photo by Gina Francesca Photography and Design

Wow. The 300 wedding was the absolute most fun I’ve ever had in my life!

From Barbados to New York, E and I celebrated our marriage with family and friends over ten days of events. First, we took 30 of our closest friends and family to the same villa in Barbados where E proposed last year, and swapped vows, ate dinner in a treehouse style tent and danced around the pool under the stars until the morning hours.

Then E and I gathered pals who couldn’t make it to Barbados for a “welcome back, we’re married” party of sorts at the Four Seasons Restaurant, celebrating our return with drinks, cupcakes, and some killer music.

There were so many memories made during these last two weeks, I could fit them all into another book! But there are a few moments during our wedding festivities I will never forget. Herewith, #the300wedding highlight reel:

Our minister opening our vows with a quote from Prince

Music was a very important part of our wedding, and each song during our reception and ceremony was carefully chosen. We both love the movie “Purple Rain,” so E insisted Rev. Ricky Kirton start the ceremony with a line from the Purple One’s “Let’s Go Crazy“: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to get through this thing called life.”

Our entrance to the dinner reception

E and I danced into our wedding reception to Hot 8 Brass Band’s version of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” We did a lap around the entire communal dinner table, high-fiving our guests and dancing and singing along to the entire song.

Costume changes!

I won’t reveal names, but one family member got his groove on in a Hawaiian shirt and a Speedo. What else would you wear for a beach wedding? My Uncle Jimmy changed out of his white linen suit after dinner into a more dance floor-friendly outfit—shorts, athletic sandals and socks. My mother slipped out of her purple dress and shawl and into a pair of white jeans and a tropical silk blouse, so she could do the Electric Slide with ease. I kept my couture lace gown on until after my first dance with my uncle, in which I shimmied down to the ground holding the train of the gown while singing along to some Sean Paul song. But I couldn’t carry that hand sewn beaded fabric around all night—so I ran upstairs to my suite, took off my wedding dress and changed into a more breathable short white a-line number.

My friend Marshall, aka DJ Martial, taking over the turntables for two hours to close out the wedding

My boy Marsh mixed everything from Prince to Savage Garden to Drake to Hanson (remember “MmmBop!” my children of the 90s?). He had people jumping around on our pool deck like it was prom. It was freaking epic, particularly when he asked my mother and my uncle to jump on the turntables to get photos of them “spinning”, too!

And then, we all jumped into the pool

Though the Speedo wearing guest was technically first in the pool, E and I, E’s dad and six other friends jumped in at the end of the night. E and his best man shed their suits right on the pool deck and jumped into the pool in their underwear. I changed into a white bikini first, then cannonballed into the deep end.  Yes, that’s me in that photo at 1 AM with a rum punch in my hand. My updo miraculously didn’t fall out of place, thanks to about a hundred bobby pins. Thank goodness my wedding planner and her staff at Island Bliss Weddings swapped our glasses of rum punch for plastic cups so we didn’t shatter glass in the pool.

I’m sure you’re wondering if there were sandwiches served at the wedding. Well, sort of. E and I planned to serve fish cutters at our Sunday brunch after the wedding. But no one felt like cooking after our rocking good time the night before. So we hired a chef, who cooked all of the ingredients we needed for fish cutters–fish, mango salsa, roasted tomatoes, and spicy sauce— and our guests made their own sandwiches. Fun, interactive, and E and I were able to relax on our first wedding as a married couple.

Don’t worry, I’ll still make sandwiches for E now that we’re married. I’m just enjoying a few more days of wedded bliss first.

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