3,000th Wedding in Cayman

By Flynn Bush

Twelve years ago, Mrs. Joy Basdeo got her first license to perform weddings. She had been involved in doing weddings with her parents for some time before that and had seen the demand for these same services by cruise ship visitors. With her mother’s blessing, she began to offer weddings for this demographic. At that time, however, it could not have been foreseen the number of weddings that she was going to be able to officiate over the coming years. A thousand ceremonies would have seemed like a distant, but possible, goal to reach in the future. Indeed, Mrs. Basdeo did reach that milestone a few years ago. However, today we are highlighting a much more laudable achievement as on Saturday, June 6, Mrs. Basdeo officiated her 3,000th wedding at Consuelo’s Beach.

For the past few months, Mrs. Basdeo had been aware that she was very close to this milestone. “I had been noticing my numbers and was predicting that my 3,000th wedding would come sometime in April,” she stated. “Of course, then the shutdown happened and took away the possibility of doing weddings for cruise and stayover visitors,” she added. With locals still wishing to get married, her business, Simply Weddings, has still been very active.

For this milestone, Mrs. Basdeo decided to do something special. So, she spoke with the vendors that she works with on a regular basis, most of whom had been with her for the past twelve years and, with their complete agreement, offered this ceremony free of charge to the couple. In addition to the wedding, the couple received 2 Registered Marriage certificates, a bridal bouquet and boutonniere from Trisha's Roses, a wedding arch and decorated chairs from Azuquitar Wedding & Party Memories, a three-tiered wedding cake from Carousel Bakery, a bottle of Moet Chandon champagne from Blackbeard's and the Liquor Outlet, one hour of professional photography from Deja Vu Photography with a wedding gallery and USB, and two decorated champagne flutes from Island Girl Crafts. This whole package is worth more than CI$1200.

This gesture by Mrs. Basdeo, Simply Weddings, and all of the other vendors, was received appreciatively by the couple. The bride and groom were here working in retail and resigned in March, due to the current pandemic. Like so many couples in this situation, they are making plans to leave the Cayman Is. however travel restrictions have impeded them, and they could not leave as a couple until they were married.

As we move forward in this country, and as we slowly emerge from this lockdown, it is important to remember the local businesses and business-persons who have been serving us diligently. Mrs. Joy Basdeo, is one who has done much for our community and who should be supported fervently. She is there, and will continue to be there, at the new office for Simply Weddings in the Chestnut Centre on Smith Road (second floor), and she is looking forward to serving for the foreseeable future. This milestone of 3,000 weddings officiated is quite a feat and we applaud Mrs. Basdeo for this. We also thank her for her hard work as a marriage officer, and notary public. May God bless you with much success in the future.