A few weeks ago, Shaunie O’Neil – Basketball Wives star and ex-wife of basketball star, Shack O’Neil, officially tied the knot with her pastor fiancé, Keion Henderson, in a romantic outdoor ceremony on the golf course at the Aurora Anguilla Resort and Golf Club.
Nearly 200 guests were in attendance at the celebrity wedding, which was officiated by yet another celebrity, Bishop TD Jakes.
This wedding in particular, garnered the attention of trendy fashion and business magazines, as well as other international news media outlets. There was much international media focus on Anguilla leading up to the wedding, and certainly following the wedding – as evidenced through many photos of the event which captured picturesque and scenic views of Anguilla.
While we promote Anguilla on the international market place –through printed brochures and videos – the absolute best form of advertisement for our island comes from satisfied visitors and customers who choose to return again and again to its shores.
“I think after our first visit, we knew this was the place we wanted to get married,” Shaunie told PEOPLE. For Keion, it was Anguilla’s rich history and welcoming residents that made them “proud to connect to” the island and “start their journey” in Anguilla. “We could have stayed here [for our honeymoon as well] because this is paradise,” Henderson said of the island. However, the couple opted to try something quite “different,” France – a point that we in Anguilla should always keep in mind, as Anguilla is a “destination choice” not a “destination zero option” for the “rich or famous” segment of our visitor and tourism product.
We, in Anguilla, were graced with having these folks on island for the widely publicised wedding ceremony which was planned by the happy couple with the famous Britto Agency/Global Brand strategist and captured by acclaimed photographer Manolo Doreste and videographer Michael Tamzil.
During the reception, the couple’s friends and family dined on Anguillian-inspired dishes set out among blush rose florals created by a local business, Black Orchid.
The festivities went off without a hitch, to everyone’s delight and satisfaction.
As Anguillians, when we get the feedback of how this couple and their guests felt about the wedding experience on our island, and of how highly they spoke about Anguilla in general – the place and its people – it makes us happy. Not only was this feedback spread throughout the island, it was also amplified in the international media – TV and radio programmes, trendy magazines and social media platforms.
This has become a form of advertising that we cannot really afford to pay for, and money cannot buy. The accolades and praises which this group attributed to Anguilla could only be expressed because of the positive experiences they enjoyed during their stay on Anguilla. There is no doubt that this publicity will result in Anguilla being considered by many others as a place for weddings and other special events, as well as an all-out wonderful place to visit and vacation.
Some years ago, we had the highly visible and well publicised presence of another famous basketball player, LeBron James, on Anguilla. He did a number of things during his stay on the island that were also talked about and featured in international and social media platforms. One of his most notable and talked about experiences on the island was his jump off the high cliff and into the water at Little Bay. This act alone received so much international publicity that many tourists who have since visited Anguilla, were very curious about the cliff and wanted to “share in the experience”, as it were, or just wanted to be able to say: “I jumped off the cliff that LeBron James jumped from”.
Anguilla, as a tourist destination is better off when it is perceived to be a place of high quality with high standards. It is then that we attract internationally influential or well-known people to our island shores as their “destination of choice”, and they, in turn, provide “authentic experiential advertisement” to that segment of our tourism product – advertisement that money can’t buy.
The positive experiential advertisement speaks to the positive impact on our tourism product. So, well-done to all the people who made the wedding a success.
A number of local people and businesses played a major role in contributing to this measure of success. We are thankful and grateful that you have demonstrated – through your actions – that we, in Anguilla, are quite capable of delivering at such a high standard to the satisfaction of visitors who, despite their wealth and international acclaim, were sufficiently confident that their special occasion could be handled successfully right here in Anguilla. So, congratulations to the newly-weds and to all who made it a success. May Anguilla and Anguillians become the beneficiaries of the recent visit and publicity – for a long time.
