Turks & Caicos - NYC Brides Out There?

[KaraMae]

Oh my gosh, I need to talk to you! We are looking at doing our reception in front of Bay Bistro and would love any input you had! Are they good with allowing your own decor? And Did you have the reception on the beach in front of the restaurant? Do you by any chance have pictures? I'm so excited someone else did the same thing as we are planning!

 

We are not using a wedding planner so I'm doing everything myself. I contacted Bay Bistro a couple weeks ago and haven't heard back. I'd love any info you have to share! Thanks!

 

Kara
 

[CeCeJD]

Hi!! If Bay Bistro doesn't work out, try Grace's Cottage. We are having our rehearsal dinner there and the food is amazing. It is intimate and gorgeous. We are using Flowers by Environmental Arts for florals and Cakes to Di For for the wedding cake. Both are top notch.

[kabrooklyn]

Hi Kara!

 

 I am surprised that you would not have heard back from Joan at Bay Bistro/ Kissing Fish. She is usually really good about writing back promptly.

 

Yes, we had our reception on the beach in front of the restaurant. Our ceremony was also there and the staff just moved the chairs after the ceremony.

 

Kissing Fish was totally fine about us bringing our own decorations.  I brought cafe string lights and paper lanterns for the tents, table runners and chair sashes, purple vintage looking bottles that we put flowers in, starfish and sand dollars to spread out on the tables. We brought a wooden sign that ended up being really funny in lots of photos (people wearing it, etc) and I made a combo menu/thank you card (front and back). We brought a polaroid camera that we set up at the cake table for people to take photos for our guest book and our own cake cutter and forks.

 

We did not have an arbor or arch, but the beautiful ocean behind us was the most amazing backdrop ever.

 

I would say that the big thing I learned to pass on if you are not having a planner is to enlist the help of some of your family/girlfriends who are not in the wedding party. My Maid of Honor and I had put everything at the site for the ceremony late that morning, but since all of us girls were getting ready, a few things went awry...it was all fine but with other help it would have been better. For example, the programs I had made for the ceremony didn't get handed out and we had a knot-tying portion that the rope couldn't be found for (we tied chair sashes together) and it was cute and even comical, but could have been avoided.

 

I'm not sure where Grace's Cottage is but if you are having many of your guests stay at The Sands, which I think you were deciding on? then Kissing Fish is really really nice because everyone can easily stroll back and forth. The cabs there are so expensive and charge by the person, even for small children, so to take a 9 person van just a couple of miles is $100 plus tip. If you have 40 guests that would be about $900 plus tip to take them back and forth. Maybe there are less expensive options like renting a charter bus but def the cabs are pricey.

 

Happy Planning!

 

Adding a few photos here:

 

 

 

[envy1922]

I'm so glad I saw your post. I am also planning my wedding on the beach in front of Bay Bistro. I have a few questions. Did Kissing Fish staff help at all with the decor, i.e. hanging lantern? What time was your wedding? Was it dark when you cut the cake? And how hot was it? What DJ did you use?

 

Thanks!

 

Any information would be very helpful and congratulations!

[KaraMae]

Your wedding was beautiful! Just made me more excited. We only have about 12 people coming down so my wedding will be low key, which I'm really excited about. I've heard taxis are ridiculous so that's one of the reasons why we chose Bay Bistro - because The Sands is so darn close. How was the food at Bay Bistro? Were their prices a lot more expensive than the other nice restaurants around? I actually figured out that I had the wrong email address for Joan. I found the right one and she was super fast at getting back to me. So nice to have someone actually respond quickly! Did you feel like you needed the tent? We'd like to go without the tent because we're such a small party. But I'm worried about the possible rain!

 

One other question, did you have to purchase a full passport (book and card) or did you just get the card? There's a little confusion about that. I've been told we can just get the $40 card but others say we may need the full $140 passport. Yikes! I'd hate to get the card and get denied at the gate!

 

Thanks again for adding pictures! Gives me an idea of what it will look like.

Kara

[kabrooklyn]

envy1922...

 

Kissing Fish staff did help with all of the lights and lanterns and table decorations. We tied on all of the chair sashes late that morning. We got married in December, close to the shortest day of the year so our wedding started a little before 4, sunset was around 5:15 that day. It was dark when we cut our cake. William John was our DJ and he was really good, played all of the playlists we had made and was chill with a relaxed island vibe.  It wasn't really too hot in December until we started dancing and then Mike at Kissing Fish had the staff take down the one side of the tent that you see in the photo by the speaker to have it be more open.  

 

Check out some of my other posts which lists lots of details about our wedding and feel free to private message me if you have any other questions!

 

karamae...

 

You def need a regular passport, the passport card is not good for arriving by plane, only by boat. I'm glad you got in touch with Joan.

 

Is Bay Bistro more expensive is hard to say...have you been to Turks & Caicos yet?  I hadn't before our wedding and only went to Da Conch Shack one night (not worth the cab ride there) and Somewhere Cafe down the beach at Coral gardens which was yummy and reasonable. The food at Bay Bistro was good, everyone really liked it. I'm not a super foodie though and am allergic to shellfish and I don't eat red meat and we had both on our menu so can't say a whole lot personally about the food, except the fresh grilled catch of the day which we had at our reception was delicious.

