A STORY FROM THE PAST

June 13, 1998 was the date that we set sail on our Caribbean cruise. It was the beginning of a whole new chapter to our lives. See this cruise wasn't just an ordinary cruise or vacation. This was our wedding. Yes, I got married on a cruise ship. We set sail from Miami on the 13th and three day's later on the 16th we got married on the Island of Saint Thomas.

We did not do this alone either. We took our parents, grandparents, siblings and some friends with us. 15 people in total went on our journey with us which made it all that much more memorable.

I remember that day so well. We ported in Saint Thomas where we had to go sign our marriage license, we then went to the beach for about and hour. Here we are getting off the ship that morning. Who would have thought we were getting married in just a couple hours.

After that we headed back to the ship where I had 45 minutes to get ready before I got married.

Nothing fancy for me.... I am a very simple gal and I just had a sun dress (custom made by my aunt) and sandles, fixed my own hair, painted my own nails... you get the idea.

Look how young we look.

We all then met in this beautiful little room on the ship set up for our wedding ceremony. We were married to wedding voes set to the sea (if I can find them I will post them sometime), very beautiful.

This was the room we married in and these are our friends that went with us. Everyone else was family.

After the ceremony we went to another room just for our reception.

I really wanted to get married on the beach and this was an option however my grandfather went with us and he was in a wheel chair so this really wasn't an option for him so we married on the ship instead.

I never had those little girl dreams of a big wedding one day. I am just not a girly, girl. I was not a Christian at this time in my life (sad to say) and I had no desire to get married in a church. I do not like lots of attention and the idea of walking down an isle with a room full of people watching me was terrifying so I opted to get married on a cruise ship. It was this or Vegas. I really didn't want to say I got married in Vegas, seems a bit cheesy to me.

It was simple, very little planning, we pretty much just had to show up. We got a full weeks vacation out of it. The cruise line upgraded our room to a fancy cabin with a balcony while all our traveling friends were down in the lower parts of the ship. It truly was a wonderful event in my life.

Hard for me to believe we will be celebrating 12 years of marriage. Where does the time go...

Funniest part was our friends that went with us said the four of us will go back on our 5 year anniversary. LOL.... we were both pregnant that year so that was out.

Then we said how about on the 10 year anniversary? LOL... again, she had just had a baby and I was pregnant again.

I am almost afraid to declare a 15 year return because a baby could magically appear. Seems to be a pattern anyway.

I know I posted this early but I have such a busy week ahead of me that I am afraid I will not get around to posting it. I didn't post it last year when I wanted to so I wasn't missing it this year.