Oh my – I cannot believe that I am back already from my honeymoon.  And I’m actually sitting in class as I write this. 

Anyway, our honeymoon was absolutely wonderful.  I spent a lot of time sleeping in, while my husband worked on his school papers and presentations. Yes, we were working while on our honeymoon.  Well, he was working – I procrastinated.

Our first three nights were spent at the Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Our first night, we discovered small tiny bugs all over our bed (after I took a nap in it!!!! EWWW!).  The hotel switched our rooms immediately at 2am.  The new room had a funny smell, but at least it didn’t have bugs!  We gambled a bit and ate a lot.  But mostly, I was recovering from the wedding and slept about 10 to 12 hours a day. 

Then we spent all day Thursday travelling to Anguilla.  Let me tell you, the grueling trip was definitely worth it.  I have many scenery pics from Anguilla because it was just so beautiful.  The food was a little better than average, but totally overpriced.  We got upgraded to a junior suite from a regular room because of our AmEx Platinum membership.  Our resort, Cap Juluca, is one of the world’s best resorts, and the Carribean’s #1 resort.  Celebrities like Kevin Bacon stay there frequently in the winter.  If you can afford the minimum of 600 a night, then I highly suggest you go stay there.  It was sooooooo beautiful!! 

Ok – I will write much more detailed reviews later, in addition to my vendor reviews.  I just wanted to say hi to all my readers!

Hello Weddingbee readers!

Yup, I am now a married woman.    The wedding itself was soooo wonderful.  I had one minor (really minor, I swear!!!) temper tantrum because people were running late and not sticking to the schedule/plan I gave them.  But otherwise, things went just fine. 

Some of my favorite moments.

• How I almost forgot to bring my husband’s wedding ring to the venue.
• My entire bridal party screaming “FREEEEEDOMMMMMMM!!!” in the middle of Washington Sq Park for some fun pictures – the men were watching Braveheart while they were getting dressed.
• All the men trying to hold me up for a picture, but failing miserably – apparently my dress was really heavy!
• All of us forgetting about bringing the veil to the venue.  I didn’t have the veil for pictures which was fine with me, but right before the rehearsal started, someone asked me “where is your veil?” and all of us just looked at each other like this:   Luckily Mrs. Bee was still at our hotel so she brought it with her. 
• The way my husband’s voice cracked a bit when he was reciting “I take you to be my wife”
• How our first dance went off very very well.  My MIL’s jaw was on the floor and all of my husband’s friends were sooo impressed.  Hell yeah!
• How one of my red sticker dots came off on my husband’s nose during the tea ceremony.
• My 7 year old cousin, Justin, dancing with all the girls, then getting in the middle of the dance floor, taking off his jacket, swinging it around and throwing to the ladies.  He was a rockstar!
• When we were rounding the tables, my brother’s table decided to SCREAM and cheer and bang on the tables when we got around.  Then of course, my parents’ table had to beat them in the screaming.  During our second round (to tell the young people about our after party), tables 1, 2, and 3 were all screaming trying to out-do one another in the loudness.  It was hilarious!

Some parts of the day ran late, because of traffic and stuff, but luckily there was enough buffer time throughout the day that we were OK.  We didn’t get to take pictures in the West Village unfortunately, but I think we got some great Times Square shots and we got great shots in Washington Square Park and Fifth Avenue.

My parents, my in-laws and everyone was very impressed with the wedding and everyone had a great time!!  I got the most compliments on my choice of minister, the bridesmaid dresses, our first dance, and our venue choice. 

A very very big thanks to my MOH, for putting up with me all day and not getting upset with me once.  A huge thanks to Mrs. Bee – she was so great that my parents’ friends wanted to hire her as a wedding coordinator for their daughters’ weddings!  And finally to the Best Man who was steady as a rock throughout the entire thing, even though he had a ton of responsibilities, like holding onto all the tip money.  And of course, thanks to my entire bridal party for being wonderful and amazing! 

So it seems like there may be some chance of rain on my wedding day.  I’ve been telling myself over and over that rain is good luck, that pictures in the rain look wonderful, a big bright umbrella will really liven up the pictures, etc.  But in my heart, I don’t want it to rain. 

Since we are staying at the W in Times Square, I thought it would be amazing to get at least a few shots of Times Square in my wedding dress.  Very New York pictures, don’t you think?  Then we were going to take some quaint pictures in the West Village.  However, with the possibility of rain, we had to think of alternate locations.

I really love the quintessential New York style, so if it rains, we are going to take pictures in Grand Central Station.  They do make for beautiful pictures, and I know my photographer has done it there before. 

But….I still dont want it to rain.

