ResortHatch

Let’s take a short trip back to Valentine’s Day 2026 at Sandals Ochi, to a wedding on the water. There’s the bride, Schellie, beginning her walk to the overwater chapel with her thoughts focused on her meticulous steps:

Move gracefully. Be elegant. Don’t stumble.

A voice stops Schellie in her tracks.

“Mom, let’s take a moment.” It’s her 23-year-old son, Philippe, the young man who will be giving her away. “Look how perfect this is.”

There on the runway, they soak it all in. The Caribbean Ocean. The brilliant white chapel. A live violinist. Schellie’s daughter standing as the maiden of honor. Schellie’s fiancée, Christopher, waiting to become her husband. Christopher’s 24-year-old son, Donovan, poised as his best man. And the sun, as it always does in Jamaica, smiling over everything in sight.

“I felt like I was floating, not walking,” Schellie says, looking back a few months later. “I can still vividly sense that feeling.”

She can also see the 50 friends and family members who’d come to celebrate, plus Sandals team members who’d become friends. One person stands out most clearly.

“My father,” Schellie says of the man who modeled to his little girl what it means to love and cherish, and who willed himself to her Sandals wedding despite the Parkinson’s disease and wheelchair that have become part of his daily life. “To see him looking right at me before my son gave me away, it’s indescribable.”

Sandals guests, sensing something special, had also gathered to watch the wedding from a proper distance.

“You could not have written a better script,” Christopher says. He sometimes has to ask Schellie, “It really happened … we’re married, right?”

They look at the pictures and the video, and they talk until it all becomes crystal clear again. Yes, it really happened.

The Proposal

It took 30 years for “meant to be” to just be. That’s how long Schellie and Christopher had known each other during a plutonic off-and-on friendship. Both had experienced traditional weddings in front of roughly 200 guests in different locations within the New York Metro area. Each of those marriages were blessed with children before ending. And then one day …

“Something made me think about calling Schellie, just to say ‘hello,’” Christopher says. He left a message, unsure if she’d call back. “That same morning I’d prayed a specific prayer about the qualities that would interest me. Ambitious. Can take a joke. Athletic. Spiritually grounded. A best friend.”

A few hours later, his phone buzzed. It was Schellie. She, too, had been privately praying for God to open her heart to the right man and a fruitful marriage. Four days after reconnecting, Christopher told Schellie, “You’re the woman I want to marry.”

It took another year to find the right place and time to officially propose. Both of them travel extensively as keynote speakers, Christopher on the subject of technology and Schellie as an expert on wellness, relationships, and emotional intelligence. Among all the romantic places to pop the question, Christopher had one spot in mind: the living room of her parents’ home in Florida.

“What better gift could you give a father than to allow him to witness the proposal to his daughter?” Christopher says.

Schellie’s dad, his speech and mobility limited, grabbed her hand and kissed her ring.

“His joy and his actions were gifts,” she says.

They would not end in the living room.

The Planning

Christopher had been imagining a wedding in Jamaica, his mother’s childhood home. Schellie considered it one of her favorite islands, too. Besides, they wanted this wedding to be different: More intimate, less robotic, all theirs.

“We wanted to infuse culture, ambience, and a true island vibe,” Schellie says. “Sandals became our overwhelming choice. A lot of times you travel to a destination and have a sanitized experience. Sandals is genuine. The staff is genuine.”

Their excitement grew during a three-day test drive at Sandals Montego Bay, and it heightened further when they saw a picture from Sandals Ochi.

“The overwater chapel,” Christopher says. “Of all the overwater chapels, that one had the most capacity for our guests. It looked magical. That closed the deal.”

The Immersion

Two days before the wedding, Christopher, Schellie and her parents flew to Jamaica. The thoughts of her wedding and the challenges of traveling through airports with her father’s wheelchair weighed on Schellie … until they all sat in the car for the transfer out to Ocho Rios.

“Our driver was so much fun,” Schellie says. “When we arrived at the resort, the staff greeted us with singing. All my angst melted away.”

This was Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, she didn’t have to ask for cut-up hot peppers with every meal, a dietary need.

“When the staff remembers who you are and your story, it says you’re important,” Schellie says. “As soon as I realized they had every detail of our wedding mapped out, I stopped being a micro-supervisor. I just let go and enjoyed every moment.”

The Most Powerful Moment of All

We come to Valentine’s Day, to the chapel over the ocean and the water under the feet. It would seem to be the peak of the script, except this peak continued to rise, from the ceremony to the reception, and a scene Schellie still finds hard to comprehend: the** daddy-daughter dance**.

“I thought my dad would stay in his wheelchair and I’d kind of dance around him,” Schellie says. Instead, he stood up and, harnessing the power of love that embodies the destination, he held his daughter close. Together, they moved to the music.

“I could feel him giving all he could possibly give,” Schellie says. “He hadn’t moved like that in years. It blew me away. I’m still blown away.”

The Marriage

A day later, Christopher and Schellie were alone. Newlyweds at Sandals. Swaddled in tropical peace.

“That’s when our marriage started,” Christopher says.

When retelling their story — the long friendship, the prayers, the answers, the island wedding, the father’s miraculous strength — they return to the present without completely separating from the past.

“We’re still in awe,” Schellie says.

“Blessed,” Christopher adds. “Truly blessed.”