Andrea and David Get Married at Cinnamon Hill, Rose Hall, Jamaica

You're invited to the Real Wedding of...

Andrea & David

Pictures from Andrea & David's destination wedding (click to enlarge):

Why did you choose to have a destination wedding?

It was so hard trying to choose where to have our wedding since our friends and family are spread out all over the world. So our first motivation for a destination wedding was choosing a place accessible to everyone easily. Secondly, we wanted to do something different. For us, a destination wedding was not just a one day or night event, it was a week-long experience. We wanted it to be memorable and for everyone to have a great time, and extend the celebrations for longer! 

We decided to do a cruise wedding because we met through our work in the cruise industry and thought it would be a fun, different option. Because food is included, we figured it would also be an affordable option as well (we looked into all inclusive resorts in Mexico, but pricewise it was better to go with the cruise).

Why did you choose your location?

Originally we were going to get married at Labadee, the private peninsula on Haiti that belongs to Royal Caribbean. However, my dream wedding had the ocean in the background and a gorgeous gazebo/huppah. Labadee was limited in terms of venues and didn't offer all of the infrastructure that Jamaica did. In order to have the wedding I dreamed of, I had to sacrifice the date 3.13.13 to have it in Jamaica.

What were your wedding colors and/or theme?

Shades of turquoise, with yellow and red accents. The theme was beach wedding: Sanddollars, starfish, and seashells. All our flowers were orchids.

Every wedding is special in its own right. What made your wedding unique?

We made OOT bags for our guests that featured sunglasses, starfish earrings, personalized water bottles, mini toiletries kit, a survival kit (e-boost, advil, alka setlzer, tylenol, bandaids, etc)., sunscreen, antibacterial gel, and more. They also had a bottle of their favorite liquor. They were delivered to each stateroom on the first day.

Our first event was a meet-and-greet at the Champagne Lounge, where we toasted with bubbly. Then we headed to Johnny Rocket's for a fun dinner that ended with us dancing along with the waiters to oldies songs.

The second night, we had a bachelor and bachelorette party. My husband had to walk around all night wearing a prisoners outfit and a Mullet. I got off easy, and just had to wear a sash and a cowboy hat with a veil. After going around separately and doing a variety of "dares", both groups met up in the nightclub.

On the third day, we stopped at Labadee, where we had our TTD photoshoot. My husband and his friends hung out at the cabanas, while I went jetskiing with my sisters and mom. Other guests did tours around the island.

The actual wedding was in Jamaica. We hired two buses to take everyone to an area on the Cinammon Hill Golf course at Rose Hall, overlooking the water. You could hear the waves crashing softly in the background, and the canopy perfectly framed the beach behind it. Guests were greeted with iced coconut water and cold, lemongrass scented towels.

I walked down the aisle with my brother to an instrumental version of Bruno Mars' Just the Way you are. Our music for the ceremony was a mix of everything from Claire De Lune to Debussy for the Sand Ceremony (Claire De Lune in honor of my grandmother who passed away) to Happy by the Rolling stones for the bridesmaids (my husband's favorite).

We wrote our own ceremony, which included traditions from both religions and cultures (Catholicism and Judaism as well as Latin and Italian). We included all our family in the ceremony at different points. His best friend was ordained as a minister and was our officiant. Our mothers did the Sand Ceremony, our close friends who have been married 40 years were the "godparents" (also a Hispanic tradition) and put the lasso around us. His stepfather was the arras bearer, which were made of jade coins engraved with the thirteen sacraments of marriage. My stepfather did a reading of Song of Solomon, his stepmother did a reading of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. My sisters read the 7 Jewish blessings in Hebrew, and his brother (the best man) did it in English. Both his parents walked my husband down the aisle. His childhood friend's baby was the ringbearer, and father and son, holding a "pillow" made of a seashell, took it around for everyone to touch and bless the rings. To end the ceremony, my husband broke a glass.

After the ceremony, we had a cocktail under the Gazebo. We made a pitstop at Scotchie's (a local spot) on the way back to the ship, and all relaxed drinking Red Stripe beer, ting soda, and eating jerk pork and festivals.

A few hours later, we had a cocktail at the Olive or Twist Lounge, which was decorated with crystals and rose petals. Where we had our first dance. It started off as a Waltz to Norah Jones Come away With Me, and midway turned into a salsa to the Gypsy Kings Volare. Two of the dancers from the ship had helped us with some lessons and choreographing the routine.

We went to dinner at Portofino, an Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed as appetizers: shrimp risotto, tuna carpaccio, and antipasto. Mains were an option of filet, lobster/scallop skewers or rack of lamb with sides of mushroom papardelle and caesar salad. Dessert was tartufo de cioccolato or tiramisu, as well as wedding cake and "bomboniere", little sating bags with jordan almonds inside.

We were not ready for the night to end so we went to bolero's Latin Club, where my husband and I danced again (everybody cleared the dance floor) and practiced our new salsa moves. After the bar closed around 2am, we headed over to The Catacombs, the nightclub, and danced until 5 in the morning.
 

One of the major challenges of putting together a destination wedding is finding and working with your ideal vendors from afar. What wedding vendors did you use to put together this spectacular wedding?

Canopy/floral/and other ceremony decor: Rose Hall Development

Wedding Coordinator: O'Neisha Brown
 

Ceremony Dress: Vera Wang
 

Reception Dress: Rosa Clara
 

Trash the Dress Dress: DH Gate
 

Mini-book picture invitations: Minted
 

Photography: Image Photography (onboard Royal Caribbean)
 

Ship: Liberty of the Seas
 

Your wedding was absolutely beautiful! Your posts and reviews will be extremely helpful to our new brides. Thank you for sharing you special day with us at BDW. 

Dear members, if you planned your wedding with the help of our community we would love to hear from you! Contact us at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing your wedding experience with BDW. For more information here is the "BDW Real Weddings | Featured Wedding Submission Information Thread". Thanks!