Happy Holidays from Celebrations!

The Gift of Choice

Look at what has landed on my desk!

Finally, they are here! Just in time for the Holidays, the Celebrations Gift Card is the gift of choice for Christmas and any other special occasion throughout the year. If you can't decide what to give that favorite person, give them the exclusive Celebrations Gift Card.

This card will permit the lucky recipient to choose the gift they want from any Celebrations gifts, products or services..which of course is limitless! It also makes a lovely addition to any floral arrangement or gift basket that you order with us! Plus (and here's a BIG plus!) if you would like to top-up the recipient's card at a later date, you can do that too! We've made it so easy for you to give that perfect gift every time.


Here are the Celebrations Gift Cards in their elegant packaging!

They are now available in-store or you could email us at info@celebrationsltd.com for any questions about them.

Celebrations Huge Sale Countdown to Christmas!!!

We are having a massive countdown to Christmas Sale starting today! "The 12 Days to Christmas Sale" will mean that we will have amazing discounts in store from now until Christmas!

We will have lots of fun things going on at our retail shop. We're having a Christmas Party for children so we'll have a bouncing castle and treats all day! For adults we will be serving uip some cold champagne and lots of prizes and surprises!


Here I am with the stars of Cayman's local news CITN Daybreak, (L-R) John Foster, Sheena Hursltone & Cynthia Hew.

Christmas is fast approaching. This past few weekends alone have flown by in a blur with a jam-packed calendar of Corporate Christmas Events that the Celebrations Team has to orchestrate.

My family even wonders how I keep up with all the madness that Celebrations faces during this busy season. I always retort back by saying that if you are passionate with what you are doing, no matter how hectic/crazy/demanding any endeavour is, you'll find yourself smiling every time.

And right now, my team and I are loving every minute of it!

Note to self: Post pictures of all these wonderful Christmas events soon.

Cayman Islands Wedding Symposium with Rebecca Grinnals

What a great morning I had attending the Cayman Islands' Wedding Symposium spearheaded by Rebecca Grinnals of Engaging Concepts and the Cayman Islands' Department of Tourism. In attendance also was the Director of Research for the knot.com who presented the latest market intelligence research and consumer insights related to Destination Weddings & as well as to roll out a new custom program for on island partners.

Rebecca revealed the marketing wedding strategy that they had in store for 2009 and it's all very exciting. I can't wait to share more details with you soon!

International Ladies Visits Celebrations for their Annual Coffee Morning

December 4. Celebrations Enchanted Christmas opened its doors to the members of Cayman Islands International Ladies for their "Annual Coffee Morning". The ladies were treated to coffee, juices and pastries and Christmas shopping while inside the shop.

Jo Anne Brown with some of the the members of the International Ladies.

To show our appreciation for their continued support of Celebrations, we gave away discounts to all the attendees and prizes to lucky members.

Helen Haines receiving a floral arrangement from Jo Anne Brown.

 

One of the topsellers during their visit is the Celebrations Commemorative Ornament. The ladies also made time to give back to the community by purchasing Celebrations Commemorative Ornaments, the profit of which will go to the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre.

It's always a pleasure to have the International Ladies visit us. We look forward to seeing them again next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a crazy, hectic month! And I can't even begin how terrible I feel for not blogging more regularly about all the projects Celebrations is currently involved in. Lights, Christmas decor, parties, weddings, etc...you name it, we're on top of it!

Celebrations 15th Anniversary as a company is definitely a great milestone I'm personally proud of. I can't believe that it has been 15 years since I started creating Christmas decorations in my own house to sell to my friends and family. Time does fly by, especially if you are involved in something that you are passionate about. It has certainly been a fantastic journey from a small company of 1 designer and a driver to a full events rental, wedding & events coordinating, retail, floral and concierge company of 52 full time employees ( and growing!) . However, Celebrations won't be where we are right now without our loyal customers.

So to show our deep appreciation for their continued patronage, we've welcomed our retail store guests to champagne, discounts and loads of surprises! I, personally, think that shopping is so much more fun with a glass or two of bubbly and fantastic discounts.

If you happen to be nearby, please stop by this weekend and take advantage of our Thanksgiving Sale this weekend!

