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Wedding Day: The Ceremony

Post author By tiffany
Post date January 12, 2009
21 Comments on Wedding Day: The Ceremony

After family pictures, we started getting ready for the ceremony. I went to the room that they had set aside for us so I could take a breather. I was a bit exhausted from the “day after” shoot and from standing in the hot and humid weather in my huge dress. During this time, there was so much going on that I had no clue about. J and I had chosen songs for the walk down the aisle but I guess there was some technical issues with that so J and his family were running around trying to figure it out and make it work.

The beauty of such a small wedding was the simplicity of the set up and how you could really concentrate on the beauty of the whole property and the ceremony without being distracted by anything else.

While the staff was setting up and the music was being fixed. My dad came in to join me and then I relaxed for the first time that day and told my dad that I was ready to get married!

My daddy held me tight and we walked down the aisle.

And there he was. There we were. In the moment, the moment we had talked about, the moment we had both thought of and dreamed of since the day we met. But this moment was even better, it was a spectacular, sunny, sparkly, blue water, dream come true kind of moment. It was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

After all the drama of the days before, this moment felt so surreal and was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life.

Gorgeous images brought to you by Punam Bean

Previously on the Wedding Day Series:
Part 1: The Venue
Part 2: The Drama
Part 3: The Morning of
Part 4: The “Day After” Shoot
Part 5: The Damage
Part 6: Family Time

Wedding Day: Family Time!

Post author By tiffany
Post date January 9, 2009
15 Comments on Wedding Day: Family Time!

Before we started the ceremony we took pictures around the resort which I will show in a later post. Let’s first start with family pictures!

We were so happy to have all of our family members there. When planning we had initially began with a huge guest list and eventually cut it down and cut it down until we finally just settled on immediate family. At first I was unsure of this as we would have loved to have friends and other family members there but planning a destination wedding at a small resort is no small feat and to have a hurricane thrown in was much more stressful, so in retrospect, having only 11 of us was ideal. I couldn’t not have imagined what it would have been like if we had to relocate 50+ guests when the hurricane hit!

My gorgeous family

with the addition of my future brother in law
(my sister and he got engaged 3 days after we got back from Jamaica!)

picture by Punam Bean

My beautiful mom and sister
Don’t you love the purples?

My mom is wearing Dolce & Gabbana and my sister is wearing Diane von Furstenberg.
My mom is also wearing the exact same Gucci shoes that I am wearing except hers were a purple print. We hadn’t even planned that as she didn’t see my shoes until after she bought hers!

My parents

J’s adorable family

My mom decided to hold my hand which made me laugh.
I felt like I was posing for prom pictures!

The whole group!

picture by Punam Bean

So, are you wondering why we have so many pictures with our own camera? J was still taking pictures all day and then he would pass his camera to his dad when he had to be in the shot. I liked having both sets of pictures from both our photographer and from our camera. It was like seeing our wedding in two different point of views. And if you can’t tell, we are a camera loving bunch, well my family and J’s dad. The rest of his family is a bit camera shy, especially his brother. You’re lucky you’re even seeing any pictures of him! 🙂

all pictures by style-ish unless otherwise noted.

Previously on the Wedding Day Series:
Part 1: The Venue
Part 2: The Drama
Part 3: The Morning of
Part 4: The “Day After” Shoot
Part 5: The Damage

photography Uncategorized wedding

Wedding Day: The Damage

After we had exhausted all the fabulous spots to take pictures, we arrived at Tensing Pen, a little sweaty, a little tired but very very happy.

I think this was Sugar that greeted us upon arrival

photo by Punam Bean

The staff at Tensing Pen did such a wonderful job cleaning up the damage, you don’t see any of it in our wedding photos, but J walked around and snapped some pictures of the damage, for memories sake.

The beautiful pool had turned a mucky brown

And then was drained

The roof had been slightly damaged
on the cottage we had been staying in

But the real damage was what was inside

The waves had blown out windows, so there were shards of glass everywhere.

And the beautiful but destroyed hammock hut.

The SeaSong hut where the reception was to take place
was still a little bit watered down.

But compared to what it looked like before,
this was amazing.

After seeing the damage, we realized even more how lucky we were to still have our wedding there, and on such a beautiful day.

Pictures by Style-ish unless otherwise noted.

