On a weekday morning in mid-July, Matthew Mair walked out of his residence in Miami clutching a backpack the best way a baby holds a teddy bear. The important thing to an outstanding future lay secretly buried within the bag.
“I stored questioning why he wouldn’t let anybody contact the backpack,” says Matthew’s fiancé, Adriana Garcia. “He by no means let it out of his sight.”
He watched it go by means of safety on the airport. He held it in his lap on the flight to Jamaica and stored it there through the journey to the foyer of Sandals Dunn’s River. There, nonetheless gripping the backpack, Matthew stepped with Adriana into a spectacular Caribbean embrace.
“As quickly because the automobile door opened, we knew this may be an enormous step up from anyplace we’ve ever been,” Adriana says, “and that we’d always remember it.”
She wouldn’t know for one more two days the depth of why they might always remember this journey.
The hidden gem
Matthew and Adriana had traveled to good resorts in Jamaica over time, absorbing the sunshine and sounds of the Caribbean. However they’d by no means skilled something as pure as these first few moments at Sandals Dunn’s River. The welcome drinks, the welcome smiles, and the “welcome residence” instantly started to untangle Matthew’s ball of nerves and change it with tingles of pleasure.
“When individuals deal with you that properly from the primary hey, you understand it’s real,” Matthew says. “It units your thoughts free.”
That’s precisely what the 2 of them wanted. Adriana got here to Sandals Dunn’s River to free herself from her mentally draining work as a senior analyst. “I needed to benefit from the seaside, the comfort, and perhaps get a therapeutic massage. However actually, I had no plans.”
She additionally had no clue what Matthew had in his thoughts or within the core of his backpack. Inside was a second stuffed bag. Buried inside that bag was a sun shades case. The sun shades case housed a smaller onerous case. Inside that fourth layer of safety sat an engagement ring, poised for the first-ever marriage proposal on the new Sandals Dunn’s River.
“Adriana catches onto the whole lot,” Matthew says. “She critiques paperwork for a dwelling, so I wasn’t positive how I’d be capable of hold my feelings from giving freely the key.”
The view of the ocean and the radiance of the Sandals employees helped. They appeared round each nook with a relaxing presence.
“I can’t start to let you know what it meant to have a neighborhood of individuals serving to me each step of the best way,” Matthew says. “They knew my imaginative and prescient. All I needed to do was present up with the ring.”
The imaginative and prescient involves life
Matthew had greater than an engagement ring to work with. He had a lush Caribbean island. He had a turquoise sea and a silky-soft seaside. He had the luxurious of Sandals, which means he might pop the query on a catamaran cruise, in a tropical backyard, or whereas diving over a powerful reef.
“I do know what Adriana desires and doesn’t need,” Matthew says. He’d step by step gotten to know her since they labored collectively as youngsters at a sandwich store. She wouldn’t need the proposal to be too public, but in addition not too personal. She’d need it to be stunning, distinctive, and shared with just a few individuals who would additionally treasure the second.
To seek out that slender candy spot, Matthew thought he’d work the large query into a photograph shoot with a Sandals photographer. They might seize each little bit of the milestone on digital camera: the seaside, the ocean, the sundown, and (hopefully) the sure.
“The Sandals Engagement Concierge group listened to my concepts,” he says, “after which created a second far past my expectations. They dealt with each element.”
Matthew solely needed to deal with the ring. Half an hour earlier than the scheduled photograph shoot, he pushed it deep right into a pocket and informed Adriana he was going out for some ice. A Sandals village was prepared for him.
“Hey Matthew, my good friend,” a bartender referred to as out, “let me offer you one thing.” He poured Matthew a shot of Appleton 12 and crammed his bucket with ice. The final supervisor assured him the whole lot was in place. The bartender poured him a second shot of rum.
“I’m unsure how the complete employees knew what was happening,” Matthew says, “however having them in my nook helped me benefit from the second.”
When the photograph session began, the Sandals employees photographer led Matthew and Adriana to the pool. Click on. Then to the backyard gazebo. Click on. To a bridge. Click on. Click on. At each cease, Adriana thought, “Oh, this may look good in a body.”
Again on the seaside, one other Sandals group was organising a picnic from paradise. Champagne. Flowers. Chocolate-covered strawberries. All in entrance of the ocean and the final light daylit waves.
“Let’s end subsequent to the water,” Matthew mentioned. Adriana walked over to the blanket, watching the sky flip colours and ready for the press of the digital camera. Because the solar dropped to the ocean, Matthew dropped to a knee. And Adriana’s world was a fairytale.
A champagne cork flew into the sky. A saxophone participant strolled onto the seaside. A drone hovered overhead. A sand-colored tarp pulled away from the phrases “Marry Me” spelled in sea stones. Adriana’s face grew to become an exquisite shade of purple.
“Sure! Sure! Sure!”
With the ring securely on Adriana’s finger, Matthew stood and appeared round. Folks on the dock clapped. Friends on the pool toasted. Newlyweds on the boardwalk stopped. Ladies cried. And husbands mentioned to themselves: Why didn’t I consider that?
One joyful coronary heart
On the day when Matthew and Adriana ready to depart Sandals Dunn’s River, congratulatory echoes met them in every single place they turned: from the watersports employees, the leisure group, the restaurant employees, and the complete Sandals household.
“They had been thanking us for permitting them to be a part of our particular second,” Matthew says. “The place do you discover that? Employees members thanking visitors?”
In a manner, Adriana by no means actually left Sandals Dunn’s River. She retains the resort alive with a caption in her Instagram bio: “I’m on Cloud Sandals till additional discover!” And her face nonetheless turns a cheerful shade of purple when she talks in regards to the proposal in uneven sentences.
“It’s so contemporary. I’m nonetheless shocked. It’s heartwarming.”
Matthew laughs. He sounds relaxed, like a person who’s lastly launched his grip on an outstanding future and is now dwelling in it. “The proposal and individuals at Sandals set the tone for our life collectively,” he says, “and it’s higher than I ever pictured.”
Already popped the query? Then it is time to begin planning your wedding celebrations! Share your imaginative and prescient with our wedding ceremony consultants at 1-877-726-3257 and get all of the assist that you must carry your dream ceremony to life within the sunny Caribbean.
