Kelly's Beaches Turks and Caicos Review

[kelly1214]

First, can I say how thankful I am for this website?!?! I would’ve lost my mind if it wasn’t for the other brides on here. My sincerest appreciation goes out to all of you.

 

The Resort- while reading this you have to remember that I don’t travel very much. I don’t have many travel experiences to compare it to and this was my first all inclusive resort.

 

Customs and Check-in was very hectic because two planes had landed back-to-back so there were tons of people in the lobby of the airport and at the resort. It took about an hour and a half from the time we landed to get into our room.

 

The resort was a little confusing to understand based on the maps. Go on a tour (9 am and 4 pm daily). It’s easier to get around after that. The grounds itself were beautiful- the flowers are wonderful, the beach is well kept, everything very clean.

 

Our room #314, a Jr Honeymoon Suite, was very nice. The décor was wonderful, loved that there was plenty of space to relax. Sterling loved the mini-bar in our room. One negative was that we had ants in the bathroom but that was kind of our fault. Sterling poured a drink down the sink and didn’t rinse the sink out.

 

The food was pretty good. I think someone else said it on here that almost everything was good but there wasn’t too much that I needed to have again, except the mixed potato soup at Sapodilla’s. It’s not on the menu but ask for it. It was awesome! I really enjoyed trying foods I normally wouldn’t eat in the States like ostrich. Barefoot was probably my favorite restaurant. Service was a little slow but I’m used to the hectic USA way of life where I always am eating on the run. It took me a little while to get used to just leaving after I was done eating too. No waiting for a check!

 

I don’t really care for swimming so we didn’t go to too many of the pools. We spent most of our time on the beach. The sand and ocean were one of my favorite parts of the trip. They were wonderful! Some times of the day were pretty crowded on the beach but we could always find chairs under an umbrella.

[kelly1214]

Wedding planning- Sterling and I booked the end of August for our May 14th wedding. Nicole Gridley from Liberty Travel in Harrisburg, PA was our travel agent. She was wonderful. I really recommend working with a travel agent. She got answers faster and with more clarity than I did.

 

We invited immediate family to join us for the wedding. There were 17 of us total- 15 adults, a 6 year old and a two year old.

 

We had Monica for our wedding coordinator in Miami. I was very frustrated with her. My husband had requested to get another coordinator because of the lack of communication with us and the fact she called me the wrong name! But we were told we couldn’t because she was the only one for that resort. After our phone call a couple weeks before the wedding, we decided to wait until we got to Turks and Caicos to make the final decisions on anything.

 

OOT bags- I got gift bags from the dollar store in them I put: canvas bags that said “Turks and Caicos May 2010” and had a picture of an island scene for the ladies- Chrissy (Girasole) lives really close to me and she sold me her extra bags. For the guys we got conch shells from the island. Sterling wanted to get them beer mugs that said ‘Turks and Caicos’ but we couldn’t find anything down there. I also included tide- to- go, bug spray, suntan lotion, and hand sanitizer. For the two girls, I went to the dollar store and got a pail and shovel, sand molds, beach ball and inner tube. They loved the inner tubes.

 

Patricia was our wedding coordinator at the resort. She was wonderful. She has a great attitude and is very helpful. She kept us laughing. We went with the beautiful beginnings package. I brought my own flowers. I took Meaghan’s idea and went with clay flowers from Etsy’s: Etsy :: Clay Rose Wedding Bouquet, Custom Made for Kelly I absolutely love them. They made it there okay.

 

I got a massage, a manicure and pedicure the morning of our wedding. The massage was very relaxing and wonderful. The mani/pedi were good. I’ve had better, but I’ve also had worse. The polish lasted a long time. It’s been two weeks since the wedding and the polish is just starting to chip off.

 

Our wedding time was supposed to be 4 pm. Around 2:45 it started raining which pushed the 3 pm wedding back and in turn ours too. It wasn’t a big deal though. I was surprisingly calm. Our ceremony started about 5 pm.

[kelly1214]

I wrote the ceremony out because one of the women I work with got married in Jamaica last year and she said she was disappointed because her pastor didn’t elaborate on the things she requested. We had Pastor Howell. He was very nice and did a great job.

 

We brought our own sand ceremony because we didn’t like the one they had pictured in the catalogue but turns out when we got down there, they had the exact same one as we did. Add to Cart

They charged us $100 for the set up fee for that. I thought I had been told $50 before but I guess I was wrong.

 

We got married on the beach by Schooners. It was a very nice location for the time of day. That can be a busy part of the beach during certain hours but at 5, it wasn’t busy and we were pretty much left alone.

