the LOST finale

Since the finale of like my all-time favorite show EVER - LOST was on a week ago today, I figured I'd throw out my two cents on what the finale was all about and how it 'ended.'  I have followed this show faithfully for all six years...even created bible studies around it's themes and characters for my group of college girls this past year.  So here's my thoughts:

LOST - my take: They all died (most on the Island) at some point. The alternate reality of the 'flash sideways' (that showed what would have happened had they landed safely and never crashed and how their lives would have still interconnected) was the 'fake reality' they created for themselves to figure out how to realize they are dead and get back to one another. I don't like the idea of 'purgatory' for that so I'm not calling it that.

I think it was summed up perfectly in what Jack's dad said "You all needed this place to find one another. The time you spent with these people was the most important time in your life." So once they all were brought together (by Desmond) and realized that they were dead and remembered the time (and death) they all had on the island, they were able to all reconnect and live together in eternity.

Basically, they were living lonely sad depressing lives before the crash and thought they could do it on their own. But the crash (and the island) brought them together to learn to love someone else and ask for help and be a family. So they didn't have to end up alone in the end. The show was mainly about relationships with the underlying aspects being faith vs. science, reality vs. alternate-realities, truth vs. myths, good vs. evil, etc. So the Dharma initiative was just a side story to keep you interested with strange happenings that dealt with the powers of the island. It wasn't meant to be a 'Must be answered' part of the show - as much as we wanted that. :)

My guess is that Jack thought that Kate, Sawyer, etc got off the island on the plane but I believe that the plane never actually made it and they crashed (which is how they all ended up dead). I also believe you didn't see people like Miles, Charlotte, Daniel Farraday, Frank (the pilot), etc in the church because they were not the main characters of the show that were on the original plane crash and formed the ties with the 'main' characters. That's why people like Libby and Shannon came back. Michael and Walt were probably not there because they didn't die (on the island or at all). The only one I truly questioned was Penny...she was never on the island and didn't really die (that we know of)...so it was a little out of sorts for her to be in the church.

I know I rambled, but I think that's a good take on it from what I have seen and interpreted. And I have been a faithful follower for SIX years now! :)

H-moon Recap: Nothin' to do

Is it wrong to go halfway around the world just to lay by a pool or on a beach?  Cuz that's mostly what I did.  Considering we flew almost 35 hours in total on planes between Southern California, Brisbane Australia and Bali, Indonesia, we didn't do much of anything while we were there.  And definitely did not do a lot of touristy things...no visiting the hustling bustling city of Brisbane.  No ferry trips to the many islands off the coast there (something I actually wanted to do was visit Moreton Island but hopefully we'll make another trip back there one day).  No theme parks or the famous Australian zoo.  Just layin' around pool side and shoppin' in the malls in Australia and the streets of Kuta in Indo. 

Doesn't it look like that fountain is trying to pee on me?!?

We slept a lot!  A lot more than I do at home.  In fact, in Australia, we would go to bed at like 8 or 8:30 at night.  Then we'd wake up in the middle of the night at like 3 or 4 in the morning...have some fun messin' around (wink, wink) and then turn on the tv and watch Good Morning America from the States (one of the only things we could get on the tv at that time of the morning in Australia).  Then we'd nap from like 5 to 7 am and get up for the day. 

Funny thing was, in Australia it seemed like the whole city would turn in early.  I mean the weekend night life was a bit more 'lively' but during the week we noticed that most shops and stores and such closed fairly early...some places even closed at 6 or 7 pm!  I am way too used to being able to get just about anything I need at 11 pm here in Cali. 

I think we just really needed some rest after all that had been going on with the wedding.  In Bali, we definitely stayed out later....shopping, eating, getting massages (more to come on that later).

I should clarify, that even though we didn't feel like we did much (other than drive to different beach spots and surf in Mr Fix It's case), we definitely had a few fun moments and activities and encounters that made the trip memorable.  And we met some great friends along the way too and had great conversations with locals and fellow tourists.

