Real Weddings: Jeff and Amy’s Garden Nuptials

It’s hard to imagine a wedding more charming and romantic than Jeff and Amy’s lovely garden wedding at Sandals Negril Beach Resort & Spa, Jamaica. Jeff and Amy met through mutual friends in their favorite hangout spot. They were pretty much inseparable from the moment they met and completely mesmerized by each other; it was definitely love at first sight. From the handcrafted elements and stunning garden backdrop to the jovial wedding party, this real wedding will have you falling in love all over again!

Amy and Jeff Sterner

Location: The Garden, Sandals Negril Beach Resort and Spa, Jamaica
Date: May 27^th, 2012
Guests: 42
Photography: Sandals SnapShots Photography Studios

This dress pictured here was actually Amy’s second dress! After major disappointments with her first dress (including it being five inches too short!), Amy "bumped in to" HER dress in a mall. She bought it on the spot! Amy’s lovely bouquet was a personal D.I.Y. brooch design that incorporated heirlooms from both the bride and groom’s family. “It was very sentimental to me”- Amy.*

“In the middle of the ceremony, Amy and Jeff asked the preacher to incorporate a letter exchange. “We each wrote a letter telling the other why we wanted to get married and share our lives together. The letters will remain sealed until we open them on our 5th wedding anniversary. We plan to continue the tradition every 5 years!”- Jeff and Amy.

“We really wanted an intimate wedding and a great excuse to vacation with our closest family and friends. After tons of research, we decided on Sandals. We chose Sandals Negril because of the intimacy of the resort, its beautiful beach, and Negril’s famous sunsets.” –Amy and Jeff on why they chose Sandals.

“The most incredible part of our "Weddingmoon" was the abundance of love exuding from all of our guests, and from the staff at Sandals Negril. The whole vacation was an incredibly humbling experience. To know that we have so many friends and family that took time out of their lives to travel so far to celebrate meant the world us both. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing support system and Negril was the perfect place to bring everyone together!” – Amy and Jeff.

A huge thanks to Amy and Jeff for sharing their warm and beautiful wedding with us! We wish you both all the happiness and joy in the world!

*Sandals WeddingMoons® offers an extensive selection of bouquets and boutonnieres for the convenience of our destination brides and grooms. Please note, an exception was made for the lovely heirloom bouquets featured, as they are extremely sentimental to the couple’s family. These heirloom bouquets were accompaniments to the fresh floral purchases for this wedding.

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Comments

Mother of the bride: I am the mother of the bride and this is an unsolicited comment about sandals Negril and how economical and romantic a destination wedding can be! The jamacian motto is "one love" and this beautiful spirit is genuine and true from all the staff- every single staff member ! This happiness and joy is the reason people should get married here. No one had stress or worries in the competent hands of these awesome wedding experts. My only regret is that I do not have another daughter to get married at sandals Negril!; August 20, 2012, 8:53 PM; Reply

Sunny (sandalsweddingblog.com): OH we absolutely love to hear from mother's of the bride! Thank you so much for your lovely comment. We are more than happy that this experience was lovely for both you and your daughter. We know there is no greater yet scarier feeling than watching a loved one embark on a new journey and we're so happy it was stress-free for your family!; August 21, 2012, 2:04 PM; Reply

Bridget: Were the pictures done by a Sandals photographer? Do all packages include photos before the ceremony (getting ready,etc.)?; August 26, 2012, 11:24 PM; Reply

Sunny (sandalsweddingblog.com)

Hi Bridget,

Yes all of these photos were done by Sandals wedding photographers (SnapShots). Yes, there are wedding packages to choose from that tell you about the amount of photos you will get, the style of photos (vintage, traditional etc.) however when it comes to the specific shots that you want, this is something you can speak with your SnapShots photographer about.

When you do your wedding consultation with your personal wedding co-ordinator she you can discuss the types of photos you would like captured. So If you wanted photos of you getting dressed etc you can have that arranged with your photographer personally! It's all about you on your day!

August 27, 2012, 2:01 PM

Kerri Kraut

First off - LOVE the pictures - cannot wait for our wedding at SEB.

SEcond - LOVE THAT SIGN! We were thinking about doing something like that - but dont know how to get it down there. Can soething like that be bought there/done there?

August 27, 2012, 2:36 PM

Sunny (sandalsweddingblog.com)

Hi Kerri!,

These picture are gorgeous aren't they!!

I called down at Sandals Negril to find out more about this awesome sign. What the couple did was actually paint the different arrow signs themselves before they arrived at Negril. They brought each arrow with them and it was assembled at the resort by one of the very helpful staff! I'm not sure what they did with it after they left but it definitely was assembled on resort.

August 28, 2012, 7:01 PM

Amy

Kerri,

We painted each sign on pallet boards that were left over at our local Lowe's hardware store. We simply stained them with a small can of stain from Lowes, and used acrylic paint for the letters. We packaged them in tall box which Jeff's bother graciously checked on his plane (which was expensive, but much cheaper than shipping and totally worth it!). Sandals staff was AWESOME - we gave them the box of signs when his brother arrived, and we didn't touch them until the day they left. They did all of the work! Everything came back to us in one piece - we had a family member bring them home on their return flight. Thankfully we had help with the transportation because the box was really heavy - but Sandals was awesome about helping set them up!

September 8, 2012, 12:44 AM

Sunny (sandalsweddingblog.com)

Amy,

Thanks so much for telling us how you managed to get your sign to Negril. It totally was worth it because it looked amazing and added such a cute DIY element to your wedding!

September 12, 2012, 1:25 PM