September Re-Cap!

It's that time again - recaps!! I love doing the monthly re-cap and sharing some of my favorite photos from the past months weddings. Please keep in mind that I do not have photos from each wedding so if you were married in September and do not see a photo from your event, its just because I don't have any to share! Feel free to email me your favorites and I'd love to do a blog post on you!

The water at Lindquist Beach (above and below) has been soooooo blue lately.

It only took about 30 times to get them all jumping at the same time! :) 

Gorgeous morning light at Hawksnest Beach, St. John

 One of my favorite parts of my job is checking out all the rings! I love jewelry.

Everyone loves our palm trees. These at Lindquist Beach are tall & majestic!

This bride made her own boutonnieres and you know I love it when my brides incorporate my seahorses!

 Don't you LOVE our new sign?! I posted a photo of it on Facebook and 114 Likes!!

I like to give a little love to our florist - they always do such a great job for us! Some of the great bouquets from September.

 

And a cute little vegan cake by VI Desserts!

 

I snapped this before a gorgeous sunset wedding on Trunk Bay for a couple visiting all the way from Greece (well, both are from Greece, he lives in Atlanta and she recently moved there to be with him!)

 

But this couple?! This is my favorite couple of the month! Why? Because she is an awesome freind of mine from college! Erin just visited this past week her with fiance and will return next May to be married at Sand Dollar Estate, St. Thomas. I can't wait!!

 

Oriental Trading Co...who knew?!

I'm not new to Oriental Trading Co by any means. I've always used them for fun kids craft projects, inexpensive holiday decor and of course, birthday parties. The selection is vast and the prices are wonderful.

My oldest daughter is turning 7 at the end of this month and we're giving her a nautical theme celebration. I headed to Oriental Tradings website and typed in "Nautical" to get some ideas on decor and favors. What I found in this section for weddings was what surprised me. I went ahead and ordered some items to get an idea of their quality and if they would work for a wedding.

I ordered a set of these starfish which I thought would look great dispersed through a long table/centerpiece. They are a little pricey at $24 for the set though. They look pretty cute in my office next to our coral pieces.

 

Another centerpiece idea I saw was this $20 terrarium. I filled it with shells and a starfish - a piece of fan coral would look great in here too but I didn't have a piece small enough. The top does not have a glass piece so this would work well with a candle inside.

If you're having a cruise ship wedding, you can get A LOT of great stuff. I ordered these bags for my daughters party favors.

 

They must have been a big hit because I can't find them on their site anymore. I did find this replacement though which I think would actually work better. The tote above is very thin and being white, you can see through it with stuff inside of it. This tote is all navy so you wouldn't have that issue.

For my daughters party, I bought these to put inside but they could be fun for a wedding too.

But there's a lot of other great nautical themed gifts you could put inside such as this, this and this.

There was a whole slew of nautical themed wedding ideas. A popular idea these days are the wishing tree and I was surprised to see one for only $5! I ordered it just to see what the quality was like and I have to say, for $5 - it was a good deal!

 

Guests add their well wishes to the bride and groom on the little tag and hang it on the tree.

 

The tags are not very big though, so there probably isn't much that they could really say before running out of room. But it's a cute idea and only $5. One of the best deals I saw was this: wedding cake bunting. These are really popular lately and sell for a much MUCH higher amount of Etsy. These are only $3 on Oriental Trading! For something that will most likely get thrown away at the end of the night, $3 is a good deal.

You can see the entire Nautical Wedding Theme Collection they have here. But don't stop there...shop around and see what else you find (and if it's really cool - let me know about it!). I'm there today shopping for some back to school goodies for my girls to take on their first day and I can never resist checking out the fun stuff they have for Halloween!

(This is not a sponsored post. Oriental Trading has not asked me to write about them nor are they paying for this post. I just really like them!)

Congrats to John & Stacia!

I meant to get this blogged before my trip last month! Stacia was so nice to send me these images from her wedding on Lime Tree Beach, shot by Elisha Orin Photography!

Congrats again Stacia & John, it was such an honor to be a part of your day!

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!

Photo taken at Sugar Bay Resort.

and at Lindquist Beach:

 I love the look of this photo!

Congrats you two! You looked gorgeous!!

April Re-Cap!

It's time for our monthly recap! Here are some photos from a few of the wonderful events we planned in April. If any of my April brides would like to send me some photos of their events, please do! We'd be happy to share!

Sparklers are becoming more and more popular for the first dance or exit. Brides used to ask me to bring a mason jar to display them but but these suckers are huge! We finally found a better solution.

 

I'm a little biased here, but my favorite wedding this month was my brothers. And my daughter is probably the cutest program girl I have ever seen.

Sunset wedding at Sapphire Beach...

Trunk Bay at sunset...

April 10th was our first official "Ultimate Cruise Ship Experience" wedding! *please help me with a better name!

These two were so beautiful together.

Laura emailed me this thank you after the wedding - it's emails like this that make my heart smile:

Jon and I just want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the amazing wedding you coordinated for us a couple of weeks ago.

The ceremony still brings me to tears when I think about it and the venue couldn't have been more perfect. Stuart's ceremony was the most beautiful ceremony I've ever been to; several of my guests told me the same thing.   I also never forget the feeling I felt as we walking into the reception room with our family and friends cheering us on. It was an out of body experience for me.

I've thought about the wedding everyday since we've been back and become overwhelmed with happiness to know that we got married the way we wanted to and it couldn't have happened without you and Stuart.

Thank you so much!

I'm a very lucky person to do what I do, sharing each couples love and joy on their wedding day!

One of my favorite things about my job is seeing the special touches brides come up with, like this handmade wedding cake topper featuring the brides beloved cats!

And some special elements are unplanned - much like the wedding! This couple decided once they arrived that they'd like to get married while on vacation! Last minute elopements? No problem! This bride was telling some of the staff at Caneel Bay that she was planning to get married and didn't have a dress. One of the staff members whipped up a handmade wedding dress for her!

And even signed it for her!

I'm going to be updating the photo albums this weekend - lots of new things to share, including many of our beautiful bouquets and centerpieces.

Who says wedding dresses need to be white?

I'm kind of cheating here because this couple was married on May 1st - they don't really qualify for my April re-cap! And the photo has not been edited yet - but I loved this little getaway photo! Married on Hawksnest Beach and heading out for a morning sail!

Love this guest "book" idea.

Heading to the ceremony at Villa Botanica - this is really one of my favorite parts of the day - you can feel the anticipation from the bride...

The father/daughter moments always make me tear up! Here's dad taking his girl down the aisle...

And onward we march through May!