Hi y’all! It’s Lara here, writing you from a mosquito net-covered bed high in the rain forest mountains. All photos taken with my Panasonic LX3.

There aren’t actually any mosquitoes at this height, but it makes the bed look pretty and it’s a bit of peace of mind in a room that only has three walls. This is what I’m looking at right now…

I’m currently at Jade Mountain in Soufriere, St. Lucia, West Indies, after spending a blissful four days at Sandals La Toc. I’ll give you all the details very soon on our new site, but I just had to say hi and give you a few pics from our magical week in honeymoon paradise. My husband, Ari, and I never really had a proper honeymoon. We went to the Navy Lodge after getting married in Vegas. So, this has been a dream come true. What was supposed to be a simple property review for the new SW site and a few days away has blossomed into the honeymoon we never had. We were not expecting it at all. This is the honeymoon I could only dream of! Sandals completely blew us away. How beautiful is this!? The millionaire suite…

The rondoval suites…

I’ve had so much fun meeting loads of SW readers here! I have lots of pics with Southern newlyweds to come as well as their wedding photos. We watched 80 couples renew their vows on the beach. So magical. Love is definitely all you need at Sandals.

Four days at Sandals and we genuinely did not want to leave. We are already planning a trip to return!

Jade Mountain is also spectacular. This is “The Bachelor” hotel as well as one of the spots Oprah said you have to visit before you die. We can see why.

Two more days in paradise and only a little while till I spill all the beans on these amazing places for you on the new site. If you just can’t wait to hear details, my husband has taken to blogging and is detailing our entire trip here. And if you can’t wait for more photos, they are all on my facebook. Happy weekend, y’all! Enjoy!

We’re signing off a bit early today to work on new site features (yay!), so thought we’d leave you with this pretty, glam Halloween-ish inspiration board. Switch out the usual orange pumpkins for their gilded cousins or baby white Cinderella gourds, and use delicate (and bewitching!) black lace as a design accent. And how gorgeous is the applique on that dress?!

Credits, clockwise from top left: Country Living, Simply Bloom, Liz Banfield, Jose Villa, We Love Pictures, Max Attenborough via Magnolia Rouge, Real Simple, Meg Perotti, and Liz Banfield

Happy Halloween, Southern gals and ghouls!

Since V3 was our biggest + best issue yet, we had to come up with an equally awesome giveaway. (Pretty tough billing, I know.) I think we succeeded, however, with our MEGA Photo Contest.
give

For all you late-comers who missed the first announcement: y’all have until November 5 to send us a photo of you with SW V3. The more creative the better! There are only two rules: you have to tweet your pic(s) to us (@iloveswmag), and then email it/them to Whitney (whitney at iloveswmag dot com). We’ll feature our favorite submissions on the blog and then vote on them later that week. Simple, right?

What makes this our best (MEGA!) photo contest yet? The prizes, naturally! The winner will get to choose one of four prizes:

1. 10 copies of SW V3 for you + your friends;
2. An ad on the brand new SW site (launching soon!) if you are a vendor;
3. An iPod Nano; or
4. Bragging rights, and a feature right here on the blog!

Told ‘ya it was awesome.

Get your copy of SW V3 now, and start snappin’!

This morning, we raved a bit about Paige’s sartorial selections (remember those one-shoulder bridesmaid dresses?!), but wanted to give you a few close-ups of the bride’s ruffly gown. Augusta Jones does magical work with wedding dresses, but Paige is what really makes this dress. The newlyweds enjoyed a rustic reception under the stars at the Magnolia Plantation, and noshed on red velvet cupcakes and homemade desserts. Tres Southern! Photographer Landon Jacob has more South Carolina goodness on his blog. What are you waiting for?

See all the photos from Paige + Scott’s wedding in their Real Wedding Gallery!

