Tell Me About Your DW: A few questions

stokesm21

My SIL is planning a DW and I guess I'm the one doing a lot of research for her.  She's not really the type and is having a hard time so since this is something I want to do for the rest of my life (event management) I'm helping her out.  For those of you that have had DW, if you could answer a few things for me that would be great.  She is looking to get married in the Bahamas, Costa Rica or Jamaica so those are of particular interest to me but I would love to hear all!   

Where was your DW?  (Resort & Country)

Was it all inclusive?
 
How long was your stay?

How much did your guests pay per person?

How many people went? 

Best part/experience of your DW? (at the resort) 

Worst part/experience? (at the resort) 

Availability of options? (Ex: Location for ceremony, reception, package options, food, decorations, flowers, cake etc.) 

Approximate price? (For your package, vacation and flight.  Please include where you are from if you can as flights would range greatly depending on location. US or CA is fine)  

amorg334

Where was your DW?  (Resort & Country)  Sandals Mintego Bay Jamaica

Was it all inclusive? Yes 
 
How long was your stay? we are staying 6 nights 7 days

How much did your guests pay per person? It depended on how long they wanted to stay and if the resort had any deals going on.  My aunt is a travel agent so she was arranging most of the costs.

How many people went? So far we probably have at least 20 people going.  But the number can always change

Best part/experience of your DW? (at the resort)   We haven't been yet

Worst part/experience? (at the resort)  N/A

Availability of options? (Ex: Location for ceremony, reception, package options, food, decorations, flowers, cake etc.)   Sandals Montego Bay has so many options even from just looking at the website.  we are doing the basic package which is free when you book 6 nights.  and when we get to the resort thats when we make the final chocies 

Approximate price? (For your package, vacation and flight.  Please include where you are from if you can as flights would range greatly depending on location. US or CA is fine)  We are paying 2650.00 for our stay at the resort because we arent in the basic room.  Then our flight will probably be 800-900 depending.  Then we have to pay for rings, his suit, etc.  

Lissa1213

Where was your DW? Bottom Bay Beach Barbados, we are renting a private Villa on the beach

Was it all inclusive? No, but if we had of went with a hotel's wedding package we could have opted for an all inclusive trip

 How long was your stay?  We will be there for 12 days

How much did your guests pay per person?  I don't really know, it will just be my parents and maybe my sister.  We are paying for the Villa and asking them to cover their plane tickets.

How many people went? See above

Best part/experience of your DW? Since it hasn't yet happened the part that I'm looking forward to the most is relaxing with it all instead of running around wondering if everything has been taken care of

Availability of options? So far our options have been limitless as to our cake and colors, decor and you name it.  Our wedding coordinator has been more than willing to make our requests happen

Approximate price? Plane tickets- $800-1200 each, we haven't decided if we are going coach or first yet from Louisville, KY to Barbados.  Villa is $4000.00 for the stay.  Cermony is $1500.00 which includes a mini reception at the Villa afterwards. So all together looking at $6700.00

rach2686

Where was your DW?  Sheraton Suites in Key West, FL

Was it all inclusive? No

How long was your stay? we stayed 4 days( we went elsewhere for our honeymoon), most of our guests stayed a week 

How much did your guests pay per person? this depended on how many people were in a room, and where they ate. the rooms we blocked were either 269 per night for a 2 queen suite or 249 for a king suite.  

How many people went? 19

Best part/experience of your DW? (at the resort) the resort was gorgeous, the rooms were beautiful and the staff was so attentive 

Worst part/experience? (at the resort) didn't have music for the ceremony (that was just bad communication on the part of someone that no longer works there)

Availability of options? (Ex: Location for ceremony, reception, package options, food, decorations, flowers, cake etc.)  since we had our reception at the sheraton they set up or ceremony on the beach across the street and it was included. you could go to another beach if you wanted to though. you can find anything you want in key west.

