Weddingbee Blog

We are getting married in Jamaica. Mr. Quiche has been married before and has already done the traditional wedding thing, and has always said he wouldn’t do it again. Once we talked about it and as he realized that getting married in Chicago was important to me, he tentatively came around. I had zero desire for a destination beach wedding. I’m from Ohio (Go Buckeyes!), but have never wanted to get married there. We researched several options in Chicago (too expensive), Paris (I am a Francophile and studied there in college, but it was too far and expensive for our guests!), and Wisconsin.

Wisconsin, you ask? Our friend and Best Man, R, graciously offered us his gorgeous lake house in East Troy, WI on Lake Beulah (near Lake Geneva).

It has a gorgeous lawn right on the lake (this picture is from pre-landscaping construction!)

Here I am on the dock. I wish it weren’t so close - the lawn is behind me.

If we didn’t have to worry about transportation and drinking, rentals, rain, etc., it would be perfect for us. The house really means a lot to quite a few of us, as we typically spend many a lazy weekend there with friends and family. I knew I would be a ball of stress worrying about the logistics of everything, and frankly, I just didn’t want to deal with it.

We scouted a few beautiful Chicago reception locations, as I had always wanted to get married in my church – St. Clement in Lincoln Park. Mr. Quiche is an alumnus of University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, so we looked at a few sites there. (Considering that I bought my dress 14 minutes after we were engaged, my flowy, casual dress just wouldn’t “fit” with these large cathedrals.) We also thought of having it at one of our favorite little neighborhood Italian restaurants, Piatinni, which turned out to be a little too pricey for just the reception.

Tiny pictures of St. Clement

The breathtaking Rockefeller Chapel

After all of this, I then brought up the idea of getting married in Jamaica. My mom and step-dad were married there two years ago, as well as my childhood best friend (through college roomies!). Interestingly enough, Mr. Quiche was now on board for a Chicago affair and the destination wedding that he originally insisted on was now on the back burner. After crunching numbers and evaluating the stress-potential, we decided to look at Jamaica. We spent COUNTLESS hours scouring Jamaican websites and once Jamaica became the front-runner, we booked a “research” trip for October.

My step-dad (Pete), Mom, me & Mr. Quiche - Jamaica, April, 2006

I’ll post the results of our trip next!

Did you end up planning the opposite kind of wedding from which you originally envisioned?