Previously on the Wedding Day Series:
Part 1: The Venue
Part 2: The Drama
Part 3: The Morning of
Part 4: The “Day After” Shoot

Uncategorized wedding

Wedding Day: The “Day After” shoot

Post author By tiffany
Post date January 7, 2009
16 Comments on Wedding Day: The “Day After” shoot

We had booked our photographer for both the wedding day and a day after shoot because I knew that I wanted to get some beautiful shots in Jamaica outside of the resort with just me and J. I had originally wanted to take a few hours the day after the wedding to walk around and find some cool places to take pictures and just have a fun, relaxed photoshoot with my husband. The hurricane of course, killed that idea since the “day after” became the “day of”. Poor Punam did not even get to finish her breakfast as I called her so early in the morning (I had done a poor job of planning that day because of the emotional state I was in the prior day and not even knowing how the weather would turn out) asking her to come early so we could start taking pictures.

At this point, we were still unsure of the state of Tensing Pen and if the wedding was actually going to happen.

My sister and my dad worried along with me.

until I got a call from Sonia (the wedding coordinator at Tensing Pen) telling me that we were good to go and they were prepping the place for us. yay!

So J and I, along with Punam, Andrew and my brother (who videotaped the whole thing) piled into a taxi to find places for our shoot.

A funny story with this is that, in Jamaica, taxis are not really marked, it usually looks like just a regular car. And they all run on “Jamaican time” meaning if you order a taxi at 9am, it might not show up until 9:30am. So the taxi that we had ordered still wasn’t there and this man that had been talking to the staff at the resort we currently were at asked us where we were going and we told him, he said “okay, come on, I’ll take you.” We assumed he was a taxi guy since he had been talking to the staff. It was not until later that we learned that this kind man had just been a friend of the staff and his brother had just gotten married so when he saw us, he wanted to offer us a ride just because. I told him that we would be stopping in between to take pictures and he just said sure and went along with it.

Along the way to Tensing Pen there were all these cool buildings, landmarks and even destroyed/abandoned buildings that we stopped by and got some wonderful pictures.

I have to mention that we were walking around in extreme heat, I mean everyone was sweating. I don’t ever sweat and even I was sweating. J said it was the first time he had seen me sweat. Punam would be like “wait! I can’t see anything because sweat is dripping into my eye!” It was kind of miserable at the time but funny to think about it now.

Also, a lot of the places we were taking pictures were full of obstacles and dirt/rocks/stairs/bushes and I managed to do all of that in my very heavy gown and 4 inch stilettos. J told me later on that very few women could do that and he was quite proud of me. 🙂

pictures from the fabulous Punam Bean

Previously on the Wedding Day Series:
Part 1: The Venue
Part 2: The Drama
Part 3: The Morning of

Uncategorized wedding

Wedding Day: The morning of

Post author By tiffany
Post date January 6, 2009
19 Comments on Wedding Day: The morning of

When we woke up the next morning, it was an incredible sunny and beautiful day. The first sun that we had seen since arriving in Jamaica! I could not believe my eyes. All I could think was “is this for real? Am I really going to get married today?” and not in the I can’t believe I’m getting married way but in the this is a miracle, the hurricane is gone! sort of way. The only issue was that we were 45 minutes away from Tensing Pen and the resort we moved to was not on the water so we really had no clue what it was like at Tensing Pen. I kept my fingers crossed and decided that, since it was such a beautiful day, we should get out and take pictures anyway, even if Tensing Pen wasn’t ready to hold our wedding there.

And so, the day began…

The Bridal Attire

The dress by Alvina Valenta

The shoes by Gucci

Our rings

His custom black jade ring

my engagement ring and wedding bands

My wedding present from J

Before the wedding, we had agreed on no wedding presents as we were going to go all out with our one year anniversary. I had been a bit sad but knew what I was going to get for our one year so was happy with our decision and didn’t dwell on it. Well, two days before we leave for Jamaica, we are downtown getting last minute things and he says to me “let’s stop in Tiffany’s, I want to show you something.” I’m always down for going to Tiffany’s, so off we went but it didn’t cross my mind that he was actually going to buy me something. It wasn’t until the beautiful amethyst was on my finger (he wanted me to try it on to see if I liked it) did he then tell me that he had bought it for our wedding. Awwww… gotta love a man that surprises me with jewelry. The reason he didn’t suprise me with it on the wedding day is because he knows me and how picky I am so the best thing to do is to always show it to me and get my approval first. Plus, it was a surpise anyway so I didn’t mind that he didn’t wait. I also loved that he went and found it and picked it out himself with no input from me. There is no significance with amethyst, I just really love purple so he knew it was very me. It looked beautiful with my dress and I love seeing it in the pictures. It just makes me smile every time I look at it.

