Wedding, Buyout preferred
 

Wedding planning in the early stages, for mid-2015. Most guests flying in from either Canada or the UK, Caribbean or really anywhere with great beaches and weather. We've even tossed around thoughts on Egypt/The Mediterranean

In my dreams it's a private island resort buyout, not necessary for AI but that would be nice. The problem is that most I've found on my own are too small. We may be looking at around 200 or more guests. HUGE family alone, so even paring down the list can't get us below 100 for some of the attractive venues I've found...and I really don't want to go small just for that reason.

We have a generous budget, so I'm not afraid to investigate some of the higher end options. (Did I put that delicately enough?)

Ideas?

possibly
http://scrubisland.com/
http://www.bahamabeachclub.com/index.htm

As you are finding out most "private island" resorts in the caribbean cannot accommodate 200 guests as they tend to be more "intimate" type resorts. Add to that the fact many of the regular contributors on this forum don't really know how many "rooms" a specific resort might have only adds to difficulties in making specific recommendations so you may get resort suggestions which, while being very nice venues, may not have the facilities your group require.

I'm guessing that with a guest list of around 200 you are going to need a resort with at least 125 rooms and maybe as much as 175 rooms. That presents another problem - say you need 125 rooms but the resort has 200 rooms - a complete "buyout" will mean you are going to be paying for rooms you won't actually be using or if you just purchase the 125 rooms you might end up having people other than those in your group staying at the resort at the same time. You'll have to negotiate those aspects with the resort. One thing in your favor is "mid-2015" is slow season in the Caribbean so resorts are rarely full - thus it may be possible to book 125 rooms at a 200 room resort and get management to agree not to book the other rooms.

Without making any guarantees the resorts will have enough rooms you should look at the following resorts (some are not "Private Island"):

Jumby Bay, Antigua
Little Dix Bay, Virgin Gorda, BVI's
Amanyara or Parrott Cay, Providenciales (Turks & Caicos)
Four Seasons, Nevis
Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI's
Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic
Palm Island, Grenadines

Thanks! I had already considered the fact that we'd probably have to pay for a certain number of unused rooms, so that's something I've already decided I'm willing to do, within reason, for the right place. It really is a difficult number to work with for a destination wedding. That's why we're just about willing to go anywhere warm to do so. My fiance is in Egypt as we speak and fallen in love with a resort there, but he'll change his mind again before he gets home guaranteed...lol...so I'm not worried about rigid location specifics.

Thanks for the ideas, I saw Parrot Cay and it could be a contender...will check the rest.

Cheers!

I can't think of a single private island resort in the Caribbean that could accommodate even 125 rooms worth of guests.

Sandals Emerald Bay on Great Exuma has 183 rooms (it's in the Bahamas). It's isolated enough that it would give you a private-island experience. But the resort is couples-only.

But if you are talking about a buy-out of a rather large resort, how long would this be for? Someone once bought out Round Hill for a wedding and Tiger Woods bought out Sandy Lane in Barbados, but they were spending a few million dollars on their weddings.

The private "island" idea is the perfect world thought, anything secluded would be good. Couples only is a problem...large family full of umm...large families. My fiance is one of 10 children and most have followed suit in varying degrees!

Most guests would be footing their own bill for rooms, but we'd have no problem covering the cost to buy out and sorting that. We're probably talking about a three night weekend stay for most. We were all ready to set an actual date when we fully intended to be married in London...but then he said "wait..." and now we're looking at locations. Sigh. So we're now at 'where before when' because of season issues etc.

Have you looked around Bermuda? Seems convenient for UK and Canada guests.

Location wise it would be, yes. I'll check it out, thanks.