Minimoonin' in San Antonio

I mentioned before that due to Mr. E's finals we would be taking our honeymoon a month after our wedding.  We both needed some time off before going back to work so we headed back to San Antonio (the destination of our first road trip together) for a little minimoon relaxation.

When I say relaxation, I do mean relaxation.  It was so nice to have the time away and have nothing planned. Right before the wedding (thanks to several suggestions from other bees) Mr. E and I decided to finally make the semi big purchase of a new Cannon Rebel T2i, so I enjoyed playing around with it on our trip.

We headed by the Alamo (celebrating 175 years) and strolled the Riverwalk.

We took the newlywed ring pictures.

And we ate...

...and ate...

..and ate some more.

Our one to-do item on the trip was to find some tiles at the Market Square for our last name.  I thought I remembered seeing letters the last time we were there, but sadly all we could find were numbers.  Since we will be starting the house hunting process soon (yay for more space and a back yard for Gypsy!), we decided to get tiles to commemorate our wedding date.

Even if you can't get away for a long time, I highly suggest getting away for a couple of nights after the wedding.  It's so amazing to just bask in the glow of your recent wedding!

Will you be taking some time off after the wedding?  Minimoon or honeymoon?

My Other Wedding

If we weren't having the wedding that we are, I have a strong feeling that we would have gotten married in the city of sin.  Vegas Baby!!

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The funny thing is, when we got engaged many of our friends asked if we would be getting married in Vegas.  This may be an odd question for most couples, but if you knew my family, you wouldn't think twice about.  You see, my family LOVES Vegas! 

Mr. E's first Vegas trip with my family 2008

Date night in Vegas with a gondola ride

Our first trip was back in 1994, I'll always remember being in Vegas and watching the OJ Simpson car chase.  Between '94 and now, I've been to Vegas close to 50 times.  Our family would go for any reason; spring break, Christmas, New Years, Brother E's 21st birthday and (related to weddings) my parents 25th anniversary renewal. My parents renewed their vows in 2002 at the Rio in the Gardenia Chapel.

For my "other" wedding, I would have added Vegas touches to the DIY paper products.

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While my parents had a lovely indoor ceremony for their vow renewal, I would probably still look for an outdoor location like Juno Garden at Caesar's Palace.

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I would want to play up the Vegas setting with photos taken on the Strip

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And of course get a Vegas themed cake.

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Maybe we could finish off our wedding day with a little luck at the roulette tables?

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If you could plan a wedding different than your current wedding, where would it be?

Minimoon Destination

We picked April for our wedding month (to coincide with our dating anniversary), which means that Mr. E will still have class and finals to finish up his spring semester after the wedding. Due to this we will be taking our honeymoon after finals are completed in the middle of May. This works out so well for us because it will allow us to spend some extra time with family and friends the day after the wedding. It will also mean we have something to look forward to!

Since we won’t be taking a honeymoon right after the wedding (and who really wants to go back to work the Monday after the big day?), we thought it would be fun to do a minimoon road trip. The destination for this minimoon road trip is.... drumroll please....

Us in front of the Alamo in 2007

the home of the Alamo - San Antonio, TX!

We picked San Antonio because:
1) It was the very first trip that we took together back in 2007 for Mr. E’s birthday
2) It’s only a 4 hour drive from Dallas, so we won’t have to spend money on plane tickets
3) There are a lot of things to do and see all within walking distance of the hotel

San Antonio is a fun and historic location and will be perfect for the couple of days we plan to get away and enjoy our newlywed status!

Will you (or did you) take a minimoon after the wedding and delay your honeymoon?

Bridal Buys

Are you an impulse buyer?  I know there have been times when I see something and feel the need to buy it.  I just can't help it sometimes!

While looking for a dress with Mama Elephant, I wondered around to check out some of the many wedding items  that they put on display for brides to buy, possibly on impulse. These caught my eye...

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Aren't they cute!!  We could always use another set of luggage tags for our bags.  Or we could always get these for our passports.

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A little part of me wanted to pick them up for the fun of it, to show off on our honeymoon.  Maybe get that elusive first class upgrade when checking in for our flight?? But the practical (for the moment) side told me there were better things to spend my money on right now.  Maybe the magical gift fairy will drop them by for us?  A girl can dream ;)

Did planning get you in the mood to make "impulse" purchases related to wedding?

Honeymoon Destination

Back in the day, I mean way back in the day well before I met Mr. E, I always dreamed of a honeymoon in Hawaii. I have never been and thought what a way to splurge and enjoy the most tropical state.

