Wedding tomorrow!

Tomorrow is my first official wedding since the birth of my daughter on June 24th. I've had a few smaller elopements since her birth, but tomorrow is my first bigger wedding. Oddly enough, I'm a little nervous! I haven't been nervous about a wedding since I first started in this business almost four years ago. I'm glad my bride & groom have already left for their trip and are enjoying their cruise even as I type...last thing I'm sure they want to hear is that their wedding planner is nervous! Don't get me wrong, I know everything will go great (and I'll be sure to post pictures soon!), I'm just feeling a little rusty.

I'm spending today getting prepared for it - making sure the table cloth for the cake table is cleaned and ironed, picked up the colorful blue ties for the chairs from the rental company this morning, polishing the champagne flutes...very exciting stuff! Perhaps my most important job today is hugging my sweet Maya. She'll be left in the arms of a babysitter tomorrow for the first time while I'm at the wedding. Do you think she'll be able to forgive me?

Orin Foto

I wanted to share a few of the photos Elisha took for one of my brides this past summer. I just love her work and her website is just beautiful - www.orinfoto.com. She does a great job of capturing those tiny details that are so popular these days.

Elisha does not currently live on St. Thomas but is hoping to make the move here soon - possibly working here part of the year and in the mainland the other part (best of both worlds!). She offers a great destination wedding package to brides. We don't often recommend photographers unless they are local, but her work is just so special, I can't keep her a secret!

A new look for Island Bliss Weddings!

Check out our newly updated website at www.islandblissweddings.com We've added our new logo and streamlined some of our packages & pricing information. We've also added a Book It! page which makes sending your deposit easier.

The best new feature was added to our packages. We are now offering a court concierge service which will make filing and obtaining your marriage license effortless! This service has been added to all of our packages and is available as an add on service to those who do not have a package. We are offering this service for only $199 - which is much cheaper than any of the hotels charge (I won't name names but one ritzy hotel on the island charges $500 for the same service!).

If you have already received pricing information or booked your wedding with Island Bliss Weddings, the new prices changes will not affect you. With the rising costs of everything these days, we've unfortunately had to follow suit. Tell you what...as soon as gas drops below $3 a gallon (cheapest I've seen it on St. Thomas is $4.34), the first five booked weddings will get a free bouquet!

Ring Pillows!

Ah, lovely ring pillows! I have to say, I don't think I've ever had a wedding with a ring pillow in the Caribbean...except maybe my own! I had to dig DEEP to find this photo of my ring pillow - I had it saved on my shutterfly account from three years ago. I don't remember anymore which website I had ordered it from - if anyone recognizes it and knows, please tell me so I can give them credit!



Obviously you can see my inspiration came from the sea. I was hoping my nephews would be at the wedding and could be able to carry the pillow down the aisle for me but they couldn't come...so I had my 24 year old cousin carry it for me! I didn't actually make him walk down the aisle but he brought up the rings when the officiate asked for them. It was pretty funny, he's lucky I didn't make him wear knee socks. Ring bearers in knee socks are the best!

But to get to the point of my post, you don't need a ring bearer or a ring pillow in the Caribbean. Very few of my weddings have these elements. Although if you have a cute nephew you want to include - great! Kids are always so cute! But if you don't, or even if it is just the two of you getting married, it doesn't mean you have to "miss out" on having something special to carry your rings in.

I found this ceramic sea urchin on etsy.com by seller elementclaystudio that would be perfect for holding a pair of rings. Then you have a cute keepsake to keep of your wedding day - something to hold special jewelry in when you return home (I personally do not sleep in my wedding rings, so I would use this to hold my rings at night).



This is what was important to me about my own wedding - I wanted the elements of my wedding to either have a special meaning or potentially have a special meaning. So while some may think my starfish ring pillow is a little cheesy, after the wedding, the ribbon comes off and it looks great as a throw pillow on our bed. Actually...the ring pillow is made of silk and our tropical environment, as already mentioned, does not do well with such materials, so it looks great on my mother's guest bed...but one day, if we ever leave this island, it will look great on our bed!

I've also seen brides use a real starfish or clamshell as their ring carriers - this is a great way to bring nature into your ceremony. A recent bride brought with her this copper ring orb which I loved...



Of course, being a fan of anything homemade, I found a very similar one on etsy.com by seller palomasnest - imagine tying your own rings with color coordinating ribbon....so pretty!



Honestly though, we all know this is a small element of your wedding day. But for true shopaholics? The possibilities are endless!

Bridesmaid Gifts

For my own wedding I had beach bags personalized with my maids initials and filled with with all kinds of goodies like lip balm, suntan lotion, a bottle of local rum, flip flops, a magazine for the beach, snacks, etc, etc. While I still think it was a fabulous gift, here's another idea that I just love (and is probably easier for them to lug home from a destination wedding).



Everyone is going to have a bikini or bathing suit at a destination wedding and no one wants to bring home a wet swimsuit that can stink up their luggage. And these can be personalized with each girls name or initials! I just love personalized gifts.

How cute would this be if you filled it with some chap stick or maybe some fun wedding jewelry for your maids to wear? And did you like my idea of a bottle of local rum? You can easily get some airline sized bottles of rum. Cruzan Rum makes awesome flavors as well like coconut, banana, vanilla, mango, etc.

I found these great bags at www.prettypersonalgifts.com (other colors to chose from as well) but a lot of websites have them. www.uncommongoods.com has one of my favorites. And you can always count on eBay!

We're gone...but now we're back!

I realize I should have posted that we would be going off island for the last two weeks instead of just leaving this blog hanging. Well - now you know, we were gone...but now we are back! Between unpacking two young children, myself & husband, cleaning, laundry, etc. it may be a day or two before I can post here again. Oh, that and catching up with a million emails! Will be back just as soon as I can....

Cake Toppers

When a bride plans a destination wedding, many don't think of their cake toppers as top priority. Well, I guess when any bride plans her wedding, a cake topper isn't a top priority! Many destination brides are looking for ways to keep their luggage light and hauling a cake topper with them just doesn't make the most sense. Most destination brides opt for beautiful flowers on their cake to keep things simple but elegant, like the cake above. And while this is a beautiful option, I have to say, I love it when brides add a touch of personality to their cakes. I admit, it's my favorite, because it's what I did for my own wedding!



I had so much fun researching personalized cake toppers and finding the company to do this for us. I actually had mine made from a company I found on eBay. They even went to far as to put a little Corona bottle in my groom's hand and scuba fins on our feet - how perfect! I don't believe they are in business anymore (it's been almost 4 years since I ordered it!) but there looks to be some artists on eBay still making similar ones. Search for personalized clay cake toppers.

One thing to look for when you purchase a personalized cake topper like this is one that is made with poly-clay - this clay is waterproof & will not mold. Unfortunately, I did not know this when I had my own topper made and we recently had to depart with the mold ridden creation (our tropical environment was not friendly to it, but I'm sure it would have been ok in a cooler climate). If you google these types of cake toppers, a lot of companies out there make them as well. I think if I was to order one again, I would go with www.claymyfigure.com. www.clayfigurines.com and www.designsbydorian.com also looked like fun sites.

There are other great ways to personalize your cake as well - don't feel you have to drop over $100 on one of these babies. It could be as easy as dropping $10 at your local toy store, like this couple did!