samantha7806 - Kyle and Samantha's Wedding

Welcome to Samantha's Wedding Planning Bio! Kyle and I are getting married at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef in St. Thomas, USVI. The colors of our wedding are Iris and Pansy (I swear, that is the name of the fabric - I didn't come up with that on my own). The colors of our at home reception are shades of blue and white, with a south beach kind of vibe.

The dresses are in! Erica is my bridesmaid, she is the blonde. My sister is my Maid of Honor, and they ordered the wrong size dress for her, but here is what it looks like:

These are the colors of my at home reception:

These are the colors that I used for my Save the Date cards that went out to those invited/coming to the destination wedding. I will post a photo of that later - super cute! I will carry the theme througout on my AHR invites, too.

**If I have borrowed any photos from you, please let me know. As most knotties, I was right-click happy when I got engaged and paid no attention to where I was getting the photos from!

About Us

Kyle and I actually met our junior year of high school at a football game. We both went to the University of Louisville where he was Phi Kappa Tau and I was a Chi Omega. We did hang out in college, but we were both in serious relationships. After graduation, Kyle moved to St. Thomas, USVI, for a little over a year and a half. I hadn't seen him in awhile, or even heard anything about him. Then, about two years after he moved back, we ran in to each other. I remember thinking, "Wow...he looks great!" So, we exchanged numbers and would talk occasionally. I wasn't really sure about dating him, though, so I kind of blew him off for about two months! Once I finally decided to give in, the rest was history! We've been inseperable ever since. We dated for nearly two years before he proposed. We were in Chicago for a long weekend and at the top of the Hancock Tower having some hors d'oevres and drinks. That's when he proposed! Tuesday, May 13 - and completely unexpected! We are planning our destination wedding - in none other than beautiful St. Thomas - in June.

We have two dogs that we LOVE - our English Bulldog Gus and our Austrailian Cattle Dog mix, Phoebe.

Engagement Pics!

Just a sample of a few...I love them!

Save the Date Cards

I finished my Save the Date Cards! I love them - designed them myself in Illustrator. You can't tell too well by the photos, but they are printed on a shimmery white cardstock, and they have a sand dollar tied to them at the top. I LOVE them!

UPDATE 01-19-09: My AHR invites! Here is the mock up...no inserts designed yet.

Wedding Site

We are getting married at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef in St. Thomas, USVI (www.marriottfrenchmansreef.com) in the gazebo that overlooks the ocean.

We are having a reception after our wedding with a cocktail hour and three course meal at Havana Blue (www.havanabluerestaurant.com).

Here are some of my own photos from my vacation in St. Thomas just a few weeks ago:

Ceremony Decor

Our wedding will take place at the gazebo overlooking Charlotte Amalie...and since it will be June in St. Thomas, I am making palm fans to put on everyone's chair to beat the heat! (Phoebe was helping...)

Bride and Groom Attire

I bought my dress! I went to the Bridal Suite of Louisville and tried on a ton of dresses. But, this was the first one I tried on, and I fell in love with it and just kept going back to it. I love, love, LOVE it. The veil that I am wearing is the veil I bought to go with it.

MY DRESS IS IN!! AND IT FITS! The only part that has to be altered is the bust (taken in, of course) and to have my bustle made. I'm in love with it. Please excuse my messy hair and make up - it was a long day at work!

My hair will be half up, half down and curled.

First Dress Fitting - my bustle (I'll get it back "completed" in about three to four weeks):

For the groom and groomsmen - we have no idea yet! Kyle has a tan seersucker suit that he might wear, but he also has a light gray suit that I think would be pretty, too. We bought a beatiful purple tie to go with it, so we are going to try it on with both suits and see which looks best. Than we can decide on what the groomsmen will be wearing, too.

My Shoes!

I love the idea of having bright colored shoes under my wedding dress, and I was on the hunt for some pink shoes. Hot Pink is really my color - I love it! So, I finally found them during a weekend in Chicago. Check them out!

I also managed to find these great matching Stuart Weitzman flip flops for the after party. They are so cute! They have hot pink rhinestones in the straps. There are dalmations on the sole (you can't see them when I have them on), but the best part about them is that their spots are in the shape of high heels!

