Island Dreams Wedding pictures

[eks6426]

Hello everyone, I am finally back from my July 3 wedding & honeymoon. The wedding went so quickly--it is amazing how months of planning can be over in an instant.
My husband & I were married on the Quad at the University of Illinois on a beautiful sunny day that was thankfully not as hot and muggy as most. When I woke up that morning there was not a cloud in the sky. My son (the blond boy next to my husband) walked me down the aisle to the Bee Gees tune of "How Deep is Your Love." My husband brought his huge 1970s speakers and filled the air with the music. The ceremony was relatively short which was good because everyone was hot since there was no shade. After the ceremony we had our reception under a canopy of trees between 2 of the buildings on the quad. We had really basic food--grilled chicken & hamburgers along with fruit, veggie salad etc. Instead of a cake, our moms made our favorite childhood desserts (his apple pie, mine zuchhini chocolate cupcakes). The kids had blast playing frisbee and just running around in the grass while the adults mingled in the shade. Everything was over too soon. If I had to change anything, I''d add 1 more hour to the reception time. We changed clothes then were off to our honeymoon---drove to Chicago & left on a plane that night. A few planes & a boat ride later we were in honeymoon bliss on Petit St Vincent in the Grenandines.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics. I don''t have any "front" view pictures yet. These are pics taken by a friend. I don''t have any of the pro pictures yet.

 

[eks6426]

Here is a larger view picture. You can see how the Quad is basically a big park surrounded by University Buildings.

 

[MelissaSue]

Oooooh.. you look soooo pretty!!! I love your flowers and the color of your BM dresses.. such beautiful colors. Hows the ankle?

 

[eks6426]

Here''s the backdrop for the wedding. I came out of the center door of the auditorium and walked down the stairs alone. My son met me at the bottom of the stairs and walked me up the "aisle" to meet my now husband.

 

[JCJD]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

You look so beautiful! And what a gorgeous day! You must share more stories and pictures! Your son is such a cutie too!

 

[eks6426]

This is picture of my husband''s son who was his best man. I was surprised that I got a 15 year old boy to wear a pink tie! The background is our reception. Very simple under the trees. I had ordered long table clothes & chair covers but they didn''t make it for some reason. It would have been prettier with them, but no one noticed but me....I guess that''s a lesson--don''t sweat the small stuff.

 

[jellybean]

Congrats on your recent wedding!

You look beautiful!

How did your ankle hold up? I hope you were able to get plenty of rest before the big day! (ha ha!)

Did you get married on the steps of Follinger Auditorium? I went to U of I and remember having a chemistry class in that building.

 

[AChiOAlumna]

Congratulations!! You look stunning!!

The setting for your wedding looks picture perfect as well!! What a great spot to hold a wedding and the weather just looked wonderful!!!

 

[njc]

ID you look fabulous! Sounds like you had tons of fun and the campus looks great! Did you guys go to U of I or just like the setting? I thought going back to our college would have been fun, but a little far away. Cant wait to hear and see more!

 

[eks6426]

My ankle held up ok for the wedding. I wore a very nice pair of sneakers for the rehearsal & all the running around the day before. I did wear my heels for the actual wedding although the picture of me walking down the stairs shows me looking a bit nervous. I was scared to death I'd fall again! I walked down the steps of Foellinger Auditorium and the wedding was on the forecourt(patio).

I had to be really careful on our honeymoon....walking in sand was super hard and tiring on my foot. But we survived nicely on going to the beach and then ordering our beachside lunch to be delivered.

My husband went to U of I. In fact his whole family did and they are big fans. I am an Indiana grad. I thought the location was pretty---all I wanted was outside. His family was thrilled. There is a chime tower on the quad that is still played. It is in the building where his dad (who died 3 years ago) had his first college class in 1930 something. My husband had the chimes played for our recessional so to him it was his way of having his dad be part of the ceremony.

Anyway, here's a shot of the view from our cottage at Petit St Vincent. There were no other cottages on the side of the island we looked upon. At night is was so dark I saw stars I never knew existed.

 

[hoorray]

How beautiful ID! I love that you picked a sentimental setting and kept things simple. I think it makes it so nice and personal that way.

Great setting for your honeymoon also!

 

[Tybee]

Congratulations!
How beautiful!

 

[Blue824]

Congratulations IslandDreams!
It looks like you all had a beautiful day and the view from your honeymoon cottage is gorgeous! I can''t imagine waking up to that every morning! I''m glad your ankle held up for the festivities.

