrived so that we could spend as much time as possible with our friends and family. We chose to get married on the Saturday of a holiday weekend so that most of our guest wouldn't have to take much vacation time to have a 4 day island trip in the middle of the winter.

 

95 guests

 

Thursday- Welcome party on the beach with 2 hours of bonfire and national bar and mento band. There was a bit of a hiccup in the beginning as our bonfire was scheduled to run from 8-10PM. We walked outside at 7:45 and although we saw the wood and tables set-up for the bonfire there was no bar and the place was empty. Our guest started showing up and once we located Simone we were told that due to rain (we were eating dinner and didn't notice) they were moving our bonfire into the music bar, and would refund us the difference. We were initially very upset as our guest were standing around with no drinks etc.. It took them 30-45 minutes to get the outside bar set-up again and the fire started. Because of this they extended our bonfire to 10:45. We were a bit ticked that the call was made to move the reception without telling us but they stated that they couldn't locate us but had put signage in front of the music bar announcing the switch. This again ticked me off because guest around 8PM were coming from dinner and were not walking past the lobby to get to the beach. It turned out to be a blast once things got going and we got some excellent pictures and moments from the event.

 

Friday- Nicole ran a quick afternoon rehearsal. We had our rehearsal dinner in the Mare Nostrum Mediterranean restaurant. Because we had 45 people at the rehearsal dinner we were asked to select a set menu. We picked Steak and Lobster and it was delicious. 

 

Saturday- Wedding day: My wife and I chose to take our bridal party and family pictures before the ceremony. This worked out great as we were able to enjoy some of the cocktail hour after the wedding along with our guest. Our photographer and videographers arrived at 3:15 as we finished getting ready to begin shooting. After being completely sunny all morning and afternoon it started to rain as we moved outside to take pictures. We took pictures at the bottom of the lobby staircase with our bridal party and families. As the wedding start time approached they began to quickly set-up the bottom of the lobby area as a back-up plan. I know rain is good luck on a wedding day so I wasn't too worried, but it was a tense scene as we tracked the weather. Finally, about 10 minutes before the wedding the rain let up, we informed the coordinators we would still proceed outside and things got going.

 

 

Ceremony was at 5:15 on the beach- weather was cool, but a bit humid after the early evening rainstorm. We had a legal ceremony with the officiant provided by the resort. We didn't meet with him before but he was great! Funny, personable and really kind. We did however write our own vows instead of using the ones he provides. We had no special readings or anything so the ceremony moved fairly quickly like we wanted.

 

6-7: Cocktail hour with open bar and Steel Pans Band on the beach. This was great! The band was awesome, everyone enjoyed the appetizers and champagne/wine/beer. It was also beautiful outside at this point so it was nice to walk around, take pictures with friends/family on the beach and still be involved in the cocktail celebrations. 

 

 

7-11: Private Reception at Aunt Ruby's- My wife worked with the florist (Floral Fantasies) to arrange lanterns, candles, flowers and they did a tremendous job. Everything was beautiful and the room looked great. We used Elite Media Concepts for videography, DJ services, and uplighting. The resort, florist, and Elite worked to make the space look absolutely spectacular. The Elite DJ was great at leading the reception along and getting us through dinner and into dancing. We also paid to have a fire dancer perform before dancing got started. It was something different and out of the ordinary that our guest truly loved and took a ton of pictures of. We paid extra to extend our reception until 11 PM as the staff transportation leaves at 11 and an additional van had to be called. We had International Bar for our reception and everyone danced the night away. There was a huge rainstorm that hit during the reception. There were new doors installed at Rubys and because of this we ended up with water leaking through the dance floor. The staff did everything they could to clean it up but our guest were dancing and having a good time in spite of the water mishap. 

 

Hair A -I didn't use the salon but the girls all looked tremendous. They were a bit unorganized and that threw off the girls. They had reservations/appointments but didn't mark down who was getting what services. The girls had to repeatedly inform the salon manager of their appointments but again, they all looked great.

 

Make-up A -The girls had their make-up done by the on site salon as well. The salon did a tremendous job with the makeup of the girls. The makeup held in the rain and humidity.

 

Photographer A -We used Michael Saab Photography for our wedding pictures. We went with their associates as we wanted to utilize those additional funds in other ways. Chris and Chantel were absolutely a delight to work with and really did a great job with our pictures. They work with Elite Media Concepts a lot so they never stepped on each other's toes and allowed each to get whatever shots they needed.

 

Videographer/DJ's no grade yet - Elite Media Concepts were great to work with. We haven't gotten our video back yet but we selected them because of how beautiful the sample videos were on their site. The staff was great to work with and realy helped to keep the mood light during the day.

