Out Shout the Wind by Donna Merritt

It was a WINDY day on Key Biscayne.
I received a call from Juliana in Miami on Saturday asking if I could do a wedding on Key Biscayne the following day.
I advertise "short notice" OK and I do try to9 accommodate when possible so I said I could do it.
She said they wanted to have the ceremony at 11:30 and we agreed to meet at her condo at 11:00.
The drive to Miami is not bad on a Sunday morning and i always give myself plenty of time because arriving late just sort of tears up my whole constitution so I was in the area, after about a 30 minute drive, by 10:30 am.
That was when the fun started. I had the address but still I drove up and down the street several times looking for the address.
Juliana is from Columbia and our communication left something to be desired and so it ended up with me finding a parking place, calling her and saying this is where I am and her coming to find me. The problem stemed from the fact that her building was not facing Brickell Ave, where the address was, but rahter facing on a little driveway that ran along the south side of the building rather than on the west side which was Brickell.
At any rate she found me, we drove to her apartment, less that two blocks away and hung out in the lobby for a few minutes while everyone assembled. lots of beautiful people, all speaking Spanish, except to me.
Juliana turned out to be an absolutely beautiful young woman, striking would be a good word here as well. She was wearing a form fitting, one shouldered dress in off white with a slit up one side which extended quite high. Her hair was long and dark dark brown. She looked like a Greek goddess.
This was Juliana's second marriage and she has a little seven year old boy who looked so much like my youngest grandson, it was amazing.
At any rate, it seems we were waiting for the groom, yes grooms run late just like some brides, but we finally were all assembled, got into our cars for the drive to the end of Key Biscayne. Actually to Bill Baggs Park. If you are not familiar with Key Biscayne and the park it is well worth your effort to take a trip there. The whole length of the Key is very pretty and the Park section at the end is quite large and wild looking.
I need to do some homework here on history. In the middle of the Key is an area called Crandon Park and I believe I am correct in saying this is the home of the original Crandon Park Zoo in Miami. I remember taking my kids there years ago. It has long since been replaced by Metro Zoo in Miami.
To continue...I love the Spanish, two minutes can be an hour and a ten minute drive can be much longer. Anyway the location they had chosen, ten minutes from the apartment. I didn't time it but it was a little longer than that but such a beautiful drive. The bridge over the bay which provides a beautiful skyline view of downtown Miami and then the drive through the residential and tourist area, the park areas, all nice and especially on a Sunday morning, free from heavy traffic.
We arrived at the parking lot, at the far end of the park and the weather was being so nice to us. We had been threatened with storms and rain but it was nice and sunny when we got out of our cars.
However just a short walk to the water and it was like going into a wind tunnel. I was totally unprepared for the transition from warm sunny day to storm blasts. The couple however had picked the spot and there is where we did the ceremony. What a wind blown group we all were. There were probably around twenty of us all together and the guest had to huddle close because my words were fairly ripped from my lips and blown away.
I must say everyone, except for a small child about a year old, handled it with great dignity (if you can be dignified and blown away at the same time and in about twenty minutes we had accomplished what we came for. Juliana (love the name) was married to Cyril (a young Frenchmen) with Juliana's son acting as ring-bearer.
I Had taken care of the paperwork back at the apartment because I didn't expect the accommodations for writing would be very good at the park, and so with a few final congratulations and goodbyes I headed back home.
The drive back to the main land was so beautiful and the drive up 95 was easy with few cars to mar my progress and so I was home in a short time. I stopped at my favorite Italian place on the way and picked up a pizza to go. I had just pulled into my car port when the storm hit. Going inside I was thinking God had certainly been nice to my bride and groom and to me. He held up his storm so that we could have a beautiful, if windy time for the ceremony and then turned loose his fury after all was finished and I was safely home.
I changed into my comfy clothes, put a couple slices of pizza on a plate, curled up on my couch, turned on the TV and settled in for a nice quiet afternoon. My work finished for the day, wind and rain pounding outside while I snuggle warm inside. Life is good and I am blessed.

Summer Weddings in Florida

Summer might have been slow in arriving this year but it is here in full force in south Florida.
Thank goodness for the really tough couples who can and will stand the heat in order to get married here in our beautiful area.
I performed a Hawaiian wedding in Fort Lauderdale a couple of week ago. It was such fun. The couple had ordered their leis from "the big island" and they were fresh and beautiful. Mine was made from yellow plumeria and so very fragrant.
They were staying at the Bahia Mar on the beach but chose to have their wedding in the little park like area right on the Intracoastal. Nice
If you are planning a Florida wedding give me a call and let me provide a beautiful wedding ceremony which you will long remember.
Please visit my website for lots of good wedding info.

