Wanna Have a Destination Wedding? No problem mon! PTR - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Congrats on your Engagement Melissa. What a wonderful start. Can't wait to read all about the planning for your wedding (believe me my DH & I are with you on planning another wedding as we didn't have a traditional one in 2007 when we were married). More pelease!
What a great PTR/TR this will be!
My brother and his fiance are getting married in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic this year (December 3) - I can't wait to go to a wedding on a beach. They'll be having a reception once we're back - and after the holidays - for everyone not able to attend the 'real' wedding.
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Once we decided on Jamaica and what resort it would be at, we decided that a scouting trip was needed. I didn't care when radio ratings periods were, we were going to go for a weekend in June to see what the weather is like that time of year, so that we would be prepared. Is it really hot? Does it rain a lot? June is the beginning of hurricane season down there, will our trip be cancelled this year? It was an absolute necessity.
It came to be the Monday after Christmas. We had a long weekend coming up for New Years. We didn't have anything to do. Hey. Why don't we go scope out Jamaica for the weekend?
Okay. Let's go. I mean, we were eventually going to go anyway, right? And this will get us out of the winter blues.
New Year's Eve we packed ONE carry on suitcase, stopped in at a New Year's Party for a hot minute, and then got in Gary's car, and started to drive to JFK airport. We left around 11pm. We brought in the New Year with each other in the car around Herkimer/Albany area, and listened to a sweet mix that they were playing on the radio station that Gary works for. I don't remember sleeping the whole way down, but I do remember stopping to get coffee
It was a blizzard out. And this always tends to happen when we travel to New York in the winter. Like for our cruise in 2008. Blizzard the whole way down. And when it does that? It means we get to our destination later than expected and end up sleeping in the car or something.
This time? We got there between 4 and 5am. Our original plan was to sleep in the car for a while, but there wasn't time for that now. We gathered our things, went through security (which was still pretty terrible being it was so early! lots of people on new years day!), and then went to a nice restaurant in the JetBlue wing for breakfast. After that we slept in chairs near our gate for a while. Our flight was delayed (it seems they're on Jamaican time even if the flight originates in the US!) about an hour, but we were down there in the warmth and sunshine 4 hours later, and checked into our resort by 2pm.
The shuttle to our resort was a little strange. We weren't allowed to open windows. We drove by many many other resorts that were on the water, but we also drove by many sad looking houses. It really makes you appreciate what you have here. There was a big gate to get into our resort, which is connected to two more of their resorts. We entered the lobby with our one tiny carry-on bag and went up to the check-in desk. I had read on my destination weddings websites to mention that we were there to scope out the place to have our wedding there...
UPGRADE! We booked a basic junior suite and got an oceanFRONT suite instead! After we were checked in, we were handed mimosas, did a little *clink* and were shown to our room.
Absolutely stunning. Words can't describe. I have pictures but I'm quite sure the rooms will look the same next year and I will CERTAINLY be posting pictures next year!
We were there for three nights. We met up with the wedding coordinator a couple times, Kym. She was very helpful. We tried the Japanese restaurant the first night and figured out very quickly that the people that we were going to bring with us for the wedding, MUST be able to hold their liquor well!
Kym showed us all the options we had available to us for where to have the ceremony, dinner, and what kind of event we wanted to do for a reception. From that point forward, we decided that the next two nights we would try the other two restaurants that we would be interested in having our wedding dinner at, the Surf & Turf Restaurant, and the Italian Restaurant. Both were absolutely delicious. We decided that we would do one of them for the rehearsal dinner, and the other for the wedding dinner.
We spent a lot of time just hanging out, sleeping, walking the beach, drinking, talking, taking in the sights, watching TV, ordering room service, exploring the other two resorts that were connected to ours, and just plain relaxing.
It was a wonderful weekend, and we did plenty enough research to know exactly what our options were and had a picture of them in our head, or on our camera.
So we're not going to Jamaica this month, because we already went! If we were sticking to the original plan, we would be going this weekend, which wouldn't have worked out anyway in the end. And I can only imagine how my mind would have been racing the past 6 months about what the place was like!
Up Next: This is more work than I thought it would be... Why am I doing this again??
Glad you had time to scope outthe resort in Jamaica, even in the winter.
You must not have wanted to leave. At least it's less than a year now. I hope you enjoy all of the planning, as stressful
as it is. More please Melissa.
Sounds like you had a nice time in Jamaica! It definitely is a beautiful place, but like all islands in the caribbean, it has it's run down places as well. It definitely makes you appreciate what you have at home.
Sounds like you had a nice time in Jamaica! It definitely is a beautiful place, but like all islands in the caribbean, it has it's run down places as well. It definitely makes you appreciate what you have at home.
And I'm really appreciating that we decided to go in January instead of now because of what's going on down there. I'm not letting anything scare me off though. I keep telling myself (and everyone else) whatever is happening or happens down there this year, lessens the probability that it'll happen again next year.
For example, it's forecasted to thunderstorm at least once a day everyday this week. Well it won't next year cause it happened this year! *wishful thinking* I'm actually hoping for some small hurricane to blow through so that it "gets it out of it's system" and I'll tell myself "It happened in '10 so it won't happen in '11!" I know I'm being a little
And I'm really appreciating that we decided to go in January instead of now because of what's going on down there. I'm not letting anything scare me off though. I keep telling myself (and everyone else) whatever is happening or happens down there this year, lessens the probability that it'll happen again next year.
Yeah, I read about that. They did say that it was only in the Kingston area, so I'm not sure where that is in relation to where you will be. I've only been to Ochos Rios when we went with Royal Caribbean, and I think Kingston was on the other side of the island, but they did mention the huge drug trade that goes on around there. The driver told us that the drug cartels live in the big houses and the rest of the people live in the smaller ones. Not sure how true that was, but it's definitely going on over there.
It was nice getting engaged in 2009 and not having the wedding until 2011.
I thought that would mean that I would have more time to plan everything...
What it really meant? I had more time to procrastinate!!
I found out quickly that there wasn't much that I could actually do two years before our date, besides reserve our wedding date in Jamaica. I did that September 2009... and... that was it. It wasn't until April of 2010 that I booked the caterer for the shindig at home... and I still have yet to do anything else.
I'm finding out quickly that this home party is a lot to plan, and I seem to care less and less about it everyday. Whether it's because of how much work it is, or because of how much more money we will have to spend, I keep trying to think of ways to slim it down and make it simpler...
Gary and I went to dinner last Wednesday and were talking about the Sickenburger wedding. Originally I had talked to him about renting a stand-alone tent to cover half of the area, tables, chairs, etc. We re-evaluated this and decided that we would request to use the tent that Sickenburger already owns (and uses on rainy Thursday nights ) and they have small tables and chairs that we can use under said tent.
IF we do any linens, they'll be cheap-o table cloths from the dollar store, and the napkins, plates, and plastic silverware are being provided by the catering company. Cups will be plastic and the bar will have those, but I don't care. Simple is the name of the game.
I've thought about completely ditching the at home party, and just having some sort of bar night when we come back, but then I think of my grandparents... And that I want to share this moment with them... Even if it is the second time around technically
I figure, if I feed them at the least, they should be pretty happy.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
There was a big gate to get into our resort, which is connected to two more of their resorts. We entered the lobby with our one tiny carry-on bag and went up to the check-in desk. I had read on my destination weddings websites to mention that we were there to scope out the place to have our wedding there...
*Melissa
PassPorter Guide Author
) and they have small tables and chairs that we can use under said tent.
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