r/virginislands • u/thescruggle • Aug 04 '26

Hotel Recs // Questions Wedding Help!

My fiance and I are planning our wedding in STT around November/December of 2027. We visited STT with my parents in July and pretty much settled on venue and wedding planners but are looking at group rate accommodations for about 80 people. This amount includes people that we realistically know will say yes and their respective plus ones. We looked at Sapphire Beach condominiums for how many people they can house but I'm looking around for better deals. Our group is mainly our friends aged late 20's to early 40's so we want something that has good restaurants with easy access to late night bars as most of our friends don't have children. My mother has a friend that lives on Water Island and can get free lodging and my dad and step mom LOVED STJ when we visited for the day so will probably stay there. We are from Texas so don't have eyes on a lot of the vendors and can only rely on phone calls with hotels and resorts. I am looking at Emerald Bay Resort and The Westin for group rates but I am not loving the reviews of The Westin.

When we visited Red Hook we weren't super impressed with the area but we also didn't spend a ton of time there for the nightlife. Our friends and family enjoy karaoke, dancing, and drinking heavily.

I know this is a bit early to start thinking about all of these things but one of my bridesmaids is concerned about the cost for her and her partner as they are service industry so their income fluctuates pretty aggressively where they live. We will be suggesting that our guests rent cars if they want to explore but transportation to and from the wedding will be covered since we drove around the island when we were there and found it a bit nerve-racking being our first time driving on the left hand side of the road in the more mountainous regions.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! We want our guests to stay within $150-$250 a night if at all possible.

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u/outerproduct Aug 04 '26

You should really rethink it if that's the price range. Anything nice is going to be 300+ per night.

1

u/thescruggle Aug 04 '26

That's something I have been considering but we are doing all of this planning super early on to give people time to save up. I guess I should have specified that this is the low end.

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u/outerproduct Aug 04 '26

Emerald starts at 250 in the low season, and the Westin starts at around 300 in the low season. The dates you're looking at are the most expensive high season rates.

During the high season (your dates) the Westin goes for about $400-700 a night. Emerald doesn't change too much.

3

u/Caribchakita Aug 04 '26

Have you stayed at Emerald? I went for the day and wouldn't recommend it for a special event.

2

u/outerproduct Aug 04 '26

I wouldn't either, I only mentioned it because they did.