Lindquist, Orange, and Paradise Pictures....

Mix it all together and you can't really ask for more! Check out these pictures that EJ from Paradise Pictures shared with me from one of our weddings:

Check out that unbelievable water!



I love shots like this, where the rings and champagne are in focus but the bride and groom are slightly blurred...



A bit out of order but hey, it's been a long day and I'm too tired to rearrange it. =)



And that bright orange POP that is so pretty with the blue water! By the way, this bride & groom visited St. Thomas via Oasis of the Seas (the new BIG ship from Royal Caribbean). She brought her bouquet with her, getting the fresh flowers from the ship. They looked great!




And um....before I forget...I did it! 17 posts in the month of March!! It may be 8:15pm on the 31st, but darn it, I did it! I think that is the record for me with blog posts in one month. And I admit, I did cheat by doing a post with just a picture and did a couple of days with two posts per day. But I did it regardless of my cheating tactics. =)

For those that love the beach....

but not so much the sand...

A good friend of mine on St. Thomas introduced me to Sand Witch. It may seem odd, but I do get a lot of brides that want to be married "by the beach, but not so much in it". This just may be the perfect solution for them!

Just sprinkle on your feet and it keeps the sand off! Or you can even put it on your sandy feet and then the sand just falls right off. This would be perfect to have at a beach ceremony for guests to put on before or after the ceremony. I thought this was a great idea to add to guests welcome bags as well. They have free sample sizes - I think it would be a great idea to contact them and see if you can buy a ton of the sample sizes - easy for you to bring down to the islands and toss in OOT bags or have in a pretty basket at the beach for guests to use.

I (usually) know what I'm talking about....

I never try to hide the fact that I've only lived on island since Fall of 2004 and have really only been a "real wedding planner" since Spring of 2005. Seeing as I have only lived on island for less than 6 years, I know a lot about the islands but I definitely never pretend to know everything. But when people ask me a question that I'm confident I know, I usually answer with, well...confidence. This confidence made me look like a real winner a few months ago!

I had a couple in town for their big wedding day and I met with them a few days prior to the wedding to check out the beach & reception location. The wedding was on St. John and they picked me up from the ferry in their rental car. As we were driving to the beach, they were asking me about the tides. They had been to the beach the day before and mentioned that the tide was very high and did I know if the tide would be lower at the time they were to be married? As I understood it, because of how close we are to the equator, we really don't have high and low tide here. Because of this, there isn't a very measurable change in the depth of the beach at anytime during the day. I told them that the water level they saw the day before would probably be the same at anytime tomorrow.

Then we got to the beach. And there was NO beach. The water was so high, there was absolutely NO WHERE we could have had the ceremony. The Virgin Islands may be famous for their beaches, but we are not like Florida - where there is miles and miles of coastline beaches that are a quarter mile in depth (from the water to the road/non-beach area).

When I got home, I gave my husband a scolding for making me look like an idiot - "I thought there were no tides here?! What is going on with that beach??" - it's not tides he told me, but the storm surge. We had had a lot of crazy weather that week and it caused a storm surge with the water levels, making them higher up on the beach. The waves, which usually are nice and gentle, were quite large that week. Here is an example:

Plenty of space on Hawksnest Beach:



Until a wave comes in...where'd the beach go???



We had to set up the ceremony at the far end of this beach in a space higher up on the sand, to avoid people's feet from getting wet. The waves would come in pretty high though and at one point before the ceremony began, came in high enough to reach the decorated conch shells. Two conch shells were almost reclaimed by the sea! As any of my past brides will tell you, I have a pretty calm & even demeanor. I really had to bite my lip not to be the crazy wedding planner running out to the ocean to grab back her conch shells!! I sadly watched them go...until two little boys in the wedding ran in and grabbed them for me! I was so thankful for those little boys at that moment. They felt like heroes (and they were!) and I didn't have to embarrass myself in front of my clients guests!

