Grand Cayman Wedding Planning Problems

[CaymanBride04-08]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a problem I have recently encountered when planning my April wedding in Grand Cayman....

 

I have been in the process of finalizing details for a wedding on the grounds of Grand Old House and the wedding coordinator became very difficult to work with. She and I were emailing back and forth to get my questions answered when she went almost a week without responding and I sent her an email asking what typical time frames for responses would be so I was not bothering her, wherein she responded with the following:

"Do understand that I am taking care of all weddings of the Grand Old House and it might take a couple of days before your emails are answered. Also note that your wedding is not booked". Is it too much to ask that a wedding coordinator treat me and my wedding like it is her pleasure to make my day the best it can ever be? I dont think I am out of line for sending her a few emails to clearly outline costs before paying a $500 non-refundable deposit. I get the feeling that my small wedding is not important enough for her to pay attention to us. Does anyone have any advice for where I can look for alternate options in case our relationship continues to sour? Thanks~ :confused:

[Fantasy_Bride]

It has been my experience that the coordinators may answer a few questions , but will not give you full attention until after you are booked. I had similar encounters with Carnival's wedding dept. , but after I booked I received all of the information requested plus some. It seems like she has been helpful to you , but is not willing to continue to offer her assistance to you because you have not booked, and more time with you without a commitment on your part would be a waste of her time because you still have the option of backing out due to you not being booked.

[kruise22]

Cayman Bride,

That is so unlike Desiree. I worked with her for 8 months planning for January 31st 2008. She was so helpful. I could probably answer many of your upfront questions if you are nervous about the non-refundable deposit.

 

Email me at kbkramer22@yahoo.com and I will help you as much as I can.

[merocket59]

I wouldn't worry about it too much yet, she seemed to be helpful overall and you did ask her to let you know what a time frame was for an answer so maybe she didn't think her answer was rude? Or was just have a busy/stressful day? Just trying to play devil's advocate for you.

[jdybnsn]

Oh dear !! I do hope this does not put you off ....we have just returned from our wedding at GOH and it was truly FABULOUS !

 

I did find Diseree a little slow to repond sometimes, but I had to remind myself that she is organising many, many weddings over all different time scales, with equally information hungry brides........plus dealing with a few hundred more brides in in a month, who are only making tentative enquiries !!Some of her time is also taken up with being in attendance at these weddings too, so I guess she is not always sat in her office. :rolleyes:

 

Towards the wedding date, she did start to respond quicker, and all turned out well in the end - infact it exceed our expectations.

She is a very nice person when you meet her, so please don't let, what I suppose in all honesty was a 'business' reply put you in down mood about it ,or her.

 

Really, don't miss out on going there over this ........believe me you will be glad you went with it ..and meantime, if you think that there is any query I could help you with I'd be happy to help. :)

[mscrad2009]

Hello

 

I am not having a good experience with the wedding experience and I have recvd a few emails from Desiree without booking. She is far more helpful with EMAILS ALONE and no money, than TWE have been with my money. I am stongly thinking about changing my entire booking to setup with TGOH. The package is triple less than what I was planning to spend on the onsite wedding and I get a hep more for my money.

 

the ONLY reluctant part I have in my body is the fact I fear the tender issue. that was brought to my attention by Carnival and TWE. If I don't tender I could lose the money sent to Desiree and still not get married. Have anyone experiences this issue and do you know what the process is with TGOH is you do not get an opportunity to tender. Is there a refund. Do you pay for everything up front...? Please send as much info as possible. My wedding is scheduled for May 20, 2009.

[esbie11]

Mscrad209-I would double-check the info about losing your money from your private WC if you miss the port. My experience with my WC, along with many others I have spoken with, is that if you use a private WC, and you are unable to make it to the wedding due to things beyond your control, such as the cruise skipping the port, you will get your money back. Private WCs on the islands are very accustomed to weddings that take place from cruisers and it has been my experience that they are NOT out to rip you off. While I realize that missing your port would be upsetting because you'd miss your ceremony, you at least should not be out any money, as your WC should refund you. To be honest I think TWE brings this up to try to pursuade you to use there business, because if you book through them and miss your port, they can marry you somewhere else. I guess you really just have to weigh out what your priorites are, and if you are willing to risk missing the Cayman Islands and therefore, your wedding. Is it common for the cruiseship to skip Cayman Islands at the time of year when you are cruising? If it were me, I would risk working with a private WC and missing the port rather than risk working with TWE at all.

