Wedding Pictures!!! A sneak peek...

Well, our photographer, Robert Mullins has finally had a moment to post some sneak peek pics of us from the wedding day.  I have been stalking his web site like crazy and have to admit that I am super excited about the first photos I finally get to see.  How is it that pro-photogs always seem to make everything look so much better?  :)

So here they are...

My beautiful Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown hanging up from the patio rafters outside of our bridal cottage prep area.  Our photog refused to touch the dress himself so he asked my girls to take it out and hang it up for him. 

My super hot groom, Mr Fix It - no really...look how hot he looks!  And those blue eyes - swoon!

A close up of me.  I have to admit, I loved my makeup for sure...the hair was another story for a future recap, but this photo made me realize how great pro-photogs can make you look.  And I absolutely LOVE my necklace in this shot...wish it was just a little more in focus but hoping he got some good shots of it!

 

Um, hello?  Is that me?  LOVIN' IT!  And so is all my family...their favorite so far.

 

This is one of my very faves because it is kind of artsy, it totally shows off that gorgeous train and made me fall in love with my gown all over again and it has that great shot of the venue's name in the background.  This is just at the end of the main entrance - what the guests saw as they first drove into the estate. 

(Oh, and remember how I talked about how dirty my gown was under the train a few days ago? 

Yeah, well, this is why!  Look...pure dirt that dress is sitting on.)

Another great shot that I love because it shows off the amazing grounds of the estate. 

Up to the right of this picture (the little deck you can hardly see) is the cocktail area where guests can gather and look down.  I am standing at the very back of where our ceremony took place behind all of the chairs that were set up (not in the picture obviously).  The building in the background is called Rick's Cafe...it is a little multi-level restaurant type building with booths and chairs and tables throughout.  That is how the guests got down from the cocktail area to the ceremony area.  We also used that building to set up our kids' corner area where the babysitters hung out with a few kids playing games and watching movies and cartoons on portable DVD players.

And finally, a shot of Mr Fix It and I from inside of Rick's Cafe.  In this one, we are standing on the balcony that you see dead center and just to the right of the blue light post in the pic right above this one.  The second photographer was inside shooting this shot from the inside looking out and our main photog, Robert was down where I was standing in the pic above shooting us from below up on the balcony.  :) 

I love the silhouette.

So there you have it...our first sneak peek.  I am excited to announce that Robert e-mailed me yesterday saying he is almost ready to send the final disc of all our pro-pics...and as soon as I get it, the serious recaps will be in full swing.  For now, I have plenty of things involving some other stories and shots from friends and family as well as honeymoon recaps to keep those of you who are interested busy - more to come!

H-moon Recap: Saving the best for last

So we were on our honeymoon from the day after our wedding (left Saturday night April 17th at 11 pm) until Saturday May 1st.  This was our schedule:

Saturday April 17th - Depart for Brisbane Australia 11 pm
Monday April 19th - Arrive Brisbane 6 am
Monday April 19th - Rented a car, found our apartment in Burleigh Heads, Queensland
Thursday April 22nd - Stayed for one night at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat
Friday April 23rd - Returned to that amazing apartment in Burleigh Heads
Sunday April 25th - Depart for Bali, Indonesia arrived at about 2:30 pm
Sunday April 25th - Took a few hours to find a rental car in Bali, find a gas station after we left and realized the rental car 'guy' left us with an empty tank and we had not yet exchanged our US Dollars for Rhupia and then find the Wina Holiday Villas to stay at.

We stayed at the Wina for 3 nights and it was great...Mr Fix It stayed there several times and loved it.  But let me tell you, we were most excited about the last 3 nights of our honeymoon.  From Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon, we got to stay at the Blue Point Bay Villas in Uluwatu, Indonesia.  And let me say - THAT is what a honeymoon resort is all about! It was a 45 minute to hour drive from Kuta depending on traffic.

We were a bit confused at first as we drove from Kuta to Uluwatu through the city and into a more remote location.  As we got close to the resort and eventually turned onto the street, we realized that we could be in for trouble since the 'road' was nothing but a horribly bumpy dirt gravel path.  We passed a cow and a bunch of workers apparently building something but who knows what?  However, from the moment we arrived at the resort, which sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking a popular surf spot below, we were totally in awe!

This was the view of the open area reception area where we checked in.

They told us they'd let us check in several hours early but needed about 20 - 30 minutes to get the room ready.  So we headed out to the pool to check out the view of the ocean and surfers below.  While we waited, a waiter suddenly walked up and gave us free citrusy drinks that were bright and fun and yummy!  We were already lovin' this place!

