Gibraltar Wedding, Orox Style
Orox products are with you for life. They accompany you all sorts of places and bear witness to adventure, milestone events, and all the other ups and downs of life. We love hearing about our customer’s experiences with their Orox products.
In the summer of 2014 Maxene and Craig took off for Spain. They got married in Gibraltar and then spent two weeks traveling around Southern Europe accompanied by their sense of adventure and their Drawstring Rucksack. We’ve been sharing some beautiful photos of their travels on our social media, but wanted to offer a fuller account of Maxene’s adventures, in her own words. You can also follow Maxenes’s travels on her blog, Maxene’s Trail of Crumbs or on Instagram (@maxenestrail). Both chronicle her adventures in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Her mantra is: “surf, eat, climb, bake, drink, repeat.” Words to live by, if you ask us.
•••
Our wedding day was both typical and unusual. On the afternoon of June 4th Craig and I dressed in our wedding finery (I was lucky enough to be wearing an amazing wedding gown that I had custom made and Craig wore a classic and handsome suit). But instead of the more typical wedding venues, we walked down the busy streets of Gibraltar to a beautiful 18th century library with our wedding vows, an extra set of shoes, some water, and our Orox Rucksack. In this serene setting we said our vows, laughed, and cried – accompanied only by our photographer. It was an absolutely perfect ceremony. After this we picked up our little wedding cake and had our photos taken on the southern-most point in Europe with views of North Africa. Our wedding day was filled with lots of unplanned adventure and it stands out as one of the absolute best of our lives. We were thrilled to be able to start our married life in this way that perfectly suited us!
Shortly after Craig and I were engaged we knew we didn’t want the stress and financial strain of planning a traditional wedding. We knew we could either have a big celebratory wedding day, or spend the money on a honeymoon, but not both. And, honestly, I wanted my weekends spent enjoying the sunshine, not running from place to place picking out table linens, stationary, and flowers. With the blessings of our families we chose to forgo tradition and put the money towards the vacation of our dreams; we couldn’t have made a better decision.
I started to search some of my favorite wedding blogs and discovered a rather recent post of an elopement in southern Spain. Their photographer was Andreas Holm and in looking through his portfolio I knew immediately that he could provide us with the photos I wanted for my wedding day. Since we were not hosting family we thought about the money we would be saving and went for the best photographer I could find. After telling Andreas that we didn’t know of an exact location just yet, he quickly responded with one that seems to work for many Americans: the Rock of Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar is famous for being where John Lennon and Yoko Ono eloped. After doing more research I learned that it was indeed an option for us to marry while in Spain. In fact, it seemed easy! Since it is UK territory it is fairly easy for American’s to be married there, which is not the case elsewhere in Spain or Europe.
The day after we had our wedding ceremony we traveled to the registrar’s office and were officially married, on paper. Complete strangers who we found outside the office were our witnesses. That day we also made our way to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar and hung out with the curious and thieving Barbary Apes. They are the only only population of wild monkeys in Europe and they are certainly not afraid of people. I love the photos I took of Craig with the Barbary Apes and I like to imagine what each is thinking!
Perhaps as wonderful as our actual wedding ceremony was the 11 day honeymoon that followed. More accurately it was a “marrymoon,” a combination wedding and honeymoon (not to be confused with a destination wedding, where guests travel great distances). Our adventures in Spain, Greece, and Italy will be coming soon.
All photos: Andreas Holm
