With eviction notice in hand from Carambola Resort and Spa (which basically said “be off the premises by 9am Tuesday- good luck”) and with the help of many family members, my events coordinator, Nichole Reed (a really true MVP) , many of my vendors, friends and even strangers…we start trying to conjure up a wedding in less than 24 hours. Oh my!

Originally, it was planned to have the rehearsal dinner at Blake and my favorite restaurant downtown, Savant.

“Why don’t we move the whole ceremony to Savant?!”

…all eyes on me… I look around for approval and support to my family members.

“But.. but what about father Lois?! He’s not on island, we are supposed to be married in the church!!”

“I need a minute.. let me make some phone calls..”

I set off to call Nichole and Father Lois and try to get the ball rolling and a game plan in place. Nichole was completely supportive, calming, and truly amazing. She got on the phone with all vendors to start making things happen.

Sadly, I tried to get ahold of our priest to see if we could include him and the church in the new plan, but it had turned out that he had not yet made it back on island from his trip… which was delayed getting back due to hurricane Irma. I came to terms that we would have to have another ceremony to include Father Lois and the church.

Okay back to planning this “wedding by Rolodex” (side note, a good friend of mine, Tracy, coined this term for her wedding many years ago… I thought she was crazy).

 

Call the hair dresser. Call the make up artist! My nails aren’t done, Can we find someone to do them?! My mind was going a mile a minute, and September 17th happened to be my grandfathers birthday. I had planned a sunset sail with the whole family to celebrate his birthday and the start of wedding week. Thoughts of canceling the cruise floated around, but I was adamant we still go and try to have a few hours of “normalcy” before absolutely mayhem set in.

(The cruise was wonderful and both families got to spend 2 hours uninterrupted together celebrating the reason we were all here: family).

When the cruise ended, back to hurricane and wedding prep mode resumed. Blake, my two brothers and cousin raced to our house to hurricane proof it. This happens to not be the easiest task… anyone that follows me on Facebook saw my posts about how difficult a time Blake and I had putting them up during Irma!!

They managed to get the house ready and we all head back to Carambola to get ready for the big day.

Another sleepless night of obsessing about Maria’s trajection and strength.

TODAY’S THE DAY!!! I promised no serious hurricane talk as it’s OUR day that we have been waiting for and we can go back into panic and prep mode as soon as the wedding is over.

While Blake catches some last minute snoozes- I place his groom present on the pillow with a little love letter to him to wake up to and head down to check on the family and get this wedding day started!!

Only… I am greeted by tearful family and apologizes about them getting off the island. Four family members and 2 friends left wedding day to escape the storm. I am grateful they were able to get off and would never hold that against anyone! She had been upgraded to a category 5 hurricane and that’s nothing to be messed with.

But…The show must go on! Get the champagne! Pack my dress! Where’s my shoes? To the salon we go to beautify me before I greet my groom ️