Our Samoan wedding!!

The day of the wedding:

The day of the wedding was fun but a little tiring. All day I had treatment done, which of course felt very special for me, but it was appointment after appointment. I also was a little nervous the entire day and was concerned about the rain. It rained all day up until an hour before the ceremony! We got very lucky, especially since a double rainbow came out just after we said our vows and I do! :) All day long, the staff in the spa told me the rain was a blessing and that it would go away. They were right!


9:00- breakfast with my boyfriend (last time I could say that)
11:00- a relaxing massage and body treatment at the spa
12:00-lunch
1:00- manicure and pedicure at the spa (overlooking the pier where staff members were decorating in the rain for our wedding!)
2:00- hair and makeup appointment in my room/ the photographers and videographer arrived at this time to get some shot of us getting ready; they put real flowers in my hair and gave me the most beautiful bouquet!
3:30- getting dressed, adding jewelry and making sure everything's set to go!
4:00- photos and leaving my room, being carried onto the canoe-boat, the canoe ride begins!
4:30- arriving on the beach, keith carrying me to the pier, the ceremony begins!


After I spent about an hour or more getting my hair and make-up professionally done by a talented local, the photographers and videographer took some photos of me in our room and on our deck overlooking the ocean. Meanwhile, Keith was near the beach discussing things with the Samoan minister. Then, Kim and I got into a car near our room and this took me to a resort down the beach, where I was carried by a tattooed Samoan man onto the beautiful canoe boat! There were eight Samoan man all in the canoes that was connected to a big white deck which had a white chair in the center and a beautiful archway decorated with flowers and plants. Once we began to leave the beach and take the boat trip in the water, it all became dreamlike, with the Samoan men singing and cheering. The tattooed man blew the conch shell, which was a Samoan traditional way of showing the beginning of a big celebration.


The whole boat trip in the water seemed like forever, but maybe lasted for about 10 or so minutes. During this time, I looked at the beach and at a few different resorts (especially at ours) there were so many guests all sitting out watching, cheering and waving at me! Then, in all white, and standing under another arch of beautiful flowers and plant vines, was Keith. He looked so handsome and I couldn't stop smiling and couldn't believe that we were really about to get married! It seemed like a magical dream!

Once we reached shore, the tattooed Samoan man picked me up from the boat and carried me over to Keith. Keith then carried me...past all the guests who were cheering and even some were crying out of joy...at this point, everything built up and I was just so happy and felt so proud to be in the arms of Keith and now to be marrying him that I started crying myself! Well, he carried me a long way... all the way up the deck onto the pier. When we finally reached the beginning of the pier, we saw rows of beautiful flower and vine archways and walked down the aisle holding hands.

We had both written vows that were pretty long. I read mine first because I was very nervous. I had typed up my vows and it was about 3 pages! Once I began reading them, my nerves disappeared and I was just so happy that I could tell Keith the special things I wanted to share with him. Next was Keith's turn. Both of us spent a lot of time writing meaningful vows and we want to keep them forever and possibly even put them up in a frame one day.

After reading the vows, it was time to say "I do". Now this is where things started to get funny. You see, the minister had this very, very deep voice. Keith seemed to LOVE it because it was as if God himself were marrying us:) However, when he told me that I needed to repeat what he said, I honestly did not understand or clearly hear what he said. I actually went ahead and asked Keith to repeat what he said. Luckily, Keith understood and now I can just hope that it wasn't caught too bad on the dvd of the ceremony! It is pretty funny when I think back on it.

Well, if you think that's funny, listen to the next part of the ceremony. After we said "I do", the minister asked for our rings so that we can exchange them. Well....I quickly panicked in my head and asked Keith if he had his ring. I guess we were too busy before the ceremony thinking of how Keith would put on my wedding band (since it's my birthstone and wouldn't fit right next to the engagement ring). So anyways, Keith of course said no he didn't have it and laughed and gave me a look as if ...oh tina, you crack me up! So, naturally I quickly took off my wedding band (which I had been wearing...we did things differently with the rings) and gave it to the minister. Then Keith put the engagement ring on my finger and we all smiled for the camera, and then I put my wedding band (turned around so you couldn't see the birthstone) on Keith's pinky finger, although it barely fit!! I kind of hid his hand from the camera!! It was the funniest thing ever and after that moment, I spent the next few minutes trying to get the attention of Kim to ask her to run to our room and find his ring!!

