Our Weddings

We were blessed enough to have two weddings!

Since everyone that I grew up with couldn't make it to the Dominican Republic for my Christian wedding, we all decided to have a small court house wedding and cocktail reception at my family's home.  It was totally last minute, with only two days to get organized but in some ways I enjoyed it more than my large formal wedding.  

The spontaneous and relaxed atmosphere allowed us to let go and soak in that we were actually getting married!  We filled out our paperwork straight from the airport then ordered a simple and elegant cake that night from our local grocery store.  The next day I bought a cute white dress and lace hose.  The morning of, we bought the food and flowers and prepared the appetizers.  

My fiance's aunt and uncle flew in from Washington D.C. and friends from all over Florida drove down or up!  Everyone arrived at different intervals adding to the excitement and my father was even late because he had an emergency at work!  

We had a blast taking a thousand goofy and formal portraits. After signing the official certificates we went to a makeshift "chapel" in  one of the court house's office space where we had a tiny ceremony.  My best friend had gotten married there six months earlier and it was bare; but since our wedding was right after valentines a few couples had left behind some festive decorations.

We had a huge crowd by then and left in a hurry never noticing that we left behind our passports and IDs.  They eventually were found and returned to us, but not after we had already gone down to Miami to renew them and paid twice to change our returning flights.

My Christian wedding was planned in just two months.  The deaths of my grandparents had postponed almost all of my planning the year before but at least I had my dress.  With a rushed wedding and not so established budget we had to cut corners.  My then fiancé was just as stubborn as I in wanting the big wedding feel with all the bells and whistles even if it was on a small budget.  That caused for many things to go wrong but made it even more memorable!!!

The one thing that didn't go wrong was the only thing that I had completely let go of, not worrying about and trusting with all of my heart that God would secure for me that it didn't rain that day. But besides that the following occurred:

My mother-in-law (who was one of the only two women who bent over backwards to help this wedding come together) called me first thing in the morning to inform me of how things were already beginning to fall apart!  Everyone was locked out of venue, the groom lost the rings, no one showed up for portraits, electricity went out all day in venue, the air conditioners NEVER worked in ballroom, the DJ put a hip hop song for flower girl instead of Enya, the horse pulled the carriage in the wrong direction and we almost fell, the maid of honor fell, there was a surprise wedding singer which was horribly painful, the flower girl caused a scene, the bridesmaids were helpless and one had a melt down, the father of the bride was heavily medicated, the music was cut off often, the intricately selected song list was never played, reception ran out of food, drunk waiters, I had a mayor meltdown before the ceremony, uninvited quests, wedding delayed over an hour, the schedule was thrown out of the window, my wedding organizer arrived in a metallic skirt with large black sweater and blue backpack which describes her state of mind! We never got to practice our dance, Fireworks went off too early, they stole my groom's tie while we were dancing, we didn't get to try the cake and barely ate. We didn't get to cut the cake, my makeup got locked away.  They misplaced my car keys, my new husband's car wouldn't start for over 20 minutes, and he forgot his wallet at home. They sent us to the wrong hotel room that wasn't decorated. 

We laughed the entire ceremony realizing that things were bound to go wrong but at the same time it meant little to us because for that special day he was a groom and I was his bride!  Still, that didn't stop us from asking each other if we wanted to leave our own wedding several times through out the reception!  We made the best of things and the fact that we were sweating out of our cloths only made us nostalgic of the dances when we were children and not care that we looked like a mess!

It was God's will that everything would fall apart and we learned a few good lessons that I can pass on to all of you who are thinking of getting married in the future: Let go of your pride, confide everything in God's hands, don't worry about the little things because in the end the things you thought that really mattered may not impact you the way you might have thought, enjoy every moment before it passes!

^"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4: 6,7