Nestled in the tropical splendor of the Florida Keys, Jasmine Sky runs her small couture house, Island Bride Designs, designing and hand painting custom silk beach wedding dresses. Sky is passionate about helping beach brides look and feel their most beautiful on their special day.

Her CASUAL LUXE collection serves the non-traditional, free-spirited beach bride the world over with the quintessential romantic island look so sought after by all destination beach brides. Created to enhance your individual beauty, they are cut to float as light as a feather and be a dance of swirling silk and, if you wish, brilliantly colored hand-painted art work.

A life-long artist - first as a modern dancer/choreographer and then as a singer/songwriter - Jasmine was always sewing and designing outfits for herself and friends for both on-stage and off.  In 1999, in her native New York City, she birthed her third career in the arts as a fashion designer and silk artist – the perfect storm of all her gifts and talents coming together.  In 2001, just 2 years later, Jasmine moved to the Florida Keys, consummating her dream of living on a tropical island.

Relaxed elegance dresses beach wedding brides most appropriately and, whether you are looking for a simple white dress, an elaborate dream dress or anything in between, Jasmine’s signature style of effortless beach chic and natural beauty is a match made in heaven for the destination beach bride.

Her design studio and boutique is open for shopping by appointment. She truly is the go to designer for hand painted destination beach wedding dresses.

Here, in her own words, are some of her thoughts on her passion - designing for beach brides.

A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN...
“I absolutely adore working with beach brides. I’m an incurable romantic and my dresses show it. They’re totally romantic and feminine and are perfect for the beach bride who’s looking for something really different and artistic. And, to top it all off, I’m madly in love with tropical beaches and the resort island lifestyle!
My signature style is all about effortless beach chic and natural beauty. I help beach brides all over the world look and feel like their unique version of a modern day tropical goddess.”

SILK...

“For me designing is all about working with drop dead gorgeous fabrics. That’s why I’m so passionate about working with silk. I adore its sensuality for painting and its drape is incomparable. It is truly thee Queen of natural fibers and must have for brides.”

PAINTING &TEXTILE DESIGN...
“ Painting my own silks is an integral and essential part of my design process and it’s an absolute gold mine for the bride because she can create whatever look she wants! I love the process of painting. I get totally immersed in color – its moods and feelings. I’m always learning how one color will express itself one way when it’s next to one color and then in a completely different way when it’s next to a different color! I love how you can make different textures with color. I love being able to create the color and textile design of what I want and need for a dress.”

YOUR BODY IS MY CANVAS...
“Silk is my canvas for painting. Your body is my canvas for designing. I  unique design process is inspired by the ‘wrap and tie’ principle of a sarong, the indigenous dress of the tropics, and the process helps me create really fit-friendly styles that embrace you just as you are. My dresses are incredibly ‘forgiving’ and exceptionally flattering. Fitting at a distance and gaining or losing 5-10 pounds is virtually a non issue.”

COUTURE SEWING...
“Sewing…I’ve always loved it. It’s always been a very soothing, creative activity for me. The world blossomed for me when I learned how to sew. Sewing silk requires exacting attention to detail and patience, patience, patience but the results are so stunning, it’s worth totally worth it!”

COLLABORATION...
“I love collaborating with the bride. It’s second nature to me. I love hearing what she envisions and solving her design problems. My passion is to help her express her individuality and reveal her inner radiance. I love the discovery that happens when my focus is concentrated on her vision of the look she wants.”

Here is Jasmine’s story of how it all began.
Once upon a time….

Many years ago, my sister had gifted me with a silk scarf she had painted. When I received it I felt a deep impulse to paint on silk. Her design was abstract and very colorful. It looked like I could do it too! I made excuses to myself about being too busy to follow-up on the impulse but in truth, I wasn’t acting on it due to a huge block. When I was in third grade I had an art teacher who controlled what I could and couldn’t paint. Obeying her every whim, seeking her love and approval and never getting it, I gave up. Convinced that I had no drawing ability, I could barely doodle.

Years went by. I was in between careers and at a major cross road. I was not happy with my life. I had a day job but needed a purpose and I needed it in the arts. A desire to paint had been surfacing for several years and I knew why. It is said that when God wants you to do something he plants that desire in your heart. But how would I get started? My desire was strong but so was my fear and my fear was winning out.

Life was dragging on. I was impatient. For some reason, I couldn’t hear what my marching orders were for this particular time in my life. One weekend, finding myself in the depths of depression, I prayed incessantly and insistently to Spirit. I was angry! I told Spirit that I hated my life and that I wasn’t going to accept it like this anymore and that he’d/she’d better do something about it RIGHT AWAY! On Monday morning as I dressed for work, I listened to the radio. They were telling the story of a woman who had joined the merchant marines and traveled all over the world. She spoke about what a great experience it had been for her. She was now so well schooled in motors that, if she chose to, she would be able to go to a tropical island and build herself a generator and be totally self-sufficient. All of a sudden something clicked inside me and I remembered a deep and old desire of mine to live on a tropical island and learn how to sail. It took me by storm. I had completely forgotten this dream. I had shelved it years ago saying that I would do it when I was through with my dancing career. Well now was the time for it! My soul was singing!
Now came the practical stuff. How would I make a living on a tropical island? My mind wouldn’t stop. I had to figure this out! One thought lead to another and by three o’clock that afternoon I had the answer! I would make hand painted silk sarongs! My prayers had been answered! I felt that familiar force behind my desire that told me I had what it took to overcome any obstacle and to stick with it until my efforts bore fruit. The next day I went straight out and bought my first bolt of silk and a rainbow selection of silk paints!

I was excited and scared all at the same time! How would I deal with the fact that I thought I couldn’t draw? I knew exactly how and I knew that I had to do it. In fact it was something that I had been telling myself for years that I needed to do. I would be able to move through my block if I practiced loving myself and whatever I created unconditionally. There would be no such thing as ‘not good enough’. From the get-go, everything that I would paint would be good, whether I could see it or not. I would have one rule and one rule only - I would not judge what I painted - not at all! I would paint for the love of painting. I would paint for process, not product. . I would allow myself to paint only abstract designs and focus on the color. This way I wouldn’t have to deal with drawing. After all, if Jackson Pollack could make a career out of it, why couldn’t I? I was onto something and I knew it. I would pray before I painted and ask for the grace to let my fear go.

I loved having a huge canvas! I loved the sensation of painting on the silk! I loved how the silk received that paint and did things with it! It wasn’t hard work at all! It came naturally! It was like I knew what I was doing! In between my painting sessions my fear and judgment would try, and sometimes be successful at, surfacing. But each time I set out to paint I would pray and each time the fear was transmuted into beautiful silk canvases of colorful universes that came out of nowhere!

Painting on silk seemed to marry all parts of me - the part of me that was an artist, my love of fabrics and many years of sewing, my love of tropical islands with sarongs being their indigenous clothing and, last but not least, my love for clothing that is simultaneously beautiful, sensuous, practical and comfortable. I discovered way upon way of wrapping the sarongs! The silk felt simply divine on my skin and the hand painting was magical. I was not only wearing artwork but wearing a garment that made me look and feel my most beautiful.  These sarongs excited me to no end and I just knew they would excite other women.

Within 2 years, my lifelong love affair with the tropics and my new business idea lead me down to the Florida Keys where I have lived since 2001 selling my hand painted island silks. In 2003 I started designing my first dresses and as I did it became obvious to me that their relaxed, effortless elegance and romantic look made the perfect match for beach brides all over the world.. And the rest, as they say, is history!