Ten years ago today, I said “I Do” to my incredible man! What’s crazy is that I never selected all my wedding photos for the album, and this past week, I finally made the time to do it for our 10 year anniversary. Revisiting all of these pictures in detail brought me right back to the feelings and memories of our big day. I remember it like it was yesterday! I have only finished the first half of our wedding album which includes our getting ready photos and ceremony, but I plan to finish the other half this weekend and share it next week. I used a company called Artifact Uprising to create the book, and I can’t wait to get it in the mail! For now, they have provided me with electronic version so that I could share it! See the first volume of our wedding album at the end of the blog post!
Chris and I wanted an intimate wedding that was representative of who we were. We have family and friends from different parts of the world and many that would be traveling to attend our wedding. Even though Dallas had become my home, none of my family lived here. So, we figured that if people were going to be traveling, why not travel somewhere fun and have a destination wedding?! I grew up living on the coast, and we loved the idea of being on a beach. We didn’t want to go out of the country or go too far away (for those that didn’t have passports), so we narrowed it down to Florida…although Paris was in the running 🙂 We loved that Miami was a quick flight from Texas but had an international vibe, beautiful beaches, great cuisine and lots of action. We wanted our guests to be able to go out and explore and have fun and not just be stuck at a resort.
Do you remember the show Platinum Weddings? It was really popular when I was engaged, and it was so fun to watch! There was a wedding on that show that took place in Florida that I loved, so I hired the wedding planner that did it! I had really specific ideas about what I wanted for my wedding and had a whole “look book” of ideas (this was before the days of Style me Pretty and Pinterest!) Tiffany helped me find the right people to bring that vision to life. She knew all the best vendors in the area, and had lots of great ideas!
*Fun fact, I became so entrenched in all the wedding details and enjoyed the process so much, that after we were married, I decided to start a wedding planning and design business! However, after planning a few destination weddings, I had my daughter and life took me in a different direction.
Ok back to the story…Chris and I took two separate trips out to Miami to do the wedding planning, and we had such a great time doing it! It made the wedding planning process so much fun. We chose the National Hotel in South Beach Miami as the venue. It was built in 1940, and we loved the classic, art deco vibes and rich history. They also had the flexibility to host the various events we had planned for the wedding weekend. Chris had proposed on May 1st, and we wanted a year long engagement. We ended up choosing April 24th as our wedding day because it was before hurricane season and the weather is ideal that time of the year in Miami. We looked at the Farmers Almanac for weather trends and late April was not a rainy season, which was important since our ceremony would be outdoors.
We arrived in Miami several days before the wedding to tie up loose ends. Our wedding party and family joined us on Thursday night for the rehearsal and cocktail party. We welcomed all our guests Friday night during our Cuban themed beach party. We put our toes in the sand and enjoyed a live cigar roller, authentic Cuban guitarist, a delicious Cuban buffet and Mojito bar. For the wedding day itself, I wanted something more elegant and formal.
We held the ceremony outdoors in front of the National’s iconic long pool with the old art deco hotel as the backdrop. After the cocktail hour, guests entered the beautiful, old-fashioned, and intimate ball room for a sit down dinner and toasts. Then, guests were ushered back outside to continue the reception, with first dances, cake and fun!
Ok, so, here’s the crazy story that happened the week of our wedding:
There was an Icelandic volcano that decided to erupt the very week I got married! My dad and siblings were traveling from Paris, France (where they live), and I still remember the phone call from my dad asking me if I had been watching the news. When he told me that a volcano erupted in Iceland and he may not be able to make it in time to walk me down the aisle, I thought it was a joke. I was so busy with all the wedding details I had no idea that all travel in and out of Europe was cancelled. My poor dad was scouring the internet trying to get flights out of any European country he could! Every time the winds changed, the direction of the ash would impact a different country and they would shut airports down. Just days away from the wedding, we had no idea what was going to happen. At one point, he had airline tickets out of Italy, France and Spain! His only option ended up being a flight from Madrid, Spain. But, with all the chaos, there were no train tickets from Paris. So, my dad and little siblings had to take a 22 hour bus ride to Madrid from Paris before getting on their 11 hour flight to Miami! They made it to us the night before the wedding during our Cuban beach party, and I had never been so happy to see my dad! I will never forget him doing what he did to make it to my wedding so he could walk me down the aisle! I bought a Time magazine from that week with the volcano on the cover. It will make a great story for the grandkids.
View our entire first volume of our wedding album here:
Stay tuned for next week when I share part 2 of our wedding!
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