YAAAAAAAAAY! *LONG* but Awesome good news!

OK, grab some wine or beer and settle in for a little novel!

As a lot of you know, Doug and I have been planning our Big Fake(symbolic) Wedding at home, and our Small Real(legal) Wedding in Hawaii. There are a few reasons we're doing it this way. One is because Doug and I have always talked about getting married on a beach in Mexico. We LOVE Mexico, and with my travel bennies at the airline, we go as often as possible! BUT, ever since we found out that we can't have our own officiant (Doug's Bro, very important to us) and still have the marriage be legal and recognized in Mexico, etc; we decided HI would work for us, it's a beach, and it's super easy to get married there. Another reason is because our at home wedding has just under 200 guests, and that's just the A list, we both have HUGE families, and a ton of the guests are families with lots of small children, as well as a big group of "over 60's". We didn't want to have any part in trying to co-ordinate that, and also asking that many people to travel that far, it was just out of the question. No matter what, we had to (and wanted to) have a Big Fake Wedding at home to accomodate all of that. Other than our parents and Dougs kids and siblings, that was on the hush-hush, everyone thought HI was the honeymoon.

Lately I have been so stressed out about the whole HI part of the wedding. Traveling "non-rev" (as we call it in the airline industry) can be stressful, having to standby for flights, being worried about booking a hotel and losing a night or 2 if the flights are too full, all of that. We never have issues with flights Mexico, and the hotel we like to stay at is our crew hotel, so we get AWESOME rates as well as the ability to pay cash when we get there instead of bill it now. HI is a new route for my airline, and it's ALWAYS full. Not to mention hotel rates are thru the roof, rental cars and gas are a must, restaurants, forgeddaboutit. My stomach was twisting itself into a bigger and bigger knot everyday just worrying about it.

The final thing that made me upset is that Doug and I have NO connection to HI. We both have been there, but not together, and neither of us has been there for over 12 years, by choice as it turns out! Altho it's beautiful, it's just not what we love. Mexico on the other hand, we've gone on many trips there together, we were engaged there for goodness sakes! We just love it.

Finally tonight I got the courage to bring it up with Doug. I had called a few more hotels to check on rates and availability, with no luck in our range. I think Doug must have been having the same feelings as me about the whole thing because he starts to say something like "You know.." and I interrupted him with "I just wish there was some way we could get married in Mexico by Trevor(his bro)." He says, well, we could. And I say, well only a symbolic one, and he says, that's OK with me. When we had talked about it before, Doug had expressed that it was really important to him that the marriage certificate not only had Trevor as the one who did it, but also that the location was "beachy". And as you know, since he only has a few wishes in this whole wedding thing and has pretty much given me free reign on everything else, how could I not go along with it? For him to say it's OK to do the legal one at home, and still go have a symbolic ceremony in Mexico is like a dream come true for me!

I have been so stressed about money and other than all the big stuff for the BFW, like photog, dress, venue, etc, we haven't done ANYTHING like buy favors, decorations, anything. We were planning on making things Hawaiian themed, to celebrate the week in Hawaii after the BFW. BUT, altho I have it all planned out, we haven't actually bought anything. It's like there was a reason!

SO--bottom line is, we're still having our BFW at home, only now it will be known as the BLW (L for legal!) and we're just gonna do it up with a subtle Mexican theme instead of Hawaiian. AND the best part is, we get to have our SSW (S for symbolic) in Mexico like we wanted!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited! We decided to do this in San Jose Del Cabo, where the hotel is, and we are thinking to have the ceremony at Santa Maria Bay, our favorite beach in Cabo. I am totally freaking out right now! I cried when Doug said it was cool with him if we do it this way!

So, I'm very sorry for the freaking LONG A$$ novel, but I just had to share the news and how excited I am!

yay!! sounds like it was meant to be!!

..and they lived happily ever after

I'm so happy for you! It sounds like it was meant to be in Mexico! Congratulations!

Yea! See, things happen the way they are supposed to happen! I'm so happy for you! You've already done so much work, you just need to tweak the details now!

That's awesome!!!! I'm so happy you guys made this decision and are happy with it. Now you can start the fun with all the planning and buying.

Woohoo! Huge thing to bring up, but am so glad you did....it turned out for the best for everyone involved it sounds like!!! Everything comes together for a reason! Yay!!!

How exciting!

I am so happy for you!!! I am glad it worked out just how you imagined.

That's awesome! We were the other way around and wanted to get married in Hawaii but it was TOO expensive.

So, no one booked anything for Hawaii? Is it just close family going to Mexico now?

I am happy for you!!!

That's great news! YEAH!!!