*The official St. Lucia Brides CHAT thread*

You're quite welcome. I'm happy I finally have someone to share my knowledge with!

Here's the link for AA's group travel: https://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do...horEvent=false There are a couple of different options (group travel or wedding travel). If you're confused at all, just call them. Their customer service is generally pretty helpful.

A member PMed me asking about Villa Capri and some of my plans. I figured I would post my response since it may help another bride!

Hi there! I love when people ask me to pass on some of the information I've gathered. I still have a lot of planning to do since my wedding is 10 months away, but I will let you know everything I've planned.

Villa Capri: I chose this villa because both mine and FI's immediate families could stay there as well as our "wedding party." (We're not sure if we're officially having one.) I also thought it'd be a good place for the reception. We're planning on 40 guests so we should fit out on the deck area just fine. Also, Kris Wagner, the wedding coordinator, is so wonderful. If you haven't contacted her, do so! She's on vacation in Europe right now (she's from Germany), but she still answers e-mails pretty quickly. Obviously I'm trying no to bother her right now, but I'm sure she'd be happy to hear about a new inquiry. She's returning to St. Lucia on August 10th.

Events planned: The festivities will go from Thursday May 21st-Sunday May 24th. Here's the tentative schedule:

Thursday night (Most guests will arrive in the afternoon): Welcome BBQ. Not sure where this is going to be. I wish it could be on the beach, but I'm not sure if that's possible. I plan on having the cooks at the villa do this for us. We're going to have a birthday cake for my brother to celebrate his special day.

Friday: Sleep in. We'll probably have a pancake breakfast or something. Around noon, we're going to charter a catamaran. I contacted Carnival Sailing ( Carnival Sailing Home Page ) about a 1/2 half cruise. To charter the small boat that holds 50 people, the cost is $600. If they provide food and drinks, that is an additional $52 per person. I'm just going to have the cooks at the villa make up some sandwiches, snacks, and rum punch. We'll buy water and Piton (the local brew) and bring it on ourselves. Kris has a contact for another sailing company that's like 5 minutes away from the villa, but she doesn't think they do a half day sail. That evening, FI and I plan on going to the Jump-Up and anyone who wants to join us is welcome to. Otherwise, our guests are on their own.

Saturday: Wedding day! Not sure what exactly is going on yet, but FI is thinking of doing a guys deep-sea fishing trip while the crazy girls get ready. The wedding will probably be around 4:30 at Pigeon Island ($300 site fee). We'll take pictures there and then head back to the villa for party time! That night, FI and I will stay at another place, possibly Orchid Cottage.

Sunday: TTD! FI and I will get up really early for the pictures. We're undecided if we're having a brunch or not.

So that's the events schedule. For the travel schedule, I will be flying down Sunday May 17th with my parents. FI will fly down on Thursday May 21st. We're going to stay on the island until Monday or Tuesday (25th or 26th) and then we're going to Punta Cana.

For the reception, I'm hoping to hire the band Xtra Luv. We heard them last year when we stayed at Coconut Bay and just fell in love with them. They're hard to get, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. I really want a live band.

For the BBQ, we're going to hire a steel pan band.

We're still figuring out the food. We may have The Edge cater it, but I'm currently shopping around for a good price. One thing to be aware of is that the villa only has supplies for 25 people. So anything above that you will have to rent (plates, glasses, silverware, etc.).

For the flowers, I love ginger lilies, so I plan on making that my main flower. In fact, our wedding colors were chosen to specifically match that flower. I'll probably decide on that when I'm down there. I want all local flowers anyway. Some for the cake. I have some ideas of what I want, but will finalize everything the week of.

For photography and videography, I would check to see if Ray from Karay Media is available and Chris from Down the Isle (they often work together). I would've booked both of them, but I was fortunate enough to win both services on this forum from KLK Photography and Blue Sky Videos! I believe Kris often works with a photographer named Mikael, so there's another option.

I think that's it. Feel free to ask anything else!

Kristy,

Thank you so much. You have been veryhelpful and I am so happy to have found someone who has been to St. Lucia before and getting married there that can relate.

