Making your own Capiz Shells!

You have no idea how many times brides have sent me this image:

Brides love, love, love those hanging shells. Vendors...not so much. :) They are really expensive and just a slight breeze can turn those beautiful hanging shells into a bit of mess. When done properly though, I admit that it's really pretty.

But back to that expensive part...they are. Last month though, I assisted a bride that used to live here in St. Thomas and the bride informed me that her husband to be planned to build their own arch and would decorate it themselves. I couldn't wait to see it as he cut down fresh bamboo (the pretty green color) and she hang these beautiful shells on the arch.

(Hopefully Jenna will send me a better pic...hint hint Jenna...this Instagram photo makes the wood look dark brown instead of green).

The shells were just gorgeous and I had to ask the bride where she found them. I'm always looking for a good deal on these pricey little discs and much to my surprise, she made them! She said they weren't shells at all but made out of....get this...toilet paper and wax paper!

I did a quick Google search and found this blog. It didn't include toilet paper (disappointing, right?) but I had to share with any other crafty DIY brides out there.

Just sit already!

Ha! My assistant and I were laughing at this sign - when I saw something similar on Pinterest, I knew I had to have one. One of the things we don't look forward to at a wedding is getting guests to SIT. They don't always recognize me as the wedding planner...maybe I'm the brides friend from college, maybe I'm your groom's co-worker...so when I go around and kindly ask everyone to please take a seat, I'm often ignored! But I think part of it is that people don't know where they are supposed to sit and really, it just doesn't matter where, we're all family here! This sign couldn't say it any better...

I modified the original saying that I had seen on Pinterest to make it a bit more tropical and fun for the islands.  I just love the way it came out!

New, fresh and exciting (for me at least)

My new elements are starting to arrive in the mail and yesterdays wedding was the first that I could do one of our newest aisles. I loved the results - what do you think?

Nice white starfish, bright green moss balls and beachy driftwood. I love how it all came together.

I have a goal of starting a new "choose your own aisle". Right now our packages include conch shell & palm leaf decor but I want to start offering our clients choices on the type of aisle they have. Of course, you have that choice NOW, but it's not properly presented to make the selection process easy. I'm hoping to have that set up by the end of May.

Best idea ever.

I am so in love with this sign. I might just have one made from Etsy. What do you think? Would you like it at your ceremony?

Floating orchids revealed...

I forgot to revisit this post about the floating orchids. We've done an arch like this before, but it had been a few years. I forgot how difficult this orchids are! We set up our normal bamboo arch (did you know this arch was stolen earlier this year?? Heartbreaking. The replacement arch took forever to get here but is finally on island!) and attached orchids to "float" down. The problem with this is the wind. Those little buggers whip around and get tangled like mad. We buried the end of the string in the sand to anchor them as best as we could. I joked with the bride that she may just be the last bride to get this type of arch!




Another thing I wanted to share about this wedding was the really cool idea the bride & groom came up with for the sand ceremony. We placed a seashell on each share:



And were invited during the ceremony to come up and place their shell in a special jar:



Close family used shells that they had found together on the beach:



After everyone had add their shells, the couple poured in the unity sand. The end result is a very memorable keepsake that unites all wedding guests together and is a great way to involve them in the ceremony.

One last thing to share - how great are these bamboo chairs?!



They just fit so well with the natural elements of the beach.

Combining everything I love...an Etsy Beach Wedding!

I am a fan of MODWedding on Facebook which means I get daily updates in my news feed containing some pretty cool ideas for weddings. It's not "destination wedding" oriented though so while some of the ideas are very cool, they don't really translate well for our weddings here. That changed yesterday though when they updated their Facebook page with a link to their blog article:

http://blog.modwedding.com/love-and-surf-a-beach-wedding

Now...looking through the photos without reading the text, I was wondering, "is this a fake wedding? I don't see any guests?" and upon reading more, it was indeed a fake weddings, just set up to show some really cool ideas for beach weddings. The whole thing was absolutely gorgeous though. I LOVE the surfboards used as an altar area...the vintage feel of the table settings, so very lush and full. But my favorite thing of all? The bride (kind of what I imagine Jennifer Anniston to look like at her next wedding). Loved her hair, her dress and OMG...her necklace!!! I was hooked! I don't think I can pull off a chunky necklace like this, but I'd sure like to try, or at the very least, have it sit beautifully in my jewelry box. I thought, I bet I could find something similar on Etsy...and wouldn't you know, they credited the necklace's creator at the end of the article and lo & behold, she sells on Etsy!



Check out ideafarmdesigns for some crazy cool jewelry. And definitely flip through all the photos in the above blog post - sooooo pretty!