St. Thomas, USVI Vendors

[JessicaLovesBrian]

**Ok, my wedding was 7 months ago, but I don't think I've ever posted my vendor reviews. So just thought I'd share in case there are any other St. Thomas brides that need suggestions!

Accomodations: We rented Caribia Cottage from McLaughlin Anderson. Caribia was located in a prime location... basically the middle of the island! It is located on the Mafolie Estate and only a few minutes from town, Magen's Bay and several tourist attractions. The cottage was a studio with it's own private balconey and a great deck complete with a private swimming pool and three tables. The view of the waterfront is amazing. It's perfect for a couple.
Caribbean Villas: Caribbean Villa Rentals by McLaughlin Anderson Villas Virgin Islands

Accomodations For Guests: Most of our guests stayed at Bolongo Bay. I was initially a little antsy about sticking guests here because it had gotten very mixed reviews on hotel rating websites. However, although we did not stay at the hotel, we saw the rooms of our guests and were on the poperty. It's not a 5 star resort with all the glitz and glamour, but it's certainly not a dump! It's a great, laid back place with suitable accommodations as well as a swimming pool and a variety of actitivties as well as a decent beach. Our guests had a great time there and the staff was friendly... even if they did spell everyone's name wrong on the welcome bulletin board!
Bolongo Bay Beach Resort offers a true caribbean experience, located on the beach on beautiful st thomas, us virgin islands, offering all inclusive packages, honeymoon, wedding packages, condominiums rentals for families

Ceremony: We had our ceremony on Magen's Bay Beach. This is normally a very crowded beach, but a great place to have a wedding if you plan smart. If you don't want a crowd of onlookers, do what we did and opt to have your ceremony after hours (we had ours at 5:15pm) on a weekday night as opposed to a weekend afternoon. We only had a couple of onlookers, but it was fine because we didn't have to put up with a lot of noise from other beach guests.

Music: We hired Lemuel for our ceremony music. The steel drums were excellent and added a nice tropical touch. It was a hoot to have Bob Marley played at our wedding!! Reasonable price.

Officate: Stu Scott was personable and funny. He personalized the ceremony and even included a line about the Red Sox (DH's FAVORITE baseball team). He kept the guests in stitches. Like Joey from Friends said "You get a minister and an entertainer. A ministainer. There's no one better. There's no one greater."
U.S.V.I. SERVICES · Your local connection in the Islands.....

Photographer: Searching for photographers in Saint Thomas is no easy task! We were thrilled when we finally found the wonderfully talented Kelly Greer. She resides part time in the states and part time in Saint Croix, but if you can catch her while she is in Saint Croix, she will photograph your St. Thomas wedding for a reasonable fee. She is very bubbly and outgoing and will instantly put you at ease. She's a lot of fun and takes great photos. I can't toot her horn enough! I love her!!!
St. Thomas Weddings Photographer & St. Croix Weddings Photographer | Kelly Greer Wedding Photographer in St. Thomas & St. Croix US Virgin Islands

Reception: Iggie's Beach Bar on Bolongo Bay was the perfect place to have our reception. The set up was on the beach and totally casual and laid back. Perfect for our guests who are more the "steak and beer" and opposed to "wine and cheese" type. The food was great and service was fantastic. Since we had our wedding on a Wednesday, we were able to have our reception during the public Carnival Night (this saved us loads of money on entertainment that we otherwise would have had to pay for). Carnival night was super entertaining and a great alternative to the same old DJ/band and dancing reception entertainment. Carnival Night featured a steel drum band, a fire eater, broken bottle dancer, limbo contest and more. It was so much fun!!!
www.iggiesbeachbar.com

Travel Brochures: Not really a vendor, but a big shout out to USVI Tourism. I wanted to send packet of information to my guests about the island and local attractions so they could plan out what they wanted to do in advance. By filling out the contact form, the USVI Tourism board sent me 20 copies each of maps, and travel guide books to give in advance to my guests. These items are also available all over the island.
USVI - Contact Us!

Wedding Coordinator: Janelle of Island Bliss Weddings has been a joy to work with. She put together an amazing wedding for me on Magen's Bay Beach. She can help plan your wedding on St. Thomas or St. John. Has lots of helpful suggestions and will gladly answer all of your questions in a prompt manner. Just overall super sweet. Her fee is extremely reasonable.
Island Bliss Weddings

Wedding Transportation: Air Force One provided a great open air safari shuttle to transfer our guests to the ceremony and reception site. Alan, the safety conscious driver, was super sweet and everyone enjoyed the expereince. The price per peson was very reasonable and we are extremely happy we decided to offer this service for our guests.
St. Thomas Wedding Transfers | Air Force 1 Fun Island Tours and Beach Trips

[starchild]

Great info Jessica!

[Jones4Me]

Thanks Jessica! I am now officially working with Janelle - and told her that I got her info from you! : ) And, oddly enough, she is from Indianapolis originally - where we live!
We are still trying to decide if we want to do a hotel or a cottage.... We did AI last vacation and LOVED it. So, not sure about finding places to eat and making food.... We are on a TIGHT budget. What do you think?
Thanks again for all of you St Thomas help!

[JessicaLovesBrian]

Originally Posted by Jones4Me

Thanks Jessica! I am now officially working with Janelle - and told her that I got her info from you! : ) And, oddly enough, she is from Indianapolis originally - where we live!
We are still trying to decide if we want to do a hotel or a cottage.... We did AI last vacation and LOVED it. So, not sure about finding places to eat and making food.... We are on a TIGHT budget. What do you think?
Thanks again for all of you St Thomas help!

That's awesome you are working with Janelle. She's so nice.

I honestly have never stayed at an AI so I don't know how it would compare with staying at a cottage. We loved the villa though. We weren't on a tight budget (due to saving our asses off), but we did try not to spend too much. There aren't too many AI choices on the island, as I'm sure you know, but thinking about it, it might be the pocket friendly choice. We did order some groceries to be delivered the day we arrived. I was a little surprised at the bill, we didn't request a whole lot, but the total came to a bit more than I expected. For example, a carton of ice cream we normally pay $4 for in NJ cost $6 in St Thomas. Milk was expensive and so was everything else we got. Eating out is fun, there's some pretty cool places to eat, but yeah, definitely gets pricey, especially if you eat three meals a day. Also fpr convience n AI might be better. Will save you from having to drive out fpr meals - gas is expensive, at least when we were there! I don't know what an average AI price is though...

[Jones4Me]

Thanks for your help Jessica! You are right that Janelle is great - I am glad that you recommended her!

[S2BLennon]

GREAT thread! this is going to be a TON of help! Thanks so much!

[09bride]

Thank you so much! great review!