TTD

I fell in love with the idea of Trash the Dress on The Knot. So many girls have done it and it looks awesome! However, I didn't want to "trash" my wedding dress because I love it and I have to wear it again at the Louisville reception...so I found a dress on Ebay (gotta love them!) from White House Black Market for a pretty good deal. It's a nice dress that will look great on the beach and in the ocean for our photos.

Here are some Trash the Dress pictures that I adore (photographed by Emily Jackson Photography):

Ceremony Decor

I won't need much for decor - the gazebo is decor enough. But, I am thinking about getting the palm fans and wrapping the handles in ribbon that matches the bridesmaids dresses. We'll see.

At Home Reception Decor

We are having our AHR at the Ali Center on July 11, 2009. I am going for a South Beach, ocean-like vibe, similar to that of the restaurant we are having our destination reception, Havana Blue. I am having three centerpieces:

These look a lot like palm trees to me, but they will be white just like the photo. Our linens are a deep aqua. For a shorter, smaller centerpiec on some tables, I will have something similar to this:

This is my first shot at doing this myself:

However, I have white sand, blue and white starfish, and pearlized white shells to put in them, and I will put a white or gren cymbidium orchid in it. I don't think I will be putting photos in them, but I don't know for sure yet. My third centerpiece will be a taller, square vase filled with sea glass in shades of blue, green, and white and will have white or green orchids coming out of the top.

Here is my first attempt at this one (please keep in mind, the flowers in this are silk and I will have more flowers - I can decide if I just want orchids, or orchids and monstera leaves, too):

I will have several floralytes inside these vases to light them up, too.

I will have ten smaller centerpieces on our ten high top tables. They will consist of a small cylinder vase, filled with sea glass and lit from within with floralytes, and these two shades of blue glittery sticks coming out the top. Here is my first attempt:

Our buffet tables will be lit from within in a blue shade, with blue battery-operated round lanterns along the table. We will have a row of white, 8' tall columns behing the dj and uplit in blue. We are also having a large "water wall" like the one at the entrance of Havana Blue behind the bar, and large palms around the parameter of the room with white lights. I can't wait to see it all!

Here is our guestbook for the AHR, made by etsy seller shea chic designs:

We are planning on having an old time photobooth at the reception, so our guests can take snapshots and add them to our guest book along with a message.

For our menu, we are having passed hors d'oeuvres of chicken quesadilla cornucopias, green chile wontons and conch fritters. Our menu will be fresh fruit skewers sprinkled with toasted coconut, crab and avocado nachos, chilled mango bisque shooters, barbecued meatballs, miniature cheeseburgers, miniature chicago style pizza, and caribbean jerk style fried chicken tenders. Yum!

Flowers

I finally - after months of searching - decided on my bouquet. This is what I sent to my WC:

I am a flower NUT, so I am having the hardest time deciding on what my bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquets will be. Now that I've bought my shoes, and they are hot pink, I'm going to go with a hot pink bouquet, defnitely, to tie it all in. Here are a lot of photos of different bouquets that I like:

Cake

I am going with Christi's Cakes because, well, her cakes are the best! I haven't totally decided on all the flavors just yet. There will be four tiers and they will all be different. The flavors that I loved from the tasting: marble cake with chocolate fudge filling, orange cake with cream cheese filling, carrot cake with cream cheese filling, strawberry cake with strawberry filling, or white cake with rasberry and cream cheese filling. Kyle really wants a banana cake, and we didn't get to try that one, so we'll see. I have a pretty good idea of what I want for my cake. It will go something like this:

But not the orange! I LOVE the bubbles - they remind me of sea bubbles. So, we will have those in three shades of pearlized fondant: white and two soft shades of blue. There will be pearlized shells and starfish, and maybe coral at the base of the cake to look like the ocean floor. The cake's bottom layer will be square, and the top three will be round. For my cake topper, I would like it to look like this:

UPDATE! My cake topper has been ordered! It will be two palm trees, one a little taller than the other, covered in blue swarovski crystals. I got it from Etsy design Shea Chic Designs. I will post a picture when I have one.

UPDATE! 10-20-08: My cake topper has been shipped! Here is what it looks like: