Bill's and Jackie's Third Jamaica Trip

Our wedding and honeymoon trip

By the time I finally proposed to Jackie, we'd been together for seven years and we'd merged our families together into the same household for five years. It was time to get married. Jackie's request was that she wanted a simple wedding on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean or Mexico. She did all the research about the different requirements and waiting periods for the different countries. One of the easiest countries to get married in is Jamaica, and since we'd been there twice and knew we liked the island, we decided to get married there. All we had to do was select a date pick a resort. Almost all the major resorts offer a wedding package and they're all about the same. We wanted an adults-only place, assuming that would be more conducive to romance. We also wanted a resort with a nude beach, and thought a couples-only place would be nice too. So we settled on Couples Negril and set the wedding date for March 1, 2007.

To get married at Couples, we had to send all the paperwork (birth certificates, etc.) ahead of time and pay the fee of $200. That was it. All we had to do then was show up. We didn't expect any friends or family to attend the wedding. This was a moment just for the two of us with the wedding Jackie really wanted. The only things we had to do before we left was decide which clothes to wear for the wedding (Jackie bought two dresses and couldn't decide between them) and remember to bring the rings with us.

The resort

We had a mostly uneventful trip down to Jamaica. We were a little late because they were de-icing the planes before takeoff. After clearing immigration and customs, we went to the Couples lounge where we were quickly loaded into a shuttle and were off for the hour-long drive to Negril.

Couples Negril is an outstanding resort. Check-in was quick and friendly and by late afternoon, we'd explored the resort and caught the last rays of sun on the nude beach. It's a large resort with the buildings scattered almost in a horseshoe shape around the property. It's a mix of beach and garden areas. There are many trees and shrubs and a pond near the massage building. There's one very large pool at the center of the resort. It has small jacuzzis on each end and a swim-up pool bar near the center. The beach is long and wide with plenty of room for everyone, and the nude beach is good-sized with its own restrooms, jacuzzi, and bar. Besides the small bar on the nude beach and the pool bar, there's a bar in the buffet restaurant and another in the Italian restaurant/snack bar. There are porch swings in the lobby building that look out over the pool area, a water activities building down on the beach, a gym, and internet facilities. There's plenty to do if you want, plenty of places to relax, and the grounds are immaculate.

Our room was nice and spacious - not that we needed much in the room anyway. A bottle of champagne was delivered the first day as part of our wedding package. A hand towel was folded into an animal shape and placed on our bed every day and rose petals were sprinkled around it.

The Beach

If you've read my other trip reports, you'd know that we prefer a nude beach, and Couples has a good one. It's spacious enough to have plenty of room for everyone, and it probably averaged about a dozen couples at any one time. Some of the beach lounges are pulled underneath the trees there, providing constant shade. These chairs are claimed early in the morning, though. Finding shade for the other lounges can be a bit of a problem, but some tall trees provide shade in different spots during the day. In the photo below and right, you can see the shorter trees with the bar just to the left. Even though the sign says no clothing permitted, there were women who just went topless and people who walked through the nude beach to get to their rooms.

The beach also had a small bar, staffed by one woman who mixed the drinks. Often, if she wasn't there, guests would mix their own drinks. They'd close up the bar at 4:00 every afternoon. There's also a restroom near the bar, so do you don't have to put on swim trunks or a wrap and walk across the regular beach to find a restroom. Hedges provided privacy on three sides. Part of the entertainment was watching the people walking past the nude beach watching the people on the nude beach, or not, as the case may be. Long walks can be made up and down the beach passing from resort to resort. People walking by the nude beach typically came in three styles: those who looked rigidly ahead and refused to look, those who took a good long look, and my favorite, those who tried to look surreptitiously. I liked the couples that were a mix of the styles. The woman would continue to stare straight ahead while the guy with her would fall back a step, lean back, and take a glance and peek at what he might see before she realizes what he's doing. As usual, though, if you're looking for attractive, young hot bodies to ogle, they're not on the nude beach.

