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17th February 2016
Venue: The Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman
Wedding Planner: Elena Karpechenko
Cake Maker: The Ritz Carlton
Dress: The Wedding Shoppe (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Hair and Makeup: Jackie Soriano
2nd Shooter: Remona Mowatt
Videographer: Jason Banawa | Gary Hollins
Hannah and Matt were married on the Ritz Carlton Lawn just below the sweeping Grand Staircase. The setting was perfect and the flowers were stunning, Elena did an amazing job keeping everything flowing perfectly.
Since we were getting married outside I wanted to make sure the dress was light and flowing. Many wedding stores have tight mermaid dressed in their “destination collections”. Personally I would have been way too hot in a form fitting dress. My dress was light and a-line but had a long train so it still felt formal but was appropriate for an outside, destination wedding.
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I would strongly recommend Jackie Soriano for hair and makeup. She did an incredible job with the entire bridal party, all who were different ages and had different skin tones. I was so happy how my hair and make up turned out and the look lasted throughout the whole night and through the high humidity on the island.
We met in Philadelphia while we were attending college.
We got engaged when we were vacationing in Florida. We were walking along the beach at sunset and there was an upside-down bucket which he told me to flip over. Inside there was a bottle of champagne and two glasses. When I turned around he was on one knee with the ring.
Every part of our wedding was so memorable I couldn’t pick just one moment. Our wedding planner did surprise us with the Ritz-Carlton suite to get ready in and that was memorable because it was probably the only thing my mother and I had not specifically planned. It just made everything even more special than it already was.
Our wedding experience was absolutely perfect. I could not have imagined it went as smoothly as it did. We had a small family wedding which is exactly what we wanted, and The Ritz did a fabulous job at making everyone feel special. From the flowers to the food to the ceremony, everything was spectacular. There isn’t a single thing I would change about our wedding.
I would recommend getting to the island at least 3-4 days before the actual wedding. We were able to have hair and makeup trials, meet with Rebecca, meet with the wedding planner and go over the timing of the wedding day as well as having an actual rehearsal. We also got married mid-week which was definitely cost effective as many services were less expensive on a weekday.
Go with Rebecca! She was professional but relaxed and was a lot of fun to work with. We adore our photos and are extremely happy we had photos taken in multiple locations. While we got married on the Great Lawn, we also had photos taken on the beach, by a beautiful set of stairs and in our suite on the balcony. It was great to have lots of different settings.
Fantastic! We often talk about how glad we are that we chose Rebecca to photograph our wedding. The photos last forever so a great photographer is definitely worth spending the money on. Rebecca was fun and relaxed but also wasn’t afraid to help coach us to get a great shot or try something silly.
Listen to your photographer!
I highly recommend the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman for a wedding venue. Elena the coordinator did an incredible job and made everything run so smoothly. The great lawn was a beautiful place for the ceremony and our reception at Blue was spectacular. The food was delicious and their attention to detail was second to none. Kate Allenger was our violinist for the ceremony and did a fabulous job also.
Growing up, I went to the Cayman Islands almost every year with my family. We are so familiar with the island it seemed natural that this would be a fantastic place to have a destination wedding.
I was very nervous about it raining during the ceremony since it was outside. Elena, our coordinator, helped calm my nerves by showing us the rain venue which was also beautiful. Rebecca assured us that worst case scenario we could always do our pictures the day after, so knowing there was a strong back up plan helped tremendously. Coincidentally, it did rain on the day but was only for 15 minutes and quickly dried up so everything went as planned.