Call me Mr. Marshall
Sadly,
most people spend more time planning vacations than they do for retirement. Where
to go? How to go? When to go? What to do? What to bring? What to wear? Your
mind can spin taking care of travel plans. Retirement investment is far less of
a headache, unless you’re not saving anything, but at least the angst for that
comes much later.
Now,
consider this scenario; travel plans AND a wedding. Oh my word, it seems
implausible that both can be tended to at the same time. Traveling can have one
teetering with details, but couple it with a destination wedding, and eloping
becomes frighteningly attractive.
Somehow though,
Team VFH, now conjoined in holy matrimony, pulled it off… Oops I misspoke,
Janet is slapping me in the back of the head … SHE pulled it off.
For me
the local VFW hall would have been the perfect venue for our wedding and
reception. Get a keg, order some pizzas, fire up the jukebox, and the party
was happening. Tasked with any more details my head would explode. Thankfully
Janet ignored me, and all her planning made for a memorable weekend. To pull it
off she waded through a mountainous stack of details. Me, I’m worthless
comparatively.
MARCO ISLAND
Our destination
wedding in September was as exotic as you can get and still be relatively close
to home. Marco Island, a large barrier island on the southwest Florida coast,
has three miles of pristine sugar cane white sand and a tropical climate with
manatees and dolphins in the warm placid waters of the Gulf of Mexico and it just
seemed like an ideal romantic destination wedding. We had been there before on
an extended family vacation and Janet’s college friend who lives on the island
wanted to host the reception at her spacious and opulent home. That certainly
was a whole lot better than the VFW hall in Downingtown, PA.
 |
| LOOKING SOUTH ON MARCO ISL |
Less than
an hour’s drive south of the airport in Ft. Myers, Marco Island was as
convenient as it was beautiful. Already having a place to throw the reception was
a big help, but then it was a matter of getting people there, where to hold the
ceremony, who would cater it, how to get that big ass cake in the house and who
would provide entertainment.
Janet handled most of these details. She contacted
Marco Island’s chamber of commerce to get the beach wedding permit. She picked out
the wedding company that would set up the arboretum and chairs and provide a pastor and a photographer. She
booked the caterer and baker and the uber-karaoke guy appropriately named
Marco.
She also took care of finding a house on AirBnb for her kids and a condo for mine.
She made sure my best man and my brother had a place to stay. She posted everything
on Facebook as a way of inviting everyone. She advised all the attendees how to
get to Marco and how to make their own living arrangements. She shopped for her
dress, pulled me by the ear to Tommy Bahamas to purchase appropriate beach wedding
clothes. She also worked as the cruise director and came up with a slew of
activities for the extended weekend, even picking out the charter fishing I was
going to do on the Monday following the wedding. And all the while she was looking
radiant.
No comments:
Post a Comment