Approximate price? Our ceremony/reception cost $45 per person. This included ceremony set up, delicious buffet dinner, linens, and centerpieces. It was more cost effective for us to host the bar instead of pay for each person to have open bar. The guests drank whatever they wanted, we just paid the tab at the end it was $241. Our flights from detriot were $636 for both of us, and our suite was 800ish with fees.

I thought the best part about having the wedding in Key West was that the guests had so many options. I had a room block, but they could stay wherever they wanted, which meant they could really choose how much they spent. There are so many food options that you could spend as much or little as you want. And unlike an all-inclusive they didn't need a day pass to come to the wedding if they weren't staying at the resort. Plus I could use any bakery, florist, photographer, and dj that I wanted. It was also SUPER easy to get legally married!

saric83

Where was your DW?  Beach Palace in Cancun, Mexico

Was it all inclusive? Yes

How long was your stay? 8 days/7 nights 

How much did your guests pay per person? Eh....don't remember for sure because people all flew in from different parts of the country and stayed anywhere from 3-10 days, but for flights and hotel, it probably ranged from $1000-$4000.

How many people went? 40

Best part/experience of your DW? The best part was the ceremony location!  We could have been married on the beach, but we wanted something more private without people staring or speedo-man getting in the background. : ) So our ceremony was on the rooftop of the resort with all glass walls and amazing views of the beach and ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other. It was GORGEOUS and perfect.

Worst part/experience? The worst part was when we had an issue with the company the resort used to steam my dress. It ended up fine in the end, but it was a pretty stressful bit of time when we thought my dress might be ruined.

Availability of options? (Ex: Location for ceremony, reception, package options, food, decorations, flowers, cake etc.) 

- There were two or three locations for ceremony and six reception locations, depending on the size of the group. 

- The packages have changed since our wedding, so I can't speak to the new ones, but I loved our options and the one we went with. 

- The food was awesome with seven buffet options to choose from. 

- There were ceremony decorations that were a part of the packages, if you went with one.   Otherwise, there was an outside vendor company that had tons of rental options for ceremony and reception, which we used to rent some lounge furniture and tiki torches, and they were fantastic. 

- I just got my bridal bouquet and some ceremony decorative flowers as a part of our package, and then I bought parasols for the bridesmaids.  But my flowers and the ones at the ceremony were absolutely beautiful, and they were super accomodating to help me choose one that I liked. 

- The cake was like the flowers were they had some design and flavor options to choose from. 


Approximate price? (For your package, vacation and flight. Please include where you are from if you can as flights would range greatly depending on location. US or CA is fine) 

We had a lot of add-ons to our package (sound system for reception, lounge furniture rental, fireworks, webcam, mariachi band, etc.), so I'm not sure of those breakdowns, but the total cost for absolutely everything wedding-related for us (my dress, alterations, shoes, accessories, hair, make-up, jewelry, his suit, shoes, wedding party gifts, save-the-dates, invites, out-of-town bags, gifts for parents, welcome cocktail hour, everything for the ceremony & reception, luggage tags for all of the guests, photography, videography, etc. was about $12K.  I think our flights (from MN) and hotel were probably $3500 of that for seven nights in an ocean suite.

stokesm21

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-theme-boards_destination-weddings_tell-me-about-your-dw-a-few-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Theme%20BoardsForum:54Discussion:b1ef7d76-1a39-4780-ad21-fbd56e7e585bPost:ff0572bd-7879-48f2-a9c7-7ba16320405f">Re: Tell Me About Your DW: A few questions</a>:
[QUOTE]The best part was the ceremony location!  We could have been married on the beach, but we wanted something more private without people staring or speedo-man getting in the background. : ) So our ceremony was on the rooftop of the resort with all glass walls and amazing views of the beach and ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other. It was GORGEOUS and perfect! [/QUOTE]
 This is what she is looking for, a DW but without the beach/gazebo wedding.  It is proving to be a little bit difficult! 

saric83

I would really suggest contacting a travel agent, who can help narrow down resort locations to those with a private ceremony location.  We used Beach Bum Vacations (Marcie), and it was incredibly helpful to just get the list down to be able to start figuring out what exactly we did and didn't want within a certain price range.