Honeymoon Recap: Progreso, Mexico

This one will be photo-heavy, because we took over 150 pics at the ruins.  I have to say, although I haven't been to a ton of places, I have seen some interesting things and have traveled a bit.  But this place, hands down, was the coolest place I have ever been!  This is a photo of us in front of the temple - the largest structure at our part of the ruins.  I assume it's the largest structure in all the ruins, but we only saw one part of them, so who knows.  It was certainly an impressive structure, whether it is the largest or not.

We rode a bus for 2 hours to get to the ruins.  I took some shots from the window of the bus to show a little of Progreso.  Here they are:

We arrived at the ruins and Jon took over the camera.  He took some amazing shots during our tour and the "free time" we were given afterwards.  Here they are: 

After the tour, we got back on the bus and drove two hours to get back to the boat.  We made it about 30 minutes before the boat was scheduled to leave.  We went to our room to drop off the stuff we purchased (a blanket, a Mayan calendar wall hanging, and some magnets for family members) and got ready for dinner.  It was a great day.

Honeymoon Recap: On the Boat

Tuesday was our first "sea day," and we took full advantage of the time to relax.  We spent the entire day either sitting on the deck in the sun with our books, sampling food in the dining rooms, or people-watching in several of the various places available for that purpose.  We needed that day to relax, and it was heavenly.  See our happy feet and the beautiful water? This was the highest point on the boat that you could just hang out and read.  I started the first book of the "Mistborn" series and Jon worked on the newest "Sword of Truth" book.  Since we haven't had a moment to just sit and read, or sit and talk, or sit and do nothing in about 8 months, this was exactly what we needed!  We also planned our next day, the first day in Mexico.  We were to go to the Mayan ruins outside Progreso, Mexico.

Honeymoon Recap: Getting on the boat

If anyone has wondered if a cruise would be a fun way to vacation, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  After our wedding ceremony, we went home and grabbed our suitcases, changed clothes, and hit the road for New Orleans.  We didn't really stop to eat anything at the reception (except wedding cake, of course!) so we were starving by that time.

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel and had dinner on the way to our hotel in New Orleans.  This photo is of Jon at the restaurant on our wedding night.  You can see his wedding ring on his finger!

We got to the Hilton at 10:30 pm and got to our room on the 18th floor.  The view was really beautiful.  After a great night's sleep (really, this room was soooo nice) we got up later than we usually do and headed out to play around in New Orleans for a few hours before getting on the boat.  I took some photos of the Riverwalk and some other New Orleans sights.

We walked around the Riverwalk for awhile, and I told him about all the trips to New Orleans that we took when I was in high school.  He had been there a few times too, but not nearly as much.  I think we were obsessed with New Orleans when I was in school.

We ate at a sports bar - we sat outside because it was such a pretty day.  It was Halloween, so the servers were all dressed up in costumes.  After we finished lunch, we walked back to the car and punched in the address for the cruise terminal on my GPS.  We drove around for a little while because the GPS seemed to be telling us to drive somewhere we couldn't drive.  After asking for directions, we realized it was actually telling us the right way, we just didn't see the road.  We found it and went on our way.  Getting onto the boat was actually a pretty easy process.  We showed our boarding passes and passports and got right through the line.  It was maybe a 30 minute wait to get through security, where we showed everything again and they x-rayed our carry-ons.  Then we went to our desk and got our cards that would allow us to do anything and everything on the boat.  I loved those cards, really I did.  It's so smart to do it that way - nobody carrying a bunch of cash around or lots of credit cards.  We locked our wallets up in the safe when we got to our room and never had to touch them.

We were accosted by the first of many (many, many, many) photographers right after we got our cards.  When we looked at the photo later, we decided we both looked exhausted.  And then we boarded the boat.  This boat.

Married!

I have a whole recap of the wedding and honeymoon planned, but it may take awhile to get to it.  For now, know that everything was wonderful and perfect and I wouldn't change a thing!  And we are so happy to be married and done with all the wedding stuff!

Look for some back-dated posts about wedding and honeymoon stuff, as well as some how-to guides for our decorations and other DIY stuff we did for the wedding.  I should have content for the next couple of months just with all that!  I'll give you a teaser photo - no pro pics yet, but some family members took a few shots.  Here's my favorite.

Wedding Day Recap

I spent the night with my parents, in my old bedroom.  When my alarm went off, I forgot for a second where I was and promptly fell off the bed.  After checking for broken bones and bruises, I ran into the kitchen, where my parents were already busy at work on reception food.  It was WEDDING DAY!  I sat in the kitchen with them and made ham sandwiches (Hamlets) for the reception.  We had purchased black forest ham and honey ham, and some really delicious rolls to put the ham in.  We also had mustard and mayo, and slices of cheese.  So my dad and I did the sandwiches while my mom made the cheesecake tarts.  (Titus Tarts - not made of people.)  We talked while we worked, and my parents were very encouraging and positive about the marriage and about the wedding itself.  While I knew it was right and had absolutely no doubts whatsoever, knowing they "approved" still meant a lot.

