Jamaica Destination Wedding | Our Handmade Wedding

Today is the anniversary of the day my hubby and I started dating…10 years ago. A whole decade.

Just over three years ago, we had a Jamaica destination wedding. Now I’m sharing all the little things that came together to make our wedding unique to us and maybe inspire some brides-to-be too. Wedding inspiration is never out of season and destination weddings are always in season.

We got married on a beach in Jamaica in 2011 at Sandals Ocho Rios (now Sandals Grande Riviera). Sandals Weddings offer themes at several price levels with different inclusions. The extras in the higher packages weren’t what we were looking for but the Magenta Dendrobium Orchids in the free Beautiful Beginnings package were exactly what we wanted. We handmade a good amount of things for our destination wedding (yes WE, not just me).

Wedding Logo

Who knew that weddings had logos? I didn’t until I started searching the web for wedding inspiration. Our “two hearts, one love” wedding logo was our first and last idea.

Our wedding logo was integrated into our engagement announcements, the passport wedding invitations, our wedding website, the local reception invitations, wedding favor bags, thank yous, and even on the cake.

Passport Wedding Invitations

We handmade “passport” books to give to each guests joining us for our Jamaica destination wedding. The books included: a formal wedding invitation, facts about Jamaica, a short bio with pics of each person in the wedding party, details about the wedding ceremony, and a heart-felt thank you to everyone, especially our parents.

I hand-painted our wedding logo on the faux leather passport covers and the pages were tied together with hemp twine. We sealed the passport wedding invitations in a plastic bag for a week with a tropical scented candle. When the guests opened the invitations, they could smell the Caribbean. (Over the top? I didn’t think so.)

Beach Wedding Bridesmaids Dresses

These bridesmaids dresses were all found on consignment and altered by my wonderfully talented aunt. The colors were not planned but ended up being the perfect color scheme and each girl looked beautiful.

Jamaica Wedding Boutonnieres and Hair Flowers

I found these real, preserved orchids here. They are very delicate but easy to make into boutonnieres for the guys and attach to hair combs for the gals. As soon as these dried flowers hit the humid Jamaican air, they lost all stiffness and flopped right over. It didn’t matter, they were perfect anyway.

Beach Wedding Jewelry

My freshwater pearl necklace was found on consignment. The bracelet was handmade to match using freshwater pearls, faux pearls, and sterling sliver beads.

Each of the gals (including the moms) received a zen jewelz bracelet. Each of the bridesmaids wore handmade necklaces to match the beads in my jewelry. The MOH also received a handmade freshwater pearl bracelet.

Orchid Wedding Bouquet

I customized my bouquet of orchids by wrapping a bit of burlap fabric and hemp around the stems. I then attached a sterling silver diaper pin that was given to me that morning from my mother-in-law. The pins were a gift to my husband from his godmother when he was born. (Insert tears here…)

Local Wedding Reception

Since our Jamaican destination wedding had an intimate guestlist, we wanted to bring the party home for extended family and friends. (Yes, I wore my dress again.)

Wedding Invitations

These handmade invitations combined my print-design and crafter background for the ultimate handmade, beachy look. The outside cover had a stamp of our wedding logo and a piece of burlap fabric. The inside of the invites included a watercolor orchid painted by my mother-in-law. A burlap pocket held the map, details, and rsvp cards.

Wedding Favors

I hand-carved a rubber stamp into our wedding logo and stamped each of these cotton party favor bags (and the invites above). The wedding favors were magnets that we made using clear resin and beach sand. Each magnet had random things like shells, sea-glass, paper hearts, or pictures of us.

Beachy Decorations and Flowers

We brought the Jamaican destination wedding theme home with orchids and palms leaves. My mom’s sarong served as a backdrop behind the head table. :) A garland of faux palm leaves and white paper lanterns hung over the entrance. We used the Martha Stewart Weddings tote we received from Sandals as our card box.

The Cake

Our wedding cake in Jamaica was a nice white cake but nothing like the cake my mother-in-law made. She made three cakes! The four tiered cake consisted of one layer of white cake with raspberry filling, a layer of white cake with vanilla filling, and a layer of chocolate cake with chocolate filling. The other two cakes were a carrot cake and a gluten-free cake. She totally surprised us by including our wedding logo as part of the cake design. We saved the top of the cake and ate it on our one year anniversary.

And then there are some details you just can’t DIY for the perfect wedding. Like this double rainbow. :)

Photography by Karin Newstrom Photography