Two years ago, on August 11th, 2022 we got engaged in Puerto Rico which is a beautiful Caribbean island. Originally, our plan was to get married in Mexico for a destination wedding. But then last year we had our baby girl and it was going to be too hard to coordinate a destination wedding with everyone and work around our babies schedule, so instead we decided to secretly get eloped in the Bahamas. We booked our trip and began looking for elopement packages. We came across “Weddings in the Bahamas” with Anne Marie as the planner which looked like a good option.
Shortly before the trip we began to tell a few people (some family and close friends) but it was still widely secret. I worked out hard for a month prior and got in great shape. I purchased a perfect beige suit for the beach and Gerlie got a wedding dress made here in Winnipeg for a reasonable price. We didn’t need to go too fancy with our attire because it was only us and our baby and it was going to be scorching hot. My suit looked great and fit perfectly; we were ready to go. Unfortunately, 3 days in Miami prior, with lots of drinking and eating Latin foods, plus one day in the Bahamas and I was back to square one. I lost all of my gains only to gain it back in the tummy. My suit was a bit tight but it still fit okay… luckily there were no shirtless beach photos. We couldn’t get married on our exact engagement anniversary because that was a Sunday, but we got married on August 12th of this year. Not only was it sort of our engagement anniversary, on another Caribbean island, but I got to marry an amazing woman, partner and mother.
As for the planning and the ceremony itself, it went smooth, was low stress and wonderful. It was even less stressful than asking Gerlie to marry me, you can read about that here. Anyways, Anne Marie was great, she was in contact with us before we came to the Bahamas, coordinating everything, sending us a number of vows from which we could choose or mix and match at our choice, which we did. She gave us an option of photographers; we chose Cay Focus Photography, the photography was excellent. The photographer was nice, patient, creative and got excellent photos capturing the different locations at the venue and a wide variety of creative and beautiful shots of my wife, myself and our baby. As for the baby, we needed a nanny and used KLK's Resort Babysitting Services. Our nanny (Rose Marie) was great, she took Daniella around our resort while we were getting ready and held her while we were doing the ceremony. She was nice, caring and Daniella liked her. At one point she even got her clothes wet allowing Daniella to dip into the beautiful Caribbean beach.
It was the morning of the big day and Anne Marie picked us up and took us around Nassau to take care of everything we needed to in preparation for the elopement. She also showed us a few beaches, restaurants and provided lots of information about where to go and what to see in Nassau. She also booked our romantic dinner at the Blue Sail, took care of the necessary paperwork and helped Gerlie find a makeup/hair artist. The makeup artist came to our room and did a good job, making my wife look even more beautiful,
As for the venue, we decided to do it right on the beach at our hotel in Sandyport Beach Resort. Sandyport is known for its characteristic dock and white gazebo silhouetted against the beautiful Caribbean Sea. We exchanged our vows and did the ceremony in the gazebo and proceeded to take photos on the beach and surrounding area. It was nice because we didn’t have to leave our resort and the location was phenomenal.
Our dinner, was at the Blue Sail which was just overlooking the beach where we got married. The food was mediocre, but the view was beautiful. Lesson learned, don’t order steak in the Bahamas, but the shrimp was good and the wife’s, that’s right she was now officially my wife, Red Snapper was delicious.
Price wise, for the Bahamas, our elopement was reasonable. But since it was in USD, the exchange rate hurt us, since our dollar isn’t worth a lot. We paid Anne Marie about $1500 USD which covered the planning, ceremony, paperwork, photography, and flowers. We had to dish out another $100 to the nanny plus tip, more for the makeup, and even though we were staying at Sandyport, we had to pay $275 to reserve the gazebo. All in all, it was worth it for our simple yet magical day, and hey, we saved a lot of money compared to having a regular wedding.
It was a beautiful and magical to get eloped in the paradise of The Bahamas. It was a quiet, stress free, and intimate family experience with only us, aside from a few involved in the ceremony and planning, and a few onlookers on the beach. Our vacation was pretty much our honeymoon (but the next day we went island hopping to some amazingly tropical islands) and it was an amazing experience; the best part was that I came home a married man and got to marry my best friend and love of my life, Gerlie Vi Orysiuk.
The majority of the photos come from Cay Focus Photography, but a few of the photos before our ceremony and after the ceremony were photos I took to capture the entire day.
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