Everything Happens For A Reason (Elope!)

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Aug 29, 2007

Best advice to any once-before married person or couple?... Elope! I have never been married before but my husband has. My dream was finally coming true - a small intimate ceremony with a few friends and our immediate families. At 34, I was planning my wedding, nothing big, nothing fancy. At my age, it's not about the glam anymore.

As of March, my fairytale wedding plans started to fall apart with the passing of my stepfather. Things went from bad to worse over the course of the summer. With an August 4th wedding planned and it turning into May, I had nowhere for my ceremony (that was supposed to be in my mothers garden) and no Maid of Honor.

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To make a long story short, we had a vacation planned at a cottage in the LaCloche mountains with some friends for a week in July, no kids, no stress. With all our troubles with family, we decided if we could make it happen, lets do it up north.

We had three weeks to pull it together - and those three weeks weren't easy! My dress came in two weeks before we left and our rings were ready the day before we left. With giving our Best Man and our Master of Ceremony the news, they both voluntarily said they wouldn't miss it for the world.

So, six friends and a bride and groom, we were married on our vacation, stress-free. Our Officiant came to the island we were on and we got married at the Trading Post of our cottage resort.

With a hawk soaring above us, a hummingbird humming beside us and the Hawaiian Wedding song playing softly as I came across the water on the pontoon boat. The day was magical, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day... It was even better than we had originally planned. It turned out to be about me and my groom, the way it should have been in the beginning.

Our August 4th wedding day still happened, minus the ceremony with live Hawaiian entertainment and pictures at the park. Every day that goes by since we said "I do" is another reason why eloping was the best thing ever.