Destination Details

So now that I've started really planning this shindig called a wedding I wanted to share some details that we needed to consider before we could get the ball rolling.

One of the biggest considerations was the time of the year. The first question after we announced our engagement was when. The first thing that comes to mind when you mention the tropics, at least for me and my family, is hurricane season. Hurricane season runs from the beginning of June to the end of November. We are actually entering the height of the season right now.

photo courtesy of Hurricane Science

Throughout the season there is a fairly predictable pattern of where storms form and move. Adding to that is the heat, while I'm from Florida and have been to the Caribbean in August with no problem, our guests may not appreciate that so that eliminated all of the summer between these two factors. I HATE the fall and winter now because I HATE cold weather. While fall does have some beautiful days, I find it hard to enjoy them because I know they are coming to an end.

Photo from Sodahead.com

So obviously, we wanted to have a spring wedding. Done right? WRONG!

The spring in the Caribbean screams SPRING BREAK!

Photo from beachbelievers.com

The last thing I want around my wedding a bunch of drunk college kids. (Not that we're all going to be totally sober the entire weekend or anything, but that's different). Fortunately, after spring break season (after Easter-ish) it becomes the 'low season' for most of the resorts. Low season = cheaper prices. Our resort is almost half the price of the high season in the low season. We also wanted to avoid May because Ben's little sister is a senior in high school and needs to be home for AP tests, prom, and graduation. We were quickly running out of weekends!

Image from just allcalendar.org

I narrowed it down to the last 3 weeks of April. When we found our resorts the last 2 happened to fall in the low season so we picked April 21 and sent in our request. I received a prompt reply that it was booked as well as the following weekend but the previous weekend was open. Only hitch - Sunday April 15 was the beginning of low season. I was deadset on getting married on the weekend to minimize the time I was asking our family and friends to miss work to be with us so I went out on a limb and asked if we could secure low season pricing for our guests. After a few days of waiting (it felt like an eternity because I was busy showing off the resort to anyone who would listen), the manager agreed! YAY! We quickly sent them our deposit and had our wedding date of April 14, 2012. We were required by contract to have our guests stay for 3 nights so we will all be in Jamaica together April 13-16!

For most couples planning a wedding transportation includes limos, buses, etc to transport themselves from to and from the venues and maybe their guests if need be. We didn't have to worry about that but we were asking our guests to travel over 1500 miles to join us. I have the ladies of weddingbee to thank for explaining the process of getting flight discounts for their guests at their destination weddings. I quickly e-mailed the 3 major carriers that we fly when we visit family - American, United, and Delta - about securing a discount. Delta never e-mailed me back (SHAME!), United required everyone to purchase their tickets as a group, way ahead of time and NO cheaper than the searches I was turning up in Orbitz, but American happily supplied us with a code for our guests flying from ANY city to Jamaica. It's only 5% but its something. So far my parents are the only ones who have booked flights and didn't use it but hopefully someone will be able to take advantage of it.

We now also have several days to fill with our guests. We're not only planning our wedding and reception but events on Friday, Sunday, and Monday for them as well. Luckily, we're pretty much taking over this boutique resort so it will be easy for us to just relax together around the property. We're also working with our resort to plan an excursion off the property for Sunday. Even if it's just to the beach, where we can explore, it will be something to do that our guests don't have to think about. My goal is to give our guests as little to think about and plenty of things to do once they land in Jamaica.

The Perfect Venue (for us)

Tensing Pen

35 of our closest friends and family members will join us for an entire weekend on the property of Tensing Pen Resort in Negril, Jamaica. All of the cottages except for 2 will be our wedding guests. We are immensely happy with our choice and the staff has been nothing but helpful thus far.

I found the resort from a post on another blog. I can't wait to jump of the bridge like they all do!

Next items on to do list: finalize guest list, create wedding website, design & send invites, book photographer & videographer

We have a venue part I

We finally have a venue and wedding date set! YAY! 10 months after we got engaged and 10 months from when we will get married. Before I tell you about our venue I'll fill in the details about our venue hunt and the ones that weren't.

When we first got engaged it took us a while to decide where we wanted to get married. Our families live in 2 different states, we met in another, and live in a different one. The first places to be eliminated were where our families were. While the most convenient for everyone else, we didn't feel a strong connection to the midwest. We also quickly eliminated New York. NYC is VERY expensive to have a wedding in and our families would have to pay an arm and a leg to stay here.

At this point we were left with Florida, where we met. Neither one of us is fond of Miami so we knew we didn't want to get married there but our friend's family has a wonderful beach house on Captiva Island. I contacted them after a few months of being engaged. It was well over our estimated budget so it was quickly eliminated. I contacted resorts on the island after various google searches but wasn't that excited by any of them or their prices. Our search expanded to the keys and other barrier islands on the gulf but much of the same thing happened.

After a few months of fruitless searching in Florida, we expanded to more of the tropics, thank you again google and Caribbean Life and Style magazine (a genius Christmas present from my future mother in law -FMIL). Keeping track of all of these venues and their information was exhausting and difficult but a spreadsheet from google docs helped. After sifting through the dozen or so venues that sent me information back, I sat down with Ben to show him what we had. Together we decided on a couple of resorts to further contact for more information. This was based on price, location, amenities, etc. My coworker happened to travel to one of these resorts during this process as well. When she came back with glowing reviews we decided to contact this resort even more.

The venue that wasn't - Iberostar Rose Hall Beach. We were very excited to have found an all inclusive resort on the beach that has only one wedding a day. We were VERY close to booking with this resort after emailing for a couple of months when they stopped contacting me one or two emails shy of us sending in a contract. After 2 weeks of NO contact, a different person contacted me with the excuse that their email system was down. I asked her our follow up questions and waited a week for 1 of the 3 answers I needed. At the same time the group reservations desk wasn't getting back to me as well. Needless to say we feel we dodged a bullet on this one.

Up next moving on and finding a dream...