Wedding Ceremony

You should try to reserve the location for your wedding and reception as soon as possible because frequently these locations are reserved months in advance.  It is best to select a time that isn't too late so that the couple can arrive at the hotel at a decent hour (without further explanation).  The arrangement of the church could include an arch with flowers and a series of columns with floral arrangements.  You can also add flower petals along the path where the bride and groom will walk.  The flower girl can wear a crown of flowers and carry a basket filled with petals.  The church decoration is a separate process from the reception which is handled separately.  One should note that certain items cannot easily be transferred from one location to another which does increase the cost.  In our case we had to ask one of the pastors to help with the translation because the groom's family does not speak Spanish. 

One should almost expect that despite the rehearsal and all the preparations that certain details should won't work out as planned.  Don't worry and be flexible.  Only a few days prior to the wedding we discovered by accident that the pastor who was supposed to marry us thought that the pastor doing the premarital counseling was doing the ceremony.  Close call, huh?  Then the night before our wedding we were supposed to work on the arrangement in the church but had to wait for another service to finish before starting.  It ended up being that after that service there was another meeting planned we weren't aware of and we were asked if we could wait till after it ended around midnight.  What do you say?  Well, they let us go ahead and start as they met in another part of the church.  

Late morning the day of our wedding I was informed I was supposed to pick up the bridal bouquets as well as my button and flowers for the flower girl and ring bearer.  I was also supposed to meet up with family members in their hotel so that I could drop off the car at the reception and they could take me back to the church.  Well, because of the flower pickup I got to the hotel a little late, my mother and sister left the hotel thinking I had gone straight to the church without them but when I arrived at the hotel I didn't realize they had left.  After going to both rooms and not finding them I spoke with the reception desk which informed me they had already left.  So I went to the church and still hadn't finished the thank you cards for the individuals who had helped us with the wedding.  So I stuck the thank you cards in my tuxedo jacket and after the wedding in the limousine on our way to the reception my wife and I were writing thank you cards! 

The wedding ceremony started and most everything went smoothly.  Then the pastor asked us in Spanish the part, "Do you promise in sickness and in health, for rich or for poor, ... till death do you part?"  I responded in English, "I do."  So when it came time for the bride to respond, she asked me, "What did say?"  The ceremony continued and then came the moment where we had to blow out our individual candles as we had the one large candle in the middle.  We blew and out went the big candle as well.  Oops.  So expect that little things like this will happen and don't get too emotional about it.