Naomi will be marrying Daniel on 18th March 2020 at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in Aventura, Florida, USA. Click here to read all Naomi’s planning posts to date.
THREE FACTS: (1) British bride Naomi has just moved to Florida to join her Venezuelan fiance Daniel, who she met at a wedding in Israel – talk about an international couple! (2) Naomi and Daniel were long distance for 3.5 years, until this July. (3) Naomi is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!
Hello all and welcome to wedding update number three!
I cannot believe how fast the time is going, or that we are less than 4 months away from the big day!
Things are getting really exciting – all of our main vendors are booked, the MENU TASTING IS COMPLETE (anyone who knows me will know just how excited I was for that particular job) and almost every other day I’m getting messages from people telling me their flights are booked, which fills my heart with the hugest amount of joy.
The number of close friends who have pulled through and decided they are going to travel across the world to come and celebrate with us in Miami is just such a blessing, which I didn’t really allow myself to expect and which I am incredibly grateful for.
There are, however, two very special guests who I still can’t quite believe will not be physically present on our wedding day; my big sister, Rachel, and my wonderful brother in law, Toto, a close friend of my fiance’s.
It just so happens they’ve been cooking up a very special new family member who’s due to make his way into the world only two days after the wedding, and so will be unable to make the transcontinental journey from Tel Aviv.
Anybody that knows my family will know how incredibly close my sisters and I are (a 4-girl-strong squad, no boys – sorry dad). My sisters are my best friends, and the coolest people I know.
They each have different interests and passions, they’re talented in so many different ways, they make me laugh like nobody else and they are my biggest support systems, the first names I search for in my phone when I have good or bad news. For that reason, it is honestly unthinkable that one of us would not be present in any major life moment for one another.
And yet, here we are! Two major life moments happening at once, and no physical way for all of us to be present at both. Two huge blessings with just a tinge of bittersweet; As my Mum said to me when we found out, “Somebody up there has got to be laughing at us”.
There’s no doubt that my sister and brother in law are going to be hugely missed in March. But what I am infinitely sure of is that a lifetime’s worth of loving, snuggling and spoiling the first baby of the new generation of our family out shadows one day of missed celebrations a thousand times over. Facetime may not be the same, but it exists.
So does the option of a life-sized cardboard cut-out, which I can’t deny has crossed my mind more than once these past few weeks… We will make do, and we will be there for each other in every way possible, leading up to these momentous events, as they happen, and afterwards, too.
On a happier note, this blog post comes at the end of one of my most exciting weeks in Miami to date. A large portion of my family and Daniel’s family flew out to Florida to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us and get to know each other!
Our parents and some of our siblings met for the first time, the Spanish-English language barrier was more or less overcome (with lots of smiling, nodding and hugging), much delicious food was consumed – thanks to my aunt and uncle who prepared the most indulgent Thanksgiving Feast – and a truly good time was had by all.
At one point, I looked around the room and saw my sister reading Daniel’s niece a story (who pretty much thinks we brought Peppa Pig to Thanksgiving thanks to my sister’s very exciting British accent), my dad building a toy railway track with Daniel’s brother and nephew, and my aunt trying to explain to my future mother-in-law (using hand gestures and very slow English) that her chocolate mousse was the best she had ever tried in her life!
It put a huge smile on my face and reminded me that this is one of the loveliest aspects of our future marriage – joining two families together (to form one beautiful, chaotic, English-Venezuelan mix in our case!). Family means such a lot to both of us, and so this was particularly special.
That’s all I’ve got for now, folks! The next few months look set to be extremely busy, surely stressful at times (I’m sure that anybody planning a wedding can sympathise there!), but hopefully really enjoyable, too. And my countdown has officially begun… 105 days until I marry the love of my life!
Click here to read all Naomi’s planning posts to date.
Naomi & Daniel’s Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Venue – Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus
Catering – Erik Kaufman
Photographer and videographer – Esmeralda Bodas
Hair + Makeup – My Makeup Bible
