We were married on March 3, 2007 at 6 o'clock in the evening in a beautiful sunset ceremony. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for a more amazing wedding.

[vendor reviews]

[venue] - Los Verdes Golf + Country Club - A

We had looked at one other venue before we went to Los Verdes. The minute we walked in we fell in love. The terrace has amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island, and on a clear day you can see all the way up the coast to Santa Monica and Malibu. We worked mainly with Wendy in the catering department, and she was very helpful with giving us ideas on how to do everything (she had her own wedding there in early 2006). We were also set up with a wedding coordinator for the rehearsal and the day-of. She did a wonderful job, making sure that things ran smoothly. Everything turned out wonderfully. The food was great, too.

The only thing that I was unhappy about was that we were told when we booked that the ballroom was going to be renovated before our wedding with new carpeting and a more neutral color scheme. They ended up not doing it, which I was a little disappointed about since the ballroom needs a little bit of updating.

[photography] - Next Exit Photography - A+

By far our favorite vendors. Cat and Adi are a husband and wife team, and they are the best. After doing a lot of looking on the Knot, I had really decided that I wanted them to shoot our wedding. We went and interviewed them and booked them before we left. They were the only photogs we interviewed. We clicked and we knew that we were in for a great result. They do amazing work and everyone who has seen our pictures has said that they are some of the best wedding pictures they have ever seen.

[videography] - Isabel Gonzalez Videography - A [pending final video]

Isabel is a sweetheart. She does amazing work, without the cheese. She also is working with us as far as getting our video done. We originally went with the Highlights Package of hers, then decided to cut down to the raw footage DVD to try and save a little bit of money. Then we decided we wanted to upgrade back to the Highlights Package not too long before the wedding. She was very understanding and had no problem with accomodating us, even though we were being a pain in the butt!

[hair + makeup] - Sherry McAnelly with
On Location Beauty - A+

I LOVE Sherry. She is the cutest, most bubbly thing, and so great to work with. I did two hair trials with her. She did a great job on my first trial, but I decided that I wanted to wear my hair differently, and she was more than accomodating to set up a second trial. My makeup was natural, which is what I wanted since it usually takes me 5 minutes to do my makeup in the morning.

The day of she brought her team of hair and makeup artists to do hair and makeup for my BMs, the moms and the grandmas. Everyone looked great!

[florist] - My Wedding Blooms - A

Kerim was great to work with. My bouquet was GORGEOUS. He was really good at being able to stick to our budget and give us everything that we wanted. We also rented our chivari chairs through him, so that saved us from having to hook up with yet another vendor. He was very receptive to my ideas and put up with me when I was constantly changing my mind.

[ceremony music] - Fiddlestix String Quartet - A

We loved this vendor. Margaret is a sweetheart, too. We went to Margaret's house to audition them and we were blown away. Margaret was unable to play for our wedding due to a family issue, but she was quick to find a replacement to play for our day. They did a wonderful job.

[DJ + lighting] - Brady Westbrook with PropsFX Productions - A

We started off rocky with trying to get together for our first meeting, but after that everything went smoothly. It was really easy to submit our playlist and our "do not play" list (its all done online), plus we gave Brady free reign to play music within our style. He was very receptive of the crowd and played music to keep the dance floor packed all night.

We also got our lighting through Props Productions (they do a lot of lighting for concerts). We went pretty simple, with just uplighting, but that little bit of light added a lot of warmth to our reception.

[cake] - Polly Ann Bakery - A+

Hands down the best cake I've ever had. We had a choice of 5 bakeries to choose from since our cake was included with our venue package. We tried 3 of those bakeries and Polly Ann was by far the yummiest. Their flavors were not too overpowering and their icing wasn't nearly as sickly sweet as the other bakeries that we tried.

[bridal salon] - Bridal Elegance - A+

I worked mainly with Christie, but all of the girls there are fabulous. I ordered both my wedding gown and the bridesmaids dresses here, and got a resulting 10% discount. My alterations were done through the salon as well. Petra did a great job on my dress, including the 7-point bustle through all of the layers of lace and silk.

