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Michael and Ashley have been married for only a few weeks. Everything about their wedding is still fresh. They want to keep it this way. When Michael is asked to describe their celebration at Beaches Negril, he takes a deep breath. Then he lets it all out.
“Heartwarming, joyous, dynamic, happy, beautiful, meaningful,” Michael says. “I’ve never used those words to describe anything in my life. Do you want more?”
How about “interesting?” He and Ashley made a lot of interesting decisions when they planned their wedding — some bold, some playful, some ironic.
“All of them unforgettable,” Ashley says.
Consider this one. They decided to elope near their home in Alexandria, Virginia, just the two of them, and to have a more extravagant wedding with stunning décor, bright dresses, and multigenerational guests on a Caribbean island. Ashley and Michael would invite family and friends to spend an entire week at Beaches, a family-friendly all-inclusive, even though they have dogs, not kids.
“We wanted our family and friends to enjoy a vacation with us, and not be limited by childcare,” Michael says. “But honestly, we didn’t know for sure if they’d come.”
Then came perhaps the most interesting decision of all. They scheduled the destination wedding ceremony for a Sunday rather than a Friday or Saturday, on February 4, 2024.
Look at that wedding date another way: 2-4-24. For Ashley, Michael, and their guests at Beaches, the memory of 2-4-24 will always prompt another long list of descriptive words, starting with “forever.”
Go back to February 2023, when Ashley and Michael decided to have a destination wedding one year later. February 2024 would be ideal.
“Let me paint the picture of that time of year up north,” Michael says. “It’s cold, gray, sometimes wet. We wanted to give everyone something happy to look forward to, and maybe spark more desire to come to our wedding.”
On the calendar for February 2024, they saw Friday, February 2, and Saturday, February 3. And then there it was: Sunday, February 4, 2024.
“We both have engineering and math backgrounds,” Ashley says. “The 2-4-24 would equates to once in a lifetime.”
Their math minds calculated another interesting, meaningful, forever nugget: 2x4=8. And the number 8 is the infinity symbol.
“Michael always signs his cards and love notes with the infinity symbol,” Ashley says. Everything about February 4, 2024, added up to perfection.
The date, 2-4-24, would look fun on invitations. But they needed more to turn fun into epic, so Ashley came up with a list of must-haves to make more guests say, “Yes!”
1 On an incredible beach.
2 Easy access to maximize everyone’s vacation time.
3 A resort that would welcome guests with or without kids.
4 Comfortable suites at the same site as the wedding.
5 An island getaway where the wedding would be part of a wider, grander picture.
“A few days later my mom called,” Ashley says, “and she said, ‘I found the place: Beaches in Negril.’”
Ashley looked at the pictures and read reviews titled “Gorgeous,” “Fun,” and “Pristine,” but something else stood out. “I kept reading how the staff treated people like family. That’s what we wanted for our wedding week.”
Apparently, everything clicked for the guests. The beach. The ease. The fun. The friendliness. And yes, there would be a wedding, too. Ashley and Michael were surprised when more than 40 invitees became attendees. Some took the short 3-hour flight from Washington D.C. to Jamaica. Others took enthusiastic flights from Kentucky, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Florida, and New Mexico. One friend, 28 weeks pregnant, traveled from Arizona with her 2-year-old son.
“I told her I’d fully understand if they couldn’t make it,” Ashley says. “They stayed for a week. She said, ‘I wouldn’t miss it.’”
She would not miss the wedding, the Caribbean escape, or the prenatal massage at Red Lane Spa while her son played with his new best friends on the Beaches staff, all of them trained in childcare and fun.
In the days leading up to 2-4-24, Michael recreated his own childhood memories. The groom-to-be played in the Beaches waterpark and on a banana boat. The bride-to-be relaxed at the pool with the girls. The two of them did not fit the stereotype of a stressed-out couple about to be married.
“We never had to wonder if our friends were having a good time,” Ashley says. “They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it.”
She and Michael would have sushi as an appetizer at Soy with one group of friends, then walk over to Yaku for a Peruvian dinner with another group. Afterwards, they all sat on the beach, listening to the ocean and enjoying conversations that they rarely have.
“Beaches brought us all together,” Michael says.
On 2-4-24, Ashley and Michael woke to an endless view of the Caribbean Sea. The clock displayed the infinity symbol: 8 a.m. At home this would be sleeping in. By Beaches standards, they were up early. In the morning solitude, they grabbed two green smoothies from The Mill and continued to the beach.
This time they sat alone with the ocean putting together the final touches of their wedding vows. For more than an hour they enjoyed peace and perfection. “OK, I’m going to get my hair done,” Ashley said, breaking the silence. “I’ll see you at the wedding.”
What happened next, at 10 a.m. on 2-4-24, is hard to describe. Ashley’s friends could have gone diving or horseback riding. Instead, they made their own interesting group decision to gather around Ashley, talking, laughing, and marveling at the work of the Beaches stylist.
“I didn’t have to ask her to do anything,” Ashley says. “That’s how we were treated all week. The wedding team did everything for us based on their expertise, and they enjoyed it, which made it enjoyable for us.”
While the kids enjoyed being kids and the adults enjoyed being kids again, the Beaches wedding team took care of ceremony and reception details. They implemented a few personal items that Ashley and Michael brought to make the celebration uniquely their own, including cardboard cutouts of their golden retrievers, Teddy and Maggie.
“It felt like they were with us,” Michael says.
Ashley had chosen an inspiration from Beaches’ menu of themed inspirations: Paradise Bloom. “That one fit my style,” she says. “Simple. Elegant. Tropical. Beautiful.”
The ultimate beauty would be the sight of 40 friends and family members along a seven-mile stretch of beach, with Ashley and Michael standing under a flowered trellis next to the ocean. In the background, a Caribbean sunset would bless the entire wedding scene.
“Our celebration kept getting better and better,” Michael says.
On the evening of 2-4-24, under a spectacular night sky, the most important people in Ashley’s and Michael’s lives danced in a tropical garden. The just-married couple lingered for hours, hoping the celebration would never end, before finally retreating to their tropical walkout suite. In a way, the celebration never did end, because from their balcony Ashley and Michael took a mental picture of the perfect view of the perfect beach where the perfect day started and out to the perfect ocean that goes on and on.
“Now,” Ashley says, “we have a love story that we can pay forward.”
For infinity.
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