Small weddings and vow renewals: ask before you book
Here is the section to read twice. The Cerulean is a private villa, and this guide makes no claim that it hosts weddings, receptions or events. What we know are the published house rules — check-in at 4 pm, checkout at 10 am, no pets, no smoking — and that the concierge's on-request list includes a private chef and a bartender and setup for the evening you have in mind. Everything beyond that — day guests who are not on the booking, an officiant and a photographer on the property, a caterer's crew, music after dark, tents, decor, a ceremony on the private beach — is a question for Sterling Point Real Estate before you book, and the answer belongs in writing.
That is not a hedge for its own sake. Villa managers everywhere treat a dozen registered guests and a forty-person reception as different things. If you are marrying, say so on the first call — how many people, whether they are all staying in the house, what vendors, what hours — and plan the week around the answer, not the hope.
What a party of twelve can plainly do is be twelve. A private chef dinner on the terrace, a toast at the fire pit and a sunrise the next morning are a wedding week for a couple who wants their people close and nobody else. For the ceremony itself, the island offers other rooms: a judge of the Superior Court performs marriages on St. Croix on Wednesdays at 9 am, per the court's own page; Lyric Sails, out of Frederiksted, advertises private charters of its sailing catamaran for weddings and reunions; and a couple with a congregation connection has the island's churches. A vow renewal is simpler in exactly one way: it is not a legal act, so it needs no license, no waiting period and no court-recognized officiant. Anyone you choose can lead it, anywhere you are allowed to stand — subject, at the villa, to whatever Sterling Point tells you about celebrations.
The USVI marriage license, from the Superior Court
Marriage in the U.S. Virgin Islands runs through the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, Family Division, and the numbers below come from the court's own pages and GoToStCroix's summary of them as of August 2026. Fees and hours change; confirm everything with the Superior Court before you buy flights around a date. On St. Croix, applicants apply at the R.H. Amphlett Leader Justice Center on Centerline Road in Kingshill, 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday with the cashier closing at 3 pm. GoToStCroix lists the St. Croix number as (340) 778-9750.
The money is plain: a $100 non-refundable application fee, paid when the application is filed, and a $100 marriage license fee, paid when the license is picked up. If a judge performs the ceremony, that is a $400 fee, and weekend or holiday ceremonies by pre-arrangement carry a $150 surcharge per couple. GoToStCroix adds that certified copies run about $3 each — get several, because a name change at home eats them. Judge ceremonies on St. Croix are on Wednesday at 9 am.
The clock is the part that catches people. The court posts every marriage application for public examination for eight days before it will issue a license, and it requires the applicants to personally appear before the Clerk to be examined under oath before the license issues. Couples who are not on island can request the marriage packet by mail — Superior Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Family Division, PO Box 929, Christiansted, VI 00821 — and GoToStCroix's advice is to submit a mailed application about a month ahead. Bring valid government-issued identification. Anyone previously divorced needs a certified copy of the divorce decree; anyone widowed needs a certified copy of the late spouse's death certificate. Photocopies do not count.
So the path is: request the packet sixty to ninety days out, gather the certified copies, file with the $100 fee about a month ahead by mail or in person at Kingshill, appear before the Clerk, and pick up the license with the second $100 once the eight days have run. A one-week stay and an in-person filing on arrival do not fit together well; either mail ahead or plan a longer stay. A legal marriage in the territory is a legal marriage in the United States, so the same certified copies matter for Social Security, passports and insurance at home.
Officiants, witnesses and the paperwork after
Who may marry you is set by the Virgin Islands Code, Title 16. The officiant-registration sites that track state marriage law summarize the provision this way: a marriage is solemnized by a clergyman or minister of any religion, whether resident in the Virgin Islands or elsewhere in the United States, or by a judge or court of record — which is why the family pastor from Ohio can fly down and do the honors. GetOrdained's summary adds that ministers do not have to register with the territory beforehand, that two witnesses sign the license, that a license is valid for three months, and that the signed license goes back to the marriage office within ten days. We could not open the code's own text this session — the statute sites blocked our fetch — so treat those points as a well-sourced summary rather than the statute, and confirm them with the Family Division. The court's own pages mention only judges, because judges are the officiants the court supplies; ask the Clerk whether your officiant qualifies.
