Dear Friends and Family,

Planning a wedding is no joke.  Who, what, where, when, why- there's so much to decide.  We considered many options but nothing felt quite right.  It took a long time to realize that we were planning around what we thought *other* people would want, enjoy, particpate in.  We spent hours trying to figure out what was the most inclusive, what was "fair" to our invitees (since our guests are comprised of 1580 miles of Eastern Coast), and just generally worrying about how our choices may alienate a guest or guests and prevent them from coming.

At some point, after years of not making a commitment to anything, we started to think about what we like or would want. Here's what we came up with:

While we sincerely considered a traditional wedding for all to attend, it's just not for us.  We wanted to change too many elements, so much of a traditional wedding was not for us, and we struggled too much to envision that as an enjoyable experience. 

When thinking about it in terms of a wedding, we want a relaxed experience. We care most about the ceremony itself. We don't want a formal reception, but would rather gather with our closest friends and family for a dinner and bonfire. We don't care about linens, or arrangements. We would gladly trade a DJ and dance floor for lawn chairs and good company. We don't want fancy foods, small portions, and expensive bars. We want good, filling foods with domestic and craft beers.  We aren't interested in written and rehearsed toasts, we want exclamations of "do you remember the time?!" followed by laughter.

When thinking in terms of what is special to us, what we enjoy together- We like cruising. We like a nice cold beer, on a sunny ship deck. We like a good mixed drink, at a nightly comedy club. We like a good deck party, hairy chest competitions, a coffee while watching the sun rise. We like pristine ocean waters, conch salad, paying too much for the local ladies to braid my hair, trying new island foods, and traveling in general.

So we went back to the drawing board, deconstructing until we figured it out- Wedding on a Cruise Ship.

We hope you will continue to read on, to see how you can be part of our special day in a way that works for you!

Love you all,
VaNessa and Lee