Hello Hawaii

Since it took me a year to finally write about my wedding, do you think it will take two to write about my honeymoon?  I'll spare you all the details, but I'll highlight a few things in the next couple of posts.  After the post-wedding brunch, we went back home for a little while to pack some stuff up and we were both in serious need of a nap, but also too excited to sleep much.  I also will confess, I got briefly depressed.  I was really sad that my wedding was over.  All that planning and excitement and suddenly, it was done.  I joked that weddings should last longer.  Anyway, I eventually cheered up again--the thought of going to Hawaii helped.  Did a little laundry and my husband had some last minute errands to run.  We spent the night at his parents house because they live much closer to the airport than we do and they were driving us in the next day.  So we drove down to their house that evening, ordered pizza, ate dinner, and then it was time for some much needed sleep as we had a fairly early flight.  The next day we flew to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  One of the airports where we changed planes was so tiny, but it was nice enough, and despite its size, it had decent food.  We were very excited to land in Hawaii, but also tired as despite the fact that you're just sitting on a plane and not doing a whole lot it is still tiring (or maybe it was the lack of sleep from the previous nights).  Our hotel room was really nice, it had a little kitchen area, small sitting area outside, and an indoor sitting area.  I tried to post pictures, but I can't seem to get them off of Shutterfly and on here, despite a half hour of trying.  That'll teach me to wait a year to try to put pictures on my blog!
We had scheduled a tour of Oahu for the next day.  We enjoyed the tour and got some nice pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them mainly because I can't load them.  Here is one nice view from a stop on our tour.

My husband had one of the best meals of his life on that tour--he still talks about it a year later.  I would show you a picture of the meal, but alas I can't get that to transfer here either.  I forget the name and he is at work, but it's something like loco moco and it includes  rice, a hamburger, egg, gravy, etc all on a bun.  I didn't have one.  I did enjoy a pineapple whip later in the day at the Dole factory.  It's kind of like soft serve ice-cream.    I also tried some macadamia (sp?) nuts, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.  We even bought some to bring home.  All in all it was an enjoyable first full day in Hawaii.

Party Time!

The limo ride to the reception was a little crowded, but fun and entertaining.  All the bridesmaids and groomsmen were there (and of course my new husband and me).  We got there and nearly immediately began posing for pictures.  It got to be a bit much.  I was starving and ready to be done.  I had originally thought it would be nice to get some pictures by the gazebo and by this nice bridge at the reception site, but we were just so done with posing for pics and we were starving so when the photographers said we could be done if we wanted, we didn't push for any more.  Instead we ran in, joined the bridal party for apps and drinks and very soon it was time for introductions.  I won't bore you with all the details of the reception.  It's true what everyone says:  it goes by fast, you don't eat a lot. The introduction and first dance were fun.  I ate the first course, but then I was so excited I didn't eat much more.  Plus I wanted to get around and say hi to everyone at all the tables before it got too late. That took a while, but we got it done.  The few bites of food I did have were good and people to this day are still talking about how good the food was and how much fun they had dancing.  The dancing was great.  I had so much fun, but it went by so fast!  My maid of honor and matron of honor did a really nice job with their speeches.  Overall, people seemed to have a great time!  I know I did.  And my husband did too.  The last hour went a little slower, but it wasn't long until it was all over. My maid of honor hosted a small after party and we went to that for an hour or an hour and a half, but we were getting pretty tired by that point (Remember how little I slept the night before?  And the night before that my brother woke me up with his 3 am arrival and I had to be up for work at 6:30 am so sleep was definitely lacking in my life).  Our hotel room was so nice.  I wish I had more time to spend there.  The next morning we had a nice post-wedding brunch.  About 30 people came.  And then it was time to pack up and head home.      

My Wedding Ceremony

I don't think I can accurately describe my wedding in a blog post.  I'll give a few highlights.  When I walked into the church, my brother greeted me, told me I looked beautiful (so not how he usually speaks to me) and suddenly, I was bawling.  And nervous and exited and I had to go the bathroom.  It's rather embarrassing at my age to have to have someone help you in the bathroom, but my mom came with me and held my dress and told me to stop crying. (Mothers!  She's usually more sensitive!)  I couldn't help it.  I cry easily so I was surprised I lasted that long without tears.  When I was done in the bathroom, the priest wanted all the bridesmaids and my parents to gather for a quick blessing.  I was told again not to try and I assured the priest they were happy tears, but I just couldn't control them.  And then after a quick blessing, we lined up and the wedding party walked down the aisle.  And suddenly it was my turn to walk down with Mom and Dad.  I was still crying, but I also had a huge smile on my face. I was trying to take it all in and see everyone as I walked down the aisle.  I almost forgot to look at the groom!  The priest did a nice job, the ceremony was a bit long, but it went well.  I wasn't in any rush anyway.  I was enjoying the moment.  I kept looking around and smiling and thinking this is really my wedding day, these people are all here for us.  :-)  It was surreal in some ways, wonderful, but surreal.  The priest surprised us a bit with his homily.  It was pretty funny.  He had asked us to write a paragraph about how we met and why we liked each other.  We both put a few funny (but true!) comments in what we wrote, but we didn't realize he was going to read them!  So most of our guests had a good laugh!  I shed a few more tears, but Kate had tissues on hand for me.  There were a few minor glitches here and there, but nothing major (I tried to get my flowers at the wrong time--too soon, and I looked at the priest and I was supposed to look at my husband--the priest called me out on that--I thought you were supposed to look at the speaker, he goes you're not marrying me, look at him). Then back down the aisle, a few more pics, and out a secret exit 'til the crowd departed, then they ushered us back in for more pictures before we went to the reception.   

