Europe Trip Continued: The Wedding Day!

Ana getting ready at the salon.

Okay, I know, I know - I'm so behind on my Europe posts! I'll get better, I swear! So here it is, the post about the wedding! On Saturday morning all the ladies got up early and made our way to the salon to be thoroughly prepped for the big day. It was so much fun to spend the time together, to laugh and chat and we all had a wonderful time!


All the ladies enjoying a morning of pampering - nails, hair and makeup!


Tia Elisa getting her hair done.


Tia Ecy all ready to go!


Here she is, Ana all ready to go!


Here are all of us girls ready to go!

Then we moved on to the ceremony. After a long nervous time waiting it was time to go!

Doesn't Sergi look blown away! He uttered a simply stunned "Wow!" when Ana came into sight, so sweet!

Here are the happy couple, listening intently to Sergi's sister giving a beautiful speech.



Sergi's sister gave a beautiful speech - which I mostly understood, even though it was in Catalan. Very moving!


A nice photo of us with Eda and Primitivo.


The happy parents with the group from Brazil.

Here's a fun video of the dancing!

Europe Continued: Pan amb Tomaquet, Lost Baggage and the Endless Excitement

The friday night before the big day, the family and all the visitors got together for a nice dinner at Pan amb tomaquet in Vilassar. They didn't have a rehersal dinner like they do here in the states, instead Sergi spent the evening with his family and Ana with hers. Pan amb tomaquet is a nice restaurant in the village where Eda and Primitivo live and we've been there many times before with the family. They had a small lofted area of the restaurant reserved for all of us and we had a terrific time mingling and sharing our excitement over the next day.

Of course, there was some delicious food involved too!

My tortilla and pan con tomate - yum!


Felipe with his pan con tomate and lomo jamon.


Felipe with Ecy and Elisa.


Many friends came for the wedding from Brasil - Eduardo, Bianca, (I can't remember this gentleman's name...I'm working diligently on remembering...), Carolina and Ana in the background.


Eda at the table with Ana Luisa and Bruno - friends from Brasil as well, who you may remember from a previous post (they visited us earlier this year in NYC).


Primitivo and Ernani.


Ana and Primitivo with Primitivo's brother Francisco (Paco) and his wife Mari and their kids Paco, Miguel, and Ana who all came from Zaragoza for the wedding.

After dinner we all headed back home and tried settling in for the night. Let's just say that everyone was a bit hyper over making sure all was ready for the next day and it took quite some time for everyone to wind down. It had been a long day - did I mention that all six guests arriving from Brasil had their luggage lost and that Tia Ecy was "lost" as well for some time - as she missed her connecting flight and no one knew precisely which flight she had been moved to.... well thank goodness that Ecy was found and eventually everyone got their luggage, that is after Eda, Primitivo and Elisa spent about 10 hours in the airport!

Here's Eda and Ana "winding down" before bed...it involved some sort of acting out of an exorcism, which at this time I cannot remember why...


and fake sleeping/laughing:


Sweet dreams for the day to come...

Ana and Sergi: Part One, the Civil Ceremony

Looking ready for a lifetime of wonderful days together!

We arrived to Spain on Wednesday afternoon, and did not do too much - we all had prep to take care of for the upcoming wedding on Saturday. But important not to forget was the small civil wedding ceremony that Ana and Sergi had that Thursday. We all gathered around noon and walked through Vilassar to the Judge's office. There they had a small, very short civil ceremony. I'll admit that while my Spanish is improving, I did not understand much of what was said...but I knew what was going on!


A photo of the couple listening to the judge, families are in the background. I'll admit - this picture is posed! Almost everyone was taking photos the whole time - I think it was a more photo documented ceremony than the Prince of England! So in the end I asked if everyone would mind if I took a pic while everyone was sitting down, and fortunately they all obliged me.

Well then it was time for family photos, and boy did they abound! We held a whole miniature portrait session in that tiny room, thanks to some pretty terrific light. But I think that it was how happy everyone was for Ana and Sergi that made them all look so good!


With Eda and Primitivo, her very proud parents!


With Fina and Joan, Sergi's proud parents!


With Felipe and I.


And then it got silly...


With Sergi's sister Gemma and her husband Francesc and nephew Pau and niece Ariadna.


With Ana and Felipe's Aunt Elisa.

Afterward we went to another small town nearby and had a really wonderful lunch together. The place was called Casa Roura, and was in this very old large mansion/estate. The inside was beautiful and we had a nice private room to dine in. We all had a really terrific time!

The rest of Thursday was spent preparing for the arriving guests the next day, there were six people coming from Brazil, and some other small preparations for Saturday's big event.

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!

Kevin and Jackie's Wedding

The wedding party.

This weekend we went to Vernon New Jersey to attend Kevin and Jackie's wedding, it was a beautiful day and a very elegant affair!


Virginia, Claire and Josh

Claire and Sean were in town from California, so it was a nice opportunity to visit with them, and also great to get together with the rest of the work crew in our fancy digs.


We got a nice picture of Felipe and I in the Garden of the country club where the reception was held.

The evening was fun, the dinner was good, and the company as always engaging! And we had a lot of fun dancing!


A very elegant centerpiece.

La Boda de Javier y Carmen

On Saturday we went to Plasencia for Javier and Carmen's wedding - it was a wonderful drive (as previously blogged) and the town is very beautiful, and the wedding was great.

The wedding took place in la Iglesia de San Nicolas, which was constructed in thirteen century and later reformed in the fourteenth century. It was beautiful!


Afterward the happy couple was greeted outside of the church...

Carmen's dress was beautiful and they're smiles were priceless!

After the wedding we all walked the short distance to the Parador where their reception was held. The Paradors are a chain of luxury hotels throughout Spain that were founded by Alfonso XIII, these are often in old castles, palaces, fortresses, convents, monasteries and other historic buildings. It was a really wonderful place to celebrate, and I would hope that some day I might get to travel around Spain, touring each of the beautiful Paradors.


I've compiled a few photos from around the Hotel....enjoy the views!









The reception was very elegant, and was held in an old room on the upper level of the parador.

They had a wonderful meal with Brocheta de rape y langostinos sobre salsa de pimientos rojos veratos (a rape fish kebab with shellfish and pepper sauce - I had a salad instead due to the allergy), Medallon de solomillo de ternera retinta con salsa de trufas y patatas pera (a beef tenderloin with mushroom red wine sauce and pear shaped potatoes) and ended with a surtido de postres del convento (an assorted desserts of the convent). Super yummy!

Later they had the dancing/party portion of the reception in a cellar located in another part of the parador:


One last photo...they had their photographers taking polaroid photos of all of the guests and then put them into a book for the couple. It was a very nice idea, and our photo turned out quite well :D



Us trying to recreate the polaroid...wasn't quite the same.