We thought we would post one of our favorite posts from the pasts as well! This was one of our favorite real weddings...Shey & Dave. We love the photos of the two of them especially!
Shey & Dave were married at the beautiful Rock House Hotel in Negril, Jamaica. They shared with us their amazing pictures, taken by the talented Linda Wallace of Linda Wallace Photography, as well as many of the charming planning details behind this gorgeous occasion....enjoy!!!
Shey was kind enough to share with us some of the behind-the-scenes planning details...
The Location
From early on both of us knew we wanted our wedding to be something different - an event where we could celebrate for days, rather than hours, with the people who mean the most to us, in a place they would never forget. We are both avid travelers and wanted to reflect that passion at our wedding. We began looking at locations that would be affordable and close in proximity for our guests, while still being a unique and exotic location. Once we narrowed it down to Negril, the Rockhouse Hotel seemed to represent all that we wanted for our event. The resort was large enough to cater to all our wedding whims, but small enough so that our guests alone could fill the entire resort. It was also NOT all inclusive which was important to us – we wanted our guests to feel free to explore all the beauty and culture Negril has to offer, and our guests ended up doing activities such as scuba diving and moped rentals.
The Details
I wanted a clean and modern look while still complimenting the lush and colorful surroundings of the Caribbean. I didn’t want to compete with the natural beauty so we decided to stick to an all white color scheme with hints of sunset colors(gold, red, pink, orange, etc) accenting the event. A subtle starfish emblem was carried throughout the event as well, and was featured on our save the date cards, invitations, welcome letters, cocktail napkins, petal toss bags and menus.
About 10 months before the wedding date we sent out save the date postcards that Dave and I made ourselves. We took a photo during our scouting trip to the resort of Dave and I at the Rockhouse, jumping off of one of the cliffs and into the water. We used photoshop to create a postcard with the words: “We’re Taking The Plunge” on the front with the photo. On the back we had the name of our website along with other info and a starfish emblem which would continue to follow through the rest of our wedding.
Invitations were more formal while still reflecting the island
feel – and Dave and I made these as well. We printed in brown ink on
cream paper all the necessary information, added the same starfish
emblem and tied it together with natural colored raffia. We affixed a
real starfish to the front and put it all in a brown box and shipped
them to our guests. They were a huge hit!
The Ceremony
The ceremony site was on an oval stone deck overlooking the Caribbean sea. The timing was right before sunset and waves crashed along the cliffs beneath us. White parasols lined the ceremony aisle along with dark brown whicker chairs and the aisle was sprinkled with vivid fuchsia and orange bougainvillea petals. Palm fans tied with a fuchsia ribbon sat on every ceremony chair and purple orchids marked the first two rows as VIP seating.
The Reception
The reception was in the resort’s open air restaurant. The
tables were decorated with fuchsia table runners over white linens and
red, orange and white paper lanterns covering the ceiling. Sea shells
anchored large glass pillar holders where a single floating white
candle hovered in water – these functioned as our centerpieces.
Colorful cocktail umbrellas served as place cards and had the name of
the guest and a city in Jamaica (which were the table names) attached.
Paper luminaries at each place setting had guests names printed on the
front along with our monogram, and showed guests to their seat along
with adding extra lighting. Fuchsia menus laid at each place setting
told guests of the food and dessert to come, along with a note about
our favor – a donation to the Rockhouse Foundation which benefits
Jamaican children.
