The first views of St. Lucia

Our first view of St. Lucia was over the gigantic gray wing of a 737.

The dark green island's mountains, the Pitons, rolled into the deep blue ocean. The colors became even brighter as the plane descended and landed on the one small runway at Hewanorra Airport. We actually had to turn around and taxi back to the gate, which wasn't even a gate as I got my first taste of deplaning right onto the jetway.

The air in St. Lucia was humid and warm, which is amazing, but a little uncomfortable when you're in jeans.

We went through customs, which was surprisingly easy, considering we had no idea what to expect since we've never left the country before.

Staying at a Sandals resort, workers immediately found us, grabbed our bags and took us into a bright room filled with comfortable furniture to wait for our shuttle to the Grande resort 41 miles from the airport.

It ended up that the shuttle only sat eight, and there were 10 people waiting to go to the Grande. So a worker called us over to an unmarked car, a taxi we assumed. He told us to get inside.

I didn't think about it until later in the trip, but apparently Nate became nervous right away, fearing that were being kidnapped, because we had left the group with a driver that literally could have taken us anywhere that he wanted. We had no idea where the resort was, but leave it up to my husband to make sure to note every single police officer that he saw along the way in case something did happen.

Well, stuff did happen along the way, but it wasn't us being kidnapped.

When we got in the car, the St. Lucian man started to give us a little information about the place. I could only pick out about every third word even though he said, "Our language is English, with some broken French." A Caribbean form of English, it definitely was.

He talked about the bananas and coconuts grown on the island, "Very, very nice." He talked about the rum made there, "Very, very nice." He talked about a lot of different things that were "Very, very nice."

The trip wasn't really what I expected. We zoomed around on the wrong side of the road - at least the wrong side in the U.S. - at about 60 miles per hour on curvy roads that should have had a speed limit of 30. We passed people with cars coming right at us. We shot past people walking right on the side of the road. We went around curves on one lane roads and next to steep cliffs that had no guard rails.

A few minutes into the drive, Nate grabbed my hand and held it tight. We didn't move or let go for quite some time.

What impacted me most about this island though was seeing the villages that people lived in.

I guess going to a Sandals resort, I figured that St. Lucia was a wealthy island with magestic, ocean-front homes with large terraces.

It wasn't.

I saw a couple of gas stations, some roadside "restaurants" and plenty of places to stop and get a Piton beer.

The homes looked like shacks, and when we entered the capital of Castries, I was amazed at how people lived. It looked like the poor sections of Brazil that you see where people create homes out of scraps of wood and metal. Some people even had business signs for these places, making a living however they could. I only saw two small churches there as well. I wondered if God had reached this community much.

One home really struck me though. It was a skinny, two-story wood house with no siding or paint. There were not even windows.

However, in the holes where windows should be were white lace curtains, and bright white linens blew in the breeze on a clothesline outside.

I guess when I think about people who live in shacks like I was seeing, I figured these people would be poor and smelly. However, in this home, people obviously took pride in taking care of whatever they had, keeping it clean, even if it wasn't much.

I don't know if those people would want to live in the U.S. or even if they see anything weird about the way that they live. More power to them, I thought. If they are happy with a simple life like that, then I hope they live it to the fullest.

So we're going to St. Lucia, huh?

I had no idea where we were going on our honeymoon.

Nate had it all planned and somehow had managed to keep it a secret, even though a lot of our friends knew where we were going.

I knew we had a layover in Miami the first night, so I figured the Caribbean. However, I was also told that I should pack a long-sleeve shirt and a stocking cap to go along with the shorts I had packed.

A stocking cap and shorts? Really, Nate?

Side note: I did find out later that Nate took the hat out right after I put it in.

We arrived in Miami the Tuesday after our wedding, and picked up our rental car - a bright orange Dodge Challenger.

A revving engine and freeways, and Nate was a happy man.

We drove down to Key Largo to check into the hotel Nate had booked for that night, and then we spent some time driving around. We even stopped at a restaurant that had been featured on the Food Network. Since it was called the Conch House, we tried their specialty, conch.

Not a fan.

Instead of driving all the way down to Key West, we decided to head back to our resort and relax a little bit. Some reggae music and a hammock overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, we were quite content.

The mosquitoes started biting as the sun set though, so we headed in to have some dinner at the resort's restaurant.

After some salmon for me and lobster ravioli for Nate, we headed back to our room.

I chatted about how I needed to remember to call the credit card company in the morning to tell them we were leaving the country.

"Yeah, call and tell them we're going to St. Lucia," Nate said, not really thinking.

"So we're going to St. Lucia, huh?"

Oops.

I was impressed that he didn't let it slip until the night before though!

Next up: The reception

I had one request for our wedding reception - that people dance!

I had several reasons for that desire. First, I love to dance, and I wanted to dance and have fun at our wedding reception. Second, receptions die really fast when people aren’t dancing. Third, I have friends who also love to dance, and I knew that our reception would be a failure without it.

Thankfully, we had Nate’s cousins (mine too now, I guess) DJ the reception, and they put a ton of forethought into the playlist.

