Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!!

It's no lie, I like a theme. They are so not necessary but oh so fun. Took some time today and looked up "New Year's Wedding" on Pinterest...some of my favorites:







Saturday, December 29, 2012

Congrats Nicole & Luis!

Nicole is a local girl - her parents own a business here on island. But she didn't find her husband locally - Nicole & Luis met while she was studying abroad in Spain! I love that - I think how incredibly awesome it would be to have family in Europe that I would be "forced" to visit (ha! You don't have to twist my arm to head to Europe!). And maybe the opportunity to live there for awhile? I'll take that too.

Kelly O from KO Photo did their photography and sent me these images. Thank you Kelly!




Island Bliss Weddings



Island Bliss Weddings


Island Bliss Weddings

Friday, December 28, 2012

Congrats Leah & Richard!

Thank you Blue Glass Photography or sending me these beautiful images! Leah & Richard were married on Lindquist Beach, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands!



bamboo wedding arbor

island bliss weddings

Lindquist Beach weddings

So glad Blue Glass sent me a photo of their sea turtle cake topper! I loved this! Look at the cute little pink octopus!

island bliss weddings

Emerging from my holiday cocoon...

The last few days have been so quiet and low key. We had a wedding yesterday, very simple, just the two of them...but how hard it was to leave the house! I've felt like living in my pajamas 24/7. It was a busy (BUSY) November and December and the last week of December has been such a nice little break.

I meant to post these pictures on Christmas Day but never found the time (oh ok...more so the motivation!) to get online and write up the post. Just like my Halloween post, it has nothing to do with destination weddings, but I love themes and it's a nice break away from the sand & sea. I had fun on Etsy looking for "Christmas" or "Holiday" weddings. But with the blizzard hitting some parts of the US, I figured a snowflake theme was more appropriate. Some of my favorite finds:

A snowflake bouquet:


The popular "Here Comes the Bride" sign with snowflakes:


Snowflake necklaces for your bridal party:


Some decor for the reception that can later be used around your home for the holidays:


And of course, a necessity for any tree:





Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

On this Christmas Eve eve...

I want to share with you a little gift from me to you...a recipe for my favorite Cruzan Christmas Drink! I invented this myself (or at least if there was a drink like it before, I was unaware of it).



Pour yourself about 8 ounces of milk (I use fat free but any kind would work well) and add a shot (about 2 ounces) of Cruzan Rum Cream. Not heard of Cruzan Rum Cream? It is heaven! If you love Bailey's, I think rum cream is about 100% better. Then add a splash of peppermint schnapps - don't overdo this - too much can kill the drink). I call this "Christmas in a Cup" and drink it every holiday season.

Like the bouquet in the background?! That's for our wedding tonight on Trunk Bay. Gorgeous, right?!


Saturday, December 22, 2012

A Villa Botanica Wedding

I had the pleasure of coordinating a wedding this past Wednesday at Villa Botanica, one of my favorite ceremony & reception spots on St. Thomas. I wanted to share a few elements of the wedding with you here...

Villa Botanica

I absolutely loved these seahorse place card holders.




The florist used reindeer moss to create a table scape on the sweetheart table where we could lay the maids bouquets. Nice and inexpensive set up for the head table!


And a yummy cupcake tower from Island Sweet Stuff:

Island Bliss Weddings

Maho Bay Wedding

I love this photo I snapped of the bride & groom exiting the aisle after their wedding on Maho Bay. The bride has a big grin on her face and the officiate has turned around looking at a boat that just blew a conch shell as soon as the bride & groom were pronounced husband and wife!

St. John beach wedding

I really had to share more photos of her bouquet though. This is honestly one of my favorite bouquets of the year.




Just love everything about it. Soft, romantic... We also had a sand ceremony. As you know from my previous posts, St. John is becoming more and more strict on what we can and can't do on the beaches in terms of weddings. They don't really want us to set up tables on the beach for sand ceremonies or cakes and glass is a definite NO NO. With a little creativity, we can still make the sand ceremony a beautiful moment. Here we use shells instead of glass and we had the parents hold the shell for the bride & groom to pour sand in to - they act as the "foundation" of their lives together.


St. John Weddings




The bride loved the shells so much, she purchased them from us to take them home and put on her fireplace mantel! 

Chevron Wedding and fun details...

My last wedding at Sand Dollar Estate was so beautiful. I love chevron print and the bride used it beautifully. She started the day wearing this from Etsy:


Also from Etsy were these gorgeous coral colored chevron table runners. The bride had told me about the blue poms she planned to use on each table setting and I wasn't really sure how that was going to look but wow, I loved it! The coral and blue combos are so pretty.



Island Bliss Weddings
Love!

She had a lot of great personal touches like the chalkboard name place cards, coordinating table numbers in cute little wooden blocks:






And her favors were one of my favorites this year. She purchased these bags from Isola Bella, a local artist:


And then filled them with goodies that represented both her and the groom:

welcome bags

Including a Maryland style crab mallet! Her reception wasn't the only beautiful thing about this wedding. Unfortunately the water at the beach at Sand Dollar was a little too high for the ceremony so we moved it to the pool deck, but look how beautiful the setup was!

weddings on an island

Sand Dollar weddings St. Thomas





And because I know you enjoying peaking into other weddings, check out some more pictures from this wedding! The beautiful brides bouquet:


Great way to use your bouquets after the ceremony for decor - rented blue mason jars with starfish decor

Don't expect me to be able to do this for your wedding! The brides friend was able to chalk up this board and made it look awesome! I don't have this talent unfortunately....

Island Bliss Weddings
We rent this 24x24 chalkboard sign to our brides - perfect for ceremony or reception!

This was a very fun group with lots of dancing. It was a fun wedding to be a part of and of course, I loved the end of the night when the bride surprised me with this necklace! She had seen in on my Pinterest page!


Really, my favorite part of wedding planning is seeing how brides pull all their creative efforts together. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like the poms with the chevron runners but when I saw it all together, it looked amazing. Gorgeous wedding thanks to the efforts of my creative bride!!