St. Thomas Blog welcomes Island Bliss Weddings to our growing family of advertisers!

Island Bliss Weddings evolved naturally into a business the same way this blog did…by people moving to St. Thomas, living, experiencing and, eventually, sharing with others. Check out their page to see how Janelle puts her personal stamp on every wedding.

Here’s their story…

Janelle Scott moved to St. Thomas for the sunny skies & warm weather in August of 2004 with her fiancé and immediately started to plan for their May 2005 wedding. Quickly becoming overwhelmed, she turned to the resources of The Knot and formed many friendships with other women planning destination weddings. Being that she lived in the beautiful island of St. Thomas, many brides began contacting her for help with their own weddings.

Soon, Island Bliss Weddings was formed and has begun to grow (much like her own family!) over the last few years. She and her husband, Stuart Scott of USVI Services, have two beautiful children, Marley & Maya, and enjoy each day to the fullest….often spending time with the girls at the beach on days that they do not have a wedding! They are a true “mom & pop” shop, dedicated to providing you with excellent service for an unforgettable wedding experience.

Janelle holds a degree in Public Management from Indiana University, which has been a tremendous help in her life as a wedding planner. Planning a wedding is quite the management job! She has also completed post-graduate courses at the Rhode Island School of Design which has helped shaped the way she coordinates a wedding ceremony & reception. Each event is like a blank canvas, just waiting to be painted by the bride!

Island Bliss Weddings is fully licensed and insured to do weddings on St. Thomas & St. John in the beautiful US Virgin Islands and is endorsed by the Virgin Islands Wedding Association. They were also awarded with the Best of 2008 Award by Onewed.com and the Bride’s Choice 2010 Award from WeddingWire.com based on their outstanding client reviews.

Phone: (340) 514-2685

Or Write:

Island Bliss Weddings
4605 Tutu Park Mall
Suite 133, PMB 150
St. Thomas, VI 00802

Welcome Janelle and Stuart – and congratulations to future brides & grooms!

Check out the Dave Gerard Band this Thursday night at Jack’s!

Truffle is a family, a tribe of vibes; musicians and fans united by the groove, wherever and whenever it can happen. From one guitar and a voice in the corner of a cozy pub, to a churning, five piece, electrified, rootsy funk machine on the big stage, and every expression in between, they morph and adapt to any room and every audience.

Drink specials start at 6 and they include $2 Miller Lite, $2 Jager and $2 Absolut.

And as always Jack’s is one of our awesome advertisers. So if you think we’re full of bull and these bands don’t rock then stay home

To our family of advertisers.

Do you like to gamble? Then this is the place. They’re located right in Cruz Bay in St. John (just a 20 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas) and they have all the state of the art games like:

Roulette

Black Jack

And of course all types of slots.

They’ve hired me to design their new website so look for that in a little over a month. I’ll be heading over there next week to get all the real skinny about what they do, how they do it and what makes them tick.

We’re happy to have a high class, fun, gaming establishment in our family that offers more than just gaming. They have events and other fun things we’ll be talking about over the next year.

Become a fan on Facebook click here

Nicci and I went over to Crown Bay to try out the new BBQ place called Jumbies (excellent by the way) when we stumbled on this brand new store called “Cbay“.

Click the photo to enlarge:

What a creative name and logo I mumbled to myself. It’s almost like I’ve seen it before. Hmmmm, as I ponder through my mental rolodex. I got it! I proclaimed out loud…

Ebay – Cbay, how ingenious these smart (and I’m using that very sarcastically) business people are. I can see the big strategy meeting now…

Hey I love Ebay…

If only we could come up with a name like it.

Hey what rhymes with Ebay? Or wait better yet make it Crown Bay, Ebay-ish…

Abay, nah…Bbay, nah, Cbay? Holy cow…C for Crown and Bay for, um..er Bay. The quest has ended!

So there you have it. A completely ripped off logo from Ebay. What do you think blog readers? Is it cool to rip off a logo like this? Don’t hold back, tell me how you really feel.

Next week we’ll talk about the new sneaker store in Bovoni called, wait for it…wait for it…

BIKE (pronounced Bykey), they have an upside down swoosh for a logo.

p.s. To the owners of Cbay, for real you should change your logo ASAP before the powers that be over at Ebay sue the pants off you. Just sayin’.

Eight years ago we met. Four years ago we got engaged and moved to St. Thomas.

