A few years back we did a wedding on a blip of a spot in the Bahamas called Harbour Island. Being a destination wedding designer, you are able to do events in the most beautiful and the most remote stretches of the world. It’s basically a 2 x 3 mile stretch of land inhabited by chickens and ghosts of times gone by. I will say, though, that it was the most beautiful stingray-infested water I’ve ever been in.
The trip included many adventures, but one of them stands out in my mind that includes my face-off with a horse.
The ceremony is starting and I have sent the bride and her father down a really long stretch of beach…seriously long…it was gonna take them at least 5 minutes to get to the guests. Sasha is at the ceremony waiting to direct them on the flip side. In this amount of time, plus the actual ceremony, I had to make my way back to the ceremony spot to be set and ready to direct guests on to the cocktail party.
My radio wasn’t working very well and my mode of transportation is a very old, very stubborn, golf cart. The path is through the “jungle” over very bumpy terrain.
I’m tearing through the brush about as fast as I can go, which is in actuality a slug’s pace, and in the distance, I see a gigantic cantankerous looking horse standing right across my “road”. He’s looking right at me with no intention of moving.
I arrive just a few feet from him and realize that I have inadvertently fallen into some sort of wild Bahamian horse stand-off.
Meanwhile, through my radio I hear intermittent screams of “Where the….psh….are you???” My answer is “There’s a horse in the road!!!” Then: “What? There’s a rock in the toad??? Get your….psh…..back here!!!”
I’m not about to touch this potentially rabid animal, so I begin yelling profanities at it, like that’s gonna help. That goes on for about 30 of the longest seconds of my life. Next….complete silence, for just a brief moment. The horse looks at me chewing nonchalantly…and then moves….as slow as horse-ly possible, I might add. Kind of like when you are waiting for a belligerent youth to cross the street against your green stoplight, and they are staring right at you the entire time, just to make you suffer. I may have flipped him off as I went by.
Needless to say, I made it back to the ceremony spot just in time.
If you want a taste of this paradise, check out the video (right here), taken by the two paramedics that came with us on the trip. Make sure to listen to the comments they make, and, watch the whole thing 🙂 Having these adventures is what makes destination wedding design so much fun.
Until next time,
Mel:)
