The Big Day! Saturday May 26

In my attempt to be a Zen bride, I went to a yoga class on the morning of my wedding. My friend Lauren taught the class at a rooftop palapa in downtown Isla. Lauren had just finished yoga teacher training in Costa Rica and did a wonderful job leading our diverse group of yoga students. I was happy to find the class totally full, with almost half of the wedding guests there to take the yoga class. The yoga studio was beautiful with a light breeze and a panoramic view of the island.

After that I headed off to my new, even fancier hotel, Villa Rolandi. In the taxicab ride over to the hotel on the other side of the island, it started to pour. My mom and I exchanged anxious looks with each other as the cab plowed through huge puddles in the street.

The hotel room was gorgeous and luxurious: a king bed with exquisitely soft sheets,



a double shower with 5 shower heads each (yes, that’s 10 total),


Even the toilet has a ribbon on it

a seating area,
satellite TV and music with speakers throughout the room (even in the bathroom), a private deck overlooking the pool and beach with a private hot tub.



Ana, who was doing hair and makeup arrived forty minutes late. Apparently her taxi had hit a motorcyclist in the rain. She was shook up, but was able to gather herself together and start working on the mother’s hairdos. (Priorities, people!) While they were getting their hair done, I ordered room service from the fantastic hotel restaurant that specializes in Northern Italian Cuisine: cantaloupe with prosciutto, ricotta ravioli, and ice cream with hot fudge sauce.

Throughout the afternoon, we would step onto the balcony and check the weather. By the time it was my turn to get hair and makeup, the rain had stopped but the sky still looked dark and ominous.



Hilary, Mia, Gregory, and Lily showed up to the hotel at about 4pm. But the hotel staff told them that children were not allowed in the rooms. So they had about two and a half hours to kill on a rainy day with a two year old. Hilary came up to the room and we finished getting ready together. By about 5:45, I had everything on and was ready to go. I was just waiting to hear from Juliette that it was safe to come over and waiting to see what the weather would hold.

It was quite a little production for me to take a taxi the half-mile to the beach club for the wedding. I was carrying my train in my hand. Mom put a towel down on the taxi seat for me to sit on. We pulled up to the beach club, but we saw guests were arriving, so Hilary had to explain to the taxi driver in Spanish that we wanted to back up about 100 feet and wait there. Hilary went in to find Juliette, the wedding planner. Then the taxi pulled up to a special entrance to the beach club and Hilary held up a towel to shield me from the sight of any early wedding guests. I was walked to a small house where I was supposed to wait with my parents until it was our time to join the processional.

At about 6:10, I got a call from Tom, my step-father-in-law, who is a retired meteorologist. He said there was a cloud formation that he thought would rain over the ceremony location at about 6:45. He encouraged me to get things started as soon as possible. Juliette agreed that starting sooner was better than later and went to check if everyone was there.

For whatever reason, we ended up starting right on time at 6:30. As my parents and I stepped out of the waiting room, a light drizzle hit our shoulders. I marched on. By the time we got to the crowd, it had stopped drizzling and was perfectly clear.

Here are some photos of the procession:

My sister Mia, my niece Lily, and my brother-in-law Gregory

My brother Louis and my sister- in-law Ki-Wing (3 months pregnant!)
Jon's sister Sarah and brother-in-law JT
My sister Hilary and my brother-in-law Javier
Jon with his father Deric and mother Marilyn
Me with my mother Judi and father Cary (note the ominous clouds in the background, but not until you note how smokin' I look in my dress)



Damn this weather was suspenseful. The ceremony site looked beautiful. The chuppah with its billowing white fabric and bold red flowers looked amazing.



Even the officiant looked nice (especially compared to her yoga outfit.) Jon looked adorable and his face was very alive with joy. It was so hard to get up there and not hug him or give him a kiss, like I would normally do. I knew I had to save that for the end. Once we got to the altar, we each took a flower and a card we had pre-written and handed them to each other’s parents. Then the ceremony began with a welcome from our officiant. Then she invited “Danoo Johnston” to come up and give a reading. Dano nailed the piece I wrote about how Jon and I got together and how it has been meaningful for the rest of our relationship.