To further celebrate our 15th Anniversary, we also have in stock commemorative Christmas ornaments. The profit on the sale of these ornaments will go to our chosen charity this Christmas, the Cayman Crisis Centre.

It's our way of giving back to the community that has continuously supported over the years.

We've got so much more in the pipeline as part of Celebrations 15th Anniversary celebrations. I will keep you all posted about all of them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from a very grateful Celebrations.

Let the Season Begin...with Celebrations Christmas Open House

October 28, Tuesday. The day of our Open House didn't start out with great promise as it was blustery and rainy. I had a knot in my stomach fearing that all the preparations that my staff & I made to guarantee a successful Annual Open House & Customer Appreciation evening would all come to naught due to the terrible weather we had on that day. There was even a point that I considered re-scheduling the event for fear of a very low turnout due to rain.

Luckily, around mid-day the rain stopped. To the Celebrations Event set-up crew it was the signal they were waiting for. They attacked the job on hand with no other purpose than to finish on time. We were also ready if in case the weather turns for the worse.

At 4:30, right on the dot, all of Celebrations staff were on their designated spots for the night, ready to welcome our guests.

They came in trickles at first but within half an hour we had huge crowd out on the parking lot, which we've transformed into a magical Christmas party tent with opulent linens of deep reds & golds, chivari chairs, centrepieces of every shape and size, upbeat cocktail tables strategically spread out in and out of the clear top tent, red carpet, lights, candles....the works!!! Nothing was spared to make this event anything else but top of the line, rain or shine!

Shortly, I've welcomed all of our guests into our retail store which we've transformed into Cayman's only Enchanted Christmas Store. Guests swarmed into the store to purchase the latest in Christmas décor and to see the beautifully designed Christmas Trees. I could have never been prouder of the work Celebrations does everytime I hear a guest gasp in delight & amazement upon seeing the ornately designed Christmas Trees and the gorgeous Christmas decor.

A look at some of the Christmas decor we have in stock.

Three of Celebrations' signature trees: Emerald Sea, Winter Wonderland, Blue Sky (L-R).

Another set of Celebrations' Signature Christmas Trees: Celestial Glory, Lemon Chiffon & Sunset Calypso (L-R).

Guests queued, eager to be inside Celebrations Enchanted Christmas Store.

The reigning Miss Cayman, Nicosia Lawson & myself in front of one of our Christmas Trees.

The Red Door Charity, which was a huge success from last year, was also part of the night's activities. In attendance this year were the Cancer Society, Humane Society & Red Cross. Celebrations created elegantly designed Christmas Wreaths for each Charity and sold tickets to all our guests. 3 lucky guests were picked as lucky winners of a wreath.

Lillian Burgos,one of the 3 lucky Charity Christmas Wreath winners with Miss Cayman, Nicosia Lawson & myself.

Thankfully the rain held off for the entire evening, and guests were able to enjoy appetizers from Fusion and drinks alfresco, whilst enjoying a myriad of live entertainment. Janine Stabler entertained guests with her violin as they arrived, then Isadora of Bonafide created a festive atmosphere with her melodic Christmas carols. The final act of the night, The Cayman National Chamber Choir, wowed the crowd as they sang in unison and had everyone singing along in no time!

The Cayman National Chamber Choir during their performance.

All in all, the night was a huge success! What a great way to start the Holidays!

You're Invited to Our Annual Christmas Open House & Customer Appreciation Night!

Join us in celebrating the start of the Holiday Season on Tuesday, October 28th 4.30pm until 8.30pm. Preview our beautiful new Christmas stock and Christmas Trees in our Enchanted Store.

Lots of prizes to be won and discounts in-store! Win one of three beautiful wreaths in our raffle in aid of The Humane Society, The Cancer Society and The Red Cross. Tickets on sale in-store now!

An evening of live entertainment and fun for everyone that is not to be missed!

Save the Date!

It's that time of the year again! And to kick off the season, we've chosen October 28th as the date for our Annual Open House & Customer Appreciation Night.

