Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Pretty Klip Point at Sapphire Beach

I really love this location for a wedding. It can be difficult to talk photos in bright sunlight but I'm so impressed with Elisha Orin's skills here. She did a wonderful job in challenging light!

beach weddings

St. Thomas wedding packages

US Virgin Islands Weddings

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Congrats Chantal & Brian!

Chantal & Brian enjoyed their destination wedding May 1st on Lindquist Beach, St. Thomas! The photos below were taken by Brian's best man.








It was a beautiful sunset wedding! Although Lindquist Beach faces east (therefore away from the sunset), it's still one of my favorite sunset beaches. The soft lighting is perfect for photos. I'll be sure to share the professional pictures as soon as I have them!

Monday, June 17, 2013

St. John USVI Weddings: A must for you and your guests!

Are you planning a destination wedding on St. John? Then this is a MUST for your trip! If it's just the two of you eloping, definitely make plans to stop by Mongoose Junction in Cruz Bay to check out The Tap Room. If you're bringing friends and family down to celebration with you? Consider The Tap Room as a fun spot for a welcome party or event.

The Tap Room is an adorable little tree house type pub that offers locally brewed island beers, including a delicious Tropical Mango - but to be honest, the Liquid Sunshine Ale is my choice (how can you beat the name?!). They have great food for a welcome party or day after get together and fun little souvenirs that you can give to guests or add to their welcome bags (I picked pink for myself!). Their online store has some really great finds...does your groom have a his own man cave with a tap? An awesome wedding gift would be their custom beer taps!

The Tap Room, St. John

Definitely check out their website and to learn more about their awesome story, check this out (believe me, it's worth watching if you've ever dreamt about moving to the islands!).



If you're interested in having an event at The Tap Room, let me know and I'll be happy to set it up for you!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Congrats Kim & Tyler!

Kim and Tyler were married on May 8th on St. Thomas. They stayed at the Sugar Bay Resort and had their ceremony on Lindquist Beach. Kim hired Simple Island Photos for her photography and had an hour of photos at the hotel before going to the courthouse and then on to the ceremony, where the photographer met them for the 2nd hour.

The CD you receive from Simple Island Photos allows you to make your own edits (it includes light editing) so that you can manipulate the photos as you like. Kim did just that! I love what she did to them!


I could just see this one blown up on a panoramic canvas print!

Sugar Bay Resort

Photo taken at Sugar Bay Resort.

Sugar Bay Resort

Island Bliss Wedding

and at Lindquist Beach:

St. Thomas weddings


 I love the look of this photo!



Congrats you two! You looked gorgeous!!

Happy Father's Day

In honor of Father's Day, here are ways to Honor Dad on your Wedding Day! Thank you SimplyBridal!


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Congrats to Jackie & Dan!

We did a lot of Villa Botanica weddings this spring. It's really an awesome location - some brides shy away from it because there isn't a view of the water from the reception area and I completely understand that when you're having an destination wedding in the islands, a view is usually at the top of the list. But there are a few things I tell brides that are a little hesitant...

1) if you're coming in from a ship, your guests are seeing nothing but ocean views all week! The lush tropical gardens are a perfect little escape from the constant sun & sea.
2) if you're having an evening reception, the sun goes down early and there's not much of an ocean view once it's dark anyway. Brides love the views from restaurants such as Havana Blue, but honestly, once the sun sets - it's just one big black space outside the windows!
3) bring in the sun, sand & sea during the welcome event...have a fun beach BBQ and go to town with the sand in between your toes the night before the wedding - or do a fun excursion with a sailboat and cocktails or snorkeling (always snorkel BEFORE cocktails!)

Now why I decided to add all this info into my congratulations post for Jackie & Ron, I have no idea! Jackie loved the location from the start. It was a perfect garden setting and such a great spot for her group.

Jackie hired Elisha Orin for photos and had Elisha meet them at the Carnival Glory ship.


And proceeded to take some awesome downtown Charlotte Amalie photos - I love the tropical urban feel of our islands downtown streets!

This shot was taken at the historical 99 Steps. How sweet is this little boy! I wanted to steal his hat!





That shot above is just awesome - check out her vibrant blue shoes. Love the contrast here.

And this it was off to the ceremony! Jackie liked the idea of getting married next to the fountain (and that little boys hat I love? He liked trying to catch the water in it!).


Fun shots like this are what really create memories - awesome job Elisha!


Congrats again Jackie & Ron - you had a great group of friends and family with you and amazing photos to cherish & remember it all!



And thank you Jackie for my wonderful gift bag! Jackie was just the sweetest - she brought goodies from Canada for us, including these hand painted (by her mother-in-law!) wine glasses which I adore!


Can't wait to see you again when you return to the islands!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Congrats Stephanie & Brian!

I'm hoping to do a lot more blog posts in June! I feel bad that I haven't been highlighting some of my awesome couples...like Stephanie and Brian below.

island weddings

Thank you to Blue Glass Photography for this image! I took some photos of my own of her reception at Villa Botanica that I promise to post soon.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

May Re-Cap!

