Upcoming wedding at Beaches Turks & Caicos!

[jburress21]

When we have stayed at sandals we have seen several wedding taking place but have never seen that wedding in process sign- but then again we tried to stay away from the ceremony which I think most people do. Flowers are still up in the air for me I saw a really pretty bouquet made from silk ribbonso I tried making it and its not to hard. I'll post a picture. The fan idea would be cute too. We haven't decided on what we are doing about a bridal party yet. We may not have them walk down the aisle (to save them the costs of buying bridesmaid dresses) - we have no idea haha I really like the parasol idea! Did you buy them from beaches and how much were they? I think it would look really nice. My colors are just a light blue and white. How many people are you coming to your wedding?

[bromadka]

We are having 29 guests so it's 31 including my fiance and I. We are fortunate enough to have 10 plus rooms booked which gives us numerous incentives while at the resort.

 

My colors are similar to yours! Teal and white!!

 

We ordered the parasols from the Beaches website. We only ordered a dozen (white) because we aren't sure how many people will actually use them. Once we get to the resort and we can gage the weather, we may order more. If it's supposed to be overcast the day of our wedding we'll probably just stick with the dozen. If it's supposed to be brutally sunny, we will order more. I think it gives the wedding a nice touch. They were $20 a piece. We could probably get them cheaper online but the hassle of shipping them and making sure they arrived and/or taking them on the plane, it was worth it for us just to pay the money.

 

The silk ribbon bouquets are beautiful. There is another bride I saw on this site who had her bouquet made out of clay. It was gorgeous. She had it shipped to the resort and luckily all went well with the condition of it when it was delivered. I considered making my bouquet but with the amount of things we're already bringing, we felt it was better to pay the money. I'd be worried about keeping the bouquet in good condition.

 

I did not want a wedding party! My fiance did however, so I lost that battle. It's a true pain in the butt in my opinion. I have two bridesmaids and he has four groomsmen. Trying to get a dress that works with my girls' body types was no easy task. Then trying to match the colors of the girls' dresses with the boys shirts..not fun. One of the groomsmen is on the heavy side (which is an understatement) so he has to custom order a shirt that fits him. Just madness. I was worried about the cost for them too. We got the dresses from David's Bridal and they were about $125 I think. If you can go without a wedding party I highly recommend it!!!

 

We decided to forego a DJ for our reception. My girlfriend who was just married there did this and she said it was the best decision they made. They created a playlist on their ipod and just ordered speakers. Because it's a smaller crowd (given it's a destination wedding) there really isn't a need for a DJ to emcee the reception. Depending upon where your reception will be, there isn't a lot of room (including dancing room) in the pavilion. So we are doing the same thing. The DJ is rather expensive so it felt good to save the $1400! We decided to have a steel pan player for the first hour of our reception (during dinner). Another idea we thought was neat for the islands. Just a thought I wanted to pass your way.

 

:-)

[Kel123073]

Hiii I am not getting married at beaches in turks, but came across your thread and we are dealing with the same issues.  Not sure about the DJ thing.  I love your idea of having the live music and then a playlist..... We are going to consider that its a great idea!

 

As far as flowers, I am awaiting quotes from my resort.  It is frustrating, I worked in a florist years ago and decided to give it a try with the bouquets and I think I am going to make the girls....Mine are included but it seems like such a waste of money for a few minutes!!! especially when I can do it!

 

best of luck and thanks for the ideas!!!

 

kellly

[bromadka]

Hi Kelly!

 

Where is your wedidng?

 

Yeah, the flowers are a huge expense. When I saw the ideas with the fans I jumped on it! I have seen a lot of gorgeous bouquets on pinterest that are articifical. They don't look artificial at all. That was going to be the way I went if I didn't do a real bouquet.  

 

Because we have saved with other things for the wedding, we've also been able to have a calypso band for an hour. Just to give you an idea, here's how it will go as far as music at our reception: one hour steel band during dinner ($600). Dinner APPARENTLY runs two hours (I can't imagine that but we'll see). So after the steel band is finished, we are planning on doing an hour (or so) of music on our playlist. That way, we can do our cake cutting, first dances, etc to our own music. During the third hour of our reception we are having a calypso band play for an hour ($600). After that we will have one hour left of our own playlist music. Our reception is a total of four hours. So we will have two bands and we still won't be paying as much as we would have for a DJ ($1400). It's worked out really well. We figured it's an island wedding so why not take advantage of the island music. We saved by not having them play for longer than an hour. It will give us a taste of that music for an hour and then we can have our own music from our playlist. All we had to do was order speakers in order to have our playlist. Done and done.

 

Hope this helps!

 

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask!!