The judge route is the simplest for a couple who wants the legal act done and the celebration kept for the villa: Wednesday morning at the courthouse in Kingshill, the two of you and two witnesses out of the twelve, and back at the East End for lunch. Weekend and holiday ceremonies exist by pre-arrangement with the surcharge — the court's page lists Saturday late-morning and Sunday or holiday morning windows — but confirm the hours, because the court's page and GoToStCroix's summary did not agree when we compared them. What none of this settles is where the ceremony happens: a judge marries you at the court unless the court says otherwise, and a visiting minister marries you wherever you are lawfully allowed to gather — a chartered boat, a public beach, a church that will have you — and, at the villa, only under whatever event terms Sterling Point sets. Ask that question before the officiant buys a ticket, and carry the marriage packet, the certified copies and both IDs in hand luggage.
Private chefs and caterers who cook in villas
The easiest way to feed twelve well is to let someone else do it two nights out of five. A private chef for one dinner or the whole stay is on the villa's concierge list, along with provisioning, a bartender and bar setup, and housekeeping; tell them the occasion and the head count when you book the house. Or book directly from our catering and private chefs directory. We checked the three below in August 2026 and all were live and taking requests; prices are not published, so expect a per-person rate plus groceries and ask for a written quote.
Zalatina Foods is Chef Jamey Hughson, a Seattle Culinary Academy graduate with more than thirty years in kitchens, whose catering kitchen is Z Café in the courtyard of the Pentheny Building on King Street in Christiansted. His catering page lists private cheffing, appetizer spreads, special-event catering, breakfast and dinner menus, and "drop and go" meals delivered in oven-ready containers — the answer for the night nobody wants to cook and nobody wants to dress for town. There is a catering request form on the site; use it early in winter.
Yaadie In St Croix cooks Caribbean and Jamaican-inspired food and lists private chef service for villas, event catering from small to large, and boxed-lunch delivery. The site was current when we checked, with a booking button and a weekly lunch menu. Saveur Catering Company, whose line is "Where Food is Love," describes itself as full-service catering from intimate gatherings of two to large celebrations and appears on GoToStCroix's 2026 catering listings; its own presence is a Facebook page, so reach it there or through the concierge. For the edges of the week, Seaside Market and Deli, which GoToStCroix calls St. Croix's only gourmet market, does a full-service bakery and deli with made-to-order food and party platters. Give the chef the allergies, the kids' plates and the birthday date in one message, then leave the kitchen alone.
Cooking for twelve yourselves
On the nights without a chef, the house is built for it. The chef's kitchen is the room guests single out — one March 2026 guest called it the best-stocked kitchen he had ever had in a rented house — with a kitchen island, a full-size range and oven, a dishwasher, two refrigerators (one per kitchen), an ice maker, a blender and small appliances, coffee and tea, wine glasses, and a farmhouse sink under a window that looks at the water. Nobody is cooking for twelve on a two-burner hotplate here, and nobody is washing forty glasses by hand.
The rhythm that works for a group is dull and reliable. Breakfast is self-serve; lunch is at the beach or the pool, out of the second refrigerator; dinner rotates — two chef nights, one dinner in Christiansted, and grill nights for the rest, with the cooking assigned by family or by couple so that nobody cooks twice and nobody cooks alone. The outdoor kitchen and gas grill on the pool deck do the heavy work, and the fire pit takes what is left of the evening.
Provisioning is where a group week is won or lost, so decide it before arrival. The concierge lists provisioning — the kitchen stocked before you land and topped up as you go — and for twelve people arriving after a travel day, that first stocked refrigerator is the whole first evening. If you would rather shop yourselves, our groceries and provisioning directory has the island's stores: the big supermarkets mid-island for the bulk run, a no-membership warehouse store for the water and the paper goods, and Seaside Market and Deli in Christiansted for the good cheese and the platters. Send two people on the run, not twelve. Use one refrigerator for drinks and lunch things and the other for the chef nights, run the dishwasher after breakfast and after dinner, and label the leftovers.
