Airline:

US Airways

We had a very good experience with them. We flew a direct flight out of Philadelphia to Provo. Our flight was not delayed at all, no issues. The only gripe I had is that our plane did not have wifi or movies. Thank goodness my son had his DS and lots of coloring books. I have flown other airlines that had a lot more for you to "do". Also no free snacks provided. Only free beverages. Now for brides, if you ask the stewardess they will allow you to put your wedding dress in the small closet they have by 1st class,  but I happened to board after another bride and she had hers in there already. Of course I didn't want to be rude and smash mine in there with hers, so I put mine in the overhead bin, folded just once in half and only let my fiance put our other carry on in the same area and closed that overhead. No problems with that, my dress was fine :)

Provo Airport:

This is the smallest airport I have ever flown in or out of. You actually walk on the tarmac to board and unboard the plane. That was cool. Coming in, customs is pretty quick as long as you have your paperwork filled out and your passport in hand. We gathered our bags quickly and were on our way to the Beaches shuttle desk. The people working there are also very quick, look up your name (if you can't find it under your fiance's last name, try yours, everything was booked under my name), and then they put stickers on your bags with your room number, put the bags in the shuttle and off you go! The ride to Beaches is about 15 mins, not bad at all. For the trip home, I want to let you know, again, the Provo airport is SMALL, there were about 6 flights leaving around the same time, this is ALOT of people....checkin wasn't too bad, but then to wait for security, it was a LONG line OUTSIDE in the high 80s humid weather. We chatted with other couples in the line to keep us busy but we waited for about an hour before getting inside to the air conditiioning. Once you are through security, the terminal is TINY with all those people. There is a little "restaurant" that you can get food and drinks, barely anywhere to sit though, so be prepared....apparently the weekends is the worst time to fly in or out of the airport. We arrived on a Wednesday and left on a Saturday. So all in all, just be patient, don't get antsy and things will be ok :)

Beaches Resort:

I was a little frazzled when we arrived because we had 8 of our guests with us on the flight down and they were all staying in the French Village, my fiance and I were staying in the Caribbean Village. My son was staying in the French Village with my mom and future sister in law. So when they dropped all of them off at their village before me, I got a little anxious....there goes my 6 year old son, and I had no clue where or how to get in touch with them.....they dropped them off at their village lobby and then took us to the Caribbean Village lobby. We were greeted with cold towels and rum drinks. Everyone had a smile on their face and was very helpful. I kinda made my way to a chair clutching my dress with all my might, taking in the beauty of the lobby and the 1st restaurant we saw, which was Reflections. Then it all hit me....I am getting married here! The tears started pouring! LOL My fiance was taking pictures of the lobby while we waited to get checked in, and then we were greeted by a young fellow named Khambriel, who felt so bad to see me in tears! I assured him it was a little anxiety with my son being in a different village and also happy tears for the upcoming wedding. He was so sweet, helping us to get checked in and then introducing us to our wedding coordinator, Comaneci. She is a DOLL! She also saw me a little upset and eased my worries by letting me call over to the French Village lobby and speak to my mom. I felt much better than. She gave us a book for our wedding and told us our meeting time for the next day was 11:30am in the Italian Village lobby. We were then escorted to our room by Khambriel, who later asked us to please call him Kham. Let me tell you, if you get the pleasure of having Kham as your front desk person, you will be very pleased! He goes ABOVE AND BEYOND with everything, even little things, we were VERY impressed with him and will be writing a letter to his manager for sure! He took us to Room 273, which was the Premium Honeymoon Caicos room. Very clean, nice room. We had a king bed, as well as a day bed with trundle bed and a balcony. The only gripe we had was that the bathroom had a little "stinky towel" smell when we first arrived. We changed into our bathing suits and went down to tell Kham and he immediately had someone go clean and when we came back to the room the smell was gone and all was good.

We walked around the grounds looking for our other guests and found them between the Caribbean Village and the French Village and we all decided to get something to eat. We found Bobby D's which is in the waterpark area. All 10 of us gathered in there and had some burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches and such, they also have ice cream here. We were very impressed with how nice and always smiling the staff was.This day was very crazy and seemed to go really fast, so we didn't get to give out our welcome bags at that time... That night 1/2 of us ate at Schooners for a late night dinner. It was amazing! I got the risotto and loved it! The seafood was just great! The service was awesome and this restaurant is right by the beach so there was a nice breeze if you sit outside. Wear bug spray though! My fiance got a bite on his head and it blew up to be a pretty big size.

