Barrett - Roskelly Wedding
Fly fishing and Catching a Bride
How did you meet? On the Net at Match . com
After Tom had been out fishing for 16 hours straight Tom stopped by Sam & Annie’s house and spoke with Annie about his great day of fishing but Tom felt he was was missing out. How could he find the right girl standing on the bow of my boat by himself. The next day he went on line and wrote 5 great letters to profiles that he liked. Karen and I started writing back and fourth and spoke on the phone for hours.
For our 1st date she was going to call me at some point on the Sunday since she was going to be in town for a Singles volunteers party. I mentor a young friend Mat and had taken him out fishing at 4am with the understanding that when I received a phone call from her we would cut short the fishing party. The day started out great with Striped Bass and Blues busting the water all over the place. At a point in the morning after we caught our catch of bass & blues. We tried something different and went straight off Brenton Point to look for Tuna. After finding little tuna, Bonito, and Albies we found a school of Bluefin tuna!!! That doesn’t happen all the time. I had called my friends and Tim shields to come out and help us catch some (which Tim Shields did) my cell phone rang and it was Karen. I announced to everybody that I was going in and I had a DATE…..They all cheered and poked fun at me and said that I was leaving a opportunity of a life time to catch these fish (BFT) and over the radio I announced to everybody that I was meeting a super special girl that might be the Opportunity of my life time.
Karen and I had our first date at the Marina Grille overlooking Newport Harbor we sat and ate tuna sashimi and calamari for three hours.
"I tell every body that I was fly fishing and catching a bride." States Tom
Karen
As a young child I drew a picture of a dress that had long sleeves and when the time finally arrived to look for a wedding dress, that is still what I envisioned. I also thought that a sweetheart neckline would be nice. After lsearching for a few months and finding most gowns to be strapless, I thought that my childhood dream was going to evaporate. That is until I walked into the House of Brides in Wooksocket, RI and met Josette. She has worked there for around 40 years and when I described my vision and she knew exactly what dress to show me. With long sheer sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, it had the “look” that I had been searching for. It also had a couple of aspects that we very unique – it was somewhat fitted along the hips, but flared at the bottom. I loved the fact that the train was just the sheer overlay to the dress. It was just beautiful flowing down the aisle against the hardwood floors of the old Victorian church known as Emmanuel in Newport.
We were looking for “Simple Elegance”
Bridesmaids’ dresses were celadon green (strapless gowns) and their flowers where white and off-white with greens and berries. The color celadon green reminded us of the waters that we have fished together and the Newport waters around the Aquidneck Island
Honeymoon Location: 12 days in Belize
Victoria House, luxury hotel and resort
It is located on the peaceful island of Ambergris Caye. The Victoria house has only 35 rooms and they are spread across tropical gardens and overlooking the ocean. It really felt like Heaven on Earth. We had our own Casita – a little hut with a palm roof. It was so romantic, as the bed was draped in sheer mosquito netting and tied back at the bedposts.
The resort offered all that we could ask for. The entire staff was so friendly and helpful. Right from their dock, they were able to provide fishing guides (Tom’s main reason for choosing Belize as a honeymoon spot), snorkeling and dive trips, and tours to the mainland. We went bonefishing two and a half days and Tom caught one of the elusive bonefish. Karen reeled in one that the guide had hooked, so that didn’t really count. But she more than made up for it the two days that we went reef fishing with another couple who were honeymooning at Victoria House. Between the four of us we filled the cooler more than half way by lunch. The guide then took us to a barbeque spot where he cooked up some of the fish with garlic, onions and peppers for lunch it was amazing. We then went back out to the reef and filled it the rest of the way. We had two days of amazing fishing, catching red mutton snapper, yellow tail snapper, horse eyed jack, ladyfish, needlefish and others. Both nights the chef cooked up the fish we brought back for dinner – it was something else.
The food at Victoria House was amazing and we ate most of our gourmet meals in the romantic candle light dining room. Some days we ate breakfast outside on the patio watching as the sun was rising up over the water. We were glad that we had chosen to be on the meal plan, as there is nowhere else on the island that could top this restaurant. We had breakfast, lunch and a 3-course dinner selected off the menu. We could not speak enough of how great the food was – from the orange scented bouillabaisse, to twin lobster tails served over coconut & pineapple rice, to the molten chocolate (a brownie like cake with a hot fudge center) that was served with coconut ice cream and banana slices, it was amazing. Their Executive Chef, Amy Knox, has won many awards and is recognized internationally.
We also went to the mainland on a couple of excursions. The first was to Altun Ha – a Mayan ruin and then to the Maruba Jungle spa where we had side-by-side massages in a dark room with a tropical feel, soft music and candlelight. Amazing! The second trip was to the Belize Zoo where Carlos, our guide, entertained us by talking to the animals – at least the monkeys seemed to know what he was saying. Then in was off to the mountains to go Cave Tubing – what a lot of fun.
Our 12 days in Belize were a trip to paradise.
It was the trip home that didn’t go as planned. I guess Karen jinxed the trip, by saying that she didn’t care what the weather was like coming home, as long as everyone was able to make it to the wedding (only 1 person didn’t make it, as he was sick), and that we weren’t delayed getting to Belize for the honeymoon. It took us 49 hours to get home door to door from the hotel to our house. That’s what happens when you live in New England and have a winter wedding. As we were due to get into Boston early Saturday evening, but as the airport was snowed in, we spent the night in Miami. We then caught a 6:30 am flight to Washington D.C. where we waited for hours wondering if our flight would take off. Finally they announced we were going and we boarded the plane, only to have it diverted to JFK mid air. We pent most of the afternoon evening waiting there until they said the flight wasn’t going to take off that night. We were able to get our luggage, so just decided to drive home. We were exhausted by the time we got to CT, that we decided to spend the night with Karen’s parents before heading back to RI in the morning.