I scoped out what I determined to be the best spot at the pool and then a bellhop came and helped load our luggage onto a cart.  He headed us down the path to the rooms and stopped at #204.  We were a little confused when he had to unlock a padlock on a gate.  And then this is what we saw:

You have your own private yard surrounding your room.  Complete with a plunge pool and a lounge/bed under a gazebo (right side of the pic):

We made good use of that little lounge bed outside...we watched movies on it one day on our portable DVD player and also took some good naps and other stuff.  ;)  We also ordered room service and ate at the little table on the patio.  It was a shrimp cocktail served with a citrusy sauce in a carved out pineapple..so yummy!

Here's another shot of the plunge pool in the yard:

And here's the view from off of the little cliff that the room sits on:

Mr Fix It in the plunge pool (he's got his trunks on here but once we realized this was all our own private space, he was naked whenever we were in our villa for the rest of the trip!):

But of course to truly appreciate it, including seeing inside our AMAZING room,
you need to check out the video tour: 

More on this amazing resort and our adventures here coming up later this week - but tomorrow, a sneak peek at some pro pics of the wedding day - FINALLY!

Wed recap: Photobooth fun (Seriously tons of pics!)

I don't care what you do, if it all possible, the one thing I highly encourage you to have at your wedding is a photobooth.  I know it's trendy and overdone nowadays but it is only because your guests absolutely LOVE it!  Whether you make your own 'faux-to-booth' or rent one like we did from a company like Cheesy Photobooths, it is the best investment you'll make for entertaining your guests.  And it also serves as a great favor for them to remember your special day by.  I personally loved it because it also served dual purpose as part of our guestbook so we'd have a pic of all of our guests from our special day. 

But seriously, the entertainment value alone is phenomenal and ours was packed all night long.  So without further ado, here are just some of the many, many different types and styles of people and photos we discovered after browsing through our photobooth photos:

You'll get people of all ages:

 20 Somethings:

 Teens:

 

Moms (mine and my sister's mother-in-law):

Parents (of the groom and their friend):

Families:

Even sleeping babies!

By the way, how freaking cute is our banner at the bottom of the pictures?

And of course, you'll get the silly photos and crazy shots:

Little Miss and her dad:

The kids were in that thing all night long - like 20 times each! 

(Our Junior Groomsmen, Mr Fix It's nephew)

I'm a guest blogger on a Bride's Brain!

So I have totally loved and valued reading Jenn's posts over at A Bride's Brain.  In addition, she has been a wonderful, faithful commenter here on my own blog since almost the beginning.

She got married several months ago but they waited to take their European honeymoon until just this week.  So when she e-mailed me asking if I would write a guest post to share on her blog in her absence, I was completely honored and humbled by the offering and of course jumped on the opportunity.

So head on over to her blog and check out my post from yesterday :)

H-moon Recap: A Rainforest stay vs. a hotel at the beach

So in Australia I told you yesterday about La Pacifique apartments and showed a video tour of how amazing the place we spent 5 nights in Burleigh Beach in Queensland was.  Well, on one night (Wednesday), we took an almost 2 hour drive to Lamington National Forest.  It's a park inland from the beaches that is a rainforest up in the mountains.  It was the only night that we actually booked before we left for the honeymoon. 

We stayed at a place called O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat (I think it was $385 for one night!).  We were expecting a super cool resort type feel and though it was definitely nice, when we arrived, we felt more like we were in a youth camp in the woods.  :)

Again I will say that it is hard to truly get a sense of what a place looks like from pictures on a web site.  We were definitely not getting what we expected, but it was still very pretty and a very cool place to stay.  And our room was great.  Here is another (much shorter) video tour:

Me in the jacuzzi :)  We kinda overdid it with the bubbles...they were spilling out into the room :)

Fireplace in our bedroom - we did of course use that the one night we were there!  You just gotta!

So I will share more about this beautiful place in an upcoming recap.  For now, I'll share about the other hotel we stayed at in Kuta, Bali (Indonesia).  It's called the Wina Holiday Villas and Mr Fix It has stayed there several times before on his trips to Bali.  He loves it as it is right across the street from Kuta beach.  You may remember that our pup who just passed away was named Kuta after this location.  :)

Anyway, the Wina Villas ($75 per night) were pretty nice considering that you're staying in Bali - it is afterall a 3rd world country and very different from where we live.  I will post some great pics and video of the 'city' and culture there in upcoming posts.  For now, here's a few pics of the hotel.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics off of my camera so these are all from their web site, but they are pretty true to reality :)

The main entrance

The pool side restaurant where we had breakfast every morning (Included in the reservation)

A view from the restaurant looking out at the pool

(we did not spend any time at the pool other than to jump in and rinse off after we came in from the beach)

What the rooms looked like.  The first night we stayed there, we had to have a room with two beds that they pushed together.  Then they switched us to a room with a large bed for the next two nights.  A little bit of the hassle with not having pre-booked reservations but not a big deal.

