Advice for wedding in St John in May
 

Hello Fellow Fodorites,

I am looking to see if anyone has recently gotten married on St. John and can recommend an officiant and beach. The wedding will be around 4:30pm. It will just be the two of us and we are looking for a beautiful beach for great pictures and low volumes of people. Also, if you know of a cool place to go afterwards for happy hour that would be great as well. We will probably stay at Caneel for a few days but will be going to Virgin Gorda for the honeymoon. Any advice you can give for either the wedding or honeymoon is greatly appreciated. Thaks, Liane

I am also looking to get married in St. John, next March. Have you gotten any good information?

I hope you will get some replies with more recent information; however, I will tell you that my husband and I got married on Hawknest Beach on SJ on May 10, 2001. We did not have guests- just the two of us (second marriage for both). We used Weddings the Island Way who provided the minister, the photographer, bouquet, paperwork/certificate/advice on licensing procedure, champagne toast. There are quite a few companies that provide these services now- a search quickly came up with these: www.usviwedding.com, www.islandstyleweddings.com, www.islandblissweddings.com, or an info page at http://stjohnbeachguide.com/Weddings.htm.
My point in answering is to tell you: it was much easier for us to use a company like this who took care of the details (even though there were few) and the legalities, Hawksnest was a beautiful spot, and in May it was HOT in the afternoon (we thought afternoon sounded nice, too- 5:00)and we both agreed later than early morning would have been much better for temperatures and an empty beach (although there were only a few people there that afternoon and on the other end of the beach. Like I said, it was a long time ago, others hopefully will give you more current information! We did go to the Lime Inn for our own little wedding dinner for two- lobster and key lime pie- very nice!
If you are planning to stay at Caneel, have you talked with them about a simple ceremony there? We rented a villa for the week rather than staying at a resort but I did check with the Westin at the time and their wedding price was much higher than the company we used.
Have a wonderful wedding- hope you get some great advice!

Congratulations! St John is an excellent place to have a small beach wedding. There are 22 beaches to pick from. the most famous is Trunk Bay and the many others all have some attributes to recommend them. For a sunset view, you want one facing west such as Tunk or Oppenhiemer. Honeymoon beach is especially pretty - but requires a bit of a walk to get to it.
Caneel is super and has 4 beaches to choose from to get married. Their wedding and catering staff are excellent. They are a bit ppricey though. If budget is a concern, we could recommend a couple of more modest places to stay and honeymoon. For example we manage Coconut Coast Villas right near Cruz Bay. Check us out if you want at www.coconutcoast.com. I also have experience with Islandstyleweddings.com and they have always made our guests happy.

It sounds so beautiful but one of the things they never tell you about that gorgeous time of day when all the cruise ship people are gone and the sun beginning to set casts a beautiful golden glow is that that is also when the no-see-ums and mosquitos begin to join the party. Especially near the water. I would strongly suggest that you have ample supplies of bug spray ready for everyone. Not all beaches are that bad, but why take a chance? IMHO, if it doesn't turn out to be buggy, at least you were prepared to prevent anything from detracting from your beautiful wedding.