The Wedding Story

It's one week later and now that I have the photos, I can tell the story of our wedding day. :-) It's going to be long, so grab a coffee or something and get comfy.

I would venture to say that I'm one of the few brides that would goof around all day and then wait until 3pm to get ready for her 4pm wedding (where we needed to meet with the planner at 5 till, lol). The majority of you reading this know that I'm not a frilly-fou-fou kind of girl, though, so 40 minutes is enough time for me to get ready.

Fortunately, MommaShyner and Kiddo were in the connecting suite so all I needed to do was just open a door. With this tag team combination, I was able to do my makeup while they tried to get my dress all trussed up in the back. Makeup application was pretty simple thanks to a quick tutorial from the color manager at Sephora before we left. Otherwise I'd really have no idea. Also, it's Cancun and the ceremony was outside and half my face melted off anyway.

Because I do almost nothing in the normal and traditional manner, there was no big surprise for the groom to see the bride; we walked down to the ceremony together.

Sidebar: Have you seen any of the YouTube videos where the bridesmaids come dancing down the aisle? Well, apparently an older gentleman in the elevator had and he just happened to be playing "I Got A Feeling" in his iPod when we got in the elevator and he shared it with me. So of course I danced right out of the elevator!

Upon arrival at our meeting point, the photos began. The Shaman blessed us both and then we headed out to the beach.

I don't think that the hotel was full on Saturday and there were at least two other weddings going on at the same time as ours, but we were what you might call a SHOWSTOPPER! Everyone in the bar stopped to watch. People in the pool stopped to watch. People were looking out over their balconies. I think that we had the smallest huge wedding ever.

Everyone removed their shoes and stood outside of our circle for the beginning of the ceremony. There were more blessings given to each the north, south, east and west for health, prosperity, love and other good stuff.

Part of what I really loved about this ceremony is that while everyone was gathered around and could hear most of it, there were parts that were only for the ears of the Shaman and the happy couple. A touch of privacy even in the midst of all of our family and friends.

The Mayan dancers performed two celebratory dances that were just beautiful. Everyone came into the circle to share in the fruit tarts and the tequila to celebrate the union. I know I'm skipping over things but the pictures (and the 130 more to come) really tell the story.

When we came back in from the beach, we had applause from everywhere. It was really awesome to have complete strangers share in our happiness. For the next 2 or 3 days, we were constantly being approached about the wedding. Another couple went to our wedding planner and wanted to have the same ceremony the NEXT DAY!! She wasn't able to do it on Sunday, but they did have it on Monday.

There was a gazebo on the beach that overlooked our ceremony. In it, another wedding was going on. The groom from that wedding complimented me on ours. He said, "We just had a plain old Catholic ceremony. Yours was really fantastic." I'm pretty sure that I knew from the start that I had made the right choice with this ceremony, but that sealed it. Also, other brides were shooting me the daggers but hey, I didn't come all the way to Mexico to do a wedding I could've done at home.

So, you know how I love Mexico and all things Mexican. Well, my new brother-in-law (Lovey's sister's husband) pulled some strings and got us mariachis at the reception. Yup, I pretty much was crying again. I just don't have words for how much I enjoyed this, but you should just know when I run out of words, it must've been a sight to see.

And that's it in a nutshell. I'll post more as I think of it and there's still the rest of the trip to talk about, but that's for later. I have to go enjoy our last day of living it up. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Talk to you soon.