Newbie Planning A June 2016 Wedding In Jamaica

[Diana2501]

HI everyone and am I so glad to have found you all :-)

 

I am planning my wedding at the Hyatt in Montego Bay after visiting quite a few resorts in June to make a decision.  Decided on the Hyatt but now researching florists and photographers because the onsite one is expensive for what you get.  I have to pay a vendor fee so hopefully it will still work out cheaper to bring someone in to film and decorate the venue.  If I had a photographer in my wedding party that would have been ideal.

 

I look forward to reading the other posts and to receive any advice, recommendations with the planning process and if anyone knows or can recommend any of these, I would be grateful.

 

Sorry if this is a repeat request, but I will stat to read through the posts incase someone has already posted these recently.

 

Happy planning everyone and congratulations xx

 

Diana

 

[beckys98]

Hi Diana! Congratulations! I got married in Montego Bay last month and it was the best experience of our lives!

 

If you search you can definitely find an abundance of information on here. But most brides in Jamaica use Floral Fantasies or Jan's for their florals - we used Floral Fantasies for our reception centerpieces and they were gorgeous. Tai Floral was the preferred vendor at my resort, which provided my bouquet as part of the package, but when I tried contacting them for quotes for the centerpieces I never heard back past the original acknowledgement that they got the email. My resort did not charge a vendor fee for the florist if they just drop the flowers off, which was the case. If they would have come on property to set up than there would have been a vendor fee.

 

As for Photographers, again, there are MANY options! We used Stacey Clarke and many brides have issues with her responsiveness (or lack of) and the turnaround time to get your photos (4 months) but her style photos matched what we wanted. SunGold and WPAJ are very popular as well as Misha Earle. Many photographers will cover the resort vendor fee (Stacey did) so definitely inquire about that.

 

If you're hiring a DJ - DJ Kevan seems to be the unanimous pick! We had his associate DJ Dutch (Sheldon) and he was really great to work with.

 

Happy planning!

 

HI everyone and am I so glad to have found you all :-)

 

I am planning my wedding at the Hyatt in Montego Bay after visiting quite a few resorts in June to make a decision.  Decided on the Hyatt but now researching florists and photographers because the onsite one is expensive for what you get.  I have to pay a vendor fee so hopefully it will still work out cheaper to bring someone in to film and decorate the venue.  If I had a photographer in my wedding party that would have been ideal.

 

I look forward to reading the other posts and to receive any advice, recommendations with the planning process and if anyone knows or can recommend any of these, I would be grateful.

 

Sorry if this is a repeat request, but I will stat to read through the posts incase someone has already posted these recently.

 

Happy planning everyone and congratulations xx

 

Diana

 

[acw271011]

@@Diana2501 Welcome to the site and congrats on your upcoming wedding! Jamaica is a beautiful place to get married and there are a lot of Jamaica brides here, both past and present! I'm also a Jamaica bride and we fell in love with the country and the people, and hopefully will get the chance sometime to go back!

 

@@beckys98 gave you some good suggestions! We used Tai Flora for our flowers and while they were slow to respond, I was very happy with what we ordered. There are definitely some expensive photographers and we did find that a lot of them were out of our budget. In the end we picked Merrick Cousley and were very happy with him. He responded very quickly and we got our photos inside of about 6 weeks. You could definitely do a search up top under vendor reviews and see what other past brides have said about their experiences, then I would highly recommend looking through websites and contacting the photographers directly for their pricing. Some will help with the resort vendor fee, but not all. Four years ago we didn't have to pay one so it wasn't an issue for us. The last I heard the resort we were at (Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica) now charges a vendor fee of $800 so some of them can get quite expensive.

 

Definitely read through the forums and reviews here. You'll find the ladies are very willing to provide tips and suggestions. Good luck and happy planning!

[Diana2501]

Thanks to both of you for your detailed responses.

 

Yes I am looking round the site for reviews for florists and photographers in Jamaica.  The site seems full of really useful information, but thanks for the information @becky98 gave me.  I found Tai Florists pricey and although they are saying they charge $500 vendor fee, hopefully if they just drop off without setting up then that will be a great help!

 

Thanks again for your replies.

 

Will keep you posted how I get on. 

 

xx

[Lisa35]

We are also getting married in Jamaica next year. Our hotel uses Tai Flora and they do not allow an outside vendor for floral and décor, so I am stuck with them. I haven't had great response from them. I am trying to bring as much with me as I can in order to keep some costs lower. Their prices are outrageous.

 

As for photographer - We are in Canada and with the crappy dollar and the amount of time we want for pictures, it was actually cheaper to hire a local photographer and pay for their trip - so that's what we are doing.

 

Happy planning!

[Sandraco8]

Welcome and congrats! I did a lot of research in the Montego Bay market earlier this year

 

Although I loved Mischa Earle's portfolio and responsiveness we went with SunGold. The packages seemed fair, the online portfolio fit our style and the owner Paula always responds to me right away and is very pleasant. Their online reviews are also very positive so that gave me piece of mind.

 

The Hilton's preferred vendors for flowers are Tai Flora and Grande. I called and emailed both for 6 weeks with no response. I heard about Jan's on this forum and they have been a pleasure to work with. Their prices are great too! The Hilton has a $500 vendor fee but Jan's itemized prices are so fair it is still less expensive to pay the vendor fee. If you PM me your email address I would be happy to send you Jan's catalogue which includes prices.

 

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Edited July 13, 2015 by Sandraco8

[MysticalGandy]

Hello I would have loved a wedding in Jamaica, we are from the UK and have 4 young kids though so it wouldn't have been practical

 

Hope you have a fantastic time, I've always wanted to go.

[2ndTimeMrs]

Congratulations on your engagement! I am also a Jamaica 2016 bride-to-be. Even though our resort wedding package includes a photographer I booked Misha Earle. The resort only provides a photographer for 1 hour which is definitely not enough time to cover a wedding plus when I stayed at this resort last year I had the resort photographer take some photos of my FI and I and their work was very amateur at best. Since the resort photographer is included in my package I'm planning on using him during the 1 hour cocktail hour to take portraits of each of the couples in attendance and then include each couple's photo in the thank you notes we'll send out after the wedding.

 

Misha was a little more pricey than some of the other Jamaican photographers I contacted but my FI and I instantly connected with her portfolio and her response time so far to inquiries has been phenomenal!. She is even covering my resort's outside vendor fee. 

[acw271011]

@@MysticalGandy My family are in Ilkeston too, as well as Cossall and Kirkallum. One of my favourite places in the world!

 

I'm sorry you ladies have had issues with Tai Flora. It's unfortunate. We used the Ocho Rios location. I don't know if that makes a difference or not but I had no problems with them when we dealt with them. The resort we got married at has a thread here and it was almost an even split between Jan's and Tai Flora back then. It just seemed to depend on what you were looking for.

[Moments That Matter]

Welcome to our forum community Diana2501 and Congrats on your 2016 destination wedding in Jamaica!!!

 

You've come to the right place for lots of resources to help with your planning decisions - so well done We wish you happy research, and all the best with your amazing journey going forward - cheers!!! team MTM