When we got to the reception, kind of late due to our pictures, we hurriedly ate, cut the cake and gave speeches so that the party wouldn’t die.

I shouldn’t have been concerned.

After our first dance, father-daughter dance and mother-son song, the music started bumping. Little kids were the first ones on the dance floor, but pretty soon our friends took over. The dollar dance just egged them on, and one thing I’ll never forget is the fact that some of my friends danced with me, and Nate’s male friends danced with him. It was odd, but enjoyable.

The dance floor was full the entire night, and I only left to get glasses of water every now and then. Nate had a cigar, but even took a break from that to come back in to dance to “Thriller,” a must-have for his family. My family must-have was a polka song that actually recruited a full dance floor.

At one point, I went to sit by my family, who were resting at a table. I didn’t want to neglect them so I sat down for a second. Looking at the dance floor, 80 percent of the movers and shakers were male.

“Have you ever been to a wedding where there are more guys than girls on the dance floor?” I asked my mom.

“No,” she said.

There were plenty of guys out there having a blast, and we knew there would be.

From throwing the bouquet to tossing the garter to getting Rick-rolled by Nate’s work friends, our reception was an evening to remember.

And we've already been told that we need to renew our vows pretty soon so that people can have another party.

Side note:
We almost got the reception even later than we did. When the bridal party was standing on the stairs leading into the reception hall, a drunk guy approached us and actually started walking up the stairs with us.
“Are you liberal?” he asked.
Nate and I kind of just looked at him like, “What are you doing here?”
“Are you liberal?” he slurred again.
“No,” Nate said.
“Come on man, be liberal,” the drunk said, oh so convincingly.
Nate turned to me.
“Is he part of your family?”
“No.”
“This is our wedding, beat it,” Nate turned to the drunk, full on angry now.
We had planned to walk into our reception in handcuffs, just for fun. But Nate was ready to use them for a different purpose then.
“Beat it or I’m going to use these handcuffs on you,” Nate told the guy.
“Come on, be liberal,” the drunk said again, slowly backing down a stair at a time.
A couple more threats, and he ended up at the bottom of the stairs, still pleading with us to turn liberal as we walked into our reception.
He actually made it inside later than night until a friend’s mom told him to leave, and she and my mom glared him out the door.

Part III: The Ceremony

"Don't you dare kiss me."

I was standing in the foyer of the church with my hand tucked in the crook of my dad's arm before he walked me down the aisle, and this is what he said.

At the rehearsal, we had practiced me giving my dad a kiss and a hug before he handed me off to Nate at our wedding ceremony. Now, my dad was telling me not to kiss him, because he didn't think he would hold the tears in.

"Can I at least hug you?" I said, laughing slightly. I thought he was cute.

"You can hug me later," he said.

Then the song inside the sanctuary switched to a piano version of "Better Together," by Jack Johnson.

Two of our ushers and good friends opened the glass doors, and I walked inside as the people stood in their rows.

I looked at Nate at the end of the aisle, a moment I have dreamed about for a long time. He was perfectly handsome, standing tall at the end of the aisle in his black tux with white shirt, tie and vest. A smile graced his face, but he looked a little tense. he told me later he got nervous just before the ceremony started, realizing how big a moment this was.

I looked at the people smiling and taking pictures as I walked to meet my prince charming. At the end of the aisle, my dad and I stopped, still arm in arm. The music faded away, and the pastor asked "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

"Her mother and I," my dad said.

He didn't really even look at me but gave Nate a hug and handed me over to him.

Nate took my hand, but as we approached the stairs up to the stage, I had to take it back to hold up my dress. It wasn't quite smooth, because we hadn't practiced with a long dress that I was trying to not trip over in my turquoise lace shoes.

At the top, I grabbed Nate's hand again, and the ceremony started.

It was kind of a whirl. The pastor speaking. The scripture readers - my best friends from college - reading a verse and my eyes starting to tear as my friend Emily made eye contact with me while she read. Nate and I turning toward each other and exchanging vows, then rings.

I don't think most people knew what happened when we exchanged rings. Nate got mine on easily. However, he has knuckles that are larger than the bottom of his fingers. His ring fit his finger but was quite tight to get on over his knuckle. I put it on halfway but stopped.

"Nope, that's as far as it's going."

Nate then stuck his hand in his pocket to keep the ring from slipping off, but it wasn't what he was supposed to do.

"Hold her hand man," the pastor told him.

"I don't want to lose the ring," Nate said quietly, pulling his hand out of his pocket with his ring finger crooked. I grabbed his hand and held the ring on until the musicians made their way on stage. As we walked to the back to light the unity candle, Nate shimmied the ring the rest of the way on.

We picked up the turquoise candles that had been lit before the ceremony by our mothers, and then we walked back to center stage and joined hands as our parents made their way up to us.

An intimate moment ensued as our parents, all still together, circled us and prayed for us. Nate lowered his head to rest on mine, which was very sweet. However, my feet weren't in a good position and the extra bit of weight was throwing me off balance. I slid my feet into a new position trying to concentrate on what our parents were saying and "I Can't Wait" being sung in the background.

