Their destination wedding in Negril, Jamaica might not have been super traditional, but it was exactly what Kristal and Josh wanted. It rained on their wedding day, yet saying their vows on a gorgeous beach in front of 50 of closest family and friends made it the best day ever!
How It All Started
As Kristal shares,
We met online! I “winked” at him first and then he tried to call me and I ignored him because I hate talking on the phone, but then he got the message and started texting me. He offered a couple of date ideas that were boring, but then he invited me to go to a rodeo! I had never been so I said yes even though that meant I had to drive 45 mins to get to the rodeo place which was a lot of work for me at the time to invest in a first date, but rodeo! Josh popped the question on Christmas Eve (2014). It was just us at home and he had to work the next day so we decided to do our little Christmas early. He made a photo album for me which documented our relationship together since day one. Then he said he wanted to put in one more page and then he got down on his knee! So romantic. I had an ugly cry. Then we were engaged.
Special Wedding Details
Bride’s shoes. Kristal found a pair of Nine West flats at Ross Dress for Less for about $15. She added the little rosette details for her”something blue”.
The first look. Since Josh didn’t get to see his bride’s dress before the wedding, Kristal didn’t want to see his suit either. So, he went and picked it out himself with all the details (like his tie, which Kristal loved!) so their “first look” was really the first look for both of them!
The ceremony space. The bride went on Amazon and got empty Christmas ornaments and filled them with flowers. They hung them with some fishing line and it turned out beautiful.
Take It From The Bride
♥ Focus on what makes you “YOU”. What is unique about you as a couple? Try to keep focus on that and it will be easier to narrow things down. Josh and I are big on travel so even though we knew that having a destination wedding would mean that some people wouldn’t be there, it was important to us so we did it!
♥ Another thing is that since we were paying for our wedding ourselves, we really had to get creative to stay within budget but we did! We actually ended up spending less than we thought we would! It wasn’t bad though since it helped us narrow down to the things we really wanted to spend on, like our photographer (good investment), and nix things that we could do ourselves (like DJ). Scale down on things that really don’t matter in the end (aka: flowers). We ended up cutting the flower budget in about half and honestly, never missed it.
Wedding Budget
$5,000 – $10,000
VENDORS
Photographer: Creatrix Photography
Reception Venue:Riu Paradise Tropical Bay