Getting Ready

Putting on my makeup and J just watching TV

We had gotten a two bedroom suite so that he could go upstairs and get ready (I was getting ready downstairs) but I didn’t mind him down there while I put on my make up. I needed it to calm my nerves.

And then it was time to get dressed!
While my mom and my sister zipped me up into my dress

and struggled with the 800 small buttons that went down my entire back

J was putting on his suit

And looking pretty damn good

My sister helped me put on my veil,
while my mom handed me my jewelry
(all borrowed from my mom’s amazing jewelry collection)

Drop pearl earings, diamond solitaire necklace and a diamond bracelet was all that I needed.

One last look

and then it was out the door.

all photos by Punam Bean

Previously on the Wedding Day Series:
Part 1: The Venue
Part 2: The Drama

photography Uncategorized wedding

Wedding Day: The Drama

The drama all began a day before the wedding was supposed to happen. They resort started evacuating certain rooms, one of them being ours as we were one of the closer ones to the waves. Their solution was to move us to the Long House which was a big house consisting of 3 rooms and a big living area space, along with my sister, her boyfriend and J’s parents. I, however, was not happy with the decision to move us and said no, we are not moving. I was too much in love with our Rock Cottage and I wanted to J and I to stay in there. The staff just laughed and said fine, you can stay. At dinner, we watched the loud and choppy waves but I kept on saying that it didn’t look that bad and we were fine.

the scenery that night
(Photo by Punam Bean)

When we went to bed that night I was sure that we’d be fine. As it were, all night J and I would wake up every few hours and check and sure enough, we were good. No water, no nothing. Until about 7:30AM when J woke up he put his foot down and said “Oh Sh*t.” I jumped up to find the entire floor covered in water. First thing I did was to run to the closet to make sure that the water hadn’t reached up to my wedding dress, which thankfully, it hadn’t. We had done a good job putting everything up off the floor the night before so nothing was damaged.

Rock Cottage 2 before the “excitement”

I looked at J and he said that we better get out of there and ask them what to do. We just weren’t sure if that was going to be the worst of it or not. We walked out to waves slamming against the rocks and our patio and I pretty much ran to the main walkway as I was afraid it was going to come sweep me up. As soon as we got to the main walkway I heard frantic calling of my name and Sonia, our wedding coordinator was frantically trying to get to us to evacuate us. She and a bunch of the staff ran back to the cottage with us and grabbed all of the stuff out of the room.

I then went into the dining room where we found both our families wondering where we were. The dining room was right by the waves so we spent the entire morning just watching the gigantic waves. That day was supposed to be the day that we got married and the wedding coordinator kept on telling me not to worry, it was still going to happen. The waves would calm down.

Punam and Andrew then came down to the dining room and I asked how they were and she said they were fine as they were in one of the pillar cottages which are all high above the ground. I was so relieved that at least some of my guests didn’t have to get evacuated.

That is, until slowly one by one, each of our guests were told that it was too dangerous but now they had no more open rooms and would have to move them to a different hotel. I was pretty much freaking out at this point and a million thoughts were running through my head. And then, Punam headed back to her room to get her laptop and when she came back, it was like a nightmare come true. If you read her blog post, you’ll know that she walked into a big ol water flood in her room and everything was soaked. The waves were so strong that it literally blew the door off! Punam and Andrew really kept it together even though all their belongings including all her camera equipment were soaked. I think back about how calm they were and I am so grateful because I don’t know how much more I could’ve handled. There were so many factors that I just had no control over and just did not know what to do.

This was the pillar that Punam and Andrew were in.
Can you believe how high that wave went to crash down their door?