May was such a fun month and it blows me away that it is already over and we're almost done with the first week of June! May is typically our busiest month - it's a month we reference all the time such as "I'm pretty busy this week...I'm not MAY BUSY...but I'm busy". So you can be sure I have a TON of photos to share for our May re-cap. I just upload them all from a special folder so they kind of get mixed up and as I'm sure some of my brides already know, I have a stack of emails to respond to so I'm not going to take the time to reshuffle them. Hopefully this will all make sense!

One of my favorite couples of the month - they were so young and soooo in love! They had such an interesting history together. They met when there were only 12 years old and had a long distance relationship when his family moved to Europe (where they still live). He had to make a choice to take a job in London or follow his heart back to California for the woman he loved. You can see he made a pretty great choice below!


We had some really gorgeous bouquets this month!






I can't even explain how much I loved this color combo below. His tie was AWESOME.



Our roses are always willing to sacrifice their petals for the infamous toss photo!


Some of our yummy cakes...I wish I had a better picture of the cake below, it was so pretty!




We're doing more and more snack trays at beach weddings.


And I am LOVING my new octopus platter! I've recently added seahorse tongs to our collection as well.  A photographer saw me set up the octopus and asked if the cake was going to go on top....I think my jaw hit the sand and said, No, but that's an Awesome idea!!


Last month we had a lady in red, this month is a lady in blue! Go for color ladies, there is no rule that says you have to had white!

Island Bliss Weddings

Floral is ok too! It made for some nice contrast with the St. John sandy beach photo!

St. John beaches

St. John wedding planners

Some girls sure know how to rock the white though! Love this couple and their beach (Lindquist - my fave!).


Some centerpieces from our events this month.

You can't really tell in the photo below but the blue and white in this centerpieces really complimented the blue fabric at Villa Botanica - it really pulled it all together very nicely.


These lanterns work so well either as a centerpiece or as aisle decor.



You see what I mean now about these photos being horribly out of order, huh? Here's our handsome groom stuck between centerpiece photos and a bucket of shoes!


But these flip flops are a lot of fun for receptions. A lot of ladies appreciate the flops after being in heels for a few hours!


I thought this was a pretty funny picture - kind of looks like one of the new miniature camera things where they make everything look out of scale.  (In case you're wondering, it's really just a cake topper!)

Yes, this kind of thing does happen at my weddings! It's the Harlem Shake baby!


And another random centerpiece photo. =)


I just thought this photo by Simple Island Photos was fun!


And I loved this favor idea - cute little bags with a stamped starfish and inside? Mini bottles of Cruzan Rum!


These hanging mason jars with flowers are really popular right now. I love how the jars can be reused for more flowers at the reception.


A beautiful setup at Lindquist Beach, St. Thomas:


And I have no idea what's going on here!


Or here! Just chillax'in in a palm tree! But I love the coconut tree forest at Magen's Bay - makes a great backdrop for photos.


We did a double wedding this month too!


And one under the coconut trees at Maho Bay, St. John.


The next few pictures are from an event we did at Oceana (St. Thomas). There was a threat of rain so we put the tent up...ended up with no rain, but the tent still worked out well! The ceremony was under the tent and then we had dancing there after dinner. It was a beautiful event!



This photo reminds of a little European bistro, don't you think? 

And yes, we do have those blue votives for rent!


This wedding below was at Sand Dollar and oh.my....you will flip when you see her centerpieces!












Amazing right? I was in awe...took a ton of photos! She also mailed down this gorgeous chalkboard sign...I loved it and totally bought it off of her. Do you know I do that? I often shop at my brides weddings! A lot of times it's easier for the bride to sell something then it is to ship or lug it home. This is hanging in my office right now and I have plans to put our "Scott Summer Fun List" on it with a list of fun things for the kids to do this summer. But I'll let you use it for your wedding if you like! =)


This is another Sand Dollar Estate wedding we did last month. The color combo of yellow and blue was so pretty.



And their sunset photos were great! This couple was a lot of fun to work with. They were very much phone planners - not too much via email - which is a challenge for me when we have so many events, but it all came together beautifully!



This was a small wedding at a St. Thomas villa but lots of attention to detail...


Including a custom blue aisle runner!


Ah...sunset at Trunk...nothing better!


Oh and THIS! I loved this! This bride & groom bought some New Orleans traditions with them, including the 2nd Line. I knew what the 2nd Line was, but I'm not sure I knew that's what it was called. Have you ever been to a New Orleans wedding? It's a tradition for there to be a little Mardi Gras-esque parade from the ceremony to the reception. We changed it up a little here and had it towards the end of the night. It was a lot of fun and I can't express enough how great it when you couples bring these special touches with them.



I hope you enjoyed the May re-cap! I wish I could share photos from each and every wedding but often times I don't have photos. If you were married in May, please feel free to send me some of your favorite pictures - I'd be happy to post them!