My fiance and I are trying to find an island to have our wedding- hopefully 7/1/06. Here are some of the things we would like...
We want to be married directly on a beach and on an island where there are a variety of activities (about 30-50+ guests). Most of our guests will be coming from Cleveland, Chicago, and Phoenix.
There is one major thing I have to consider, my mom is going to make the trip but she has some difficulty walking. I know all destinations will include some walking but I would like a hotel/villa that is located directly on the beach (limited/no inclines, steps or long walks to the beach or the pool).
We have looked at Bermuda but the hotels are expensive in July. We were considering San Juan, St. Thomas, St. John and I just heard that in Aruba you can get married on the beach(?). I would like to keep the costs reasonable for our guests.
Any thoughts on these islands- or any other location we should consider?
Thanks for your help!

Well, you're already considering the major factors for your guests by traveling in low season and looking into islands with more non-stop flight options.

On most islands, you can married on the beach. That's not just Aruba. I was married in Antigua in 2003 with about 40 guests in attendance and was told that any outdoor location would do. One intrepid couple even got married out on the far end of Devil's Bridge.

In addition to the other islands you're considering, I would suggest Jamaica and Grand Cayman. They both have beautiful beaches, and the most famous beach on each island faces the sunset, so you could get married with sunset backdrops. Both J and GC are more northerly in the Caribbean, so you generally have a shorter travel time, even for those who will have to switch planes at least once. Those coming from Phoenix may have to switch twice.

Look into Negril on the west coast of Jamaica. There's a collection of villas called the Moondance Villas, which are some upscale fully staffed villas right on the beach. They're not cheap, but I think the access they would provide your mother is invaluable. Negril is easily navigable by walking or a short taxi ride, and it more than almost any other place in the Caribbean features a variety of accommodations in all price ranges. Check out www.idleawhile.com or www.rockhousehotel.com for two hotels where room rates are well below $200/nt and still provide a wonderful, funky vibe. Look at www.negril.com for a full range of rates and accommodations for your guests. There's sure to be something in every budget.

Of the other islands you're considering, St Thomas and San Juan have more nonstop flight from more places in the US. Both would be good for keeping down costs. Other folks here will be able to give you more info about them.

By most accounts, St. John is a beautiful island. Its limited beachfront accommodations might prove difficult for your guests, especially your mom. There are a few inns in Cruz Bay, the town, and there are two very expensive large resorts and one mid-size condo complex. Most of the rest of the rooms are in private villas on the hillsides.

hi t, congratulations. you plan to be married on my birthday and i have recently attended a wedding on st. thomas. sooo...
on all but the usvi there are special requirements for the license, as you are in foreign countries. but any co-ordinator should be able to facilitate the paperwork. some islands require you to be there for a couple days up to a week to be eligible. some require a physical or bloodtest. usvi is mail in paperwork and pick it up when you get there.
make sure everyone starts getting their passports in order soon. they are not absolutely required until 1/07 but i personally would not leave the US without mine!
the wedding i went to on st. thomas was at wyndham sugar bay. its a huge hotel. beach and pool are an up/down hill trek or shuttle ride. beach is a little small for the size of the hotel, has alot of ironshore at entrance and gets deep quickly. cool pool with food and bar right there. ceremony was on beach. very lovely! great co-ordinator. reception on their covered patio followed by sunset cruise on a sailboat.
i stayed at www.secretharbourvi.com and would have preferred it for my wedding if i were having one, and will suggest it for yours. much smaller/more intimate all the units are really large condos. over half are ON the beach so your mom could literally walk out her door and right onto the sand. (if you book with them tell margaret that your mom needs a beachfront room with no steps - she will tell you she cannot guarantee it but she will do it! especially if you are booking for 30 to 50ppl) really good beach with excellent snorkeling and a dive shop. blue moon cafe serves 3 meals a day (they may offer an ai program) and they have a very cool beach bar. really nice staff, very friendly. also there is a private house available for rent on the far end of the beach if that would be of interest.
i gave a shower for the bride and asked blue moon to do some catering and prepare cupcakes for the guests to take as favors. the platters were beautiful. and the cake was some of the best i've ever eaten. i know the chef used his wedding cake recipe.
st.thomas has world class duty free shopping. there are lots of beautiful beaches to visit. some history to explore. there is a fabulous excursion with www.newhorizonscharter.com - even their website is fun. if you stay at sugar bay or secret harbour you are near red hook where ppl could catch the ferry to st. john for a day excursion. you can take a rental car with you on the ferry or rent there.
for high end the ritz is very nice. gorgeous infinity pool. good view of st.j and bvi's. rooms are a ways from the beach but once you are outside its mostly a flat walk.
marriott is nice also and has imho the best restaurant (havana blue)on island but it is on a hillside and while i did not swim there the water looked a little rough.