 

We did the 30 minute reception afterwards in one of the gazebos. Sterling and I and two guests were included in the wedding package, we had to pay for 11 adult, 1 child, (2 year old was free). We also paid $100 for an extra table to be set up. We chose the rum cake for the top layer and vanilla layer for the bottom. The rum cake was delicious!

 

We also did the first dance, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance at the reception. We had plenty of time to do everything. The 30 minute time limit is only for the servers. They leave after 30 minutes. You can stay there for longer than that. As a gift at the wedding, we gave our guests small candy jars that we had printed with “Sterling and Kelly May 14, 2010 Turks and Caicos” and a small picture of a palm tree on it. We filled them with sand from the island.

 

We decided to go to Barefoot by the Sea for dinner after our reception. It wasn’t hard to get us all seated together. We had two tables right beside each other.

 

Video- we did the $300 raw footage DVD. They did a good job.

[kelly1214]

Photography- This was the biggest disappointment and also the best part (besides getting married) of the trip. We used the resort photographers for the ceremony because third party companies are not allowed on resort. We met our photographer on Tuesday during the meeting with the WC. We told her that we wanted her to do photographs of the ceremony and reception. We were going to do trash the dress photos with Brilliant by Tropical Imaging (review to follow) three days after the wedding. We had to purchase a small package to ensure that she would be there the entire time. She seemed to be a little annoyed that we were using TI. Looking back, I wouldn’t have told her we were doing TI.

 

Day of the wedding- The photographer called around 3:45 and asked if I was ready for her. I didn’t have any bridesmaids and only wanted a couple pictures in the room. So I didn’t need her to be there very early. I told her that since it was delayed due to rain, I would give her a call back when Patricia said she was coming up for me. When Patricia called, I call the photographer right away. Patricia showed up to my room 5 minutes later. The photographer called about 5 minutes after that saying she was on her way- she went to the wrong part of the resort? She got there about 10 minutes after Patricia arrived. I was a little annoyed that we had to wait for her. The rain delayed things long enough; I wanted to get the show on the road!

 

The photographer was rude during the family photos. She kept yelling at the men to put their hands in their pocket s for the photos. I think she was annoyed because my family took photos of us while she was. She kept yelling at us to look at her and tried to get us to switch poses quickly so that our families couldn’t take the same poses she did.

 

Looking back, she wasn’t the rudest person I ever had to deal with. But compared to the rest of the Beaches employees, she was rude.

 

Her photos were okay. We ended up purchasing 13 of them. We had to purchase the group picture on CD ($20 extra) because their editing equipment couldn’t print the image correctly. The images couldn’t be resized and the 8 X10 size cut my sister out of the picture. The 5x7 was better but we wanted it larger. So we purchased it on CD and are going to print it at home. My photos are still online until the middle of June. Send me a PM with your email address if you want me to email you the link.

 

Advice for future brides: purchase a small package (the 8x10 package) and purchase whatever else you want separately when you get home online.

 

Brilliant by Tropical Imaging- we did ‘trash the dress’ photos with them 3 days after the wedding. Words can’t describe how much fun I had and how thrill I am with the photos. A small portion of them are listed on their website: http://www.brilliant.tc/2010/05/red-cross/ David did a wonderful job. Besides the pictures being breathtakingly amazing, it was so much fun to get off of the Beaches property and see the private parts of the island. Sterling’s not very photogenic but he looks so cute in the pictures and David really brought out the fun side of him. I’ll definitely cherish the photos for years and years to come. Hands down, it was one of the best parts of the trip. I 100% without any hesitation would recommend using Brilliant by Tropical Imaging to anyone wanting pictures taken in Turks and Caicos.

[kelly1214]

Other stuff-

 

If the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign isn’t up on your door, the staff will come in. They’ll knock first but not wait for an answer. So save yourself some embarrassment, use it.

 

Before you go, sit down with your fiancée and decide what you two expect of the trip as far as spending time with family/friends and each other. Make sure you communicate that with your guests.

 

Use bug spray. We counted 38 bug bites on my legs at one point.

 

There you go… PM me if you have any questions.

[Cindy*]

Congratulations Kelly! Your photos are great. You were a beautiful bride!

[JENISE]

Congrats Kelly. Your TTD pictures are beautiful. Loooove your funny face picture. Lol. Just goes to show how mych fun you really had during the shoot.

[*Meagan*]

Congrats! Helpful review!

 

Funny we did no encounter any bugs!

 

Clay flowers came out awesome!

 

Nice TTD pics! love tropical imaging!!

[sorord1]

Congratulations! I love your TTD photos!

[AishaB]

Sounds like it was wonderful. Thanks for the review!