Why Alex the Planner and Don Chose Sandals for Their Celebration

Don is a smart man. He’s a thoughtful listener who truly understands Alex, and he has a way of saying “Yes” that reflects not just agreement, but alignment, a shared vision, a mutual understanding. That’s part of what makes him such an outstanding partner to his wife, Alex. During their engagement, you could say Don wasn’t just supportive, he was dialed in and completely attuned.

“Alex normally likes to manage details,” he says, “so when it came to planning our wedding, I let her do what she does so well.”

Don is intelligent enough to know what he doesn’t know. He knows, for example, that Alex knows as well as anyone what it takes to plan a wedding. She knows the time involved, the money it takes, and the amount of stress included in the package. Alex knows all of this because she’s a wedding coordinator who manages a wedding venue in Buffalo, New York. “I’ve always loved events and hospitality,” she says, “so wedding planning is a natural fit for me.”

She’s been involved in roughly 300 weddings over the years. There have been multi-day events and intricate cultural ceremonies, weddings sheltered from snowstorms and weddings as choreographed as Broadway shows, plans that have taken more than a year and plans that have nearly fallen apart at the final hour.

With all of her know-how, Alex could pinpoint exactly what she wanted for her own wedding — and what she didn’t want. “I didn’t want to manage my wedding here,” she says.

Keep in mind, she could have called a few vendors around Buffalo, many of them close friends, and seamlessly planned a fabulous event. Heck, she even manages a gorgeous venue.

“But that’s another reason I didn’t want to do it here. It would have felt like work for me instead of a celebration for us. Don’t get me wrong. I love helping couples create meaningful celebrations. It’s rewarding, but it’s also time-consuming. We wanted to enjoy ourselves.”

Don did not think for a millisecond of responding with anything other than, “That’s exactly what I was thinking, too.”

The thought of a fun Caribbean wedding crossed both of their minds when he proposed to Alex at Sandals Ochi. Don opened his eyes to the beautiful surroundings and his ears to his beautiful fiancé.
“We agreed,” Alex says. “We wanted our wedding to be less like a production and more like a relaxing vacation with family and friends.”

Why a Destination Wedding at Sandals South Coast

One year later, and 1,700 miles from Buffalo’s chill, Don and Alex were in the backseat of a private transfer, passing Jamaica’s sugarcane fields and incredibly lush countryside en route to Sandals South Coast at the edge of a 500-acre nature preserve. There, the reasons they’d chosen South Coast for their destination wedding at Sandals came to life: The purity. The scenery. The warmth. The culture. The Caribbean Ocean. The kindest people in the world. They saw the paradise where they would be married in three days.

“The ease of it all cannot be overemphasized,” he says. “I wanted us to enjoy our entire wedding experience."

For Alex, everything about this wedding would be wonderfully different at Sandals. It would be no work, all play. For the first time since being in the industry, she could have actual, tangible fun as the celebration gradually unfolded throughout the week. In the Sandals wedding world, Alex and Don would spend extended and uninterrupted time with their loved ones. Every so often they would hear feedback that’s as precious to the bride as it is to the coordinator: “This is the best decision you could have made. Thank you for inviting us.”

Stress-Free Celebrations in Paradise

“Instead of a single evening that goes by in a blink,” Alex says, “we shared long days of laughter, night after night of karaoke in the martini bar, and a beautiful intimate ceremony that everyone will remember.”

Alex didn’t go into fix-it mode when, two hours before the ceremony, the Sandals wedding team suggested — calmly — that they might need to move the reception to an indoor venue because of weather.
“Do you mind moving everything?” Alex asked.
“It’s no problem at all,” the wedding coordinator said with a comforting Jamaican inflection and a genuine smile. “We will take care of everything. You enjoy your special day.” And then the wedding team set up a new space with tables, chairs, linens, and décor, while the bride, groom, and their guests followed instructions to enjoy every moment of the day.

“As a planner, I know how much work it takes to make a change on the day of the wedding,” Alex says. “I was so impressed with the willingness of the Sandals team to do that for us. They gave me peace of mind so I could focus on the most important part of our wedding: the two of us.”

A New Perspective on Weddings

As you might guess, Alex has high wedding standards. She expects the very best because she demands the very best from herself. So, it speaks volumes when she says of her own Sandals ceremony (the one she lived and did not control):
“It was everything we could have hoped for. Intimate. Emotional. Tropical with a beautiful garden backdrop. Looking back, I realized as a bride how fast the wedding itself goes, which made me grateful to have multiple-day celebration. One wouldn’t have been enough.”
“Yes,” Don says. “Amazing.”

Alex and Don returned to Buffalo with tanned faces, bling on their ring fingers, and fresh memories to carry them through the winter. Alex the wedding planner also owned a new lesson learned from Alex the bride and from Don her smart husband.
“Our wedding at Sandals gave me a new appreciation for the guest experience. As a planner, I focus on logistics and perfection, but being in the role of the bride at Sandals reminded me how meaningful it is to cherish time with your friends and family. I can honestly say our time was magical.”
And Don? You know what he has to say about that.