Because I'm a sucker for seahorses...

I just love the seahorse place cards I saw on Etsy.com lately. Aren't they adorable?? TimelessPaper has a whole series of nautical themes that I think are just too cute.

Another fab event...

I know I have been sharing a lot of links lately - I do hope to have some time to share some of my own photos soon, but for now, I want to share another fabulous event captured by another off island photographer - Elisha Orin. My couple, Aviva and Andrew, were married at the St. Thomas Synagogue. I have a whole blog post in my head dedicated to these two! I will hopefully get that done before the end of the week, but in the meantime, you must check out their wedding feature on Destination Inspirations.com:

http://destinationinspirations.com/?p=2312

If you're not familiar with this website, get familiar! It rocks!

Back to the grindstone...

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! We took the family over to Tortola and spent the night at Myett's in Cane Garden Bay. It is a perfect honeymoon spot! I love how close we are to the BVI. It was just a 30 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas. My girls had the best time - they LOVE staying in hotels. Here is a picture of them walking to the ferry in Soper's Hole...don't they look like little flower girls?? I'm waiting until they are bit older and will start including them in packages (just kidding).

Canvas Prints! Go big, or go home...

Or go small and do a grouping of four, that would be cool too!

I think there has been a trend in recent years for people to order framed canvas prints of their professional photography, as opposed to traditional framing. Pretty much every professional photographer out there can or will offer this product and it is one that I encourage everyone to consider. While canvas prints are not cheap, they are so unique and a different way to display your memories.

Last fall, my family had the pleasure of being photographed by Elisha Orin. Elisha gave me the CD of our images which gave me the freedom to order my own prints. But I wanted to order some canvas and I knew the best way to do this was with the photographer and going through their lab. Online canvas print shops are popping up everywhere online, cashing in on the canvas craze, but there are a few products that I believe should be ordered directly from the pro that took the image and a third party online (I'll discuss the other products in another post). A few months ago I received a coupon in the mail for one of the online canvas shops and couldn't pass up a good deal. I ordered a canvas print of a photo I had taken of my daughters. The 4x6 print looked very nice to me...and when I got the 16x20 canvas in the mail, I realized the baby had some serious gunk in her eye. A professional photographer is going to look over the image and do any touch ups that may be needed before going to print. As one local photographer told me..."a leaf in the sand in a 4x6 image may just look like a leaf in the sand, but when blown up to a large image - it may look like a large dog just visited the area right before the photo was taken, if you know what I mean...". It's true - a small glob of mascara on your eyelash in a small photo may not be noticeable but in a large print, may look like a horsefly!

Now that you've suffered through my lecture to order from your photographer, I'll reward you with the images now proudly displayed in my home!

What an awesome renewal!

We get a lot of requests for vow renewals. What a better surprise for your spouse when you are on vacation? This renewal that we helped out with last week was so special. This couple met about 15 years ago on Magen's Bay! They were both working as crew members on a Carnival ship and started chatting on their day off while sunbathing on the beach. 15 years later, they took another Carnival cruise to celebrate their anniversary with their two little ones. How awesome is that?! Renewing your vows in the very spot that you first met? With your children playing in the sand at your feet?

All fixed, I hope...

Not my email. I'm still having some problems with that. I found out that my IP provider used to be involved in the porn industry and therefore, a LOT of other IP servers completely blocked it. So I have had a few brides that were not getting emails from me. Still working on getting that fixed, but it does seem to be improving. So what is fixed, you ask? My website. I didn't even know it was broken! Actually, I changed the top of our website so have one long picture at the top of each page. But unfortunately, what I took to look artistic was looking horribly distorted to others. My husband pointed it out first but of course, I dismissed his opinion. Then my mother-in-law pointed it out, followed by a few other vendors on the island...so I took the hint and realized my artistic interpretations were not being appreciated and fixed it. Hopefully things look a little better now. =)

I wanted to share this image from a wedding we did last month at Sand Dollar:



One of the things that I think can really make a wedding FABULOUS instead of "just great" is the fine details. While I LOVE fine details, it's not really exactly what I do here. What I mean is, I don't come up with them - you do - and then I make them happen. I'm great at offering ideas, but at the same time, a lot of these fine details are your own hard work with DIY projects. For example, the above wedding...the bride brought with her the menu cards, the place cards, she shipped the sand dollars to me in advance, and had the linens specially made and brought them with her. When it comes to stationary products, the Virgin Islands is not going to be your best bet for a source. It's best to bring that with you - ideally, matching your invitations to pull everything together. This reception was held a Villa Sand Dollar - so the sand dollar at each place setting was just so perfect. They were beautiful sand dollars, pristine white and delicate and a perfect balance to the table. We do have access to all different kinds of table linens for your reception, but being a small island, the choices are definitely limited. The gorgeous linen this bride picked out would not have been something we could have gotten for her. She worked hard on her inspiration and it was my job to help her bring it all together - working with the florist to bring her floral inspiration to life, placing out the menus & name cards in the right spot, putting the sand dollar on as the finishing touch...it really was a gorgeous wedding and a perfect example of what you can do:




A few other special touches: The bar menu



Flip flops for guests to enjoy on the beach:



Probably one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile - the bride's brother made these wooden blocks to hold the guests place cards! We always have a problem with these cards and any wind that may occur - but these were perfect in keeping the place cards in place. Gotta be nice having a brother that's handy with woodwork!



And lastly, you've probably seen candy stations done before at weddings but bright, bold colors would not have gone well with this particular wedding. Our bride chose instead nice neutral tones for a little snack station after the ceremony, she even brought the wooden spoons with her to keep with the natural theme of the evening. It was really just lovely!