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Once Mr. E & I got engaged, we talked about the honeymoon, and he was game for anywhere I wanted to go. We didn't do the normal, groom plans the honeymoon thing, because let's face it... I'm a planner. I have planned every vacation that we have gone on together and Mr. E loves not having that responsibility. (This was actually something that was brought up in our premarital counseling and the reason why Mr. E took on the responsibility to plan a trip for us.)  So after we made that decision, I started to actually look into the price of a Hawaiian honeymoon, I thought that we could get more bang for our buck with an all-inclusive.

I was drawn to the Honeymoon all inclusive go-to of Sandals resorts. I did some research (aka lots of reading on the Honeymoon boards and the Sandals website) and decided that St. Lucia was it. You got three resorts for the price of one, or as they liked to put it "stay at one, play at three". Of course I wasn't really looking at the prices (my bad), but figured that we could work it into the wedding fund budget. The room that we want (becuase it has room service included) is more on the pricey side, but they do always seem to be having a 60 or 65% off sale. Too bad the cost of flying to St. Lucia was also on the pricey side.

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We were pretty set on Sandals, without really thinking about the cost, until I started looking into videographers. Wouldn't it be my luck that the videographers I loved the most, were the most expensive? Why can't it ever be the other way around?

To try and work the budget to our advantage (i.e. squeeze in a videographer without having to lose something else, or take on a second job) we really looked at the cost of Sandals, and decided we could go somewhere else, with just as much sun and fun but a smaller price tag.

I had heard a lot about Excellence Playa Mujeres in Mexico on the Honeymoon Knot boards, as well as Mrs. Penguin's 2 part review on Weddingbee. I liked it so much I already had it bookmarked as a place for an anniversary trip.

Living in Texas, the flights to Mexico are shorter and cheaper than it would be to fly all the way to St. Lucia. I read more about the restaurant options, and the suite options and thought "wouldn't this make a great Honeymoon?" The flights would be cheaper and we could afford an extra night or two for the cost we were looking at with Sandals. Since it is our honeymoon, we decided to splurge and get the two story rooftop terrace suite, where we would have our own pool to enjoy away from the crowds (even if it might be too cold to really swim in).

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Doesn't it look amazing?!?!? We worked with a travel agent to get the best deal possible (she will continue to look for a price drop between when we booked and 45 days before our travel dates) as well as any perks they may be able to offer. There is still the possibility to head to Sandals someday as an anniversary trip.

Did you go through several decisions before picking your honeymoon destination?

Where to go, where to go?

Back in the day, I mean way back in the day well before I met Mr. E, I always dreamed of a honeymoon in Hawaii. I have never been and thought what a way to splurge and enjoy the most tropical state.

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Once Mr. E & I got engaged, we talked about the Honeymoon, and he was game for anywhere I wanted to go. We didn't do the normal, groom plans the Honeymoon thing, because let's face it... I'm a planner. I have planned every vacation that we have gone on together and Mr. E loves not having that responsibility. So after we made that decision, I started to actually look into the price of a Hawaiian honeymoon, I thought that we could get more bang for our buck with an all-inclusive.

I was drawn to the Honeymoon all inclusive go-to of Sandals resorts. I did some research (aka lots of reading on the Honeymoon boards and the Sandals website) and decided that St. Lucia was it. You got three resorts for the price of one, or as they liked to put it "stay at one, play at three". Of course I wasn't really looking at the prices (my bad), but figured that we could work it into the wedding fund budget. The room that we want (becuase it has room service included) is more on the pricey side, but they do always seem to be having a 60 or 65% off sale. Too bad the cost of flying to St. Lucia was also on the pricey side, and Mr. E and I were thinking of doing first class since it's such a special occasion.

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We were pretty set on Sandals, without really thinking about the cost, until I started looking into videographers. Wouldn't it be my luck that the videographers I loved the most, were the most expensive? Why can't it ever be the other way around?

To try and work the budget to our advantage (i.e. squeeze in a videographer without having to lose something else, or take on a second job) we really looked at the cost of Sandals, and decided we could go somewhere else, with just as much sun and fun but a smaller price tag. So where did we decide? You'll have to hang on until next time.

Was your dream Honeymoon out of your price range?

San Diego

Well I'm off to San Diego for work this week.  It will be a week full of meetings, training and presentations but I will get the chance to see the famous San Diego Zoo.

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I'll be back at the end of the week with some great wedding posts. Don't miss me too much while I'm gone!