The next day was our meeting with our wedding coordinator Comaneci, so we had breakfast with everyone at Reflections which is a buffet restaurant.They have a really good omelet station. It was perfect for all of us with a little bit of everything. My son loved that he could pick what he wanted, a little bit of this, a little bit of that :)....We ended up having breakfast here alot. This is when we handed out our welcome bags. Everyone loved them! We wanted to make reservations for Kimono's (the hibachi restaurant) and you do this in your lobby, they have a special desk for it, and it's only open from 9am-4pm. We were able to get reservations for Kimono's that same night for 9pm for 16 of us.

Kids Club/Camp Sesame:

We then headed over to the Kids Club to get my son registered so he could have some fun while we were at our wedding meeting. I had heard it was tricky to find and also that no one was around, but honestly we didn't have much of a problem. For our son's age, he's 6, we headed to the waterpark area, right next to Bobby D's restaurant is the Xbox game garage, right across from that there are bathrooms and a Jungle Room, that is where you register that age group, in the Jungle Room. You will always see people that work there walking around, don't be afraid to ASK QUESTIONS, let me tell you, everyone knows where you need to go and are more than happy to help. I got him signed right up, make sure you have your child's passport, and then if the group isn't right there, they will tell you where to meet them. We had to take him to the beach at the snorkle station at 11 so he could go shell collecting. He was hesitant at first, but he ended up having a great time! They had 3 people with his group of kids and they were so sweet and helpful. I knew he was in good hands. Also make sure you pack your child a bag, with sunscreen, a change of clothes and if they have goggles or a swim assist (you leave this in the jungle room for them so they can change at lunch time) We found out that you can pick up and drop off anytime, they only take a break for this age group between 5-6pm and then you can bring them back from 6pm-10pm. They constantly have the kids occupied. We didn't do the night time til 10pm but it was nice to know we could. My son made alot of friends!

Wedding Meeting:

After breakfast we met with Comaneci and she took us to her office, boy was that a welcomed time to sit in air conditioning. She will warn you over and over about the sun there....and sure is she right, make sure you bring and wear and REAPPLY sunscreen. That sun is HOT! We signed a bunch of documents for her, went over a few details, tasted our cake, (we picked the rum cake, hands down the best!), picked the hors dourves (spelling??), picked the wedding music I would walk down the isle to, she confimed my hair appt at the spa for me,  and then we toured the areas where we could get married and have our cocktail reception. We originally wanted to get married on the beach, no question, but once we were there, and saw how hot it could get, we kept an open mind. We actually ended up picking the smaller gazebo by Schooners to get married in. It was shaded, more private and just perfect for us. We had 18 total people including us and it was PERFECT. The beach area is not private at all, they also tell you since it's a public beach they can't ask anyone to move either, and honestly we didn't like seeing how people didn't really care if you were getting married, they stayed where they were and even walked behind the area. And the larger gazebo is right next to Arizona's and their pool, which can be loud depending on the time of day you get married. We had a 3pm wedding. Next we chose our cocktail reception area. Comaneci had suggested an area on the lawn right next to the gazebo we were to be married in, she said they would set it up all loungy like, with the tables for the food and such, and we said that sounded great. The jacuzzi deck and other areas were already taken by larger wedding parties. They had 6 weddings taking place the day we were getting married, we saw this in the little newspaper that they publish just for Beaches. I wish we had kept the one that had us in it, but we forgot to grab it. Comaneci kept promising everything would be perfect, so we had complete faith in her. She then brought us back to the Caribbean Village lobby and showed us where the guests were to meet at 2:30pm at Turtles Lounge the day of the wedding. Now 14 days before the wedding we decided to add on the 1 hour private cocktail reception and rent the Ipod dock for 1 hour. This wasn't in their system since it was so close to the date, but she said that was fine. I am 99% sure I didn't pay for the sand ceremony before we left and we definitely didn't pay for it when we were down there. I think that was just a mix up since some things we paid for showed up and some didn't show. We picked our sand colors right at the end of the meeting as well. The meeting was about an hour to hour and 1/2 max.

