Jamaican wedding planners call it a "hell and powderhouse" situation.

That's when two mothers-in-law arrive in town and take over their daughters' and sons' weddings.

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"It's hilarious how these mothers behave at times," says Donna Philpotts, mild-mannered wedding planner at Breezes Montego Bay Resort. She has planned more than 500 weddings in the past two years and has seen it all.

"There was one that brought her own wedding coordinator. Another one was calling me at 10 at night, and there she was again at 9 the next morning — 'I need the chairs to go on the beach; no, I need them to go over there.' "

The mothers' emotions are sometimes off the scale, and it isn't pretty.

"One mother was in the lobby an hour before the wedding, yelling about getting flowers for the bridesmaids, and the daughter didn't want it," she recalled.

"Another mother wanted her daughter and son-in-law to each pour sand into a vase during the ceremony [signifying unity] and the daughter didn't want to do it, but she did just to please the mother."

In her office just off the busy hotel lobby, she has champagne and orange juice in a mini-bar for nervous brides and grooms.

Sifting through photos of all 500-plus couples, she paused now and then to comment. "They were the sweetest couple," she said, pointing to a young couple from Ohio. "And this husband said his wife was the only one who understood him, and she still loved him. He admitted he could be difficult."

The worst she would say about brides and grooms were that they were "fussy." She pointed to a dapper young groom and laughed, "Now he was the fussy one. The bride was a sweetheart."

She held up another photo, "The bride was 57, and the groom was 27. I was a bit nervous for them."

She remembers them all — the brides and grooms who cried, the ones who paced up and down the beach before the wedding and chain-smoked, and the very few who backed out at the last minute. And the bride who asked her to find a lawyer for a quick prenup contract.

They send her Christmas cards and come back for anniversary visits.

"I enjoy this so much," she says, the picture of contentment. "Most are so sweet, and I will never, ever forget them."

Cheryl Blackerby is travel editor of The Palm Beach [Fla.] Post.