I got married in the Over the Water Chapel at Sandals Ochi on 10/26/26. Here is my (very long) honest review:
I’ll start by saying my gut told me to choose another resort from the time we started the phone planning process (it was challenging to say the least). BUT, I read so many other reviews that said even though the phone planning process was a nightmare, the onsite planning team executed beautifully. So against my better judgment, I decided to stick it out because as long as my wedding was beautiful, I would be happy. It was not.
On 10/25 we met with Chantal to go over the details of the wedding. I gave her detailed (with color pictures and step-by-step) instructions on the setup of our wedding decor (we brought our own). We were told during the phone planning process that setup would start at $250 and would be determined by the onsite team as to how much the final price would be. We asked what are the determining factors of the price increasing and was told that the price would go up from the $250 if we had things that needed to be hung or bolted down. Cool. We didn’t need that. When we got there, Chantal stated it’s actually $250 per suitcase (we had four), but it depends on what’s in the suitcases. She looked at our decor (faux flowers, vases, floating candles, table runners, charger plates, napkin ring holders, silk napkins, etc.) and told us she would get back to us on a definitive price, but it would be $250-$350, closer to $250. No problem. Later on, we were told it would be $350 for setup. To avoid the hassle of doing it ourselves, we agreed. We also wanted two white panels for the chapel doors. I’ve seen SEVERAL brides state they were charged $40 for this and the decor brochure even states the panels are $20 each. For whatever reason, we were told the cost would be $70. Later in the day during our Welcome Cocktail Reception, Chantal approached me and pulled me to the side to sign several receipts for the charges. We found this to be a tad unprofessional, as it is something that should have been done before or after, not during the event when we were interacting with our guests that travelled to attend our wedding.
The day of our wedding was unorganized and chaotic. We paid the $1k vendor fee for our photographer to come on resort. When he arrived, they wouldn’t let him in because he “wasn’t supposed to be there until 1:30.” It was 1:12 when he arrived and called me because he couldn’t get in. Instead of me preparing for my getting ready photos, I was on the phone with our photographer, our butler, and Chantal trying to figure out why our photographer couldn’t get in. After he finally got on resort, he was left in the lobby without an escort to our rooms. He called and texted me several times to try to find out where me and my husband were so he could do our getting ready photos. He wasn’t taken to my husband’s room until 2:46. Our wedding was scheduled to start at 3p. At the same time, my mother and son (who stayed off resort because my son is under age) were arriving and we didn’t have instructions on where they should go upon arrival. My mother was supposed to come to my room for photos and my son was supposed to go straight to the chapel. However, they were both directed to the chapel (on the opposite side of the resort from where our rooms were located). By the time I figured this out, our photographer wanted to do my getting ready pictures, but he didn’t have an escort to my room, nor was my mother there. I tried calling the extensions given to me to reach Chantal, no answer on any of them, and we didn’t have a direct number to reach her. My photographer wasn’t able to get my getting ready photos, invite/ring photos, pictures of the venues before guests arrived. Nothing. Chantal eventually called me to try and calm me down and stated she would get my mom to me as soon as possible, but by then, my photographer had to get to the chapel to prepare for the ceremony. Those are moments I’ll never get back.
Because of all of this, our ceremony started late. My husband had already been taken to the chapel and had to sit with our guests while I finished getting ready. Once I arrived, they made him leave the chapel and walk back in to his song. My son was supposed to walk down the aisle to an instrumental version, but instead they played the full, unedited version of the song (this was discussed during the planning session the day before). My bouquet was supposed to have baby’s breath added, but it didn’t. We took group pictures and our guests were escorted to the Seamist Bluff for cocktail hour while we took our pictures. We paid for a four drum steel drum band for cocktail hour that we wanted pictures of, so our photos were a little rushed so that the photographer could get those shots (we’re not even sure he did).
