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!

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.

A local find...

A lot of brides will ask me for ideas on locally made products to give to their guests as gifts. Well, I think I just found my new favorite. Check out Isola Bella.



Gina Feddersen is a local artist, producing locally made items for the home as well as beautiful stationary. My favorite item for weddings would be the natural cotton canvas wine tote...with the seahorse print of course...



Instead of wine, I'd drop a bottle of Cruzan Rum inside!

Her stationary would be great in the welcome bags or used as thank you notes...



Don't forget to check out her blog!

Something Blue, something so cool!

It's no secret that I'm a BIG fan of etsy.com - I browse through there a few times each week. Just hopped on to the homepage today and saw this featured item and fell.in.love!



My husband would kill me if I bought another purse (yes ladies, rethink marriage because you will now have to justify purse purchases - are you ready for that???). The listing says this is a great gift for your bridesmaids and while I don't disagree, I can't help but think how perfect it is for the destination bride. The interior is blue silk (something blue??) with lovely embroidered blue coral. How cute is this?

Check out other great listings by LaVitaLola.

Something different for mom...

Brides often ask if they should get a corsage for the mothers - a pin on or wrist corsage. Both are nice ideas of course, to help honor the women that brought you into the world - without that effort, no wedding would be taking place afterall. =)

Another nice idea is to ahve a small spray of flowers for them to carry instead - nothing to pin on the their dress which may not be good for the fabric or could ruin her look and no scratchy flower attached to her wrist. Just something to carry for the ceremony and photos afterwards - it could even be put in a vase later at the reception, depending on the type of flowers used. Below you will see an example of what our florist did for a wedding a few weeks ago.



These flowers were part of the wedding I like to describe as my most "Xtreme Wedding" yet - I'll explain in my next post!

In case you were curious...

In my last post I spoke of how absolutely beautiful my bridesmaids looked in last weeks wedding - the bride just sent me a link of photos that her family had taken and I just had to share one with you. Each black dress was different, but the ribbon tied them all together. I just loved this look.

And remember, this is the same wedding with the signature sign at the beach. They stepped it up even more with a very personalized cake topper - love that!