Destination Wedding Planners Trip to Anguilla

Àni Villas is magical. 

This past July, I had the pleasure of being invited to stay at one of the most beautiful villas in the world and it’s located in Anguilla.  Àni Villas, Anguilla is the first of a collection of remarkable villas in some of the world’s most exotic locations.   Future locations include the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mauritius, and Zanzibar.  The Architect for Ani Villas was the Lee Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership. The stunning villas were designed to capture the dramatic cliffside setting and views and to functionally provide a remarkable living experience.  The villas are staffed with the kindest, most helpful and sincere group of people.  They cater to your every need…including cooking for you at all hours, no matter what you wanted to eat or drink.

My husband, I used this opportunity to get away for a belated honeymoon and it was absolutely amazing.  When people would ask where we were going, we would tell them Anguilla.  The #1 question was always… “where is that?”… I loved being able to introduce a new part of the world to people – telling them about this hidden gem of an island in the British West Indies.  But we did have an interesting twist on our honeymoon…we weren’t alone like you would be on a typical honeymoon… we were surrounded by the most diverse and interesting group of human beings – my favorite destination wedding planners Preston Bailey, Theo Bleckmann, Colin Cowie, Vicky Hodges {Destination Weddings & Honeymoons Magazine}, Jacqueline Nwobu {Munaluchi Bride Magazine}, Eda Kalkay, Dave Nowak, and Diann Valentine.  The things we did during that trip had nothing to do with  “who” you were in the wedding & event industry, instead it was a group of fun individuals who left their egos at the door to just enjoy time together as a group.  What could have turned into an MTV reality show… The Real World: Wedding & Events Edition, instead ended up as a fantastic, relaxed and enjoyable vacation.  We snorkeled, took speed boat rides around the island, met for amazing meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner, scaled a 30′ cliff down to a beach, jumped off rocks into the water, toured the island event locations, played tennis, drank amazing smoothies while floating in the infinity pool, hot tubbed, sent off several wish lanterns {at least one really took off}, and talked about life and many things that weren’t wedding related.  It was magical.

We stayed in the South Villa Master I.  The room was incredible with floor to ceiling windows overlooking Little Bay and an enormous bathroom with huge shower and fantastic LED jacuzzi tub.  While similar in design to Àni North, Àni South sits on the southern side of the estate and looks more directly down into Little Bay with its shimmering blue waters. The master bedrooms, indoor and outdoor living spaces are likewise oriented toward the breathtaking western view down the Anguilla coast line and sunset views.  Unique to the Àni South is the configuration of the home includes accessibility with an elevator, roll in showers, pool lift, and other features – all subtly designed within the homes design concept.  As with Àni North, the villa has 5 bedrooms, it’s own living and dining spaces (indoor and outdoor), roof deck lounge, pool deck and cliff edge hot tub.  The villa is filled with an assortment of decks and covered areas for gathering as a group or to find your own private space.  While it seems that you would be right on top of each other in the villa, it’s just not the case.  It’s completely and totally private and the rooms are the quietest I’ve experienced for so many people together at once.

Another amazing detail destination wedding planners will love about the Àni Villas is that each is tied to an art academy, a non-profit organization that provides an intensive multi-year art skills education to aspiring artists around the world. Utilizing the highly successful training system developed by artist Anthony J. Waichulis, the Àni Art Academies Program is designed to promote creative freedom through logic and discipline.  They believe you do not need to be born an artist to create amazing art.  The work of the students is absolutely phenomenal.  I love that the villas have a non-profit association to them also.

The most memorable experiences I had included my amazing friend, Preston Bailey and his husband Theo Bleckmann who provided me with unending hours of fun and sincere love and affection.  Wherever they were, I wanted to be. I also have to give mad credit to  Colin Cowie who got all of us involved with fun “getting to know you” games which will go down forever as one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve ever experienced.

I would do it all again without even thinking twice about my calendar.  I would move mountains to be there again.  That’s how passionate and grateful I am about the experience they created for us.

I can totally see being a destination wedding planners on Anguilla – with either the entire bridal party & family staying at the villas or have an intimate wedding happening at the villas.  There’s plenty of room for a ceremony, cocktail party and dinner and I was blown away by the expertise of Black Orchid Florists – Loren did a fantastic job impressing us with his design skills by presenting us with a completely different look and theme each night.  The experience for the guests would be unique and unparalleled.  They would be as impressed as we all were.