Secrets 2:00 Wedding April '15 Questions

[EricaNick2015]

Hi everyone! Finance and I are getting married at Secrets St. James April 14th, 2015!  We've never been to Jamaica but from what we've read and seen, we are really looking forward to it.

 

Since we decided to get married here, we have been planning a 4:00pm wedding (11:00am, 2:00pm, and 4:00pm times available daily).  However, after we finally got our week planned, booked, and reserved, there were no 4:00pm timeslots available the week we are going .

 

So, looks like we have to choose 2:00pm.  We are planning to do cocktail hour, dinner/reception but wondering how it will all play out being so early in the day?

 

Has anyone else had a destination wedding that took place in afternoon? Did you have early dinner then go back to rooms? Go to night club?

 

We are a bit disappointed but looking for some reassurance that we can make it work and have just as great of a time as 4:00 pm wedding!

[acw271011]

I got married in Jamaica at 1:00 pm, and the same thing happened to me when it came to booking my time. Long story short, I was disappointed too, but it was go or no go, and no go wasn't an option after all our plans fell apart. We were just the two of us though so we were pretty wide open since we didn't have anyone else's schedule to worry about.

 

The ceremony is pretty short. They had champagne waiting for us right after plus there were some pics done in front of the gazebo where we had our ceremony. Then we did a first dance right there since music was all set up. We had a videographer too and we wanted to catch the dance bit on video so we went ahead and did it. Again, wasn't my first choice but you have to just roll with things sometimes. We did some pics around the resort afterwards, then we had a spot picked out at a park about 20 mins from the resort that we went to for most of our pics. By the time we got back to the resort we did a couple of sunset photos, then right in to dinner at 6. Our photographer had dinner with us and we just took our time with it. We left about 8. We went back to our room to freshen up, then back down to the lobby piano bar and just hung out there.

 

Since you have guests it will probably be easier for you to get through until dinner. Between pics and your cocktail time you should be able to knock off a good part of the time.  It's not ideal, but talk to your photographer about the timing and see wha they suggest.

 

Good luck!

[kcole123]

HI,

I had to go with a 2:00 ceremony too and really wanted the 4:00 time. So I had to chose 2:00 and quick because I didn't want that to be booked as well. We are getting married in Punta Cana though.

 

Here is what I figured out

Ceremony at 2:00

Cocktail hour from 3:00 - 4:00 (I may end up changing this to go from 2:30 - 4:00)

Dinner on La Barcaza wedding boat from 5:00 - 8:00

Then after that I am letting everyone know we can go to the Fun Pub which is located on the resort. Just to dance, hang out, have some drinks etc..

 

I think the timing could work even though I wanted it later. But what I have could work too. You can slot in your times like that and have everything spanning out so that you don't have many gaps in between and people would still be on the go late at night. It will work don't worry. I stressed about that at first too but I said well this could work too.

 

Make it happen girl and you will be happy with it in the end. Everyone will be happy, fed, and in celebration mode regardless.

[tygrrlily]

I have a 2pm time slot too in December. I'm still trying to change it to 3:30-4, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. The sun sets for us around 5:15, so it's not terrible, but would still like to move it

 

We're just going to have a break in the middle. We figured everyone would be at the Resort anyway, so people could chill out, pool, beach, change, etc. I put that info down on our website, so people will know upfront, and I'll include it in our pre-wedding mailer

 

We're going to do pictures in between, and have our cocktail hour at 5 and then reception start at 6.

 

We're okay with this, but only down side is I had to book our photographer and videographer for longer

Edited July 4, 2014 by tygrrlily

[cora4600]

@@EricaNick2015 I'm n the same boat as you, as we are getting married at 2pm at Secrets St. James!! I as well was planning on the 4pm wedding, but they only had the 2pm time slot open. I still haven't figured out what the time line will be and more then anything I'm worried about the heat since the wedding/cocktail hour/reception will all be outside. 

 

I tried asking for a break as well, but they said no. I'm trying to get them to push it back to at least 3pm, and then we'll just pay to extend the reception another hour after that. We have about 80 people coming so, moving to one of the bars isn't really an option for us. 

 

The keep recommending that we move the reception to one of the ballrooms, but I'm not traveling clear across the country to have my wedding reception inside. If I wanted that we would have stayed here in Portland. 

 

I'm curious to see if anyone else on here made the 2pm wedding work outside.