This isn’t travel related but a lot of you have been following my journey since I started this blog more than 10 years ago. So, I like to give some personal updates time to time.
As a quick summary, I met my husband 4 years ago while I was on a sabbatical in Barcelona, Spain. He moved to Miami, FL 1.5 years ago and soon after we eloped. My mom immediately pressured me into having a wedding, but at that time I was more focused on our 3-month trip abroad once he received his green card.
I knew I didn’t want a big wedding. Ideally, I would have loved to have gotten married in Europe in a French Chateau, but my grandparents wouldn’t have been able to travel that far. And it was more important for them to be there than to have a location of my choice. I had lost my other grandmother the year before, so that’s why I decided to have a celebration as soon as possible.
When we returned from our trip abroad (in September), I figured if we were going to have a wedding in Miami, it would have to be that upcoming January. January is the only month in Miami that has good weather and does not rain. Since I was forced to have it in Miami, I at least wanted it to be outdoors to take advantage of the scenery.
I originally wanted something small – a Happy Ever After party – instead of a formal wedding. I looked into several restaurants to get a quote. Unfortunately, Miami being Miami, a quote for a dinner for 80 people was going to be $50,000. I figured I might as well have a real wedding for that price. This was the lowest amount of people I could possibly have between immediate family and close friends.
Luckily my sister loves planning parties so she volunteered to be my wedding planner. We only had 4 months to plan everything. We quickly found a location on the water with views of the Miami skyline. Fortunately, the hotel took care of the food and tables/chairs, so there was less on our plate. We sent last minute save the dates. And my sister honestly handled the rest: DJ, cake, flowers, invites, photographer.
She threw me an amazing bridal shower with the help of my family. It was Japanese themed and of course had my favorite food: sushi. My favorite part were the games about who knew me best (the answers were hilarious). It was perfect timing too because we had just moved into our new place and needed all of the household items from our registry, since we were nomads prior.
January came and it was beautiful weather all month. Except of course, the day of the wedding. It rained a lot, was humid, and gray. I knew it would stop raining by the time it was the party, but the staff was unable to set up so we had to decide quickly if we would move the wedding inside. That was a bummer since the whole point of that place was being outside.
However, the venue offered us their large ballroom for free (typically an extra $10k), and we still held the cocktail hour at the original outdoor location. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because I really didn’t know what 80 people looked like, and I think we were way more comfortable in that ballroom than we would have been outside in a tighter space. We were still able to get some amazing pictures during cocktail hour outside.
Ironically, the cost of the wedding ended up being way less than we were quoted at the restaurants. I have to admit that it was definitely money well spent. We had such an amazing time! I only wanted to have a happily ever after party because I heard from other people, that it is the only time in your life you will have almost everyone you care about in one place. It was worth the last-minute stress of planning.
I was amazed at how many people went out of their way to make it to the party last minute. Most of my friends live out of town and recently had newborns, but they still found a way to come. When we entered the room during cocktail hour and everyone was so excited to see us – I honestly felt like I was a singer on stage at a concert, and everyone was cheering for us! What a high!
It was wonderful to see everyone and feel the love. Of course, the time goes by so fast and you don’t have much time to talk to everyone. My cousin performed a live belly dancing show which was a nice surprise for my friends and family. I believe it was husbands first time seeing one too. Then we danced the night away to all of our favorite songs – music from the early 2000’s, Miami reggaetón, Arabic music, Haitian music etc.
We are planning to go to Bora Bora for our honeymoon, but likely not until the end of the year or next year. I need time to find my love for travel agan 😉