Describe your wedding flowers: Our wedding flowers were one of my very favorite parts of our wedding! We had mixes of all types but the main flowers were antique roses, green parrot tulips, snow berries and scabiosa pods. The flowers on the tables were all in different white milk glass containers and all of them were different. The head table had a mix of candelabras and beautiful single flowers in tons of different sized and colored medicine bottles.
Describe your wedding cake: We did not do the traditional wedding cake. We did an array of desserts that were all made by our families and are famous recipes that have been passed down through our families. We then got an array of five different flavored cupcakes for people to grab as well. I could not find a cake topper that I fell in love with so I decided to make one that looked like a little banner that spelled out “love.” We draped it over our giant red velvet cupcake. The array of desserts was a HUGE hit!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Our biggest challenge in our wedding was probably our invitations. The mail system weighed them and they said that they would be fine. Six days after we mailed them, we received a huge box with all of our invitations back with horrendous stamps all over them saying they were too heavy and that they were not standard! Needless to say our invites were much delayed and people from overseas were getting them before people that lived down the street from us. It was a bit of a nightmare but ended up all working out.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? There are two moments that stick out to me. One was when I got there before it all started and walked into our ceremony location and our reception. It was absolutely breathtaking! The second moment was probably walking down the aisle to finally hold Scott’s hands. I had been crying (of happiness) the hour before! The second I walked down the aisle and saw everyone who had come to be with us, I immediately was in tears again. I finally got to the front and about two minutes into the ceremony, holding Scott’s hands, I was put at ease and was so happy to finally be with him.
Did you write your own vows? If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? We did not write our own vows although we did have a reading called “The Tree We Stand Beneath.” It was about a tree and how it starts as a seed and moves its way into having branches and grows just as a relationship does. It talked about you have to take care of a tree for the beauty to come just as a relationship has to be nurtured. It was beautiful. We thought it was very appropriate since we were married under a large historic oak tree. 

We’re kicking off our Wednesday with a South Carolina wedding from Landon Jacob Productions – and we love it! Paige + Scott were married in a sweet outdoor ceremony at the Magnolia Plantation, and while we love the natural beauty of the couple’s venue, it’s their fashion choices that we’re really mad for. Take the chic Jim Hjelm frocks the bride chose for her maids. Emily + I <3 these dresses, though for predictably different reasons: I, for one, am swooning over the asymmetric neckline and subtle ruching, while E insists the rich plum couple is a welcome alternative to the traditional reds + orange fall color palette. Paige didn’t disappoint, either, in a dreamy Augusta Jones gown and femme Chuck Taylors. Of course, I’d be remiss not to point out the burlap-wrapped bouquets from Out of Hand Events – stunning!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. Scott and I were neighbors that had never met for 3 years and were both highly involved in college. In fact, we had both gone on the exact same spring break to the Bahamas a year before we ever met. We were in the same hotel, rode the same cruise ship and spent time at the same beaches and nightlife locations. A year after that we were set up by a mutual friend and it’s history from there.
Describe the proposal. We were going on vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with my parents. Unfortunately, all of us got sick at some point in the trip and it was during the huge hit of Swine flu. Scott was barely able to make it out of bed after spending two days in it to come to our 5 course dinner on the beach but there was no way he was going to miss this particular dinner! It was the most romantic atmosphere. It was right as the sun was setting, the food was delicious and the company was the best we could have asked for. It was time for dessert when Scott bent down on one knee and said “This evening has been absolutely perfect, I only know one thing that could make it better…will you marry me?” AAHHH it was amazing! Of course within two seconds the entire resort was cheering, our waiter ran up with gorgeous flowers for me and pictures were going like crazy! It was a perfect start to what has been the perfect beginning of our lifetime together!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Romantic, Vintage, Casual
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? Neither of our families is from South Carolina so when we planned our wedding we wanted to show our families what we have fallen in love with— the Southern charm. We planned our entire wedding around southern romance. We were married on a plantation in Charleston, all of our foods were southern including crab cakes, she crab soup, fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, coconut shrimp, sweet potato chippers etc. All of the decorations were old heirlooms of Scott’s family that kept the old feel of the plantation and made it extra special to include our family’s items in our day.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: My mom, maid of honor and I went to about ten places looking at dresses until we found Gown Boutique of Charleston. I put on the dress and didn’t immediately fall in love until I added the sash and we discussed some adjustments that could be made to it. Once it was all altered, the boutique made me a shawl, I added the sash and Scott’s great grandmother’s brooch it was absolutely everything I wanted and worked perfectly with the venue where we were married!