For now, I'll share a few pics with you of randomness...more to come though about the 'fun' we did have and all the little critters we encountered on the trip, too!

The entrance to a resort called Dream Land in Bali.  Looks pretty, right?  We ran into some friends who said it was not so 'dreamy.'  They said there was trash floating around them when they went into the ocean and that the vendors on the beach would not leave them alone while they were laying out.  My sister visited this resort on her honeymoon 3 years ago and said you just need to go further down the beach away from the crowds right in front of the resort.  We didn't bother...just stopped while passing by to snap this shot.

A shot we took of ourselves on the patio where we sat at the Alpaca Cafe on our way back down the mountain from Lamington National Forest in Australia.  What a pretty view we had while we ate lunch, right?

I don't know why Mr Fix It wanted me to pose in front of this funky statue in the Bali Airport but he did.  So I obliged and smiled pretty...this was just before we boarded the flight to Hong Kong and then onto LAX on the last day of our honeymoon. 

Wed recap: My biggest fear almost realized!

Ok, so to officially get the wedding recaps underway (I'll still have some honeymoon recaps mixed in sometimes, too), I wanted to start with what happened on the morning of the wedding...or rather, I should start with the night before the wedding at bedtime:

I had wanted to get to bed at a decent hour.  We had to be at the venue by 7:45 am and it was going to be a long day!  I didn't end up getting into bed until like 10 pm or so.  And then I laid there for a while before I finally fell asleep.  My bestie, BM L from Idaho had flown in that day and was sharing the room with me.  I tried not to keep her awake.  I wasn't going to chance taking even half of an Ambien because my reaction the night before left me feeling a little nauseous and icky in the morning and I definitely didn't want that on the wedding day.  Well, no such luck!

I finally fell asleep and then woke up hours later.  When I glanced at the clock, it was only 3:30 am!!! What the heck?!?  Seriously?  Didn't the sleeping gods know that I *needed* to get a good night's rest on this of all nights?!?  Wasn't meant to be.  I laid there for the next several hours and never did fall back asleep.

We finally got out of bed about 5:30 am I think.  I was doing okay and even blogged a little sneak peek of my hanging wedding gown.  After showering, we packed everything into the cars and were getting ready to leave.  And I just was not feeling good...not at all! 

I sat down on the couch and my mom, bestie L and Little Miss (daughter) came over to me and asked how I was doing.  I told them I felt like I was going to pass out or puke.  I wasn't sure which one but I was not good.  I had put my feet up on the table to try to keep blood flowing well so I wouldn't pass out.  I grabbed a gatorade and they asked me if I needed anything else.  I told them I was so mad that I did *NOT* want to feel like this on my wedding day.  BM L tried to calm me down by rubbing my back.  What a sweetie...oh, here she is with me by the way:

So anyway...nothing was working.  I stuck my head between my knees and began praying "Lord, please just let me feel good on this day...please!"

We got into the car and made a quick stop at Starbucks where we got me a muffin and some oatmeal to try to help ease my anxiety and tummy or whatever the hell it was that was ailing me.  Just to be safe, we brought a blow up air mattress and blanket for me to lay on at the venue if I needed it.  We stopped to pick up my BM cousin E on the way and then before I knew it, we were there.

As soon as we arrived, I was in heaven!  I was so excited to be at my venue on the wedding day.  It was a little cloudy but the sun was peeking in and out.  My hair and makeup artist was there and already mostly set up ready to begin so we threw BM E into the chair and had her start straight away.

While that was going on, we unpacked the car...we had brought with us:

*  The steamer that my seamstress let us borrow to steam the dresses as needed.  (Which I blogged about while we steamed dresses)

*  An ice cooler full of drinks (water, gatorade) and snacks, veggies, fruits and sandwiches and such to keep us all (but mostly me) eating throughout the morning and for lunch.

*  My gifts for the BM's (they already received everything but the parasols by this point)

*  My special surprise sign for Mr Fix It that his nephew, one of our Ring Bearers would carry down the aisle

*  All the extras you need on your big day:  The marriage license, rings, makeup, garter, shoes, jewelry, undies/bras, my Victoria's Secret gel inserts to give me some extra cleavage and extra copies of the ceremony script, Grand Entrance script, etc.

