LONG REVIEW AHEAD :)
We just returned from our Wedding at Sandals Royal Bahamian. We checked in on Tuesday March 10th & stayed until Thursday March 19. Our wedding date was on Friday March 13th on the private island with our welcome event being Thursday March 12th.
We did do the test drive last year (absolutely recommend if you can, it helped us visualize everything and made it easier once we arrived).
We had Brandysha and Waynette, they are absolutely exceptional. I could go on for hours about just how amazing, attentive and compassionate they were. They made us feel so special, and did everything to ensure we had everything we needed. Even after the wedding, they made us feel like celebrities, taking the time to come up to us, give hugs, well wishes, you name it. I cannot express how wonderful they were.
We brought quite a bit of our own decor which they set up for us no problem (I think with the amount we had it was around $200?). We had our welcome bags for our guests, custom napkins, drink stirrers, I made floral arrangements for the cocktail hour tables, aisle chair decor, personal letters to our guests, table numbers, cigars for our cigar station, custom matchboxes, name tags, a post card guest book and luggage tags for our seating chart. They set all of it up for us. I did show pictures of my idea beforehand and they executed it perfectly.
For our welcome event we were supposed to have it on the front beach area but due to rain, they decided to change the location. I believe her name is Leesa? She was exceptional. She reassured us it would all be ok and they were gracious enough to change our location quickly to the chapel and it ended up being beyond perfect, more than I could have even dreamed of. We had the most beautiful sunset and double rainbow at the chapel as the rain stopped. The team thankfully placed our guests welcome bags in their room before the event as they checked in so nothing got wet! They even sent out an itinerary so everyone knew where to be and at what time.
The wedding day itself was picture perfect. My bridesmaids and I got ready in our room (West Bay Ocean View Penthouse). I did hire an outside makeup and hair artist so I did pay the 300 vendor fee for that. My husband and I did a first look, and eventually the boat to the private island took 3 trips. One for my husband and his groomsmen, one for our guests, then one for maid of honor and I.
For our ceremony, we did write our own vows, and the rev also did generic ones. We hired the violinist to play during the wedding ceremony, and it was perfect. For cocktail hour we had the rum bar, passed appetizers & used the rented speaker to play a Spotify playlist. We did our first dances with our families then started dinner. We opted for the buffet style dinner and it was a hit, everyone loved the food! The DJs were fantastic and made everything so smooth and fun. The staff even joined us on the dance floor a few times which made us so happy. I did give the DJs a playlist of songs that absolutely had to be played to get everyone on the dance floor. We also had a fire dancer for entertainment. The fire dancer was INCREDIBLE and SO MUCH FUN, our entire group had a blast.
Once the night ended, we took the boat back over to the resort which was so fun & we ended up all jumping in the pool in our wedding attire then hanging out at the Queen’s Pearl to celebrate. A truly magical weekend with the best staff we could ask for.
It was beyond perfect in our eyes and we are so grateful. Only one small issue being the bugs. Obviously being on a tropical island, sand fleas/mosquitoes/bugs are going to be present, especially at dusk. There was a moment where everyone seemed to be getting bit and you could see them swarming to the lights by the DJ booth. All that aside, our wedding team made several trips for extra spray which we were so thankful for. There’s not much to be done about it since you’re in a tropical climate & it’s essentially out of our control but just beware anything sand/sea related at that time you’re definitely going to deal with them!
We split our room stays so the first few days we were in the West Bay Oceanview Penthouse Club Suite and then we upgraded to the Island Village One Bedroom Walkout Suite with the private pool. Both rooms were beautiful! We really loved having the private pool and the large bath tub to relax and unwind.
Our butler Tim was amazing, he was so attentive and fun. We went to a dinner for returning Sandals members and he sat with us and the other couple he was taking care of and we had a blast. It was so special to have him sit with us, mingle and have a good time. Our friends/family left the resort on Sunday & Monday when the massive snow storm/bad weather conditions hit the midwest and all of our family was stranded. My husband and Tim could sense I was stressed and so Tim had the spa squeeze me in for a massage within an hour. He was so compassionate making sure we could still enjoy our time amidst all the travel chaos our family was experiencing.
Food was wonderful. At the wedding everyone loved all of it! Every other meal we had during our 9 day stay was delicious. Entertainment was so much fun, we really enjoyed the silent disco, fire dancers and karaoke. It was really awesome that they also did St. Patricks Day activities as well.
I wanted to give a few more special shout outs to the staff that just stood out to us and made our 9 day wedding/honeymoon the most memorable. We went on a snorkeling excursion with Dwayne, Huberto and Captain Lynden. It was so much fun, they had us laughing the entire time. They were the most fun group.
Ronnie was one of our consistent bartenders throughout our stay and he was so fun, interactive and attentive.
Keemo, Kevin and Derek were part of the entertainment during our stay and let me just say, my husband loved them all! My husband is a massive social butterfly and likes to be wild and funny, they all took his energy and ran with it. They acknowledged us throughout our entire stay which made us feel so special.
Granville was also a large help throughout our wedding day and he was so kind to us and our guests.
One negative with this stay would be my parents had a not so great experience at Butch's, they never got drinks, my dad had to go to the bar himself for his drink because it took so long, same with dessert. We personally did not have this experience but I did receive that feedback.
My only other negative was our transportation to the airport was quite late. We did pay for an upgraded butler room for a few days on our honeymoon, and were really looking forward to the ride as newlyweds in the Rolls Royce to the airport on our last day. We were slotted for a 10:45 departure for the Rolls Royce. For whatever reason, there were several delays, so much so that when we finally arrived to the airport we only had 1 hour to get through security and customs. Several other guests were given the Rolls Royce before us, even though their flights were much later, but my husband and I were rushed into a chevy SUV because of the late timing. It was disappointing as this was our honeymoon and we did spend a lot of money for the butler service and that's one of the "perks", not to mention how much my husband and I spent at this resort between our rooms, our large wedding with all the upgrades, and the amount of guests we brought in as well. We shook it off and still basked in what a great trip it was up until that point.
All in all, my husband and I cannot stop talking about how great of a trip it was. Everyone at the resort was wonderful, they made us feel so special and we could not be happier with the way we did everything. If you’re considering doing a destination wedding, we cannot recommend our family at Sandals enough. Aside from the transportation issues, which hopefully in the future we can go back and get that Rolls Royce ride, we will absolutely be back. 🥰🥰🥰