Boats for twelve: Buck Island and a sunset sail
The one outing every group should book is Buck Island Reef National Monument, the reef-and-beach day off the northeast coast that our Buck Island guide covers in full. Only NPS-authorized concessionaires or private boats with a park permit may land there, which for a group means one decision: charter a boat privately, or buy twelve seats on a scheduled trip. Book either well ahead in winter; the boat charters directory has the full list.
The departure closest to the villa is Buck Island Charters — Captains Heinz and Carl — whose two boats leave from Green Cay Marina, the "H" dock at Tamarind Reef Resort about three miles east of Christiansted on Route 82. Teroro II carries up to 24 on the standard trip: check-in at 8:45 am, departure at 9, back by 2 pm at the latest, with snorkel gear and instruction included. When we checked, that trip was $105 for adults, $85 for children eleven and under, and free under two. The whole boat charters for up to 20 people at $1,800, with extra hours at $360 — twelve of you on Teroro II privately is $150 a head before tip. Dragonfly, the smaller boat, runs exclusive charters only, up to eight people for $1,200. Prices move; the number GoToStCroix lists is (340) 718-3161.
From the Christiansted boardwalk, two more operators run private charters. Big Beard's Adventure Tours, at 81 Queen Cross Street, sells a six-hour full day for $135 an adult on a sailing catamaran — Turtle Beach first, then the snorkel trail — a half-day power-catamaran trip at $95, and a two-hour sunset cruise at $45; private charters are quoted by phone. Caribbean Sea Adventures, at 1102 King Street, lists six boats for private half- and full-day charters — Celebration, Good Times, Smooth Recovery and Mile Mark, plus Inconceivable and Wave Dancer under sail — with pricing by phone at 340-773-2628.
The celebration in boat form is a sunset sail, and the island's dedicated one is Lyric Sails, out of 1D Strand Street in Frederiksted on the west end: sunset sails aboard the 63-foot sailing catamaran Jolly Mon with live music, unlimited rum punch and a cash bar, and private charters the company pitches for weddings, birthdays, graduations and reunions with catered food and a full bar. Sail times vary by season, and Frederiksted is the far end of the island from the East End, so count the drive as part of the evening. Whatever boat you choose, wear mineral sunscreen — the USVI bans the reef-damaging chemical kinds — and take the morning departure; the sea is usually calmer early.
Cars, vans and the airport run
Twelve people need two cars at least, or a passenger van and a car. St. Croix drives on the left, there is no Uber, the villa is at the quiet end of the island, and Henry E. Rohlsen Airport sits on the south shore about six miles southwest of Christiansted — from the East End you reach it by going through or around town, so the town, not the highway, sets your drive time. Our driving on St. Croix guide covers the roads and the taxi tariff; the car rentals directory has the companies.
For a group, the van question decides itself by head count. Centerline Car Rentals, serving St. Croix since 1990 with counters at the airport terminal, in Christiansted across from the seaplane dock, and mid-island at La Reine, lists cars, Jeeps, SUVs, trucks and passenger vans; the van's seat count is not on the site, so call the admin office at 340-692-2525 and ask what they have for your dates. Winter cars sell out on this island — book the vehicles when you book the house.
The alternative for arrival day is the concierge's transportation service — airport pickup and a vehicle sorted for the week are on the on-request list — and for a group it is worth the call: a van meets the flights, nobody drives on the left jet-lagged, and the rentals are collected the next morning. Once you are here, two cars means two speeds: the beach crew takes one to the Jack and Isaac Bay trailhead, about a five-minute drive from the villa, the town crew takes the other to Christiansted, fifteen to twenty minutes away, and nobody waits for anybody. The villa has a gated private driveway and free on-site parking, so the fleet lives inside the gate.