Then the officiant began the saddest portion of the ceremony where we remember family who have passed away or can’t be with us. And, fittingly, right then it started to rain. At precisely 6:45. Jon’s Step-dad Len was a smooth mover. He discreetly pulled out a large umbrella that Jon’s mom had bought and held it over us. This was one of those improv moments where mistakes are gifts because not only did we get to be as cool as Puff Daddy, the only other guy I know who has an official umbrella holder, but it gave an excuse for me to cuddle up next to Jon, like I’d been wanting to since the moment I’d seen him. I tried to focus on the officiant although I could see the raindrops on my brother Louis’s shirt and couldn’t help but feel bad that everyone was kind of stuck where they were in the rain and we were the only ones with an umbrella.





Lauren got up and did her reading from The Little Prince. She got choked up reading it and so did Jon and I.




But then as soon as the rain came, it passed. And held out for the next two hours.

Next came the four elements ceremony where we poured different colored sand from the beach, representing different elements of the earth and of our relationship into a glass jar.

The rings,
The vows

the breaking of the glass. Jon did an awesome job of smashing that little Cancun shot glass to bits.


and the kiss.





Then we all went on the pier with rose petals in our hands and made a flower offering and threw them in to the water.



As the rose petals floated through the water, there were some quick congratulations and then we had to do photos. It was the big surprise of the evening—the sunset was beautiful! After all the anxiety about the weather, the sunset turned out to be one of the best we’d ever seen. The photographer put us through lots of poses. My favorites were the ones where we kissed.

Here are some highights. For a more complete photo experience, head to Flickr or our photo site.







As we did photos, everyone else had margaritas and mojitos and had chips, salsa, guacamole, and ceviche on the beach.

Then we gathered in the palapa and they started handing out champagne. So it seemed like the right time for toasts. We got some wonderful toasts. A very poetic well wishes from Marilyn and Tom. Some great advice from my father about enjoying the quiet times and not getting lost in the tasks and routine of the every day. Sarah gave a great toast about getting the sister she always wanted and I was very touched by her rare expression of emotion. Shannon gave a toast about how I played lots of different characters in his life and how with the marriage, his cast of characters to play with will have doubled. Jon gave a beautiful toast about how he is his best self when he is with me. I gave a toast outlining how I’d come from meeting Jon 6 years ago and utterly fearing commitment to being so happy now on my wedding day. I talked about how Jon has the wonderful qualities of being nurturing, having the ability to change, and being a team player.



After the toasts, I got to bustle my dress and then dinner was served. The goat cheese salad, rice, beans, and brochettes were tasty and exceeded my expectations. After all, we were there for the ambiance, not the food. It was lovely to sit with all of our parents and enjoy this meal together and miraculously not drop any food on my dress. Guests enjoyed their food as well as the other items on the tables: bubbles, CD favors (made by Hilary), and disposable cameras. At one point during the meal, we even got ambushed by bubble blowers.





As the evening got later and our photographer had to catch her ferry, we squnched in a few last events. We cut the cake to a song sung by Brak from Space ghost, which went over hilariously.



Then we went up to the pool area for our first dance. Even though we had four lessons with a dance instructor and practiced on our own as well, a lot of our rehearsal went out the window. It was tough to dance in the dress. I kept stepping on it. It started to rain again. The photographer was in the wrong spot to take photos of the final turns and dips.



But it went fine and then we hurried back under the palapa for delicious desert: cheesecake, apple turnover, and wedding cake: lemon cake with fluffy frosting and fresh berries.

After dinner, we moved a few tables over and put on the dance mix we had worked so hard on. The father-daughter mother-son dance was to “Someone to Watch Over Me” sung by Willie Nelson.


Then everyone flooded the floor on the first open dance:“Signed Sealed Delivered” by Stevie Wonder. The next few songs were a great hit. Everyone was shakin’ it on the dance floor. I was telling my uncle Jim, I was really surprised with all the dancing. Partying is not really what we do with our friends anymore. We love them because they are smart and kind and interesting and fun. But man—they really brought it that night. There was tons of dancing and laughing and fooling around. People especially rocked out to “Groove is in the Heart” and “Hey-ya” by Outkast. One of my favorite moments was all the girls dancing together to Abba’s “Dancing Queen.”



As it got late into the night, guests started to leave. But there was one last hurrah. About 8 guests spontaneously jumped into the pool with their clothes on. That was the crowning jewel to our party.






By about midnight we gathered up our supplies and headed back to our beautiful hotel. I can’t tell you about all the good times we had after that . . .