In one word, perfect. Really, just better than we, or any of our guests imagined. The resort, Beaches Negril, was amazing. From the moment we stepped foot off of our shuttle, we were treated like royalty. They knew when we got off of the shuttle that we were getting married. We were whisked away into the concierge’s room for a private check in, after being given a cool, damp wash cloth, infused with lemon grass, to cool off with. The concierge immediately gave us rum punch to sip on while the smell of lemon grass was all around us.
We checked in and they gave us a large binder of everything we would be going over with our wedding coordinator at our appointment the next morning. We were upgraded to a Honeymoon Grande Luxe Concierge Room. This meant that they kept our mini fridge in our room stocked with whatever beverages we requested, at any time. They would also take care of making any reservations at any restaurants we wanted while staying at the resort.
After checking in we were escorted around the property, on a mini tour to our room. We even ran into two of our guests, Glenn and Logan, as they were walking to the pool. They immediately told us how amazing the resort was and unlike any other place they have been.
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| After hours of traveling; when we got to our room! |
Our room was on the third floor, the balcony looked right out to our wedding gazebo, where we were to get married in three days. Behind that was the crystal clear ocean, sitting on the white sand beach, it stretched on for miles. Our room bed was decorated with rose petals and washcloths arranged into cute little animals, welcoming us to Beaches Negril. We also had a little plate of cookies and a congratulations sign on our door, welcoming us into our home for five days.
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| view from our room |
Luckily when we got there it was still the early afternoon, so we had time to head to the beach and meet up with our family and friends before the beach bonfire party that night. We headed straight to the ocean with our friends and floated in the amazingly clear water. We all talked about how beautiful it was, more so than any of us pictured.
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| Logan and Glenn floating in the ocean |
The beach bonfire started at 6:30 and we all met up there and had tables all near each other. They had a huge buffet of food and plenty of entertainment. We spent the evening on the beach, eating, drinking, watching the beautiful Negril sunset, and dancing to the music. Everyone, including the kids, had a great time. Many of our friends and family continued the party that night at Club Liquid. Chris and I had intentions of meeting everyone there, but we got back to the room and fell asleep after our long day.
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| Adam, Matt and Catherine at Beach Party |
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| dancing at the beach party |
Friday morning we met everyone at the Mill for breakfast before we headed to our appointment with the wedding coordinator at 10 o’clock. Our coordinator was Shannon. I cannot begin to say enough good things about her. She walked us through all the choices we had, she never tried to pressure us into buying anything additional. She wanted us to have our perfect wedding day and she was going to do everything she could to make that happen. We talked about everything from the rehearsal dinner that night to the food at the wedding, the music at the ceremony, at the reception, even food for the kids and me. Since I am a picky eater, I knew I would not eat the food we chose for the wedding meal; she said she would arrange to have a small pizza for my meal. This, to me, was perfect! We walked around the resort so that we could choose where we wanted to have our wedding ceremony and reception. We chose the wedding gazebo because I loved the setting, I wanted to where heels, so I had concrete to walk on and I liked that the gardens and flowers were around the gazebo, and I loved the beach setting behind it.
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| our snorkeling trip the day before the wedding |
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| I wore this water shirt to cover me up the whole day before the wedding so I wouldn't get burned or tan lines for the wedding! |
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| random picture of a server carrying a tray on her head, this is also where our recption was at The Mill |
We chose the Mill restaurant for our reception. We were having our rehearsal dinner in the beach hut so I didn’t want to do two nights there, plus we were having a DJ and dancing at our reception, so I wanted the wooden floor to dance on. The Mill overlooked the main pool and the beach; it also had fans on the ceilings to cool us down.
We went with the Beautiful Beginning package; this was the package that was included with our wedding, so we didn’t add any upgrades. I really liked the décor of this, classic and simple, white. We chose the traditional wedding photography package. This included 110 pictures that we choose, on a disc and a wedding photo album with all 110 pictures as well as 25 thank you cards and two brag books with 20 pictures each. The only thing we added was a private sit down dinner reception and a 3-hour DJ. We received a free one hour cocktail party following our ceremony, which made our whole reception four hours long. I did not buy any flowers; I made my bouquet and let my mom carry the bouquet that comes with the beautiful beginning’s package.
The last thing to choose was the cake, we had three options. Chocolate, vanilla and Caribbean Rum cake. I did not like the Caribbean Rum cake at all, the yellow was alright, but the chocolate was delicious. Did I mention Shannon provided us with mimosas at our meeting? My mother and sister also joined us to help with the decision making. We gave a list to Shannon of all the songs we wanted played at our ceremony and reception. She also made arrangements for our guests at Sandals Negril to be picked up by shuttle for the rehearsal dinner and wedding. I left our meeting feeling very relaxed and confident that everything would be taken care of, just the way we wanted it to be.