Once it was determined that everyone else had to be evacuated (the 3 parties that were in the Long House were still okay) I decided that I didn’t want half of our families in one resort while the rest of us stayed at Tensing Pen. I also decided that the wedding could not possibly happen that day and had to put it in my mind that it would need to be pushed back a day. The next hour was trying to find a place that had enough rooms for a party of 13 that wasn’t near the water. Sonia found a place for us but being a picky group, we didn’t want to stay at just any old place, I mean there might be a hurricane but we still have standards right? So a few of us decided to go look at the resort before committing to it. Keep in mind that we weren’t the only resort being evacuated, all the other ones that were on the cliffs were being evacuated too so there were only a handful of resorts that we could go to.

It took us about 45 minutes to get there and I had been trying to keep it together most of the day but the car ride seemed to increase my anxiety and I was getting pretty emotional. After all, I was supposed to get married THAT day and it was approaching the time that the ceremony was supposed to have started. Before we left my family was saying “you might as well look at the new place to see if you can have your wedding there.” And with that in mind, I cried my eyes out the moment I stepped foot in there. I feel bad because it wasn’t such a horrible place but it really wasn’t what I wanted. It’s just that it was no Tensing Pen. There was no amazing view of the ocean, there were no cute little cottages, there was no cliffs.

The pool looked nothing like this.

the pool at Tensing Pen

What they had was a pool in the middle of the main building with a swim up bar and all you can eat buffet right next to it. (This was an all-inclusive resort) Not so bad if you are prepared for it and that’s what kind of place you are wanting to stay at, but it was all pretty much the exact opposite of what I wanted. All the staff in the lobby saw me crying and they all tried to make me feel better which made me feel even worse because I shouldn’t have been making them feel bad. Once I calmed down the manager brought me and J to a wedding that was going on that day which was being held by the pool and she told me that we could have our wedding there. I then looked and saw all the half naked people at the pool bar (a.k.a uninvited guests) watching the wedding that was going on and I just knew at once that there was no way I could have my wedding there. Once we were alone I told J that it was either a wedding at Tensing Pen or no wedding at all. He agreed with me.

We did decide however to move everyone over and just stay the night there just so we could all be together. Much more drama happened with that but I won’t go into details. Let’s just say, the process of getting the rooms wasn’t easy.

I didn’t sleep well that night but I wished with all that I had in my heart to give us the wedding day that we had been planning over a year for and had flown all the way down for.

all photos by style-ish unless otherwise noted

*my disclaimer is that there is nothing wrong with these kinds of weddings as I’m sure many people have gotten married there and had a wonderful time. It’s just that I had certain expectations for my wedding as I think most brides do and what was presented to me was completely different than anything I had ever imagined. Plus, I was a tad bit emotional that day 🙂

photography Uncategorized wedding

Wedding Day: The Venue

It’s time to start the wedding recap! I thought I’d start it out with pictures of Tensing Pen because the property is absolutely gorgeous and when I was doing my search of Tensing Pen, I did not find many pictures, so I hope this helps other brides who are getting married there. Tensing Pen is located in Negril, Jamaica. If you land in Montego Bay it takes about an hour and a half drive to get there so prepare for the long ride there but it is so very much worth it!

We chose Tensing Pen mainly because of the gorgeous property and that we could get married on the cliffs rather than on a beach. We also loved that everyone got their own “cottage” so you didn’t have to share walls with anybody. It was like everyone had their own place and since the resort is so small it kind of feels like your own little village!

The gates before you enter the property

They had the most beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs there that were so calm and friendly.
One was named Tensing and the other Sugar. Not sure which one this is but we all loved them!

We stayed in Rock Cottage 2 which I highly recommend. In my opinion it was the best of the entire property just because it was right on the water (but most of them were) and the room had AC and was just built really well. My sister stayed in Rock Cottage I which didn’t have AC so theirs was a bit different. Rock Cottage II is the way to go if you can!

Rock Cottage II

The path way in front of Rock Cottage II

Our guests stayed in cottages all over the property and everyone seemed to love their rooms (before they got evacuated from the hurricane, of course!)

J’s mom relaxing in front of their cottage

A view of the front of their cottage as well as the bridge.

My parents and brother stayed at the South House. It had two floors so that my brother could stay downstairs while my parents were in the upstairs bedroom.

(you see how far back the house is but the hurricane was so strong that
even they had water in their rooms!)

The pool

These pictures were taken the day we got there so you can see it is a bit overcast. We weren’t sure if the sun was going to come out but we also were not expecting a hurricane. None of these pictures were post processed so it just goes to show how beautiful the property is.

Next up: the drama before the big day…

all pictures by style-ish