We celebrated our wedding at the Intercontinental in May 2019, we also stayed for 6 nights and upgraded our stay to a Club Plunge Pool Suite (well worth it!). Our wedding was a total of 29 (including the Bride & Groom) and we all stayed at the resort together. We hope that all future Brides, Grooms and guests find our review helpful.
The things that were perfect and special;
From the moment we arrived, chief concierge Tomasi made our welcome and all our guests welcome one to remember. Thank you Tomasi, you should be highly commended.
The Club staff, Ronnie in particular and all the team were welcoming and hospitable. Nothing was a problem and all staff went above and beyond to look after us and our parents who were also Club guests.
Our housekeeper Sala. She is one special lady. Our room was always sparkling and the thoughtful towel art and notes left for us were beautiful.
The coconut baths, champagne and fruit platters that were left for us (not sure if it was Lusi, Sala or Ronnie & the Club team) but they were wonderful surprises that made us feel very special.
The canape and buffet food at the wedding was sublime and absolutely delicious! We couldn’t fault anything. Thanks to the chef’s who bought our desert on high tea stands, the guests loved that.
The wait staff were equally wonderful ensuring all guests had a drink and were enjoying themselves. (Due to policy, you can’t have wine bottles on the table. We were worried the drink service would be slow but we had nothing to worry about!)
Lusi (our wedding coordinator) has the most happy personality and infectious laugh, she is such a beautiful person.
The service recovery for the things that weren’t so perfect. Our coordinator acknowledged the faults and did what she could to compensate for things that didn’t go to plan.
The attentiveness and friendliness of all resort staff, what a beautiful family! We felt like we were a part of it.
Our beautiful ceremony and reception setup (except the bar stools used at ceremony entrance to place flowers on, this should be a proper plant stand or omitted completely, made it look a little tacky!)
The credit back for wedding services not used or received. We also liked that the resort does not have a VAT or tax charge on top of their prices. You still pay for your nominated wedding package but if you don't use any of the inclusions, the resort will credit you back the value so you can use for other things!
The Fire Show and dancers was incredible! We are not sure who organised the fireworks (maybe you can tell us) but that was a wonderful and beautiful surprise
The acoustic music playing in the Kama area at the time of our pre-dinner cocktails and canapes
The security discreetly placed around the ceremony and reception location to ensure we were not bothered on our special day
The flexibility of timings and how we wanted our wedding to run, Lusi was very accommodating and open with everything!
The couples massage ritual, we have never experienced a couples massage before and it was a beautiful and holistic experience.
The resort grounds are beautiful!
We upgraded our room to the Club Plunge Pool room and it was spectacular!
The things that were not so perfect / suggestions for improvement:
The reservation team: The ‘special rate for wedding guests’: One of the selling points given to us by the resort was our guests would get a special room rate via an online link. Only one guest was able to avail the special rate. When we queried it, we were then advised due to the large conference of 250 guests, the Garden rooms were no longer available (only the higher yielding rooms were). We felt cheated as this was not disclosed to us when we chose our date and paid the deposit. After numerous emails back and forth, the reservation team finally agreed to honour the rate. We had to email and book manually for our guests which this caused confusion on our final bill because a room payment was put on our wedding instead of the guests room. The guests were told at checkout that they hadn’t paid for their room which caused some anxiety for them when they had indeed paid!
Also, my credit card was attempted to be debited twice due to res team using our card instead of the guests card for their total room charge. Luckily we had insufficient funds on the card so it didn’t go through. Lusi quickly reminded the res team not to charge our card but charge the card noted on the CC Debit Authority Form.
We had also sent the final rooming list of names about a month prior to the wedding and the reservation team could not get it right. They had the names jumbled up, (using the preliminary guest list when we first booked the hotel, not the final RSVP list! There were guest names on there that were not attending and had the Brides sisters in a room with the grooms brothers, it was just a mess!)
In short: be very clear with in your consultation, ask lots of questions and be clear with what your requirements are. Save all email correspondence and even give photos as examples if there is something specific you would like.
On arrival at Nadi Airport, the chauffeur car never turned up. (Not a good start and left us feeling disappointed and our excitement crushed). Rosie Holidays team tried to assist but could not help until their res team started work. They had no reservation on file for us. Rang the Intercontinental, Lusi was not in yet but another team member said go to the Information Desk but she didn’t know about the car. Bride and Groom went with other family members with a pre-booked Micks Fiji Bus that was already there waiting.
The requirement to visit the Marriage Office: Part of the wedding consultation was that we didn’t have to do that, the rules changed and we were not notified until a couple of weeks prior to the wedding. If we had of known, we would have booked another night so we could have more time to hang out with our family! The wedding package should be amended to reflect this.
