Thread: Newcomer to CSA

Hello everyone! I'm in the beginning stages of planning my 8/11/11 wedding at CSA. My fiance' and I are really excited about this wedding and I wanted to know if there is someone on here that can give me some pointers on the planning process. We have the wedding time as 4:00 but I want to get some advice on reception or no reception, who is the best photographer, band, dj, or my own music. Basically all advice will be helpful to me! Thanks in advance to everyone!!

stl_diva27 are you guys from St Louis? if so we are too. We will be getting married on July 5th and my son (also from STL) will be getting married on 8/3. My DF and I went in 2010 for the first time and loved it. With Couples it's not a lot to plan!! Did you do the wedding registry or website yet?

Congrats!

We are getting married at CSA on 05/17/11 at 11am. We have booked Stacey Clarke for our photographer as I have heard nothing but great things about her and she has been so sweet to deal with. However, it seems like all the photographers such as Misha Earle, Dianne Campbell seem to do great work and all very nice so I'm sure you can't go too wrong.

We chose 11am as I really like the vibrant colour of the ocean in the morning and since we are getting married on the beach that was important to us. We are doing a cocktail reception with apps and then will have dinner later on. We haven't decided if we will do the private dinner or just have it in the restaurant as it really dpeends on how many people attend. We will probably use the Mento Band or Steel Drum band for the reception after the ceremony...

Good luck with your planning!

Congratulations! We were married at CSA Nov 18/10 at 4pm! It was amazing in every way and far exceeded our expectations. We used Stacey Clarke and hopefully you are able to view our pictures below. She was worth every penny and I highly recommend her as she has been to CSA for weddings many times and is well known there. We brought our own CD with songs that were meaningful to us as follows:

1) Song to walk down aisle to
2) Song to walk off to
3) Song to sign papers to
4) Song for first dance (which we did on the beach, some prefer the garden)
5) Song while toasting & cake

Then we spent time with our photographer and went for dinner at Feathers. We had 2 other couples with us. I would say if you are deciding where to put your money, invest it in the photographer.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...776&aid=261695

Hi there! i'm planning our 8/6/11 for csa but i've been planning for a year and a half now. If you have any specific quesitons, why don't you email me at Swimminash@hotmail.com and i'd be happy to tell you everything i know! (we went to csa last summer to gather as much information as possible)

Thanks everyone for replying back. Yes I am from St. Louis, MO and we will be there from 8/8/11-8/15/11. I have not registered for the wedding website or registry yet because I have not had time between school, work, and planning this wedding that was orginially going to be here. Is Stacy Clarke or Diana Campbell on the island or is it someone that we have to pay additional for? If not, do anyone know of any good photographers on the island?

You have to pay for an outside photographer to come onto the resort. I know Stacey splits the $500 fee so it will cost you $250 in addition to her photography service/package. A wise choice I might add! Good luck!

We're getting married June 11, 2011 and our wedding planner said people were more than happy with the resort photographer. How much does Stacy or Diana charge? I just can't justify paying an additional fee on top of paying for the photos.

The music is what I'm nervous about - does everyone bring their own? Or does the resort provide some?

Hi DenAmb...as for the photographers rates, you can get them from their respective websites. It is a personal choice as to where to spend your money. I don't know how the resort photographers are (I am sure they are quite capable), but I do know I would not have changed a thing and am so happy we used Stacey. I posted the pics above in my Facebook link so you can see them.

As for the music, as I mentioned above, we brought a CD with 5 songs that we chose ourselves. It was very important for us to have done that but if the music doesn't hold any special meaning to you then the resort will most likely provide you with a song list to choose from.

Good luck with everything! Don't stress too much, whatever decisions you make, your day will be amazing!

Miasma.......you brought at CD? I thought we could do that too, but when I was e-mailing back and forth with Debbie the other day she said the resort was not set up for CDs and that we would need to bring an I-Pod, which I do not own. I really didn't want to have to go buy an I-Pod for my wedding. I know, I know, I need to get with the times and get an I-Pod. LOL But I have a MP3 that has all my songs on it, and I really like it. :O) Anyway, I'm completely confused now because on the Couples website it says to bring your CD with your songs, but Debbie said they were not set up for it. When were you married there? I wonder if it's changed recently? Thanks for any info you can provide. :O)

stl_diva27 & debbanks HEY STL!!!
I'm a November STL bride getting married at CSA!
I know everyone loves a photographer that can come in like stacey but what about the in resort photographers? Do you really get your money's worth with them? who has really seen the photo's? Does anyone have their website?