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| main pool |
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| my bouquet |
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| our cake |
Friday night was our rehearsal dinner in the beach hut. They provided us with a chef’s choice buffet. Shannon was with us through this two hour dinner party. She even went out of her way to go and get the kids food at another restaurant on the resort. They do not provide music for this; we could have paid $150/hour for their music system, which we did not think was worth it. So, Chris brought down the radio/iPod player from our room and we plugged it into the outlet in the beach hut. Shannon and the servers had no problems with this and the music was loud enough for everyone to hear.
We all had a really good time at this dinner party, it was so relaxing on the beach, and all the servers were so friendly and so accommodating. We were able to watch the beautiful sunset from the hut. They had a full bar set up for us and served everyone whatever they wanted. The workers and servers were just so friendly and happy; you could not get any better than that.
The rehearsal dinner went from 6-8pm, after that we all made our way into the theater bar for steel drum band entertainment. This was amazing. I cannot put into words how impressive and talented these performers were. Playing so many songs on the steel drums and dancing to the songs, and ending the show with break dancing. There was also a chocolate party this night in the next room over. Any type of chocolate you would like; desserts, chocolate martinis, candy, etc. They even had two people decorated in chocolate and live music. I think my dad, particularly, liked the music at this party. Looking around at all our family and friends, everyone was having such a good time.
Saturday morning we woke up to our wedding day! Our wedding was at 4 o’clock. I had a manicure and pedicure appointment at the spa at 11 o’clock with my mother, sister and niece. I was given the best-tasting green tea as I had my manicure and then moved on to a mimosa for my pedicure. This took about an hour and my hair appointment was not sent until 1pm. I had time to go grab lunch in between. I went to the BBQ Park to grab a quick lunch. There I saw Jaime, Adam, Catherine and Matt having lunch, while my dad was at another table having his lunch. It was so much fun to walk around the resort and see so many people I knew! I chatted with them for a while and ordered my food. I had some French fries for lunch. I was a little nervous, not much, but just wanted something simple. Jaime and Catherine sat with me and told me they would stop by the spa to see how my hair was going before coming to my room to get ready with us all before the wedding.
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| Rehearsal Dinner on the beach |
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| desserts at rehearsal dinner |
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| rehearsal dinner |
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| rehearsal dinner on beach |
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| this little guy loved the food! |
This is the point when I started to get stressed. I arrived at the spa around 12:50pm ready to get my hair done. I was told to wait and my stylist would be ready soon. The minutes went by really slow as I waited alone in the lobby of the spa. At 1:20pm, I asked the two women how much longer it would be, they said, “oh, any minute now.” So, I waited, and waited some more. Ten minutes later I could not take it so I went outside to wait so I wouldn’t lose it. I was getting nervous since my wedding was at 4 o’clock. Jaime, Catherine, my Mom, Jill and Cassie were coming to my room at 2:30. I wanted my dress on and my make up done at this point. The photographer was coming over at 3:30. So, now it was 1:30 and I was still waiting, no makeup, to get my hair done. I have long, thick hair, so I was a little nervous of how long it would take when they actually started.
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| Jaime at the salon, calming me down! |
As I was waiting outside, Catherine and Jaime stopped by. They could tell right away I was tense. They tried everything they could to ease my nerves, but also said they would be a bit upset as well. As we were talking, a woman walked out with her hair done. Then a stylist came out and told me that it would just be a little longer because that woman who just walked out was not happy with her hair so they had to do it over. This did not help. Jaime and Catherine did the talking for me, telling them my wedding was at 4. They said, yes, we will have her done with plenty of time. That girl who walked out, her wedding was at 3 o’clock. They came out again and told me that another stylist would start me right away with curling my hair. So, they took me in and a stylist started curling my hair. They also handed me a mimosa right away and tried to calm my nerves, assuring me they would be fast and would make sure I was very happy with my hair.
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| getting my hair done! |
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| all up in curls |
Jaime and Catherine stayed for a while and hung out while I was getting my hair done. Eventually they had to go back to their rooms to get themselves ready so they could come over to my room when I was done, before the wedding. My hair turned out great. It was not exactly as the picture I brought in, but it was nice and it was very secure, it was also comfortable, no bobby pins sticking into my head, or hair pulled too tight.
