At first, you may assume it is a marvel that 96 folks traveled all the best way to Sandals Royal Curaçao for Chanda and Forrest’s Sandals Royal Curaçao vow renewal. The extra you get to know the 2 of them, nevertheless, the much less you marvel. Buddies wish to be round Chanda and Forrest as a result of this couple understands why it is necessary to rejoice every day — and one another — as a present. And sure, folks wish to be round Chanda and Forrest much more after they occur to be on a stunning Caribbean island.
“We attempt to create optimistic recollections every single day of our marriage,” Chanda says.
It is not as if their days are simple breezy both. Chanda works the nightshift as a maternity nurse at a hospital close to Philadelphia.
“It is tiring,” she admits. “I am not a morning particular person, not like this gentleman over right here.”
Chanda arrives house from work at 8:30 a.m., by which era Forrest has been up and dressed for greater than three hours. Whereas Chanda heads for mattress, he tends to the French bulldogs that he breeds.
“I come house from infants,” Chanda says, “and am welcomed by extra infants.”
Collectively, she and Forrest have seven grown infants (the human sort) and three grandchildren. With all of these shifting components, you may nonetheless sense a tangible fortunately ever after of their marriage. Chanda has a secret.
“Sharing enjoyable experiences,” she says. “It retains relationships robust.”
This relationship secret applies to mates who 5 years in the past started to journey with Chanda and Forrest to Sandals. It applies to the blended household that may load up all three rows of the SUV and journey to siblings’ ballgames on weekends. Most of all, the ability of shared experiences applies to their marriage. And that is what led them to a vow renewal at Sandals — the place family and friends might expertise views, luxurious, and love — and be stronger for it.
“All of us have a alternative,” Chanda says. “We are able to select work to be the narrative that our household remembers, or we will present whereas additionally making particular recollections collectively. We have come to understand there’s no higher place to do this than Sandals.”
Their first marriage ceremony was actually an expertise to recollect. Late summer season in Mexico. Playa Del Carmen, to be precise, and scorching.
“In entrance of greater than 100 company,” Chanda says.
“On a rooftop,” Forrest provides. “It rained.”
They’d deliberate each element, besides the climate, and arrived in Mexico with trunks loaded with DIY marriage ceremony objects. The week was hectic and moist.
“We stored it in perspective,” Chanda says. “A marriage is for a day. Marriage is meant to final endlessly. That is what we spend money on endlessly — the endlessly half.”
She and Forrest started to consider extra fervently within the energy of journey after they have been amongst 158 company at a pal’s marriage ceremony at Beaches Negril. They later celebrated the identical couple’s Caribbean vow renewal expertise at Sandals South Coast, the place the personable employees and tropical magnificence awed them. Each few months, they might journey to a different Sandals destination with mates to, as Forrest says, “refuel our marriages.”
The first time they visited Sandals Royal Curaçao, they celebrated the engagement of a pair who’d traveled with them after which toured the resort’s wedding venues with their mates.
“We determined to resume our vows there two years later,” Chanda says. “We preferred the concept of introducing household and mates to a brand new location, subsequent to the breathtaking ocean and a bit off the overwhelmed path.”
The two-year cushion gave their journey agent, Shedia Cary, time to coordinate the vow-renewal specifics with the Sandals staff. It additionally gave Chanda time to dream up micro-experiences that may strengthen the friendships and marriages of all who got here:
- Carry airbrush outfits for a 90s celebration.
- Everybody please put on white to the ceremony.
- Males pack royal blue swimwear. Girls pack yellow. (Chanda and Forrest would put on white to the pool and full the colours of the Curaçaoan flag.)
On the resort, she would give company matching hats to guard them from per week’s value of sunshine and matching cups to emphasise their bond. The underlying message was clear: Let’s spend money on endlessly, all of us.
The company stored arriving at Sandals Royal Curaçao. In the event you noticed Chanda in the course of the week, you might need seen her taking footage on the seashore with classmates from fifth grade. “Our ‘turning 50’ second,” she says, explaining all of the gold outfits.
You might need additionally discovered Forrest and his buddies enjoyable round a firepit with cigars. “Our brotherhood, and the right place to speak about how we plan to take care of the following generations.”
All 90-some folks loved unabated Caribbean vow renewal experience moments whereas the Sandals wedding team quietly organized the oceanside venue the best way Chanda had envisioned it.
“Better than I envisioned,” she says of the flowers, the chairs dealing with the ocean, and her youngest daughter dressed as a ballerina. Of all of the unforgettable mood-builders, this one stands aside for Forrest: The sound of a saxophone soloist accompanied by the refrain of waves pushing in opposition to sand and rocks.
“It was like one thing out of {a magazine},” he says.
By now it is best to know that their stroll down the aisle, even in an island paradise, represented only one fabulous step amongst a lifetime of fabulous steps for Chanda and Forrest. The “I do” to the promise of cherishing was additionally “I do” to the promise of extra bonding experiences. They’ve already made plans to take the grandkids to Beaches Turks and Caicos when the brand new Treasure Beach Village opens. They’re going to attend a wedding at Seashores Negril, and in 2027 they’re going to meet greater than 40 {couples} for a vacation spot vow renewal with household and mates at Sandals St. Vincent.
“We share dinners to hope and draw power from one another,” Chanda says. “Once in a while we take it to a different degree and create one other particular expertise as a result of we all know this to be true: Once we make investments our time in one another, it is good for all of us.”
In the event you’re dreaming of your personal chapter like this, the Sandals marriage ceremony staff is right here that will help you convey it to life. Start your journey on our inquiry page
and begin planning your impactful vow renewal within the Caribbean.