After the meeting we hung by the pool at Arizona's and then got lunch there. They are also a buffet style restaurant, with an awesome Jerk station outside with chicken and pork. This pool ended up being our favorite with the swim up bar and the waterfalls and cave area. It's right next to the beach too.

Our best man, photographer, and aunt and uncle were arriving this day, so my fiance and I decided to meet them in their lobby and give them their welcome bags. It was perfect to greet them that way! We got to see where their room was and then let them know where to meet up with everyone if they wanted.  

Kimono's was awesome! The food was good, the service was great and we had Fortune Cookie as our chef who was SO entertaining! We all had a great time! If you are there for a short stay, make sure you get a reservation as soon as you check in so that you can experience this!

Day before the wedding the boys went off to do their own thing, which included alot of water sports and such, the ladies layed by the pool. The pools are awesome! We found that the quietest pool was the one right off the Caribbean Village lobby. Someone comes around and gets your drink orders, and it was just a really nice place to relax. The Italian Village pool is FULL of kids. Gorgeous, but too many kids for us. The French Village pool always has something going on.

Friday nights they have a Beach party....lots of fun with LOTS of food and entertainment. It's from 6pm-9pm. Our aunt and uncle went to Le Petite Chateau on this night and said it was the best time since alot of people go to the beach party so they got top notch service. We went to Le Petite another night and loved it. White glove service for sure. They will get your steak cooked at the exact temp you ask FYI. I was worried since I had heard that they overcook everything on the resort, but that is not the case at this restaurant.

THE WEDDING:

The night before the wedding I was supposed to stay in a seperate room from my fiance, but we last minute decided to stay together and have my son stay with us. The morning of the wedding we had breakfast together and then parted. I spent some time with my dad up until I had to shower for my hair appt. My hair appt was at 12 noon at the Red Lane Spa. I had my photographer (a friend of ours that we flew in) meet me there. My sister in law also came to meet me at the spa. I had Millie do my hair. I showed her a picture on my Ipad of what I wanted and she did an amazing job. It was funny cause I asked my sister in law for a mimosa and Millie said I shouldn't drink before the wedding because it will make my face red....she is right, but I told her I just wanted to one to celebrate the upcoming festivites ;) After my hair, we headed back to my room, photographer took pics of the boys getting ready and then came and took pics of me. Comaneci called me around 11:30am saying she was going to move our spot for the cocktail reception so that we would all be cooler. She promised it would be perfect, and since it was so last minute I just said OK! Wedding ceremony was supposed to be at 3pm, so the guests were supposed to be down in the lobby at 2:30pm...It was 2:55 and no word from Comaneci yet to pick me up....I was getting a little worried LOL....she didn't call my room to get me until 3:10....but I honestly was fine with that. She took me and my MOH down to our location in a golf cart. (little detail here....since we weren't doing a private dinner, just the cocktail reception, we had our favors, cake topper, and a few other little incidentals in a bag that I gave her right as we got on the golf cart, she set it all up for us with no question...and no charge, we didn't have any elaborate center pieces or anything like that, just a few things for them to lay on the tables) So she brought us down to the location, my fiance was turned around so that he couldn't see me, they brought my dad over to me, and then started my music.Where we had the cermony was perfect for feeling like I was walking down an isle. The spot was nicely shaded for the guests and we were perfect in the gazebo. The pastor was very kind, and a funny as well. The ceremony was PERFECT. 15 mins tops! We did the sand ceremony with us and my son. Then you go over and sign your documents, which they give you a notorized copy right there and will send the original in the mail. After the signing Comaneci announces that the guests have some time and then the cocktail reception will start at 4, dinner at 6 at Schooners. We had time for walking around for pictures, some guests changed. The cocktail reception was on the patio area in front of Schooners. It was perfect. They put up umbrellas and tables with the food, we had the one table for 8 people set up with the beautiful beginnings orchids centerpiece but there was plenty of room for people to sit around the edges of where we were, and we had a private bar to ourselves. Honestly I couldn't have asked for a more perfect time. We did our first dances and cutting the cake here. Comaneci was there for any question we had with a smile on her face....and Patricia who is another wedding coordinator was hanging around helping out and smiling as well. She had a wedding going on right next to ours. Then at 6 pm we went right there to Schooners for our reservation for 18 people. They had to break us up in two tables which I wasn't happy about at first, but the tables were right next to each other. The service was amazing and the food was top notch again. They served our cake for us after dinner. Our MOH and Best Man did their speeches during dinner. After dinner a bunch of us went to Turtles Lounge, but after such a long and emotional day, the newly weds decided to go to bed around 11pm. We returned to the room and found a voicemail that we had been upgraded to a Governor's 1 bedroom suite as per our wedding coordinator...A perfect, perfect day!

