South Pacific Cruise - Day 16 | The Vow Renewal
Moorea, Tahiti
Day 16 of our 26-day Epic Adventure brought us to the stunning island of Moorea. Wow, how do I even begin to describe the day we’ve had today? Today was our renewal of vows, a day where I got to say “I Do” again to my best friend. So with that premise in mind, indulge me as I try to explain just a snippet of the wonderful things that happened to us today.
We started the day with a VIP escort off the ship through the “back of the house” by our amazing Concierge, Dudley, who walked us straight on to a full and waiting tender to take us ashore. We were greeted by applause as we boarded the boat. This was one of several moments of applause we experienced today. Marcus loved it and Julie was thoroughly embarrassed as she hates being the center of attention. Today, she was going to get a lot more attention and earned every bit of it in her beautiful gown.
We were supposed to be picked up by a driver when we got off the boat, but after nearly 40-minutes, no on came. We made the best of it taking photos with guests and Julie even modeled for a few of the vendors while we waited. The magic of a small island, someone asked who we were waiting for and he called someone and had a ride for us in 5-minutes. We arrived at Coco Beach and met our wedding coordinator, video crew and our remarkable photographer, Helene Havard. We promptly boarded an outrigger canoe for a 10 minute ride to our private island ceremony site. I had been coordinating with our wedding coordinator for months leading up to this. It was great to finally put a face to all the emails and enjoy all the planning that went into this day.
We traveled by boat to our private beach, and greeted by our first visitor, a manta ray who wanted to hang out at our boat. We enjoyed an emotional ceremony in the center of a heart created out of flowers on the beach. We had a mixture of our story, our own vows and topped by Marcus reading First Corinthians. We shared rings and Marcus was given a special pendant Julie had ordered for him. Engraved on the pendant was the date of our wedding, the date of our renewal and the date we adopted Marcus. There was not a dry eye on the beach.
As we toasted our nuptials with champagne, we were cheered by the passing boats of tourists from our ship. Several of them we met upon returning to the ship later in the evening who had taken photos of us from their boats as they passed. Such a surreal experience.
The rest of the day was our photo shoot. Julie got to trash her dress in the water as we got all sorts of shots in the most breath taking environment you’ve ever seen. The jumping shot was hilarious because Marcus and I could jump, but Julie’s dress filled with water and sand was far too heavy to get off the ground. These shots are some of the most amazing things I’ve seen and we loved every minute of it. Having Marcus as a part of it was even more special.
The evening was the most enjoyable dinner I’ve had in a long time. Our original plans were canceled on us, so we improvised with a perfect dinner with our Aussie friends from the table behind us. We enjoyed 2 stunning bottles of wine, a bottle of champagne and conversation that could have carried on all night. We’ve made some amazing friends down under and now have a beach house in Bondi to stay at anytime.
We capped the night off in the Concierge Club, as we often do. We were again greeted as celebrities, since many had seen us either earlier in the day or on their excursions during the day. Everyone wanted to hear our story and share theirs.
Today was a day that started out as something so special for us. What it became was a day of love, family, friendships and stories that was way bigger than just us. It was many nations sharing time, sharing stories, sharing commonality and simply sharing love.
From the bottom of our hearts we are truly thankful for everyone that was apart of this day, both here and in our thoughts back home. We so appreciate your love and support.