The cool thing about this place was that we could walk to the beach, the main strip of shops and restaurants and of course the little internet access they provided in the hotel itself.  :)  It was way cheaper to use the internet in Bali than in Australia.

The hotel was great.  Nice and decent food.  Unfortunately, we didn't have very hot water.  And one day we had to let it run for 15 minutes to get it 'warm.'  So we were quick with our showers.   And you needed them, because it was totally humid in Bali.  The temperature was in the upper 80's but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter.  Still not horrible though.  It was nice enough to walk around in shorts and tanks at night time and during the day we were out traveling to beaches anyway looking for surf for Mr Fix It.

Being the super friendly talkative guy that he is, Mr Fix It made friends with everyone wherever we went.  One day we got back to the hotel and one of the guard gate workers smiled at Mr Fix It.  He asked him if he needed a water or anything to drink.  I don't think the guy understood what he was saying because he just kept smiling and nodding.  Mr Fix It went in to the hotel bar and ordered a soda and when it was delivered he told the waiter to take it out and give it to the guy at the gate - I forget his name but Mr Fix It knew it. 

When we left later that night, the worker smiled and thanked Mr Fix It several times.  He's just kind of a good, generous guy that way...and that's why I married him!  :)

H-moon Recap: This is not seriously a 'hotel'!?!

As I mentioned, Mr Fix It had been to Australia and Bali before and he did not feel the need to book any type of travel accommodations like hotels, car rental, restaurant reservations, touristy type attractions or tickets, etc.  We had our airline tickets and we had a couple nights at two different resorts booked and that was it!  And I didn't get him to book the resorts until literally 2 to 3 weeks before our wedding!

So when we arrived in Brisbane, Australia, I totally trusted him to figure it out.  Thankfully, I did convince him to rent a Garmin GPS system with our rental car which was a huge lifesaver in helping us get around!  He knew he wanted to check out Burleigh Beach (a place on the Gold Coast just over an hour south of the Brisbane airport) so we programmed in the city and took off.

When we arrived, we just started looking for hotels close to the beaches.  We found one that he said we should check out and as we walked up the steps to the door, Mr Fix It looked at me and said he just wasn't feeling it.  So after entering and seeing no live person to assist us, we followed his gut and walked out quickly.  We drove just a little ways away and found this place called La Pacifique apartments.

Now I'm telling you...this was a score!!!  We walked past an okay sized pool and into the front office and found a very tiny little front desk with an older looking bearded gentlemen sitting there.  We asked him if they had anything available for about 2 or 3 nights.  He said they didn't do one night stays but they did have a place available for 3 nights.  So we asked if we could see it and he walked around the corner and opened the front door to what was the apartment he lived in.  He called for his wife, Robyn to come out and asked her to take us up to #36 on the 12th floor. 

The second we walked in, we looked around, smiled at each other and told Robyn "Sold!"  So we headed back downstairs and booked the room for $150 a night.  Granted, it wasn't really a room at all.  In fact, it was a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment! 

Here's a pic of the living room. 

We stayed there from Monday until Thursday when we were heading to O'Reilly's Rainforest.  We had only booked one night at O'Reilly's and we were so thankful for that as you will see in tomorrow's post.  So on Thursday morning, before we left La Pacificque, we asked the manager, Graham if they would save us the same room for us to come back and stay at for Friday and Saturday night as well.  They were so sweet and accommodating, they totally said no problem.  In fact, they gave us directions to a local grocery store and we bought some groceries to make breakfast and lunches each day since we had a fully stocked kitchen.  When we left for the one night to stay at O'Reilly's, Robyn and Graham even let us keep some of the groceries in the refrigerator.

Here is Mr Fix It making me breakfast one morning:

We totally enjoyed Graham and Robyn.  They were very sweet to us and we would run into Graham walking around the beach across the street sometimes.  They referred us to a few malls, shops, etc and even called me into their apartment one night to watch how they fed the wild birds off of their back porch from right out of their hand!  It was something you would probably never see here in So Cal. 

When we came back for the last 2 nights, they discounted our room for the 5 night stay since we had stayed 3 nights and then another 2.  So overall, we only paid about $110 US a night at most including taxes.

Our unit had apparently just been remodeled and so the cable tv in the living room wasn't working.  They called in their repair man, John to fix it and we became quick friends with him.  He shared lots of stories about how he came from Austria to Australia and his life.  He would stop and chat with us when we would run into him around the apartments.  One day when we ran out of laundry detergent I asked Robyn if we could get some more packets.  She didn't have any so she just gave me the box of detergent from her own apartment. 
Here's a pic of Mr Fix It looking out the kitchen window.  Every morning I would wake up and go look out this window to see the surfers in the water and what the weather was like. 