[tuxedos] - After Hours Formalwear - A

We went to the Santa Monica location and they were great. All of our guys (spread out across the states) were able to get their tuxes fitted with no problem. And all of the tuxes arrived in the right colors and sizes.

[rings] - Jewels by Joe - C

*sigh* DH was referred to Jewels by Joe by a trusted co-worker and friend. He had my engagement ring designed here, and they did a wonderful job. We went back to get our wedding bands through them as well. Things went wonderfully at first. We got a pretty good deal on our rings. The issue started with getting our rings engraved. We got the same phrase in two different languages in each other's ring (German for his ring, Spanish for my ring). DH's ring turned out fine. They actually gave me my ring with a misspelled word. Did they not examine it before calling us to let us know they were ready? And when we told them that there was a misspelled word, they acted like it was no big deal. Their exact words were "Oh, there just wasn't enough room." Like they knew that there was a letter left out! They weren't apologetic about it either. We left there pissed off, and, although they did correct their mistake, we won't recommend them to anyone.

[honeymoon]

We spent 7 days in St. Lucia for our honeymoon. We stayed at Ti Kaye Village, on the Carribbean side of the island. It was the most beautiful and most relaxing vacation that I've ever had.

[day 1]

We arrived in St. Lucia at the Hewanorra airport in the afternoon. We were met by Francis, our cab driver, who took us to our resort. We took the scenic tour, which took about 2 hours. Francis was a great tour guide, telling us all about the island on our drive to Ti Kaye.

Dennery, one of the towns we went through on our way to the resort

Ray with Francis, our taxi driver

We arrived at Ti Kaye Village and were greeted by Giselle. We were given our room key, then ushered to the bar for a complimentary rum punch (yummy!) while our bags were taken to our cottage. We enjoyed our drinks, took in more of the beautiful scenery, then headed to our room with Kenny, who showed us around.

Our cottage was EVERYTHING that I imagined. So incredibly romantic.

We stayed in cottage Inosan, which means "innocence" in creole.

We had an outdoor shower, which was absolutely amazing. The view was gorgeous, too.

We also had our own personal plunge pool.

Some amazing views from our porch.

Our view of the beach from our porch.

After trying out our outdoor shower and relaxing in our room for a bit, we headed down to the restaurant for dinner. The food is absolutely amazing and the crab cakes are TO DIE FOR. yum! The pineapple tart was amazing, too.

Dinner was delicious, and we were exhausted, so we headed to bed.

[day 2]

On our second day my wonderful husband surprised me with breakfast in bed. It was amazing sitting in bed and gazing out to the gorgeous scenery, all while eating breakfast.

Ray made a little friend after breakfast, too.

After breakfast we headed to the beach. We made our way down the 166 steps to spend the afternoon sunning and swimming.

The view from the top of the steps.

For lunch we ate at the Beach Bar. I think my favorite thing on the menu were their samosas. YUM! And their deep sea diver drinks are delicious, too. Very tropical, very fitting.

After lunch we went back to our room to rest and relax a while before dinner. Dinner was a buffet that night, and quite good. We headed to bed afterwards so that we could get some sleep for our day trip the next day.

[day 3]

Today was our day trip to the capital of St. Lucia, Castries. After breakfast in bed (again!), we went down to the beach to meet our water taxi at 10am. Our taxi "driver" was Man-O, who told us a lot about the island and the capital during the 45 minute boat ride. The weather wasn't all that great, and the water was really choppy, but the scenery was beautiful nonetheless.

a resort in Marigot Bay, on the way to the capital

We spent our short time shopping in the duty-free shops and the open-air markets. We were supposed to get a free lunch at one of the restaurants in the area, but we ended up missing it and having to eat back at the resort.