When we got to our cocktail hour, they were still setting up our decor. The cake wasn’t there, the tables weren’t set up, and our guests were sitting there watching while the wedding team finished the decor. The steel drum band stopped playing promptly at 5p (they were supposed to play from 4p-5p but the cocktail hour started late so we thought the time would be extended and it wasn’t). The DJ took over at 5p. Around 5:15-5:20, everything was set up and Chantal asked if we still wanted to be introduced as Mr. & Mrs. (we’d been there mingling with our guests while the team finished setting up for almost an hour). We walked out of the cocktail hour to be introduced and Chantal asked if we were okay because we weren’t smiling. I told her the decor wasn’t correct. The chair sashes were just tied to the backs of the chairs (they had hoods that were shown how to be assembled on the instructions), the vases with flowers weren’t supposed to have floating candles, our (bride & groom) chairs didn’t have sashes, and several names were broken on the napkin rings (I gave them to Chantal separate from the other decor, in a cloth bag, and told her they were fragile, as they were made of acrylic). Her reply to this was, “Oh.” That’s it.
The food. It was bad. We did the Wedding Test Drive in June and one of my biggest concerns was the food because I’d read reviews from previous brides who said their food was cold. I expressed my concerns at the Test Drive, even went through the logistics of where/how the food would be prepared and served so that it could be hot for our guests, and guess what? It was cold. Not a single guest’s steak was cooked the correct way. EVERYONE’S steak was well-done and tough. My steak was supposed to be medium (see picture below). I literally watched my guests take a few bites and push their plates away. Of the 15 people who attended, only TWO actually ate the food. The cake was dryyyy and no one ate it. I mean, no one! Speaking of which, they delivered the top tier of our cake to our room the evening of our wedding. Our wedding was on Monday and we weren’t scheduled to depart until Saturday. We left it in the room because we didn’t want cake that was already dry and had been sitting out not refrigerated for almost a week.
Toward the end of the night, the DJ was rushing us to get to the fire dancer so we could do our final dance. We were under the impression that it would be at least two dancers, but it was a one man show. Though it was slightly disappointing for us, he was interactive and our guests seemed to enjoy it. The “show” lasted about 15-20 minutes (as published in the brochure), and we did get some great pictures. This was something we take accountability for because we should have asked more questions about what to expect.
Our decor was delivered to our room the next day in our suitcases. It was a mess. The votives weren’t put back in their boxes and were just tossed inside. Luckily, none were broken. There was trash from the wedding in our suitcases as well. Empty wrappers from snacks we provided and trash from the setup. I’m not sure if they were trying to save the bags for us to put everything back, or what. If that were the case, half of them were missing. It was almost as if they cleared the tables by grabbing handfuls of everything and threw it in the suitcase. No care was taken at all. I spent an hour and half going through and packing everything back up, and had a trash bags full of trash when I was finished. I took pictures of it because it definitely showed that although this is one of the most important days of your life, it’s just another day/business for Sandals’ employees.
The day after the wedding, we got a call from Chantal asking us to meet her at the wedding office to complete some paperwork. When we got there at the agreed upon time of 4:30, she wasn’t there. The woman who was in the office didn’t know what we were there for and they tried calling Chantal but we still don’t know what that was about. Aside from that call, we never heard from Chantal again.
We stayed in the Romeo & Juliet Honeymoon Butler Suite. The room is a bit dated with peeling paint on the walls and worn furniture. When we arrived, our butler told us the pool light flickers and would be fixed (I mentioned on our butler preference form that my husband has a seizure disorder so no flashing lights). We were thankful he took care in telling us, but it was never fixed. So we couldn’t turn the light on in the pool area if we wanted to use it at night. The toilet handle had to be held down for about a minute in order for it to flush correctly and we had to ask our butler for the pool to be cleaned. These things were minor in comparison to everything else, but still an inconvenience for a room that cost almost $10k for the week.
Soooo, what went right? I’m still emotional about the whole thing so it’s hard for me to see all of the positives right now but I wanted to write my review while everything is still fresh (although I probably forgot some details). I can say this, I got to marry my best friend and start our life together, our guests seemed to enjoy (aside from the food) the experience, and the scenery was beautiful. The staff (including the wedding team) were extremely friendly and pleasant. I just feel like for the $20k+ that we spent, things were executed poorly and when we brought it up, our concerns were disregarded. This was our first experience with the Sandals brand and we fully intended on booking a future stay while we were there. However, this is the only time we have ever vacationed somewhere and couldn’t wait to leave and get home. They clearly have a “We’ll take your money and you’ll take what we give you” business strategy. Though others may have a phenomenal experience, I just don’t think Sandals is right for us. Good luck to the future brides!