This storm surge seems to be more of a problem in the winter months but can really happen any time of year. Lindquist Beach has become a very popular spot on St. Thomas for weddings...but to be honest, I never recommend it for larger groups. The beach has a prominent slop, making it hard to set up an arch & chairs and the water is very often higher up on the beach in this location. These pictures show how perfect it is for a smaller group.






But yet we were lucky enough a few weeks ago to have 40 chairs and an arch on Lindquist Beach - something that is not easily done!

In case you missed it on Yahoo.com today...

10 Unbelievable Wedding & Marriage Records

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/10-unbelieveable-wedding-marriage-records-1171467/

Wedding Gifts

Did you and your husband/wife exchange gifts to each other on your wedding day? Do you plan to if you are engaged? There are two schools of people in this category - those that do and those that don't. Those that don't either don't know that this is something that they can do, or they know about it, but figure the honeymoon is their gift to each other, or saving the money for something else. Those that do, they're probably a lot like me and will look for any excuse to give each other a nice gift (or get a nice gift!).

I begged my husband over and over to tell me what he wanted as a wedding gift when we got married in May '05. He is in the school of thought that wedding presents aren't necessary. I was not. So I was very specific in what I wanted for myself! I reminded very subtly about 10 times a day that I thought this would be a perfect gift:



I stole this picture from an eBay seller - it's a horrible picture of a very beautiful Roberto Coin palm tree pendant. He knew if we were to start our married lives as happily ever after, he'd better have it! =) And he did, I was "so surprised" to get in on our wedding day. =) These are sold at Jewels here in St. Thomas and St. John - what a perfect thing for your groom to pick up while he is here, no need to hide it in the luggage! And if you are married between the infamous palm trees on Magen's Bay? Even more fitting!

Bored? Not at MY wedding!

LOL...we did a beautiful wedding last month at Villa Botanica, which is located on the top of Crown Mountain in St. Thomas. There are a few different ceremony sites to chose from in the location and the bride chose to be married in the garden.



We place programs on each chair. The front side had the happy couples name and wedding information...the backside was full of puzzles, crosswords, Mad Libs, to keep you entertained in case the ceremony got a little too long. How cute are the little pencils attached to the ribbons?



This bride was very creative. For favors/seating cards, she used picture frame coasters at everyone's seat. In order to indicate to the staff who had the chicken and who had the beef, she put a little sticker on each coaster! I wish they would have had a fish option, I could just see a little kissy fish on there!

Some more from my cheat photo yesterday...

I was just looking through the wedding photos from the wedding I posted about yesterday. It reminded me how popular the color orange has been lately. It really does POP against the blues & whites of the beach.

Just a little cheat...

Ok, so I'm determined to make my goal of 17 blog posts this month and I realized I really need to do one blog post a day until the end of the month to make that goal. So I'm going to cheat today and just share a photo of a fun wedding we had last week. I promise the next blog posts will be more in depth, but come on, what's more exciting than a bride & groom hopping merrily into the great wide ocean/sea of marriage?? =)

Back to the grindstone...

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! We took the family over to Tortola and spent the night at Myett's in Cane Garden Bay. It is a perfect honeymoon spot! I love how close we are to the BVI. It was just a 30 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas. My girls had the best time - they LOVE staying in hotels. Here is a picture of them walking to the ferry in Soper's Hole...don't they look like little flower girls?? I'm waiting until they are bit older and will start including them in packages (just kidding).

Herve Restaurant

I had the pleasure of working with Herve Restaurant earlier this month on a wedding. It was a small group, less than 20, and Herve has the perfect wine room for smaller groups. I went up to the venue earlier to set up the centerpieces and grabbed a few pictures with my camera. I love the view from there.

I also took a picture of their main dining room that overlooks the harbor. You can rent the entire space for a wedding, or just the wine room. They also have an outdoor patio that can be rented seperately. But if you rent the entire place, the outdoor patio is perfect for cocktail hour before having everyone up to the main restaurant for dinner and dancing.



