With this destination, I thee wed…
February 14th -
So you just got engaged… I know, all you have done for a week is stare at your finger.
You glance down at it; when you pass a mirror, you catch a glimpse of
it; when you point to anything, you try to use your ring finger; and you adjust
the way you sit at your desk or the table so that your ring is the first thing
a passerby sees. Once someone
notices the ring, then the questions come.
You have no problem recreating the moment when he got down on one knee,
what he said, how he held your hand, how your hair fell just perfect as he
creaked open the ring box, but when they ask questions about the wedding plans,
your mind goes blank. You have been
so busy showing off your ring and telling everyone how romantic your proposal
was, and even how crazy to say the word “fiancé” is now,
that you have not thought about the actual wedding plans.
February 21st -
Another week has gone and avoiding any wedding details has
been very difficult. It is all
everyone wants to know. Well,
actually when you say everyone most likely it is just your mother calling every
day to find out and your best friend since she automatically assumes she is the
maid of honor but still, it seems like it is all anything anyone wants to talk
to you about. You decide to gather
every wedding magazine you do not already have and start making some
decisions. After hours of gluing
pictures of floral arrangements to photos of place settings, you have created
the perfect traditional wedding.
You cannot wait till your fiancé comes home so you can show him
everything. As soon as he gets home
you throw him into the living room chair and bombard him with color schemes,
linen choices, tuxedo designs, and wedding cake ideas and now he is the one
with the blank stare on his face…
“I was thinking that we could have a small wedding on the beach
somewhere, just like Tim and Melissa did last year. What do you think?” What, no limo pulling up to the church
where your father escorts you up to the aisle? No grand entrance into the ball room? No chicken dance or electric slide with
your tipsy aunt from Arizona? Wait, you just saw an article in your
magazine about destination
weddings. In fact, you used the
photo of the orchids sprinkled all over the sand where the aisle was on the beach
for your wedding planning scrapbook.
You thought you could use orchids instead of rose petals for your
wedding. This concept is sending
you into a tailspin, but as you speed read the article, you start realizing
that the wedding planning could be just as fun if you had a destination wedding. You give your fiancé a big hug and kiss and park yourself in front of the computer till you
find the perfect locale for the
happiest day of your life.
Paris,
the city of love… Italy,
such romantic and whimsical architecture… Colorado,
the winter wonderland surrounding your wedding… Hawaii,
the smell of tropical flowers and the sweet salty air mixed with eukalalies
playing in the background. There
are just so many choices. How will
you decide? Mexico,
Hampton
Beach, Aruba,
Fiji,
England,
Ireland. The choices are literally limitless but
exciting. After listening to your
mother’s disapproval because your great aunts are too old to fly on a
plane or there is no way your childhood neighbor would ever get the time off of
work to come, you realize this is the perfect wedding. You do not want strangers at your
wedding. You want the most important
people in your lives to be there and that is just the ones that will take the
time to come on your vacation.
February 28 -
Another week has gone by and picking a destination
out of a hat did not work, flipping a coin left you and your fiancé
fighting, and your mother’s suggestion of their backyard at their lake
house in New
Hampshire is not your idea of a destination wedding. You spin around in your chair, close
your eyes, and place a push pin on the world map in your office… St.
Martin in the Caribbean! You
Google it and cannot believe how exquisite the beaches are. That’s it. You are getting married in St.
Martin. Now the fun can really
start. You search the web for all
kinds of St.
Martin wedding planners, photographers, hair salons, etc. Within minutes you are on the phone with
a wedding coordinator on the island and already have half your plans in
motion. This is wonderful. A barefoot wedding on the beach with our
closest friends and family! And get
this – your wedding planner suggests the best idea of all. Why not rent a vacation home on the island
for the entire wedding party to stay with you and you can even have the wedding
at the vacation rental! This just gets better and better. Your fiancé is excited at this
point because you are excited and the plans are in motion.
August 20 – (a month away from the wedding of your
dreams)
About two months ago your fiancé and you visited St.
Martin to finalize all the details of the wedding. You visited the villa you rented for the
ceremony and reception. To get a
feel for the island and what your days on the island will be like, you rented a small townhouse in St. Martin. It was just amazing to be on vacation
with your fiancé, test-tasting wines, hors d’oeuvres, and cakes,
while lounging at the pool of your vacation
rental, and to top it off, your cell phone was not international so you
could not take calls from your mother!
(Or at least that is what you told her!). You reluctantly packed up to go home but
left your heart there knowing that you would be back in a month marrying your true
love!
September 12 – Wedding Day!
Thank goodness you rented
a vacation home because you just found out that there is a sailing regatta
and all the hotels on the island are filled with sailors and their cheering
squads! You luckily do not have to
deal with any of that because you are getting married on a private beach
outside your oceanfront villa.
As the sun sets over the ocean’s horizon, you stare
out onto the beach from your villa’s balcony and say thank you to your
“husband”. This was his
idea and one of the many reasons you love him. It was the perfect way to start your
life together. And, you managed to
come home with a wickedly amazing tan from your destination wedding that made
people even more jealous than your engagement ring!
http://www.villa4vacation.com/vacation-rentals/Caribbean-Region-vacation-rentals.aspx
http://www.villa4vacation.com/vacation-rental-articles/wedding.aspx
http://www.villa4vacation.com/rentals/Cozumel-Island.aspx