Thursday, August 27, 2009

How to have a "Grand" Cayman Cruise Wedding

If you're thinking about a Destination Wedding while you're on a cruise, look no further than Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is a popular stop for all the major cruise lines and it's the easiest place in the Western Caribbean to tie the knot, with experienced wedding vendors and quality services.

In finding my blog, you are already halfway there. The bride below told me she spent a lot of time on my blog seeing what other brides had chosen, and she was happy with my all-inclusive cruise wedding, plus some additional services. For example, she chose to add a 6" wedding cake with a dendrobium orchid topping since she was having a group of six.

The bride poses before joining the rest of the party on Seven Mile Beach

Even if you want the simplest of weddings, my top recommendation is to get professional photography. Unless you plan to bring your own photographer, its best to get one of the photography packages we offer. If you want a big name photographer, we can organise that as well, just remember that there is an additional cost.

Solidarity from the guys

The ladies are ready to put their best foot forward



Raise your glasses

All together now, jump!

Next stop Belize, followed by Roatan, Honduras and then a lazy day at sea

A newly- wed stroll on Seven Mile Beach

All our wedding packages include all legal requirements, including the Special Marriage License (a $200 value) and the Registered Marriage Certificate. Choose our standard ceremony or personalise your own readings and vows.

Ceremony by Joy for Simply Weddings, flowers by Tricia's Roses, photography by Mari of Island Photo. Call Simply Weddings today at (345)9499933, or email mywedding@candw.ky

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Beautiful Grand Cayman Wedding for local couple

This wedding took place earlier this month in the Westin Casaurina ballroom, Seven Mile Beach. Around 200 family and friends were in attendance.


A good-by kiss from daddy's little girl

Signing the register

Ceremony by Joy for Simply Weddings. Photos provided. Official photographer, Rebecca Davidson of Picture This. Reception followed at Ristorante Pappagallo.

A family pose on the lawn

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Residents Choose Darts Park Wedding, Grand Cayman


Caymanians and residents have a great free, wedding location in Darts Park, South Sound. The park can be booked ahead of time, affording couples and their guests privacy. If you like this location, let us know and we can book it on your behalf.

This was a late afternoon wedding in the park, in the amphitheatre. You can get very good sunset shots from this spot .


The groom with his boys, they looked so cute

The wedding party, including the miniature bride

This was my 5pm wedding. Both couples live on the same street, and know each other

I did this wedding under a tree so we could get some shade from the sun. This area of the park is great for different kinds of photographs

I thought this was a good shot, also shows the area well


Residents are advised to book early to avoid disappointment since Saturday is the favourite day for residents to be married. Drop by our Simply Weddings office at 306 North Church St. in the ERA Kirkconnell Realty Building or call 949-9933.

"Joy" gets 20,000 visits for Cayman Wedding Blog

Joy and husband at a recent wedding


The site-meter function one of my kids installed for me is very useful, since I use it to see whether my readers are finding what I have to say interesting. It is almost two years since I started blogging in September '07. Of course in the early days I had no idea what I was doing, and didn't even know how to upload pictures. It wasn't until about 6 months later that I started blogging and capturing some of my weddings on camera.

These last few months have been very interesting for me. I uploaded my first video to my blog, (95% of the credit goes to one of my grooms, but I will learn), I joined Facebook, I joined Twitter, I am learning how to use Digg and Tecnocrati, and I am using Addictomatic and Stumble Upon.
I can update my web-site if I really wanted to, it has a Joomla platform.

On June 1st I opened the Simply Weddings office and bride's room at 306 North Church Street which is just a stone's throw from the Rayal Watler cruise landing and is perfect for the many cruise weddings I perform each year. My wedding coordinator is Peggy Moorhead, and I am so lucky to have her.

Also, last week I performed my first wedding outside the Cayman Islands, which was a trip, really it was. I am working on another blog which I am going to launch, and which is not about weddings but about writing, including stories and poems I have written at some time in my life, at least I think that's what it will be about.

I am a fortunate woman and I thank the Lord every day for all He has given me, and especially for the ability and authority to bring happiness to others through my Civil Registrar of Marriages practice.

I hope if you have just visited my blog for the first time you will come back, and for those visitors who I have met personally or married, I do wish you rich blessings of health and happiness, and come on back to the beautiful Cayman Islands and see us.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Magical Cayman Islands Beach Wedding

As soon as I met this couple from New York, and their 5 year old daughter, I knew this simple Cayman beach wedding would be extra special. I was glad I had booked Dubadah Boldeau as their photographer, because they got many beautiful pictures. At first I thought I had made a mistake with the choice of wedding location because it was packed with swimmers and sun-bathers on this very hot Saturday afternoon. We had to go far out on the rocks to get some privacy.

The Jolly Roger was in George Town harbour, and this pirate ship provided an interesting back-drop for the wedding

Promising to love each other forever

Posing with Joy and their wedding certificate

This couple didn't mind getting wet or full of sand

Cayman is full of these iguana figures, this is a particularly nice one


This is my favourite of their more than 100 images


Call Simply Weddings for your own Cayman Islands beach wedding. When you come by cruise-ship or as a stayover visitor we get all the details right for your unforgettable Cayman wedding (345)9499933.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Jamaica Wedding...No Problem!

We are just back from Jamaica where I was the co-officiant at the wedding of a relative of ours. We have been friends with the parents of the bride for over 30 years, so when we were invited to Hotel Riu on the north coast of Jamaica for their daughter's wedding we were happy to join the celebration. Coincidentaly it was also our 37th wedding anniversary so we were in a party mood anyhow.