Originally Posted by klmurphy2005

Miasma.......you brought at CD? I thought we could do that too, but when I was e-mailing back and forth with Debbie the other day she said the resort was not set up for CDs and that we would need to bring an I-Pod, which I do not own. I really didn't want to have to go buy an I-Pod for my wedding. I know, I know, I need to get with the times and get an I-Pod. LOL But I have a MP3 that has all my songs on it, and I really like it. :O) Anyway, I'm completely confused now because on the Couples website it says to bring your CD with your songs, but Debbie said they were not set up for it. When were you married there? I wonder if it's changed recently? Thanks for any info you can provide. :O)

Hi there! Not sure why Debbie would say you can't bring a CD....because it was totally fine to do so in November! Tamika (the wedding coordinator at CSA that we first met with) simply took our CD and discussed when we wanted the songs to be played, we basically numbered them and she transferred them onto the resort IPOD. We own an IPOD as well but I still preferred to use the CD to bring the songs on!! The music was loud & clear and just perfect! I can't imagine that it has changed because Tamika said it was a simple transfer from CD to IPOD and took just a few minutes. If you are very concerned you should ask Debbie to call the wedding coordinator onsite and confirm that. You will be amazed at how savvy and wonderful the wedding coordinators are at the resort, remember they do this every day and are capable of handling everything!

You're right. I'm worrying way too much! LOL I will confirm with Debbie, but I'm sure you're right. Thanks :O)

Thanks everyone for all the input. Its all coming in handy with all the decisions that I have to make. Another question that I now have is about photography. Since many of my friends and family won't be able to make it there pictures are very important to me. I've looked online at others pictures and I also went online to Stacey Clarke website and I really love her work but don't have much money in my budget to afford her pictures. I was considering going with the resort photographer but it seems that all the photos look the same with no variation. I'm wondering should I "make" the money appear from somewhere to be able to purchase her pictures or should I just use the resort photographer? Please help!! Thanks in advance :-)

Stl_Diva.......I was having the same dilemma, but I decided to make money appear and book Stacey. LOL Her prices are very reasonable, and she can customize a package for you. I've been talking back and forth with her, and she seems very sweet! I just signed my contract with her yesterday, and I'm sooo happy I did. Now, I have no worries! To me, the pictures are one of the most important details! :O)

I am using Marcia Roberts, check her out as well. I found her very reasonable. Personally I would "find the money" for a photographer

We are getting married in April of this year and we were going back and forth with the photographers as well, but we decided to go with Diane. I hate having to pay a resort fee for my wedding, but pictures are the only thing we can take with us to for memories and to show our families since they won't be able to attend. I just don't want to spend money on the resort photographer and only get a few pictures!! I would consider maybe "making the money appear", lol.. I had to cut back on some things each month, and was amazed at how much money we have saved by cutting back on our wants and just buy what we need!! Hope this helps!!

Regarding whether you should come up with the extra money for Stacey....well she is definately worth it. We also did not have our families, many friends and even our own small children there that day! We were so happy to have these beautiful pictures to share....we had Stacey for 2hrs for $1150 + $250 onsite fee = $1400. (you will have to look at her website to confirm that though) I know it seems like a lot but at the end of the day we got 293 images on a CD that we are able to print in any size for framing or albums and we can still crop them and turn them into Black & White and use them for Digital Albums....basically anything you want. We told Stacey we like "edgy" shots mixed in with classic and were very happy with the images she captured and we never felt rushed with the 2hr timeslot. Don't forget, she takes pics of the details too, like your dress, your rings, shoes, getting ready in your room, etc. She is very well known at the resort and she is very helpful with the "routine" if you need her to be. (I even took off my bra at one point and she stuck it in her camera bag...heehee) With some of the resort photographer packages, they may take 100 shots but you then you choose 24 or 36 and they print them and put them in an album for you....I'm not sure what they cost if you wanted all of the images on CD, it might not be that much cheaper afterall. Work out the package pricing for what you want and what the difference in price would be and decide if it is worth it to you. Have you been able to view my pics that Stacey took? We thought the extra money was worth every penny and no regrets. Good luck with your decision!

First o all congratulations !!!
And all the weddings that happens at CSA , The couples lead very good life .
So best of luck to you too (:

Thanks for all the input! Everyone is just so helpful on here lol :-)!!! I have looked at Staceys' photos and I love her work. They are so much better than using the resort photographers because all of their pictures look the same. I think I just might have to make it appear because pictures are very important to me and like everyone said its all you have left after the wedding is done. I hope some of you guys are there while I'm there (8/8/11-8/15/11), maybe we can and have celebratory drinks!

Is there a website that has the photographers that are in the Jamaica area? How is everyone getting info on them?

I thought I would put my two cents in...We got married at CSA on Nov 5th...we planned to get married on the beach but Tomas forced us to the garden. There were two things that I would never change about our wedding day...getting moved to the garden and using an outside photographer and videographer!
Although I wasn't too excited when I first heard about the change of location - the garden was the most beautiful spot I could've imagined...much more private and lush than the beach. Nobody laying around in their bathing suits in our pictures
It took some convincing for my husband to agree to spend the extra money on pictures and video but EVERYONE agrees it was totally worth every penny! We used Misha Earle for pictures and Roxroy Gough for video. Thanks to them we ended up with the most amazing memories to take home with us. Misha is well worth the money, I can't say enough wonderful things about her work. Roxroy created the most amazing wedding video that we used at our reception back home for everyone to see. I say spend the extra money and use the outside vendors. It is worth it - I promise!
I am going to write a review and post pictures as soon as I have some down time. Good luck to all!