Thanks to all our clients...

This is has been a fairly hard week, dealing with the shooting in Newtown, grieving for those lives lost, preparing for the holidays here locally, planning weddings and keeping up with emails. I've received a few emails in the past few days that have lifted my spirits:

From Jennifer, married on 12/3:


I wanted to take a minute to thank you for everything you did to help our wedding come together. It was absolutely beautiful and we could not have been happier. I actually could not imagine having a wedding any other way now that we have eloped! And Stuart was absolutely wonderful. He made our ceremony so very personal and it meant the world to us both. 

Thank you again for everything. We look forward to the next time we can come and visit St. Thomas! Our memories are ones we will cherish forever, and we are forever grateful that you both helped our dream come true. 

From Sherri, married on 12/11:

On December 11, 2012 I married the love of my life on Brewer's Bay beach.  My husband and I are spontaneous folks who planned to tie the knot on St. Thomas in only a week or so.  I contacted Janelle and she was able to pull off the ceremony, which included a photography package, at the last minute.  It was by far the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to.  The officiant, Stuart, did a fantastic job.  We told him what we wanted as far as the "sermon" was concerned and it was perfect.  I was so happy with the way everything was handled.  It was a simple, low cost ceremony with just the two of us but you would have never known it by the way we were treated.  Island Bliss Weddings is by far a fantastic operation that I would recommend to anyone wanting to get married on St. Thomas.  They are professional and truly care about their customers.  Thank you Janelle and Stuart for making our special day very, very special!

Love these kind of emails...

From a recent bride:

Now that were back from St. Thomas and settled (back to work, ugh), I wanted to email and thank you and Stuart for everything with the planning of our ceremony. Please share this email with him too. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you both before we left for pictures. Last Saturday could not have been more perfect or amazing. It was everything we had hoped for. Our guests raved about it and some said it was the best wedding ceremony they have ever been to. Several guests also stated how great Stuart was presiding over the ceremony. It was like he knew us for years and didn't miss a beat. I've been stalking our mailbox since we've been back because I'm dying to see our wedding pictures from Blue Glass! Alain was wonderful! Thank you for all your recommendations, suggestions, and for always answering all my questions. No one would believe me when I told them how easy it was to plan everything over email and that I trusted someone miles away to handle everything. I post in several wedding/travel forums and have recommended your services to others and will continue to do so. We'll certainly contact you again in a few years when we renew our vows (hopefully I can get Jon to go back sooner, ha). Please take care and if you ever need anything in Pennsylvania, please don't hesitate to contact us.

This is a nice way to wake up!

Woke up this morning with two thank you notes in my email inbox:

From Erika:

I just wanted to send a huge thank you to you at Stuart for making our wedding so amazing! Everything turned out absolutely perfect and I couldn't have asked for anything better. It hands down, was one of those fairy tale days, where everything in the world was perfect and nothing was going to rain on our parade! Our guests were blown away. I can't even tell you how many compliments we received on how perfect the day was.

I can't wait until we can return to the island to really experience the beauty there. We will definitely be making a trip there in the near future!

Thank you again for all your hard work! The day was truly magical!

And from Perry:

We just got back into Miami and we wanted to tell you how happy we are with the process and the beautiful ceremony on the beach. Elisha was fantastic and we won't hesitate to recommend you to any of our friends. Thank you for the most memorable day and we appreciate your patience. Hopefully, we all cross paths again.

Now other than a nice cold glass of Starbucks Frapaccino (which the store was out of), my Sunday morning couldn't have been better. I love happy brides (and grooms...sorry Perry).

We have a very busy week ahead of us here at IBW but I did go ahead and write out a few blog posts that all I have to do is hit "Publish" on. Trying not to be a total slacker like I was in February and keep this blog updated! I did want to warn any current brides though, I may not be able to be on top of emails this week. I am spending two nights on St. John for weddings and while I'll have my laptop with me, I may not get around to answering emails while I'm there. Should be able to catch up next week or the following week.