Paulette, the owner there, also informed me that they are happy to open up for lunch for cruiseship weddings - making it an ideal location for cruise brides! They can also do the patio for appetizers and drinks only. I really love the location and they do such a great job here (definitely Google them online - they've got great reviews!).

And I'm very happy to announce that I am taking the weekend OFF! We have a very busy spring ahead of us and my husband and I realized that neither of us have anything on our calender this weekend. We're taking a ferry to Tortola tomorrow with our babies and spending two days on the beach, no cell phones, no laptops (my husband has threatened to smuggle his laptop over, I'm hoping to hide it before we leave!). So yes, I'll be burning the midnight oil tonight trying to get all the emails in my inbox cleared out before we leave! Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

Canvas Prints! Go big, or go home...

Or go small and do a grouping of four, that would be cool too!

I think there has been a trend in recent years for people to order framed canvas prints of their professional photography, as opposed to traditional framing. Pretty much every professional photographer out there can or will offer this product and it is one that I encourage everyone to consider. While canvas prints are not cheap, they are so unique and a different way to display your memories.

Last fall, my family had the pleasure of being photographed by Elisha Orin. Elisha gave me the CD of our images which gave me the freedom to order my own prints. But I wanted to order some canvas and I knew the best way to do this was with the photographer and going through their lab. Online canvas print shops are popping up everywhere online, cashing in on the canvas craze, but there are a few products that I believe should be ordered directly from the pro that took the image and a third party online (I'll discuss the other products in another post). A few months ago I received a coupon in the mail for one of the online canvas shops and couldn't pass up a good deal. I ordered a canvas print of a photo I had taken of my daughters. The 4x6 print looked very nice to me...and when I got the 16x20 canvas in the mail, I realized the baby had some serious gunk in her eye. A professional photographer is going to look over the image and do any touch ups that may be needed before going to print. As one local photographer told me..."a leaf in the sand in a 4x6 image may just look like a leaf in the sand, but when blown up to a large image - it may look like a large dog just visited the area right before the photo was taken, if you know what I mean...". It's true - a small glob of mascara on your eyelash in a small photo may not be noticeable but in a large print, may look like a horsefly!

Now that you've suffered through my lecture to order from your photographer, I'll reward you with the images now proudly displayed in my home!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We did a wonderful little ceremony this morning on Lindquist Beach for a couple who are eloping - they haven't told a soul back home! I have this awesome photo of them kissing with the seagrapes in front of them, but I'm afraid to post it in case a loved one were to see if before they get home! So instead, you get a little picture of my daughter Marley in her special St. Patrick's Day t-shirt that she wore to preschool.

I'm falling a little behind in my 17 posts in March promise! Keep tuned, I hope to post every day this week!

Found Art

I really have no idea why, but I love creative ring shots. It's not like you are ever going to blow these up and have them framed in your home! But I think they are just fun. I'm so over the two hands placed over the bouquet stuff. I love when photographers mix it up and do something special with the rings. You have to get even more creative when it's just the two of them, no guests, no reception, just the ceremony on the beach. Check out what some local photographers have been able to do:


Ok...so the bouquet was used, but still better than the hands folded over it...


A coconut found in the sand...



Seaweed, kelp and coral rocks...



I think this looks like a pirate!



Actual coral found on the beach! The bride and groom were cruising on the ship and it would have been illegal for them to take this back with them so they gave it to me. I took it home, cleaned it up and proudly have it displayed in my foyer. So pretty! About the size of a small honeydew melon. I've never been so lucky to find such a cool object on the beach!



And a flower from the bride's hair...I love how the blue of the ocean is in the background.

What an awesome renewal!

We get a lot of requests for vow renewals. What a better surprise for your spouse when you are on vacation? This renewal that we helped out with last week was so special. This couple met about 15 years ago on Magen's Bay! They were both working as crew members on a Carnival ship and started chatting on their day off while sunbathing on the beach. 15 years later, they took another Carnival cruise to celebrate their anniversary with their two little ones. How awesome is that?! Renewing your vows in the very spot that you first met? With your children playing in the sand at your feet?

My First Press Release!