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| future "Mrs.Lamperski" |
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| My Mom helping me with my dress! |
My photographer stopped by to take a few pictures and then escorted me back to my room, to make sure I would not run into Chris on the way. Chris was getting ready in Matt and Catherine’s room with the other guys. When I arrived at my room, my Mom, Jill and Cassie were already there waiting. Soon after, Jaime and Catherine showed up. I started on my make up right away, which was pretty quick, and then Jaime helped me get my dress on while Catherine ironed Chris’s wedding shirt. I am a horrible ironer, so thank goodness she is awesome with ironing!
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| Jill helping me get my shoes on |
Everything went as planned. The concierge had brought many bottles of champagne and orange juice to the room for mimosas. There was a slight scare when my Mom decided to take a sip directly from the champagne bottle, which in turn bubbled up in her face and caused her to spit some out. The chain effect was that Cassie started laughing and bumped into me while I was taking a sip of my mimosa which ended up spilling on me while in my dress. Shannon, the wedding coordinator, was there and she immediately got a towel to clean up any mimosa on my dress. Luckily, it only landed on me and not my dress. Phew.
My father also arrived to wait with us until he had to walk me down the aisle. Meanwhile, Catherine and Jaime headed out to bring Chris his shirt and get to the ceremony location. We could all look out the balcony and see everyone arriving at the gazebo, including Chris. Shannon was out there making sure everyone was where they needed to be, and then she came back to get us and take us down.
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| my Dad and I before the wedding |
I brought a wooden heart shaped sign that read ‘Here Comes the Bride”. We thought Alex would carry this down the aisle, but the days leading up the wedding, he kept saying, he did not want to do that. Adam told us he was going to carry it down the aisle, this surprised us, but he kept saying he would, so that is what we thought was going to happen. Problem was, he fell asleep right before the ceremony.
While we were all waiting to walk down the aisle, Tom brought Alex and Andy back. We all tried to get Alex to carry the sign, but he still was against this. So, we gave it to Andy, who just ran to his father. I said that I didn’t care if Tom walked down with Andy carrying the sign, or if Andy just carried it and runs the whole way, it didn’t matter to me. Finally, Shannon figured out a way that Cassie could carry the sign and her flowers. We all lined, up, my Mom walked down with Alex and then all the sudden, Andy took the sign to carry. He stood up in line and waited for Shannon to tell him it was his turn. He watched Cassie go down the aisle, and then Jill and he watched Shannon until she told him it was his turn. He then started to walk and went very slowly, following the very long path to the gazebo. None of us could believe he was doing it; it was one of the best parts of the ceremony! He made it all the way down, walking very slowly to the music!
Now it was our turn. We heard my song come on, ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri, and Shannon told us to start walking. It was a long path, but it never felt too long to me. As we walked by down the path, there were people out on their balconies watching us, it was fun, I felt like a celebrity!
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| our guests |
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| My Dad and I |
The wedding ceremony was perfect, minus the lipstick that I got on Chris’s white shirt after they told us to hug, following our first kiss. It was a quick ceremony, we had the opening greeting by the minister, Catherine did a reading, our wedding vows and exchanging of rings and then they had us sign our marriage documents and announced us as husband and wife. We walked off to 'Brighter than the Sun' by Colbie Cailat and had 'I’m Yours' by Jason Mraz played during our signing of the marriage documents.
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| our wedding |
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Catherine's reading
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| We're Married! |
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| Official document signing |
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| Mr. and Mrs. Lamperski |
After the ceremony, we all walked out to the beach for a group picture and then everyone was led to the reception site for the cocktail hour while we stayed on the beach for pictures. I brought many pictures with me that I printed from Pinterest, of poses I wanted. Our photographer helped pose us for every picture I brought, she was great!
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| group picture |
Shannon came to get us when we were done to lead us to the reception. She told us that since we ran a little later with our pictures that she extended the cocktail hour by half an hour so that we wouldn’t miss out on any time with our DJ. That was awesome, we weren’t expecting that. She even greeted us with two beautiful blue rum cocktails. The sun was setting at this point and it was just beautiful!
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| Blue Tropical drinks! |
We were announced into our reception to ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars. We were then taken to the cutting of our cake. It was best to cut our cake right away since we were in a tropical climate and the wedding was outside, so that the cake didn’t melt before we cut it. We played ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole during the cutting of the cake. Then we headed into our first dance, ‘Feels Like Home’ by Chantal Kreviazuk. Next was the father-daughter dance, which we danced to ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong.
For our wedding meal, everything was served in a sit down dinner style. We chose a Caesar salad for our salad, Caribbean shrimp for our appetizer, beef tenderloin for our entrée and baked Alaska Jamaican style for our dessert, along with our wedding cake. I, of course, was served my very own small cheese pizza!
