Once Upon a Time ...

     It sounds like something out of a fairy tale; a beautiful sunset, a tropical island, warm Atlantic breezes, a lovely bride in a filmy white dress, and a handsome groom in crisp white linen, promising to love and cherish each other always as the sun sinks into the sea.

     The above scenario is a pretty fair picture of the evening of December 20, 1999, as seen through the eyes of Kevin Beauchamp and Donna Cunningham.  It was the end of a day, the close of a millennium, and the beginning of a wonderful new life together.  Reality, however, differentiates between real life and fairy tales, and minor last-minute details certainly make life interesting.  Where can I get my hair done the morning of the wedding?  Why didn’t we borrow and pick up the camcorder before this morning? And oh, can we really run all these errands and still make it to our destination, Marathon Key (350 miles away from Orlando) by 4:00 pm this afternoon?

     Naturally, we couldn’t really discuss the details with anyone since we WERE eloping, so all the nervousness, last minute jitters, and incredible “I can’t believe we’re doing this!” excitement had to be contained between the two of us in one car.  The groom, of course, was outwardly cool as a cucumber, as anyone who knows him would expect.  The bride, in contrast, was bouncing out of her skin, which, for those who know her, is not surprising.

     We hustled.  We exceeded the speed limit by a good 15 mph. And, we still were about 45 minutes late to our destination, which was the beautiful 56 foot private yacht “Latigo”, docked in a marina at Marathon in the Florida Keys.  We introduced ourselves to Val and Ken Waile, who would be our hosts for the next nineteen hours, then hurriedly boarded the boat.

     Motoring at a decent clip across the Atlantic, the bride made an “uh-oh” discovery.  “We didn’t bring my tiara in from the car... I bought the thing, and I want to wear it!” she wailed.  With a quick reversal, the Latigo hurried back to the marina.  By this time, however, it was nearly sundown, so instead of making it to the Gulf side of the island, the yacht made a quick run out and halted on the Atlantic side of the island. (Although there was not have a physical address for the marriage location, the coordinates, latitude and longitude, were North 24 degrees 41.791, and West 081 degrees 07.051!)

     The ceremony started.  The bride strolled up the aisle (ok, so climbing the ladder of the yacht to the upper deck in a dress and high heals brought new meaning to the phrase “walking up the aisle”) and the couple took their positions on either side of the boat captain. Of course, being that the vessel hadn’t made it to the calmer Gulf of Mexico waters, there was a bit of, shall we say, ‘turbulence’ to deal with.  Even so, it was exceedingly romantic, and everything went as planned.  It was so surreal – thoughts of “I can’t believe I’m here GETTING MARRIED” were present - but the prevailing thought was  “I can’t believe God has given me this incredibly wonderful person, my best friend, to spend the rest of my life with!!!”

     It was all so very special.  God felt wonderfully near in the beauty of the water, the colors of the sky and in the warmth of our hearts as we, the bride and groom, promised eternity to each other.

     After the ceremony, it was time to celebrate.  We had a very adventurous dance to “our” song, “How Could I Ask For More” by prolific songwriter Diane Warren.  On second thought, to describe what we were doing as “dancing” is probably a misnomer.  It was more of a “moving around the boat trying to look graceful for the camera while the swells of the ocean try to cause minor mishaps and mayhem.” The bride kicked off her shoes, and the happy couple found out that it is still very easy to whisper sweet nothings in time to the music. 

     Next, Val brought up some wonderful appetizers and some non-alcoholic bubbly as Ken explained a bit how the yacht worked.  Beau, naturally, was very intrigued with how it is all handled by computer, and got the run-down on how the GPS tracking, depth gauges, and assorted instruments worked. Donna, meanwhile, was sitting on deck thinking happy thoughts and having a private little “thank-you for this dream come true” conversation with God.

     The wedding supper was wonderful.  On the menu for Beau was a grilled and marinated chicken breast which he described as the best he had ever tasted.  Donna had vegetarian lasagna, accompanied by a green salad and homemade rolls.  Dessert was traditional; chocolate wedding cake, accompanied by the “feeding cake to each other WITHOUT A MESS PLEASE” ritual.  It was very relaxed, informal, and fun.  We posed for pictures, talked to the video camera to preserve the occasion for posterity, and imagined what our friends and family would say when they found out.  We had a great time.

     We stayed overnight on the yacht, and had a lovely breakfast of homemade muffins and fruit the next morning.  It was real – we were married.  We were together.  We were thankful.