St. John wedding venues and planners

St. John wedding venues: resort lawn, hilltop or cay

Gallows Point Resort, on the point at Cruz Bay, prices a wedding by how many rooms your guests take. The smallest package is a $3,500 site fee with 21 room nights for up to 15 guests, in the amphitheater or on the Harbor Lawn; a wedding of 30 is $6,000 with 40 nights. For 150 on the lawn, the fee is $6,000 if the party books 125 room nights, or $25,000 if it books 45. The package rewards a party that will stay the week in one place, with the harbor and the ferry at the door.

The Windmill Bar, at the old Susannaberg windmill on the ridge above Cruz Bay, sells the view instead of the rooms. A ceremony on its knoll, with the bar still open to the public, is $3,800; closing it to the public from 2 to 5 pm is $7,200, and the bar is yours from 2 pm to close for $28,500. Its own kitchen and bar cater, priced by the guest. Lovango Resort, on a cay off the North Shore, quotes weddings and island buy-outs on request.

St. John wedding packages: what the site fee leaves out

The number on a venue's page is not the wedding's cost. Gallows Point adds a fee when the room nights are not met and leaves gratuities out; at the Windmill Bar, food and an open bar are per guest, with 20 percent on top. Lovango prices weddings and elopements on request and ties them to a stay on the cay, which is reached only by the resort's own ferry, about 10 minutes from Cruz Bay, and the boat runs only in the resort's season, which usually opens in mid-December; check the ferry schedule before you set a date.

For a smaller day, a planner brings the officiant and the beach: Island Mike Weddings at Hawksnest, Trunk Bay or Peace Hill, Island Bliss Weddings at Oppenheimer Beach. Both plan from St. Thomas; the venues and planners on that side are on St. Thomas weddings. The photographers and the private chefs who cater a villa dinner have pages of their own.

A beach wedding in Virgin Islands National Park

Most of the beaches people picture for a St. John wedding are inside Virgin Islands National Park, and the park treats a wedding there as a special park use that needs a permit. The application carries a $50 non-refundable fee, takes 10 business days, longer for a large project, and the park may bill other costs on top.

The planners know the routine: Island Mike Weddings files the permit for its ceremonies at Hawksnest, Trunk Bay and Peace Hill. If the date is fixed, apply well ahead of the ten business days the park needs, and give it the full guest count.

Getting a marriage license for a St. John wedding

The Family Division of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands issues the license for the St. Thomas and St. John district. It takes a fee when you apply and another when you collect, posts every application for eight days first, and asks for government ID and, after a divorce or a spouse's death, a certified decree or certificate. No blood test. A weekend or holiday pick-up can be arranged for an extra fee, and a judge's ceremony is held on St. Thomas on weekday mornings; the court's fees are on our Virgin Islands weddings page.

When to marry on St. John, and the rain plan

Gallows Point offers its wedding sites from the end of Easter week to the start of the December holidays, and more than half of that window falls in the hurricane season, June through November. Spring and early summer are the safer months for a fixed date; a wedding in August, September or October sits in the heart of the season and wants insurance and a second plan. The St. John weather page has the months, and hurricane season in the USVI the odds.

A beach has no cover, and squalls here tend to pass quickly, but ask every venue what it does when one comes through at the vows. Guests arrive on the passenger ferry from Red Hook, and a party too big for one resort can take a run of St. John villas; whether a house takes a ceremony is in the house rules on its page.

Featured villas on St. John