Need help picking a destination!!
 

My fiance & I are planning a destination wedding in the Caribbean - BUT neither one of us have ever been to any of the islands, so we don't really know what might be best suited for what we want!?

We are thinking that it will be about 40-50 people coming with us for a long weekend (Thursday to Sunday). We want somewhere that is affordable and easy enough to get to from the States, but still nice and tropical to have the whole wedding there. We also want a place that offers a variety of different activities for us and our guests while we are there...

For the wedding ceremony and reception, we are thinking directly in the sand and super casual, but still a full reception.

After the wedding weekend, we will stay for our honeymoon, but not neccessarily in the same place - as we are willing to splurge for the honeymoon!
I am looking for any suggestions and help!!

Thanks!

When are you planning to get married? From which market will most of your guests be flying? Do you want an all inclusive?

We are looking at May-June 2012. Most of us will be coming for the New York, Connecticut area, but some from West coast and some from DC area.
I have no preference for all-inclusive or not - just cost- effective.
If there is a place that offers rooms/ apartments for a group of people, that would be great too!

I am a Bermuda fan and that would be a perfect time to be there. Txgirlinbda, who posts here frequently, was married at the Reefs and her pictures were fantastic. I hope she will see this and give you some counsel. Coco Reef or Surfside could also offer a wedding option for you there, but I would say Reefs is the first choice. If there is an interest there are apartment rentals and house rentals available on www.bermudaaccommodations.com and www.bermudagetaway.com

The whole island of Bermuda is a wonderful destination. It is small with many options for activities.

Best wishes on your wedding.

Turks and Caicos. Lots of condos/apts. for rent on the beach on VRBO website.

www.atlantis.com

or

Marriott.com Franchmen's Reef St Thomas

CaneelBay.com for a great HoneyMoon

water will be quite chilly in Bermuda

in May might skip that go for the warmer waters of

Virgins my fav.... betterbidding.com great deals

Might also look at the Westin St. John Gallows Point

maho.org and vrbo.com work for budget

www.spg.com also would be nice.

Good connexions by air down on AA.com Spirit.com

Congrats!

Bermuda would fit a lot of your requirements except the affordable part. I'll be more than happy to give you any help I can (lived there for 4 years), if you decide to look closer at Bermuda. Also, an actual budget would be very helpful to us, for instance, what do you want to spend on hotel rooms? How much do you have to spend on wedding/reception? Flight budget?
As a rough guide, we did a very simple ceremony on the water, (just us, our parents and witnesses), wedding package included services of wedding planner, minister, license fee, photographer for two hours plus a cd of the pics, my flowers, a small cake, corsages/flowers for five others, dinner for seven, hotel room for us one night, open bar and canape reception 4 hours about 40 people. Total bill was just shy of $5k. Did not include extras like hair, makeup, pedi, flights, anything else. Hope that helps.

I am a wedding photographer so I have been to many weddings. A lot of the Caribbean can be a little hard and expensive to get to, so I suggest the Cancun area of Mexico, playa del carma etc.. There are a lot of great hotels great day trips for all the guests to choose (good for guests to have some private time) try to negotiate a honeymoon with the hotel, they will sometimes include this and you could do it at a different property that the chain owns in another part of Mexico. Let me know if you have any questions [email protected]