 

~Brandy

[Kel123073]

Hi Brandy,

 

We are getting married in Punta Cana, DR.....  the reserve at paradisus palma real.....Love Love Love all your plans with the live music!!!  That will be amazing, such an authentic experience!!!!  Actually as I am looking at your pricing we kind of lucked out.... ours is definitely less, but they don't ofer a steel band because I would totally opt for that!  I guess there are trade offs....lol  They just got back to me with quotes on bouquets and not bad....so maybe we will acually go for the real.....$45 for callalillies bouquets for each girl....not sure if I spelt that correctly...sorry

 

You are going to have an amazing wedding for sure.... A lot of the surgeons I work with travel to beaches in turks and caicos every year with their families and can't say enough about how amazing it is!  I also have a friend who attended a destination wedding there last year and loved it!  We were torn when making our choice because the airfare is usually higher to turks and a little less in DR.  But this year the airfare is very high to DR overall...oh well

 

We have been to Turks and Caicos and there is no place like it! and as a side note.....if u can go off resort to the Rum Bar.....it is an amazing afternoon!!!!!  

[bromadka]

Hey Kelly!

 

Loved your response. I honestly can't get over at how much my bouquet is compared to yours. Makes me crazy! I'm still considering an artificial bouquet and just taking it with me on the plane. $450 is a lot of money for just a 20 minute ceremony.

 

My best girlfriend got married in Punta Cana!! I was living in California at the time and wasn't able to go but she had an absolutely wonderful experience. Her pictures were insane!! Just a totally gorgeous place!!!

 

Surgeons you work with? What line of work are you in? I'm a speech therapist and work in a school with the little guys (Pre-k-5th grade). I really wanted, but just couldn't, do the hospitals. I was born with a pregnancy nose and I literally almost passed out my first observation at a hospital in grad school. So embarassing. My girlfriend is about to complete her first year of nursing school. She's literally put her heart and soul into the program.

 

Ok tell me about this Rum Bar!!!

[Kel123073]

Thanks Brandy!  I am sure there are things in my wedding package that are probabaly more then yours, I think it all evens out in the end.  But $450 for 20 minutes is a lot!  

 

I actually am a nurse, I work in the operating room.... We work long hours and get to know the surgeons and they get to know us as well as our families, etc....  And honestly, they truly rave and some go back year after year.  My fiance and I had an amazing vacation in Turks also.... we explored the island a bit, and there are so many beautiful remote beaches, beautiful coral and conch shells just washed up on shore!  Was really amazing.  here is the link for the rum bar....it is a little hole in the wall place but delicious food, amazing rum punch, and you will run into a lot of the different people there, including resort employees on their day off..... The official name is da conch shack and here is the link

http://www.daconchshack.com/Conch_Shack/Home.html

 

My cousin is a speech therapist. Such an amazing job!  Must be fun working with young kids.....If someone ever told me years ago that I would work in the OR I would have thought they were insane.... I was sooooo queasy.  I guess I just got used to it.  Hospitals are definitely rough though.  For the past 7 years I worked in an outpt facility privately owned, but recently went back to the hospital.....it was an adjustment but i am loving it!  I am sure your girlfriend will be an amazing nurse....we need more people who put their heart and soul in it....good luck to her

[bromadka]

Awww, you're just the sweetest person ever! You're right where you need to be in helping people!

 

Thanks so much for the link to the Conch Shack!! Sounds like a great time!! Can't wait to check out their site!!

 

I have given serious thought to canceling my obnoxiously expensive bouquet and going with an articficial one. One more thing to add to the list right? Thank you for telling me about your bouquet. I think I'm gonna go on my own on that one. That money can certainly be spent elsewhere.

 

It was great chatting with you!! Please reach out with any other questions you have and I'll do the same!!

 

Thanks again!!

[JanaLP]

I am getting married at Beaches in April 2014. I opted to buy my girls bouquet off etsy made out of jewels and broaches. They also have many vendors that do clay ones that are really pretty.  That way the girls can keep them and for the same price you would pay for the real flowers on the resort the girls can have it as a keepsake

[bromadka]

You are awesome and thank you SO much for your message! I very recently canceled my wedding bouquet, the boutonnieres AND corsages. I just couldn't see spending that amount of money on flowers. After all, our ceremony will be less than 20 minutes! 

 

I found two websites that are really great who do synthetic flowers. I am getting my bouquet through www.littlebouquetshop.com and the boutonnieres through  www.afloral.com  for anyone else who reads this post. Very reasonable, excellent reviews and the flowers seem gorgeous.

 

Congrats on your April 2014 nuptials! How exciting! I am really counting down at this point.

 

Your jewel and broach bouquets will be amazing!!

 

Thank you again for the info!!!

 

~Brandy