Premarital Counseling

Wiggles, rewind! (can anybody name that movie?)

Back in May, Mr. E and I headed to Hot Springs, AR for the first of 3 meetings with the family pastor that will be officiating our wedding. Since my parents have never been to the bed and breakfast run by our former pastor and her husband, they joined us for the drive up there for some R&R for a couple of days.

We sat down with Kristie for a couple of hours and talked about everything from the wedding basics, money, and values to religion, vows, and the 5 languages of love. It was truly amazing to really think about ourselves and what we want in our marriage aside from the one day of celebration. I won't lie, some of the questions were a little harder to answer then others, but Kristie was awesome and asked more questions to help us think deeper and truly answer questions such as what the other person is passionate about, and what our personal goals are.

There were some homework assignments to take away which included:
- Reading the 5 languages of love (discussed by Mrs. Paisley here) and making a plan to speak to each other in our languages
- Finding our Meyers-Briggs personalities
- Mapping out a financial plan
- And my personal favorite, Mr. E takes the reins and plans a get away for us

We will meet with Kristie in the fall or early winter when she is in Dallas and then one last time a couple of days before the wedding to just relieve some last minute stress and remember what we're doing it for.

And just because I love pictures in posts, here one of my parents, Kristie and us :)

Did you do any premarital counseling? What did you learn from it?

A little personal décor for the sweetheart table

Our very first trip together was a road trip to San Antonio for Mr. E’s birthday in 2007. It was a special trip for us which is why we will be heading back there for our minimoon after the wedding. During that trip I saw how much I had touched Mr. E’s life, and knew how much he made my life better.

Our first full day started with a free breakfast at the hotel followed by a cruise down the river.

After the river cruise we decided to venture out to the market square.

With the city map from the hotel in hand we headed out, and after getting lost once or twice (I stink with directions which is why one of the best Christmas presents ever was a GPS for my car from Brother Elephant) we finally arrived. The market area is full of crafts and one of the first stops we made was to a stand that would create a wooden sign out of your names for about $10. I really wanted one, and Mr. E was sweet enough to buy it for me. The seller said it would be about an hour to finish (there was a long line of orders in front of ours) which would give us enough time to check out the rest of the market area and head back to pick it up.

After checking out all of the little stands and the “mall” area, we killed some time by watching a children’s dance school performance. They were too cute!

We headed back after an hour, but they still weren't done so we had to kill even more time. Another 30 minutes and ours was finally finished! We picked blue and green for our names - see we loved those colors even back then!

We will be placing this on our sweetheart table for the wedding to add a little personal décor.

How will you decorate your sweetheart table?

Minimoon Destination

We picked April for our wedding month (to coincide with our dating anniversary), which means that Mr. E will still have class and finals to finish up his spring semester after the wedding. Due to this we will be taking our honeymoon after finals are completed in the middle of May. I think this is actually a great idea because it will allow us to spend some extra time with family and friends the day after the wedding. It will also mean we won’t be exhausted by the time we go on our honeymoon, therefore making the most out of our time instead of sleeping the first couple of days to recoup from the wedding. I’ll let you know more about our plans for the honeymoon later on ;)

Since we won’t be taking a honeymoon right after the wedding (and who really wants to go back to work the Monday after the big day?), we thought it would be fun to do a minimoon road trip. The destination for this minimoon road trip is.... drumroll please....

Us in front of the Alamo in 2007

the home of the Alamo - San Antonio, TX!

We picked San Antonio because:
1) It was the very first trip that we took together back in 2007 for Mr. E’s birthday
2) It’s only a 4 hour drive from Dallas, so we won’t have to spend money on plane tickets
3) There are a lot of things to do and see all within walking distance of the hotel

San Antonio is a fun and historic location and will be perfect for the couple of days we plan to get away and enjoy our newlywed status!

Will you (or did you) take a minimoon after the wedding and delay your honeymoon?

Engagement Pictures – Here or there?

As you might remember we booked our photographer Lynn Michelle way back in August and as part of our package we get an Engagement session. These pictures have been a motivating factor in our gym visits because we want to look good!

We plan on using an engagement picture on the save the date magnet, a canvas wrap to display at the reception (another perk in the package we purchased), the cards to let guests know where they can look up the professional pictures online after the wedding as well as a coffee table book that I will probably make through Blurb later.

Other then the all important question of what to wear for this session (I’m still not sure but plan on making at least one outfit change during the session), we need to decide where we want to have the pictures taken. Looking through Lynn’s portfolio we found an old train track area that she has shot at that looks like a great backdrop. Mom and I also thought of a small airport type area that might be great to incorporate the travel theme.