The suite upgrade was AMAZING! We had two seperate rooms, one was a sitting/living room area with a wet bar and fully stocked fridge with sodas, water, beer, wine and champagne. Also had bottles of our own rum, scotch,  vodka and other liquors. There was a TV in this room and a private patio, area, then the bedroom had a king bed with a big soaking tub and seperate sink area, then shower and totally seperate toliet. Also has a private patio area off the bedroom, so it was a 3 part patio and very secluded where we were. This suite was perfect for our honeymoon! I'm sure it would have cost alot more to stay in this one, but it was a welcomed upgrade! It was a concierge level room so we also got a free concierge cruise on Thursday night where they take out those guests and have some food, drinks and fun for an hour. It was very nice.

Other restaurants:

Cafe de Paris-I got coffee here almost every day. The coffee at the breakfast places is very dark. I like light and sweet, so my best bet was Cafe de Paris. The pastries and deserts here are AMAZING. You must try them.

Barefoot by the Sea-this is right by the Italian Village pool-we ate here on our last night and last morning. We had an awesome server named Liz that went above and beyond and even gave us hugs when we left. We got the tempura snapper and that was realllllly good. We had no clue they did breakfast or we would have come there more often. Its nice to sit with your feet in the sand.

Cricketers-We weren't too impressed with the food here, it was ok. My husband had the fish and chips so I decided to try it too. Not bad, just ok. We came here for a late night drink and play pool too, that was fun.

Guiseppe's-We ate breakfast here a few times. Buffet style. Also very good.

Bella Napoli Pizzeria-This is right by the Caribbean Village pool, AWESOME pizza, we ate this alot! They have a Beaches Calzone that was so good I got it twice. You can sit and eat here by the pool or you can take the pizza to go.

Gordon's Pizzeria- This is kind of hidden at the back of the Italian Village. We found it when we realized we were too late for lunch at all the restaurants...it's a nice little place to sit outside and have pizza, paninis, and any kind of italian stuff. We also found the Kids Grille here which had nachos...I was really happy to see this cause I love to munch on crunchy snacks and there aren't any snack foods on the resort.

Sapodilla's-We loved it here. This is right next to Reflections in the Caribbean Village. Adults only.The food was REALLY good, and we even had one of the servers bring us a complimentary sweet potato soup shot from the chef, that was so good!  Maurice was our server and he was quick and very nice. Omar was our Matre D and he went ABOVE and BEYOND to be sure we were happy. Omar also helps out as Matre D at Reflections in the morning.

Turtles Bar-We went here a few times, one night being the night of the wedding, it was a nice place to chill and have a few drinks.

Club Liquid-We went here the night before the wedding, and honestly I have no clue what time it was, but there were a ton of teenagers. They were all drinking age, but we danced for about an hour and then went back to our room. Some of our younger guests decided to stay and have fun, they loved it!

The only restaurant we didn't go to was Mario's.

We unfortunately had been stricken with the stomach bug that was going around the island.It was horrible. Apparently not only people at Beaches were getting it, but other resorts. It takes you a good 48 hours to feel better. If you happen to get it, there is a Nurse's station in the Caribbean Village and they will give you Immodium, Pepto, Drammamine...and we got Gatorade from the front desk.

Lastly, we did go off resort once to go horseback riding at Provo Ponies. We set this up before we left online. It was so much fun! I have a horse, but this was my husband's first time riding. You go in the water with the horses and everything. It was fun :) I highly recommend it! www.provoponies.com

All in all, we were beyond pleased with Beaches Turks & Caicos and will for sure return. A huge shout out to Comaneci, Kham, Omar, Liz, and Patricia. They made our stay even better! I wish we could come across the amazing service here in the states that we experienced all over the resort at every moment in Turks.