 

Kissing Fish has all of their catering menus up online to check out. We did a modified version of the Island Bar-B-Que. Below is a picture of our menu that we had for the reception. The thing to remember with price if you do the beach bar-b-que is to add the catering costs on with the tax/tip, so an extra 41% for anything food/bar. So, a $50 meal/$50 bar for a person is actually $141. Plus if you do the beach, you have an extra $14 per person to rent their chair and plates and cutlery, plus $800 for Chef and Staff (1 bartender, 3 waitstaff) fees.  I am not sure if that is more expensive or not than other options on the island, I knew we wanted a fun beach party and decided early on that staying at The Sands and doing both our dinners at Kissing Fish seemed the best. We had our Welcome Dinner inside at Bay Bistro and the cost was considerably less without the catering, chef, staff, chair fees.

 

I do feel that the tent is key, because it kinda separates your wedding from the rest of the beach. It is a public beach and the restaurant and Sibonne Hotel are right there and with the tent it's a little more formal. Plus you are right about the rain...that would not be fun!

 

Take care, k

 

 

[nessi]

Hi I am a DC bride and we are getting married in Turks in Caicos in October. Does anyone have any DJ info??

[shannamarie]

kabrooklyn, thanks for posting all of the info and pics! I LOVE your tent and decorations!

My fiance and I are getting married Aug 2013 in front of Bay Bistro; Joan has been very quick to reply and very helpful with all questions. We are staying at the Sibonne with all of our guests. The hotel has great reviews and is budget friendly. We are using a planner, mostly because the paper work scared me a little and I wanted to make sure it was all handled correctly. How long were you on the island? Anything we must do while there?  

[KaraMae]

Originally Posted by kabrooklyn 

 

envy1922...

 

Kissing Fish staff did help with all of the lights and lanterns and table decorations. We tied on all of the chair sashes late that morning. We got married in December, close to the shortest day of the year so our wedding started a little before 4, sunset was around 5:15 that day. It was dark when we cut our cake. William John was our DJ and he was really good, played all of the playlists we had made and was chill with a relaxed island vibe.  It wasn't really too hot in December until we started dancing and then Mike at Kissing Fish had the staff take down the one side of the tent that you see in the photo by the speaker to have it be more open.  

 

Check out some of my other posts which lists lots of details about our wedding and feel free to private message me if you have any other questions!

 

karamae...

 

You def need a regular passport, the passport card is not good for arriving by plane, only by boat. I'm glad you got in touch with Joan.

 

Is Bay Bistro more expensive is hard to say...have you been to Turks & Caicos yet?  I hadn't before our wedding and only went to Da Conch Shack one night (not worth the cab ride there) and Somewhere Cafe down the beach at Coral gardens which was yummy and reasonable. The food at Bay Bistro was good, everyone really liked it. I'm not a super foodie though and am allergic to shellfish and I don't eat red meat and we had both on our menu so can't say a whole lot personally about the food, except the fresh grilled catch of the day which we had at our reception was delicious.

 

Kissing Fish has all of their catering menus up online to check out. We did a modified version of the Island Bar-B-Que. Below is a picture of our menu that we had for the reception. The thing to remember with price if you do the beach bar-b-que is to add the catering costs on with the tax/tip, so an extra 41% for anything food/bar. So, a $50 meal/$50 bar for a person is actually $141. Plus if you do the beach, you have an extra $14 per person to rent their chair and plates and cutlery, plus $800 for Chef and Staff (1 bartender, 3 waitstaff) fees.  I am not sure if that is more expensive or not than other options on the island, I knew we wanted a fun beach party and decided early on that staying at The Sands and doing both our dinners at Kissing Fish seemed the best. We had our Welcome Dinner inside at Bay Bistro and the cost was considerably less without the catering, chef, staff, chair fees.

 

I do feel that the tent is key, because it kinda separates your wedding from the rest of the beach. It is a public beach and the restaurant and Sibonne Hotel are right there and with the tent it's a little more formal. Plus you are right about the rain...that would not be fun!

 

Take care, k

 

 

Wow, not sure how I missed this! I actually priced out everything to have a reception on the beach at Bay Bistro and it is a bit expensive, but you only get married once! I think it'll be worth it too. We're doing a small tent, paper lanterns, DIY table decor, bonfire etc. We aren't having a cake, instead we'll do s'mores. We aren't the super traditional type so I think this will be right up our ally. 

 

I love your idea of menu and thank you cards together. So fun! Thanks for all the info, it was really helpful! I keep getting mixed messages about the dang passport. The website made it sound like the card was fine but I think we'll play it safe and get the whole shebang.

[shannamarie]

KaraMae- I am going back and forth with the bonfire and s'mores idea. We are getting married the first weekend in August and I'm just not sure if it will be too warm to enjoy it...