Sage Island

Sail Wasabi

2013-12-26T11:54:00.000-04:00

I'm excited to share that Sail Wasabi is officially in the water and sailing around the Virgin Islands!!!!
It has been a lot of work getting the boat ready for the water and so much fun to sail. The boat handles amazingly on the water and will be a blast for anyone looking for a true sailing adventure from St Thomas.

Visit Wasabi's website for more information at sailwasabi.com

Thankful!!!

2013-11-28T07:58:00.003-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I don't even know where to start with how grateful I am for all I have. I feel blessed and rich with all that is in my life and the life I've created. Wishing all my friends an awesome day!

Morning Cake

2013-11-27T07:10:00.003-04:00

Sometimes in the morning when I'm just waking up and having my coffee I look at photos of cake. It makes me happy. Here is my little Pinterest collection of CAKES.

Dominica: Trafalgar Falls

2013-11-25T16:29:00.000-04:00

One of our favorite reasons to stay in Trafalgar Village on Dominica is because you can walk to so many natural hot water springs. The most natural feeling hot spring is the Trafalgar Falls because you are really sitting in a hot river. They call the twin falls of Trafalgar "Mother Falls" and "Father Falls", one is hot and one is cold, so when you get too hot you can cool off…. it's truly paradise!

PS More information on Dominica HERE.

SAGE AND ERIC GOT HITCHED IN DOMINICA

2013-11-16T08:41:00.001-04:00

My talented husband made this video from our elopement and honeymoon trip to Dominica!

Drawing Class

2013-11-15T09:50:00.000-04:00

This week I did something new and I'm over the moon excited about it - I went to a drawing class on St Thomas!!! It feels as though I was an artist in a past life since it has been a lifetime since I've made any art.
Amy Gibbs has opened a studio space called The Art Explorium on St Thomas where she offers classes and workshops for both children and adults. Next week a visiting artist is teaching a hand building clay class that should be a lot of fun.
I'm excited to have something new to do on our little island that is creative with a wonderful group of people!

Fire Show on St Thomas!

2013-11-14T14:07:00.002-04:00

Recently I had the honor to meet Silver Raven and see her Flights of Fire show - she is so badass and talented! Take a look at her page to see where you can find her performing on St Thomas HERE.

Just a Photo

2013-11-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

This is where my mind keeps wandering to and daydreaming about today - wishing I could jump into Middleham Falls to refresh!

Best Food Truck on St Thomas

2013-10-29T12:16:00.001-04:00

Have you eaten at Off The Grid? It's a food truck that is parked at the entrance to Sapphire Beach on the east side of St Thomas. Eric and I had lunch here yesterday and loved their pulled pork sandwich for $9 (a deal on St Thomas.) I recommend stopping by for a quick lunch with a beautiful view!

Off The Grid has a Facebook Page you can follow and they also are on Trip Advisor so you can see what other people are saying.

Happy food truck eating :)

Our Wedding

2013-10-28T17:02:00.001-04:00

Recently I married the man of my dreams!!!

Eric and I ran away to Dominica to elope and celebrate our honeymoon. It might seem strange or maybe it's totally normal that after attending a thousand weddings I wanted something special and simple for my own wedding.
What we ended up doing was picking one of our favorite waterfalls, Middleham Falls, to exchange our wedding vows, rings, and have our first kiss. We had a small hike to get to the waterfall and went early so that we would have the spot to ourselves. Later we made more wedding photos around Dominica to show off the beauty of the island.

We made our own wedding photos and video by setting up a camera and a GoPro on a tripod.

PS Crown Images Website

Photography Website on St Thomas

2013-10-18T17:19:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you all know at this point that I'm a photographer based on St Thomas. My clients find me mostly online, so it is so important that I have a strong website to show my photographs. I just made a new website that I welcome you to visit here http://sagehammond.com. Please let me know what you think.

Happy 7 Year Anniversary to Me and My Island Living!

2013-09-23T10:37:00.000-04:00

Today is my 7 year celebration of living in the US Virgin Islands!!!!

I can't imagine my life any better then it already is (which is the best feeling in the world.) It was 7 years ago today I hopped on a flight out of NYC and landed on St Thomas not knowing if I would be able to last longer then a few months.... and here I am 7 years later. In the last 7 years I've started a successful wedding photography business (Crown Images), met the man of my dreams and married him (yes, I now have a husband), and officially have the lifestyle of a beach bum (just to name a few.)

I can hardly imagine what the next 7 years of island life will be like but I'm looking forward to every moment.

my happy place

2013-09-03T17:12:00.001-04:00

Lately I have found myself working a lot, so I've started taking a moment to myself at the end of each day. My happy place is on the porch with a glass of wine and watching the last bit of light fade away from the day. I love seeing the shift of colors in the sky change... it is one of my favorite times of day.

My Wedding: Picking a little white dress

2013-09-02T09:53:00.003-04:00

Since I'm recently engaged and thinking about my wedding, I've started to look for a little white dress to wear when I get married. It's a little strange that I never thought about what kind of wedding dress that I would wear to my own wedding, I guess I've always thought about the being married part and not the day. Since I'm a destination wedding photographer I've seen everything from a white bikini to the traditional American princess wedding dress and I love them all.
Since my wedding is going to be very untraditional I plan to have a very simple dress that just makes me feel good. I was even thinking about this emerald green dress until Eric seemed upset that it wasn't white. So, I guess I'm going to keep with the white dress tradition. How did you pick your wedding dress?

PS First dress from bebe, second dress from BHLDN, and the last 2 are from Free People (yes, I'm a bit of a hippy girl at heart). I also really like J.Crew's wedding stuff.

