Friday, December 24, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mod Ornaments Holiday Card
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I'm in love with my holiday cards this year! Elisha Orin took these for me back in October. I just love her work and am so happy to capture these moments of my girls.

I'll be leaving island on December 27th for a trip up to the mainland - my oldest has been asking to see snow this year and so we're taking a trip in search of the white stuff! I probably won't get to blog too much while I am gone so I wanted to wish all past, present and future clients a very Happy Holiday season and a Happy New Year too! See you in 2011!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

52 years and such an honor...

Monday afternoon, on my way to set up for a wedding, I got a phone call from Valerie, telling me she was on the Eurodam, headed for St. Thomas, and wanted to know if she could get married...tomorrow! Turns out, she was really looking for a vow renewal. She had 12 others joining them and just needed something simple - some flowers, an arch and a little coordination.

We often do vow renewals - sometimes for couples that legally married just a week or two before coming to the islands. Either they did the legal paperwork back home and wanted the ceremony here or they had the big wedding back home to make family & friends happy....but had really wanted an island ceremony for themselves, so they do the ceremony on the honeymoon just for fun. We've helped people renew their vows for their first anniversary, 8th, 10th, 25th - 32nd....you name it. I didn't ask Valerie on the phone how many years it had been, so I was shocked when she told me it was 52! Not only because 52 is such a significant number, but because look how YOUNG they looked!



And so, so in love...



I have never felt so honored to be a part of something. It was magical. They had run off as teenagers, behind her parents unapproving backs, and married...just the two of them.

On this day however, they were surrounded by children & grandchildren.




It was so touching, loving and beautiful. Congratulations Valerie & Mike.




(PS And thank you Sunny Liston of Sunny Liston tours for referring them to me! Thanks for adding to the majic of the day!)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Holidays!


I took my girls to visit Santa on Sunday. The little one is still a bit afraid of the big guy and did not want to sit on his lap. Normally, I am a big fan of the Santa photos with terrified children - but my oldest was doing so well, was so excited to sit on Santa's lap...I didn't want to ruin it for her. As much as I appreciate the crying tots on the big mans lap photos, I appreciate a photo of me and my girls, all smiling, all looking at the camera, a lot more. Thank you Ashley of Ashley Photography for creating such a wonderful keepsake!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Caribbean Tourism Organization

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take part in a mini-trade show that the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism was sponsoring for the Caribbean Tourism Organization. I actually took a part of it with the St. Thomas & St. John Wedding Association. It was really a fun way to meet travel agents in the Caribbean market. I, along with Eric Johnson of Paradise Pictures and Ashley Armitage of Ashley Photography, represented our group (which includes Passion Fruit Chefs, VI Desserts, Chris Robbert music, Sugar & Spice Artistry, East End Flower Shop, DJ Snow and HiDef Video - check out the website at www.viweddingassociation.org!).

Our little booth:



We didn't have any give-aways at our booth, but Biras Creek of Virgin Gorda had killer canvas tote bags they were giving away! I chatted up the rep from their resort in hopes she would hand me one, but no such luck. I love give-aways! Next year, I'll have to pretend I'm a travel agent instead. =)

The highlight of the show for me was the Caribbean Ritual Dancers. They put on an AMAZING show and even had a traditional moko jumbie perform and entertain the crowd. We've hired them before to entertain at weddings and they are always a huge hit.





Thank you to the Wyndham Sugar Bay for hosting the event and to the tourism department for sponsoring it!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Our First Christmas

I'm taking my little girls up to Indiana this year, shortly after Christmas and through New Years...my oldest has been talking a lot about snow this year and while I had planned to wait until they were both older to visit the white stuff, I decided we could use a vacation from their school vacation (three weeks at home - ACK!). I like to have a special ornament for them each year and decided to buy a snowflake ornament while we're in Indiana, preferably with 2010 on it and 75% off after the holidays. =) I couldn't help myself today though and sneaked over to Etsy.com to see what they had. I didn't find a snowflake ornament for the girls, but I did find these incredibly cute First Christmas together ornaments from aphroditecanvas...



from MyPrimitiveBoutique...




and thebackporchshoppe...

Friday, December 10, 2010

Peterborg Wedding


I hope to share some more photos of this wedding with you - the day started off rainy but was so beautiful by time the ceremony began! I just loved the whispy clouds!




The ceremony was held at Villa Jamie, which made it easy for the photographer to zip the couple down to the famous Peterborg Point for some additional photos. Beautiful!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Sometimes you need a little elbow grease...


I was going through some of the pictures of this wedding last week at Lindquist Beach and just cracked up when I saw the ring photos. A lot of our brides & grooms tend to overindulge a little on the ships (this couple was from the Freedom of the Seas) and well...all that salt & sugar can tend the fingers to swell up a little, making something like a simple wedding band a bit tough to slide on!