The details.

Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m married.

Both Steve and I were very happy with how everything turned out. So much better than how we imagined it would be.

In the beginning we both didn’t know where to start. We knew we wanted to be married within a year of being engaged but as where to start with the planning? We had no idea. I remember feeling both excited and really overwhelmed. Where to have the wedding? How many people to invite? Where do I get the invitations? The wedding dress? Where to hold the wedding and the reception? So many things to consider, so many things to look for. We both wanted a small wedding... intimate but nice... and most importantly within our means. As much as possible we wanted to have a wedding that didn’t put us into so much debt.

Looking back at it now, all our efforts were worth it. Both the civil ceremony and the beach wedding went by smoothly. A lot of people ask us why we had two weddings. It was because we didn’t want to have to deal with the legal requirements of a destination wedding just so it would be considered legal in both the country we were going to get married at and Canada. So we decided it would be best to have the civil ceremony locally which would be legally binding and to have a “symbolic ceremony” in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic which means we would go through the normal wedding vows but that it would be more symbolic rather than legally binding. Of course the next question people ask us is when we’ll celebrate our anniversary. We will be celebrating our anniversary on the day we had our civil ceremony because it is the one that actually binds us together as husband and wife.

We held our civil ceremony on April 21st at eleven-thirty in the morning followed by a lunch reception at a Greek restaurant. We had 22 guests, comprised of family and relatives. I barely slept the night before the wedding because I was too anxious – worried that we would forget or overlook something important. By eight in the morning we were up and proceeded to get ready for the ceremony. We were at City Hall by eleven and started the ceremony on time. We decided not to hire a professional photographer for the civil ceremony because we wanted to keep it is a minimal as possible. The problem (which we later discovered) was that all our guests had cameras and all of them were pointed at us at the same time so we could never figure out where to look! In every picture, someone was blinking or caught in mid-sentence or we were never looking at the same camera. The civil ceremony was conducted by a judge who was both very warm and friendly. Everyone loved him and everyone kept telling us that our judge was wonderful.

The civil ceremony took about half an hour (not counting the time we spent posing for pictures). After everyone’s appetite for pictures has been met, we proceeded to our reception which was about a twenty—minute car ride from downtown. We were supposed to pick out a menu prior to the wedding but with all the things we needed to do, we had forgotten to call. We were worried that without a menu picked out, they might not be able to roll out food as fast as we hoped. Fortunately, the restaurant was very efficient. Not only did they take our orders right away but they were also able to roll out the food quickly. There’s nothing worse than sitting at a reception and waiting eons for the food to be served when you’re already about to pass out from starvation! The reception finished at about two thirty in the afternoon then we all went home. I was dying to take a shower because I’m a little uncomfortable having so much make-up and hairspray on me.

Two days later, we left for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with our wedding party and immediate families in tow for our beach wedding. Our flight was late in the afternoon so by the time we landed in Punta Cana, it was already past nine in the evening. I fell in-love with the Punta Cana airport because it was kinda old-school where you get off the plane by going down those portable stairs... not like the tunnels we have here in Canada. I always love the feeling of being in a tropical country... the scent, the various sounds and the warm breeze. I also liked how they designed the airport – with roofs made out of what looked like palm leaves. They also had some huge ceiling fans aptly called “Big Ass Fans” (I swear I’m not kidding!). Upon arrival, we were greeted by a Mariarchi band and they took a picture of us with some women dressed in their native costume. I couldn’t help but feel happy and excited at the same time (yes, being in a tropical country does make me really, unbelievable giddy). Believe it or not, I packed my wedding dress inside the suitcase and checked it in. So if, for some reason, our suitcases had gotten lost, the wedding wouldn’t have taken place. You have no idea how anxious I was to see both our suitcases come out of that plane. I breathed a big sigh of relief as soon as I saw them.