So, please mark your calendars for this date. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Celebrations at Yeah Baby Expo

Last September 13 at the Marriott Hotel, Celebrations together with DMS Broadcasting, one of the fastest growing event of its kind, the Yeah Baby Family Expo. The main goal of this event was to provide parents and future parents with the latest products and services available for families and kids, all in an environment that is fun and entertaining for the whole family.

Besides being Title Sponsors for this event, we also had a huge booth featuring the wide inventory of baby products that Celebrations has instore. Nadia Fagan, Celebrations' Concierge Executive Services & Retail Store Manager, bedecked in a flamboyant hat attracted expo guests of all ages.

Our booth was filled with a wide assortment of baby products such as bags, bassinets, clothes, socks, toys, books, and everything else in between.

 

We also displayed some beautiful gift ideas and promoted our new Baby Gift Registry service.

Here are a few of the adorable 'Celebrations Stars' that visited our booth and enjoyed playing with our wide selection of cuddly toys! They enjoyed playing dress up with our various props such as feather boas and pirate costumes. It was great fun for everyone involved!

If your child was photographed at the Celebrations booth, please click here to view the images. You can save the photo of your child by right clicking and hitting 'save image as'.

To Infinity and Beyond…Ahmed to represent Celebrations at Shuttle Launch!

 

Ahmed Elkaswani from Celebrations was the coordinator for a wedding for an extraordinary couple on January 19, 2008. Both individuals are astronauts working at NASA in Cape Canaveral! Gregory Johnson is a Pilot for NASA and his wife Nanette Faget is a Ground Engineer. This wedding was for about 30 guests at a Villa in Kaibo. The couple and their guests were extremely happy with Ahmed’s service and the expertise of the other vendors we hired for them.

"Greg and I had our first vacation together on Grand Cayman in July 2007. Greg always said that one of the keys to a happy marriage is to be compatible on a vacation so this was sort of a test for us, a fun one at that! Needless to say we had a perfect vacation. We spent a luxurious romantic week, just the two of us and had a wonderful time - scuba diving, snorkeling, hanging out at Rum Point, shopping in Georgetown, touring Pedro's Castle, eating out at all the excellent restaurants, and floating in our pool. Two months later Greg proposed so I guess we were pretty compatible.

After he proposed I found out there was an ulterior motive to our trip. We both knew we wanted to have a destination wedding so while we were on vacation he was also scouting out possible wedding locations," says Nanette.

They have since invited Ahmed to view the highly publicized launch of the Atlantis Space Craft in Cape Canaveral, Florida on October 10, 2008. This is a very important event in the USA and is one of the last missions to repair the Hubble scope. Ahmed is very exciting to be attending the launch and witnessing this moment in history first hand!

Gregory Johnson is the Pilot of this shuttle and has also informed us he will be flying a Cayman Islands flag with him on the Space Shuttle and will also be trying to get a photo of the Cayman Islands from space. He will then return to Cayman and present this photo and the flag to either the Governor or another Cayman Island Government Representative.

Needless to say, we are all extremely excited and strongly feel that it has been Ahmed’s excellent service and Celebrations top of the line involvement in this couple’s wedding from the start that has made such a huge impact on their view of the Cayman Islands. We strongly believe that this is an extremely important opportunity for us as an Island and that this truly is history in the making!

Talitha & Bill ...Color Fetish

Talitha Levine & Bill Wegner, both of Sherman Oaks, California, chose June 21st as their wedding day and the Cayman Islands as the location for their dream destination wedding.

Talitha or Talli wanted vibrance and they chose vivid, dramatic colors for their exotic Caribbean wedding! She is one of the many brides that we've had the pleasure to work with who thinks that color is really important -- and who fully embraced that weddings need no longer be all white and that colors can add flavour to their wedding.

For this outdoor wedding, Celebrations created an atmosphere of rustic chic. With the world-famous Seven Mile Beach as the backdrop, we created a simple canopy flambouyantly draped with fuchsia voille fabric. Gold chivari chairs with fuchsia seats flanked the white carpet aisleway.

The wedding ceremony took place on the sparkling, white sand beaches of the beautiful Westin Casuarina Resort, and a few steps away from the ceremony on a nearby patio at the Westin, Celebrations created the entire reception site. For this, we took a conventional white tent and transformed it into rustic chic scene with hints of Asian inspiration. Overhead was woven with hundreds of willow branches which covered the ceiling and poles of the tent. There was an incredible ambiance and atmosphere created under this most charming finish, to which we added bright orange and fuchsia lanterns in assorted sizes and pomanders of fresh roses were strung from the tent ceiling creating a magical realm.

