Planning a Destination Wedding

I always dreamed of getting married on the beach.  It was not a way to “elope” in the traditional sense of running off to get married without any family or friends around.  Quite the opposite–I just imagined being barefoot in the sand and sun–by the ocean with all my family and friends there.

I even made sure to go with an ivory dress so it wouldn’t look washed out in beach pictures.  Besides the beautiful environment, there are many benefits to a destination wedding.

Most resorts will do the basic wedding for free if a handful of your party stay at the resort for a minimum number of days.

You also have the option to upgrade to a larger party and can tweak the details.  In a gazebo or on the sand?  Live or recorded music for the ceremony?  Full dinner, or cocktail party reception?  And so on…

Most resorts have a wedding planner on staff.  This person does this all the time and will take care of everything.  No need to stress over any details.

Indigenous flowers in a tropical locale are incredibly affordable and beautiful.  Use this to your advantage.  This means you can get a LOT of great tropical flowers for a very affordable price.

We wound up, for a very awesome rate, getting married on the beach at the RIU Negril in Negril, Jamaica. We had 30 of our closest friends and family there, most of them for the entire week! It was a great time to get to spend time vacationing with everyone for longer block of time than we usually get to spend with them.

The staff at the RIU, from the wedding organizer, to the hair stylists,

the florist, wait staff, even the steel drum quartet were absolutely wonderful. The planner and I set up everything prior via email. My hubby and I filled out all of our legal paperwork for the marriage certificate before going down to Jamaica. She also arranged everything else with input from me. I didn’t even meet her until the morning of the wedding. My best advice, trust that your wedding planner will plan an awesome wedding.  Even if any details fall through the cracks, your guests won’t know it. Don’t sweat the small stuff!

My dad walked me down to the gazebo on the beach, where I kicked off my fancy shoes and met up with our officiant and soon-to-be-husband.

Don’t think for a minute that it wasn’t hot out!  It was, especially at midday in Jamaica. A steel drum quartet played during the ceremony and we had a champagne table ready for our guests after the ceremony.

 

Once our vows were exchanged, we were given a few minutes to mingle, then it was time for pictures. We used a resort photographer, who took some great shots of our day.

After pics were done, we bussed our crew over to Rick’s Café to kill time until our reception dinner. We munched on appetizers and partook in some Red Stripe before returning to the RIU for dinner.

Our dinner was wonderful.  I had the rib-eye steak and hubby had the shrimp. But even better was that all of our friends and family were there.  I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

If you’re considering planning a destination wedding, with a little research and a good wedding planner, you can have the day of your dreams while still keeping your sanity.

Everyone Should Meet a Paul

 
Everyone should be so lucky as to meet a Paul.  I originally met Paul a few years ago in Jamaica.  He was the lifeguard manager at a resort. I was there with my friend Sara and Paul had told us that if we needed a driver to take us anywhere, we could hire him.  From past experience, I knew that having a friend to drive us in Jamaica is really the way to go.  With a driver, you get to experience a little more authentic interaction of the culture, you don’t pay exorbitant rates just to run to the craft market, you have someone who will help keep you safe, and if you’re lucky, you end up with a Paul!
We hired Paul to take us over to Rick’s Café to watch the divers and catch the sunset.  If you’ve never been to Rick’s Café you HAVE to go.  It’s one of my favorite places in the world and the best place to view sunset in Jamaica and enjoy a cocktail.

Paul advised us not to order dinner there.  He said since it’s a tourist attraction, they charge high prices for the food and he would take us somewhere else for dinner.  After the sun set over the sea, we left Rick’s and Paul took us to a local restaurant called Sweet Spice.
IMG_0710Talk about one of the best meals I have ever had!  I had a bowl of seafood (fish and shrimp) in broth with a side of rice and peas.  It was a huge amount of food for the $10 US I think it cost.  If you stick with the local foods in Jamaica instead of stuff that has to be imported, the prices are very reasonable.  After leaving Jamaica that trip, I kept in touch with Paul via WhatsApp which is a free way to text, talk, and video talk for free.  Actually, it’s more fair to say Paul kept in touch with me.  I’m a little slow on some of the technology.  But, all you need is an internet connection and you can forget about paying those international fees ever again.
My next trip to Jamaica was a year later with my hubby, who was still my boyfriend at the time.  We stayed at the Grand Palladium again (I do love this resort and highly recommend it) where we got to see Paul a little bit while he was at work.

Later, I asked Paul to take us over to Rick’s for the evening and he said he was nervous about meeting my boyfriend.  What if he didn’t like Paul?  Well, what if he did?  AND HE DID.  Those two guys hit it off and we had a blast at Rick’s Café.  We partook in a few Red Stripes (I prefer Light) and watched the divers followed by another incredible sunset.  Paul got us back to the Palladium just in time to get to the beach party and he headed for home which is right next to a small town called Lucea.

Fast forward a couple of years and my boyfriend was now my fiancé.  We had decided that we wanted to get married on the beach in Jamaica.  Since Paul is not supposed to fraternize at the Grand Palladium because he works there, we decided the wedding would be at the RIU Negril so Paul could join us.  Upon our arrival, Paul was waiting for us at the RIU Negril lobby.  He had brought gifts for some of the wedding party and knew I had some shopping errands to run.  He drove us all over Negril to get the local items that I still needed for the guest’s gift bags and even negotiated a good price on some pints of Appleton Rum for us.  Paul was able to take off work for 3 days to attend the wedding and stay at the resort with us.

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He also arranged for a bus to take our entire group of 30 to where else?  Rick’s Café.  Have I mentioned that I really like that place?

On one afternoon that it rained, Paul drove us over to see his house.  We were amazed at his house–it looks just like a Jamaican beach house should.  Paul was also building a villa across the road and wanted us to see.  It’s going to be beautiful when it’s complete!  Of course, building anything in Jamaica takes a lot longer than here, so it will be a while.  It will have 4 suites that Paul hopes to rent out to vacationers.
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Fast forward a couple more years to this past winter and Paul got to come visit us for a few days!  In Missouri, right in the middle of the US, right after Thanksgiving while it was drab, dreary, and cold.  Paul’s not used to this kind of cold and thankfully, he had a big, winter coat with him.

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Paul and Kathy

We picked him up from the airport, and went straight to the St. Louis Galleria so he could do some black friday shopping.  From there we headed out to the Trainwreck Saloon where a number of our friends from the wedding trip came out for a welcoming Happy Hour.  We stayed in St. Louis overnight, and left for our home in Columbia, Mo, the next morning.  That afternoon we had fun hanging in the kitchen with Paul and our neighbors and friends.  He made a delicious curry shrimp dish to go along with the turkey our neighbor had deep-fried, and we had a huge meal and excellent conversation.  It was real eye-opener to hear about all the hoops Paul had to jump through to get his passport and visa to come visit and how much of his salary he had to save for his travels.  Our process and travel from here are so much easier I think we take our options for granted.  After dinner, the conversation turned to Jamaican music, patois, and politics.  Carlie learned some patois words and thought that was really cool!  She can now ask you Wah Gwaan (What’s going on)?  But you’d better answer Mi deh yah (I’m here)!
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The next morning, Paul got to have two new experiences of his own.  It began snowing here which is the first time he’s ever seen snow other than in movies.  He said that the snow is much colder than it looks in the movies.  Later, my husband took him out to the shooting range where he and Paul had some fun shooting targets.

Being able to share experiences and friendship with Paul have been life changing.  He’s planning to come visit us again in November if we don’t get to Jamaica first.  He’s better than our friend now.  We consider him family.