Special touches...

David & Tracy were married just over a week ago now (boy I'm behind) and had an absolutely lovely ceremony on Lime Tree Beach and a reception at the beautiful Villa Botanica. Unfortunately, I didn't get to grab as many photos of their day as I had wished.

I had some time to grab some photos of the flowers before everyone arrived...



The bride's all white bouquet...



I love this new trend with the boutonnieres...going all green instead of floral...



Once everyone arrived, there just wasn't time to pick up the camera again. But my favorite elements of the day really had to do with the reception and I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of the complete set up. I was at Villa Botanica earlier and can you believe I didn't have my camera with me? But I was able to capture these elements with my iPhone - judge for yourself the quality of iPhone pictures!

The first is of the centerpieces that Tracey had brought down with her. She purchased these at IKEA and had them spray painted a bronze color. We then took rose heads and surrounded the inside flowers. They came out just beautifully.



But...drum roll...here is my favorite part of their wedding - the place cards that doubled as favors that doubled again as an entree chart for the caterer. These sand dollars were placed at each individuals table. Orange indicated fish, blue indicated beef...very easy for the waitstaff to know who got what! They were pre-strung as well, so guests can take them home and use them as Christmas ornaments - love them!!

A most wonderful welcome!

Alyssa and Kurt were married last weekend, but my absolute favorite element of their wedding day actually took place the day before at their Welcome Party. Hosted at a beautiful beachside location, Iggies Beach Bar at Bolongo Bay Resort is the perfect spot to celebrate island style. There were so many elements of the welcome party that I loved, so the entire event is my favorite! Here are a few highlights...

A gorgeous sunset...


A meet & greet with a local Moko Jumbie! Moko Jumbies are good spirits dressed up to scare away bad spirits, as local legend goes (a jumbie is a bad spirit, "moko" means mock - a fake jumbie). Having a white moko jumbie at your welcome party keeps away any bad marital jumbies!



Here our bride gets down with the moko jumbie!



Once the sun went down and everyone's belly was full, we had the famous fire eater & broken bottle dancer "Princess Diana" perform for the guests...





Princess Di showed the groom and the groomsmen a few island moves...



But probably my favorite part of the night was a performance by Pyros of the Caribbean! I have some of this on video that I promise to post soon...

Simple, Simple, Simple!

When I am planning a large wedding, I usually have the bride or the bride's mother ask me, "how many of these do you do a month?" and when I tell them, they are often shocked that I can plan so many weddings and keep them all straight. What they don't realize is that not all of my weddings have 50+ guests, a reception, a thousand vendors to organize, etc. In fact, a lot of my weddings are simple, like the one I just blogged about on Hawksnest Beach last week.

But, I get get even simpler than that! Last week, J & B (I'm just using their first initials to protect their privacy, in case this was an elopement!) were married on Sapphire Beach, one of my favorites on the island.




They had no cake, no flowers, no music...not even me! They just needed help with their marriage license, a ride to the courthouse and an officiate to marry them. So I set them up with an officiate, arranged to have him pick them up from their hotel, head to the courthouse and then back to the beach for a very simple and very personalized ceremony. Now, seeing how I promised to blog about each and every wedding this month and promised to blog about my favorite detail of each, I was a bit hard pressed to figure out my favorite element this time, considering that I wasn't even there! I don't even know what type of dress J wore! But the officiant was able to help me out with the decision...after the ceremony, the bride and groom invited him back to their deck to have a few celebratory Coronas. Nothing better than a few ice cold Coronas after a ceremony on the beach!

And as it starts to get colder in the mainland (seems like it's going to be a cold winter up there!), I'm sure quite a few of you are imagining kicking back, feet in the sand and an ice cold beverage in hand. If you need help with this visual, check out www.thecoronabeach.com. I'm thinking you will want to bookmark this page for the ever so close future months!

Amber is the winner!!

With a whopping 24 to 1 win! Congratulations Amber and great job!! I think I have your address kickin' around but you may need to email that over again. I may have to put a little extra something special in there for winning EXTRA BIG!

Island Bliss Weddings has such a busy wedding weekend and sooooo much to blog about next week. Can't wait to look at the pictures I took last night and figure out my favorite element - but no time today! Off to yet another fabulous event! Enjoy your weekends and congratulations again to Amber - your story always makes me laugh!

