This means an average of ten people staying on the island for at least one week. “Sometimes the bride and bridegroom come alone; sometimes we have parties of 60 or more. I don’t garner all the money. Hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers, bus drivers, photographers, sailing boat owners, vendors - everybody gets a piece of the action. It’s another arm to our economy,” Brenda Kay Wathey, Owner and Managing Director of St. Maarten Marry-Me.com says. “After a while you become partners with your vendors. However, if something is not delivered according to promises, guess who gets the blame? Me. You are the eyes and ears on the ground.” Every bride feels like a Cinderella, says Brenda. “The essence of the business is that you have to precisely understand what she needs and how to meet her needs. Always. This means re-investing, re-investing and re-investing.” She and her friend Carolyn Ramprashad are the driving forces operating this promising market. Brenda deals with the actual Destination Wedding planning business. Carolyn, co-founder of the company, takes care of the company’s new, glossy Sint Maarten/St. Martin Marry-Me Magazine, which had its first edition in 2005, with the second annual edition planned for December 2006.

In the United States destination weddings are a multi-dollar business and St. Maarten Marry-Me.com is the sole planner for Florida-based “The Wedding Experience,” which arranges weddings all over the world. “I’m talking scores of destination weddings in St. Maarten as well,” says Brenda.

“We are representing 85 or 90 per cent of the Cruise Lines and we deal with 80 per cent of the island’s hotels, in particular Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Oyster Bay Beach Resort on the Dutch side and La Samanna on the French side. We have consistently brought home to these resorts that this is an important business, so they should address it.” She adds that “St. Maarten Marry-Me” was also appointed to be the wedding planners for new Westin St. Maarten, Dawn Beach Resort & Spa, which will open for guests by the end of this year or the beginning of 2007. Service, quality and knowing “What the Bride Wants” are the basic principles of her successful business. “We have to come across as professionals. We have to be masters in communication, making it our business to understand what the bride wants and include it in Her Day,” Brenda insists.

All of her seven employees, the wedding planners, know how to talk the talk and walk the walk in this exclusive business sector. “They are constantly aware of the principle that “your first impression is your lasting impression” and are acting accordingly.

Speaking about the competition, she says that there are three to four others working the same field of beach weddings here on the island. “The French islands are not a threat to us, because of the legal requirements there, which include that in order to be allowed to marry on these islands, you have to be a legal resident for two to three months. Anguilla on the other hand poses a real challenge, as you can be legally married there in one day. In St. Maarten it takes two to three days, but the actual process takes longer.”

Fierce international competition in the Caribbean basin comes in particular from Aruba, Dominica, St. Lucia and the US Virgin Islands, says Brenda.

Yet, she adds, St Maarten has that something special that makes it a desired venue for couples who want to marry on the beach, a yacht, in a resort or any other tropical place that guarantees the romantic setting that the bride and bridegroom-to-be are looking for.

“At present we have a good cooperation with the St. Maarten Tourist Office and the resorts. If we can continue as an agency to get the resorts and tourist office to do their advertising, destination wedding is going to really be a reckoning force on the island.”

“A typical beach wedding is mostly held after sunset, which is a fact that we have offer in our basic package,” says Brenda. “If I have a wedding for a party of ten on the beach, I send three employees, for more than 10, it will be four to five and for more than 60 there will be six to seven employees taking care of the entire party.” What she and her wedding planners also have to take care of for the brides and bridegrooms-to-be who wish to marry, renew their vows, or who wish to celebrate something else that is precious to them in the St. Maarten tropical, romantic setting includes, among many other very important details: getting the documentation in order and arrange a registrar to do the ceremony. “And then, basically everything that the client wants: cake, music, transportation, photographer, accommodation, reception, catering and a lot more.”

St. Maarten Marry-Me.com in its brochure “Create a memory that will last a life time!” explains the complete packet of procedures for which it offers assistance. These procedures require, among others, original birth certificates of both parties, provided with a so-called “Apostille Stamp” (Standard certification provided under The Hague Conference on Private International Law: 1961 Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legislation for Foreign Public Documents for the purpose of authenticating documents for use in foreign countries.)

Other requirements include a sworn declaration of marital status for unmarried persons, stamped and signed by and obtained from a notary-at-law, home addresses of both parties, duration of the stay on St. Maarten, names, birth dates and profession of parents, and the maiden name of the mothers. All documents need to be originals. The persons wishing to be married as well as the witnesses must be 18 years or older (St. Maarten Marry-Me.com can provide witnesses if so desired), etc. etc. The average age of the bride and groom is 25 to 25.

“A good 45 per cent of our time with the client is document-related requirements. This consumes a lot of time, because it’s different for each country or sometimes each state. Also, our local laws often change. “The other 55 per cent of our time concerns understanding the wants and needs of every bride for HER day. The success of her company, says Brenda, is based on mouth-to-mouth, Website and advertising. “However you turn it, the money you make is re-invested in the business.”