Outside the airport was a van waiting to take us to our resort which was an hour away. The roads were reminiscent of some roads in the Philippines – narrow, winding and with no lamp posts. I could tell the driver knew these roads well because he was driving really fast even though he could only see as far as his headlights could reach. I was looking outside the window the entire ride, trying to see what was out there but it was too dark. I could only see some plants on the side of the road and nothing else beyond that. When I did see a banana tree, I excitedly pointed it out to Steve since he’s never seen one. He didn’t see the first one I pointed out to him since we practically zoomed past it but luckily we passed by a row of them and he was able to see a few. He said he didn’t think they would be that small and that the leaves were that big.

After an hour, we finally arrived at the resort and were greeted with glasses of champagne. I think everyone was tired, hungry and excited at the same time. After checking in, they brought our luggage to our rooms and afterwards we went to one of the resort restaurants and had pizza. Once we were all full, we went back to our rooms and slept. The following morning, Steve and I met with the wedding coordinator who then helped us finalize our wedding plans and also took us around the resort to see various options where we could have the wedding and the reception. It was quite easy and we were surprisingly done within an hour.

We spent the next few days enjoying our vacation – eating, sleeping, swimming, going dancing and taking loads of pictures. I loved the service at the resort we stayed in. All the staff were friendly and efficient and they really made sure that they gave you the best service they could. Our rooms were always clean and we had no problems getting into restaurants even though we had such a huge group.

We had our beach wedding on April 28th at sunset (six in the evening) with twelve guests - again comprised of our immediate families and a few relatives. It had rained some days during the morning or sometimes at night but on our wedding day, the weather was absolutely perfect. Even the photographer mentioned how finicky Dominican weather can be so we were quite blessed. Steve and I actually saw each other already before the wedding to have our pictures taken. We took some pictures at the spa where I had gotten ready and dressed, at the gardens, then on the beach. After the pictures were taken, it was time for the ceremony which took about forty-five minutes (including the pictures we took with our guests after). Our resort was facing the Atlantic Ocean so it was really windy. There were originally four flowers in my hair but I had lost one to the wind. One of my brothers took a video of the ceremony but you couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of wind. I was so concerned that may hair wouldn’t stay in place but I was surprised it managed to hold on during the entire night despite all that wind.

We had our cocktails and dinner in front of the cascade pool which had been closed off for others so that we could have it to ourselves. We were so grateful to our wedding coordinator who was thoughtful enough to add some nice, little touches to our reception. We had our own full bar and our bartender even mixed a special drink for our wedding which he lovingly dubbed the “sweetheart”, a section for the appetizers (the beef flautas were amazing!) and a long table right in front of the water for our sit-down dinner. Although Steve and I had chosen our menu, we honestly couldn’t remember what we had picked so every course was a surprise. They served salad first, followed by lobster soup, then a champagne sorbet, then beef tenderloin for the main course and finally a chocolate mousse for dessert. We noticed that our chef was standing in the far corner together with our wedding coordinator, observing everything carefully. I whispered to Steve that I was embarrassed because I couldn’t finish any of my food and that I was probably insulting the chef in the process.

Dancing followed dinner. We had opted not to hire a DJ because it was too expensive and there were only fourteen of us! We couldn’t justify the cost so we decided to just create our own playlists using my iPod. We had a playlist just for my march down the aisle, another playlist for cocktail and dinner, another for dancing with Steve and our parents and one for disco. By the end of the evening, I had lost a button (my brother had accidentally stepped on my train and took out a button – no damage on the dress thankfully! Just the button came off), my feet were so black from dancing barefoot, and we were ready to pass out from exhaustion.

It’s true what they say, that you spend so much time planning a wedding and it goes by in such a blur. Steve and I look back at both weddings and we couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. We had great company, great food, great weather and really great pictures. To top it all off, it cost a little less than what we had originally thought.

A lot of people ask me how it feels to be married. It feels the same actually. Except that we go home together. But just the same, I love being married to him.