[jdybnsn]

Mscrad209-I would double-check the info about losing your money from your private WC if you miss the port. My experience with my WC, along with many others I have spoken with, is that if you use a private WC, and you are unable to make it to the wedding due to things beyond your control, such as the cruise skipping the port, you will get your money back. Private WCs on the islands are very accustomed to weddings that take place from cruisers and it has been my experience that they are NOT out to rip you off. While I realize that missing your port would be upsetting because you'd miss your ceremony, you at least should not be out any money, as your WC should refund you. To be honest I think TWE brings this up to try to pursuade you to use there business, because if you book through them and miss your port, they can marry you somewhere else. I guess you really just have to weigh out what your priorites are, and if you are willing to risk missing the Cayman Islands and therefore, your wedding. Is it common for the cruiseship to skip Cayman Islands at the time of year when you are cruising? If it were me, I would risk working with a private WC and missing the port rather than risk working with TWE at all.

 

 

My thoughts exactly ......:rolleyes:

[brokenfall]

Don't give them your money until they've answered your questions and you are 100% sure that it is what you want or you will NOT get it back.

 

I waited days at a time for phone calls back. They are clearly unorganized because I'd get a phone call from Denise, then Cassandra, then I'd get an email from Cassandra all addressing one question that I had asked three days ago. With conflicting information, nonetheless. One blogger posted that the price of the chairs went from included in the package to $5 to $12 depending on who she spoke with. They told me the two-hour reception was available, then it was not, and then a month later it was available again to someone else.

 

If you include your email address I can forward you what I received from them after I signed the contract which is not much because they do not want to be bound to much.

 

I would also get anything they promise you in writing.

 

Good Luck

 

Ryan

[mscrad2009]

Hello brokenfall

I understand your comments i called TWE when i started planning my wedding and the chairs were $6 when i called back three weeks later to make the deposit I spoke to a Lucy and she said the chairs are $12 i asked what happened to the $6 chairs and she said the TGOH no longer have those chairs. But TGOH say they do have the chairs. TWE say they cannot use the chairs. I feel stuck because I have 35 pp going and i am fearful to go with TGOH WC in the event we do not tender. I was unaware May is the rainy month for GC. I have tracked the weather pattern for the past 4 years. Not looking good.

[esbie11]

Oh geez! The "chairs" issue again! I had the same exact problem...one day chairs were included in the package price...the next day, they were $5 per chair, then $12 per chair. And each time I asked I was talking with a different TWE WC. Had it just been a chair issue, I may have accepted the "price change" but when every answer about everything continually changed, that's when I decided that they didn't knwo what they were talking about, and I quit working with them. I encourage you to ask your questions each time you talk with them to see how many different answers you get. It's pretty fascinating (at least, once you are no longer counting on them to coordinate your wedding)

[esbie11]

mscrad2209-I want to apologize for the way my last post sounded (the one just above this one). I would have edited it but at the moment I can't remember how! Anyway, after writing this I read another one of your posts stating that you have decided to use TWE. I don't want to say anything that will make your wedding planning any more stressful than it already is, and since you cannot decipher tone of voice through typing, I think that the last sentence of my post can be interpreted in a negative way, which I did not mean it to be. I just wanted to clear that up! Good luck with planning!

[mscrad2009]

Hello Esbie11

 

No problem, even if you meant it in a negative tone. I TRULY understand. Already I am so back and forth right now. I am so angry becuase I called them today to find out how much everything cost and if they have anymore hidden fees. Of course I found another one. What I can say is that I am talking to the same person each time and each time I get the same attitude problem. I am not one to deal with an attitude problem when I am paying you over $4800 for a location ,24 chairs with some flowers and a pillar for 30 pp. But what I cannot get out of my mind is that for the same location and better upgrades I can pay less if I go through the same location WC. But guess what bust my bubble today. I found out that if I stay with Carnival and just decide to do it on the boat cut out the middle man (TWE) I can still not get married becuase if the boat does not tender the officiate cannot come on the boat as well. That totally through me because I decided to work with them (Carnival) to ease my mind if we dont tender. OK now I am pissed because I was unaware the no marriage could happen if it is on the island or off if we dont tender. It could have been me not thinking but dang it!