The water just off the beach is wonderful too. It has a sandy bottom and you can wade out for a while before it's chest deep. Many people would drag the cushions off their beach lounge and float on them in the water. The people on the nude beach just wandered into the water right ahead of them, often passing through people strolling past the nude beach. In February, the water was refreshing without being too cold or too warm. If you're on the beach and get too hot, just grab your partner and lounge in the water for a while.

The nude beach also has its own jacuzzi and it's much bigger than the ones by the pool. It's also open late into the night, and it's a cool place to sneak off to after dinner, take off your clothes, and climb in with your partner and enjoy the privacy. Just hope another couple didn't have the same idea first.

Eating and drinking

There are three restaurants at Couples Negril. The Cassava Terrace Restaurant is the open-air restaurant where breakfast, lunch, and dinner can be had, usually buffet style. Some nights they would also clear the space upstairs from the restaurant and have Jamaican food with some intimate seating. Other nights the buffet meal would spread outside the restaurant and tables would be set out around one side of the pool. The weather was usually perfect and it was a pleasure enjoying the soft breeze off the sea while dining. The staff did their best to make it as delightful as possible and it was very romantic.

There is a restaurant/bar/grill at the far end of the pool. Until 6PM, the grill serves the usual fare of burgers, jerk chicken, fries, popcorn, etc. The restaurant is the Heliconia Restaurant and it serves Mediterranean dishes at dinner time. There is also the upscale Otaheite Restaurant and it requires semi-formal clothing and reservations. We thought of eating there a couple times, but we'd always forget to make reservations.

The bars were some of the most fun bars we've encountered on our travels. They were usually full after dinner with couples sitting around and chatting with each other. There were specialty drinks that whole groups would try to drink and were entertaining to watch. If you're ever there, ask for a Bob Marley. Or better yet, watch someone else order a Bob Marley and try to drink it. Or watch them drink two and try to walk away. The bars were a fun, social place most evenings.

There's also a piano bar. We never went there for the piano sing-a-longs, but at 11:00 a couple nights a week, it turns into a disco. Once they figure out which music works for the crowd they have, it can be a happening place. Hint to aspiring DJs: if your crowd in the disco is mostly people in their 40s and 50s, put away the Eminem and crank up the AC/DC. If you're up late at night and want a few more drinks and a lot of fun, check out the piano bar.

The wedding

One of the requirements for getting married is that you have to physically be in Jamaica for a couple days before you can get married. We arrived on a Sunday and planned to get married on Thursday. We met with the wedding coordinator on Monday and finalized everything. We chose our flowers and the photography package. In addition to the champagne delivered to our room, we each got a "Just Married" T-shirt and complimentary 30-minutes massages in the spa. We actually took those together in a tent on the beach.

On March 1, we left the nude beach about 3:00 and returned to our room. Our flowers were waiting for us there, and we showered and changed into our wedding clothes. By 4:00 we were on the beach with the minister and photographer and had a short, sweet, and wonderful ceremony. It was delightful and romantic being married in one of our favorite places, a sandy beach with the surf and breeze providing background noise. We retreated to a gazebo in the garden where we signed the marriage certificate, had some cake and champagne, and posed for more photos. There were photos taken in the gardens and more taken back on the beach. At that point, we passed from our winter vacation to our honeymoon.

The next day we went through the proofs of the photos and chose the ones we wanted. A few days later they were all ready for us. The photos were all put into a wedding album and a CD was provided with electronic copies of all the photos.

There were weddings on the beach every day. The day we got married there were three. The wedding coordinator mentioned that three was a light day for her. I know we really enjoyed it. Other couples must think the same way.

Going home

We eventually spent eight days at Couples Negril and we didn't have a complaint. The weather was perfect, the resort was romantic, we met fun and interesting people, we had a lot of good food and drink (or maybe too much), we danced the night away a few times, and we left as man and wife. It was a great choice for a way to get married.

We made it home without a problem. This was the first time we connected through Detroit to get to and from Montego Bay and it was the fastest we've ever cleared immigration and customs.