We had a few things to finish up at the theatre that morning, so we planned to meet there and finish everything up.  I was fine with seeing him before the ceremony, as long as he didn't see me all dressed up and looking awesome.  So wearing jeans and my "bride" t-shirt, I went up to the theatre and we finished up all the small details we needed to do before the wedding could happen.  We went upstairs and started getting dressed about an hour before the ceremony.  I had my sound guy (brother-in-law Rob) start the pre-ceremony music and we started getting ready.  It was so much fun getting dressed and made up with the girls.  Our photographer came up and took some photos of the girls helping me with my hair and make-up, and then she took a few shots of me in my dress in the dressing room.  I'm looking forward to seeing how those turned out.  She took some detail shots of the dress, jewelry and wrap too, and I'm sure those are going to be gorgeous!

It was 2 p.m. before we knew it, and I wasn't quite ready.  Everyone went downstairs and I followed.  At the last moment, I realized I forgot my bouquet.  Hope ran back upstairs (in her heels) and got it for me.  She totally saved the day!

We all walked down the aisle to "Concerning Hobbits" from Lord of the Rings.  I've loved that piece of music since the first movie came out, and it was important to me to walk to it.  I have honestly never felt so beautiful or so happy in my life.  I think I floated rather than walked down the aisle.  Luckily, I didn't trip.  Walking with my dad, walking toward Jon, who was standing there looking more nervous, happy, and handsome than I have ever seen him, was a moment I hope I never forget.  Words cannot describe it.  I wish they could, because I want to have a record of this memory and I don't ever want to forget that feeling. But I'm at a loss as to how to describe it.  I know I couldn't stop smiling.  :)

We stood there while my cousin Bill said a few words, and then he went into the ceremony that included words we chose together beforehand.  The words meant so much because we picked them together, and they were exactly how we felt about the moment.  When it was time to recite our own vows, we got the scrolls we had written them on and began opening them.  But the seals were too good and it took a minute or so to actually break the seals.  I got mine finished first, but Jon was supposed to do his vows first, so I wanted.  It was a nice ice-breaking moment and we were grateful for it.  Jon's favorite moment was when the preacher offered his pocket knife to help.

His vows were... perfect.  I've never in my life had anything so beautiful spoken to me.  And funny.  He has such a fantastic sense of humor!  I almost felt bad that my vows were all sappy without much humor at all.  Although they did have some funny moments.  I'll post them in a separate post a little later.

The rings were beautiful and exchanging them was a nice moment.

Then it was time for the sand ceremony, which I was looking forward to and also kind of dreading.  My mom was to sing a song during it, and I really didn't want her to start crying while she was trying to sing.  I didn't want her to be embarrassed by that - I would have been fine with her starting to cry, but she wanted the song to be perfect and if she had cried it wouldn't have been perfect in her eyes.  But she didn't cry.  I was so proud of her for holding it together!  We poured the sand veeeeery slowly and managed to finish just before the end of the song.  We kind of softly talked to each other during that time and laughed a little as well.  That was pretty awesome too.  And we have a cool jar full of colored sand to display!

After that, the ceremony was pretty much over.  It only took 25 minutes and was hopefully entertaining enough that people didn't get bored.

We took lots of pictures after exiting the theatre (to the them from Pirates of the Caribbean.)  Lots of different combinations of people, and then some of just us.  We also had a little sword fight, which the photographer enjoyed taking some pictures of as well.  I can't wait to see those!

After the photos, we entered the theatre again, where people were already eating and having some fun.  We did our first dance, and about halfway through, I invited everyone else to join us.  Quite a few couples came out and danced, including Hannah and Noah, which was adorable.  I danced with Noah too, after he danced with Hannah for awhile.  I can't wait to see that photo too!

We then cut the cake and did the photos with the glasses, but then it was time for the photographer to leave.  So we just hung out after that, eating cake and talking with our friends and family.  People started leaving at that point, so we hung around until everyone left and then we helped my parents pack some things up and left ourselves.

It sounds a little odd, the way things ended, but it was perfect for us.  Our friends stayed around longer than family members, so we got a chance to hang out with them for awhile.  And we managed to get on the road earlier than we expected, which was also pretty nice.

So that was the wedding day!  I'll have pictures soon, so look for those.  And once we have the photos, I will do some little step-by-step things describing how we DIY'd some of our decorations and things.

