Wedding day

Today dawned bright and sunny and we were all awake early to get organised for heading to Cocoa beach after lunch for the big day.

I spent the morning putting a colour wash on my hair to freshen up the colour whilst others headed to the pool. A bite of lunch then headed for the cars. Our air con decided to fritz out about 30 minutes into the 75 minute journey so it was a hot journey. Luckily we didn’t have anyone else in the car with us. Mr PHL got through to the hire company ok and arranged to swap cars on the return to Orlando on Thursday.

The hotel was lovely and very accommodating when we asked to change rooms for one with a bit more space as we were sharing with Miss PHL.

Changed, hair and make up done and time to spend a few minutes with Ali and the other ladies in the party. Her makeup (done by her bridesmaid Karen was flawless). We left before she changed into her dress and headed to the bar to meet the others.

Down to the boardwalk where we met the photographer and a hotel employee who supplied us all with glasses of champagne. Onto the beach to the ceremony spot, all laid out with chairs (which some swimmers had decided to use to store their clothes whilst they were in the water!) and time for a few candid shots before Ali came down the boardwalk with her dad.

It was a lovely ceremony, the sunset happened right on cue, the other beach goers cheered with us and all at once it was over and they were married. It was a tad windy and with the noise of the waves it was a little difficult to hear everything that was said but Michael and Ali could hear so that was the important thing. They’d written a paragraph about what they loved about each other which the pastor performing the ceremony read out. That was really lovely to hear.

The photographer encouraged us to take our own photos whilst he was snapping away. Ruairi (the best jab) had bought four disposable cameras which he’ll have developed and make up an album for the newlyweds and it was fun snapping away with them.

We had a fun half an hour taking photos, culminating in a couple of us all running into the sea, I cannot wait to see those!

Then it was into the restaurant for dinner where a surprise 14th guest awaited us at the head if the table. Ali’s mum and dad had brought a little version of their dog Henry with them and he even had his own wee bowl in front of him.

Dinner was delicious and much hilarity ensued with 3 short speeches from the groom, best man and Michaels other friend Lloyd. L’s speech was to tell us he was planning a games night on our return to the villa tomorrow, it sounded amazing.

After dinner we adjourned to the bridal suite for a few drinks and a dance. We didn’t stay too long before we left them to relax and headed to the best man’s room to continue the party before us oldies headed for bed and the youngsters headed off into Cocoa Beach via taxi.

I’ve added a few other shots in the extras.

Backblipped Sunday 6th for Wednesday 2nd.