Scrapping our wedding ideas and eloping to Sandals! (Help?!)

View Quoted Comment We stayed at Royal Plantation for 7 nights. The price for our stay and round-trip airfare was about $5,500. We spent about another $200 for a private candlelight dinner (a reception is included but we wanted something a bit more), $100 on hairstyling at the resort, and $800 on 50 photos (but they have smaller packages). Overall, I'd plan to put $8,000-$10,000 aside, especially depending on if you're paying for your own gown, need passports, want new things to wear at the resort, etc.
And as a heads up, Sandals revamped their weddingmoons since we were there in 2017. Their website has a TON of info and I believe there's also a huge group for Sandals brides on Facebook. Best of luck with planning! Over 2 years past our wedding and we are still so happy with our choice to go to Sandals for our wedding!

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Thank you! I'm so glad you recommend it, I just got lost in bad reviews & started rethinking the whole thing One more question, if i may, how long ahead did you book and when did you have your wedding?

Thanks a million!!!!

View Quoted Comment We had booked in October 2016 and got married in July 2017, but I'm sure you could do it a shorter amount of time. Just make sure to allow time for any wedding paperwork - each island (country) has different requirements.
Definitely research each resort and find the one that fits you the best! We chose Royal Plantation because it was small and every suite was oceanfront and had butler service, but that's not for everyone!

View Quoted Comment How much was it in total cost in the end?

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All Sandals-related things ended up being just under $6,500. It broke down as follows:

- $5,402.62 for a 7 night stay at Royal Plantation, as well as round-trip airfare
- $180.00 for a private candlelight dinner
- $102.00 for hairstyling
- $665.00 for 35 photos (high resolution, given to us on a thumb drive and also emailed)

It was about $8,500 if you include all of the not-Sandals-related things like my wedding gown, passports, our wedding bands, etc.

One correction - we spent more on photos because I ended up wanting 50 instead of 35!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much!

We already have our honeymoon booked at Sandals Royal Caribbean for June 2021. We have it set to fly out to Jamaica the morning after our wedding. HOWEVER... due to the covid BS going on in the world right now we now have NO idea when we can reserve the venue we were wanting to have our ceremony and reception at. I've been told it may be early 2021 or so before we can reserve at this point. I'm stressing. We have began tossing around other options because we have both been married before but neither have had a honeymoon. We wanted to toss most of our budget into a very nice honeymoon rather than the actual wedding. I have suggested getting married for free while at Sandals and just moving our dates around to be there on the date we have decided to get married on. He wants our kids and families involved and part of our wedding but I have suggested having a big reception after returning from Jamaica to include all of our family and friends. I mean, honestly, wedding ceremonies take maybe 15 minutes and it's done..... why stress over planning in the midst of a pandemic and spending money on a different venue that can be put towards a nice reception when we return??? But my main question is this... I know the Sandals wedding package includes a reception... how would that work if it's just he and I? Did you guys or anyone else on here do the reception without guests?

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My fiance and I are eloping at Sandals Barbados in July 2021. I'm anxious about the whole after the ceremony I guess. Since it is just him and I, I'm not sure what to expect since they do a cocktail hour and all of that. What was it like for you?

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I cannot thank you enough for this post! I was so hesitant to go this route, but you have definitely eased my mind about the situation. Did you guys end up doing the marriage licenses/certificates before the trip or just did them in Jamaica?

View Quoted Comment Glad to help! 😊 We had to fill out a bunch of forms to get married in Jamaica ahead of time, but Sandals helped with it and made it easy. We signed the marriage license at our ceremony at the resort and received our Jamaican marriage certificate in the mail about a month later!

View Quoted Comment Great! Thank you so much. 😊