Marcela and Caleb are a fun loving, laid back couple who I had the pleasure of getting to know during their engagement shoot in Brooklyn early last fall. I was beyond psyched to hop on a plane, and travel to St. Lucia to document their intimate celebration with their family. It was my first time to this lush, sensuous island and Jalousie Plantation was a perfect introduction. The location was full of history, nature, and stylish luxury. Marcela was kind enough to lend her story, so I'll let her take it from here. You can see more images in the gallery here.

I asked Marcela how she and Caleb chose St. Lucia, and the Jalousie Plantation.

She said, "I love the mountains but hate the cold weather and I always tell Caleb that I want to move to place that has warm mountains.  For our wedding, Caleb found me some warm mountains in St Lucia and and found Jalousie in between the two Pitons.  It was the perfect location for our wedding, sun and beach between the most beautiful Piton Mountains!"

"All morning long I had hoped that the rain would stop and that the sun would come out.  As I walked down the aisle with my parents towards Caleb the clouds opened up and gave way to the sun and at that moment everything was perfect."  

"The most important part of the wedding day was the reception - our families had never really been around each other so we were nervous to see how we all interact together especially since we had such a small wedding.  It was amazing how we all came together despite the language and cultural barrier. We could not have asked for a better day. "

Their Vendors:

Photography: Lindsay Hite / Readyluck

Flowers, Planning, and Location: Jalousie Plantation 

Invitations, Menus, Place cards: (Caleb, the groom!), www.calebirwinart.com
Shoes: Badgley Mischka Randee
Dress: Watters Mimi

Bobbie and Ray were married at the Paradisus Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in early July and I was fortunate enough to spend a few days  with them and make pictures of their wedding.  The Paradisus is a beautiful resort with pristine beaches which provided the perfect back drop to a beachside wedding.  Wedding planner, Alexandra Campbell, from Luxe Destination Weddings, did an amazing job keeping everything organized - and on time.  For a destination wedding, the guest list was large and every detail was accounted for.  

Bobbie would make quite the wedding planner herself.  She made and brought down all of the wedding decor, including the sand dollar place cards, the centerpieces and the menus.  Even more impressive is that she arrived early and made the wedding cake in the kitchen of the Paradisus, twice, once upon arrival and again after a "melt down".  I asked Bobbie a few questions about her process and the story behind the cake.  

RL: What was your inspiration behind the details you put together? 

Bobbie: I love details, it shows new relatives about the couple's little quirks and personalities.
 

RL: You arrived early and made your very own cake. What obstacles did you encounter and how did you deal with them?

Bobbie: Back in February we visited the resort for a wedding “walk through” and dinner  menu tasting and when it came to the cake we were denied the opportunity of a tasting. This was a huge bummer for me since I hope to open my own bakery and cake specialty shop in the near future and the wedding cake was kinda dear to my heart. The evening before my sister and I left for the wedding, I received a phone call from our wedding planner who had “Great News” for me. My husband knew that the cake was a bit of a sad subject for me and worked up a plan with my wedding planner to grant me access to the main kitchen on Thursday before the wedding to create my own wedding cake! While this was in theory a really nice surprise, this was a LOT of pressure. So fast forwarding to two days before the wedding I find myself in a refrigerated workroom in the middle of the resort's main kitchen. Nobody around me knew a word or English! 7 hours later I had completed a 4 tier white fondant cake, with satin ribbon, and 20+ sugar flowers. I put the cake and box of flowers in the refrigerator for the night and planned on returning the following day to place the flowers on the cake. After spending a few relaxing hours on the beach I went to the kitchen to check on the cake and to position all of the flowers. The refrierator apparantly turns into a freezer at night and nobody told me.  So, the cold temperature made all of the fondant puddle around the bottom tier of the cake, include the sugar flowers.  I had 1 hour before the rehearsal dinner to re-cover the cake and make the best out of the only 2, the semi-destroyed flowers. I’ll just have to redeem myself on our 1 year anniversary! 

You can visit Bobbies blog and check take a closer look on how she made everything, including baking recipes.