Renewing Vows at Sandals

Renewing Vows at Sandals – If you’re getting married, your experience will be similar.

Darlene & James renewed their vows at Sandals.  Your experience would be similar for a destination wedding at Sandals, too!

Darlene & James went to celebrate their 10^th anniversary at Sandals Ochi.  She is also a 10 year breast cancer survivor and a 15 year cervical cancer survivor, which was a great reason to celebrate, too.  Darlene’s brother had recently passed away and James travels a lot for work.  Needless to say, they were under a lot of stress and needed a break from it all.  They were stealing away to reconnect in Jamaica.  To make their anniversary extra special, they decided on renewing vows at Sandals Ochi.

As soon as they arrived at the resort, reception told them their wedding planner wanted to meet with them.  She was so nice and went over all the details of their ceremony and explained everything step-by-step.  Their wedding planner made sure things were exactly how they wanted their experience to be.  They tasted the cakes (vanilla, chocolate, Caribbean fruit, and red velvet) and chose a flavor.  They were shown wedding sites on the seaside of the resort and the hillside (Ochi).  They were given a book personalized with their names and all the details of their ceremony, step-by-step.

On the day of the ceremony, the wedding team came and got James at 2:50 in the afternoon.  Their ceremony was planned for 4 PM.  Then, they came back for Darlene, who was ready by this time.  She had her beautiful dress on and her hair styled.  She also had her makeup done and, though she normally doesn’t wear makeup, it turned out to be amazing.  The wedding team took her in the Sandals wedding chariot to the ceremony site.

Although Darlene doesn’t normally try to be the center of attention, since she and James had no family or friends with them, she wanted to get noticed as she made her grand entrance.  This was almost like an actual wedding for them.  She took the long way around.  All of the other guests came out to wave and said “there’s the bride”.  She waved like she was “Miss America”.  She was being so friendly, because she didn’t want to feel alone at her wedding.  The other guests were so friendly right back.  They were so supportive and clapped as she went by.  When James heard all of the clapping, he knew it had to be her.  They made her feel like a celebrity.  She and James were remembered for days afterward by everyone they ran into.

  

They had a hard time choosing the songs, because there wasn’t a selection of Christian music.  They settled on the traditional processional song and left the other music to the wedding planner, which turned out great.

The ceremony was beautiful.  Their’s was the only one that day, although the day before eight brides got married.  They chose not to get married on the beach, because Darlene had a fabulous dress and heels.  She didn’t want to be sinking into the sand as she walked.  Plus, James had long sleeves and a tie, so he didn’t want to be out in the heat on the beach with no shade.  They chose a dramatic area with tall columns overlooking the ocean.

Darlene didn’t expect their “Retie the Knot” ceremony to be so emotional.  She and James surprised each other with personal vows.  She had thoughts about how God was so good to them and thoughts of her brother.  She also had thoughts of being able to do this again in another ten years.

They were told their ceremony would be 30 minutes, but it ended up being much longer than that.  The whole thing with the ceremony and reception lasted more like an hour and a half.

They had a little reception after the ceremony with cake and sparkling cider.  The photographer took pictures as they fed each other the cake.  They enjoyed tasty hors d’oeuvres.  “At Last” was played as they danced.

After their reception, they called their butler and he took them to their room.  Their butler served them dinner from the French restaurant in the privacy of their room.  They had a special menu that no one else could order from.

Because they were renewing vows at Sandals, the resort treated them to breakfast in bed.  Normally that’s done the morning after the ceremony, but they had an excursion planned.  The wedding team was so flexible and rescheduled their breakfast for another morning.

 

When they went a few days later to view their photos, there were so many great shots; they found it hard to choose the best ones.  They looked at the different photo styles and chose a vintage look.  The photographer knew all the best shots to get and had reminded her to smile if she wasn’t.  She took photos of her shoes, dress and jewelry.  All this attention to detail made sure they got good photos.  When selecting their photos, they sat in a room with a couch to relax on and a big screen to view the pictures.  They went through them and indicated yes, no or maybe on each photo.  Then, they went through them again.  It took about two hours.  James reminded Darlene that they couldn’t choose them all, because they wanted to be able to afford their next Sandals vacation.  They chose 24 stunning photos when all was said and done.  They got a CD of the pictures.

They purchased a video of their “Retie the Knot” ceremony, which was three times less than their original wedding video.  Darlene thought the quality and how they did everything was much better.  For the video, they were given a link to look at before they left.  The videographer wanted to get feedback on any changes they wanted.  The video was so good, they didn’t make any changes.  They really thought the photographers and videographer did a fantastic job.

To sum it up, Darlene said the experience of renewing vows at Sandals was magical.  She and James sensed a spiritual shift in their marriage because of the time they had together to focus on each other and not the stresses at home.  She also said she knows if she had not booked with me, it would have been a different trip.  It would not have been as good.

Would you like to renew your vows at Sandals?  Maybe you want to invite other couples to join you?  Heck, maybe you’ve got a group of friends and you ALL want to Retie the Knot!  Well, what are you waiting for, because that’s what I specialize in!  Click here make a complimentary planning appointment or call me at 909-255-1410.  I’m Sheila Cannon and I look forward to helping you plan your Retie the Knot ceremony soon.  I’ll bet you want to experience this magical shift in your marriage, too!

YOU’RE INVITED TO MY SANDALS CARIBBEAN NIGHT!  If you would like to find out detailed information about SANDALS RESORTS to see which one is best for you AND earn a $250 spa credit, be sure to RSVP by calling 800-733-7471.  Click to see the details.