Sandals Weddingmoon, Jamaica

So for my very first blog post, I’m doing a throwback to the best trip I’ve ever taken – my weddingmoon at Sandals Montego Bay in Jamaica! That was 2002 – practically the dark ages, I know. I have a lot to learn with this blog stuff, so I’m going to try to just hit the highlights on this one…

I was not one of those little girls who started planning her wedding day at age 7. In fact, getting married was not even a box I felt necessary to check. So when I met my husband and we started talking marriage, I knew I wanted to go somewhere tropical and have a wedding on a beach. No stress, no extended family drama, just me and the hubs sipping on Rum Runners and enjoying the sand and sun. After doing some research, we decided on a Sandals resort because it was adults only (duh!), and Jamaica sounded like a totally fun and laidback island…plus, airfare prices weren’t TOO horrible from where we were living at the time (VA).

This trip was my first experience at an all-inclusive resort, and right away I was a fan. Going to fantastic, different restaurants every night and then being able to just get up and leave without paying gave a whole new meaning to stress-free vacation. Walking up to any bar on property and ordering whatever drink I wanted also transformed the whole experience. It was like living in some strange futuristic utopia! I have a few digital files of scanned-in prints that I will try to insert here…I think I will look into redoing them from the negatives soon.

I can’t recommend Sandals Montego Bay enough. The property was beautiful and the service was amazing. When we arrived at the resort, the first thing they did was hand us glasses of champagne at check-in. The staff were so friendly, always taking the time to chat when they saw us. By the end of the week, we felt like we had gotten to know some of them and had to make sure we said our good-byes.

We did a few excursions while we were there – Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (a boat trip with snorkeling on the way), a shopping trip, and “climbing” Dunn’s River Falls. All were great; not one was a bad experience – although we both felt like snorkeling was a lot harder than it looks!

The photographer was so nice – she spent a good 1-2 hours walking around the property with us, letting us get as many photos as we wanted. Since this was just before the boon of digital photography hit, we had to meet with her a few days later to view the proofs and decide which ones we were buying; I think we kept most of them! The prints above are some of the few I scanned in to my computer.

Sandals made our wedding completely stress-free. A couple days before the ceremony, we met with a wedding planner who let us choose our photo package, food/apps, flowers, etc. I didn’t get a ton of options, but that was A-OK with me. Our wedding day was just about us, and it was amazing. How many people can say they had couples’ massages and relaxed in a hot tub before walking down the aisle? If you are considering a destination wedding or weddingmoon, I say go for it. Have a party with the family when you get home. 😉