Are you all set yet? Have you ordered your favors, dress ,etc? Are you sending out wedding invitations? I hope I am not asking too many questions.

I am getting a little stress or I think I have too much time before the wedding. I am not getting the ooo.......... about where I am having my wedding, I was thinking of changing it and having it on Pigeon Island or a tropical Garden something different from what the resort has to offer.

How is Pigeon Island is the view and water beautiful? Is it the sea or ocean side? I was thinking of maybe going thru a wedding planner like tropical Alse for more detail and pricing. The only thing I was trying to avoid was not having my guest transport too much. I would rather have the ceremony and reception in one place. I really want it to be beautiful.

Pigeon Island is on the sea side. I've actually never been there. (I stayed in the southern part of the island when I went there last year. I've never seen where I'm getting married or Villa Capri!) If you want to see some of the views, go to Tripadvisor.com or just Google it. There are grassy areas, ruins from old forts, and of course the beach. You can see Sandals in a lot of the pictures on one side of the island, so that will give you an idea of how close it is. Windjammer is a little bit farther though

I understand what you're saying about transporting guests a lot. I'm trying to cut down on that too.

How many people are you hoping to have attend? Are you already booked with Windjammer? You sound like you're doubting your decision. If that resort doesn't have a WC, I would definitely recommend hiring one, otherwise you'll go crazy trying to arrange everything from so far away.

In response to "are you all set?" Hardly! I'm definitely on my way though. I have not purchased a dress (I've only gone shoping once and that was in January), but I haqve a good idea of what I want. Just waiting to shed a few more pounds. I sent out my wedding invitations on Saturday which I posted on here today. Our favors are going to be the OOT bags and we're going to make a donation to My Vision Foundation.

Don't stress out too much! Things will work out just fine, you'll see. Oh, and someone PMed me this morning about my plans. It's posted it on this thread (post #62). That may help you a little.

Kristy,

Thanks for sharing your plans. It sounds like you have this all planned out. Everything sounds good. I am sure your guest will be pleased. I am not there yet, hopefully soon.

As for me I will have about 25-30 guest. I am planning on having the rehersal dinner Friday evening on a private sunset cruise that the resort has to offer all food and drinks included, so that sound like a plan so far.

I know about the 10% discount, but I have another question, did you block off flight dates and locked in rates? Can you do that? How does that work?

I haven't decided yet on my flowers, etc. What does the Ginger flower looks like? Do you have pictures.

Have fun planning...

Thanks. I got engaged in December, so I've had some time to get all this together.

For the flights, we have people flying from all different cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Vegas, Columbus, and Washington DC), so we didn't block out seats on one flight. We did the wedding discount which is 10% off a round trip ticket from any airport to the wedding destination. It is valid for one week before your wedding date and one week after it. With a little negotiating, I got them to extend that a little bit, so they can be flexible. Just go to American Airlines' website and click on group travel. It's super easy to set up.

Now let's see, a ginger lily. Ah, here we are...

Not the greatest pics, but they'll work. I want to stick with all local flowers and I just fell in love with the ginger lily last year. It's not a typical wedding flower, but that makes it special to me!

I was in contact with Awesome Caribbean wedding too. I've heard some wonderful things about them. I didn't go with them since Villa Capri already has a coordinator whom I love, but if I had gone another direction I would've used them.

If you're worried about transporting guests too much, you can have the ceremony and reception at Pigeon Island. That woudl be a beautiful place for both of those events.

Hi. I'm a St Lucia Bride too and I looked into Villa Capri which is great because everyone could stay in the same location. I decided against going with VC because we want to get married in Soufriere and have our reception in Marigot Bay. I wish that there was a VC equivalent in Marigot bay.

I'm happy to see that there are other St Lucia Brides since we seem to be in the minority . I visited St Lucia this year and if you have never visited the island you are in for a treat. It is so beautiful and not overrun by tourists. I am using Awesome Caribbean Weddings as my wedding planner. Is anyone else working with them?