Would rain ruin your wedding day?

Yes
No

I don’t really consider myself to be that sentimental.  I don’t keep movie stubs of first dates, I don’t keep old yearbooks for memories (I barely know where my college diploma is……hmm, I should find that), etc.  I just never was good at that stuff.

But today, I looked at my counter which counts down to my wedding day, and my heart gave a little jump.  I can’t believe I’m actually getting married this month!  So I started thinking about all of our years together.  Whenever I get like this, I go to my email account.

As of today, I have 1,300 emails from Mr. Butterfly.  I have the very first email he wrote to me, which I love.  I have our first email fight on record.  I have the first silly rhyme he ever wrote me (of course, he no longer does that).  Some days, I will spend hours just reading these emails, remembering all of the things that we’ve been through together.  All of the ups and downs are in these emails…and I never want to forget them.

I guess underneath it all, I really am a sentimental fool.

What do you keep in your relationships?

Mrs. Bee wrote yesterday about our little field trip to Spa Butterfly.  I was so excited when they contacted me and gave myself a pat on the back for choosing the right bug.  Yay me.    Anyway, I thought I should write about my experience there too.  But sorry, I have no pictures.

I was pretty impressed by the space of this spa. It doesn’t look like it from the outside, but its really spacious.  They had us in a little waiting area and gave us tea.  Then I got called in for my aromatherapy massage.  I’ve had this specific massage before in other spas, but this was the first time where I got a hot pillow for my neck while they massaged my face and neck.  Oh man, when they stretch your neck, it feels sooooooo good.

Then I went out for my manicure/pedicure.  I really wanted to try their specialty, the Butterfly signature manicure and pedicure, however I had to run off to my dance lessons.  Instead, they gave me a quick mani/pedi with a paraffin wrap, which I’ve never had before.  My hands were so smooth after that.  Wow.

It’s really a shame that I ran out of time, because I really wanted to try everything they offered, including a facial.    But from what I did get to try, I would recommend this place to brides-to-be.  I think it’s really a good opportunity to pamper yourself for the wedding, because we all need a good pampering now and then, right? 

I wrote a post a while back about what to wear to a wedding.  Last night, as I was walking down to my acupuncture appointment, I noticed a dress in the window of Ann Taylor Loft.  I gotta say, their clothes have really surprised me because its pretty trendy and yet perfect for work (although, I have been told that I buy conservative clothes).  They have a great petite section too!  One of the best I’ve seen.

I will be attending Ms. Snail’s wedding in December, and I was wondering what to wear.  Also, I needed a dress for my rehearsal dinner, as well as the opening night of a Broadway Show in two weeks!  That’s a whole lotta reasons to go shopping!

This is the dress that I bought from Ann Taylor Loft

And here is the top that I bought as well

Pretty, huh?

I also bought another dress very similar to the first one above from Macy’s a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture.  It’s pretty much the same dress but with an orange layer under it instead of beige.  Can you tell that I’m very into the lace look right now?  Its soooo pretty!

Hopefully, this will give you some idea of where to shop when looking for holiday party dresses!

As the date gets closer and closer, I find myself with less and less things to do for the wedding.  Aside from confirming every vendor, I barely have anything left to do! 

At the moment, my to-do list looks like this:

• Wait for programs, escort cards, menus and table cards to be delivered. 
• Make petal cones.
• Write out the responsibilities and schedules to hand out at the rehearsal dinner for bridal party and family (I think this is very important since everyone will need to be at different places at different times, and I certainly do not want to receive phone calls asking me where they are supposed to be). 
• Confirm “must play” and “do not play” list with the DJ.
• Final hair touch up – scheduled.
• OOT gift bags for the 3 rooms that we actually booked – already bought, just need to throw into a box.
• Bathroom kits – already bought, just need to throw into a basket.
• Final dress fitting one week before the wedding.
• Create a “must take” photo list, including family portraits.
• Purchase: evening bag, dad’s tie, roses for petal cones, ring bearer’s gift, new hole punch for my story (?), Minnie/Mickey Mouse for the guest book table (don’t ask).
• Put together favors.
• Make a money/gift box.

Not too bad, huh?

When I make the petal cones and the money box, I will be posting it up.  Although, I gotta say, for the money box I will just be getting a large shoe box and covering it up with nice wedding wrapping paper.  I saw a ton of money boxes online selling for over $35, and I just could not bring myself to buy it. 

Oh, and one last item to do on my list:  get my wedding band resized.  I’m going to Fortunoff today to get it done.  Every item I check off of my list makes the wedding feel more concrete!  EEEEK – I’m getting married!!!