We took Cayman Airways and got to Montego Bay at 9:10am and really only had time to catch-up with the family members and eat some great jerk and curry goat before getting ready for the wedding which was at 2pm.

The bride, who comes from the Toronto area, had a jet-ski accident at the resort on Sunday night and fractured her ankle. Despite being between crutches and a wheel chair she still had a great time.

As I am not licensed to perform marriages in Jamaica, the Jamaican Reverend Godfrey did the paper-work right after the ceremony and the Unity Sand Ceremony. He allowed me to do everything including the pronouncement, and I appreciated the fact that he was very gracious and accomodating.

Although I have had requests to do a wedding in other islands, I never pursued it. Who knows what my first Jamaican wedding may lead to.









This all-inclusive hotel is very popular for weddings. I liked this little gazebo which is near to the hotel lobby, unfortunately it is not on the beach, but it would be suitable for a more formal wedding.

Call me for your own Cayman wedding at (345)949-9933 or email Simply Weddings. Our simple beach wedding starts at $650 (accommodations not included)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Get married in Grand Cayman, see the Video on You Tube, hear the words of the Cayman Wedding Ceremony


My friend Fevi Yu is always telling me I have to put videos on You Tube, so you can see my beautiful Cayman wedding ceremony on the beach . Well, I have just half-way mastered putting pictures on my blog, so I am sure it will be some time before I master putting videos there.

Today when I came home from Mass I didn't have to cook since I am going out for lunch so I was looking for inspiration for a special wedding ceremony I am doing in Jamaica on Wednesday, and decided to check You Tube.

Imagine my surprise and delight to find one of my weddings from last year on You Tube, and the entire ceremony is here. It was Shahriar and Chantal Shahram's wedding in May2008.



Call me for your own sunset beach wedding in the Cayman Islands today (345) 9499933

Friday, August 7, 2009

Sunday Afternoon Wedding at the Wedding Gazebo

I don't do a lot of Sunday weddings, and when I do they are usually at the Wedding Gazebo at my parents, Vernon and Francine Jackson's home in West Bay. This way I can accommodate our clients who want a Sunday afternoon wedding, and visit with my mom and dad at the same time. Sunday tea with the grandparents is something both my children and my grand-children enjoy.

This young Filipino couple met in Grand Cayman where they are employed at the same restaurant.

Here I am explaining to them that they must go to the General Registry, in the Citrus Grove Building on Goring Avenue, George Town to get their Registered Marriage Certificate. For my visitor clients I mail this certificate to them, for my local clients they usually go and get it themselves once I have filed their marriage. I file my marriage certificates on the first working day after the wedding, usually at noon-time, which means couples can easily collect this important document, the legal proof of their marriage.

Posing here with their witnesses. Our law requires two witnesses over the age of 18. Most residents will bring their own witnesses, but for visitors we can provide the witnesses if necessary. There is no charge to have your wedding at the Wedding Gazebo.


The whole group of us after the ceremony

Residents wishing to be married should remember that there must be 7 clear days between the day their Banns of Marriage are posted, and the day the wedding takes place. Call (345)94 9-9933 to make an appointment to come in for your interview, to give us your wedding particulars and to complete and sign the required Notice of Marriage form. Both parties must be present at the initial interview, unless you have made arrangements with Joy for one of the parties to be interviewed separately prior to the wedding.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

IMHO My Secret Cove is best Cayman Wedding Spot

It has been at least a month since I did a wedding at My Secret Cove, so I was unsure what kind of condition it was in. Despite the current heat-wave, we have not had an summer storms, and very little rain. My favourite spot was pristine, and of course private, just right for this small family group celebrating a young local couple's wedding.


The bride was happy and in the mood for celebrating, and we snapped these
pictures while we waited for the guests to appear.









Twenty minutes later they were man and wife.



Residents must have an interview, and I must publish their Banns of Marriage for 7 clear days before the wedding. Call 949-9933 for your appointment today, or drop in to the Simply Weddings office at 306 North Church Street in the ERA Kirkconnell Realty Building.

Cayman Islands Wedding Vow Renewal for NY pair

These days more and more couple are choosing to have a Wedding Vow Renewal Ceremony in the Cayman Islands. I am always happy to oblige, because I enjoy wedding vow renewals, especially with kids involved.


This couple from New York decided to renew their vows for their 10th wedding anniversary while visiting Cayman with their family this summer.

Staying at Morritts Tortuga they choose Governor's Beach, which is mid - Seven Mile Beach for their vow renewal celebration. The five kids in the party certainly enjoyed it, and the sand-dollars I gave them as souvenirs.


Here is the lovely family

Here in the whole group, grandma and grandpa included

We did the ceremony right down by the surf. The bride had revised my ceremony to include the Hands reading, and some parts from their original wedding ceremony. I liked the revision, so I told her I would use her version for some of my wedding vow renewals from now on.


The littlest boy didn't enjoy getting sand in his toes at first, but he soon relaxed and enjoyed playing pirates in the sea-grape trees with his brother and cousins.

The kids enjoyed toasting with their own non-alcholic sparkling apple cider, while the adults had "Simply Weddings Bubbly"


Afterwards they all went to dinner at Grand Old House, one of the prime dining spots in Grand Cayman.

This simple wedding vow renewal package starts at $400 US and includes your decorative wedding renewal certificate, personalised ceremony and a bottle of chilled champagne served on the beach. Complimentary fruit punch or non-alcholic beverage and sand-dollars or starfish souvenirs for the children. Call Simply Weddings (345)949-9933 or email mywedding@candw.ky for more details.