She did go back and bring it for additional photos after the ceremony! lol What a great story to tell! We knew not EVERYTHING could go perfectly! It will be a good story to tell the grandkids one day:) Luckily, from all the language barriers and cultural differences from living in South Korea, we are both used to be flexible and going with the flow.

So then after we exchanged rings, we were brought over to a table where we were given champagne to give a toast. We then sat down to sign our names, and as our witnesses (Sam, our driver, and another staff member) signed their names, we saw behind us a rainbow!! A beautiful full rainbow. And then a second later we noticed that not only was it a rainbow, but it was a double-rainbow! (Please do not mention the you-tube video! lol)

We were mesmerized! It was certainly a blessing! The rainbow was so beautiful and symbolic and it even got in many of our photos!

After posing for several photos with the rainbows, we walked over to the restaurant where there were serenades playing music. We had our first dance, which Keith made very romantic. He dipped me, kissed me, and called me his beautiful wife!

At this time, Keith's real wedding band arrived so I put it again on his finger while laughing and I didn't have to cover his hand this time for the photos. We then walked down to the canoe boat where we took more photos. Keith blew the conch shell while I was sitting in the chair. We took photos in the garden area and then at another pier when the sun was beginning to set. The whole even was so pretty and romantic!

After about 20 minutes or so of photos, we were escorted down to one of the piers where we had a private area for our dinner overlooking the ocean. The dinner was incredible and our chef Ernest did an absolutely amazing job! Ernst had taken notice on our favorite dishes we ordered throughout the week in order to personalize our insanely delicious 7 course wedding dinner! We had a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne. We ate Masi Masi and Tuna Sushi and Sashimi, yellow crab curry with veggies, riscotto scallops, huge delicious lobster (which they to get through a special delivery from the other island!), chocolate mud cake, banana with sticky rice and then tea/coffee with a piece of our chocolate wedding cake topped with coconut icing made from the local bakery with fresh yellow Samoan flowers decorated on top! Can you believe it? Too much food but all so rich and great to try! Our waitress, Susanne had to wait about 10-20 minutes between each course because there was just so much fun!

It was a fun and romantic dinner! Keith cut the cake and served us a slice. We could hear the waves, see the ocean with the sun setting, and hear the Samoan music being played in the restaurant by the staff on their guitars. We took our time at dinner and stayed there for 3 hours!!! We enjoyed every minute of our special occasion together and our new married life! It was all so incredible!



If you want to know how our experience went with a destination wedding? Can you guess? Well, our wedding coordinator, Kim, was amazing and made the overseas planning simple, yet the actual wedding day was very unique, personalized and like a dream come true!

And the next day, one of the coordinators at the resort, Matts, had put together a wonderful slideshow of photos and music on a cd for us. He had found us in the restaurant when we were having dinner and came with his laptop. He gave us two copies and they each had our wedding photo on the front of the cd. He proudly played us the slideshow on his laptop and we didn't even know what to say! It was beautiful and Keith and I honestly both had some tears in our eyes!

I couldn't imagine how long that must have taken to put together so nicely, and to think that just out of the kindness of his heart he made this for us to take home! Matts told us that he couldn't believe how amazing and special our wedding was and that he was blown away by our vows that we had written for each other. He said we are such a loving and young couple and that he can see us together for many many years being happily married. He also told us that he wanted us to have the photo cd for us to show our family right when we get home since we have to wait a few weeks for the professional photos. What an amazing and generous person! We were so shocked!


I think enough is said...our wedding was absolutely wonderful and we would definitely recommend getting married this way! Relaxing, romantic, beautiful, and special!