The cool thing about this place, too was that I could get up each morning and walk across the street to a little convenience store that had internet access which is how I was able to chat with my daughter, Little Miss on Facebook each day and keep up on a few blog posts, too.  Overall, we scored on our 'hotel' stay in Australia and would totally recommend it for anyone who travels there!

And here is a little video tour from me of our apartment.  Please excuse the racy pics of me in my undies in the mirror reflections :)  And sorry that the lighting is not fabulous on video:

So would you ever consider 'winging it' for a vacation in another country?  As much as I was freaked out to do this and wouldn't do it regularly, I have to admit that Mr Fix It did not let me down on our honeymoon.

A wedding recap - spots on my dress!

Ok, so I told you there would be no order to my recaps.  I know I started off with a couple honeymoon recaps but if I did that for two weeks straight, I might lose you.  So I thought I would share a few pics and a story about something every girl dreads on her wedding day - spots and stains on your gown.

Plus, I've also decided that at the end of each of my wedding recaps I will leave you with a small tip, words of wisdom, experienced advice or suggestion from the lessons I learned that will hopefully help you in your future planning process and on your big day.

Now mind you, I got married at an outdoor venue with a zoo.  So if you plan to do ANY pictures or wedding related events outside in your dress, just simply plan on the fact that you will in fact get some type of dirt or stain on your gown.  No way around it.  In fact, even if you don't step outside at all in your dress, unless you are wearing something that is above your ankles, people will step on it, food will get near it, and just a dirty floor in general are bound to stain that beauty.

Looking back, I was a horrible blogger bride.  I did not get photos of lots of little things (like the spots on my gown) that I knew I would blog about.  So forgive me for my lack of images in a lot of these recaps.

Anyhow, here is a pic of me in the pretty little Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown that I donned on April 16th (remember I have no pro pics yet):

And here's one showing that lovely train in all it's beaded, embellished, laced glory:

Here's a pic of my mom and niece checking out the zoo at the venue the day before during the rehearsal:

And here's one of my mom and my nephew (one of the ring bearers) and his other grandma sitting on the bench at the venue during the rehearsal:

Why am I showing you these random pics of the zoo and the bench?  Well, notice the things on the ground in those pics?  Dirt...and grass.  And even on the concrete areas of the venue there were leaves and dirt.  Now mind you, this venue, they keep it in tip top shape.  The night before your wedding from 3 am to 7 am, they have a cleaning company come in and sweep and hose everything down.  So it's not like it was filthy.  This is just what happens when you are, well, outside, DUH!

Now try to walk around and maneuver something like this throughout these type of grounds:

Needless to say, I got some great stains on my gown.  As I mentioned, if you plan on walking anywhere outside (and especially if you have a train), you will most definitely get your dress dirty.  Underneath my train was covered in dirt.  The top was not that bad, but it was not spot clean either.  At one point, my photog had me sitting on one of the little ledges in front of some shrubs and trees to get photos with my girls.  Later, while we were standing around, I noticed that there was a huge yellow stain of pollen from the flowers on the back side of my gown right on my waist.  Totally noticeable. 

I called over my coordinator and some BM's and asked them to get the bar of white ivory soap and the washcloth I had brought in the bridal cottage to do some spot cleaning.  My seamstress suggested using a bar of pure soap and washcloth to dab at stains rather than a stain remover type pad.

Well, the wash cloth and soap did little to assist in the removal of the stain.  Of course, my lovely coordinator Amanda had SHOUT stain remover pads in her waist belt.  So after realizing my seamstress' idea was not working, I gave her the go ahead to use the SHOUT.  And thankfully, the little yellow spot came almost completely out. 

Everyone around me was freaking out about the stain and the girls were shocked at how relaxed I was about the whole thing.  I am a type-A total control freak, perfectionist, stress-case weirdo about a lot of planned things in my life.  But I had resolved myself to the fact that nothing was going to upset me on our wedding day.  And I stuck to just that.  (Now granted, a few things have upset me about the wedding day after the fact, but you'll have to wait for future posts to read about those.)  So if they hadn't gotten the yellow stain out, I wouldn't have cared...after all, it was on the back side and if it showed up any pics, they could have photoshopped it out.

However, after we were completely done with all of the photos, once the guests started arriving just before the ceremony, I had my sister and BM Cousin A go out on the back patio with me and they inspected my entire gown and dabbed away with the soap and cloth to try to get some of the dirt stains out.  It wasn't horrible and they did a good job.