Here's another suggestion for you -- Hyatt Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico. It's about 30 minutes outside of San Juan. SJ is a relatively inexpensive direct flight and the hotel is lowrise with rooms right on the beach. The rooms are spread out along the shore but there are a number of rooms right next to the main building or at the pool so it wouldn't be too much walking. It is very private, peaceful and uncrowded and there are a number of locations at the resort where you could be married (on the beach, in a gazebo overlooking the water, etc.) I was just there last month and they were set up for a wedding. There's lots to do on PR -- tour Old San Juan, tour the rainforest, water sports, etc. Rates are reasonable in the summer.

Look into Our Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. It is a Shearaton/Westin property and very nice. My son and his wife had their wedding on the beach there in 2004 and it was just excellent.

I'm not going to plug my own resort, but we also do weddings

However, I would say that Cayman as a whole is very much focussed on the wedding market.

A few notes to reply to the OP :
- You can get married on the beach in Cayman
- There are lots of activities to do, and all resorts will help you plan in advance for things for your guests to do, both at the resort and around the island, on the water etc.
- Consider carefully air service. From the MidWest and West, note that flying past Cayman (or Jamaica / Bahamas, for example) to get to Aruba (one island you mentioned) is a lot longer flight. Most guests for a Destination Wedding only come for 3 or 4 nights, so distance of travel and direct air service are issues. For Cayman, there is non-stop air service on Cayman Airways from Chicago, and one stop air service from Cleveland on Delta via ATL, and from Phoenix via Houston on Cayman Airways.
- All resorts in Cayman have ADA rooms and facilities, but check carefully with each resort re specifics on mobility impaired guests.
- Do note that Cayman does not handle All Inclusive resorts, but we do a lot of destination weddings and couples and their guests do rave about Cayman weddings and they do find their to be excellent value for money.
- To your last point about making it affordable for your guests, I am glad you are thinkin about that, as all too often couples do not place enough emphasis on this. I got married here in Cayman and one thing that made it so special was that we made so much effort to ensure maximum attendance by guests from overseas by making it easy and affordable. Do work with a resort that a) has affordable yet quality rooms, and b) can help make everything seamless for you.

I'm getting married at the Buccaneer resort on St. Croix in Apri, and would recommend checking it outl. They have been a dream to work with (so far--knock on wood), and I can't wait to go back! There are rooms directly on the beach, and we will be married right on the beach. There is a bit of a hill to the main hotel, but they have golf carts and a shuttle van that will take your guests to the top when needed.

www.thebuccaneer.com

Congratulations!

Thanks to all who have replied so far, as we really appreciate and have enjoyed reading your suggestions and advice! This forum is new to us, and we love it. We'd love to hear even more as these real world experiences add invaluable information to what can be found in marketing print. If anyone else has other ideas to offer, or further elaboration on anything already presented, that would be great!
Thanks,
T

My brother was married in St. Maarten 2 years ago. We had 40 people in total come along including 2 sets of older grandparents - 75 yo.

We stayed at the Maho and it was great. They wanted to get married on the beach also, but the groomsman has a disability and the sand was just to unstable for him to stand. So they got married in a gazebo over the sea.

The resort was great - AI with many spots to eat. A great pool area and easy beach access.

You may want to look at the Mayan Riviera area of Mexico. There are some wonderful new resorts there and it is reasonable in price as well.

Aruba is a windy island and there are no good hair days in Aruba, so the saying goes, and I believe you have to get married at city hall or courthouse in town or something like that before you can get married at the beach.

Hi all! t_sepe, I am in the same boat. However my problem is that I dont want my guests to have to pay over 1,000 each TOTAL for a 4 night stay. Even in an all inclusive resort, i think that is way too much. I have one sort of reasonable quote for 960 (plus one free stay for 1 person for every 25)but it is too early for many travel agents to quote me for next year. We are really flexible on where we go though so I had hoped because of that, and the fact that it would be a group of about 30 (or more)we could get some really rasonable choices. Does anyone know of a great travel agent? Any reccommendations???

penguin, I"m a little surprised with your laissez-faire attitude toward your guests, even though you couch it in terms of being concerned about price. If these people are your wedding guests, don't you think YOU ought to be footing the bill?

Your friends' financial circumstances may be vastly different my friends', it's true, but come on--you want them to pay $1000 per person, PLUS airfare to get there? So, roughly $3000 per couple paid for the privilege of seeing you get married? More for families with children? Nope, those aren't guests. Those are friends who are on vacation with you.