 

[ame]

WOW! You look great! And that is quite a view!

 

[flopkins]

ID - love the pics!!! You look so happy!!!! I''m glad everything worked out with your ankle ... and it looks like you had a gorgeous view from your honeymoon suite!!! wow!!!

 

[lmurden]

Wow!
You look lovely and what a scenery!

 

[rms]

ID,
Congrats to you and your hubby!! Before I read all the details, I saw your pics and knew it was the quad at UIUC. I went to school there for 2 years and always loved the quad because it is just so beautiful. What a great scene for your celebration. You look terrific.

 

[msb700]

ID: you look beautiful !! congratulations on your wedding ....

we''d love to see some more pics of your honeymoon destination! it looks amazing...

 

[reena]

you look beautiful! how did you like petit s.v.? i''ve heard it is fabulous!

 

[Jennifer5973]

Everything was so beautiful, especially you! Congrats!

 

[Mara]

YAY Congratulations!! LOVE the BM dresses and flowers...so pretty and of course you looked stunning as well. Your son is a cutie too.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Congratulations!

 

[eks6426]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I will post more pictures of both the wedding & honeymoon when I get them.

Reena--We loved Petit St Vincent. For those of you who have never heard of PSV--here''s some basics. PSV is a small island in the Grenandines. PSV is owned by the resort owner so the resort is the entire island. There are 22 cottages built for views & privacy. You can not see other cottages from your own. Each cottage is made of a local stone called Blue Bitch (yes, you read that correctly!). The ceilings are wood have built in screens between the walls & ceilings to the air flows through the cottages. Each cottage has a nice bathroom with separate stone shower & toilet area, a bedroom with 2 queen beds, living room with 2 daybeds & dinette table and a large deck patio. The cottages have no air conditioning or TVs. It is utterly quiet at night.

The service is very interesting. Outside each cottage is a flag pole with a yellow flag & a red flag. To have the staff bring you something you write a note or fill out a menu card and put it in a bamboo tube on the flag pole then raise the yellow flag. Every 1/2 hour the staff drives around and checks for any yellow flags. The red flag is a big DO NOT DISTURB sign and it is honored over everything else. So, even if you ordered dinner to be delivered to your cottage, if the red flag is up they will take it back until you put a note in the tube & raise the yellow flag that you are ready for dinner. Honeymooners tend to use a lot of red flags

The cottages are mostly along the east side of the island--the west side has calmer water & there are beach huts--also all secluded from each other. The flag pole system works at the beach huts too. Raise the yellow flag and have rum punches or lunch delivered to your beach hut. Yum. There was great snorkeling right from the beach. In fact the coral reefs were so close that it was sometimes hard to find a place to swim.

There is a common restaurant/bar area that is very romantic & has great views. Sometimes the yachties who float around the Grenandines come in for dinner/drinks but mostly it is a pretty quiet place. PSV is not the place for people who need lots of nightlife. Dinner was multi-course with soup, salad, main course, dessert etc. Not 5 star dining, but probably 4 star. Most of the time we had dinner in our cottage because it was fun to have it delivered and we had a beautiful view. Dinner was from 7:30-9:30 each night and usually after dinner my husband and I went to bed.

To get to PSV from the USA you fly to Barbados then take a very small plan from Barbados to Union Island in the Grenadines (there were goats on the runway!), then PSV picks you up and transports you and your luggage via boat (25 minutes) to the resort. When you dock the owner is there to greet you along with staff ready to hand you a pina colada. Then each couple''s things are loaded into an individual minimoke (think golf cart) and whisked away to your cottage. There is no checking in or room keys to distribute. In fact, the only way to lock your cottage is with a wooden peg from the inside. Everyone knows you were arriving and will call you by name. When we left, the owners once again were on the dock to wave good bye.

PSV is unlike any other resort I''ve visited. It was perfect for us--honeymooners wanting time to relax and enjoy each other.

 

[sevens one]

You look beautiful. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[Patty]

Wow, what a wonderful setting for both your wedding AND your honeymoon. It sounds like both were a bit casual but also very beautiful. I love that you could see so many stars at night. That to me would be HEAVEN.

And I love that you had casual food at your reception. I spend most of my time at wedding receptions trying to find something that I like.

You were a beautiful bride. I can''t wait to see more pictures!

 

[elepri]

Congratulations! Looks like you had a beautiful day and you look really happy! The honeymoon picture is gorgeous too, must be tough to be back from a place like that.

 

[Rube]

What a wonderful wedding and honeymoon! The pictures are just beautiful.