I had the wedding of my dreams at the Grand Isle!!! My husband and I chose Great Exuma (we also considered Grand Cayman, Providenciales and Hawaii) for our wedding because we fell in love with the island after visiting a huge sandbar during low tide with Captain Jerry Lewless a year ago. Plus, if you’re a “water person” like me and my husband, I highly doubt you‘ll find better water clarity and color of the Exumas (comparable to Bora Bora in our opinion) so close to the US elsewhere! Needless to say, Great Exuma provided us some beautiful scenery for our couples photos.
As for the wedding location on Great Exuma, we chose the Grand Isle because of the rave reviews on Tripadvisor and the upscale, spacious and reasonably priced villas that we thought would be fun/convenient for some guests to share. It turned out to be a great decision. First, the villas were gorgeous and well appointed, the food at the resort was quite good and the wedding coordinator, Rhonda Williams, was resourceful, creative and overall amazing!! Also, the hotel was very accommodating to even my more difficult wishes – for instance, my desire to wear heels during our beach ceremony. To make this wish come true, the hotel created a walkway on the beach with a hard surface and covered the surface with a thin layer of raked sand. Other areas in which Rhonda and the hotel staff went above and beyond included:
1. seamlessly coordinating the food, music, flowers and décor for our reception in one of the unfurnished four bedroom penthouses in less than five weeks,
2. providing me a bridal suite free of charge in one of the unoccupied penthouses - something I never even thought to ask for
3. and hiring a small Junkanoo band who marched with our golf cart motorcade to the reception and added a fun and festive Bahamian element to our wedding.
Aside from Rhonda, another person I absolutely loved was our hairstylist Connie. Connie is an extremely talented hairstylist who made six women with six different personal styles very happy on my wedding day. Other amazing people bride-to-be’s can depend on include Grand Isle’s Mccara, who is sweet, sharp and competent, and Dee Wilkinson with Driftwood Designs – she and her daughter made our beautiful centerpieces.
My last bits of advice for future brides considering Great Exuma and Grand Isle – you will love the island and resort if your wedding day wish list includes some of the most gorgeous waters in the world, fine white sand beaches, sand bars, a relatively undeveloped island, beautiful villas, and a quiet, relaxed environment.
However, if things like shopping and nightlife are important to you – you may want to look elsewhere. Also, wedding in paradise does come at a cost. Since food, flowers, etc. is flown in from Nassau or the US, it’ll cost you. Lastly, remember you are on an island and things move at a much slower pace so make sure to plan ahead.
Wedding tablescapes can range from insanely expensive to ridiculously affordable, depending on how you plan on combining all your decor elements. Rentals (like the above black vintage-contemporary lamps) are pricey, and so are multitudes of florals like in the photo above that one…. but candles, vases, and elegant touches of florals can be combined to be stunningly beautiful, and done on a budget!
Beautiful of Purple Wedding Decoration and Reception
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