Valery & Chauncey were wed in the Caribbean and gosh darn I wish I was a guest! Everything about this Wedding is FANTASTIC!
Before the Wedding they had portraits and cocktail hour...AWESOME!
Here is a summary of the day from the Bride herself...
Our wedding was a celebration of everything we love: family and friends, music, and pampering our guests! Jamaica is a place that Chauncey and I have visited countless times over the course of our relationship and we have truly grown to love it's unique spirit. When it came time to plan our wedding we knew we wanted to share the island's magic with our guests. For the amount of money we would have spent for one night in Manhattan, we did four days of festivities in Jamaica over Memorial Day weekend - a Thursday-night cocktail party, a Friday beach barbecue, the wedding, an after-party that went until sunrise, and a Sunday lunch.
We were weren't afraid to mix up the expected flow of the day. Our wedding started with the cocktail hour! This allowed us to mingle with our guests and relax before our ceremony. We took all of our formals prior to the cocktail hour, so we could relax and focus on enjoying the rest of the day. After the cocktail hour, our guests were all seated at their respective dinner tables and we had a "dinner theater" style ceremony where we stood in the center, surrounded by our guests. It was intimate and offbeat, and was perfect for us as we didn't want the usual processional down the aisle.
Cocktail hour attire...
As Chauncey and I are both jazz musicians (he plays the sax and flute; I sing), we opted to provide the cocktail hour entertainment ourselves. With the help of some of our talented musician friends (who also happened to be guests) we put together a six-piece jazz combo and dedicated meaningful songs to each other: Chauncey performed Art Blakey’s 'When Love Is New' and I did Cole Porter’s 'You’re the Top' and the Etta James version of 'Nature Boy.' It was a great way to include our passion for music in the wedding and share it with our guests.
For the Ceremony, Valery changed her outfit...
Married!
That my friends is a Wedding I would love to have attended...what do you think?
All images found here...