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keith + melissa’s wedding | destination wedding photographer st john usvi

General, personal, Uncategorized, wedding, wedding vendors

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When I went to Mo’s Caribbean on 77th St & 2nd Ave in Manhattan that Sunday 11 1/2 years ago with my sister and her boyfriend to watch the Minnesota Vikings play the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game, I never imagined that I would meet my best friend, my most favorite person in the whole entire world,  the man who makes me laugh every single day, the man I can talk to about anything and know I will get an honest conversation, the man who I love more and more with each passing day, the man who makes me a better person who is now my husband of 9 years and the father of our two beautiful daughters. (I know that was a pretty nice run on sentence!)

So it is our 9th anniversary. It seems odd to be putting up a blog post about our wedding. But why not dust off these photos. Keith’s best friend and fellow wedding photographer Bob Wallace photographed our wedding. Keith promised he was not going to pick up a camera all day. Believe it or not, he kept his word.

After a big debate about having a huge wedding in New York or Boston (yes, I’m Irish Catholic with a million cousins so the guest list would have been quite extensive) Keith and I decided that a destination wedding on St John would be the perfect fit for us. We decided on a gorgeous villa in Peter Bay for the ceremony. At the time, we assumed just a handful of friends and family would make the trip but it turned out that we had 65 people that said yes! So we moved the reception from its original spot – an amazing restaurant called Asolare that has sweeping views of Cruz Bay to the very pretty beachfront Westin Hotel on Great Cruz Bay.

We made a long week of it. Most of our guests did the same – and at the very least, stayed for an extended weekend. My dream was to always get married on June 6th (who knows why) but Bob had a wedding on June 7th back in NYC – so we changed the date to June 5th – which I believe was a Thursday. Needless to say, this just forced people to get to St John a day earlier, more time to drink Pain Killers, snorkel and just hang around at beach bars and the most amazing beaches in the hemisphere. Time doesn’t matter any way when you are on an island!

Our wedding day was perfect. It’s amazing when you are not stressed, things like it raining minutes before the outdoor ceremony or the DJ forgetting to show up might put a damper on the day. Not at all. The rain passed and cleared just in time. We were then rained on when we went to go take our pictures on the beach after the ceremony. A torrential downpour of water trashed my dress on the Puff Daddy outdoor taxi ride (which is the coolest island transport, wedding or not – anyone who has been to St John knows what I mean!) on our way from the beach to the reception. The steel band from our ceremony played the cocktail hour at our reception. When the DJ didn’t show, the band stayed for a bit while the very adept catering manager at The Westin called a Brazilian Duet that she knew – who dropped what they were doing and showed up to play some of the best music I’ve ever heard. The guests loved it. The reception could not have been more perfect.

We have so many beautiful photos from that week. Bob photographed our rehearsal cocktail party the night before the wedding, the wedding day and the day after, a beautiful catamaran ride for all the guests around the island. A destination wedding in every sense of the word. It was such a laid back, enjoyable time.

Lots of hangovers and lots and lots of laughs. The best week of my life. I’m ready to redo our vows next year. Any takers?

Happy Anniversay Mr. Pitts.