Gibney Beach Weddings

My husband did a wedding last week on Gibney Beach, St. John and immediately came home and said, "you have to do a blog post on Gibney, we need to do more weddings there, it is GORGEOUS". The photogarpher, Blue Glass Photography, was kind enough to send me some photos:

We don't really do too many weddings here because the site fee is pretty high at $500. But they have a wonderful beach for catering as well and it's only $500 more for the reception site fee (a total of $1000). A great feature of the beach is the villas - you can rent villas right on the beach for you & guests to stay in and enjoy. Check out Gibney Beach Villas by click on the link.

$1 Wedding Favors!

I had a completely different blog post in mind today but when I got an email alert from Old Navy about their in-store $1 special for flip flops this weekend, I knew I needed to share:

If you'd like a flip flop basket for your guests, head down to Old Navy tomorrow - but bring your bridal party, your mom, your soon to be mother in law, your coworkers....because it's a limit of 5 per customer! =)

Combining everything I love...an Etsy Beach Wedding!

I am a fan of MODWedding on Facebook which means I get daily updates in my news feed containing some pretty cool ideas for weddings. It's not "destination wedding" oriented though so while some of the ideas are very cool, they don't really translate well for our weddings here. That changed yesterday though when they updated their Facebook page with a link to their blog article:

http://blog.modwedding.com/love-and-surf-a-beach-wedding

Now...looking through the photos without reading the text, I was wondering, "is this a fake wedding? I don't see any guests?" and upon reading more, it was indeed a fake weddings, just set up to show some really cool ideas for beach weddings. The whole thing was absolutely gorgeous though. I LOVE the surfboards used as an altar area...the vintage feel of the table settings, so very lush and full. But my favorite thing of all? The bride (kind of what I imagine Jennifer Anniston to look like at her next wedding). Loved her hair, her dress and OMG...her necklace!!! I was hooked! I don't think I can pull off a chunky necklace like this, but I'd sure like to try, or at the very least, have it sit beautifully in my jewelry box. I thought, I bet I could find something similar on Etsy...and wouldn't you know, they credited the necklace's creator at the end of the article and lo & behold, she sells on Etsy!



Check out ideafarmdesigns for some crazy cool jewelry. And definitely flip through all the photos in the above blog post - sooooo pretty!

Boat Trip! Actually....boat wedding!

I don't want to say "often overlooked" twice in one week on the blog, but I do have to say, when it is just the two of you escaping to the islands to be married, a boat trip wedding is really pretty awesome and not considered nearly enough. It combines your wedding day with one of the best things you can do on vacation in the Virgin Islands - boating! The cost is really not too bad - you can combine the boat trip with a wedding package (or a customized package) and just pay for the cost of the boat, captain (who is also your officiate!) and gas - which is probably between $450 and $500 total. You have the boat as early as 7am and we can come back anytime before 6:30pm. You will not find a better boat rental value on the island!

This lovely couple wanted to sleep in a bit, so they were not actually pick up from their hotel until 9:00. We motored over to a private little beach on St. John (although there are other private beach options on neighboring islands, they preferred St. John).

Preparing to hit the beach...



The beach could not be more deserted - not a soul in site...



Check out the view with the British Virgin Islands in the background...



After enjoying their private little beach for awhile, we headed over to Tortola for some drinks at Pusser's Rum...



We also stopped off at Sandy Spit, which is really nothing more than a large sand bar that boats can pull up to and you can swim in...how is this for the most perfect spot in the world to do yoga??



Boat weddings like the one above can accommodate up to 7 guests, including the captain. If you hire a photographer for the day, they take up space too, so 6 guests can be included. And if you'd like to have your wedding planner join you (yes please!) then that's 5 guests - but it's not really necessary for me to come (sigh). Of course, bigger boats can be arranged as well. It's such a fun and memorable way to spend your wedding not, just a bit out of the ordinary!

Pyros of the Caribbean!

We've used this group before and they always amaze me! I think its one of the best fire shows in the Caribbean. Pyros performed for us last week at our Rhumblines reception in St. John - if you're friends with Island Bliss Weddings on Facebook, you may have seen my iPhone pictures of the performance. EJ of Paradise Pictures sent these over though - much better than iPhone pics!

I (usually) know what I'm talking about....

I never try to hide the fact that I've only lived on island since Fall of 2004 and have really only been a "real wedding planner" since Spring of 2005. Seeing as I have only lived on island for less than 6 years, I know a lot about the islands but I definitely never pretend to know everything. But when people ask me a question that I'm confident I know, I usually answer with, well...confidence. This confidence made me look like a real winner a few months ago!

I had a couple in town for their big wedding day and I met with them a few days prior to the wedding to check out the beach & reception location. The wedding was on St. John and they picked me up from the ferry in their rental car. As we were driving to the beach, they were asking me about the tides. They had been to the beach the day before and mentioned that the tide was very high and did I know if the tide would be lower at the time they were to be married? As I understood it, because of how close we are to the equator, we really don't have high and low tide here. Because of this, there isn't a very measurable change in the depth of the beach at anytime during the day. I told them that the water level they saw the day before would probably be the same at anytime tomorrow.

Then we got to the beach. And there was NO beach. The water was so high, there was absolutely NO WHERE we could have had the ceremony. The Virgin Islands may be famous for their beaches, but we are not like Florida - where there is miles and miles of coastline beaches that are a quarter mile in depth (from the water to the road/non-beach area).

When I got home, I gave my husband a scolding for making me look like an idiot - "I thought there were no tides here?! What is going on with that beach??" - it's not tides he told me, but the storm surge. We had had a lot of crazy weather that week and it caused a storm surge with the water levels, making them higher up on the beach. The waves, which usually are nice and gentle, were quite large that week. Here is an example:

Plenty of space on Hawksnest Beach:



Until a wave comes in...where'd the beach go???



We had to set up the ceremony at the far end of this beach in a space higher up on the sand, to avoid people's feet from getting wet. The waves would come in pretty high though and at one point before the ceremony began, came in high enough to reach the decorated conch shells. Two conch shells were almost reclaimed by the sea! As any of my past brides will tell you, I have a pretty calm & even demeanor. I really had to bite my lip not to be the crazy wedding planner running out to the ocean to grab back her conch shells!! I sadly watched them go...until two little boys in the wedding ran in and grabbed them for me! I was so thankful for those little boys at that moment. They felt like heroes (and they were!) and I didn't have to embarrass myself in front of my clients guests!

This storm surge seems to be more of a problem in the winter months but can really happen any time of year. Lindquist Beach has become a very popular spot on St. Thomas for weddings...but to be honest, I never recommend it for larger groups. The beach has a prominent slop, making it hard to set up an arch & chairs and the water is very often higher up on the beach in this location. These pictures show how perfect it is for a smaller group.






But yet we were lucky enough a few weeks ago to have 40 chairs and an arch on Lindquist Beach - something that is not easily done!