Back to stress 1. My invitations, setup and payout was based on Grand Cayman. Also I checked with Desiree and she said if I book with her I will not get my full deposit back if we do not tender and I will have to still pay for the flowers and cake. I really wish I knew all of this before I planned this cruise wedding. I also spoke to desiree who says that May is not hurricane season and the month of May is not usually the non tender month. But my luck is not always that good. Talk about stressed a year out. I thought by now I am stress free NOT!

[sas80]

Hello Esbie11

 

No problem, even if you meant it in a negative tone. I TRULY understand. Already I am so back and forth right now. I am so angry becuase I called them today to find out how much everything cost and if they have anymore hidden fees. Of course I found another one. What I can say is that I am talking to the same person each time and each time I get the same attitude problem. I am not one to deal with an attitude problem when I am paying you over $4800 for a location ,24 chairs with some flowers and a pillar for 30 pp. But what I cannot get out of my mind is that for the same location and better upgrades I can pay less if I go through the same location WC. But guess what bust my bubble today. I found out that if I stay with Carnival and just decide to do it on the boat cut out the middle man (TWE) I can still not get married becuase if the boat does not tender the officiate cannot come on the boat as well. That totally through me because I decided to work with them (Carnival) to ease my mind if we dont tender. OK now I am pissed because I was unaware the no marriage could happen if it is on the island or off if we dont tender. It could have been me not thinking but dang it!

Back to stress 1. My invitations, setup and payout was based on Grand Cayman. Also I checked with Desiree and she said if I book with her I will not get my full deposit back if we do not tender and I will have to still pay for the flowers and cake. I really wish I knew all of this before I planned this cruise wedding. I also spoke to desiree who says that May is not hurricane season and the month of May is not usually the non tender month. But my luck is not always that good. Talk about stressed a year out. I thought by now I am stress free NOT!

 

Check your state marrage situations.

DH and I live in a state (Texas) that allows you to decalre a common law marrage from the date that you write down.

What this meant for DH and I was that we were able to get symbolically married in Cabo San Lucas and then when we went home we filed a common law marrage declaration where we wrote in that we "had been married since <insert date of ceremony>"

 

DH found it after doing some checking. Maybe Georgia has the same thing or something similar?

[jdybnsn]

Oh I do feel your pain :( ...seems you are in a bit of a corner here. Do you get your money back from TWE if you don't make the port ???..or do they arrange another service somewhere else for you ? :confused:

 

Can you not ditch TWE and go with the location coordinator, and make your own 'plan B', that you will feel relaxed with ?? Reading between the lines, a lot of your stress is coming from this 'lack of control' over the situation, and whilst we can't control the weather, or the sea...you can be in control of your own back up plans and the money you are spending !

 

It appears that as far as a guarenteed wedding ceremony on GC, you really have nothing to lose (apart from more money than is necessary using TWE) by using the local coordinator ...from experience the cake & the flowers at GOH are fairly small part of the overall price in anycase ......is it possible you could have a postponed wedding , maybe just a small family group, if you flew out there at a later date should you miss the port ??....that you could live with, if it happened....surely the money you'd save from TWE would go some way toward those costs if the worst happened ?? And what is the worst thing that could happen ?? ...getting an extra holiday ...and a bit more planning time ?...is that really the worst thing that could happen in a wedding ?

 

Believe me, a wedding at GOH is definitely worth waiting for - you will not be disappointed !!!

[mscrad2009]

Thank you all,

 

I will check on the wedding question for Georgia. Great Idea. I have come to the conclusion that if we remain with the Grand Cayman wedding we want to go with TGOH and Desiree WC. How ever we looked at the situation. Whether we chose to get married on the boat or get married on land we could end up not getting both if we cannot tender. The boat with TWE or off the boat did not guarantee a wedding which is what we were told in the beginning. We are also looking at the before cruise wedding in Tampa. A few options we are juggling around. We have to come up with something soon and fast.

[December7112]

Desiree, is really good. I know that she is a bit stressed as they do a lot of weddings at GOH. You may want to try Inspirations, they mainly do luxury beach weddings. You can contact them at 345 943 5683 or inspirationsltd@gmail.com They did my daughters wedding and it was lovely.

 

There florist specialize in Bridal Bouquets and has been featured in Destination Wedding Caribbean Magazine. Here my daughter bouquet.