Congrats to Anne & Jonathon!

Anne has such a great sense of style. I loved all the elements she put together. This gorgeous wedding was shot by Clary Pfeiffer at the Sand Dollar Estate. The adorable wedding cake was by Island Sweet Stuff. Adorable Pomeranian ring bearer? Brought from home. :)

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 Alison & Grant - all the way from the UK!

I know I've said it many times before but I love hearing from past brides. Alison sent me this note and a few of her photos from her wedding (thanks Megan Biggs!).

Apologies that this has taken some time to send but Grant and I would like to say a HUGE Thank You to you and Stuart for helping us tie the knot last November.

When communicating purely via email sometimes it can be a little bit testing but from the reviews on your website I felt assured that we had chosen the correct way to tie the knot.

I didn't expect to be sea sick on my 1st cruise especially as people told me I wouldn't feel the ship move but on the day of the wedding I amazingly felt great .. Well that was until we were told that the ship couldn't dock as it normally did but instead it would be berthed and we would be transported to the shore via lifeboat vessels ... Oh my word my heart went into full blown overdrive .....

However, on reaching the exit with my parents to see my handsome lad standing there waiting for me I knew that I could overcome this .. And I did :-)

Due to the delay it was a bit rushed but your husband Scott talked us through the whole process. Gave us a history lesson on route to Lindquist Beach and then it was like "whoa - this place is stunning"

Then the nerves started again when I was left in the car on my own for a short time until you arrived to welcome me and chat ...... I almost burst into tears at the sight of my bouquet it was stunning, and will be permanently ingrained in my memory.

It's funny to hear someone else who really doesn't know us to talk about our history together like we were best of friends as that's how it felt when Scott was conducting the ceremony .. But I knew that this was just PERFECT :-) and exactly what we wanted, just the two of us and my parents.  Yes it would have been nice to have other family there but it wouldn't have been the same and it wouldn't have been us as we are a private couple and like to do things our way.

Lindquist Beach is just stunning, there are no other words that can describe it and the ceremony was exactly us .. And we cannot recommend you, Scott, Megan (photographer) and St Thomas or Lindquist Beach enough ........ Truly AMAZING :-)

Let's do a Give Away!

Yippee!

I read tons of blogs and a lot of them are doing give-aways. Who doesn't like to win something?? Now, I know how many hits this blog gets a day and I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in my lack of comments. So, in order to win, you have to leave a comment with your first name & email address and also how you are "related" to this blog...are you a past bride, current bride, friend of mine, a local vendor or just a fan of destination weddings? The prize will depend on who you are, so I will announce the winner & prize on Monday. So do it now - leave me a comment!!

A taste of Morocco...

I'm 100% impressed with the work this bride put into the details of her wedding day. Guests were coming up to me left and right, complementing me on what a wonderful job I did and each time I had to tell them that all the credit went to the bride - all I did was put it together for her. Lindquist Beach lent itself well to this very Moroccan influenced event.

One of my favorite aspects of the day was the guest book...each page was dedicated to a guests with a slot for a photo of them and a section for them to fill in a wedding wish for the couple. This scrapebook of a guest book will be such a wonderful keepsake of their wedding day...




But you all know how I feel about wedding favors...LOVE THEM. And after the ceremony, everyone was taken to a sailboat for lunch & snorkeling...so, what better favor could there be than a beach towel?? And just look at the details our bride put into the favors...a beautiful gift tag with starfish pendant. Just beautiful...




Congratulations J&J - I wish you many happy and wonderful years together!

Dreamy

Remember that dreamy dress I blogged about last week? Blue Glass Photography shot that wedding and Alain sent over this photo for me yesterday. Dreamy dress, dreamy sunset, just dreamy...

Toughest part of my job...

Looking at all the beautiful desserts and not being able to eat them....could you imagine how huge I would be if I had a piece of cake from every wedding I attended?!

The bride sent us this table cloth for the table and VI Desserts whipped up these beautiful cupcakes with sugar flowers on top. A little sprinkling of starfish and voila! A beautiful dessert table...

I want a redo!

And I want to redo it in this dress! I just love the style of this dress my bride wore last week at her wedding on Trunk Bay, St. John. The mermaid style, the detail around the chest...just gorgeous and totally my style. She looked amazing! Her make-up and hair was done by Sugar & Spice, I love what a great job they did.

Here is the bride with her sister - having two daughters myself, this just warms my heart and I love how one is brunette and one is blonde. I currently have two little blondies and it makes me excited to see how they will grow and change into women - how they will look so similar and yet different at the same time. Ah...sisters...they are the best!


And look how amazing Trunk Bay was for her photos. I can't wait to see the professional photos taken by Alain at Blue Glass Photography. He showed me a few on his camera and they were just gorgeous. You can see him & Mike at High Definition Video busy a work.


Sunset...


Absolutely beautiful wedding - Trunk Bay is just magical!

"Wave" of Love...

I am so behind on my blogging - I've had some absolutely beautiful weddings this week that I am so excited to share. But, it's getting late and I'm getting way too tired. For now, I'm just going to post this picture from my wedding this morning - look at that wave in the background!!

I will definitely be posting a lot more photos of this wedding. The bride added so many personal touches, I love that. And I can not wait to share with you a photo of my bride from earlier this week. Her. Dress. Was. Killer. Totally my style. Don't get me wrong...all of my brides are beautiful in their dresses (case in point, check out the bride in the photo above - GORGEOUS!) but...this particular dress was exactly what I would wear if I could ever talk my husband into a vow renewal. Loved it. So check back in the next few days, I won't keep in you the dark for long. =)

My new ice buckets...

A lot of brides decide to provide iced bottled waters to their guests, especially during daytime weddings when it can get a little hot in the islands. I used to have these galvanized buckets from my own wedding that I would use to hold the bottles in...



A few months ago, my husband was helping me unpack the car after a wedding and set one of these buckets down behind the car...and a few hours later, he ran over it as he was backing out of the driveway. So....yes, I have new buckets! The surviving bucket is still in use for smaller weddings where only one bucket is needed, but for larger weddings, I now have these colorful little guys. I just love them!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Emerald

"aisle"!

Love my sea horses...

Just in case anyone had a hard time visualizing them on a bouquet, here is a photo from last week's wedding. Doesn't he look so cute?? Lauren and any past brides - if you want one, just let me know! I'll be happy to send one to you - just email me your address and I'll get one in the mail. We appreciate all our past brides too. =)