Wedding Weekend Recap: Saturday

Jon and I woke up at 6:30.  We got the lasagna ready and in the oven.  This was actually a pretty fun activity - we love cooking together.  When they were ready, we took them out of the oven and put them in the refrigerator to take with us later.  It was time then to take the dogs to the vet to be boarded for the next couple of days.  We took them down there and said goodbye, and then got breakfast from McDonalds for us and our house guest.

While eating breakfast, I called the tux place to make sure Jon's tux was ready for him to pick up, and then paid for it over the phone so I could go ahead and get to the theatre.  We loaded some stuff into my car and I drove to Fairhope.  Jon and Russell got Jon's SUV loaded then and came after me.  When I got there, Chris was already there, as was Michelle, one of my awesome theatre friends.  She's the one who did the head pieces for the wedding, and she's a master gardener, so she was there that morning to plant some flowers and bushes around the grounds of the theatre.  She set up the head pieces in the dressing room and they looked gorgeous!


We got right to work, first unloading stuff from my car.  Nicole arrived and asked what I planned to do with my hair color - because we had talked about that previously.  I told her I hadn't had time to do anything yet, but that I had a box of hair color that I was planning to use the next morning.  She was having none of that.  She called Timothy, our friend from theatre, who happens to be an awesome hairdresser, and got me an appointment for later that day.  She even paid for it, which was so nice of her!  I had Timothy match my roots and dull the reddish color I had put on there previously.  He also put in some highlights, something I've never had before.  It looked so nice!  My hair took two hours, so by the time I got back, the arch was decorated, the tables were in place and pretty much finished, and people were attending to minor details.  Jennifer and Chris worked on the arch while I was gone and I think it turned out really beautiful!  We had freshly-cut ivy, lights, blue flowers, a big bow, and six peacock feathers!  They made it beautiful and became friends too!

Jonne Thornton, another theatre friend, had set the lights and instructed Rob (my brother in law) on how to use the light board and the sound.  Jon and Rob ran through the lights with me, and it all looked great.  My mom had also practiced her song a few times and felt more comfortable.  She had previously asked if she could sing it from the light booth because there was a microphone up there, but I really didn't want her to have to do that.  She did it without a mic at all, on the stage where she belonged!

We put the finishing touches on everything, and by that time it was time for the rehearsal.  People started arriving for that, and we got started.  We talked through what was going to happen, then we walked through it once.  Then we went through it with the music, but the timing was wrong.  I had everyone do it again, only slower, and that worked much better.  After making sure the timing was okay with the processional, we walked through the rest of the ceremony, spotting minor problems along the way and correcting them.  It went very well and I was really happy with almost everything - the lights were a little off - they didn't light enough area.  Luckily, Jestina (who did our wedding video and knows everything about theatre tech!) arrived and fixed the light plot to give us some more light in the important spots!

After we finished with the rehearsal, we brought in tables and chairs to have the rehearsal dinner.  We served homemade lasagna, (that my mom took home and warmed up prior to the dinner) salad, cookies, and various drinks.  We all sat down to eat and enjoyed some time together.  We gave some gifts out to the bridal party and parents, and then we finished dinner and just relaxed for a bit.  We removed the tables and chairs and finishing up some final touches for the next day, some of us went over to McSharry's, a local Irish pub, for a low-key, co-ed bachelorette party.  It couldn't have been a better evening.  We all just sort of hung out and chatted.  So many of our friends didn't know each other, so it was cool to watch them interact and get to know each other.  They are all friends on facebook now!  lol.

I stayed with my parents that night, so after spending a few hours out with friends, I drove over there.  I slept in my old bedroom that night "for the last time as a Havel" as my mom said.

Wedding Weekend Recap: Friday

I spent most of the day Thursday and Friday cleaning up the house and getting ready for guests.  On Friday afternoon, Chris came over and we had a great chat.  We caught up on each other's lives and had a wonderful time just remembering things from the past and telling each other about the present.  It was so nice to have a few moments of calm before the crazy weekend really started.  Jon and I made lasagna for the rehearsal dinner, so my job on Friday was to stir the sauce.  It had to be done every 30 minutes for about 7 hours, so I set the timer each time to make sure I did it right!  Poor Chris - he had to deal with me jumping up every 30 minutes to stir the sauce!

Jon's bachelor party was that day, so he was gone most of the afternoon.  After it was over, some of the guys came over and we grilled hamburgers and just sat around and talked for awhile.  Jen came over too, and we ended up sitting on the couch while the guys sat at the table.  It was good to catch up with her too!

At about 10:45 that night, Jon realized he hadn't picked up his tux yet.  He had a moment of panic, but we decided to pick it up the next day and the crisis was averted.

The previous day, Jon's work gave him a party and gave us some great gifts.  Here's a photo of two of those gifts, the really pretty wall sconces!  We put them up the day we got them! And check out the extremely clean living room!  :)