Q: “I want to have my dream wedding at one of your beautiful resorts. My question is what kind of priest does Sandals Resorts offer? I would like to have an Orthodox or a Catholic one! Is this possible?” – Mihaela Mosinschi

A: “Hello Mihaela,

We are so excited that you have thought about us for your dream wedding at one of our beautiful resorts. As leaders in destination weddings, we want to ensure your day is a personalized celebration for two people in love. This one is a little lengthy but I really wanted to go over all of your options with us so please bear with me!

Mihaela, you have asked a very important question about the kind of wedding ceremonies that we offer with our Destination Weddings. At Sandals, we understand that this is a critical part of your decision making process and as such we have extended our offerings for various wedding ceremonies. You will find that there will be a variation of ceremonies by island and our team of pre-travel wedding planners will be on hand to give you much more details.

In the meantime, I will share the landscape of options that are available to you since our resorts offer both civil and religious wedding ceremonies.

I will start with your inquiry of having a Catholic Wedding. We offer resorts in Jamaica, St Lucia, Antigua, Bahamas and Turks & Caicos island, I am pleased to share with you that on all of these islands you do have the option of getting married at a Catholic Church of your choosing and then we will host the entire reception on the resort. The reception setting can be in the lush gardens filled with flora & fauna or on the beach with a panoramic ocean view; your choice!

Your first step in preparation would be made through your pre-travel wedding planner who will reserve your reception day; however the contact for the actual wedding ceremony details must be reserved by you directly with the Catholic Church listing for the island. There are some specific guidelines that the church will review with you and it will involve information from your parish to the proposed church for your wedding. Most Catholic Churches typically needs a minimum of at least 3 months notice prior to the wedding date to reserve your ceremony date and time. The Catholic Church will need to review all the documentation and confirm the agreed upon time for the church ceremony. We tend to work with reserving your reception approximately 1 ½ hours after the ceremony time at the church to give you enough time.

When you review all the details with your wedding travel planner, information required for the processing of the marriage licenses and all relevant documentation will be reviewed with you for us to take care of the relevant details that we are required to handle. There will be additional service charges and transportation fees involved with booking a Catholic Wedding, based on the island that you select; our dedicated pre-travel wedding planner will review this with you to make sure this goes as easy as possible.

I also have a unique and exciting option to also present to you which is specially offered at one of our resorts in Jamaica! Nestled on the resort at Sandals Montego Bay is a Chapel which allows you to host your wedding directly on resort in this beautiful intimately sized, quaint chapel. The requirements of making arrangements with a Catholic priest still applies; however this option gives you the combination of having your wedding in a resort setting at a chapel with all of the religious ceremony elements that are so important to you in the most beautiful environment. As it stands there is no other resort on the island of Jamaica that gives you that option.

Mihaela, now that we have spoken about the Catholic wedding, you also inquired about an Orthodox ceremony. I will venture to assume you are asking about conducting a Jewish Wedding Ceremony in our beautiful destination wedding setting.  At any of our resorts on the island of Jamaica we do have the golden opportunity for you to experience a wedding conducted by a Jewish Marriage Officiant.  All of our resorts have a selection of wedding ceremony canopies for you to have as your Chuppah and you may design the various elements of your Chuppah to that of you and your groom’s preference. Never fret, your pre-travel wedding planner will be able to share all the various décor elements that you may want to apply from fabric to floral options to design the Chuppah of your dreams.

Mihaela, we know that making a selection of the type of ceremony is very important to you and if you believe that there are more details you would like to review, our team is poised to answer your questions and take amazingly great care of you.

Rest assured, our offering of civil and religious ceremonies reflects our commitment to ensuring that your dream wedding day becomes a reality and we fully understand that ceremony options play a critical role. It also excites us to plan the reception element with you so it is unique and special as the love you both share!

We are looking forward to taking amazingly great care of you as you plan your wedding of a lifetime with us. Please visit us here so that we can begin!

Happy planning!”
-Marsha-Ann

Remember, if you have a question about having a destination wedding or about your own upcoming wedding, here’s how to ask our wedding expert:

1. Send your question to weddingmoons@uvltd.com.
2. Follow us on twitter @Weddingmoons and Marsha-Ann Brown on Twitter at @Marshaannb.
3. Tweet us your questions using #AskMarshaAnn and we’ll make sure she gets it.
4. Check us here at sandalsweddingblog.com every Monday to see if your question was answered by Director of Romance, Marsha-Ann.

It’s as easy as that! Whether it’s a question about color palettes, venue suggestions or wedding tips and ideas, Ask Marsha-Ann has got you covered!