Last February after living together for 6 years, and being engaged for most of them, Gil made the case for why we should finally get married. I had been putting it off in order to accomplish a few personal goals first, and because in the grand scheme of things a marriage didn't seem like that important a thing. He made it very clear that it was very important to him, and even brought up the fact that we could marry in Puerto Rico so that my dad could attend.
As a young girl I had always imagined getting married on a beach or in a garden. Generally somewhere that I didn't need to wear shoes. The thought of not only having a wedding, and "officially" starting a future together exactly the way I pictured it was too great to ignore. So the wedding planning began. Honestly at first it was a total mess and I almost gave up. Accommodations, invitations, colors, bridesmaids, centerpieces and so on was just too much. Thankfully my Dad came to the rescue and got me a wedding planner. Thank the universe for wedding planners.
I just gave her an estimated party size, told her that I loved Lillies and roses, that I was sticking with the color Ivory because it matches everything, and that I wanted to do the ceremony beachside. I just wanted a classic, clean, and simple affair. Oh and that the cake must be strawberry shortcake. After that she took care of everything else.
The interesting thing about taking such an important step was that it really showed us who our real friends and family were. We set the date and invitations were out by March with an RSVP by June. The ceremony itself was to take place in November. We took into consideration that some people would not be able to take the time off, or incur the expense for a destination wedding. I worked out a deal to rent a six bedroom villa on the beach for a week with the option of the one next door so that the weeks accommodations would be about $330 a person which I thought was an amazing deal. In the end, the most unexpected people made every attempt to attend, and others whom we thought would be the first on board didn't even respond to say they couldn't make it.
The week spent with the ocean as our backyard, with no work or responsibilities, on a beautiful island, with the most amazing friends and family was the best week of my life. I was able to swim in the sea the morning of my wedding and that is an indescribable feeling. Come 5pm I squeezed myself into my wedding dress, which due to my love of food left no room for sitting, and laid in the back of the car on the way to the hotel. I had my beautiful, shoeless, sunset wedding on the beach and just as we were saying our vows it started to rain. My daughter was my flower girl, and I kept things simple and had no bridesmaids.
The reception had some fantastic food and sangria's The only hitch of the night was that our DJ was terrible. Like the worst DJ in the entire world. Thankfully my 30 guests were all awesome people and we still had a great time. When the festivities were over we all rode back to our villa and to my surprise the inn further down the coast was releasing paper lanterns. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day, I wouldn't trade that day for anything.
