Congratulations Sean and Claire!

Exchanging vows on the beach - what a beautiful place...

So the entire point of our trip to Grand Cayman was to attend and to celebrate the marriage of our friends Sean and Claire. And celebrate we did. Claire (and Sean too...) planned a beautiful wedding with a ceremony on the beach at the Grand Cayman Beach Suites. Fortunately the weather decided to cooperate and it turned out more than lovely.


The ceremony was set up right on the beach, and as I said the weather cooperated so nicely!


Virginia made a lovely bridesmaid :D


Claire being supported by her parents.




Claire had asked me if I would do one of the readings for their ceremony, specifically if I would do Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. I was delighted to be a part of their wedding and was excited for the challenge of reading Shakespeare in front of people. I practiced for a couple of weeks and was able to recite it without using my card, but I will admit that the nerves kind of made my arms go numb!


Josh was also asked to do a reading, he read (quite well!) The Promise by Eileen Rafter.


Josh read so well that Claire gave a great big smile - Isn't she beautiful!


After the ceremony finished, they signed all of the wedding papers and Felipe acted as one of the witnesses. I don't think I saw Claire stop smiling at any point after this!


With tears and hugs, Claire and Sean greet the wedding party and their families.


Claire has a lovely moment with her mom and dad.


After the ceremony they had cocktails on the roof of the hotel - the view was amazing! I think this was the one nice photo Felipe and I got of the two of us together. Thanks for taking the pic Mike!

Sean and Claire were originally going to have their entire reception on the roof, however they had to decide earlier in the day if they would move it to an indoor location. The decision had to be made by noon, and they decided not to risk it (it is the rainy season in Grand Cayman) and so they had it at a golf club affiliated with the hotel. And it was a great decision on their part, because just as the dancing was getting started there was a very heavy downpour!

The reception was beautiful and intimate with the fifty or so wedding guests. Claire's dad made a lovely speech, and the couple were so welcoming and excited to share the evening with all of their family and friends. And then the dancing started! And let me tell you, there was some pretty fantastic dancing happening there! Everyone had a blast, there wasn't a cool spot in the place! (well except for the air conditioned bathrooms...thank god for those little breaks!).


Here is the group photo of the "EY Contingent". The group of current and former EY-ers that came for the wedding...a pretty good representation I would say!


Post wedding hanging out at the bar.

After the reception ended, we all went back to the bridal party's hotel and had a few more drinks at the bar (and many continued on and had a "few" more drinks on the roof). It was a really fun evening with a bunch of great friends. I think we all owe a big thanks to Sean and Claire for picking such a great place for their wedding. It was so great to be able to spend so much fun time with the group in such an exotic locale. A far cry from the streets of Manhattan! We walked along the beach to go back to the hotel, and you could see far off in the distance, over the sea, great big flashes of lightening. There was no thunder, so it was very quiet, with just the sound of the waves and the sand beneath our bare feet. I couldn't help but think how nice it would be if that were our usual commute home after hanging out with friends, instead of that walk up ninth avenue...

Thank you Claire and thank you Sean for throwing such an awesome party, and mostly, Congratulations on your marriage - I am sure you will have so many happy and wonderful years together!