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Nine tourist couples marry naked in Jamaica
The promise of a Valentine`s Day wedding and complimentary 4-night stay attracted over 100 engaged couples from the US and Canada.
Kingston: Nine tourist couples slathered on ample amounts of sunblock and said "I do" in the nude on a sun-baked Jamaican beach.
Getting married in the buff on Valentine`s Day meant living out a fantasy for Milly Salas, a stay-at-home mom from Bergen County, New Jersey, who had never visited a nudist resort before.
"It was beautiful. It was like a fairy tale," the 39-year-old Salas said shortly after the nude nuptials at Hedonism II yesterday, a resort for the pleasure-seeking crowd in Negril, a western tourist town in this largely conservative, tourism-dependent island.
The promise of a Valentine`s Day wedding and complimentary four-night stay attracted over 100 engaged couples from the US and Canada, but only 10 were chosen as part of a nude wedding contest, according to Zein Issa-Nakash, a marketing vice president of Superclubs, which owns Hedonism. One couple dropped out before the big day, which was filmed by a documentary TV crew. Kevin Young, of Land O` Lakes, Florida, said walking around au naturale is what he`s used to since he lives in a nudist community. Getting married without clothes was a no-brainer for Young and his new wife, Shannon Witherspoon. Even body paint was too much for him, he said.
"It was easy for us cause we`re used to it. But some of these other people had never been naked before outside their bedroom. I got to give them kudos, cause they really stepped up and did the full monte thing and got naked," Young said during a phone call from Negril.
The yesterday ceremony was the first nude wedding event at the Jamaican resort since 2003, according to Issa-Nakash. She said there were no angry protests of the event by pastors and others as there were about a decade ago when the resort first hosted group weddings in the buff. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller`s government was quiet about the resumption of nude weddings at Hedonism this Valentine`s Day. During the controversy over nude weddings in 2001, Simpson Miller, then Jamaica`s tourism minister, said getting married without clothes was at odds with how Jamaica should be marketed.
PTI
Getting married in the buff on Valentine`s Day meant living out a fantasy for Milly Salas, a stay-at-home mom from Bergen County, New Jersey, who had never visited a nudist resort before.
"It was beautiful. It was like a fairy tale," the 39-year-old Salas said shortly after the nude nuptials at Hedonism II yesterday, a resort for the pleasure-seeking crowd in Negril, a western tourist town in this largely conservative, tourism-dependent island.
The promise of a Valentine`s Day wedding and complimentary four-night stay attracted over 100 engaged couples from the US and Canada, but only 10 were chosen as part of a nude wedding contest, according to Zein Issa-Nakash, a marketing vice president of Superclubs, which owns Hedonism. One couple dropped out before the big day, which was filmed by a documentary TV crew. Kevin Young, of Land O` Lakes, Florida, said walking around au naturale is what he`s used to since he lives in a nudist community. Getting married without clothes was a no-brainer for Young and his new wife, Shannon Witherspoon. Even body paint was too much for him, he said.
"It was easy for us cause we`re used to it. But some of these other people had never been naked before outside their bedroom. I got to give them kudos, cause they really stepped up and did the full monte thing and got naked," Young said during a phone call from Negril.
The yesterday ceremony was the first nude wedding event at the Jamaican resort since 2003, according to Issa-Nakash. She said there were no angry protests of the event by pastors and others as there were about a decade ago when the resort first hosted group weddings in the buff. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller`s government was quiet about the resumption of nude weddings at Hedonism this Valentine`s Day. During the controversy over nude weddings in 2001, Simpson Miller, then Jamaica`s tourism minister, said getting married without clothes was at odds with how Jamaica should be marketed.
PTI