 

Flowers A -We used Floral Fantasies for our flowers. My wife wanted lanterns, candles, and mason jars along with natural table runners and orange flowers. I think that they did an amazing job of making the room look specifically how we imagined. They also provided all the flowers for the huppa as well as the bouquets for my wife and the bridesmaids.

 

Check-in A: 11 of us arrived on the first day and were greeted with welcome drinks. All our rooms were ready and we were quickly told about the property, restaurants, the pool hours etc... The bell hop brought our clothes up to the room within 30 minutes. In the meantime we were provided with a fresh fruit plate in the room, along with a stocked mini fridge and a bottle of Appleton Rum.

 

The Resort A: Everyone in our group really enjoyed the resort. A few of us attended the spin classes held in the gym. The night club was a great perk for a group of our size and age. It offered a late night party option for our younger guest during their stay without making them leave the property. Everyone enjoyed the music bar and pool areas as well. 

 

Room – A+: We were booked in an Oceanview room but on our first night we were called by the front desk manager. They upgraded us to the Presidential Suite which was absolutely amazing. 3 balconies, a separate living area, an outdoor jacuzzi. The room was absolutely amazing. It made a great headquarters for the girls to get ready in before the wedding.

 

Food & Restaurants – A: There are about 50 people on our trip who are now obsessed with Banana Juice!. The food was great. The selection of fresh and local fruits, juices etc was amazing. I really enjoyed that the buffets provided traditional Jamaican cuisine as well as standard North American or European dishes. We were able to dine at all the restaurants at the suites plus the Japanese place at the beach hotel and we didn't have a bad meal anytime. 

 

Entertainment – B-: The staff was great, funny, and really out there trying to get everyone to have a good time. The shows were a bit cheesy at times, but the music bar, pool games, dance club routines etc.. were great.

 

I'm attaching a few pictures here as well. Feel free to ask any questions if I didn't cover everything. Good luck to you all and don't stress, they do an amazing job.

 

Our highlight video is here and it definitely captures some of the stuff mentioned in my review.  

[TammyWright]

Don't forget!

 

Iberostar Wedding Webinar is this Saturday, May 10 @ 9:00am PST.

[kmbowm]

Hi All!

 

I am finally back into the swing of planning....took a few months off when I was super busy at work.  Now that I am about 5 months away  I need to get back on track!

 

Here is my current wedding weekend time line and some questions (figured i'd ask here before i go back and annoy the resort wedding planner again!)

 

Friday, November 7th

• Bachelor/Bachelorette party at the resort.  Planning on going to the spa in the late afternoon with my 5 bridesmaids followed by dinner at the Hibachi restaurant.  Do they have nightly entertainment at the resorts? if so, we will probably go to that then to the club.  I think that the guys will all just meet us at dinner....I didnt want to seperate the couples that were coming since this is our vacation.  On our Wedding Weekend Itinerary i plan on listing this activity as 'optional'

Saturday, November 8th

• Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (tentative) pending what the beach party includes....plus I dont want to over schedule things.
• Beach Party - I will ask the resort wedding planner to section off an area of the hotel's beach party for our guests.  Again, this will be listed as 'optional'. Does anyone know what time the Beach Party that the resort throws on Saturday nights starts? Also, what does it include? Dinner? Entertainment? etc.

Sunday, November 9th (Wedding Day)

• Hired Rashel Edwards for hair/makeup for myself and bridesmaids.  Currently I asked here to be onsite by 10:30 am.  Not sure if this is too much time or not enough. Does anyone know if I can let my mom use the hair service that I get with my wedding package?
• 4:30 pm - ceremony (with steel drum band) - again, not sure if this is the best time.  I plan on emailing my photographer (Misha Early) to find out when the best time would be for photos etc.
• 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm (steel drum band to continue) - Cocktail party - again timing pending what the photographer says. I am not sure where I want the cocktail hour to be - has anyone thought about this? Since i plan on having the wedding and reception on the beach should I keep the cocktail hour on the beach also or change it up?
• 6:30 pm - 11? - Reception (not sure if the hotel lets it go until 11) Right now my plan is to have a reception on the beach with a rented tent, dance floor and lighting.  I have received the pricing from the resort and although it is more than I had originally wanted to spend it is really my dream to have the reception under the stars with the ocean!

Monday, November 10th

• Trash the Dress photo session at Rose Hall (Aqueducts etc)

 

If anyone has any answers to some of these questions I'd love your help!

[AYC]

Hi All, I am a newbie and wish I heard about this site earlier.  I will be getting married at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in November.  I will post more details later.