Office Closed from 1/25 to 2/1

Just a heads up that our office will be closed from 1/25 to 2/1 - we will not be answering the phone or returning calls during this time but we will be responding to emails (although there may be a day or two delay in my response). In the meantime, enjoy these amazing images from Sarah and Daniels wedding at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in St. Thomas - taken by Elisha Orin:

And reception at Grande Cru in Yacht Haven Grande:

Grande Cru

And some post wedding photos at Brewer's Bay:

Thanks Elisha for the beautiful photos!

Tall Ship ahoy!

Coming to the Virgin Islands a little later this spring is a gorgeously restored tall ship for your wedding & reception! I'll have more details come Feb but wow, it's it pretty?!

A ruffly cake...

I have a bride getting married this March and she has requested this cake. I can't wait to see it in person, it is going to be gorgeous!! How pretty is the coral ombre??

Thanks again Megan!

Megan sent me some additional photos of her wedding set up - this is truly a DIY bride and I love how everything came together. I thought the jute balls were used on the dinner tables but they were actually hanging off the chairs at the ceremony:

Megan used a lot of succulents - even adding one to each napkin on the table.

I love the jewel tones. The plum, gold, emerald...

Megan was soooo nervous about having everything come together, she was worried of the tables being too sparse. But what an amazing job she did! Congrats Megan! It was a pleasure working with you!

Thank YOU!

Without the support of my beautiful brides, I wouldn't have this:

Thank you so much for the love. =)

And whats a blog post without photos?! Thank you Megan Biggs Photography for the following photos of Brittany and Darryl's wedding at Lime Tree Beach:

My favorite photo!

DIY decorative jute balls

I had a bride recently that booked me for consultation only (did you know that was possible? If you don't need an onsite wedding planner for the ceremony & reception, we offer a discounted coordination fee!). This girl amazed me with all her DIY projects. She even left some items behind for me and I absolutely love these jute balls she made and am shocked that she made them! I asked my husband "aren't these amazing?!" and he says, "that's actually pretty easy to do". Well whatever! I know I couldn't do them and make them look this good!

I used two of them the other day to add a little "ump" to our aisle. They looked awesome with the palms and white shells:

My bride shared the link where she found the DIY instructions and you can find it here.

Island Freeze - Frozen Drink Machines!

During my first year of business I was helping a bride plan her wedding at a villa in St. John. She had asked about renting a frozen drink machine but we had no luck finding such a rental place. She and her fiance came down for a pre-wedding visit and as luck would have it, sat next to the frozen drink machine rep on the island (the guy that goes around servicing the machines and selling the mixes). They were able to sweet talk him into a drink machine for their wedding week in St. John. I made the mistake of posting pictures of it somewhere and then brides were coming out of the woodwork looking to rent one for their wedding as well. Unfortunately, the drink machine guy wasn't interested in making this a regular service and we just didn't  have much luck providing this service.

Yesterday as I was leaving a wedding, a guy came up to me, put his business card in my hand and hurried away (I appreciated him not lingering around since I was with the bride & groom). When I took a look at the card, I almost jumped a little in air with excitement! Finally, someone is providing frozen drink machines for private events!! Woot woot!!!

Check them out at Island Freeze! You can email them at islandfreezedrink@yahoo.com

Courthouse Holiday Schedule 2013

These are the dates in 2013 where the courthouse will either be closed, have limited hours or will charge an extra $150 fee to pick up the marriage license paperwork:

January 1st, 2013          New Year's Day          CLOSED

January 21st, 2013        MLK Day                    $150 fee - hours from 9:30 to 11:30am

February 18th, 2013      President's Day           $150 fee - same as above

March 28th, 2013         Holy Thursday             $150 fee - same as above

March 29th, 2013          Good Friday               CLOSED

March 31st, 2013          Transfer Day               $150 fee - same as above

April 1st, 2013              Easter Monday            $150 fee - same as above

April 24th, 2013            Fair Day                      No fee - hours are 8am to 12 noon

April 25th, 2013             Jouvet                         No fee - hours are 8am to 12 noon

April 26th, 2013             Children's Parade        CLOSED

April 27th, 2013             Adult Parade               CLOSED

May 27th, 2013               Memorial Day            CLOSED

July 3rd, 2013                VI Emancipation Day   CLOSED

July 4th, 2013                 Independence Day       CLOSED

September 1st, 2013        Labor Day                  CLOSED

September 2nd, 2013       Labor Day II               CLOSED

October 14th, 2013          Columbus Day            $150 fee - hours from 9:30 to 11:30

November 1st, 2013         D. Hamilton Jackson Day    $150 fee - hours from 9:30 to 11:30

November 11th, 2013       Veterans Day              CLOSED

November 28th & 29th, 2013    Thanksgiving Day      CLOSED

December 24th, 2013        Christmas Eve            No fee - hours from 8am to 12 noon

December 25th, 2013        Christmas Day            CLOSED

December 26th, 2013         Boxing Day                CLOSED

December 31st, 2013          New Year's Eve         No fee - hours from 8am to 12 noon

Congrats Joanna & Gene!

Joanna and Gene had some touch and go moments with their wedding. First thing to go wrong was the airline sending their luggage to Bogota! The bag had tons of essential wedding day items like the grooms clothing, brides shoes, etc.

They started the day with a traditional tea ceremony at the villa. The weather was awful! The photographer described it as "snowing" - it was a very misty and wet morning and if you didn't know any better, it looked like winter in the Midwest! Both the officiate and the photographer wanted to move the ceremony to the villa instead of Hawksnest Beach as originally planned. But we had a lot of guests spread out throughout the island and little ways of getting a hold of them to tell them of the location change. I was pretty confident that the sun would come out so we proceeded as planned.

And the bag was delivered the night before, and the sun did come out! Island Bliss brides have the best karma...

A funny side story - Joanna wasn't the only one with touch & go moments on her wedding day. We brought our truck to set up the ceremony since we had chairs and a large, heavy bamboo aisle. We had to drive through a lot of rain to get to the ceremony site and once we turned the truck off, it wouldn't start again! By time the ceremony was over though, it had dried out and started up for us again. Phew! A Sunday morning on St. John with a broken down vehicle was not going to be a fun day! Joanna & Gene...I wish you the best of luck on your marriage - you jumped through enough obstacles on your wedding day! =)

Congrats to Rosalyn & Bret!

These photos are so completely out of order! But oh so pretty anyway. Rosalyn & Bret were married on Lime Tree Beach, St. Thomas. Megan Biggs Photography shared their photos with me quite awhile ago but I'm just now getting around to posting them (post-holiday laziness on my part!).