One of Lynn’s photo sessions at the train tracks (link)

I figured anything in the DFW area would work since there wouldn’t be any travel costs included in the session. Then came talk of our family reunion for this summer and the location picked was…. drum roll please…

Las Vegas Strip (link)

…VEGAS! Now my family is no stranger to Vegas… friends and co-workers have nicknamed it our second home because we go so often. Since my first trip in 1993, I believe that I have been to Vegas nearly 45 or 50 times. And you want to know what the funny thing about that is? The majority of those times were before I was even legal to gamble! Back in the day there were tons of things for kids to do.

Now you may be asking yourself, what my family vacation in Vegas has to do with our engagement pictures. Well, I’ve been weighing the options of pushing back our session this spring in Dallas and paying to fly Lynn out to Vegas to do our engagement pictures there. I’ve heard that Vegas is a photographer’s playground with all of the locations on and off the strip to shot at. Just think of some gorgeous shots in front of the Belliago water show…

Chris & me in front of Belliago in 2008

Or maybe some shots near the canals at the Venetian…

Chris & me on the gondola in 2008

Or my favorite is to find this junk yard that houses old Vegas signs…

Vegas Neon graveyard (link)

Sigh, those pictures would be amazing, but is it worth the cost to fly Lynn out there (including travel expenses and food)?

Would you pay extra to fly a photographer to a destination for your engagement session?

Dealing with time apart

Chris is a manager of a retail store and there was a slim chance that he would be able to have off at the holidays (he has worked every Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 6 or 7 years). I'm so excited to say that he will be able to get off and will be flying up to Columbus with my family for Christmas!!

We have actually only spent 1 major holiday apart since we began dating, which was the first Christmas we were together. I went to Atlanta with my family and he stayed behind in Texas to work. Thankfully Thanksgiving is held at my parents house, so he can open the store, and we just wait to eat until he gets off.

It’s hard to spend time apart from someone you love, especially when it’s during the holidays, but you always have to look on the bright side of bad situations. How do you deal with time apart from your significant other? Is it harder around the holidays?

OOO - Out of [the] office

Not just out of the office, but out of the country! We’re leaving tonight to fly to Miami and then off to the tropical islands of Trinidad and Tobago for a family vacation!

Trinidad & Tobago

My dad was born and raised on the island of Tobago and we have been planning a family trip there for as long as I can remember. Every year we tried to go, another family trip came up so it was pushed back again. Well not this year! After watching Bizarre World with Andrew Zimmern (I told you I’m a TV junkie) when he was in Trinidad and Tobago last year I put my foot down and determined that we would go in 2009.

My mom has been a couple of times since meeting and marrying my dad, but my brother and I have never been. We all used airline miles to book our flights (thanks work for all those additional trips to Ohio) and will be getting a hook up for 3 nights at a bed and breakfast in Tobago from one of my dad’s friends. We are splurging for the Hyatt in Trinidad for the last two nights.

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The best part of all is that I get to share this family experience with Chris! I used some AA vouchers for giving up my seat to get his ticket for only $150 (they normally run in the range of $700 - $800). He truly is a part of this family and will be along for the adventure! On the wedding related front – Trinidad & Tobago is the name of one of our tables, so I’ll be on the look out for a great picture op to use for the table name sign.

Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone!

Did your fiancé take any family trips with you before the big day?

Work & Family

So I'm up in Columbus for work this week and I'm actually having a good time. Unlike the 3 other times I've been here for work (Feb, Sept & Dec) the weather is nice... 80 degrees is sooooo much better then the 103 it is in Dallas today. One of the added perks of traveling for work (other then AA miles and eating for free) is that I get to see my cousin Jason and his wife Olympia.

The first time (that I can remember) being in Columbus was for their wedding in 2004. Their church wedding was wonderful as was the family style reception and dancing that followed. Mom likes the family style eating so much that we're looking at holding the rehearsal dinner at Bucca Di Beppo. It's great being able to have dinner with them when I'm up here for work, and even better to relive old and new family memories (no more lemonade, Dennis??). While there isn't any wedding planning or DIY projects while I'm up here, I did get to update Jason & Olympia (who will be an usher & in the house party for our wedding) on some recent wedding details. It's great being able to talk with someone who has gone through a longer engagement in order to save for their wedding and just reaffirms our decision to have the wedding in 2011 and start out wedding debt free.