Wedding!

We did it! We are officially Mr and Mrs. Howell. There are really no words to fully describe what an amazing week we had with our family and friends. We are so overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion - everyone arrived ready to celebrate, have fun, and help us make the best memories of our lives. People came from Oklahoma, Montana, Florida, New York, Viriginia, California and Texas! It was as if everyone had known each other for their entire lives. No strangers to be found in this crazy group! Each night was full of roaring laughter and endless jokes and dancing and every day (rain or shine) was filled with swimming, playing relaxing, and getting to know each other.

Each morning we awoke to walks on teh beach (if it wasn't raining) where we looked for sharks teeth and enjoyed the Atlantic breezes. The afternoons were filled with pool time, body surfing, boogy boarding, drinking copious amounts of Corona and margaritas and again.. more playing and laughing.

The rental house was full of standing water after the 2nd day of torrential monsoon like rains. No one seemed to mind or be slightly bent out of shape. We ended up negotiating with the rental company for a second house next door to house the displaced guests. It worked out great and we gladly accepted the extra party space! Now, the "party palaces" as they were fondly called made us all feel like we were straight out of the Tropicana casino or The Golden Girls sitcom- take your pick. 60's decor, full mirrored rooms, pink and teal carpet, seashells, adn irridecent wallpaper. They were great!

Matt Orum, who was reluctant to share "his Howell" with the new bride to-be insisted on sleeping with Peter the first couple of nights. Come to think of it, Matt stayed every single night at one of the two homes - mostly because he was in no condition to drive any night of the week. He happily was reacquainted with his family once we left.

Our dear friend Jim Wofford DID marry us on October 5th at precisely 6:07. Now, for those of you not there- we had planned on that goofy time for the ceremony months ago, but realized the day of that we really had no choice in the matter and we would be lucky to have the ceremony outside at all! It would all depend on the rain-gods and we were going to literally run out of the house whenever the rain broke. It happened that the rain stopped at 6:00pm and as Pete and I stood there saying our vows at 6:07 the sun was breaking through the clouds, the rain was stopped and it could not have been more beautiful. Just as we kiss and are taking pictures adn hugging our family and friends a DOUBLE rainbow appears in the sky, a golden sun is shining upon the tide and it was so beautiful it made us cry (I am sure a few more can vouch for that).

Four of the five Orum girls were our flower girls - seriously, the MOST darling I have ever seen. They were beautiful and did a fantastic job!

Peter got his wish and we got to dance to "Come My Lady- Be my Sugar pie Honey Baby" song. He really wanted me to walk down the isle, but we compromised on an opening dance!

Chuck Borg and Mike Cottongim were master grill - mates and grilled up some tasty kabobs. They were prepared the day of by the always amazing John and Joellyn Howell.

The cupcakes were masterfully crafted by Kerri! They were awesome. SHe made sea-shell molded white chocolate candies to go on the top of each one. They tasted divine and the aunts adn uncles were hard at work in the "cupcake factory."

The whole week was a HUGE team effort! We had a marvelous dinner, hosted by the Orums, at the Meditteranean where we stuffed ourselves on amazing Moroccan and Greek food, then smoked hookas (even john howell did)! We had a few meals out - delicious seafood, sushi, fun bars, you name it we did it!

It was amazing and below are JUST A FEW pictures that were taken from Pete and my camera... There are MANY more which I will add and pass along, but this gives you an idea.

Thanks to all who made this wedding experience so special... Before we left, while we were there, and all our friends and family who love us so much and are always there for us! It was awesome!!!!!