I had kept myself from crying throughout the ceremony. However, when Nate and I faced each other and the pastor pronounced us man and wife, I stared into his eyes.

The blue-green eyes that stared back at me were ones that I have looked at for more than eight years. They're ones that I will look into for the rest of my life, Lord willing. They are beautiful eyes, full of love and full of strength and full of courage. They are the eyes of the man that I can't help but love.

As the pastor pronounced us husband and wife, the tears slowly filled my eyes. I tried to smile but could feel my face tighten as the tears came. I was just oh so happy.

Then our pastor said, "You may kiss your bride."

Nate gave me a huge kiss as people in the audience hooped and hollered and cheered and applauded.

Then the new Mr. and Mrs. walked down the aisle together, the first of many steps we will make arm in arm.

Wedding Day part II

The days leading up to our wedding, I sent out a complete schedule with hour-by-hour directions for the entire bridal party.

Well, the day didn't quite turn out according to the schedule.

Decorating at the church went perfectly, and it actually went much quicker than anticipated. My bridesmaid Kathleen and I headed out to our hair appointments, discovering along the way that one of the reception venue's signs - which I was expecting to use to direct people - had been taken down.

Thanks so much to my best friends who bought some poster board and created signs for me as I sat at the hair salon!

Then I ended up not even starting my hair appointment until after I thought it would be done.

Thanks to my friends for heading to the church and decorating the sanctuary!

We were supposed to start pictures at 1 p.m., and my photographer said that I was being overly positive about what time I would be ready. And I ended up still sitting in the hairdresser's chair at 1:15 p.m.

I just laughed.

"I gave my fiance a schedule, and now he's going to be like, 'She's not even following it,'" I told my hairdresser.

Oh, well!

I scrambled into the church, put on my dress - which was luckily pretty easy - and applied my make-up in a scramble.

We ended up right on time with everything. I even had a few moments to spare to play a game of air hockey and pray with my parents before the ceremony started.

A lesson in patience and not being a bridezilla the day of my wedding. Luckily I was so happy I just went with the flow, for the most part.

Part III: The Ceremony, coming tomorrow!

A chat with my parents

I'm back!

I think it's going to take me a month to not only catch up on the blogging about everything that has happened recently but to also catch up just on life! A wedding Sept. 2, a honeymoon until last night, starting dance tomorrow, moving on Saturday - we're just trucking on.

To catch up, maybe I should just go chronologically. First things first: Our wedding day.

I didn't think that I would be able to fall asleep the night before Nate and I got married. However, put me in a dark room, snuggled in a warm bed and even "Friends" going on the TV won't keep me awake.

The next thing I knew I felt someone standing over me, and I opened my eyes to face right above mine. I jumped and grabbed the covers - a great and helpful reaction if someone was going to attack me...

Luckily, it was just my dad. It was 6:30 a.m. and he wanted to talk before the big day, and my mom jumped into the king-size bed next to me and snuggled up.

They talked about the importance of love and respect between a husband and a wife. My dad said how men are instructed to love their wives, because that isn't something that comes natural to them. Love for women is just a natural thing. However, woman are instructed to respect because that is less natural for them than love.

It was an interesting topic, one that was actually repeated in the sermon at our wedding ceremony - which I didn't realize was going to happen.

However, I think the part of that conversation that stuck out to me the most was how my parents talked about each other. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but they said that 30 years from now they hope that Nate and I still find what we need only in each other.

They said they still can be in a room full of people, but when their eyes meet across the distance it's like a relaxing feeling comes over them and they just know that they're OK because they have each other.

I love that my parents are still so in love 33 years after they got married, and I can't wait to have that with Nate and to tell our children about it when it's their turn to tie the knot.

More tomorrow on how the rest of the day turned out.

Signing off for the wedding

I think I'm going to sign off here.

At least for a few weeks.

I can't wait to have an escape from reality for just a few weeks. First, it's going to be unreal getting ready all the last minute details for my wedding. It's a day that I have looked forward to since I was a little girl. I remember sketching out my dream wedding dress when I was just a little girl, planning out all my flowers and my colors.
Honestly, it hasn't changed much either.

I can't really talk about my wedding dress, because Nate doesn't know what it looks like but I can say some details of it are what I have wanted for years. I always wanted lilies, although I went from stargazer lilies to just white lilies. I also used to want turquoise and pink for my colors, although now we ended up with teal and silver.

I have to say though, my dream was always about falling in love and finding that perfect man that I would walk down the aisle to. I am so excited to see his face the moment that our eyes meet as I walk down that aisle. I love him so much, and I couldn't have dreamed of a more perfect relationship with someone.

Then, we have an escape from reality as we get to go have some fun and celebrate our relationship, just the two of us. A week and a half off from work and off from stress and daily life.

It's time to concentrate solely on us, and so I say good-bye for a little while. Remember to cherish those everyday moments in the meantime, and don't forget to look for God in those little things along the way.

Don't forget about me! I'll be back soon.