Matt & Brie’s Real Wedding
For a Wednesday, Brie and Matt are extraordinarily happy. They’re a mid-week blend of Friday excited and Sunday easy, and for good reason.
“We’re leaving for our honeymoon at Sandals St. Vincent in three days,” Brie says.
You have to admire these two for scheduling a five-month gap between their wedding at Sandals Royal Bahamian and their honeymoon in St. Vincent. They never completely came down to earth after that weeklong celebration with 80 friends and family members in The Bahamas.
The moment they boarded their flight home to New Hampshire, with a jar of eternal island sand, their minds began swimming in visions of a classic Caribbean cove, St. Vincent’s lush hillscapes, and yes, two more margaritas, please.
“St. Vincent will be our eighth Sandals trip,” Brie says.
“On our eighth different island,” Matt adds.
For anyone keeping score, the previous seven trips have gone like this:
The wedding week at Sandals Royal Bahamian followed Matt’s proposal at Sandals Grenada, which came after vacations to Sandals Barbados, Sandals Grande St. Lucian, Sandals Curaçao, Sandals Antigua, and … take a breath … their first getaway together at Sandals Ocho Rios. That one — a long date really — liberated a happiness gene they didn’t know existed.
“I like to say Matt was my ‘travel dad’ on that trip,” Brie says. “He made sure we were in the airport two hours early and he had a manilla folder with everything printed out. It was comforting. And then we got to Jamaica. I’ve never looked at relaxation the same.”
She and Matt experienced the transformative powers of the Caribbean through the food, fun, scenery, water, and people. During that week, they couldn’t help falling deeper in love with each other and — this is literal, not hyperbolic — deeper in love with Sandals.
Three Years and Five More Sandals Trips Passed
By the time Matt dropped to a knee at Sandals Grenada (“Not a big production, just genuinely him and an amazing location,” Brie says), there was never much doubt they’d be married at a Sandals.
“Couples here in New Hampshire do rustic barn weddings,” Brie says, “but we wanted our wedding to be a tropical escape. We know from experience how good everyone feels at Sandals. Plus, we’re the last couple in our friend group to be married, so we needed to go out with a bang.”
The only question: “Which Sandals?” There are 17 properties on the purest tropical beaches across seven Caribbean islands. For Brie and Matt, the decision came down to logistics for family and friends. The Bahamas would be easiest because of the quick flights from the east coast. Of the 86 people they invited, 80 responded with, “Can’t wait!”
“Our friends with kids said, ‘You know what? We deserve a vacation.’ They used our wedding as an excuse to have the grandparents babysit for a few days. I don’t remember how many couples told us, ‘Thank you. We haven’t been alone since our own honeymoon.’”
Brie and Matt gave their guests a full year of enthusiastic anticipation. They collaborated with a Sandals travel advisor to handle any questions and any necessary payment plans. The 12-month cushion also gave the future bride and groom time to take another Sandals trip before their Sandals wedding.
“We did the ‘test drive’ exactly one year before the wedding to give ourselves a clear picture of what the week would be like. It gave us peace of mind to see it all in person.”
Brie really wanted to see the most important piece to her wedding puzzle: the venue. She’d chosen the resort’s private island across a stretch of emerald Caribbean Ocean. Online, it looked too good to be true. But when she and Matt saw it with their own eyes during the scouting trip, Brie could barely speak.
“It’s just ocean water, as far as you can see. No boats, no other islands, and no distractions. We’d have our ceremony on one side of the beach, a cocktail hour under fairy lights in a grassy area, and a reception on the other side of the island. I told Matt, ‘We’ll feel like celebrities getting married on our own secluded island.’”
It’s Six Months Later
A perfect day for a Caribbean wedding. All is calm on the ocean as 80 care-free guests mingle and laugh along a pier at Sandals Royal Bahamian.
A boat pulls up to transport half of the guests to Brie and Matt’s island. A second boat takes Matt, his groomsmen, and the parents. They stroll to the beach where a flowered arch serves as a threshold from island paradise to ocean paradise.
While the guests stare into the distance, another boat discreetly arrives with Brie, her bridesmaids, and her father. It all starts to hit Brie. She feels as if she’s floating in her wedding dress, under the shade of palm trees, around colorful Bahamian foliage, to the edge of a runway where dad will walk her toward the sea, to her prince.
“I’m a Disney girl,” Brie says, “so I grew up with the idea of being a fairytale princess at my wedding. That kind of changed when Matt and I started traveling to Sandals. I saw that I could still be a fairytale princess someday but instead of a castle, I’d be on a beautiful Caribbean beach.”
She didn’t have to do anything to make her own storybook wedding come true. The Sandals Weddings team organized the venue, food, drinks, and a traditional island sand ceremony.
Out of gratitude to her guests (and because she’d saved so much money compared to a wedding back home), Brie added some personal surprises. Custom canvas totes filled with gifts. Engraved shot glasses. A steel-pan band. And a fire dancer on the beach.
“Look, I’m not the kind of person who likes to one-up others,” Brie says, “but it was fun to hear people say, ‘Wow, this has to be the wedding of the century.’”
When she was younger, she’d picture herself in the shoes of Cinderella and Snow White. But on her own wedding day, Brie didn’t want to be anyone but Brie — the happiest beach princess, surrounded by 80 happy guests and one happy Matt.
“The most perfect wedding in the most perfect location and with zero stress,” she says, living in the exhilarating space between that celebration and the next one. “And now, here’s our honeymoon. I have a feeling we’ll celebrate a few Sandals honeymoons.”