T Minus 4 hours

Shortly after we got home from make up, my hairdresser called to see if I was ready for her to come over.  In the mean time, my aunt and cousin stopped by for a minute to say hi.  My hairdresser came by and began the process of making my hair look good.  A little later, my mom came by to help me get ready.  And before I knew it the photographer, videographer, one of the florists, and my bridesmaids were here.  My hair was done, photos had been taken, the dress was on,  and then it was time to check that everything was cleaned up and put away (I was staying at the hotel that night and wouldn't be back 'til the next day).  A side note on the florist:  Forever ago, I think I mentioned some flower drama.  We used the included centerpieces, but one of the groomsmen has a girlfriend who does flower arrangements so she did all the flowers for the wedding party and I'm biased, but I think she did a really nice job. Back on track here, suddenly, I was on the look out for the limo.  I got a little nervous because it was late, but he made it and then it was time to board the limo bus--our wedding party was too big for a regular limo, more pics and video, and off we went to my parents' house (they live around the corner from the church) for family pictures.  The limo ride felt long and short--if that makes any sense.  I was excited and nervous, but glad to be with my girls.  (Mom had gone back home to finish getting ready so it was just my bridesmaids and me.)  Now my home is approximately 10-15 minutes away from the church.  We did not get any rain, but apparently, it rained there (and at my parents') a few min before we got there, but it had stopped by the time we were there.  We were all like, why is the ground wet?  (We're smart, huh?)  We took some pictures at my parent's house.  Pics with my parents, pics with my grandmother, and pics with the fam and girls.  My brother couldn't be there because he was a groomsman so he was at the church.  So we all went back to the limo and rode the approximately 2 minute ride to the church, where everyone was allowed out except for me.  I have to say it was a little weird to be sitting there all alone watching everyone.  I was kind of excited to see friends/family arriving, but it was weird to not be allowed to go say hello.  And then a couple of minutes later, they let me out and it was ceremony time.  

The Morning of the Wedding aka Don't Look Now!

When I finally gave up on falling back to sleep, Kate came in and we hung out for a bit, then she went down the street to get a coffee.  I am not a coffee drinker so I had nothing to offer.  I tried to fall back to sleep when she was gone, but no luck so I finally got up.  I don't remember everything that happened that morning.  I know there was some TV watching, some chatting with Kate, texts and calls, Facebook (so strange to see people posting about me on Facebook), and breakfast.  And it wasn't long before it was 12:00 and time to go get my make up done and drop off the last minute stuff at the reception (the make up place was in the same building as my reception so that made it quite convenient).  The building is also a hotel and my future in-laws, the groomsmen, and my husband to be were all staying there.  I didn't think any of them would be around, but it was almost noon and I suspected they'd had a late night so they could very well be congregating for lunch.  I made Kate go first to check to make sure the coast was clear (you know because the bride and groom aren't supposed to see each other on the day of their wedding until the actual wedding).  She said we were good to go.  I spotted some groomsmen down the hall, but no fiancé.  So I started to walk in--WAIT!  He's there, hurry, hide!  Okay, I don't think those were her exact words (it was 11 months ago), but you get my drift.  I went and hid behind a pole.  Then my in-laws popped up out of nowhere and my future father-in-law and wanted to know what I was doing hiding behind a pole.   It was kind of funny.  Eventually, the coast was cleared--for real.  I dropped off the stuff I needed to drop off (my computer for a slideshow) and I sent Kate to give Mike his wedding gift from me.  Kind of ironically, we got each other similar gifts.  The night before he gave me a necklace and I gave him a new charm for a necklace because his broke a while back. 
Then it was off for the possibly nerve-wracking process of having my make up done.  It didn't end up being so bad this time.  Thankfully, there was water proof make up this time so my eyes did not look crazy!  No baseball or raccoon look this time.  And the make up lady was so patient with me as she knew I had issues with eye make up, but she said I did much better.  She did a great job and then it was back home to get my hair done.  Only a little over 4 hours until wedding time! 

Pictures

So I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my old phone onto my computer from the rehearsal dinner.  So here they are...

