Weddingbee
I’m interrupting the Sea Breeze recaps to bring you this special treat - I just couldn’t wait until they were over. I know, I know… jeez woman, wrap it up already! I’m swear I’m trying, but I have so many projects on the go these days, it’s a bit crazy here in SB Land.
One of these million and one projects is our photo books.
After having made one for Pepperpot as part of her MOH thank you gift, I knew that I wanted to create photo books of all our wedding images not just for us, but for our parents, too.
And then I came across this:
The dinner game hijinks were a hoot and we were still on a high from them when someone motioned to us that it was time for cake. Yippee! We both LOVE cake!
If you will remember, when we met with the wedding coordinator upon our arrival at the resort, I was well prepared and not only handed her these two photos, but also some purple ribbon as well, which I’d bought back home.
Knowing that things at destination weddings don’t always turn out exactly as you imagine them, I didn’t expect our cake to look exactly like those photos.
However… well… have you ever been to that site Cake Wrecks? It’s a self-described “gallery of deformed, distasteful and bizarrely decorated wedding and birthday cakes”.
I think we may have something to submit.
DUN DUN DUN…
Once we had determined that Mr Breezy was the head of the household forevermore, it was time to head into the restaurant to drink my sorrows away eat our scrumptious dinner.
For a few different reasons (including one big one that started with 17 and ended with 000) we chose to forgo a private reception in favor of dinner in the public restaurant by the beach followed by a speeches and dancing at the disco. DW BRIDES, TAKE NOTE: it turned out to be one of the best decisions we ever made. The staff set up two long tables of thirty for us and you know what? All that time I spent stressing about how it might be weird to be surrounded by other resort guests during dinner? Big fat waste of time. We didn’t even notice they were there!
Of course, that might be partly due to the fact we were all so distracted. By our awesome dinner game, that is.
I’d like to tell you we spent hours contemplating what to do during dinner since our speeches weren’t until later, but the truth is, Mr Breezy sprang this game on me the night before the wedding. I still have no clue where he got the idea (and why he waited until the last day to tell me about it…?!?!) but I LOVED IT. And I think you will too.
As Mr Breezy said in his own words, “It’s really the one part of the wedding that was driven by the guests and not the bride and groom.”
And with crazy fun guests such as ours, it was guaranteed to be a memory-maker. Though to look at them, you would never, ever guess they’d ever do anything remotely ridiculous… right?
Read more…
After our post-ceremony photo shoot on the beach, Mr Breezy and I headed back to our suite with the wedding party to freshen up before dinner (read: the guys smoked cigars while the girls touched up their makeup and then almost wet themselves over the hilarity that was me almost dipping my dress into the potty - I’ll spare you the photos of that).
Then we made our way to the oceanfront seafood restaurant where everyone was standing outside, waiting for us.
I’m not too sure why I felt that tooting my trucker horn was an appropriate thing to do in this moment but what can I say? I was reaaaaaally excited.
Why?
Because we were about to do our hugely fun Polish wedding tradition!
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Still laughing after our great group shots, Mr Breezy and I hustled out of the lobby to catch some photos on the beach while there was still sun. Since our ceremony started a half hour late due to the power failure at the resort, and because we dawdled drinking champagne in the gazebo afterwards, we were really in a rush!
My MOH Pepperpot and cousin K barely managed to get some food in me before I was whisked away.
When we planned our wedding day, we wanted to make sure we incorporated at least one Jewish tradition (Mr Breezy’s side) and one Polish tradition (my side).
We decided that one thing we definitely had to do was the Jewish breaking of the glass.
There are several interpretations of what this tradition symbolizes:
Ah yes, the vows.
From the beginning, I knew I wanted Mr Breezy and I to say our vows to each other in our own words. (Mr Breezy wanted it too - he just didn’t know it.)
So you’d think a year would be enough time to think about it, right? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’d seen plenty of wedding movies where the bride and groom were hastily writing their vows moments before the ceremony and I couldn’t help going, “Pffffffttttt!!!!!!!! COME ON, people. What, this day happened as a complete surprise to you, hence you couldn’t prepare? How pathetic!”
Well, guess what we were doing the night before?
Although we have our reasons for it, which will become a funny memory one day, it taught me something very important: you are ready when you are ready. And when it comes to your wedding vows, in the end, it’s not ‘when’ that matters, but ‘what’.
The scene: Majestic Colonial Resort, in the Gazebo. The guests are assembled, the men and maids stand at attention, and Mr Breezy and I, having kissed our parents goodbye, face each other with big silly-happy grins.
Once all the portraits and family photos were done, our guests started trailing on out of the lobby and down the walkway to the Gazebo to take their seats. The late afternoon sun was shining down and I imagine them sitting there, chatting away, listening to the pre-wedding soundtrack that I had spent hours agonizing over.
I can’t seem to locate the list and the only two songs I can remember at the moment are ‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz and ‘Better Together’ by Jack Johnson but I swear, there were many more and they were AWESOME.
When Mr Breezy and I met in the lobby for the reveal, it was shortly after 1PM (the ceremony was set for 4:30PM). It didn’t feel like we had been taking pictures for almost two hours so when our families started trickling in, it was a shock. Having pictures done with them was top on our priority list so we had also scheduled them pre-ceremony.
I hadn’t thought of it but of course this turned out to be the big “reveal” to them, too! As soon as they saw us, they rushed over and cooed and pulled out their own cameras for some candids. It was mass photo hysteria for a while, there. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way - it was an exciting moment for them too, you know? Plus we got some really fun photos from our friends while we were just hangin’ out.
Photo by friend Kuba
Mrs. Sea Breeze
Mrs. Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic
Age in 2008 and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager
Fiance's Age in 2008 and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director
Engagement Date: October 6, 2007
Wedding Date: November, 2008
Blogging Since: July 17, 2008
Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana
About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than writing about our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
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