Dear Friends:
It has been too long since my last post. I was looking at my blog and realized I haven't posted since the horrible hurricane in September. Time to Catch Up! I've started to break up my posts with titles so you can decide which parts of my posts may interest you to read. Time is precious and short most days for all of us. :)
~Hurricane Irma~
Well, thankfully, we didn't blow away with Hurricane Irma as you can see. We were very fortunate with the storm. Our home didn't sustain any damage. Many homes experienced the usual damage of fallen trees, and damaged fences.The only inconvenience we had was having no electricity for 5 days. That to me is the worst especially after a bad storm when the humidity is really high. Since we are close to the bay in South East Miami, we were told to evacuate. We boarded up, packed ourselves with our 4 animals (3 cats, 1 dog) and left inland to my Mother in Law's house. Luckily she didn't lose electricity at all or cable for that matter. I wouldn't have minded losing the cable. The news stations made the whole reality of the storm feel much more scary than it was. There were many people that evacuated Miami. The highways were complete chaos. Cars were running out of gas while in line to get to a gas station. I had never seen anything like it before. I didn't understand people's rational for leaving because the storm was going over the entire state of Florida no matter what. I hope we don't experience a storm like that again for a very long time.
Hubby's Surgery:
After the storm (like 2 weeks later), my husband had to have a major surgery on his hip. Being a young man under 40 with hip dysplasia is very rare we learned. My husband was in that physical state where he couldn't walk, stand or sit without immense pain from his hip. His left knee had damage as well because his hip wasn't supporting his body like it should. He couldn't have a hip replacement due to his age although a couple doctors were going that direction. He had a procedure last year that was pointless. After seeing 6 doctors and doing his own research, he found an orthopedic doctor 2 hours away in West Palm Beach that performed another type of procedure to fix the hip joint. They basically cut your joint and put it back together with pins. This allows the bone to regrow in way that gives the joint more stability.The first 8 weeks recovery time was very painful and tough, but he pushed through it like a champion. I'm glad he took charge of his health and found this doctor. The same doctor also fixed his left knee right before Christmas. Now he can enjoy life walking and working without pain again.
The Wedding:
Now comes October 28th where this little thing called a wedding happened! We had our wedding in Captiva Island, Florida. It is pure paradise...unless it is raining, which it did on our wedding day. They say that rain on your wedding day is good luck. After this past year, we will keep it! The first couple days we were there, we enjoyed sunsets like these.
We had our wedding at the Tween Waters Inn Island Resort and Spa. It was spectacular. I wrote a raving review about them on Trip Advisor. Everything was amazing. The rooms, the food, the drinks, all of it was perfect.
The day of our wedding was when Tropical Storm Philippe was rolling into Florida. The whole day was just wet. We had to go to a plan B and bring the ceremony and cocktails indoors since we couldn't do it outside. Here are a couple pictures. I haven't gone through them all to find my favorites yet. Mind you, this was a destination wedding. All of the vendors were handled by phone and e-mail.
This was our welcome table. (That is me in the mirror ;) Instead of a guest book, we did a guest canvas. This way we could frame it and hang it up in our house.
The Wedding Favors.
My son and I assembled all of these boxes and put Hershey Kisses inside.
My Bouquet.
Sunflowers are my favorite flower. Purple is my favorite color. The florist hit the nail on the head with my flowers.
Me and My Hubby.
Since he was still recovering from his surgery, he had to stay on his crutches.
Me and My Handsome Son
I would post a picture of the cake, but that bummed me. Someone mishandled the cake during delivery and it didn't look right. It was delicious though, but not setup how I would have liked.
All in all, the weekend was wonderful. Our guests had a great time. They loved the resort. They loved the food and drinks. It was a lot of time in research and planning for me, but it all paid off. We can't wait to go back and visit this resort soon.
I will end my long winded post here until next time.
I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Years. Here is hoping that 2018 is even better than 2017 was. Time for some new creative goals.
*Hugs from Sunny Miami*
Jen
