Well Ladies...here it is!
Would Do- Most definitely WOULD do a destination wedding, no if's and's or but's about it. WOULD choose Sandals Negril in Jamaica, WOULD get married legally on site. WOULD go with the flow on my wedding day (ie: didn't stress about the rain). WOULD get my hair and make-up done on site, also did my mani/pedi since I was there for a week before the wedding day. WOULD have the wedding event towards the end of the weddingmoon. It was great getting to know the staff all week, it really felt like home (as they say when you check in, "Welcome Home") and lots of the staff hung around to watch the ceremony and to take a group picture with us! WOULD pay to have the dinner buffet with the open bar and DJ. It felt more private and the food was delicious! WOULD have the fire pit (complete with marshmellows and banana bread) and the steel drum band for that part of the night. The rain stopped by then so we were just having a great time on the beach and a few people, including my MOH, even jumped into the ocean (fully clothed) b/c the water was sooo warm, lol! WOULD have the ceremony at 5pm b/c everything we did (the ceremony, reception and fire pit) ended to coincide with the start of the party at the Piano Bar (for my fellow Sandals Negril brides, the Piano Bar is the place to party from 10:30pm to about 1 or 2am every night! You can sing along with the piano player who plays for about an hour from 9:30 to 10:30 or so before the DJ rocks the house).
WOULD take small bills (I made sure to do so), tip the driver that takes you to/from the airport, tip any cab driver's (if you want, keep in mind, they have no shame in asking. I took a taxi about 3 times and I didn't tip when I was alone, but I think DH did), if you do any excursions you can tip the tour guide/person that drives you to and from the excursion. They do NOT ask for tips at Sandals ("no tipping policy") BUT I saw some tipping going on, so you can do so if you feel that you are receiving above and beyond service. WOULD take advantage of the free couples massage, it was incredible! Bear in mind you have to pay the service fee, which wasn't much (12.5% of the value of the service).
WOULD pack my alka seltzer, advil, aleve, preparation H, tide stain remover pen because they ALL came into use at some point during the trip! Don't forget the aloe vera to relieve your skin after a long day in the sun!
WOULD walk off the resort where we found a gift shop not too far off and the prices were cheaper than the one at Sandals. Plus, if you like lobster, you HAVE to stop at that first place (can't remember the name). It was DELICIOUS and I am NOT a seafood person. They take the lobster you want based on how much you want to spend from the trap in the ocean and cook it fresh for you. We ate it there and it was served with a side of veggies and some delicious bread!
ETA: WOULD go to the local night club "The Jungle"...Thursday night is ladies night so ladies are free, guys are $10. We got there around 10:30pm and left around 1am. The club is not DH's scene, so I went with my family and some friends that had finally arrived for the wedding. In all, it was 12 of us and we all fit in one taxi, $10 each round trip. I even met up with two Sandals staff there, Leroy who works at the Island Routes tour desk who took his girlfriend to celebrate her bday, Shaneeka. She was SO nice! and Willie who is a playmaker at Sandals also showed up. We had a blast! Willie even hitched a ride with me back to Sandals (the playmakers live on site!) It's just cool to say, "Yes, I went to the local club in Jamaica" haha!
Wouldn't Do- WOULDN'T leave the resort the very next day after the wedding. We needed that next day to choose our photos and also, since it did rain the day of the wedding, we took some more photos just DH and I in the garden, on the beach, and in the gazebo where we were married. We had to wake up very early after partying all night for the photos and had to do everything including finishing the last bit of packing by 12 noon to check out and make it to the airport for our 4pm flight (the airport is about an hour and a half drive from Negril plus we needed to allow time to go through check-in for the flight). With the wedding on Saturday, it would have been ideal to leave on Monday. WOULDN'T stress so much about having to use the Sandals photographer. Yes, they are the photogs that roam the resort with their cameras taking random photos, but we were pretty pleased with what we saw. Ira and Fabian shot our wedding and they were great to work with! We also had a sunset photo session with Jemmi (the only female photographer on site, she's fairly new working there for about 3 months) on Thursday and her shots looked amazing! Hoping that all of the photos are as good in print as they were on the screen, but as I said, I am not stressing it, i am sure they are great.
WOULDN'T take a trip to Beaches Negril. It's not too far from Sandals Negril and although the beach was bigger (ie: more sand) it is the family friendly resort and there were a LOT of kids. DH and I aren't at that point in our lives yet, so we were glad to make it back to the adults only sanctuary that is Sandals, LOL!! (We got passes to go, so decided to check it out since all it cost was a cab ride $10 each round trip)
There is probably more, but this post is long enough already, lol! Please feel free to ask if there was anything I missed that you'd like/need to know!