We set off for our resort around 2pm. We got back, ate lunch at the Beach Bar and went back to our room for a nap in our hammock. We went to dinner, where we both had the wild mushroom crepe and beef tenderloin stuffed with crabmeat. For dessert, Ray had a banana flambe with 151 and I had the voodoo chocolate pudding, which is a chocolate souffle. Totally delicious.

[day 4]

We woke up early enough to make it to the dining room for breakfast. We then headed down to the beach at 9am for a day trip to Soufriere (meaning "sulfur in the air").

our cottage (the centermost) from the water

at the drive-in volcano and sulfur springs

the rainforest at the volcano

We had lunch at the Water Wheel Restuarant at the botanical gardens. We headed back to the resort around 2pm. Since the water taxi drops us off right on the beach, we stayed down there for a few hours before heading back up to our room to get ready for the fish fry in Anse la Reye. We met at the bar at the resort at 7:45pm for a complimentary rum punch. We then got into a land taxi at 8pm and headed to the small village for the festivities. Just about everyone staying at the resort went, so it was a lot of fun getting to know everyone. At 10pm we headed back to the resort, then spent some time at the bar talking with other couples.

[day 5]

A day to sleep in! We skipped out on breakfast and lounged in our cottage for the morning. We then headed to the dining room for lunch, which, as always, was delicious.

We spent the day hanging out in our cottage and lounging around on the porch and laying in the hammock. It was wonderful. At 5pm, we had a fruit and wine basket delivered to our room, and enjoyed it while taking in the sunset.

There was a wedding going on that night in the pavilion area of the dining room, so the resort set up a buffet down at the beach bar for dinner that night. Afterwards they started a bonfire and we hung out on the beach roasting marshmallows.

[day 6]

We woke up and got breakfast, then went down to the beach to hang out for the day.

We found this little guy on our trip down, along with numerous other sand crabs.

We had lunch brought to us at our post in the sand and relaxed some more after eating. We then headed back to our room at 4:30pm to get ready for our sunset couples' massage. It was AMAZING.

Afterwards we headed to dinner. I had the split pea soup, creole catch (mahi mahi), and pineapple tart for dessert. DH had the split pea soup, lamb curry, and pineapple tart for dessert. It was delicious.

[day 7]

We were supposed to be up early for a beginner's scuba lesson, but opted out, deciding that we really wanted to relax on our last day, and scheduled another massage.

We were able to sleep in, and we had breakfast in bed. We spent the early part of the afternoon on the beach before going back to our room for our second massage (they really were that great).

[day 8]

We got up early to have breakfast before getting into our land taxi for the hour drive back to the airport.

On our way to the airport, we ran into this guy.

And of course DH had to get out and take a picture with the snake.

And one last look at the Piton Mountains before continuing on our way.

St. Lucia was a fabulous honeymoon destination. We wanted nothing but to be able to relax, and that's exactly what we got.

Some advice...

I was told by several people to not get the meal vouchers. We decided to anyway, and they were totally worth it. We spent $426 to get 3 lunch vouchers and 5 dinner vouchers. Lunch vouchers included an appetizer, lunch, dessert, and non-alcoholic drinks for each of us. Each day, getting our own meals, would have cost us around $45 dollars. Dinner each night also included an appetizer, dinner, dessert, and non-alcoholic drinks for each of us. Dinner each night was close to $100. Our vouchers more than paid for themselves and I totally recommend getting them.

The open-air markets in Castries are a bit annoying. The locals there trying to sell their items pretty much jump down your throats as soon as you are in view. And they don't really bargain all that much. And their items are really not all that cheap. We missed our complimentary lunch in the capital because we got tied up trying to bargain with the locals for gifts for our families.

There are a lot of good restaurants in Marigot Bay. We did not have the chance to make it there, but a lot of the couples that we met at the resort did and everyone said it was phenomenal. Should we go back to St. Lucia, we'll definitely put this on our to-do list.

The snorkeling is amazing right off the beach at the resort. One of the best bays on the island to snorkel at. Definitely recommend doing it. Snorkel gear can be rented at the dive shop on the beach for $10/day.