The ceremony

I stood on the beach, hesitating long enough to take it all in for a moment.  I could see Tim standing in the arch waiting for me.  I had been carrying a walkie talkie, Bart had the other one and was at the ready for me to give him the signal to start the music.  We had chosen I'll Stand By You, by the Pretenders, as it had particular meaning to us.  We had been through so much, and here we were, still together.

I keyed the mic and said, Cue Music.  Bart started the music, but, I think he thought I couldn't hear it, and came over the walkie talkie saying , Teri the music started.  I nodded to him, but, waited until the point in the song that I had decided to begin the walk.  Using the walkies made me want to say something like, the package is moving, or the eagle has landed.

As I started walking, Mirko was running all around getting pictures of me at all different angles.  People on the beach that had been just sitting in the sun realized as I walked that they were watching a wedding taking place right in front of them.  I'm sure as the arch was being set up they were anticipating a wedding, but, probably did not think for a minute the bride would walk right in front of them.  They started clapping, cheering and shouting congratulations.  Then they started standing up as I passed.  It was so exciting, and so much fun.  I wasn't really expecting to have so many people on the beach, I thought they'd all be heading out for dinner by 5 oclock, but, no, they were all over the beach still.  Probably because it was such a gorgeous day.  Even the fishermen were cheering as I passed.  After a couple of whistles and cat calls I couldn't help it, I just started laughing.  Such an amazing experience.  I guess it was like, for just one day, we belonged to all of them, and they were guests at our wedding.

When I reached the arch Tim was beaming at me.  I glanced over and saw Isable from CEA all dressed in a fancy frock with a big hat.  Very British.  How sweet of her to come.

Tim said his vows first, he chose some of the lyrics from Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes for his theme.  He had spent days practicing what he was going to say, and recited it all from memory and even got down on one knee and put my new wedding ring on my finger.  Then it was my turn.  I am a bit more formal and decided to use a quote from one of our church leaders about love, and then read the vows I had been working on for months now.    Then we kissed, of course.  Strangely, we felt like we had just gotten married for the first time.  As we exited the arch we saw the lady from the Chomak.  She had missed most of the ceremony, and said she had planned to come right at 5 but she had gotten busy.  When Nora walked into her store and said something about having just done the hair for a bride it jogged her memory and she dashed over as fast as she could.  Again, so sweet that she would want to come.  For an entire day we felt like we belonged to Akumal, like everyone there was family or friend.