But believe me, this was not the last of my unfortunate encounters with stains on my dress...the best was yet to come...and at the worst possible moment!!!  (Stay tuned in a future recap)

Today's tip:  Be sure to understand what will happen in getting your dress dirty on wedding day.  Don't think it won't happen no matter how careful you are.  Be prepared!  Bring with you in your emergency kit:  water, pure bar of soap, a *white* wash cloth, stain removing pads, club soda, paper towels, Tide Eraser pen, etc. 

And the BEST thing that my coordinator had on her:  WHITE CHALK!  That little yellow stain of pollen, Amanda said that white chalk can be gently rubbed over most wedding gown stains to help 'hide' them on your big day.  I don't know if she had to use it or not because I think we got most of it out, but it was there in her hand at our disposal.

H-moon Recap: How rain affected our plans

Our honeymoon was pretty amazing.  Though I have to admit, I felt guilty about traveling halfway around the world just to lay around and be lazy.  We didn't really do any 'touristy' type things.  I really wanted to see the Australia Zoo while we there and we considered it, but we just decided to hang around and not do too much.  Our h-moon was mostly about laying out at the beach and surfing.  Unfortunately, we didn't do as much of that in Australia as we hoped since it rained a little much.

If you remember, the honeymoon was all Mr Fix It.  And he did not believe in making reservations.  We booked our airline flights through his credit card air miles and we did book a one night stay at a resort in Australia as well as 3 nights at a resort in Bali, but the rest of the time we were there, we had no plans and no reservations!  So once we landed in Brisbane, Australia, we got a rental car (of course one big enough to fit Mr Fix It's surfboards and we were surprised to fit them into a regular mid-sized car) and headed straight out of Brisbane towards the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise.

For whatever reason, Mr Fix It didn't want to stay in Surfer's Paradise.  He had been talking about it a lot but I guess he felt it was too expensive.  So we went a little further south to a surf spot called Burleigh Beach. 

I'll share more about our hotels and such soon, but for now, I'll just share some pics of the weather and surf.  The first three days we were in Burleigh, it rained off and on was cloudy.  That didn't stop Mr Fix It from still making sure he got out in the surf for at least a couple hours.  As soon as we rented our hotel, we headed across the street to Burleigh Beach and he jumped in.

This is a pic of the beach where he would surf.  The waves prevent you from seeing that there are actually about 60+ guys out in the water.  It was like that almost every day, even on the rainy days.  It was not this nice on the first afternoon we were there (this was taken a few days later), so I just laid on a towel in my pants and a sweater and took a little nap while Mr Fix It surfed :)

Here's another pic of the same beach spot where we would go when the weather was nice.  That little building on the right was a little place with several different restaurants.  We thought about going there to eat one day but ended up deciding to head somewhere else as we thought it was a little pricey and not very enticing:

In the coming days, we drove down the coast even further south out of Queensland and into New South Wales to look for more surf spots and beaches.  Here are some pics from a few places we stopped.  As you can see, the weather was not great and there weren't a whole lot of surfers or surf.  But they were still very pretty spots and beaches.

This spot was one of the more popular places called Kirra Beach.  It is a popular place and had about 100+ guys running around trying to catch waves right up until the sunset!  I didn't even get a picture of the chaos of the surfers just to the right of where this shot was taken.

The clouds in these shots (in Austalia) are just simply amazing!

This was a shot we took while driving down to NSW. It shows how ridiculously rainy it was. I took it through the car window because Mr Fix It thought it was cool how they carved a tunnel out of this mountainside:

Even with the rain, Mr Fix It did have a few fun days of surf in Australia.  And I had one or two good days laying out on the beach, too. 

In Bali, it was a totally different story.  There was a brief shower the first night we arrived in Bali while we were out shopping and checking out the town.  But the entire rest of the week we were there, we had beautifully sunny and WARM weather.  Humid, too, but it wasn't that bad.  Here is one shot of the sunset in Bali from the last resort we stayed at in Uluwatu. 

More to come with video and such - overall, the weather and surf was pretty good in both places. We didn't mind a little rain. The trip was still relaxing. Funny thing was, we both admitted that we totally overpacked! Since we were gone for two weeks we thought we'd need several outfits, but ended up not wearing probably half of what we each brought! :)

H-moon Recap: Are honeymoon registries worth it?

I'm going to start my recaps with stories from our honeymoon.  Mostly because I won't have professional pics or video back for at least a month or so probably.  And I do have pics and video from our honeymoon.  And as I said, there is no chronological order or organization as to how the recaps will come.  :) 

Anyway, way back here I shared about our honeymoon registry which we set up through Honeyfund.  I absolutely loved the idea and friends of ours who used the site during their wedding two years ago said they got at least $1700 by offering this option to guests.  So we were totally on board.

