Couples Tie The Knot With Underwater Weddings in The Bahamas

The Bahamas is seeing an increasing number of couples getting married underwater during scuba diving holidays. The growing trend to tie the knot somewhere unique has extended to locations beneath the surface of the ocean as the search is on to find exotic scuba wedding destinations abroad.

Dive Bahamas in Stuart Cove has carried out nearly half a dozen underwater weddings already this year as brides and grooms choose scuba weddings close to sunken shipwrecks and thriving coral reefs, over traditional weddings on dry land.

Minister Matthew Sweeting, conducts the wedding ceremonies underwater and said: “It’s mainly certified divers who are looking for something different,” Sweeting said. “Many people have said they’ve always wanted to do this, so we’re not having to go out and promote the ceremonies.”

During the underwater ceremonies, couples use underwater writing slates and hand signals to exchange their vows and the newlyweds pose for their wedding photographs which are taken by special underwater cameras. Sweeting explained that despite being carried out underwater the ceremonies are legal and couples receive legal documents with signatures.

The advantage to having an underwater wedding is that couples can customise the ceremony and setting to suit their individual requirements.

Previous weddings that have taken place on the Caribbean island include a couple who were avid fans of James Bond films who got married in front of one of the wrecks that was used in the Thunderball film in the 1960s.

Sweeting recalls: “We even added some 007 music to the couple’s wedding video.”

Another brave couple wanted reef sharks swimming around in the background as they exchanged their vows so one of the experienced shark feeders of Stuart Cove fed them in the background to make sure that they were captured in the couple’s wedding video.

This wedding proved to be such as success that the team at Dive Bahamas are now offering it as an option for engaged tourists taking scuba diving holidays but it appears that last minute nerves can’t always be blamed on these marine predators.

“It seemed the groom was more scared about getting married than he was being in the middle of a bunch of sharks.” Sweeting joked.

Newlyweds can combine their unique weddings with scuba diving holidays and after the ceremony they get the chance to explore the underwater world with their “first dive” as husband and wife.

“The ceremony is relatively short and we wouldn’t want to let a good dive go to waste. So, we often take a tour of the reef or wrecks and dive until someone runs out of air,” Sweeting commented.

“It’s a unique experience that a lot of people don’t realize is available. If more people knew they could get married underwater, I think there would be a lot more underwater weddings. It’s actually not that difficult. Together with Stuart Cove’s staff, it’s a pretty seamless event.”