*  And of course, all the dresses which we hung as such:

(Notice the cute little black satin padded hangers with the little bows I gifted the girls for their dresses?  You can't see it in this pic but there is a little silver charm with each girl's initial tied onto the bow.  And that white one on the left is my reception dress.)

I had BM L jump in a car with me and drive up to the main entrance where we placed my 'This Way to the Wedding' sign out by the main gate.  Blogged about that, too and glad I did because my photographer did not get a shot of the sign set up. :)  The sun was out a little and pretty at this time.

Then my videographer arrived...yeah, at like 8:15 am when I had not planned on him arriving until noon!  I was so shocked and excited to see him and his wife there.  I told him where to park and he said he was going to start setting up and walking the property to familiarize himself with it. 

BM L and I headed back to the bridal cottage (prep area) where it was almost time for her to get her hair and makeup done.  While that was going on, BM cousin E helped me steam some of the girls' dresses.  All this prep stuff was a good thing...because it was keeping me busy and keeping me from thinking about being anxious or feeling dizzy.  As long as I was moving and had people around me keeping me talking and doing things, I was feeling good for sure!  And that's how the day went...but it didn't last the whole day.  Because unfortunately there were 'down' moments where everyone was running around me but I was left sitting in a chair by my lonesome.  Those moments allowed me to sit alone with my thoughts and start to get anxious and wonder if I'd pass out or not.  And so throughout the day, you'd hear me saying "Someone talk to me or give me something to do.  I'm gonna pass out if you don't keep me busy!"  Seriously...I was over it.

Here you see me sitting in a chair waiting for the guests to be seated so that the ceremony can start...these are some super fun shots of how crappy I looked when I was not feeling good (I have to thank BM cousin A for snapping them):

(Yeah, you can't really put your head between your knees with a wedding gown on!)

Aren't those just so great?  NOT!

More to come on this fun topic...but for now...

Today's tip:  Do what you can to get a good night sleep the night before, but if you want to try sleeping pills, test them first days or weeks before the big day to see how you react to them. 

Our Wedding Trailer Video

Woo-hoo!!!  I am *dying* right now because this weekend, Gary from Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills (our amazing, talented and oh so patient videographer who dealt so graciously with me) has shared a video trailer with me to share with all of you!!! 

I knew Gary wouldn't let me down.  And the coolest thing?  In just this 1 minute and 30 seconds of video I was able to see so many things that I didn't remember from the day.  He got shots I really wanted and he and his amazing team (we totally loved you, Jamie!) did a rockstar job of shooting and editing everything.  And on top of it all, he told me that he is almost done with the entire video (which can typically take up to 3 months with all the video footage they shot).  So I will really be able to get some fun recaps going with video to show along the way!!!

But for now, without further ado, here is what we get to see as a sneak preview!!!




Is it possible to be obsessed with something to where you can't watch it enough?  Because I am totally obsessed with this until we get the final full version soon.  :)

I absolutely *love* my necklace and shoes in these shots (especially where you see my feet walking and then the shoes hanging on the trellis).  The sun was shining and the tiger was on the prowl...the lighting is just gorgeous.

I was totally crying when I watched this because the words you hear me speak are from the letter that I read to Mr Fix It at the ceremony...but the words he is speaking are from the personal interview that our videographer did with each of us alone...so this was the first time I'd heard them.  (And of course, I don't remember anything from our ceremony so hearing me say these words to him just brought a wave of emotions over me.) 

My favorite part of the whole trailer is me walking across the bridge to Mr Fix It where Jamie (the cameraman) is following me from behind. 

The part where Mr Fix It is laughing and throws his head back is either during the video I created that played at the ceremony before I walked down the aisle OR it's right when he saw his nephew (one of the 4 ring bearers) carrying my special surprise sign down the aisle (more to come in a future recap). 

