Planning A Wedding In Bahamas...please Help!

[ChristinaNW]

Hi Brides!

 

  I am BRAND new to this site so I am not exactly sure if I am doing this right but....I am on here in hopes to get some suggestions and guidance on planning this wedding!

 

  I am looking for some suggestions regarding venues. We will be having our ceremony at a local church, so we will only need a location for the reception and possibly a welcome party (that is a wholllleee other topic...). We will need to stay in the Nassau/Paradise Island area as that is where the church is. I have looked around, quite a bit, but nothing is like hearing from people who are well into the planning process or have already had their weddings!

 

  We will be having children so it can not be an adult only location. I anticipate about 60 people will be in attendance. I would like to have an outdoor reception if the budget allows....which is around $12k. Unfortunately places like the One and Only are out of the question (although beautiful!) I am assuming Atlantis might be out of the question too? How much is it on average per person, does anyone know? I have requested information from Atlantis, Riu, Baha Mar, and British Colonial Hilton.

 

  Any suggestions, information, feedback would greatly be appreciated because these overwhelming emails from vendors are just not cutting it!

 

Thanks!

 

 

[acw271011]

Congrats and welcome to the site! I'm sure you will find loads of tips and ideas here as you go through your planning journey!

 

Firstly I would strongly recommend a travel agent, particularly if you're trying to determine where. They can help you with details that you might not be aware of, and some resorts might offer perks for having a group that only a travel agent would know about. There might also be special pricing for groups that a travel agent would be able to explain. Plus, once everyone starts to book, a travel agent will take the stress from you when it comes to all the questions, because generally people do have questions. The agents affiliated with this site are DW specialists. I'm sure they would be able to help you out. There is a contact form on the site.

 

Secondly take a look through the reviews of both the vendors and the resorts. The ladies here are excellent at providing comments, and pretty good about adding their reviews.

 

Good luck and happy planning!

[ChristinaNW]

Thank you!

[ASmooth]

Hey my reception is actually coming up next month.  I did a site visit last year and went to every hotel in Nassau. We finally made the decision to go with Melia which is where we stayed but didn't know they did weddings. 

Im also having the ceremony in a church so the reception is at Melia and im using there indoor rooms cause the outdoor space has a early time limit to it and noise control situations, also there outdoor area isn't very private, its close to the pool areas. And you can only do buffet at there outdoor space. 

Atlantis was extremely expensive, (for the price i should just have my wedding here in NY)

The hilton was beautiful and had many rooms to choose from but was also out of my price range

Breezes was nice, but they were pretty rude to me cause i wasn't having the ceremony there and there was a big mix up with my appointment, but besides that they don't allow children. 

The Riu on paradise island was really my first choice cause they are all inclusive, but in the end the prices were better at Melia and at the time they gave us fantastic group rates. 

So far my wedding planner has been amazing and very accommodating.  A lot of changes have been done since i went cause the huge resort that is being built across the street bought them.  Its called Baha Mar and to be honest with you it looks fantastic.  I was hoping it would be done in time for my wedding but its not. 

If you need more info on these places or anything else id be happy to help

[pamib]

Welcome to the site,that was step 1, now step 2 you need a wedding planner, I'm using www.destinationweddings.com They'll fit in your budget cuz they're free