We also set up three other registries:

Bed Bath & Beyond with about 10 items (expensive pots, a sheet set, a mini trash can and a bunch of serving ware and platters for entertaining)
Target with about 25 items that included towels, pots, crock pot, a deep fryer, miscellaneous kitchen items, a sheet set, etc.
Macy's with about 20 or 25 items that included mostly bedding and expensive bath towels and a knife set.

For the most part, we got almost everything on the three store registries.  Not every single item, but at least everything we wanted or needed.  The stuff we didn't get as gifts from the store registries we actually didn't really need anyway so we were kind of glad.  Besides, as you'll see in a minute, we got gift certificates to these stores as well so we could have bought those other items if we wanted.

But when it came to the honeymoon registry, well for whatever reason, that didn't seem to work quite as well as I expected.  The funny thing is, most people just ended up giving us cash or checks for gifts.  Even a lot of the people who gave us honeyfund gifts printed out the gift certificate and placed it with cash in a card.

The day after our wedding, we had a family get together at our home with lunch and just hanging out with our family.  They all took off about 3 pm or so and that left me and Mr Fix It with about 4 or 5 hours to clean up the house, finish packing our suitcases, shower and get the house in order to leave for the airport.  Our flight left at 11 pm the day after the wedding.  We had to run to the bank to take out some cash for the trip but decided that we'd open up our card box and go through all of the cards to see what cash and checks we may have received.  Besides, I didn't want to leave any cash or checks laying around our house for 2 1/2 weeks! 

So as I began to open the cards and make a list of monetary gifts, I began to seriously get teary eyed.  I don't know if it was exhaustion but it truly felt like complete gratitude and appreciation.  I was overwhelmed by the amount of money we received from family and friends.  Even those amazing 11th hour guests I blogged about that I found on Facebook and invited to the wedding just days before gave us ridiculously generous gifts!

I won't share specific numbers, but I can tell you that we received plenty of money to probably pay for our honeymoon in it's entirety (granted we did use air miles and about $800 worth of hotel credits through credit cards to pay for some of our travel expenses). 

Overall, the breakdown of our monetary gifts was this:

11% of the total amount we received was gift cards to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond
24% of the total amount we received was through the Honeyfund web site (cash, checks and online payments)
65% of the total amount we received was cash or checks

So in the end, out of about 95 party members (this means that out of the 245 people we invited there were about 95 total groups made up of couples/families/singles that showed up and/or gave us a gift), only about 12 of them actually used the Honeyfund site to give us a gift.  The rest were either registry gifts, cash/check or gift certificates.

As much as I loved the idea, I don't think honeymoon registries have taken off quite just yet.  Still, those who did use them to provide a gift left us great messages and truly felt like they were contributing to something fun that they had hand selected for whatever reason.

So are you planning on using a honeymoon registry?  What are your thoughts?  And please, don't use this post or question as a forum to share how you think they are tacky or rude...I don't really care about that because obviously the people who gave us over $1,000 in gifts through the site did not feel that way.

Update:  I should mention that I got 2 honeyfund gifts and at least half of our store registry items at my bridal shower a few months before the wedding!  Also, we got most of our honeyfund.com gifts on the actual day of (or even day after) the wedding.  I guess a lot of people wait until the last minute :)

How to blog live on your wedding day - or from anywhere

You may remember from my posts here, here and here that I tried to blog live from our wedding venue on our wedding day.  Well, I LOVED reading all of the fun comments on mine and other people's blogs about live udpates.  And a few of you asked how I was able to do this, so here is a super easy and brief tutorial so you can do it, too!!!

From within your Blogger administrative settings, after you've signed in:

1) Click on Dashboard
2) Under Manage your Blogs, click on the Settings button under the blog you want to post to.
3) Under Settings, click on E-mail and Mobile
4) Under Posting Options, create (fill in) your e-mail posting address. Add this e-mail address as a contact to your cell phone, PDA, etc.
5) Be sure the Publish E-mails Immediately option is selected.
6) Click Save Settings

Now, all you need to do is snap a photo on your cell phone or iphone or whatever. Send the photo as a text message to the e-mail address you selected for your Blogger posting options. You can create a post heading by typing in the Subject of your text message. The actual text that you type in the text message will be the 'text' in your blog post.

That's all there is to it. You are simply snapping photos on a cell phone and sending them as text messages to your e-mail address to post to your blog. Voila!

So fun. I only wish that I would have had more time throughout the day to share more. Once things got under way in full swing, I threw my cell phone in a bag and never checked it again the rest of the day. I wish I would have gotten my bridesmaids in on it, too because they could have easily snapped shots on their phones and texted them to the blog. Oh well. Hopefully some of you will have fun with this, too.

And honestly, it gave me something to do sometimes when I most needed to keep my mind busy (more to come on that in a future recap post) :D

A post from a long, long time ago...