Our Yalayala Package stated it included Fijian Choir or Serenaders. We found out a week before the wedding that the Choir is extra cost. This should be amended to correctly reflect in the package as an additional charge. We also wanted to play Ipod music after the ceremony for an hour, we found out the PA would cost FJ450. This should be disclosed in the package as we assumed that there would be speakers to play our entrance, sign and exit song so it would be ok to continue the playlist for an hour after the exit song had finished. We ended up bringing our own portable speaker, which worked out great!
Change in the Beverage Package: The beverage package changed a couple of months before our wedding with a slight price increase. The old package price was not honoured. We ended up upgrading anyway to Premium with Spirits which suited us perfectly, however considerations and notification should be given to contracted weddings that signed on the old package and prices.
The ‘minimum guest numbers’: We were not advised nor was it in our contract that minimum number was 30 guests and we would be charged for that regardless if we had less. We found this out a couple of weeks before the wedding. We ended up having 29 guests. If we had of known this, we would have invited more guests! This needs to be written in the contract/package conditions.
The Orchid Room air conditioning was not working on the wedding day and it was so very hot and uncomfortable. It couldn’t be fixed, the Bride went back to her sisters Garden room and got ready there.
The ‘Orchid Platters’ that were pre-ordered for the Bride and her sisters never came. The brides sisters ordered room service
The celebrant was a lovely man but could not be understood very well. Our guests also commented on the same.
The Bride’s name was incorrect on the marriage certificate issued by the resort but the official certificate issued by the Fiji BD & M was correct and is sent to your home address via courier.
The ‘Exit’ song we requested on our run sheet was ‘Lucky Man – Courtney John – Chef Soundtrack. We are not sure what song it was that played for our exit, but it wasn’t our song, little sad about that!
The ‘Flower Shower’ included in the package: We thought that our guests would be given the flowers to be thrown on the Bride & Groom but actually it was 2 hotel staff members. If we had of known this, we would have ordered flower cones for our guests as this was the 1 photo I wanted and specifically asked our photographers to capture! That was a real downfall that our guests had nothing to throw on us like traditional weddings do.
Feeding the Band: We had contracted our band to play for 4 hours (we had organised this ourselves directly with the band). It was not in their terms that we had to supply them dinner however we were asked at the reception by the resort if we would offer them part of our buffet dinner – at a charge of course. This put us under pressure to say yes, with further increase to our wedding bill.
The female server who insisted the bride sign for the mineral water she had ordered while eating dinner and then again on the dance floor after she ordered a second bottle. Completely inappropriate!
The mix up with our final bill: As mentioned above, a FJ1900 room payment went on our wedding instead of on the guests name on the CC Authority and bank transfer slip. This was picked up later after we had left the resort and resulted being hassled on our honeymoon by 4 different employees at the Intercontinental. (We had asked for the final bill before we left Australia as we would be away for 1 month on our honeymoon). The coordinator quickly advised the team to leave us in peace and she was handling it directly with us.
Respect that each wedding couple may be on a tight budget. We saved for over a year to have a wedding of 29. We calculated every dollar we spent and we didn’t appreciate surprises because we did not have any room to increase budget. So the things that were outlined as ‘included’ in the package but were not, or were changed during our contract and the mixup with the wedding account added to our financial anxiety.
The Gastro virus that was circulating the resort (and we believe Fiji in general) despite the warnings on the check-in counter iPads and the hand sanitizer everywhere, 6 of our family members contracted the virus (luckily after the wedding day) however were so severely sick that Australian Quarantine had to inspect them on arrival in Melbourne Airport. There is GastroStop tablets available for sale in the resort shop which is great.
The 3.5% credit card surcharge: Understand that resorts have to charge this due to bank merchant fees however, we think it is rather exorbitant to charge for weddings. For this reason, we chose to do bank transfers for all guest rooms and wedding deposits.
A suggestion for improvement would be to include a 4 or 5 hour beverage package and a wedding cake in the price. This would keep in line with other hotel competitors
It is important to note that we are a fun loving and easy going couple, (in no way would you class us as a bride or groomzilla!) We appreciate that things beyond our control can go wrong. Having said this, our wedding day was what we made of it and what it symbolised, so it was a wonderful day.
It is questionable that the price of the Yalayala package at FJD29,400 (approx. AUD20000) is reflective of the experience, we feel that compared to other mainland resorts who charge considerably less with similar inclusions, it should be a completely seamless wedding experience, which is also what the Intercontinental advertise and pride themselves on. We feel that there is definitely some improvements to be made here.
Regardless of all, we love the Fijian hospitality, the resort grounds and the warm feeling that the beautiful Intercontinental family gave us and we will be returning to the resort next year. Exactly what we shared here in this review is what we have shared with the Resort Management privately as we sincerely hope that our feedback will assist to improve the wedding experience for future clients.
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