Turks and Caicos May 2014 Wedding -- Seven Stars or the Somerset?

[DB052514]

Hi ladies -- hoping to start up this thread again and get some advice. 

 

I'm getting married in May 2014 in Turks and Caicos and try to decide between Seven Stars and The Somerset. We've visited both and really can't choose. They both have such different feels to them but I really like them both -- I think the Somerset is more charming, intimate, flexible, and allows us to have more people (we were hoping to have 100 guests, but we're having a hard time cutting our invite list) but we'd have to do both the ceremony and the reception outdoors which can be hot and humid in May....

 

The Seven Stars has the amazing deck overlooking the beach for the wedding ceremony that I love love love (so I can have the outdoor beachy wedding minus the sand) and an amazing chef. But I don't love the reception space (the restaurant) and the resort feels a little more commercial....plus the rooms are a bit more expensive. 

 

So, any advice? Has anyone recently gotten married at the Somerset on the beach that has insight on how it will go and what it will look like? Did you have your guests take off their shoes? And where did you do the reception, in the garden?Anyone had their resort at the Seven Stars recently that has pictures and insight?

 

Also I'm stumped about bands.   Suggestions? We'd like a group that will play a mixture of pop hits, oldies, alternative, light rock, etc -- a band similar to what we could get in the states but not too pricey.  Also we'd love to have a cellist or pianist play during the ceremony. Has anyone done this and have suggestions of musicians?

 

Thanks so much! 

[KIM02242012]

I just got back from our TCI wedding and it wasn't at Somerset or Seven Stars. Do you want a beach wedding (like out on the beach)? If so, I'd go with Seven Stars. Somerset is kinda bunched in with the Sibonne and Regent Palms so it'll be harder to have a private ceremony. Seven Stars doesn't have as close of neighbors. We just got married at the Sands, and we were able to have a somewhat private ceremony on one end.It really made it feel like we were having a private wedding (which is hard when getting married on a public beach).

 

We saw a few other weddings when we were there and it just seemed to weird to have sunbathers next to the wedding ceremony.

 

But, either will be beautiful! Happy planning! Turks and Caicos is absolutely beautiful! Also, by ceremony time, it was not that hot for our wedding (we got married May 26). Also, ask about rain back up plans. We got really lucky in that the rain occurred really early in the day and just cooled everything off for us. There were a few weddings the day before ours and it rained from 5pm to about 7:30pm..just in time to take over the whole ceremony time. Also, I found TCI to be less humid than where I am from..which is Philly. Just an fyi! Congrats and good luck!

[Nemo123]

I had my wedding at the Somerset a couple of weeks ago. We had about 35 guests. Our ceremony took place on the beach, cocktail hour around the pool and reception in O'Soleil/Zen Garden. I was also concerned about a ceremony on the beach at the Somerset- it looked very cluttered and tucked between 2 resorts when I went down for a site visit- but they cleared it up pretty well. Most of the ladies took their shoes off while the men left theirs on. There were a couple of onlookers at the wedding ceremony but I honestly did not even notice them.

 

The Somerset resort is very quiet and therefore private so it almost feels as though you have it all to yourselves on your wedding day. The lawn would make a lovely venue for a large group. While we dont find the food on the island to be that fantastic overall, we do think the food at O Soleil is some of the best on the island. However, we were very disappointed in the service at the resort which put a big damper on our day. They were so behind in set up when we arrived that we didn't think the wedding would happen. The resort has been undergoing a management change (more than once) and things just seem to be disorganized at the moment. Hopefully this will change in the future.

 

We had our beach barbeque rehearsal dinner at the Gansevoort resort which was amazing! The beach is a lot wider and more beautiful (in my opinion). The service was excellent and they went out of their way to make sure that everything was perfect and exactly the way we wanted. We can not say enough good things about this resort.

 

We used Janardo Laporte as sax player for the ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner and he was fantastic! We had DJ William for reception and he was also fantastic! He had our guests on the dance floor the entire time. Flowers for both rehearsal dinner and wedding were done by Environment Arts and they did a really great job.

 

Good luck on deciding! Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know.