As always we had left things like flowers and getting ready until the last minute. When will we learn? We rushed around looking for hair styling products (due to us both suffering terribly from bad hair months) and a florist an hour before we were due to arrive at El Avion for our 17th wedding.
We found the florists and luckily the lady was both helpful and fast and she whipped us up a small bouquet and a buttonhole in no time at all. With a pot of beautifully marketed ‘Gorilla snot’ hair wax and a bunch of Anthuriums we ran back to Peggy and hot footed it to El Avion. We parked outside and with 20 minutes to spare we got ready for the wedding. We snotted up our hair, pulled on our (thankfully ironed in Alex’s case) clothes and I put a bit of make up on and we were ready to go. Adrenalin coursed through our veins as we ran to the crashed Fairchild C-123 and the usual nerves kicked in. My palms started to sweat and shake and Alex gets this nervous look on his face that is just so sweet! We met our photographers for the day…yes you read right…PhotographerS! It may seem we are getting a little greedy but it was a real treat to have 2 fantastic photographers along to shoot our 17th unusual wedding! Kevin Heslin is one of the foremost wedding and travel photographers in the Manuel Antonio area. He is a genius with lighting and as we arrived he was rigging up some serious kit to capture the correct light within the dark hub of the aircraft.
Christina Craft was also spending the day with us, she is currently ranked 8th in the world with the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers and we were thrilled to have her along to take some images for us after the sun had gone down!
We had met the night before to discuss ideas and plans so we were excited to see the images before they had even been taken.
Isabella our wedding planner from Costa Verde Hotel was there to greet us too and before we got too nervous our officiate arrived. Kezirah was great fun and put us at ease straight away and had us laughing and joking all the way through the ceremony.She started by welcoming us to Costa Rica…
“Before we begin, I want to let you know how delighted I am that you have chosen my beautiful country for this most special ceremony and I sincerely hope that the beauty, warmth and peace of this land remains with you long afterwards and throughout your marriage”
We didn’t even notice Kevin or Christina as they must have ran around the aeroplane taking snaps of us grinning at each other like lunatics!
I loved that Kezirah talked of the very reason we are doing this trip, the reason being to embrace the one culture and tradition that the whole world shares…marriage.
“…your ceremony today marks a new beginning for you – but also the continuation of humankind’s most honored and celebrated ceremony. Since the dawn of civilization, people have fallen in love and married. Though the customs and words have differed from age to age, land to land, they all spoke the language of love. Love, the most noble of emotions, the state every human strives for..”
The whole ceremony was beautiful, we couldn’t stop smiling and I could smell the rose petals scattered around our feet, the coloured lights inside the aircraft created a strange scene all around us and the whole thing was surreally perfect.
We kissed to seal the deal and were immediately handed flutes of champagne to toast our 17th marriage!
Once we had finished giggling we had some more pictures taken in the aircraft and then went over the the Costa Verde hotel for the best sunset views in Manuel Antonio. The sky was perfect, moody clouds gathered and coloured the sky while the sun turned into a fiery ball of orange and slipped behind the horizon. A few guests from the hotel threw some petals for a confetti shot as the sky turned a dark indigo and the stars started to twinkle above us. The view from the poolside at Costa Verde was just breathtaking and we had to tear ourselves away to head over to the bat cave for our ‘reception’ drinks.
The bat cave is a great little bar which is actually a cave! To get in you have to practically crawl through the spooky little arched door and once inside the colourful lights cast an eerie glow and I saw Christina’s eyes light up when we arrived. Christina loves to take and is fantastic at night time shots. When the twinkling lights come out, the chandeliers sparkle and when your faces are all aglow with dancing, drinking and merriement Christina catches it all. Small globe lamps were strung from the cieling, mirrors reflected colours, dull whisps of light and the top shelf opened a whole world of kaliedoscpoic options for Christina. We propped ourselves up at the end of the bar and made each other laugh while Christina did her thing. We barely noticed she was there we were so wrapped up in each other. We ordered drinks the second the bar opened and cameras away we settled into our gin and tonics, beers and cocktails and laughed the night away.
We had such a wonderful day as you can see from the amazing images. We have made some great new friends, spent time in one of the worlds most beautiful countries and had a fantastic wedding ceremony in an old crashed plane shrouded in mystery and legend! Only in Costa Rica!
Photographs from http://www.kevinheslinphoto.com/ Kevin Heslin (day time shots)
Photographs from http://www.christinacraft.com/ Christina Craft (night time shots)
Location from http://www.costaverde.com/ Costa Verde Hotel
And http://www.costaverde.com/avion01.htm for more info on EL Avion Location.
Trouble and strife to be!
