Brian and Cindy

We spent the weekend in Miami where we did a few touristy things, spent plenty of quality time with my family, and — oh yeah — went to a little shindig known as MY BROTHER’S WEDDING!  Brian and Cindy are wed!  Hooray!

(Side note: I am retarded and had my camera on the wrong settings for the first half of the wedding, so I did what I could to salvage them for blog purposes.  This is why you hire a professional photographer instead of relying on a friend — because they might be retarded like me.  Anyway, I can’t wait to see the professional photos.)

The ceremony was held on the balcony outside the ballroom at the hotel and it was, um, HOT. But it was a short ceremony so we all survived.

Brian smiled pretty much non-stop the entire day. Apparently he told my mom at one point that he was getting a headache from smiling so much. I almost cried when Cindy came in, because she and Brian both looked so happy.

Brian looked very handsome, of course, and Cindy looked absolutely beautiful. I loved her dress. So pretty!

Here are the newlyweds with both sets of parents. Cindy’s parents hardly spoke any English (and we hardly spoke any Spanish) so we didn’t get a chance to really talk to them, but they were so cute and looked very happy.  Cindy grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador and her parents still live there, although she and her two siblings have all lived in Miami for years. The kids started spending their summers in Miami when Cindy was 15 so that they could learn English.

Cindy has a 7-year-old son named Daniel who just started 2nd grade. He was the ring bearer. He’s a cute kid with LOTS of energy.  I have a nephew now!

Our family is now connected to not one but TWO giant Hispanic families. It was so funny to see the similarities between Cindy’s extended family and Jose’s extended family — including the way they took pictures of every possible combination of relatives.  It made me smile.

When Katie got married, I hadn’t met Jose.  Though we’ve been to a few weddings together now, it was fun to have him at a FAMILY wedding.  The “immediate family” pictures get bigger each time — there are now 9 of us!  Two parents, four kids, three spouses!

Here’s the full slideshow of pictures from the wedding!