The floral centrepieces were a mixture of different displays with simplicity as the theme. Each table had an assortment of clear vases displaying assorted flowers on each vase, creating a colorful and multi-layered look on the table.

The tables were covered in beautiful crushed satin orange linen.

A closer look at the details that made this couture high-end designer wedding one to remember!

Talli and her special flower girls posing with the gorgeous Seven Mile Beach as the background.

Talli's cascading hand tied bouquet was made of Freesias, Lilies, Mocorra Orchids, Roses, Phaelanopsis and Cateleya Orchids. Exquisite bridal bouquet, perfect choice for this couture wedding. The girls wore floral halos using the same coloured flowers.

Talli and Bill sharing an intimate moment after their wedding ceremony.

Photos by: Fevi Yu

Wayne & Joni Kirkconnell

Wayne & Joni, both of Cayman Islands, tied the knot March 1st 2008. We truly loved this wedding. We could not loose the opportunity to share this awesome event with everyone.... so here at last are our photos and comments on this special wedding!

Joni's bouquet was created with green Cymbidium orchids, mini Callas, ivory Stephanotis and accented by cholocate Mocorra orchids.

Her 8 bridesmaids carried with them smaller versions of Joni's bouquet. The bright colours of the flowers in their bouquets greatly complimented their fabulous dresses.

The First Baptist Church was the church chosen for their wedding reception. The setting is superb and the decor was designed to create a simple elegance with of course the flavor of the Caribbean. Joni's favourite colors of chocolate brown and orange so we took great pleasure in creating the various design accents, to bring this vibrant color combination to life in this gorgeous wedding. For the ceremony in the church, the white carpet leading to the altar was elegantly punctuated by arrangements of roses, orchids, willow, and hanging aramanthus, tulips, and hydrangea, creatively arranged in tall clear glass vases. The mosaic design found in the church's window provided great ambient lighting for the wedding ceremony too!

On the altar itself, there were 4 large customized floral arrangements all in keeping with the general colour scheme of the wedding made using exotic flowers. The flowers that were used were ranunculus, cymbidium orchids, mango callas, ivory & terracotta roses, tulips, hydrangea and so much more.

Here are some close up detail of some of the unique and customized arrangements that were used in Joni & Wayne's wedding, from the ceremony to the cocktail area to the dinner tables.

This wedding was a gorgeous example of being very adventerous in creating your color palette. Joni & Wayne were quite successful in bringing together oranges, lime greens and browns.

The clear top tent, made for a spectacular setting, on the beautiful grounds of Pedro St. James Castle. It was truly breathtaking! So many guests, on the day of the wedding made special comment to me, that this was such a beautiful wedding, and that the colors were amazing in this particular setting. I have to say, it was awesome! The dinner table centrepieces which was a composite one with arrangements in large vases and smaller vases.

The ever popular lounge area was created, close by the large clear top tent, and this was done with all white lounge sets with bright colored pillows. These were placed in locations of the reception area for guests to use while taking a break from dancing and just wanting to lounge and enjoy the evening!

It's all in the details! Some close up shots to show you the extent of customization that were prevalent in this wedding.

Just another sample of what you can do to personalize your wedding is this gobo of the couple's monogram. Lighting is one of the most important ingredient of any event, and here the lighting was magnificent, and helped to emphasis, and finish the entire decor elements.

The wedding cake was a masterpiece in its simplicity and elegance. Miss Anne, Celebrations head designer, created this gorgeous and scrumptious wedding cake. Complete with edible fondant icing flowers, this cake simply was the "icing on the wedding", bringing together the simplicity yet sheer elegance in design.

After dinner, the guests were treated to a spectacular fireworks show against the moonlit Cayman sky. What a finish to this incredible wedding!

Congratulations and sincere best wishes to Wayne & Joni Kirkconnell! Thank you for making Celebrations a part of this most wonderful occasion.

Photography by : David Wolfe