Photo by Haven Photography
Jessica and Tyler thought having an overseas wedding at Sandals was unrealistic, but it turned out the dream was within reach all along.
Their trip to Sandals La Toc in April 2022 was meant to be a special spring break getaway for Jessica and Tyler. One trip. One montage of memories. Strolls along moonlit Caribbean beaches, naps in the shade of poolside cabanas and gourmet meals whenever and wherever they wanted.
Photo shoots will also be held.
“That photo shoot changed everything,” Jessica said, beginning to explain how one moment during a vacation in St. Lucia sparked a series of unexpected milestone celebrations, including a destination wedding, a babymoon and visions of future anniversaries and birthdays at Sandals. Beach.
Photo by Haven Photography
It started with a photo shoot at Sandals La Toc, where Jessica was led by the camera team through tropical gardens, overlooking a sandy cove, and down to the beach, where she found a heart in the sand and Tyler joined in playing.
“Some other couple must have left this here,” the photographer said.
Jessica turned around, standing in the heart, and Tyler knelt down.
“She didn’t know I was going to propose,” he says.
The surprises were just beginning: as team members one by one suggested to Jessica and Tyler that they should get married at Sandals, the couple politely smiled and thought to themselves, “Only in dreams.”
The reality of Sandals weddings
So Jessica and Tyler returned to their home in Staten Island and began planning their Long Island wedding. It seemed the most practical place to bring guests from New York and California. Jessica agreed, but she had always dreamed of getting married on an island, surrounded by tropical flowers and, best of all, in an elegant chapel overlooking the ocean.
“We both understood how much an international wedding would cost compared to a local wedding,” says Jessica.
Or was it? Reality was setting in.
“When we were calculating the cost of our Long Island wedding, it became prohibitively expensive,” Tyler says. “All the little details just added up.”
A $3,000 DJ. A $5,000 photographer. A videographer. Flowers. Food trucks. Transportation. An open bar with unlimited bills. And of course the venue.
“Even dessert was a separate item,” Tyler says. “When we saw the hotel room, we finally said, ‘Let’s just go out there.’ Instead of stressing about an expensive four-hour event that will fly by, we can have a wedding that feels like a week-long Caribbean vacation for everyone.”
Within minutes of refocusing her research to “island wedding,” Jessica landed on the place she’d dreamed of a few weeks earlier: Sandals. Maybe it wasn’t so unrealistic after all. Free food for a week. Free drinks. Free activities. Free white sand beaches and amazing water.
Then Jessica came across an incredible photo that she told Tyler to take a look at.
“A seaside chapel. It’s my dream venue.”
Photo by Haven Photography
A celebration like no other
Every time Jessica spoke with her Sandals wedding planner, she heard the same reassuring words: “It’s okay, Jessica. We’ll do it.” But they were 1,500 miles apart.
“Jessica is the type to use hand sanitizer every time she touches anything,” Tyler says. “She takes her shoes off at the door and keeps her space tidy. She’s super detail-oriented. Her unruly wedding was really stressful.”
Photo by Haven Photography
The couple arrived at Sandals Ochi four days before their wedding, with Jessica bringing special flowers for specific locations, a welcome sign, and even a special fan to fit perfectly on the chapel chair.
“We’ll deal with it,” the team said.
In Jessica’s mind, the “dream location” part of the wedding was set, but the other part was still to be decided.
“We wanted our wedding to be personal and not just another run-of-the-mill wedding,” she says.
In the end, their wedding was a one in a million event.
Photo by Haven Photography
Out-of-body experience
A year ago, none of this seemed plausible: Caribbean island weddings, overwater chapels, and totally relaxed brides certainly weren’t.
“Leading up to the morning of the wedding, I was having an incredible, almost out-of-body experience,” Jessica says.
She and her daughters lounged by Jessica’s private pool and dined on a brunch of fruit, omelets, bagels, and mimosas, and by the time they sat down on the massage tables at Red Lane Spa, her sons had found their own way of relaxing.
“We played volleyball in the pool all afternoon,” Tyler said. “It was a great day.”
An hour before the ceremony, the couple retreated to their suite, got changed, and transformed their perfect day into a perfect night. In an incredibly open, seaside chapel, a violinist serenaded Jessica as she walked to the altar, bathed in the soft rays of the early evening Caribbean sunshine. The bride paused briefly on the runway.
Photo by Haven Photography
“We wanted to stop and take photos,” Jessica said. “The staff told us everything was perfect, but when we saw it in person, we were blown away.”
After being declared husband and wife, the celebration moved from a vow ceremony in a chapel to cocktails on the pier, dancing under the stars, and into the hills of Jamaica. No one had to drive home or swap babysitters. Instead of starting at 5pm and ending at 10pm, this carefree celebration started midweek and continued after the “I do” ceremony on Friday with a catamaran cruise and a day trip to Dunn’s River Falls.
“This is what a wedding should be like,” Jessica says, “and it’s not as unattainable as we initially thought.”
Photo by Haven Photography
Dreams are closer to reality than you think
On their first Sandals getaway, to La Toc, St. Lucia, Jessica and Tyler never expected to be having this conversation about their destination wedding in Jamaica and the babymoon they took less than a year earlier. Turks and Caicos Islands beachesNow that it’s all getting real, they’re talking about celebrating their son Holden’s birthday at the Beaches and taking a romantic fifth anniversary trip to one of Sandals’ 18 resorts around the Caribbean.
“When we tell our friends, they all ask how it happened,” Jessica says. “We’re both surprised, too. It was unexpected, but looking back, it all seems logical. We’re always told to follow our dreams, right? In fact, our dreams were within reach all along.”
Photo by Haven Photography
