Belize intrigued her, although she wasn’t exactly sure where it
was. She listed her Philadelphia house for rent. She wrote in her
journal that if a person wanted to rent her furnished home for a
year, she’d take it as a sign to go. Literally the next day, a couple
contacted her and asked to rent the home. For an entire year,
fully furnished.

“The universe made it very clear to me that I needed to go,”
Goldman said. At that point, she realized the only thing holding
her back from making a move was fear. She concluded that “fear is
not a reason.”
She got on the plane and cried during the flight.

“Not because I was leaving home, but because I felt like I was
going home.”
Two weeks after hearing about Belize, she had moved there.

BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Goldman said Belize in 2017 reminds her of growing up in
Northeast Philadelphia. There’s a neighborhood quality in Belize
where everyone knows everyone else. She loves that aspect of liv-
ing there.

Goldman first went into business in Belize with Lemon Crush
Belize, a lifestyle brand that started with bikinis adorned with vin-
tage costume jewelry. She began to market to brides, and quickly
learned that brides needed help with much beyond just bikinis.

They wanted help with all aspects of the wedding.

Romantic Travel Belize was born. It is now a full-service desti-
nation management and event design company.

After more than 100 weddings, Goldman will hold her first
Jewish wedding Dec. 8. The couple are first-generation Americans.

Their parents immigrated to the U.S. as adults.

“I have a rabbi who will be doing a small Sabbath. The couple
are hosting a catamaran trip for their guests to snorkel the world’s
second-largest barrier reef, then with some sharks and stingrays,
then to a neighboring island, Caye Caulker,” Goldman said.

That all sound fabulous. But it’s the norm for Belize weddings.

Exotic settings are part of the attraction. Get married in Be-
lize, and you can swim with sharks, get married underwater,
take a zip line ride in your wedding dress or get married on the
beautiful beach. Goldman said a recent wedding took place on
a sandbar in the ocean, with the chef cooking while standing in
the water.

Craftspeople in Belize are willing to make anything people need
for their weddings.

“Things are handmade and handcrafted by people who actually
care,” Goldman said. She noted that there are no mega-resorts and
multiple weddings each day. Couples get the complete focus of the
people working there, who take great pride in putting on a beauti-
ful wedding.

Goldman is busy enough that she typically asks for people to
contact her six months in advance for weddings in the high season
(November through April) and three months during other times
of the year.

Goldman said she now focuses more on “design brides,” or cou-
ples “who have a specific vision, service level desire, and taste level
but who realize you need to trust someone who knows what they
are doing.”
As for Goldman, life did not go the way she anticipated when
she was younger. But she truly enjoys coordinating weddings and
working with couples to realize their vision.

And she enjoys her newfound home, not just for the natural
beauty, but the wonderful people.

“I love that it is a true community, like old-time Philly,” she said.

“At the end of the day, no matter where you live on planet Earth, it’s
all about love and you don’t have love without people.” l
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SIMCHAS OCTOBER 26, 2017
29