Depending upon where you live you may or may not be currently feeling some affects of Cabin Fever. If you have not heard the term before it means when you start feeling claustrophobic by winter and you might feel a little depressed and not yet know it.  
Symptoms

• restlessness
• in ability to relax
• insomnia
• sleeping long hours
• irritability
• anxiety
• depression
• lethargy
• difficulty concentrating
• carbohydrate or sugar cravings (leads to weight gain, of course, which doesn’t help)
• difficulty waking in the morning
• reduced productivity

If you notice these symptoms during the winter moths, you may be suffering from Cabin fever.

As you may have noticed there is no project for the month of February.  It is the birthday month of myself and my husband and we had many other things in my personal life to attend to.  The March monthly project will be about ways to cure cabin fever. A very timely appropriate project for where I find myself living at the moment.

I know it is already the 10th but I just got back from my vacation/ wedding/ honeymoon trip to be met with 12 hour working days including the weekends.  Thus January’s monthly project will be to hang on and make it to February without losing my mind.

The easiest way to maintain sanity is to:

BREATHE.

We did it.  We were successful in getting hitched today.  Our little ceremony was on the beach right in front of the lighthouse in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, FL and it was wonderful.  We ate dinner at Charlie’s Crab right on the water.  Words can not describe how excited we were to get married so I will not even try.

After acquiring the marriage license we were also successful in finding the groom’s outfit.  I already had purchased my dress before we left on our journey but he had not.  He had planned to find something in Miami. 

We did.  We found the perfect Guayabera shirt, Panama hat (although they are all actually made in and from Ecuador) and some nice black slacks to match his black flip flops.  It is perfect.  We are ready now as we have the outfits, the rings, and the marriage license.

We went to a court house in Miami in order to apply for our marriage license and as we entered my heart dropped.  There were so many people waiting.  There was no room to even stand anywhere.  People were at this court house to deal with everything that was dealt with in criminal court; probabtion, parking tickets, speeding tickets, small claims etc.  Luckily you took a number relative to your reason for being at the courthouse.  Applying for a marriage license, we were told should only take about a half hour. 

And it did only take about 30 minutes.  When our number was called we just went to that window, presented the marriage license application form along with our driver’s licenses and that was it.  It was actually quite easy.  I was pleasantly surprised.

(The Courthouse)

I ordered two different wedding dresses.  Feel free to leave comments on which one you like best.  I can wear either option 1 or option 2.

After you have applied for and received the marriage license you then need to think about the ceremony.  Legally you need an approved officiant to sign the marriage license and then turn it back into the court so they can process it and make it official.  The officiant is usually the reverend, priest, preacher, monk etc., person who leads whatever type of ceremony you choose.  In Florida it is not hard to find some where to have a ceremony: outside, on the beach, or in a church.  It is also not hard to spend a lot of money.  You also have the option to have a ceremony at the courthouse where you picked up your marriage license, for an extra fee of course.

We choose to have our ceremony on the beach.  We encountered a lot of pricey options.  One of them was as much as 2,000.00 and then they wanted to limit the number of people at the beach ceremony.  Ridiculous.  I would suggest that you make sure what you know comes with which ever type of package you choose.  Make sure you know before hand what is included and what is not included. 

We searched for just officiants and found some cheaper options.  There was less included fan fare though so do be aware that the chairs or champagne may not be included.  We just wanted someone to do a short simple ceremony to make it legal.  Us both standing there, on the beach in the sun was ceremony enough for us.  Just be sure to align your ceremony to your beliefs and don’t let anyone tell you how you have to do it or you can’t do what you want.  It is your wedding and legally all you really need is an officiant to sign the marriage license.  Take it from there and make it your own. 

In short our ceremony will cost $ 140.00 and the license will cost $ 93.00. 

To make it legal you need a license. You apply for the marriage license in whatever state you plan to get married in. Each state has different rules so be sure to check your states government rules.

In Florida anyone can apply for a marriage license provided they meet the requirements below:

• Out of State Residents:
• No waiting period or blood test required.
• Apply in person or via mail at any clerk of circuit court office
• Pay for License in cash 93.00 dollars
• Once License is in hand then ceremony can be performed anywhere in the state by a licensed officiant or a ceremony can take place in the clerks office for a fee of 20 to 30 dollars
• Documents needed: Social Security Number, Photo ID like a driver’s license.
• Minimum age of 18 years

In State Residents:
• Majority of above applies except there is a 3 day waiting period unless couple can show documentation that they have taken the state approved marriage preparation course.

The cost of the ceremony varied greatly.  This will be coverd in depth in the next posting.