Simply Photography

Not simple photography...don't get me wrong there. But my first wedding of October was on the 5th for Stacey & George and there are two words that describe their wedding: Simple & Photography. As part of my promise to blog something about every wedding I have this month, it didn't take long to review this wedding and figure out my favorite aspect...the photography. First, Stacey and George had a very simple wedding set up on Hawksnest Beach, St. John. It was them, his parents, her parents and their love...that sounded cheesy, right? Sorry. =) We had some conch shells and palm leaves to add some color to the beautiful white sand and with nothing but the beautiful sound of waves lapping at their feet, they said I Do. It was really just lovely.

But here's the best part. Yes, it was simple, yes it only took about 20 minutes...but Stacey LOVES good photography and knew that the images of her wedding day will last forever and she wanted them to be GOOD and varied. Not just beach pictures, not just the traditional parents with their newly inherited son or daughter-in-law...but fun stuff. She hired Paradise Pictures for THREE HOURS! This is not very common for such small and simple ceremonies but I LOVE IT and think it's a great idea!

They got great shots of the ceremony...



But then headed to Annaberg Ruins for some really fun stuff,



stuff that shows their personalities...



and then headed back to the beach to cool off!




If it can work in your budget, I highly suggest having the photographer for multiple hours and working in multiple locations. Your wedding album will be AMAZING.

Now don't forgot to go read the guests blog posts and leave a comment - contest ends tomorrow at midnight!

Blog Post #2: Unexpected Guests!

This was submitted from a past client of mine, beautiful Amber, who was married at Lime Tree Beach. Her photographer, www.bludoorstudios.com, captured some amazing pictures!

Unexpected Guests!

One of the advantages of hosting a destination wedding is that the chances of having “wedding crashers” is unlikely right?

In the instance that you are thinking of these wedding crashers you are probably right.



As it turns out, on our wedding day in St. Thomas we had none of the above referenced “Wedding Crashers” however we still ended up with a few “unexpected guests”.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine those moments as you are standing with your significant other saying your vows.

Tears of joy are being shed all around as your closest friends and family are watching the two of you become one. What a wonderful day!

What’s that you hear? Someone sobbing. Oh, no worries it is probably just Aunt Joyce overwhelmed with the emotions of the day. Yet it continues…..

You think to yourself “Wow, we aren’t as emotional as she is, something must be wrong with us”

Then out of the corner of your eye, you see something dart across the ground towards your bridesmaids while in the same moment your entire wedding party and all the guests scatter.

There are screams, tears, and laughter while everyone tries to regroup and figure out exactly what THAT is scampering across the ground?!?!?

Meanwhile, the locals are laughing hysterically at the scene that has just unfolded. To them the “unexpected guests” are merely a part of life on the island.



To you, they are the scariest looking iguanas you have ever seen who also appear to be on a mission. Of course they are, the locals say as they tell you it is iguana mating season in St. Thomas. Not only that, they are extremely attracted to toenail polish.

:Cue the horrified bride and bridesmaids here:



Yes, ladies and gentlemen this was the story of our wedding day. It is one we shall never forget. To this day (almost three years later) the story brings a smile to the face of everyone who was in attendance that day.

Surely, your wedding day in St. Thomas will be memorable in every way even if it does include a few “unexpected guests” along the way!

Blog Entry #1: Scottish Themed Flowers in St. Thomas!

Scottish Themed Flowers in St Thomas! - This bride wish to remain annonomyous due to the fact that they are ELOPING (eeee!! fun!) in St. Thomas!

Well, since deciding on taking a 'touch of Scotland' with us to the Caribbean next year I have been very busy searching for silk flowers. There seems to be hundreds of online sites doing silk or even real touch flowers but not so many choices with scottish themes or thistles! Having contacted a few and after reading some other comments on UK wedding sites the decision is made! Ribbon to compliment the groom's kilt is ordered and will be on my flowers and our guests corsages. Here is a pic of the style of flowers I would like but I have asked for more thistles, some bling and it will have tartan ribbon!



Groom and male guest will have thistle button holes with the tartan ribbon also. Hopefully this type of thistle!



The florist/company I have chosen in the end is Laura at BloomingGorgeous (http://bloominggorgeous.net).

So the flowers are decided, next issue is the storage of them until they are required next year! Oh! and then the biggest challenge - getting them from our home to St Thomas in one piece!!