“Ready erin? You’re going to walk down to the fort and tap Blake on the shoulder…it’s time”
My goodness I never actually thought this moment would come! My hair was perfect, my dress was perfect, my make up was perfect and I could see my groom off in the distance standing, patiently, waiting for his bride. We actually pulled it off and are about to get married!

After spending 10 months agonizing over center prices, cupcake flavors, wedding favors, colors, napkins, transportation, seating arrangements… none of it mattered and none of it was happening.

I never wanted a first look with Blake.. I wanted his first sight of me when I was walking down the isle towards him… funny enough.. there was no isle at this wedding.

… I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around and I will never forget the look on his face. Happiness. Peaceful. Calm. Ready.

We did our photos first, before the ceremony. My veil wouldn’t stay on because of the Maria’s crazy winds already starting up… I went through a big puddle which got the bottom of my dress totally dirty… but none of this mattered… I’ve only seen a few pictures so far but I think we totally #nailedit.

Off to the ceremony. Our wedding music was played using YouTube on an iPhone and a Bluetooth speaker. The song of me coming down the stairs was accidentally the live version with people cheering in the background… but it didn’t matter. Our father daughter dance was first the wrong song and then accidentally cut short. We were married by our good friend Ned, instead of in a church by our priest.
Our reception was at our favorite restaurant downtown, Savant, instead of at the resort we had planned.
My flowers were some sort of weeds found outside instead of pretty pink roses.
My maid of honor and Blake’s best man did not make in due to the storm.
Even the date was wrong…on everything. I was so excited to share my grandparents anniversary with them! We were still able to share their first-dance song together, even though our anniversaries will now be 3 days apart.

We were able to put Maria on the back-burner for a few hours and focus on the reason we were there…We had the perfect storm, if you will, for this wedding to be a disaster… and yet it was imperfectly perfect.

Meanwhile, we were scrambling to find new housing for my side of the family. Housing that would be safe and close enough to Blake and I that would be able to check on them and easily take care and assist in whatever happens post Maria.

Luckily we found a condo from good friends of ours that could fit 8 people in. Running water but once power went out.. it was out because there was no generator. Not your idea of a tropical, relaxing vacation, but it was safe and we could keep most of the family together.

“Omg- she’s coming today!” The most unwelcome wedding guest at all presence could already be felt. Curfew was set to start at 10am. Meaning by 10am everyone needed to be off the roads and hunkered down. The power was being turned off by 2pm so whatever you needed to get done needed to be done by then! You could feel the fear on the roads with the crazy traffic and the long gas lines…

..something bad was coming… and it was coming fast!