Real Wedding Story - Tracey and Ray Narvaez

 

Wedding Date: October 1994 Venue: Clearwater Beach, Florida written by Tracey Narvaez

When Ray and I met, I was living in Florida - living quite a wonderful life as a beach bum actually! I think if we had met just a year before, we wouldn’t have ended up married today with two children. Sometimes it really is all about the right place, right time. When we met we had both travelled, done the party scene and were ready for the relationship thing. This was my family's worst nightmare as they had hoped I’d get fed up and come home. So although I was delighted when we decided to get married, my family weren’t quite as elated. Ray asked me to marry him in June and as my parents, aunt and uncle were coming out to Florida in October, that seemed the perfect time for us to do it. In retrospect I think it would have been more considerate to plan it for the following year so that more of my family could have come out. I do think that these are my thoughts now as a more mature person and perhaps having my own children has made it easier for me to see the other side of the coin. At the time we were planning our wedding I wanted what I wanted - maybe that was a tad selfish, but when you’re younger I think you are. I had never had that big white wedding dream like so many girls and I had always told my mum I would probably elope if I ever married, so I suppose I felt this was more than I had ever promised them. With America being a lot more laid back with their ways to marry, our first obstacle was quite small. Ray is Catholic and I am Jewish and although neither of us is religious, we have both been brought up within our faiths. Luckily on Clearwater beach there is a chapel by the sea that marries inter-denominational couples, so we were able to combine both religions and keep our families happy. Although I hadn’t planned a white wedding, when my girlfriend and maid of honour, Kathy went to a bridal shop and started trying on dresses, I was hooked. I did end up buying a long white dress with a big hoop underneath. There’s something about trying on wedding dresses that just gets you going! I didn’t want a veil and I did keep to that. Ray had a best man and two ushers to help seat people in the chapel who all rented morning suits which looked great. Kathy and I looked at all different things for her to wear. I didn’t mind what she wore as I wasn’t having any other bridesmaids. We found this really glamorous, long dress with a big sash of ivory across the shoulders with a loose bow. Ray and I visited a few different venues and when we saw what we could get for our money it wasn’t what we had in mind. Having not given ourselves much time to organise the wedding was good in the respect that there was less time to be stressed, although we also had less time to save loads of money. We now knew we didn’t want a big fancy hotel with just canapés to eat and we didn’t want friends having to buy their own drinks. Luckily my parents gave us some money and helped with lots when they arrived. Ray’s best man and ushers were all roommates in a lovely house in Bel–Air, Florida near Clearwater beach (not California) and fortunately they said that we could have our reception there. With Kathy’s dress in mind, I found all of our wedding party accessories in black and white with purple added in. We hired a friend of ours who was a bar tender and brought enough alcohol to please our friends. Then we went to all our favourite restaurants and deli’s and arranged for the food to be ready for the wedding day. I got a great tip for the cake through a friend of mine, who told me if you ordered the cake through our local supermarket who made cakes to order but didn’t mention that it was for a wedding, it had a much better price tag! I didn’t want a traditional tiered wedding cake and I decided on two hearts joining in the middle with a name on each. It looked fabulous and she was right - it cost me just $45!!! As for flowers, my bouquet was made up of purple freesias with the centrepiece being a gladioli wrapped around itself to form a big flower (really cleverly done). I decided on freesias to match for the buttonholes. We only invited about 50 people and although I did send out more invites to people in England, with such short notice they couldn’t come. Because of work, my poor brother had to fly out just for the weekend; I still owe him for that one. My parents had some friends who were out on holiday in Florida at the time who came, but apart from them, there was just our close friends and Ray’s family. Although now I feel guilty about my family not being there, at the time it was nice not to have to deal with lots of people you don’t really know and who perhaps don’t get on with one another. We hired a limousine to collect us and drive us after the ceremony, which was fun. The limo was air-conditioned because even in October it was 89 degrees the day we married. After a lovely service, we stepped out of the chapel and because we weren't allowed confetti or rice everybody blew bubbles, which was great. We went on to the reception where we had set up all the tables and the bar in the garden, with all the food as a buffet in a conservatory. As the sun set, we lit floating candles on an outside Jacuzzi and also garden torches, which really added to the ambiance as everybody did their speeches. All in all it was a day to remember and one I would totally recommend.

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