If you truly are concerned about your "guest" cost, for starters look at islands where the airfare is comparatively low. Then look at hotels that are not all inclusive and are smaller in size, as these might cut you a deal when traveling with a group of 30. Think Jamaica, Negril specifically.

It will be better to travel in the off season, which is roughly mid-April through mid-December. It will be best to avoid hurricane season, the peak of which is August through October.

What is the age range of the people you're inviting? Will children be a part of the crowd? Where will most folks be flying from?

ejcrowe - First of all I said UNDER 1,000 TOTAL for each guest. That means including air, taxes, transfers... I say that because that is the one quote that I have gotten and I thought it was overpriced. And there is NO way that we could ever pay for 30 plus *guests* to take a vacation. I don't know of anyone that would. The ones whom can not afford to go, or do not want to - oh well. We are getting out of spending 20 thousand dollars on a wedding by doing a destination wedding and those that want to join us YES have to pay their own way. This is not just so they have the "privalege" of seeing me get married it is also a vacation for them. They do NOT have to come but are more than welcome to if they want to pay for it. I do however want to make it as affordable as possible. Let me ask - is anyone else "FOOTING THE BILL" for all of their guests if it is a large group?

Well, actually, now that you mention it...my husband and I footed (or is just foot in past tense?) the hotel bill and meal plan for our guests at our destination wedding. We also contributed to the airfare for a number of family members for whom it would be a financial burden. For a long weekend, 3 nights/4 days, at a small hotel that gave us a fantastic rate. We kept the guests to a fairly intimate number, or at least far fewer than we would have invited to a wedding at home. And we also spent considerably less than the number you quoted. MUCH less. It took longer to pay it off than if we had just gone ourselves, and we cut short our honeymoon to save on our expenses, but it was the way we wanted to do it.

I do apologize for the tone of my last post to you. It was at the end of a bad work day and I'm sorry, though that's not an excuse for bad behavior. But now with a cooler head and a nice Red Stripe, I do have to say that if you are considering these people your guests, you should pay for as much of their stay as you can afford. If you were having a wedding stateside, you wouldn't expect them to pay for the reception or any other part of it, so why do it if you're going out of the country? A wedding in the Caribbean might save YOU a bundle, but I bet your guests wouldn't have had to pay $1000 per person to attend one at home. Your opinion is clearly different on the matter. I hope you have friends and family who are able to join you, no matter where you choose to wed, as it is a special day.

Has anyone been married at at Buccaneer in St. Croix recently? Would love some feedback and suggestions.

I haven't been married at the Buccaneer; however, we did see three weddings there during our February vacation. They clearly are doing many more weddings now than before (had only seen one on our six previous trips) and my sense was that the coordinator is quite good.

We saw two weddings on Mermaid Beach and one at the Sugar Mill. Have to say I would opt for the Sugar Mill for more privacy. The first wedding on the beach was pretty with rose petals, lovely view and nice chairs for the invited guests. But I would not have liked having quite a few bathing-suit clad onlookers at my wedding (and presumably in some of my photos!). Granted, we vacation during the busiest winter week of the year so it may not be an issue at other times. I would check.

I think the Brass Parrot would be a lovely spot for the reception. Very private with lovely views.

Congratulations and happy planning!

Well I will be married in Aruba this coming September. I expect about 40 family members and friends to attend. And according to wedding etiquette you DO NOT HAVE TO PAY for accomidations or airfare for guest attending a destination wedding. Exception being bridal party. Guest that are invited have the option to say that they cannot make it, so they are not forced to come if it is going to be financially difficult. The guest that are coming have no problem paying their own way as they will see it as a family vacation with the bonus of being able to share our wedding day with us. We emphasized to our guest that no gifts are wanted that their presence at our wedding will be gift enough. And for those who will not be able to attend the wedding, we will be hosting an at home reception with a big projection screen that will play our wedding ceremony so they don't feel bad about missing the event.

Congratulations on your engagement!

I would like to second Eileen's suggestion of the Hyatt at Dorado Beach. I was just at a wedding there and it was GREAT! We rented a townhouse really close by and it was very comfortable and very close to the Hyatt. We saved money staying at the townhouse(the groom's family actually rented the townhouse across the street so we were all close by). If you want information about the townhouse you can visit the site below. The area was beautiful and the airport is only 25 minutes away (no traffic).

Best wishes!

http://www.cyberrentals.com/Puerto-R...do/p158845.htm

travel ty. the wedding was in 2006

Woops! I got excited about the post after I did a search for "Puerto Rico" because I had just been to a wedding there

Well, maybe it will be helpful to other people who do searches. I did realize after the post that the hotel is no longer called the Hyatt and is now called Dorado Beach Hotel Resort & Club. Now it all makes sense!

Thanks "virginia" for keeping me in the right year!