planning for St. Thomas?

[aprill121]

Has anyone gotten married or are planning a wedding in St. Thomas? any recomendations on which beach is best? Any recomendations on wedding planners?

[Love.II.Cruise]

Has anyone gotten married or are planning a wedding in St. Thomas? any recomendations on which beach is best? Any recomendations on wedding planners?

 

Someone else was asking about a St. Thomas wedding recently. Here is the thread with some useful information. Some of it may or may not apply.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1528696

[aprill121]

Thanks so much, I took a look at that thread and found the info I needed!

[LilBlackDress]

Island Bliss Weddings, well recommended on the boards and A Perfect Wedding Also very good reviews

[MindTheGap1918]

I'm getting married in St. Thomas in 2 weeks and have used Island Bliss Weddings to help me plan. Janelle, the owner, has been great with communication and getting things arranged. We chose Limetree beach for our ceremony site. It was a lawn area with palm trees that over looks the beach. It looks beautiful there.

[nolacruiser6]

I also agree, Island Bliss is the way to go. We are getting married in April 2012 on Lindquist Beach.

[aprill121]

nolacruiser6 and mindthegap1918,

Thanks so much, this seems to be the direction I am headed.

what is Island Bliss's cancellation policy in regards to weather? I have not been able to find it on their website.

And nolacruiser- have you been to Lindquist beach? this is also the beach I am leaning towards.

How are the boquets?

How flexible are they with the packages?

Thanks in advance... and congrats to both of you!

[MindTheGap1918]

nolacruiser6 and mindthegap1918,

what is Island Bliss's cancellation policy in regards to weather? I have not been able to find it on their website.

 

 

According to the FAQ's she sent me, rain usually passes over fairly quickly down there. It may rain for 10 minutes then be sunny again and they will wait out the rain. She says that she contacts the brides a head of time to make necessary changes if rain is going to be an ongoing issue that day. Unless you're going during hurricane season, you should be good to go! :)

[yummymummy99]

nolacruiser6 and mindthegap1918,

Thanks so much, this seems to be the direction I am headed.

what is Island Bliss's cancellation policy in regards to weather? I have not been able to find it on their website.

And nolacruiser- have you been to Lindquist beach? this is also the beach I am leaning towards.

How are the boquets?

How flexible are they with the packages?

Thanks in advance... and congrats to both of you!

 

We got married at lindquist beach last yr (Janelle was our wedding planner too, fab!). It is beautiful, not much there tho! After we had the ceremony we got lots of pics taken and the each was pretty much deserted! Transport then took us all (only 7 of us!) to megans bay which is also lovely but was mega mega crowded that day (a few ships on and also a local public holiday!). St Thomas is beautiful! I took my own Scottish themed real touch flowers but all the pics I have seen of bouquets on island bliss weddings fb page look amazing.

 

If you want I can send you some pics privately of the beach, it's beautiful :D

[aprill121]

Yummymummy99-

Thanks for the info, and I would love to see the pics, The crowds was a concern of mine, so thanks for clearing that up for me. my email is aprill121@msn.com.

Thanks again.:)

[5starbride]

Hi MindTheGap!

 

I am also getting married in St. Thomas on Limetree, but in February (Valentine's Day to be exact). We also went with Island Bliss and Janelle has been great. Limetree does look beautiful!

I would love to hear more of how the wedding scheduling goes and how the logistics of your day goes and if there are any tips you have to offer. Of course, I assume you are very busy (or may even be cruising right now :D ) so I understand that your response may take some time, but hopefully comes this month.

 

Congrats and have an amazing wedding cruise! :)

 

I'm getting married in St. Thomas in 2 weeks and have used Island Bliss Weddings to help me plan. Janelle, the owner, has been great with communication and getting things arranged. We chose Limetree beach for our ceremony site. It was a lawn area with palm trees that over looks the beach. It looks beautiful there.

[aprill121]

Hey ladies,

is anybody having or did you have an on island reception? nothing fancy just food and drinks is mainly what I am looking for. thanks.

[goodtoglow]

I just got married in St Thomas November 1 :) We chose Lindquist Beach & used Island Bliss (although there were a few concerns, details to come in the review). Our flowers blew me away - I sent Janelle a picture & they were matched exactly. We even got peonies which I wasn't expecting! I paid $110 to have my bouquet upgraded to a larger size (I wanted a huge bouquet!) and my bridesmaids flowers were $50 each (there was a $25 option but I say go big or go home!). Regarding package flexibility, you can completely customize your package. Add things, remove things, it is 100% flexible.

 

One thing to note is that if you do not pay Island Bliss with cash and pay your site fee, at least for Lindquist Beach, you have to pay $4 per person. If you pay with cash it is $2 per person. Yes, they collect a profit on the site fee - I suppose it is for the inconveince of them having to process a cheque/credit card payment. We paid for it all in cash the day of (we brought Travellers Cheques - you can cash $1000 per person on the cruise ship so we just did that the night before).

 

My full review is coming as soon as I get my disc of pro photos. For now, here are my photographers blog posts!

 

http://www.michaelwachniak.com/realloveis/2011/11/stephanie-colin-st-thomas-cruise-wedding/

 

http://www.bohnjello.com/2011/11/caribbean-cruise-lindquist-beach.html

 

http://www.michaelwachniak.com/realloveis/2011/11/stephanie-colin-day-after-session-in-san-juan-puerto-rico/

 

http://www.bohnjello.com/2011/11/san-juan-puerto-rico-day-after-wedding.html

[aprill121]

I just got married in St Thomas November 1

 

My full review is coming as soon as I get my disc of pro photos. For now, here are my photographers blog posts!

