SGOR Beach Brides?

[futuremrsp]

My fiance and I would love to get married on the beach at SGOR, but would like to know what that would look like and how other couples enjoyed their beach wedding. It will be just the two of us (and perhaps a stranger witness!), and we booked at the latest time available (4:00pm)

 

My reservations are the following:

 

-The beach looks small, so are we going to be right out in the open with all the sights and sounds of the beach?

 

-Many of the pics I have seen on the forum feature a gazebo location; what are brides' reasons for not choosing the beach?

 

-As of yet, I haven't been able to find any pictures of ceremonies on the beach.

 

I would appreciate any input, and especially pics!

 

Thanks bunches,

 

Sarah

[IrieBride08]

Hi Sarah,

 

I think that your beach wedding should be fine with just you, hubby and witness. The beach area is fairly small, but there is another more secluded part (near the scuba diving area) that I think would work perfectly fine. (I don't think you HAVE to choose the beach area that's close to the boardwalk.)

 

They used that area to host private romantic dinners, etc. and it's near a pool (that I used for my welcome reception) that around 4pm should be pretty quiet.

 

I chose to marry at the gazebo overlooking the ocean because I wanted to be close to the water, but not on sand. Plus, I had 40 guests and I think it wouldn't have been as easy to host that many people for a ceremony on the beach.

 

I wish I had some pictures! I'm kicking myself for not taking any, but I did have a girlfriend who married on the beach a year before me and her wedding was beautiful. Just her, groom and about 6 guests at sunset.

 

Hope this is helpful!

Gionne

[futuremrsp]

Thanks so much, IrieBride; that is most helpful! I think you're right; it will probably be just fine if it's just the two of us. I am a bit scared to get my dress dirty in the sand, as I'll have to wear it again for our reception back home, but I think I'm going to have to let that go and just enjoy it! (Hopefully it will clean up okay!)

 

I was thinking if we didn't really like the beach location, the pier looked nice too.

 

Oh one more question! Could you actually see the sun setting from the SGOR beach? Or just the colours? I wanted sunset, but they said 4:00 is the latest you can get married there.

 

Thanks again!

 

Sarah

[Lucky_Girl]

Hi Sarah,

 

One more thing to think about regarding the beach, depending on the time of day (and the shoes you're wearing) the sand might be hot

 

Take Care

Sylvie

[hollisandsteph]

I was also married at SGOR (a day or so after Iriebride! We actually ran into each other). My reasons for not choosing the beach is the lack of privacy. The Gazebo is not only pretty but private. I would have felt out of place getting married feet away from swimmers and sun bathers. Also you will have some water markers in the back ground. I think if I were to do the beach I would look into the scuba area like Iriebride said. I did actually see a wedding on the beach as we were swimming I felt awkward just being close by. It was beautiful there though. I ocean is a beautiful and the sand is soft and not at all hot no matter what time of day. Just to let you know too, at 4pm it is still going to be hot and humid but by the time we finished up with what the little reception and our pictures the sun at started to set. The sunset is not great (not horrible either though) from the Ocho Rios side. I was told if you want the beautiful sunset you have to go to Negril but SGOR has the better resort. We loved it and I would do everything all over again. If you have any questions or want some pictures. Here is pic from the general area of the beach weddings.

Here is the sunset from our room on the Rivera side.

I have another picture of the beach from the side I will post when I find it! I have way tooo many pictures..lol

Anything else I can help with let me know!

[futuremrsp]

Thanks so much for the info and pics hollisandsteph! That is most helpful. I saw a few of your videos on YouTube as well which was great! I was thinking I might even want to change my mind to the pier location...it looked really beautiful to be on the water and more private than the beach. I guess we'll just wing it and see when we get there!

 

Thanks again!

 

Sarah

[hollisandsteph]

OMG too funny! I love youtube but that was my husbands doing. He is such a dork (I say that with a smile). Before we left, I was on there all time looking for new videos of the weddings, the resort and even the room. I had sooo much trouble finding pictures of the room we were in. Now there are several. I just wanted to know what to expect. I am telling it is amazing any way you look at it! What side of the resort are you staying in?

[hollisandsteph]

We were looking at our youtube videos this morning and I noticed Hollis looks over toward the area Iriebride was talking about. You can see it is not very busy over there. Also if you look at the pier alone while we are walking on it, it is pretty quiet. When the Katamarans are leaving or coming it, it gets alittle noisy but other than that is quiet.

Here is the youtube link to that video if you want to check it out

YouTube - Sandal Ocho Rios

I love all this Sandals talk! It makes me want to go back really really bad!!!

[futuremrsp]

Yes that's exactly what I was looking at the other day! It looks quieter over there, definitely, but there's a lot of watercraft! The more and more I look at the pier, the more I think it would be a beautiful spot. My fiance was saying that it looks really quiet there in a lot of the videos, he said "where's all the people?" lol. I told them it's a HUGE resort with 2 different parts and I'll bet most of the people are at the pool or beach club! Where are the good hangouts? We're definitely going to want to party lol...romance and privacy sometimes, sure, lol, but lots of partying! We're people playing beach volleyball often?

 

Seeing the vids is just making me more and more excited to go there!!

 

We are staying on the Riviera side (our TA highly recommended it as it's closer to most amenities) in the Bamboo Grove building. It's a Rivera Deluxe room (pretty close to the bottom of the rung lol, but I'm sure it'll be great) I have looked everywhere for a picture or vid of the room but no luck!!

[IrieBride08]

The majority of my guests (including parents and sister) stayed in the Bamboo Grove Building and I will say that it is very picturesque. I'll see if I can post some photos for you when I get home tonight.

 

Yep, all this talk definitely makes me want to go back!