Q: “I recently got engaged and would love to get married at one of the Sandals Resorts since my fiance and I and all of our friends have had great experiences at Sandals Resorts! I have seen the wedding packages and wanted to have a reception. How does it work? I would like to have a couple tables for our reception with some appetizers, a dinner, open bar and maybe some music. Are these things possible? If so, how do I arrange them? Thanks so much for your help!”  – From Kara

A: “Congratulations Kara on your engagement!!!  I am so thrilled that you, your fiancé and friends have had some of the most wonderful experiences with us at our Sandals Resorts. I cannot tell you how much we love being apart of your entire journey of love!

So your big question is where do you begin to make such arrangements?

Well here are a few thoughts for consideration;

First Comes The Resort

The first thing I recommend you do is narrow down your Sandals Resorts choice. As experienced Sandals goers, I am not sure if you plan on revisiting the resorts that you have enjoyed in the past or if you have an island that you have a preference towards, so let’s lay out all the possible choices for a Sandals resort. Whether you choose Jamaica, St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados or Antigua in the Eastern Caribbean or the Northern Caribbean with the Bahamas- Nassau or the Exumas,  you certainly have an array of choices for the islands that we are located on. Take into consideration things like the flight time from your location to your preferred destination, time of year, local festivals taking place at certain times of year that you may want to attend and island and resort attributes to help make your decisions.  The Sandals website highlights each island where there are resorts to help you narrow down your choice.

Then Comes the Planner

Once you’ve decided on a resort, it’s time for the fun part- the planning! To get started you have two options; you can directly call our amazing pre-travel wedding team that will take great care of you or you can begin with WeddingMoons innovative on-line wedding designer tool that will inspire you into thinking of the various options that you will want to incorporate in your wedding. Everything design element that you can imagine above can be done! Whichever resort you have selected, a pre-travel wedding planner will be assigned as your guiding light to help to design your dream day.

As a bride you usually dream of your wedding in particular colours so we often start with that as your foundation. We have a dynamic selection from our colour palette offerings available Once your colour (or colours- select as many as you like!) is selected your wedding planner will then work with your elements to design and create the wedding of your dreams.  From floral options which can include your bouquet, your centrepiece selections to the décor elements which can include table linen, lanterns etc. and everything in between, we have a varying listing of wedding options for your to explore.  All these various elements your pre-travel wedding planner will discuss with you.

Of importance to you are your friends that will join you for your wedding. In your question you wanted to know about the reception and how those elements would be handled. Here is what is so very important, that you will love, at Sandals we believe in rewarding you with various amenities for your wedding the more friends that you have staying with us at Sandals. For example, if you have a booking of 10 rooms or more here are some of the amenities you will all get to enjoy; Private Pre-Wedding Celebration Dinner for the Group , 1 Hour Premier Reception with Hot & Cold Hors d’ouevres and Sparkling Wine for the Group, Commemorative Gift from Sandals Resorts for Each Member of the Group, Manicure and Pedicure for the Bride and 35 minute massage for the Groom etc.

Sounds exciting doesn’t it? If you want to pour over every single blissful wedding detail Kara,  you may visit our website here: www.sandals.com/weddingmoons/weddings/collections/group-weddings.cfm

We make planning all of the above as easy as 1-2-3, once all that is finalized, all we need you, your fiancé, and your friends to do is arrive on the resort and allow the other leg of our dynamic wedding team and the entire resort team to deliver your once in a lifetime dream wedding. Start singing “Going to Sandals & we’re gonna get married” ! Make that call, start the planning, we can’t wait to take awesome care of you.

May all your wedding dreams come true,”

-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!