Our clients Colleen and her husband Wil celebrated their destination wedding at Beaches Turks and Caicos. It was an experience the couple and their lucky guests won’t forget!
Below, Colleen shares her perspective on destination weddings (and specifically the Beaches Turks and Caicos resort) — read on to see if an experience like this might work for you or a loved one with upcoming nuptials:
Beaches Turks and Caicos Destination Wedding Reviews: Colleen & Wil’s Dream Wedding
What made you want a destination wedding?
Colleen: We didn’t want to do a huge wedding, and we knew if we had a destination wedding then we could invite just close friends and family.
Plus, most people plan big weddings and then they’re over in six hours, then everyone goes home.
One big thing for us was that we really liked the idea of doing a trip with guests.
We’d still have the wedding, but we’d have more time to celebrate after that. It seems the bride and groom barely get to talk to everyone at a traditional wedding!
A dream destination wedding at Turks and Caicos: Take your guests with you! Click To Tweet
Why did you choose the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort for Your Dream Wedding?
Colleen: It was more of an exclusive, higher end location. And the Turks and Caicos resort had a reputation for really great food, which was really important to us.
As an all inclusive resort, our guests could eat and drink whatever they wanted without worrying about it.
A dream destination wedding at an all inclusive resort: Your wedding guests can eat and drink whatever they want. Click To Tweet
We also traveled with our young niece, so we chose the Beaches resort brand to make it family friendly, but then the couples who came would also enjoy amenities like “adults only” restaurants and other adults only activities.
What was the process of planning a destination wedding like?
Colleen: The Beaches Turks and Caicos resort team made it very easy. Something that made a huge difference for us was that we were able to do a “test run” of the wedding ceremony at the resort for an extremely discounted amount.
Do a wedding ceremony test run for an extremely discounted amount at the Beaches Turks and Caicos resort. Click To Tweet
We were there for a day and a half, and we got to see the resort, meet the wedding team, look at locations for the ceremony and reception — and they even put us in an upgraded room. That was such a big positive; any bride planning a wedding without knowing what it’s going to look like will be nervous. This put me at ease.
Wedding Planner and Wedding Team at Beaches Turks and Caicos: Waiting to Guide Bride and Groom
Once we decided to book, we got a wedding planner that did everything over the phone with us.
She helped us determine where in the Turks and Caicos resort to have the wedding ceremony and helped us pick out wedding decoration, based on choices on the website.
When we arrived at the all inclusive resort for the wedding trip, we were assigned a wedding team. We were greeted the minute we got there, and they walked us around the resort, took us to our wedding cake tasting, and did everything wedding-related with us. There were some things that we couldn’t decide on until when we arrived right before the wedding — like our cake flavor — so being somewhat laid back about a destination wedding will make things less stressful!
Beaches Turks and Caicos destination weddings. Having your own wedding planner and team: Wedding made easy! Click To Tweet
What was your favorite thing about your destination wedding?
Colleen: There were so many!
It actually downpoured rain on our wedding night. Everything had to be changed at the last minute, but luckily our wedding team had a great backup plan. I have to say, if I planned the wedding all myself, I don’t know if I would’ve had a backup plan!
Destination Weddings: It's great when you have a backup plan in case it rains on your wedding night. Click To Tweet
We also became very close with our wedding planner; I cried when we had to leave her. They totally pulled off an amazing wedding for us.
Other than that, we loved that the Beaches Turks and Caicos resort had so many restaurants. We were able to host our rehearsal dinner at the hibachi restaurant, which was easily able to accommodate all 20 of us. It actually felt like a private, personal rehearsal dinner!
How did Southern Travel Agency help you?
Colleen: We worked with Mike Kerbelis, and he was always there for me.
He organized a wonderful email to my list of guests and touched base with them about booking flights and deposits, and he kept them on track about money due dates.
Southern Travel Agency also had a relationship with the Beaches resort general manager, which helped us get “perks” like a room upgrade when there technically weren’t any available, and reserving the hibachi restaurant in advance.
We also created travel welcome bags, and we wanted to hand deliver them at the resort. Mike got us a list of everyone’s flights and arrival times so we could greet them in the lobby. Between the Beaches wedding planner helping us with all the wedding details and Mike helping with all the travel arrangements, everything was covered.
Working with a travel advisor means all your needs are covered. Click To Tweet
Any last thoughts on your Beaches destination wedding experience?
Colleen: I have to mention our wedding photographer, and how accommodating he was. We had to choose a photographer that worked on the Beaches resort property, so I made them a photo book of different photos we liked, and he looked at that to get an idea of what we wanted. But he really went above and beyond when it rained on our wedding day. He took photos then — but he also had us get all dressed up in our wedding clothes again three days later and had another photo shoot with us. Now I have two amazing sets of wedding photos!
If you’re thinking about having a destination wedding at the Beaches Turks and Caicos, or any other luxury or all inclusive resort, have the Augusta Southern Travel advisors near you or our online travel experts take the travel planning headache out of the equation for you. Get in touch to learn how we can help — from booking you the honeymoon suite to coordinating the complicated travel between all of your guests.