In case you were wondering, this is what approximately 175 mini loaves of bread look like.  (We dropped these off at the reception the day before the wedding.)  Below are pictures of friends and family at the Rehearsal Dinner. 

The Night Before the Wedding

With a title like that I feel like I should be rhyming, Twas the Night before the wedding, and the bride couldn't fall asleep.  She was so tired, she wanted to weep.  She just settled down for a nice summer's nap, but no sleep would come, she could have probably gone and run many a lap.  Okay, I'll stop before it gets any worse...
I don't know if anyone is even still reading my blog since I've been out of blog land for SOOOO LONG.  It wasn't always on purpose.  True some nights, I just didn't feel like blogging.  I preferred to read a book or watch tv, but other nights, I really couldn't blog.  Other nights I had a TON of work to do.  Then I was away for one week in April, which at the rate I'm going, you'll probably hear about next April.  Then work got busy in late May through the end of June and my computer broke AGAIN!  So I finally had free time to blog (time off in June) and NO computer.  Such is life, right!  Then I just hasn't blogged in so long that I wasn't in the mood, but here I am again.  I know I told you I would pick up from my rehearsal dinner and post pictures, but the pictures were saved on my old computer (which broke ages ago) and I'm just too lazy to hook up my scanner and scan in the pictures.  I even spent the past half hour trying to get them from my old phone to my computer. No luck!  So I tried to e-mail them to myself, well, the e-mail on my phone keep freezing and closing.  :-(  So if it ever works, I'll post in a future blog, but for now my apologies.  That'll teach me to wait 5 months to finish a blog! 
I did my best to mingle with people.  It was good practice for the wedding--trying to get around to see everyone!  I think I did fairly well though.  My brother was quite the schmoozer too.  He hadn't seen some of my friends in years, but he made the rounds, met the in-laws, met the friends he didn't know, etc.  I must have done quite well because I LOVE dessert and I didn't get any because I never saw them bring out the dessert tray because I was chatting.  Anyway, I thought dinner went well, the food was good (well, one person didn't like it, maybe two, but I THINK and HOPE everyone else did, many people told me they liked it so I hope they were telling the truth, but why go out of your way to tell someone the food is good if it's not? Wouldn't you just not say anything?  So maybe it was just that one guy).  I think my parents secretly enjoyed hanging out with my friends because they used to see some of them like every week, but now that we're all grown up, they hardly ever see my friends any more and so it was nice for them.  And they finally met my friend Natalie who they'd never met before because she lives far away (and they still sing her praises!).  I think it was a long day for my grandmother, but she seemed to enjoy meeting everyone.  I was thrilled she was able to make it because she lives a plane right away and has had a few health issues over the years so I was a happy girl to have good friends and good family surrounding me.  I wrote a little thank you speech for the evening as a prequel to the gift giving.  I think it went mostly well, despite my fear of public speaking.  I rushed a bit to make it not as long, but I mentioned everyone who was there--even the spouses of people in the wedding--they got a kick of that.  So yeah, and then way too quickly the dinner was over and people began leaving.  I had  great time though!  The groom and groomsmen all had big drinking plans and some of the girls had families to get home to so we were done before 10:00. Thankfully, I did not have to go home alone. My maid of honor wanted to stay with me.  When she first offered, I thought wouldn't she rather stay in a comfy bed in her mom's house instead of my semi okay futon in the guest room, but in retrospect I'm glad I had a good friend to hang out with me the night before the big day.  So after dinner, Kate and Natalie came over.  Natalie had never been to my house before (remember she lives far away) so I made sure the house was clean.  :)  (Okay, that wasn't the only reason, I knew people would be coming by and of course there'd be picture taking and bridesmaids getting ready so I was extra careful about cleaning the place up).  Anyway, we had a great visit and Natalie even blogged about it.  If I were smart like her, I'd put a link to her blog here, but I'm not tech savvy.  :-)  She left a while later and Kate and I hung out for a bit, checked some last minute wedding stuff, and then started to watch 27 Dresses (or what some people refer to as the story of my life, but that's a story for another blog post, maybe next time I have a brain freeze on blog topics, I'll blog about that).  I figured if we were going to watch a movie, it should be a good wedding one.  I had a plan to watch a bunch of wedding chick flicks in the days leading up to my wedding, but I was too busy to watch many.  I started getting tired so I called it quits part way through the movie and went to bed, BUT I got VERY LITTLE SLEEP.  I was tired so why couldn't I sleep?  I even got up around 1am or so to see if I had Benadryl or Nyquil or something to help me sleep.  No luck!  I kept looking at the clock, closing my eyes, not falling asleep.  I don't think it was nerves because although I get nervous about everything, I didn't feel that nervous.  I was excited, but I was tired too so I don't know if I was too excited or too nervous or what!  I think I only got about three hours of sleep, but much to my amazement I was NOT exhausted at wedding time and I did not have big bags under my eyes--thank goodness!  And all of a sudden it was my wedding day!