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

Wedding on the Gold course

Well I sort of goofed...I didn't get a picture of the bride and groom. Brian and Tatiana's wedding was a very nice affair at the Hillcrest Country Club in Hollywood Fl. As you can see from the picture which I took while I was waiting for everyone to get it all together, it was a beautiful location.
While I waited I watched the golfers driving by in their golf carts or playing from the two greens which were close by.
Here in the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood area we have many communities with Country Clubs. In some of them you must be members, or know someone who is in order to use their facilities but in others they will rent out the facilities to anyone. Their prices are cheaper, in many cases, than the local venues which specialize in weddings and receptions. You might want to check some of these places out.
Many of them have beautiful outside areas where you can have your ceremony and they usually have very nice rooms for reception.
You will then choose your DJ, Officiant and Photographer and you're ready to go.
Do you have ideas for wedding locations or special little hints to make the day even more special? If you do please share them with us.
Thanks for reading "Florida Weddings by Donna"

Name Change

As you can see my blog has a new name.
Little run in with someone who seems to think I am a threat to her business name. Even thought we do different things but Oh well. Life is too short to lose a lot of sleep over things.
I have done several weddings which I have not written about and I will be getting up to date again soon. Hope you will comment with stories of your weddings.
I will be doing three weddings this weekend. A park wedding, a beach wedding and a rooftop wedding. I should have pictures, if I don't forget to take them.
Take care....Donna

Elizabeth and James

Meet James and Elizabeth. They were married this past Saturday on the beach in Hollywood Florida.

What a really super group of people. The really amazing thing about doing weddings is that in most cases I only meet them at the wedding. And of course I meet their guests at the wedding as well. Many times there are no guest or only a couple and in other cases, as this wedding turned out to be there are quite a few guests.

As you can see by the picture on the left we had a nice gathering, on the beach, with the surf and the sand and a single palm tree. What you can't see is an arch which the group is surrounding in the picture.

It was a very windy day and I was worried that the arch would blow over (they are inclined to do that) but the guys that set it up piled enough sand around the base to hold it in place.

James was the nervous groom type, told me in advance he didn't want to say much so I did most of the talking and only gave him a small part. He seemed happy with the way it turned out.

Elizabeth looked lovely in her white gown and seemed much more at ease then her groom.

When I arrived at their hotel about 30 minutes before the appointed time James met me looking far too casual for a groom...told me he wouldn't be getting married in his t-shirt and shorts. True to his word, somehow within a short time, after supervising some of the setup he disappeared and came back looking like a groom...and nervous.

The day was looking very much like rain. I was keeping my fingers crossed and asking "are they almost ready, we don't want to get rained on?" As is usually my luck the rain held off and if not for a high rise apartment which was blocking the sun we would have had a beautifully sunny evening. I lightened the photos a little, it wasn't quite that sunny. But we made it. got them married and I was off with my grandson Nate (who was visiting from Palm Bay) for dinner on the Broadwalk.

Elizabeth and James were both lovely people as were their guests. So many times I leave these weddings thinking how nice it would be to get to know the people better. But that's not the way things work out so I just enjoy meeting very nice people in passing and move on to the next.

I am finding that if I make certain to take a couple of quick shorts with my Iphone and then blog about each wedding I am creating a memory of the people I meet. It's a cool thing to do.

Actually with this Blogspot the opportunity exists to have your blog made into a book so perhaps Iwill just create volumes. I wish I had done this years ago.

Oh well better late than never.

Congratulations Elizabeth and James and say hi to all your lovely guests.

A Very nice experience

Erin and Sinan were married yesterday evening on the beach in Hollywood Fl. What a sweet couple they are. They were accompanied by Sinan's brother who was doing a great job taking pictures.

Erin had contacted me just a week or so ago, sort of last minute but I'm fine with last minute weddings as long as I have a few hours to put a ceremony together for them.

They were driving over from the west coast of Florida to be married and Erin sent me a little bit of background on the two of them which includes Irish Catholic, a hippy parent and a young man from another country.

I always enjoy watching the expressions on the couples faces during the ceremony, especially the vows and the moment when I say "I now pronounce you as husband and wife".

Sinan's remark was "Am I really married now".

I truly enjoyed meeting this couple and his Sinan's brother. To complete the evening, They had walked quite some way up the beach from their hotel to the location we had decided on for the ceremony. It had turned out to be much farther than they had anticipated and so after the ceremony I ask if they would like a ride back to the hotel. They said they would but when we got in my car it failed to start. Never happened before. The guys said they would push the car to get it started, thank goodness for a standard transmission, and it worked quite well.

I drove them back to their hotel, we said goodbye and we parted ways.

The sad part of my life as a wedding officiant is that I only get to spend a very short time with the couples for whom I perform wedding ceremonies. It is amazing that you can feel so close to someone with whom you spend only a very short time. But I do.

And so until the next wedding that I will blog about I will say bye and have a great day. If you or someone you know is planning a beach wedding in the Fort Lauderdale area and I can be of service please visit my website thesimplewedding.com

Pictures from Eric and Tessa's Beach Wedding

Here are some pictures of the last wedding which I performed on the beach in Pompano. This is Eric and his new bride Tessa. The day was overcast and windy but nice non the less.

It was very nice to meet two new cousins (Eric and his brother Brad) even very distant cousins.

Tessa was an adorable bride and I wish the two of them a lifetime filled with love and happiness.


First Kiss as husband and wife

Just before their wedding.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.