Honeymoon - Week 2 - Playa Del Carmen

So for the second half of our trip we went to the Occidental Royal Hideaway in Playa Del Carmen, MX, which is an all inclusive resort. Despite the rave reviews of this hotel, Chris and I were not the biggest fans. The food was pretty rough and the service lacking...but the water in Playa Del Carmen is incredibly beautiful! This was why Chris wanted to go - and he did get to go scuba diving! On this leg of the trip we did some really fun stuff - chris went diving while I went to the spa, then we went zip lining through the jungle one day! We also went swimming in an underground river in Xcaret which was pretty cool. The major downside - I got sick and wound up in the hospital and we couldn't come home when we were supposed to (had this happened at the Palmilla I would have been happy to stay an extra day on that awesome day bed)! We don't have many pics but we had you can see by clicking here

Honeymoon - Week 1 - Cabo

We spent our first week of the honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, MX, at the One and Only Palmilla. This resort was AMAZING. Chris and I have never experienced anything like it! The service was insane...we had our own personal butler who arranged everything for us. We got a yummy snack each day (i.e. marinated olives and spiced nuts, etc.), as well as a selection of fresh fruits of our choice each day, and each evening we had a turn down service for which we selected whichever aromatherapy oil we wanted burned! They lit candles each night and even did some flower art on our bed. The pool was another slice of heaven! The chairs were covered in these super comfy cushions covered in terry cloth, and you got a bolster for under your knees and your neck. They also provided you with a cool gel eye mask, a cool mister to spray if you would like and then there was the pool concierge! She came by to clean your sunglasses if needed, offer an ipod for listening, or just to drop by with a frozen fruit popsicle or little chocolate and ice cream bon bon! Need I say more?? Chris and I spent 90% of our time one the day bed on our balcony or at the pool...incredible! Click here for photos

Post-Nuptial Brunch

The morning after the wedding we invited every one to brunch in one of the gardens at the Biltmore (a/k/a Four Seasons). These are pics of the brunch and some close-ups of the wedding flowers that we used again that morning. My favorite part was the hot apple cider and warm donuts!! Click here for pics

Wedding Day

So here they are! Pics of our Wedding Day. It was everything that Chris and I imagined and more. Everything was perfect...literally. Not a single thing went wrong except that the fires in CA caused a massive amount of ash and soot to roll in just an hour before the wedding! So, everyone got a good dusting at the ceremony and my dress looked like a bus ran over it..lol. But hey, he still married me :) And, after the dress was bustled it wasn't too bad at all. Hope you enjoy looking at the pics of our day :) Click here

Welcome Dinner

On friday night before the wedding we held a Welcome Dinner for all of our guests at a pavilion on the beach. These are pics of us setting up the venue and of the party. Everyone had a fun time! Click here for photos

Rehearsal

These are pics from our ceremony rehearsal. Afterwards we all had lunch together on the patio at the Four Seasons then we headed off to the welcome dinner location to set up everything for the evening. Click here for pics

Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties

Chris and the guys went ATVing and dirt biking during the day on Thursday while the girls went to the spa to relax. Everyone had a great time (see the pics for Chris's road rash when he fell..twice! Later that day the guys went to this house (more like a mansion) owned by a father and son that was filled with memorabilia...it was insane. Unfortunately I cannot post the pics they took (they agreed not to) so I could only put on a pic of a view from this dude's house and a pic of Chris in the guy's Porche. They saw and touched everything from the original lightsabers from Star Wars, Babe Ruth's game bat, Kareem Abdul Jabar's personal sports collection, a car from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...I could go on and on. Click here for photos

Pre-Wedding Hangout

So our pics are finally ready to post on the blog and here they are! These pics are of us, our bridal party and family during the days just prior to the wedding (and some from the day after). Some of our most memorable times during that week were all the fun times we got to share with our bridal party who we rented a house with us together in Santa Barbara. We all had so much fun together that we have been talking about doing an annual vacation together each year! Of course, we don't know if we can go without In-N-Out Burger (which we ate numerous times) so we may have to limit our vacation options to CA, NV and AZ! For pics of the week click here

Wedding Photos Update

Hi All. Just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about the wedding pic posts. We had all of our friends photos on Chris's laptop and it crashed so we have to go gather them again from people's memory cards. I hope to have them up by the end of next weekend. Our professional photos are also done! I am just waiting for those. They are taken in film (not digital) so I can't post all of them but our photographer will be putting a slideshow on his website that I will give everyone a link to. So come back soon!!

We Did It!!

So we're finally hitched!! It's been 18 days since our amazing destination wedding in Santa Barbara. The whole week was everything we hoped it would be and more!!! Spending so much time with all of our friends and family was so great. Our honeymoon.... well, it started out incredible in Cabo San Lucas and then ... Mexico reared it's ugly head in Playa Del Carmen. I'm still sick, laying here at home on the couch :( Today is the first day I have been able to even check my e-mail. Let me just say that going to a hospital in MX was quite the experience. Anyway, I wanted you to all know that we are home safe and I will be sorting through all the pictures of the wedding weekend and honeymoon and putting up a bunch of posts in the next couple of days. This pic of the exchange of the rings is just a little peek ;)