"We've got to get this wedding started. It's never going to stop raining," says Luckoo-Edwards, as strong winds and rain rattle the windows and blow over a tent. "I'm making the call." After a two-hour delay, she admits defeat and starts scouting indoor locations that could hold 32 people, including the concierge's office (she won't budge, even for love) and a second-floor walkway that leads to the disco.
"This is when it gets hard, when I have to tell [the bride] we have to have it inside," says Luckoo-Edwards, who often acts as liaison between the bride and groom on whether to wait it out or surrender to the rain. "It's tough sometimes, because the bride will cry, and I will feel it."
Andrea Luckoo-Edwards, a wedding coordinator at Beaches Negril resort in Jamaica, prepares Washington bride Rhonda Spears for her walk down the aisle.
(Asa Gauen)
|
|
So did the young Texans have a happy ending? While the groom and guests chill in the bar and the bride and bridesmaids hide in the buffet-style dining area, Luckoo-Edwards scrambles to convert the grand reception area into a makeshift aisle and altar. The striped couches are pushed to the wall, the tall, wide windows are adorned with bouquets, the riffraff dozing on the furniture is kicked out.
Yet a lobby is still a lobby, even if the marble floors and classical archways are lavish and incoming hotel guests are held at bay -- at least until the groom can kiss the bride.
The bride gets kissed, but Luckoo-Edwards is nowhere to be seen. She's busy setting up the reception upstairs, the last one of the day.
Andrea Sachs will be online to discuss this story Monday at 2 p.m. during the Travel section's weekly chat on www.washingtonpost.com.
Details: Destination Weddings
JAMAICA NUPTIALS: Requirements include a 24-hour waiting period (though many resorts play it safe and say 48 hours), a $75 license, proof of citizenship (i.e., certified birth certificate including father's name) and proof of divorce or death certificate for a widow, if applicable. Blood tests are not necessary. Nondenominational marriage officers, plus witnesses, are also available for $50 to $250. For wedding info and application: Ministry of National Security, 876-906-4908.
RESORT WEDDINGS: Most hotels in Jamaica can accommodate, and often help plan, weddings. The base package usually includes a minister, marriage certificate/license, bouquet and boutonniere, decorated wedding site, wedding cake, champagne or reception of sorts -- and a wedding coordinator to throw it all together. (Ask beforehand if the price includes the $150 processing fee; many don't.) Also, as you creep up the scale of resorts, the add-ons get more elaborate -- and more expensive. Among the properties:
• Beaches and Sandals have a dozen properties in Jamaica that organize weddings for guests. Many couples wed at Beaches, which is open to everyone (couples, families, singles), and honeymoon at Sandals, which is couples only. Despite the differences, the wedding packages are identical. Extras include hairstyling for the bride ($58) and a video of the ceremony ($200). Cost is $750, plus the nightly room rate (from $245 per person double), or free for guests staying five nights or longer. Info: 888-SANDALS, www.sandals.com or 888-BEACHES, www.beaches.com.
• SuperClubs has six Jamaican resorts, all of which offer free wedding packages to guests staying at least three nights. Room rates vary according to the property; Breezes Runaway Bay on the North Coast, for example, starts at $179 per person double until June 30, then drops to $167 for the summer. Info: 877-467-8737, www.superclubs.com.
• Couples Resorts, which has two properties in Negril and one in Ocho Rios, offers free weddings for a three-night stay or longer. Nightly rates start at $340 per couple. Info: 800-268-7537, www.couples.com.
OTHER WEDDING LOCALES: All-inclusives offer similar destination wedding packages at their sister properties throughout the Caribbean, including Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas. However, if you wish to do it yourself -- or are curious about what kind of undertaking it might be -- the wedding-planning Web site TheKnot.com is a good source. Besides a list of nuptial-friendly hotels in the islands and helpful advice on coordinating the big event, it also supplies marriage requirements for 16 popular locations. Info: www.theknot.com.
INFORMATION: For general info on the Caribbean: Caribbean Tourism Organization, www.doitcaribbean.com. For Jamaica: Jamaica Tourist Board, 800-233-4582, www.visitjamaica.com.
-- Andrea Sachs