Something else I should probably work on - trying to fix blogger so that my pictures and captions line up! Ah well...baby steps, baby steps...

You like videos, right?

Sure you do! I don't know if it's my internet connection or not, but it took FORVER for this 4 minute video to download on YouTube. Hopefully those stateside do not have to wait as long. But if you do, it is TOTALLY worth the wait. I suggest turning the music off on your computer, let it play through once (slooowly downloading) and then once it's done, hit replay with the music on.

This was an event we helped out with in collaboration with Havana Blue. It was so much fun to work on! And I can't get over what an amazing job their video guy did - Glen Elliott of www.gmelliottvideo.com - awesome!

La Hora Loca!!!

I've been meaning to share this for awhile now - this wedding took place last month at Havana Blue. Actually, the wedding was in Our Lady of Perpetual Help (remember the post with all the rose petals....40,000, yes, 40,000 rose petals to fill the aisle!). The cocktail hour and reception were hosted by Havana Blue, at Frenchman's Reef. Our bride's family was Peruvian and it is a Peruvian tradition to have a "La Hora Loca" during the reception - a "crazy hour" and crazy it was!

We started with these Caribbean Carnival Dancers entering the reception and showering the guests with Mardi Gras-esque hats, masks, boas and pulling everyone out onto the dance floor.





We then had Princess Diana come and amaze the crowds with her fire dancing.



We ended the night with the Carnival troupes dance routine...absolutely the coolest thing. You don't have to be Peruvian to have a la hora loca. It's a great way to bring in island traditions and expose your guests to some of the local culture. It is totally worth every penny and something your guests will remember for a long, long time.

Something to be thankful for...

Chenoa and Mike renewed their wedding vows earlier this month on Magen's Bay. There are many different reasons why a couple will decide to renew their vows...they hit & survived a rough patch and want a new beginning...they are celebrating a big milestone anniversary...their mainland wedding wasn't their dream wedding and they want the sand in their toes to say I Do all over again...whatever their reasoning, we are happy to help. Mike & Chenoa though, has a different story and I loved that we (and mainly Eric Johnson of Paradise Pictures) were able to help.

A few years ago, their basement flooded. Among many possesions ruined was their wedding album. The photos were destroyed and they were heart-broken. The decided to have the photos redone but with an upcoming cruise to the Caribbean, they decided, why not redo the whole thing?? They laughed as they recalled their old wedding photos with the old school puffy sleeved dresses and the reception decorated with balloons! I love looking at those old albums, I can only imagine!

Eric did a wonderful job with their photos, even without balloons and massive sleeves!

Sand Dollar Estates

Last week I had the pleasure of being back at Sand Dollar Estates. This villa can sleep up to 22 guests, making it the perfect ceremony & reception location for small groups that want to stay together. Our wedding last week had 15 people in attendance and everyone was staying at Sand Dollar - great way to cut down on transportation costs as well! It's also a great spot for larger weddings. Hosting a reception at a villa is such a great way to keep the event intimate and personal.

There is a small beach at Sand Dollar, but with the tides, you never really know if it will be large enough to host a ceremony. We decided to do the ceremony on the pool deck.



We then had Passion Fruit Chefs do the catering for dinner (red wine and steak! it's was a man's man feast!) and set up dinner on the upstairs deck, with amazing views of Magen's Bay.



I really loved the way the cetnerpieces came out.




But are you ready for my favorite element?



Confused? Check our Elisha Orin's blog: www.thatstalk.elishaorin.com to see the professional photos of this day. Elisha is new to the Virgin Island photography market, but has such an awesome skill and is so easy to work with. We have another wedding with her next week - is it cheating if she is my favorite element for that wedding too?? =)

Here's a few shots of her in action:

There's one at every wedding...

So there are a few weddings that are in queue to be blogged about, but I had to rush this one to the front of the line. Nate & Angie were married this morning on lovely Lindquist Beach. Their cruiseship, the Norwegian Pearl arrived in St. Thomas today with about 20 of their closest friends and family aboard to watch them say I Do on our lovely sandy shores.

Like my office??



Angie has chosen the Simply Blissful Package from our website and then we modified it to accommodate the extra guests...added some chairs, an arch and a few extra bottles of champagne. As I was setting up and waiting for everyone to arrive, I tried to find my favorite element...was it her bouquet?



The very funky boutonniere?



Nothing was really grabbing me as my "favorite" - there wasn't anything out of the ordinary from our typical Simply Blissful packages. Angie & Nate arrived first, having been chauffeured to the beach in our Lincoln Navigator after stopping at the courthouse to pick up their marriage license. Guests followed a few minutes later and I hear Angie say to her groom, "oh my...check out Uncle Phil...." and as I look over to see the guests disembark from the safari bus, my eyes go straight to Uncle Phil and BAM! There is my favorite element of the day!!



Phil had his old tux modified for a beach wedding! I don't think you can see it in the photos, but his cummerbund had an underwater theme! We all had a big laugh at Uncle Phil's choice of attire and Stuart, the officiant, assured the happy couple that we always have at least one goof ball at every wedding!

I put my camera away after capturing Uncle Phil for the blog but just before everyone left for lunch at Wikked in Yacht Haven Grande (great spot - close to the cruiseship!), I heard the groom ask everyone if they had their t-shirts. My camera had to come out once again to capture this:





The bride had very fun t-shirt favors made for all the guests - I love the touristy cliche phrase on the backs. Uncle Phil is still my favorite though!

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!

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!