I was gonna start the recaps today, but I came up with this instead.  I promise the recaps will start on Monday!  :)  But just to give you a little something to peak your interest, here are a few pics I have gotten from friend's and family's cameras from our wedding day:

All my lovely ladies hangin' on the patio just before I walked out to see Mr Fix It for the first time

From left to right:  Cousin E, Bestie L, Daughter Little Miss, 2nd Cousin T (Flower girl), Sister and MOH J, good friend and mentor D, Cousin A.

Me walking out of the bridal cottage onto the patio to see Mr Fix It for the first time.  I love this photo because it shows how gorgeous the venue is with all the landscaping, trees and how the weather was with beautiful shade and sun throughout the day.

Me and my mom, L in the bridal cottage

Getting ready to start all the picture taking.  I had quite the entourage with me with 2 photographers and a 3rd photographer who came with the videographer.  Plus there were 2 or 3 videographers with us as well.  Notice the red shoes!  So fun!

My second cousin, B.  Here she is modeling off the bib favors I gave the little guests who sat in high chairs as well as performing a fun card trick with the magician who was at her table at this time!  :)

That's all for now...more to come, now on to today's post:

I started this blog about 7 or so months ago to track all my wedding progress and planning and to follow along with fellow brides to be and such...but I had started a personal blog about 2 years ago as well.  Though I only posted like 5 times on that one.  It has sat alone with no posts for about 17 months now.  But I recently sent out the link to it to all of my family and friends so that I can share 'censored' wedding and honeymoon recaps on it there for those who attended the wedding or weren't able to make it.  (I still want to keep some things somewhat anonymous over here).

Anyway, when I revisited that blog to send out the link to friends/family, I re-read the last thing I posted on it which was January, 2009 just a week after I had gotten engaged. Thought I would share that post with all of you just because it was one that I really felt good about when I looked at my thoughts and feelings in it.  So here it is:

I guess since it's the beginning of 2009 I should write something. Well, I could start off by saying that I am officially engaged! I get to start off the new year by finally knowing that I will actually be married in this life. That's something I honestly was beginning to wonder about.

It's so funny, I lead a group of girls that are in their early 20's. Girls have come and gone from the group since I first started several years ago, but there is still a core number of 5 girls. One is recently married and the other 4 are all currently single, but men have come and gone. I listen to them sometimes talk about how they want to be married or find the right guy or how the guys they meet end up not being who they hoped they would be...and I remember feeling that so much throughout my own life. And as much as I try to tell them to be patient and trust in God's timing and not their own, I know how hard it is to wonder about what the Lord has in store for those of us yearning for romance and love.

But I also know that God taught that Adam needed a helper...and so came Eve. It was 'not good' for Adam to be alone. God knows it's not good for us to be alone, no man should be an island unto himself. But that doesn't mean you have to have a 'significant other' or spouse in order to have help or feel loved. There are so many family and friends that God brings into our lives for the purpose of relationship. I hope that every young lady (or man) out there who wonders if and when God is going to bring them that special someone will remember that sometimes the most special someones of all are the few people that you know have been in your life at the key moments when you needed someone most.

These girls (and my own daughter) are the reason I try to transform into Christ's likeness every day...because that is what will make them feel whole and complete - experiencing the love of Christ - from ANYONE.

John (the fiance) and I will be having a long engagement for many different reasons. So I still won't officially be a wife for over a year; but my cousin said something to me that really made me think about my own relationships. She told me that she knew I had been waiting for a very long time to find the right man and so she was happy that I was finally engaged. I don't think I was actually waiting a long time to find the right man...because there were other men that I hoped would be my husband or the last relationship in my life. I think that I finally have grown and matured to realize what a real Godly relationship looks like and I just trusted that God would work it out in His time. If it had been up to me, I would have been married years ago and probably divorced by now (or miserable). But instead, because I didn't force the issue, I know that at 36 years old, I have found the one person that truly respects me, communicates with me, loves me as only he can and will be in heaven with me as we will soon become a man and woman united in Christ with His blessing and leading. I will take that at 36 years old any day over being 22 and feeling like I am watching an hour glass counting down to when I will no longer be marketable as wife material.

Update:  Since writing this post about 16 months ago, my group of girls now has 6 members.  3 of us got married this year, 2 were married in the past two and a half years, one is dating a guy and discussing marriage and the other is single.  Funny how we went from a group of mostly single ladies to now being a group of almost all married ladies :)

The recaps are about to begin!!!

Ok, while I'm not fully caught up on everything I'd like to be with work and home and getting us all settled in and back on schedule, I have got most things under control now and am able to dedicate more time to blogging again.  Still not sure how often I'll get to follow along with all my fellow brides to see how you're planning is progressing, but I will do my best to get fully back on track soon!