I cannot say enough good things about our reception. It was just amazing. I replay our ceremony and reception over and over in my head all the time. I wish we could all go back. It goes by way too fast. Everything was better than I expected and I would not have changed anything. Our DJ was great; he played all the songs we wrote down the day before the wedding. Shannon was there the whole time and made sure everyone had everything they wanted.
Our reception ended around 9 o’clock. From there I headed back to our room to change out of my wedding dress into a white cocktail dress I brought for after the reception. We headed to the Theater bar for karaoke night and to watch the end of the Syracuse game. At the Theater bar, the other wedding party also showed up. Everyone there was in a celebratory mood! We stayed and sang songs and when that ended we took the party up to Club Liquid. It was actually packed on this night, the other wedding party was there and dancing as well. The DJ was the same DJ that played at our wedding! We stayed there until we were all ready to pass out. I cannot remember what time that might have been, but I think it was around midnight.
The next morning we received breakfast in bed, which we elected to take on our balcony. We chose our menu when we met with Shannon the day before our wedding. This was a complimentary honeymoon breakfast. Our server carried this huge tray up above her head, up three flights of stairs with so much food on it. We had hot tea, coffee, a bottle of champagne, orange juice, eggs, pancakes, omelet’s, toast, banana bread, and I’m probably forgetting a few things! It was so beautiful to sit out on our balcony, overlooking our wedding gazebo and the beautiful ocean in the background. I could not imagine anything better.
Sunday, my parents and my Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Tracy rented two cabanas on the beach. With a cabana rental you get butler service for the day on the beach. They keep a stocked cooler by your cabana and bring you and food and drinks you may want. We all hung out around here for the day, while taking breaks to go down the water slides and float around the lazy river in the water park. Chris, Catherine, Glenn, Logan and I also took a banana boat ride! It rained a little on Sunday, but quickly passed. It was a very relaxing day.
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| Waterslides straight ahead, lazy river to the left |
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| floating in the lazy river |
One of our wedding inclusions was also a honeymoon dinner. This was to be picked at any restaurant on the resort and we would have a menu to our choosing and white glove service with a bottle of champagne. Shannon let us have this dinner our honeymoon destination, since we were going to a Sandal’s resort.
We also had our appointment to pick out our wedding pictures on Sunday. This process was a little long. They show you, one by one, all of the pictures that were taken. We pre-paid for 110 pictures, so we had to pick 110. The process they have is a long process, with the system they currently use. I ended up wanting to go back and look at all the ones we did not pick to make sure we got all we wanted. We ended up buying 40 additional pictures. We also got a wedding book with all of our 150 pictures we picked out and two brag books with 20 pictures each, as well as 25 thank you cards. The whole time Chris and I were looking at our pictures on the big screen television, I was thinking to myself how bad I looked! I looked so wide, I was hoping it was the television, but didn’t want to say anything, in case this was how I really looked. Once we left, two hours later, I told Chris how I felt about how I looked; he said he thought we both looked wider than we actually were. Finally, when we went back to get our CD of pictures, they briefly showed us the pictures that were on the CD, they showed these to us on a small touch screen. I took a sigh of relief and said; wow we look so much better on this screen. The woman pointed out that that was because the pictures were taken in high definition and the TV they showed them to us on was not an HD TV. (I might have this the other way around.) Either way, I felt much better, and just wish they would have told us this while we were looking at the pictures. Although, if they did, I may have ended up buying more. The pictures were definitely over priced, and they are not touched up, but we knew this before we went and we were very pleased with how they turned out. Much better than we expected!
Sunday was our only night we had of the four nights we were at Beaches Negril to eat dinner at one of the restaurants. My parents, Jimmy and Tracy and Bill and Denise, made reservations for The Venetian, the Italian restaurant, at 7 o’clock. All of our friends made reservations at Kimonos, the Japanese restaurant, at 9 o’clock. So, we decided to go to both! I knew I wouldn’t eat at the Japanese restaurant anyway, and Chris wanted to try both while we were there. It worked out well, they were both great. I was really tired on Sunday and couldn’t/didn’t even want to have drinks this night. I was falling asleep by the time we got to Kimonos. After that meal, we all headed back in the direction of our room and split up. Everyone was heading home the next day. We were heading to Ochos Rios for our honeymoon.
Monday we got up early and had breakfast with my family at Stew Fish, on the beach. We took a walk on the beach and found a starfish washed ashore. A security office on the beach taught us how to hold a starfish and then put it back in the water where it would not wash back up on shore. Everyone then made their way back to their rooms to grab their personal belongings and then to the lobby to catch their shuttle to the airport.
It was a little sad saying goodbye to everyone and ending our wedding weekend, but now it was time for us to take our shuttle to our honeymoon resort!
