Cathy-

Congratulations and happy planning!

How many guests will attend?

Congradulations!!!!

My husband and I both work at Sapphire Beach Resort (well for the restaurants / beach bar) and they often have beautiful weddings out on the point with a reception in the pool side restaurant. THe food is great and ambiance is airy, classy and fun!!

My friend is the Banquest manager at the Marriot and they have some spectacular weddings there as well. We went for New Years and had a blast. THe food is incredible and there are a lot of options pending what you're interested in.

Good luck and happy planning.

Bluewater - Thanks for the response. I think that we will have approximately 25 - 50+/- the high side). We will have a reception in Delaware for the rest of the people who will be unable to attend the ceremony.

Shannon - Where is Sapphire Beach Resort? I'm not too familiar with Thomas, wo will will apppreciate all the info we can get

Any ideas you can give us will be appreciated. I'm getting stressed!!!

Cathy

Your budget is really the deciding factor. There are so many great places to host a wedding.

The Ritz Carlton seems to do a very nice job with weddings and they have a large verandah overlooking the beach.

Sapphire has a point on which many people choose to get married. Then they seem to mostly host the receptions just a few feet away at the pool area, where they set up tables.

Wyndham Sugar Bay does a lot of weddings. They have a large property and probably have banquet space and garden space. Never seen one there. Check out the rates. You can stay there without the all-inclusive plan, which makes it more affordable.

Another favorite spot is the Botanical Gardens at St Peter Greathouse Estate. Pictured below....

The URL is http://www.greathouse-mountaintop.com/

They also just completed a villa at the Botanical Gardens. The villa can host weddings and receptions for 200 guests (a new outdoor garden bar pavilion is available for weddings and receptions): For parties of 1 to 59 : Use of Villa Botanica is $375 per hour (with a 4-hour minimum charge). For 60 to 200 the charge is a flat fee of $25 per person. I don't know how they work the fees if you actually rent the villa for the week. I'm sure you don't pay twice.

Here is the garden at the Villa Botanica..

I admit being partial to villas and weddings are no exception. I love the idea of hosting the wedding and reception at a luxury villa - maybe poolside, out on a large verandah or have the wedding down on the beach below the villa and the reception poolside.

Bellagio Estate sleeps 24 in 10 bedrooms with 9.5 baths. Plenty of grounds for a wedding and reception set-up. In the off-season, it would run you about $14k for the week with 24 guests. Do the math and you'll see that it is cheaper than a hotel for everyone - it works out to be $83 per night/per person - and you get a huge luxury villa to yourselves, private pool, etc. It is available for weddings/receptions for up to 100 guests and you pay a $1,000 surcharge for that use.

See below:

Another large, ultra-lux villa is Coral and Secret Gadens (two villas on the same estate that are a combined rental for large parties). Sleeps 20 in 9 bedrooms and 10.5 baths. 10,500 square feet. They are waterfront and beachfront and have 2 pools. Coral sleeps 16 and Secret sleeps 4. Works out to be about $110 nt/pp.

Sirens Song was completed in 2004 and sits on 3.3 acres - sleeps 22 in 8 bedrooms and 6.5 baths. It is waterfront with the beach being 5 minutes walk away - plus a nature conservatory is just on the other side of the beach. Runs about $81 pp/per night for Siren's song alone. Siren's song cam be combined with a sister villa, Mermaid's Dream - and the two sleep 30 - Mermaid's dream has 5 bedrooms and 6 baths. Siren's song can host weddings of up to 50 guests and you would just need to pay an extra $1k for the use of it for a wedding and reception. The pool has fountains and is infinity edged. See below.

Sand Dollar Estate (Bill Clinton's villa when he is in the Caribbean), sleeps 18 in 7 bedrooms and 7.5 baths. It sits on a magnificent private beach....pure heaven! There is a new cottage next to Sand Dollar (aptly named Little Sand Dollar). Comes in around $120/nt/pp

With Little Sand in the picture....

A reception here? Can you picture this place dressed in white linen and tropical flowers?

You can also place your guests in a hotel and rent a smaller luxury villa for the wedding and reception. Perhaps only the wedding party stays in the villa....or the parents and the couple then stays in an attached cottage villa so they have privacy. There are plenty of villas with cottages or smaller villas on the grounds.

St John also has plenty of villas. I am not aware of any large ones such as listed above. I am aware of STJ villas with 6 bedrooms....sleeping up to 14. But, if you decide to host your guests at the Westin or Caneel, you can get a smaller villa for a core group and still have the perfect place to host the event.

Our son was married at Frenchman's reef last May and it was wonderful! We rented Villa Amour and loved it! For the rehearsal dinner (there wasn't really a rehearsal) we rented the New Horizons II for a dinner cruise for 25. WOW! Was it wonderful. We all had a great time and the Frenchman's Reef Gazebo was fabulous. I hope our other son will do the exact same thing!

Hi Ann,

If you don't mind my asking, how much was the dinner cruise? It sounds great! I am also getting married in St Thomas this May and we are staying at the Frenchman's reef and trying to plan a rehearsal dinner for about 25. Thanks!

What a fabulous list of options. My daughter got married in St. Thomas last summer; we had over 100 guests, but with 4 days of "events", she said it was the best wedding she ever attended (including a few where the flowers cost as much as her entire wedding).

A few additional suggestions:

We did a wonderful out o f towners dinner at Coral World; it is also a possible venue for a casual wedding and has cover in the event of rain.

The St. Thomas synagogue has a party room that they rent out - we did a party there the night before the wedding.

The Old Stone Farmhouse and Oceana are two wonderful restaurants that do weddings as well. And the chef at OLd Stone has a catering business that does weddings in some of the historic sites.

Also, I understand that the Nancy ? who caters at Villa Botanica does wonderful catering. I didn't get a chance to use her, but she was most helpful.

Sizzler - did your daughter get married at the Synagogue? That is where we are getting married, but i was unaware that they had a party room for rental. How many people does it hold? I have already heard great things about Old Stone Farmhouse and Oceana. My future in-laws are in charge of the rehearsal dinner, but the more options the better.
Thanks!

Yes, she got married at the Synagogue. We had just over 100 - it probably holds 200.

You might also want to consider the Lillianfeld House for the reception, the synagogue social hall - it is a lovely room and for the cost of the rental includes tables, chairs, dishes etc.

the synagogue has no AC, but the social hall does. if you are getting married during the winter season, the heat will be no problem. Not so, during June, July, August!

Another thought is Gallows Point Resort for a smallesh wedding

Good luck with all of your planning. When we were in St. Thomas recently -- we came across a great photographer who does weddings. His name is Tom Boyd. http://www.caribphotography.com/

My husband and I got married on St. John 5 years ago and are returning for our anniversary the first week of May. I don't know what kind of budget is involved (did not read all of the postings); but, I feel my wedding was sooo beautiful. We were married at Cinnamon Bay at sunset with good friends and family and then went to Asolare for a wonderful dinner. It was a great day. My husband and I actually napped from 2-3 that day, how often does that happen! People that were there still comment on how beautiful, simple and fun it was!