If I’m not mistaken, we left off after we made this whole marriage thing official, as we were walking back down the aisle and into the rest of our lives (or at the very least, the reception – right?!) Well, the sun was setting quickly, so we had to get this whole picture-taking thing started!
See those people walking around during the ceremony? I have no idea what they were doing. The thing about a destination wedding is that everything is chaos. In a church people wouldn’t walk around to attempt to get photos of the entire thing… in our wedding, people took tons of photos, videos, etc. I’m convinced no one (except possibly the wedding party) even watched us get married.
First, we had to sign the papers!
Our best man and maid of honor signed as our witnesses.
And the guests looked on and took photos.
Then it was official, official. You know, in case the whole kissing in front of all of our family and friends during the ceremony wasn’t enough. Just to be sure, we kissed again.
Fun fact, if you get married out of the country (as we did) it’s harder to get legally married than you might think. Truth be told, we got the proper marriage papers signed in the States, but for the purpose of making it ‘official’ in front of family and friends, the pastor in Jamaica brought us a certificate so we could go through the entire signing process in front of our community, as we would have if we were getting actually married in Jamaica. I know that’s confusing, but basically to avoid legal troubles, it’s easier to do everything in the States before you have your destination wedding. (Definitely reach out to me if you have questions about this!)
Unfortunately, our wedding got postponed a bit and started approximately 30 minutes later than we had scheduled it (it’s okay though, we were on Jamaican time!) so we had less sunlight to work with when it came time for the professional photos. And of course, I was in bride la-la land this whole time, so I was hugging every single guest (yep, all 55 of them) as the photographers were like ‘ummmm lady, we need to take at least one picture of you and your husband before it gets dark out!’
I really don’t even remember the professional pictures being taken, quite honestly, but I do know that my bridesmaids were gorgeous.
I also know that somehow the Husband has 80 billion more pictures of his groomsman than I have with my friends. Ummm what the heck, guys?! What was I doing while the men were posing for pictures?! I honestly have no idea.
We even took a picture or two together as a group.
And we made it to the cliffs to take some sunset pictures!
Honestly, I wish we had about 30 minutes longer to take some additional pictures, because it felt a bit rushed! Originally the plan was to take pictures of the Husband and I before the wedding, which would have given us more time after the wedding to take bridal party and family pictures… but alas! Sometimes life (and weddings) don’t go as planned.
‘Where are we going? To the cliffs? In heels? What?’
The cliffs were pretty much 20 feet away from where the ceremony took place, and we had an absolutely gorgeous sunset behind us.
I don’t remember whether we were actually laughing or told to laugh… either way, I like this picture. Especially because only half the people in it appear to be in on the joke.
So we took a few more pictures at sunset, and when it was just too dark to take anymore, we went on over to the wedding reception! If I’m being totally transparent, I will say that not having more time to take pictures was one of my regrets of my wedding. I had planned on taking a lot and then the day just didn’t go as I had envisioned. However, I absolutely love the pictures I do have! And how many pictures can you really frame and hang on your living room walls, anyway?!
What were the wedding guests doing while we were taking these pictures? Well, we were only ‘gone’ for about 20 minutes, but it’s my understanding that the guests were taking pictures of the photographers taking pictures (I know this because I’ve seen them) and also enjoying a very nice cocktail hour. And maybe playing drums.
It was an open bar for… well, the entire time the guests were at the resort, actually, so it definitely wasn’t a boring time.
But I’m pretty biased, since I was the bride and brides usually think their weddings are pretty bad ass.
Phew, that was a lot of pictures. So now we’re finally ready for the reception (and that could possibly include a fire dancer).
Stay tuned…
Cheers to fantastic people, great times, and wonderful memories!