 

your pictures are beautiful, your photographer is great, how much did he charge to go with you? thats a great idea! Also, renting out the steakhouse, did you pay for 108 seats because thats how many it seats, or was that because you had so many guests? how did the wine package work? did they allow you to decorate? how much was your cake? sorry i have so many questions, but thank you in advance for the answers!

By the way, congrats, and you looked stunning.

[Tiggertastic]

We got married at limetree beach a year ago. We had the ceremony on the grass next to the beach, in a circle of pink flowers and the photographs were taken on the beach

 

It was fantastic - the journey from the ship was less than 15 minutes.

 

Ensure you plan in the time needed to go to the court house in the morning and collect your licence for the minister to sign, then you have to take it back to get it formalised.

 

Any planner will build this into the schedule for you.

 

There was nobody at the actual resort watching and when we got on the beach there were a dozen people clapping but they stayed away from the photographs and the photographer was amazing. SHe even sent a CD with all the pictures with a letter giving us all the rights to copy - all the way to the UK well packaged and arrived in less than 2 weeks. Kelly can be found at http://kellyophotos.blogspot.com/

 

Our planner was happy to swap her normal photographer for Kelly and she was cheaper too.

[aprill121]

good to glow,

sorry lol, I combined two posts. so ... let me fix it.

your pictures are beautiful, your photographer is great, how much did he charge to go with you? thats a great idea! did they allow you to decorate? thank you in advance for the answers!

By the way, congrats, and you looked stunning.

__________________

[aprill121]

Anyone have any recomendations for a photographer?

[garbasaurus]

My full review is coming as soon as I get my disc of pro photos. For now, here are my photographers blog posts!

 

I can't wait to read your review. It looks like you had a wonderful time and could give us some good insight on how to do it right.

[MindTheGap1918]

Anyone have any recomendations for a photographer?

 

 

Blue Glass Photography! We got married last weekend in St. Thomas and he took the most amazing pictures!! Here is a link to Janelle's blog with Island Bliss with some of our photos. We can't wait to get the rest! I would highly recommend him.

 

http://www.islandblissweddings.blogspot.com/2012/01/congratulations-jennie-jonathon.html

[MindTheGap1918]

Hi MindTheGap!

 

I am also getting married in St. Thomas on Limetree, but in February (Valentine's Day to be exact). We also went with Island Bliss and Janelle has been great. Limetree does look beautiful!

I would love to hear more of how the wedding scheduling goes and how the logistics of your day goes and if there are any tips you have to offer. Of course, I assume you are very busy (or may even be cruising right now :D ) so I understand that your response may take some time, but hopefully comes this month.

 

Congrats and have an amazing wedding cruise! :)

 

We actually stayed on the island, but I used CC for tips since I know a lot of people use the same services when coming in on a cruise ship. I can say everything went perfectly on our day. As long as your paperwork is in order, you'll be in and out of the court house in 10 minutes. Janelle's husband was our officiant and we did the traditional island vows and the ceremony was beautiful. He actually picked up my bridesmaids and I about 45 minutes before the ceremony and we sat in the car until the ceremony started to avoid seeing my now husband before the ceremony :) To save money on flowers, I went to a craft store and found beautiful flowers and had a friend's Mom make the bouquets, everyone thought they were real! If you haven't chosen a photographer, i would highly recommend Blue Glass. They were more affordable for our budget, but so far the pictures have been priceless, you can check them out from the link to Janelle's blog I posted above. We had photos on the beach then went in to town for another hour. Let me know if I can answer any other questions!

[goodtoglow]

I just got married in St Thomas November 1

 

My full review is coming as soon as I get my disc of pro photos. For now, here are my photographers blog posts!

 

your pictures are beautiful, your photographer is great, how much did he charge to go with you? thats a great idea! Also, renting out the steakhouse, did you pay for 108 seats because thats how many it seats, or was that because you had so many guests? how did the wine package work? did they allow you to decorate? how much was your cake? sorry i have so many questions, but thank you in advance for the answers!

By the way, congrats, and you looked stunning.

 

Hey April! I responded to you on the Steakhouse thread....

We were so happy we brought along our own photographer. Having pictures of us getting ready, the entire reception, and a day after session is priceless. He charged us $3500 for EVERYTHING. All travel expenses, photography, all pictures on disc, slideshow, etc. Our previously booked photographer (who did my brothers wedding in 2009) was originally booked with us, but something came up and in August she told us she wasn't able to come..... 5 days before final payments were due! Not her fault but I was devastated! Luckily I had heard of this photographer before, and loved his style and personality, and very luckily he was able to come and work within the budget we had set based on what we had decided with our previous photographer. He did have to leave the cruise from San Juan, the day after our wedding, to fly home for a wedding he had already booked on the day our cruise ended. We had contacted a few other photographers, just in case he wasn't available (yes, I MAD panicked!) and surprisingly, everyone was willing to come for that price. One of them explained to me it was because they were getting a week long vacation out of it; they weren't just being flown in and then home a few days later for a land-destination wedding.

 

I can't recommend going this route enough!!!!