And three years ago today we joined the many, many couples who have tied the knot on this rock.

Okay folks we have some really great news. Technology has FINALLY caught up with the US Virgin Islands. We have been asked to test the newest St. Thomas VoIP phone.

We will be conducting a 1 month test on the new SunFone. So far so REALLY good! We have a crystal clear signal, better than Innovative because there is no humming noise in the background.

Here’s the best part of this…It’s only $24.99/month and…wait for it….wait for it… FREE LONG DISTANCE TO THE STATES.

Free I said, zippo, nada, zilch. And if you live here in the USVI chances are you call the states often.

Unfortunately my cell phone doesn’t work well in my house so we need some type of landline. So this is perfect. And businesses…you’ll save a fortune with this! If your business calls outside the US Virgin Islands you’d be a fool not to look into this.

Here’s what you need, an Internet connection with at least 256K. We use Broadband VI and run well above that requirement. But any connection other than Innovative will work (except satellite).

So I’ll be reporting back often to let you know how the new phone is working. But so far so good. I imagine I’ll save over $100/month.

VoIP Defined: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.

I just completed the new website design for The Buzz 104.3, check it out and leave a comment and let me know how I did?

Click The Picture Here:

In order not to conflict with other events on island, Pistarckle Theater’s dinner, silent/live auction and fundraising event, The Roast of George Blackhall, will be held at Coral World on Sunday March 7th at 6:00 pm.www.pistarckletheater.vi. Or call 340-775-7877.

Click the photo to enlarge:

A longtime St. Thomas resident, entrepreneur, and auctioneer, George Blackhall is one of our community’s most beloved and colorful characters.

We hope to have a tremendous turnout featuring a great diversity of people, given all those who would love a chance to “roast” Mr. Blackhall! We will hold the event at Coral World – not the usual fundraiser location of the theater. Time is 6:00 pm on Sunday, March 7 and includes a sit down dinner, fire dances through-out the evening and of course, many friendly toast and roasts.

We hope you will be able to attend this event but even if you cannot we are inviting you to purchase an advertisement which will be printed in our event booklet distributed to all who attend the fundraiser. You may choose to use the space to insert your own “roast” of Mr. Blackhall, or to simply promote your business. Proceeds will benefit Pistarckle Theater’s Education Program, which is a year round program offering eleven weeks of summer camps, an annual island wide Shakespeare Festival for all schools, and a comprehensive after school program in theater training for children ages three and up.

If you would like to attend the event, please contact Nikki Emerich or Lisa Bryan at 340-775-7877, emails: nikki@pistarckletheater.vi  or lisa@pistarckletheater.vi.

We know there are a lot of worthwhile charitable organizations on the island and hope you will support our 18 year tradition of bringing live theater and theater education to our community and children.

Averaging over 200 gigs per year for the past few years, The Ryan Montbleau Band has generated the kind of buzz that only surrounds a talented artist on the verge.

Emerging onto the national music scene from his home base of Boston, Ryan Montbleau has been described as something of a Martin Sexton by way of Van Morrison and Stevie Wonder. Yet Ryan Montbleau Band’s music is difficult to pigeon-hole or neatly categorize. It is original yet familiar—a fresh sound full of firmly-rooted ingredients, including Americana, folk, blues, ragtime and ’70’s R&B and soul. Whereas the band’s intriguing instrumentation and arrangements (not to mention top notch chops) help to create this unique sound, all is firmly anchored by Montbleau’s water-tight lyrics and unmistakable voice.

Drink specials start at 6 and they include $2 Miller Lite, $2 Jager and $2 Absolut.

And as always Jack’s is one of our awesome advertisers. So if you think we’re full of bull and these bands don’t rock then stay home

Click To Enlarge

…heard a rumor that Jimmy Buffett came down to St. Thomas and checked out the lonely 360 degree restaurant-to-be that sits empty on the dock at Yacht Haven Grande. Not sure when this was exactly, but the rumor continues on that he decided not to buy/rent/invest in it and hopped back on his plane to return to his life of stuffed parrots and catchy tunes.

I can only imagine if he did decide to drop a Cheeseburgers in Paradise down in full view of Havensight cruise ships that the tourists would flock to it. I can also imagine the other restaurants in the area would not love it as much.

There was also a (wicked small) rumor that Buffett was appearing to play New Year’s at Yacht Haven – who knows where that started.

