Need To Guide Planning Wedding Ceremony In St. Lucia

[angeljulie]

Hi, we planned on getting married in October of this year. We don't have a lot of guests attending, and we were thinking of all going away and doing a destination wedding.         

I was looking on St. Lucia because I heard it was a great romantic vacation for our honeymoon and offers plenty. I saw there were several packages offered for people planning weddings on St. Lucia.  

                                                     

http://www.theromanticholiday.com/st-lucia-wedding/personalize           

We saw a bunch of packages here that look great. I'm a little concerned on what I should offer guests - do we pay for rooms, do we contact the resort for discounted group rates?          

How far in advance should I book something? Do I pay for flights?              

Any advice on destination wedding etiquette would be appreciated. Also any recommendations on good wedding options at a resort. Doesn't have to be on St. Lucia, any island that offers romance and activities for my guests are ok. I'm in NYC if that helps (being mindful of my travel costs)    

Thanks!

[TAkathy]

Congratulations on your engagement!

St. Lucia is a beautiful and romantic place to plan a wedding and honeymoon but it is a challenging island to navigate because it is very mountainous.  It is best to work with someone who can make arrangements for you and your guests taking into consideration the location and transfer/transportation issues.

A TA can help you with securing group space (if that is appropriate as there are minimums numbers to meet) or arranging each individual reservation and managing them so you don't have to.

You should only have to pay for your flights - not those of your guests.  Everyone attending a DW is aware that they have to get there in order to participate.

What is your budget for the whole thing?  Not that you know right now what all the costs are going to be,  but you should have an idea of what you are able to spend.  Then you can find something that matches that price range.

Happy Planning!

[chazel]

Hi Everyone!  I too am am looking into having our wedding in St. Lucia in late Nov 2015.  I have been doing extensive research on the all inclusive hotel options to make this as affordable for my guests as possible (maybe going about this backwards in terms of planning?) Windjammer seems the best option as it has a wide variety of accomodation pricing tiers in our sweet spot for $$ as well as the best suited based on the look and feel of a resort I would like spending 7 days in. However, Not the ideal location on the island for us and our guests as it sounds like the south (Soufriere) has the most "stuff" to do there. (Average age of our group is around 35 yo, ranging from single to married with kids) We are an active bunch that like vacation options with outdoor activities; hiking/water sports during the day with a decent nightlife of fun, local loungy bars to hang out in at night. Are there other places I am missing? Or mistaken in that the area near Windjammer is great for what we are looking for?

 

With that said, I am in love with alot of the high end hotels in the south (who wouldnt be?  IE:Sugar Beach, Hotel Chocolat, Ladera...) as location for a simple beach ceremony (backdrop of the Pitons) followed by reserving a section of a outdoor/open air restaurant for the reception (hoping for no more than 25 guests)  Any suggestions on how to make this happen if we arent staying in the hotel where I want to have the ceremony/reception, but also trying to keep this affordable as possible for us? (We will have all of our legal paperwork done in the states prior to coming to St. Lucia)  Someone told me you can just "rent" an area of a beach nearby a luxurious hotel and only concern yourself with the restaurant reservation as the bulk of your spend...is this realistic or a pipedream?

 

Any input of past brides here for help in directing me to a company that can help with this would be greatly appreciated. I have never been to St. Lucia, so going about this totally blind....

 

Thank you Ladies!!

[jayejayelynn]

im looking to Honeymoon here in 2015 after the wedding that will be held in the Cancun area.

 

If anyone has some planning tips/ resort recos that would be awesome

[Ada6562]

Hi Everyone!  I too am am looking into having our wedding in St. Lucia in late Nov 2015.  I have been doing extensive research on the all inclusive hotel options to make this as affordable for my guests as possible (maybe going about this backwards in terms of planning?) Windjammer seems the best option as it has a wide variety of accomodation pricing tiers in our sweet spot for $$ as well as the best suited based on the look and feel of a resort I would like spending 7 days in. However, Not the ideal location on the island for us and our guests as it sounds like the south (Soufriere) has the most "stuff" to do there. (Average age of our group is around 35 yo, ranging from single to married with kids) We are an active bunch that like vacation options with outdoor activities; hiking/water sports during the day with a decent nightlife of fun, local loungy bars to hang out in at night. Are there other places I am missing? Or mistaken in that the area near Windjammer is great for what we are looking for?

 

With that said, I am in love with alot of the high end hotels in the south (who wouldnt be?  IE:Sugar Beach, Hotel Chocolat, Ladera...) as location for a simple beach ceremony (backdrop of the Pitons) followed by reserving a section of a outdoor/open air restaurant for the reception (hoping for no more than 25 guests)  Any suggestions on how to make this happen if we arent staying in the hotel where I want to have the ceremony/reception, but also trying to keep this affordable as possible for us? (We will have all of our legal paperwork done in the states prior to coming to St. Lucia)  Someone told me you can just "rent" an area of a beach nearby a luxurious hotel and only concern yourself with the restaurant reservation as the bulk of your spend...is this realistic or a pipedream?

 

Any input of past brides here for help in directing me to a company that can help with this would be greatly appreciated. I have never been to St. Lucia, so going about this totally blind....

 

Thank you Ladies!!

 

Definitely contact Awesome Caribbean Weddings. I'm getting married in St. Lucia in June and they have been very easy to work with and promptly respond to my emails. Even though I wanted a destination wedding I didn't want a cookie cutter resort wedding where I had such limited choices (ie. flowers option A or B ). Working with Michelle I have had full control over what I want. 

From my research, it is cheaper to stay in the north which is where Windjammer is located. The main area in the north where there are a lot of restaurants and things is called Rodney Bay, Windjammer isn't within walking distance of Rodney Bay but it wouldn't be a long taxi ride! I was originally really hoping to get married with a view of the Pitons but it just wasn't feasible to stay in the north and get married in the south (and it was a more money to ask my guests to pay for accomodations in the south). The car ride is more than an hour over very bumpy and narrowly winding roads. My wedding planner did offer me an option to rent a Catamaran to transport everyone to and from the wedding but the expense of the Catamaran on top of a more expensive ceremony location just didn't make sense for us.

We almost stayed at Bay Gardens Beach Resort - within walking distance to Rodney Bay. They do have an all-inclusive option but we were not going to chose this since we would have been so close to all of the restaurants. We ended up renting private villas in the north for our acommodations. Our ceremony is at the Cliff View location and our reception will be at Beach Club 1461. I know that even without that Piton view our wedding will still be what we want! I've done a TON of research so let me know if you have any other questions!

Edited February 5, 2015 by Ada6562

[Msmimi]

Congratulations and welcome.

[DreamyWeddings]

Hey Guys,

 

Congratulations on your engagement!. Dreamy Weddings & Tours Inc specializes in providing romantic tropical weddings and scenic tours for the beautiful Caribbean islands of Antigua, Aruba, Anguilla, Barbados, Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia and St Maarten.

Dreamy Weddings & Tours Inc can offer you a church wedding or a wedding on a white sandy beach. We provide transportation from your hotel to the wedding site and back. 

We would love to assist you in your wedding planning. Email Shanna ([email protected]), our destination wedding expert to help you. 

Website: http://dreamyweddings.com/wedding-packages.html