How an Unplanned Wedding Became Paradise Perfect
Looking back, everything about Morgan and Austin’s Sandals Royal Bahamian wedding… was unplanned, yet perfect. It seems like it was always meant to be. A care-free tropical island. Family and friends surrounding the two of them with an orchestra of applause. Love so present you could feel it like the sunshine. Morgan’s brilliant white dress … w-o-w. And then the exclamation point: Morgan and Austin sealing their vows with a prayer right there in a slice of Eden.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, a boat took the entire party out to another island, even more private and more remote, for an idyllic reception. Yes, this had been the vision for Morgan’s destination wedding for as long as she can remember.
The vision, however, wasn’t Morgan’s.
“My mom would tell me, and others, that I’d be married on an island someday,” Morgan says. “She’d describe the beach and ocean and venue in detail, as if she could actually see it.”
The truth is, Morgan could not see it. Until her engagement, she didn’t dream of a destination wedding, or a traditional wedding, or any kind of wedding. Instead, she narrowed her focus on career aspirations. She wanted to heal people, maybe cure cancer. With that in mind, she earned a degree in biomedical sciences while friend after friend got married.
“I still didn’t see marriage for myself,” Morgan says, “especially when I found out about the expense and stress of weddings.”
Morgan’s life goals began to shift as she spent more time with people in their twilight years. A common theme kept coming up.
“I heard one person after another say they wished they’d traveled more.”
Morgan took those words to heart. She made a dramatic pivot and became an airline attendant, allowing her to fly, explore, and avoid future regrets. It also added a tiny glimmer to her mother’s vision of Morgan one day standing on a distant beach, under a flowered trellis. The glimmer grew when Covid disrupted travel and Morgan returned home to Mobile, Alabama, for another reset.
This is when she met Austin.
“Hanging out with him was different,” Morgan says. “We’d spend hours glued to each other’s hip, talking and having fun. The next thing we knew, two years had passed and we asked each other, ‘OK, what are we doing?’”
Austin proposed. Morgan would have a wedding after all. Still, she had no interest in entering the dreaded world of spending, planning, and spending more in an effort to make 300 guests happy — which she priced at more than $40,000 around home.
“By then, my frontal lobe had developed,” Morgan says. “I couldn’t do that to my parents. I couldn’t do it to Austin and me either.”
She could, perhaps, insert herself into her mother’s vision of a destination wedding, but only if she could find a cost-effective location. The popular spots around North America — the Rocky Mountains, Smoky Mountains, and the coasts — were still too pricey. Then, while browsing online, Morgan came across Sandals.
“I knew right away a wedding at Sandals would check all the boxes,” she says. “We could do it in the Bahamas, which is an easy flight. Sandals is an all-inclusive, so once you’re there, you don’t have to spend a dime on food, drinks, or activities. It would be a great vacation for guests, but at the same time Austin and I would be fully celebrated.”
One unexpected box would also be checked: Mom’s vision of a destination wedding coming to life.
Instead of consuming herself in planning details, Morgan relied on three experts to set herself free — and they didn’t cost anything. A travel advisor took care of paperwork, marriage certificates, reservations, and scheduling. A Sandals wedding concierge listened to Morgan’s ideas and mobilized the planning. Morgan’s mother happily found, packed, and delivered the all-white décor Morgan wanted for her island wedding.
“Mom was as excited as anyone,” Morgan says. “She kept saying, ‘I spoke this into existence.’”
Friends and family who said “yes” to mom’s passport-themed invitations arrived at Sandals Royal Bahamian and immersed themselves into two dreams: a dream vacation and a dream wedding week. They kept thanking Morgan and Austin for the trip of a lifetime, even though Morgan and Austin honestly didn’t do much. Between their Wednesday arrival and the Saturday ceremony, they took a barefoot tour of the courtyard venue and cruised over to the private island to sink their toes into the beach and wrap their hands around drinks, just like everyone would eventually do at the reception. They played pool games with the Sandals entertainment team, tried a different restaurant at every meal, and waded into the Caribbean Sea.
Meanwhile, the Sandals wedding team discreetly steamed Morgan’s dress and laid out alternative plans in case of weather issues.
“When my friends were married, wedding planners would contact them to help solve problems,” Morgan says. “The Sandals team made sure we didn’t have to deal with anything. They even brought us snacks before we thought of asking.”
The wedding vision of Morgan’s mom, no matter how unbelievable, could not measure up to the specifics of her daughter’s real-life wedding. A lush island. A spectacular ocean. A white carpet of beach. A gazebo. Close friends and family. Palpable joy in every direction.
For Morgan and Austin, the best time of their lives didn’t end with the vows, with the Italian buffet on the private island, or with the fire dancer at the edge of the water. They opened their eyes the next morning in the same luxurious suite with the same view of the Caribbean and began their honeymoon.
“Just … relaxing,” Morgan says, meaning three days of beachcombing, lounging, and sprawling on massage tables at Red Lane Spa. They’d been celebrated. Their friends had vacationed. And Morgan’s mother had seen a vision turned into memories. When people ask Morgan what she and Austin would do differently, she doesn’t hesitate.
“We wouldn’t do anything differently,” she says. “Maybe we’d tell our guests to go ahead and wear sandals and shorts, but other than that, we’d do it all the same. We had our destination wedding and our guests had their best vacations. I couldn’t envision anything better than that.”
Ready to start planning your wedding? With stress-free planning, breathtaking venues, and all the details handled, an all-inclusive destination wedding is the ultimate way to celebrate your love. Visit our inquiry page and fill out the form to begin your journey.