I’m pretty sure he once showed up unannounced on St. John and played some songs. At the Westin, I think? Or maybe that was Kenny Chesney. Or both?

I’ve only been to one Buffett concert. I’d go again, but only if we had the same perfect sunny day - it’s pretty much all about the tailgating at that event. I remember at one point during the concert looking down our row of friends and most of us looked to be taking a quick cat-nap. Most likely from the previous five hours of tailgating.

Hey Jimmy – let us know if you’re planning to drop by our rock for another visit. You may not want to put a restaurant in YHG, but they have a big grassy lawn down there that would be perfect for an afternoon concert. Just sayin’.

As we wrote many months ago Mountain Top will indeed re-open and they’ve set an extremely aggresive September 2010 deadline.

The new building will utilize green technology, with solar panels on the roof. The walls will be concrete, with a steel trussed roof. It will have the famous outdoor-indoor bar and observation area.

The plans include a Pirates of the Caribbean museum, a stroll through a replica seaport and aboard a pirate ship, filled with authentic artifacts, the owners say.

Read the full story here

The Nashville Scene calls Tim O’Brien “the consummate Americana artist”. At the age of 12 Tim first heard a Bob Dylan record and decided to take up music. He taught himself to play the guitar, violin, and mandolin. Besides those instruments Tim is also proficient on the Bouzouki and the Mandocello. One of the most versatile and eclectic musicians in the roots music field, Tim incorporates folk, bluegrass, country, and even celtic elements into his music.  

 His album “Fiddlers Green” was awarded the Grammy as the Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005. In 1996 and in 2006 Tim was honored with the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year award. He was for a number of years a member of one of the nation’s leading bluegrass bands, Hot Rize, which also featured E-Town host Nick Forster as one of it’s members. In 1990 Hot Rize was awarded the International Bluegrass Music Association’s first Entertainer of the Year Award.

Tim is a highly respected musician who has released instructional videos teaching mandolin and bazouki. In 1990 his duet with Kathy Mattea, “The Battle Hymn of Love” reached #9 on the Billboard Country Singles Charts. His latest release is a solo effort called “Chameleon” which has received stellar reviews and shows off Tim’s virtuoso instrumental prowess as well as his fine vocal stylings.

Tickets for the O’Brien concert are $30 starting at 8pm. This season Arts Alive is introducing “The Prelude”

a $25 Tapas Buffet and jazz performance before the featured concert from 6pm-7:30pm. The jazz ensemble features local professional and student jazz musicians. Reservations are recommended. Tapas and concerts are $55. Tickets are available at Tillett Gardens in the Arts Alive office, 10am to 4pm Mon-Fri.

For more information and to make reservations, call 340-776.8566 or email artsalive@tillett.net.  The Arts Alive website is  www.tillettfoundation.org.

Arts Alive will also be featuring The Prelude with Dick Solberg & the Sun Mountain Band playing from 6 pm to 7:30 pm for your listening pleasure.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Prelude ~ 6pm to 7:30pm
Concert ~ 8 pm
Tillett Gardens

Seriously the Caribbean Saloon has lost their mind with these New Happy Hour Specials. I’m just gonna say it once:

$1 Cruzan Dark/Light drinks from 3-7. A buck. Un Dolar. 100 Pennies, 4 quarters. 

C’mon Saloon, I can come and get hammered for like $7! Who’s better than you!

And if that isn’t cheap and good enough check out these specials (click to enlarge the picture):

But wait, there’s more! You get Ginsu Knives, ah, er, um maybe not. But how about Kenny Floyd crankin’ out the tunes every Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 for FREE.

The bar has just been raised for Happy Hours in St. Thomas, thanks Caribbean Saloon, you rock!

And as always the Caribbean Saloon is one of our awesome advertisers. So if you think we’re full of bull and their happy hour is for little school girls then stay home

Wow, something new on St. Thomas, the last Sunday of every month will now be Sombrero Sunday at the Caribbean Saloon. Mexican dishes (enchiladas, beef tacos, fish tacos, taquitos, mexican pizzas), $3.50 Cuervo Margaritas, $3 Cuervo shots, giveaways all day and Sex Machine Gun live from 4-7pm. Lots of fun !!!

That sounds like a case of heartburn I want to have

Get out to the Caribbean Saloon Sunday the 28th for their virgin kickoff!

Click to enlarge.

And as always the Caribbean Saloon is one of our awesome advertisers. So if you think we’re full of bull and this won’t be muy caliente then stay home