Water Island Fun

2013-08-30T12:16:00.000-04:00

Recently I had some friends visiting and they wanted to explore Water Island. We took the Water Island Ferry from Crown Bay and called Joe to rent a golf cart. Joe met us at the ferry dock with a golf cart and gave us this little map so we could explore the island.

It was so much fun to drive around on a golf cart; we all took turns driving, explored the entire island, and getting lost was even fun!

Midday we got a little hungry so we stopped at Honeymoon Beach for some food and a swim.... then we explored a little more.... then we went back to Honeymoon Beach for one more swim before we took the ferry back to St Thomas. It was an awesome day!!!

Fresh Look

2013-08-28T09:28:00.000-04:00

What do you think of the new look on my blog? Noor at Blog Me Pretty has these wonderful templates (yes it's a template) that are so easy to freshen up your look. Check out the other great layouts here.
Thank you Blog Me Pretty for making me look so good!!!!

Sailing St Thomas

2013-08-27T13:07:00.000-04:00

I am overwhelmed with how much more fun St Thomas is about to be with our new sailboat Wasabi! Eric and I are now the proud owners of this sweet catamaran. We are starting a new business offering day charters from St Thomas for groups up to 6 people starting in October.

Who's ready to go sailing?!!!!

Engaged!

2013-08-27T10:17:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited to share that on July 17, 2013 Eric asked me to be his wife!!!!

Do you remember how you got engaged? Well, my engagement story is:

I was just getting home from photographing a wedding and while I was watering the plants on the porch and he was cooking pork chops on the grill he surprised me with the most beautiful natural sapphire ring I have ever seen. As you can imagine we are so excited to get married and since I photograph weddings I need for my wedding to be a little different to feel special (more on this later).

We haven't picked a day for our wedding but we have decided to get married on Dominica (our favorite Caribbean island.)

A little update 2013

2013-08-26T18:05:00.000-04:00

I'm missing my little blog this year.
For some reason 2013 has been extremely busy for me and Sage Island hasn't had many updates. I have had an amazing year photographing destination beach weddings (lots of new photos on CROWN IMAGES blog), this might even be my best year yet. I also started offering more photography services this year (vacation photography on St Thomas) and that has been really successful. It seems that there are a lot of people that want photographs made while they are vacationing here on St Thomas (which is just awesome) take a look HERE.
If that all just isn't enough Eric and I are in the works of starting a new business this fall (more on this later.)
There are a lot of really wonderful things going on in 2013 that I hope to find the time to share a few of them soon......

I'm a cat person...

2013-05-06T04:00:00.000-04:00

... it's true, I don't mind giving a cat update from time to time.
My kitties favorite kitty toy are these little catnip pillows that are stuffed full of catnip from The Pussums Cat Company. The Pussums Cat Company happens to have started in my hometown by a family friend, which makes it extra special that my kitties like it so much!

Have a great weekend!

2013-05-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

What are you all up to this weekend? I'm working a little (photographing a sunset wedding on the beach) and hope to do a little relaxing on the beach with friends. I've been trying to embrace where I live and make the most of what St Thomas has to offer. I also hope to find a moment to do a little of this on Sunday. Hope everyone has a great weekend and to see you back here on Monday!!!

PS photo credit to Katie Lee

Acupuncture at the Nirvana Healing Temple

2013-05-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had acupuncture? Recently I hurt my back and since I'm not a fan of going to the chiropractor, I thought I would try something new. So, I went to see Dr. May Trieu at the Nirvana Healing Temple who came highly recommended from many people living here in the Virgin Islands. I don't understand how it works but my back feels so much better.

PS More photos at the Temple HERE.

St Thomas Carnival 2013

2013-04-29T16:22:00.001-04:00

St Croix

2013-01-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

I recently went to St Croix on the seaplane to photograph a wedding. It was my first time taking a seaplane and my first time to St Croix - here are a few photographs from my trip.

The wedding that I photographed was at The Palms at Pelican Cove and I stayed at the Company House in Christiansted.

Vacation Photos: Christmas in Maine

2013-01-16T10:13:00.001-04:00

I hope it's not too late to post photos from Christmas.

This year Eric and I went to visit my family in Maine to celebrate Christmas. It was the first time I had a white Christmas since (this trip here) and it was a holiday celebration to remember!!!

We arrived really late in the evening (delays due to weather) and this was what it looked like the first day we woke up!

It snowed the first day we where in Maine, which made it a white Christmas! Eric and I made a snowman and played outside like kids... then sat next to the fireplace to warm up.

My grandfather came up from NJ to spend the holiday with us, which made it extra special.

My mom thought it would be nice if we all did a puzzle together. I became obsessed over it until it was complete and found that I really like doing puzzles (thanks mom).

We ate so much amazing food during the Christmas holiday! My mother is the best cook I know and my dad makes an amazing breakfast.

Of course when one visits home they must look at old family photos, it's the best!

We also where able to see some wonderful friends that I grew-up with (my friend Cody put this floor down in her home herself and her mom made the big kitty toy.)

Then it happened... it snowed so much we where stuck in Maine!!! Our flight always leaves really really early in the morning so we normally spend the night in Portland (one of my favorite small cities) and ended up having a small winter vacation in Portland Maine.

There was such a big snowstorm in Portland that we ended up being in the local newspaper... you can see a video of us here in the snow.

We made the most of our snowy adventure and actually found ourselves having fun in the cold (who would have thought!)

The photo above is what it looked like out the window of the airplane the morning we flew out of Maine... we almost didn't make it home.