The weekend of weddings

Mother's Day weekend was a weekend of weddings for me. My weekend started on Friday evening, on the beach with Danielle and Jason. Jason had just returned from over seas with his National Guard unit. After the wedding I drove them down to the Hollywood Broadwalk where they were going to have their wedding dinner at one of the many restaurants which sit right on the walkway with the ocean just steps away.
It is a beautiful place to "people watch" anytime and it can be a very romantic location for newlyweds.
As with all my brides and grooms I enjoyed getting to meet them and to spend a little part of their special day.

My second weekend wedding was that of Anna and Paul. They choose Fern Forest in Coconut Creek for both their wedding ceremony and for their reception. If you live in the Fort Lauderdale area and you would like a "Nature" type wedding Fern Forest might be for you. They have a beautiful covered over, open space for the ceremony which feels like you are above the forest and then the reception was held in a enclosed room one level up. The room is really nice and big with a wonderful kitchen and of course they have the tables, chairs and a portable dance floor.
My grandsons, Spencer and Chase set the room up and then broke it down after the reception. If you need a good set up crew give me a call.
Anna and Paul had a beautiful wedding ceremony including a reading by a best friend and a solo by another.
The food for the reception was provided by a lady who does Cuban food. Great.(see my website http://www.thesimplewedding.com for information for contacting the service providers I meet and recommend.

Sunday morning I started off with a beach wedding on Fort Lauderdale beach. It was already hot by 10:00AM when we met by the Yankee Clipper hotel on A1A. The beach crowd wasn't too bad at that hour but it was filling up fast.
This couple, Corina and Chris came from Texas to be married. Their guests included the grooms mother and I believe the bride's sister and her son. They were really a nice group and as in almost every wedding there was an abundance of love filling the air. Corina told me before the wedding that they would only be doing the bride's ring because they had not been able to find a ring large enough for the groom. When I talked to Corina after they had returned home to Texas she said they were still looking for that large ring.She told me the size and I didn't even know rings came in a size so large.

Onward to number four on my mother's day weekend.This one was so cute. Sharla and Dante had decided to surprise their families with a mother's day wedding. I arrived prior to the family members and when they arrived, after the family hugs and kisses I was introduced as "Donna marrieds people". The look I received was "well that's nice". It went right over everyone's head for awhile until Dante said something like "Sharla and I are getting married today, Donna is here to marry us". The looks of pleasure and surprise were priceless. This lovely couple had already started their family. They were already the parents of a beautiful little baby boy named Dante, for his father.
This wedding took place in a beautiful condo apartment overlooking the intra coastal waterway at Sunrise Blvd. Great view of the water and also Birch State Park just across the street.

And so to number five. Back to the beach, this time just on the south side of the Yankee Clipper. Actually we walked through the Marriott hotel (which sits on the beach back from A1A) to their beach for the wedding. It is a nice location and the pool area of the Marriott is a great place for pictures with waterfalls and different levels around the pool.
Donna and Tom came down from Chicago for their beach wedding. They were going to Turks and Cacos(s) Islands for their honeymoon.
They had an interesting story to share about how they met. Donna had recently moved to Chicago when she went out one night and got lost. She stopped to ask for help with directions. Tom gave her directions and the rest is now history. It seems like the night out for Tom was unusual so perhaps this was fate. You know if it's meant to be it will be. How do you feel about that?

My granddaughter Sarah, who works as my photographer (she didn't take the pictures in this article, I took them with my Iphone.) did the photography for Anna and Paul and then for Donna and Tom.

The pictures at the top of this post are from left to right:Sharla and Dante, Corina and Chris (and me), Jason and Danielle and Donna and Tom. I didn't get a picture of Anna and Paul but I did take a picture of the setup of their reception room at Fern Forest. Sarah has promised some pictures so as soon as I get them I will post them.

Please send interesting stories about your wedding or a wedding you have attended.

Remember if you are planning a wedding in south Florida and you need an officiant, a photographer or a good setup crew give me a call 954-254-6216 or email me mckei@earthlink.net