Anyway, on this little site, I am about to begin the recaps and I promise you that I've got daily posts to keep you busy for at least a few months :)  I've already started making my little lists of things to write about.  Remember that this site was mostly created for me to journal and track my own progress, feelings and life changes so that I can eventually transfer it all to save forever.  :)  Fun stuff!  So forgive me if some of it is very personal sometimes, it's just for our little family.

Since I will have to wait a month or so for the wedding photos and video from our photographer and videographer, I will most likely start off with honeymoon recaps.  I have some pics and videos and stories to share with you.  Granted, I have to confess that I am not a very good blogger and I do not pull my camera out at every possible opportunity, but I will do my best to keep you all entertained. 

And just a side note:  I will most likely not recap in any type of sequential or chronological order.  Most likely, I will let my thoughts come to me as they will and just recap randomly about different things throughout the day and our trip.  So do not expect things to have any super organized type of order to them.  :)

But for now, get ready because I do have some things to share for sure and they will start tomorrow most likely! 

PS  I am settling in well and Mr Fix It and I are truly enjoying our time together as husband in wife in our own home now.  We have been cooking for and with each other and are adjusting as well as can be expected to new routes to work and school (for Little Miss) and to sharing a bed, kitchen table, etc.  Although we are still really struggling with what to do about the tv situation.  Mr Fix It and I have a lot of programs that we don't share enthusiasm for.  For instance, he is not doing well with having to watch Dancing with the Stars, Chelsea Lately and the Colbert Report...but he'll catch on soon enough :)

It's weird being married...

I have so much I want to blog about...but work is keeping me too busy catching up right now to take the time I really want to spend.  However, I'm hoping that by next week I will be back to my normal blogging self with full recaps and full fledged following of all I've missed on your blogs!

Being in a new home with my daughter and now husband is really weird.  It feels so nice and natural.  But then when I am by myself I feel a bit freaked out sometimes.  I feel a bit nauseous and nervous and scared.  If you take out the 2 years I spent living with my daughter's father about 15 years ago, I have pretty much been living by myself (or with a girl roommate) for like 17 years!  And being 37 and set in my ways with my own house has been a joy and a treasured lifestyle.

Even though Mr Fix It and I were together for 6 years before we got married just 18 days ago, we each had our own homes for the past 5+ years.  We had our own way of doing things and our own stuff that fit nicely into our own places.  But now, we are trying to fit a teenager and a woman into a bachelor's pad.  Don't get me wrong, it's pretty nice and it is big enough, it just seems like it doesn't 'fit' yet. 

I can't explain it.  It's scary, exciting, romantic, exhausting, nervewracking, joyful and irritating all at once.  :)

I guess I am in the adjustment phase.  It's only been 3 days that we've been together in our new place.  So far so good, but there have been little spats about where something will go or how messy my daughter's bathroom is with all her 'stuff' or how I don't like the sliding glass door open without having the screen door closed so bugs don't get in.  (Mr Fix It has always left the screen door open for his dog, but now that he's gone, there's no need.)

Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to talk about the 'uncertain' and scary part of being newly married and newly living together.  I don't really know how to organize my thoughts and feelings just yet.  I am just letting them come, praying about them and trying to be honest and gentle about how I let them spill out.  And it's hard too because Mr Fix It is dealing with the mourning and loss phase of losing his beloved pup still.  So I am trying to be sensitive to his 'mood swings' and the fact that he is fighting off a depression.  I know it sounds so strange but this dog was his child and he will definitely be feeling a since of 'aloneness' for a while. 

But the husband and wife part...just learning how to share a tv, make room for someone else in the kitchen in the morning, and figuring out how to live with someone new...someone you are madly in love with...it's pretty difficult and yet makes you happy all at the same time.

Have any of you ever felt that way?  Marriage is so weird...

Oh, and just so there's a photo thrown in here...here's a pic one of my girlfriends took on our wedding day of one of the white tigers at our venue.  So pretty!

Home safe and sound...

Well, after 21 hours of travel yesterday, we are home safe and sound in our somewhat empty house...missing our pup.  I did tell Mr Fix It after my post the other day about his dog passing and we both cried off and on throughout the last day of our honeymoon.  But we still laid by the pool, chatted with new friends and did some dinner and shopping in town before our trip home.

I have much to share from the wedding day and honeymoon and will be back at it soon.  For now, the gifts have all been opened, the house is getting settled in with me and my daughter, Little Miss joining Mr Fix It for our first night as a family.  And I will be back to work tomorrow.

Thanks for following along...I am glad to be home and ready to start sharing details about everything...and especially what I learned and will encourage you to do for yourselves so the same mistakes and missed opportunities don't happen to any of you.  :)

Hope all is well and looking forward to catching up on all my friend's blogs once I get all caught up on work and such.