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Island Bliss Weddings has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for excellence in wedding coordination!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Island Bliss Weddings is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Island Bliss Weddings is among the very best wedding coordination team within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

All fixed, I hope...

Not my email. I'm still having some problems with that. I found out that my IP provider used to be involved in the porn industry and therefore, a LOT of other IP servers completely blocked it. So I have had a few brides that were not getting emails from me. Still working on getting that fixed, but it does seem to be improving. So what is fixed, you ask? My website. I didn't even know it was broken! Actually, I changed the top of our website so have one long picture at the top of each page. But unfortunately, what I took to look artistic was looking horribly distorted to others. My husband pointed it out first but of course, I dismissed his opinion. Then my mother-in-law pointed it out, followed by a few other vendors on the island...so I took the hint and realized my artistic interpretations were not being appreciated and fixed it. Hopefully things look a little better now. =)

I wanted to share this image from a wedding we did last month at Sand Dollar:



One of the things that I think can really make a wedding FABULOUS instead of "just great" is the fine details. While I LOVE fine details, it's not really exactly what I do here. What I mean is, I don't come up with them - you do - and then I make them happen. I'm great at offering ideas, but at the same time, a lot of these fine details are your own hard work with DIY projects. For example, the above wedding...the bride brought with her the menu cards, the place cards, she shipped the sand dollars to me in advance, and had the linens specially made and brought them with her. When it comes to stationary products, the Virgin Islands is not going to be your best bet for a source. It's best to bring that with you - ideally, matching your invitations to pull everything together. This reception was held a Villa Sand Dollar - so the sand dollar at each place setting was just so perfect. They were beautiful sand dollars, pristine white and delicate and a perfect balance to the table. We do have access to all different kinds of table linens for your reception, but being a small island, the choices are definitely limited. The gorgeous linen this bride picked out would not have been something we could have gotten for her. She worked hard on her inspiration and it was my job to help her bring it all together - working with the florist to bring her floral inspiration to life, placing out the menus & name cards in the right spot, putting the sand dollar on as the finishing touch...it really was a gorgeous wedding and a perfect example of what you can do:




A few other special touches: The bar menu



Flip flops for guests to enjoy on the beach:



Probably one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile - the bride's brother made these wooden blocks to hold the guests place cards! We always have a problem with these cards and any wind that may occur - but these were perfect in keeping the place cards in place. Gotta be nice having a brother that's handy with woodwork!



And lastly, you've probably seen candy stations done before at weddings but bright, bold colors would not have gone well with this particular wedding. Our bride chose instead nice neutral tones for a little snack station after the ceremony, she even brought the wooden spoons with her to keep with the natural theme of the evening. It was really just lovely!




Something else I should probably work on - trying to fix blogger so that my pictures and captions line up! Ah well...baby steps, baby steps...

Cupcake Stands!

You wouldn't believe the amount of requests I am getting for cupcakes instead of wedding cakes. I'm kind of pushing the idea a little myself, as they are SO much easier to serve on the beach. Cupcake towers are becoming more and more popular and attractive as well. We just ordered an acrylic one to use for weddings, but as I was snooping around Etsy today, I came across a seller that is making customized cupcake stands. Much more colorful and festive than our new acrylic one! I'd love to buy one of these but I think I would have to order like 30 of them to coordinate with all the different color schemes we work with. The one pictured above is from STUDIOofWHIMSY

And yes, I know. I've been seriously MIA from this blog. I think I had what? One? Two? posts for February. Pathetic. My excuses? An illness that hit me, my hubby and two kids (hello antibiotics)...visitors from the North (trying to escape the cold), a trip to the North (wanted to show the kids what it felt like to be cold!) and my birthday (that takes a couple of days to recover from!). So my deepest apologies. I've been a blog slacker. Really hope to make it up to everyone in March. In honor of St. Patrick's Day (on the 17th) I'm going to set the very unrealistic goal of blogging at least 17 times in the month of March! Let's see if I can do it...I know I have 17 posts worthy to blog! Now to find the time... =)