Weddingbee Blog

Okay. So. Ahh… (digging her toe in the dirt). There’s, um, something I have to tell you.

It’s actually not a big deal.

Well, it sorta is. Actually, it wasn’t supposed to be a big deal, then it sort of turned into a sort of deal, more a medium deal than a big one, though. To us, anyway.

Mr Breezy and I were “officially” married a month before we left for Punta Cana.

Yep. One day in early October, Mr Breezy called his mom and said, “Hey Ma, whatcha doin’ tomorrow?… Is it ok if we get married at your house?”

So that day, straight after work, we went to Mr Breezy’s parents’ house and got married. (I will forever remember that it was a Tuesday because when I suggested Thursday, Mr Breezy said, “I can’t get married on Thursday - Smallville’s on.”)

(Yes, I still tried to keep it real by wearing purple. Technically, both of us are wearing purple - Mr Breezy’s shirt is pinstriped.)

We tried to keep it a low-key affair, because we reasoned that it was just “doing paperwork” but even though I tried to tell myself that, it still felt like a momentous occasion. We also had my parents and Mr Breezy’s sister on speakerphone during the whole thing, which, in retrospect, I’m really glad we did. Then, to we celebrated with champagne and pizza!

To us, the true wedding would obviously take place in Punta Cana, but we decided to not actually tell anyone outside our immediate family that we’d done the ‘paperwork’ back home for fear they’d feel cheated or something. It was just easier that way.

So why did we get ‘married’ before our ‘wedding’? Good question!

1. It would save us a) $$$, and b) effort by not having to get our birth certificates and marriage license translated into Spanish and notarized before our departure.

2. We wouldn’t have to wait for the Judge to arrive before starting the ceremony (there was, until recently, only ONE Judge to perform marriages in the Dominican Republic, and he was notoriously late).

3. We wouldn’t have to have a generic, boring ceremony IN SPANISH, translated by the wedding coordinator (we really wanted something unique and special to us that we could, um, understand).

4. It would save us an additional $500 (the wedding package at our resort was $1500 but only $1000 if you didn’t need the services of the Judge)

5. It would save us more a) $$$ and b) effort by not having to get our wedding certificate translated back into English and notarized upon our arrival.

6. We would be guaranteed that we were married (last year, there was a big scam in the DR whereby a fake judge went around performing ceremonies; they only figured it out months later when couples who thought they had been married in the DR never actually received their wedding certificates).

All the above points are important, of course, but the most important to us was having the ceremony in English, conducted by someone who we loved, respected, and who’d really make the ceremony a reflection of who Mr Breezy and I really are.

It was pretty obvious to us who’d be perfect for the job, and when we asked our friend Brian if he’d be our officiant, he was stoked!

We honestly didn’t give him much guidance at all before we left - we were so busy doing the ten million and one other things that just couldn’t wait. But we met up with him in Punta Cana to go over the ceremony, and we were positively floored with how much thought and care he’d put into researching what he’d say on our very special day.

We trusted him completely and the only input I gave was that first, we wanted it to be FUNNY because Mr Breezy and I are both big hams. Joking around is a big part of who we are and is what would make the ceremony “us”. Second, we wanted it to be a true “celebration of family, friends, laugher and love” (the wording is directly off our invites) so I printed off and gave Brian a copy of Mrs Lovebug’s incredibly touching ceremony text (which I adore - thanks forever, Mrs L) and told him I wanted our guests to somehow be part of the ceremony. Brian immediately went to work tweaking his ceremony. I wouldn’t get to hear it until two days later, though.

In the meantime, I had a photographer to meet!

Ceremony photos by The Breezys & Friends; picture of Brian by Photophil Steingard.

DW in the DR: Pack It Up, Pack It In
DW in the DR: Airport Confessions
DW in the DR: Bienvenidos a Punta Cana
DW in the DR: The Guest List Is In the Bag
DW in the DR: The OOTs in Action
DW in the DR: Planning the Reception
DW in the DR: Planning the Flowers & Cake