Now I am ever so anxious to get the video back!  And my photographer told me my disc of pictures should be here any day now!!!  So lots more to share very soon!

H-moon Recap: Eat, celebrate, swim with lots of photos!

So today's recap is going to be a little random, as in all over the place.  But I'll try to offset that by not writing too much and just sharing lots of pictures!

We'll start off with the incredible infinity pool at the last resort we stayed at:  Blue Point Bay Villas.  This is me in the pool.  You could sit on the edge of the infinity pool and look out at the ocean to the surf below where there would be at least a good 60-100 surfers on any given day.  I like this because Mr Fix It could surf down there and I could hang in the pool and watch from above, though I couldn't make him out from that far away. 

In Australia, we ate mostly seafood..a LOT!  We both love seafood and we asked a few locals to make some referrals for us.  They didn't let us down.  One gentlement from Sydney told us to head about 15-20 minutes from our place in Burleigh Beach to a place called Ashmore Steak & Seafood.  I have to admit, I am a horrible blogger...I didn't take a ton of pictures of lots of the food we ate and the few I did get are from my crappy camera.  I really should get a better camera if I am going to keep blogging - and start taking more pictures!

Anyway, this place looked like a huge car dealership with the way the windows and lights were set up.  It was not like any other eating experience we've ever had.  They let you see the meals in a glass display case when you walked in...that's right, raw steaks sitting out for you to view.  Mr Fix It liked this cuz he could see how big they were before he ordered.  His meal was served up like this:

I got the lobster with a new thing I found called Avocado Seafood...it's an avocado filled with seafood - DUH!  Since I am a huge fan of both, I was in heaven!!!

We also ate at a place called Omeros Brothers in Surfer's Paradise.  Very, very yummy food!  Then there was an Italian joint where we met an exchange student from Germany working as a waitress.  Mr Fix It wasn't in love with the bruschetta we ordered...it was like tomatoes on pizza bread.  There was a super yummy, authentic Mexican type place downstairs from our apartment where we met a Canadian waitress.  What was with all these foreigners serving us our food?  :)

In Bali, at Blue Point, we found a bowl of fresh fruit in our room when we arrived.  See that thing in the back left of the bowl?  It's kind of prickly...Mr Fix It couldn't remember the name of it but he peeled it and made me eat it.  It was really interesting...tasted like berries, apples and other sweet fruits all in one.  Very different.

Also at our resort in Bali was their restaurant.  This is a view of the room where we had breakfast and dinner a couple times.  (I would eat lunch by the pool - I got this tempura type seafood and vegetable thing with these yummy fries that was so good I ordered it two days in a row.  It came with this insane crispy asian salad that I scarfed down like I had been starved for a week!)  Anyway, you would see the same people in this restaurant each morning and night because the resort is not super huge and it is really your only eating option other than driving into town - which we did do on the very last night.

This table right in the corner of the room was what I determined to be the best seat in the house because it was right in front of the open windows overlooking the surf and ocean below.  The first night we were there, it wasn't open so Mr Fix It asked if we could reserve it for the next night.  They said they couldn't because there was a wedding reception happening there the next night.  But....

...instead they said they'd let us eat dinner upstairs which had a good view out the window.  Mr Fix It went to check it out to be sure.  The next night when we arrived, they walked us up these stairs to our own private room!!!  We had this all to ourselves...a view of the ocean, the pool, the wedding chapel.  It was so super cool!  And we were all by ourselves!

Here is a view of the ocean below from our private room...we got there at the perfect time as the sun was just about to start setting and by the time we left it was dark.

Here is another pic on my crappy camera (and through a window) of how pretty the wedding chapel looked like all lit up at night.  And let me say, that wedding chapel was PACKED!  The resort is known for weddings...and they did 'em up right.  While I laid by the pool, there were at least 2 weddings each day!  They were all Japanese couples (very beautiful brides) and they were mostly just the bride and groom - no guests.  Though I did see one or two weddings that had about 5 or 6 guests (looked their parents or siblings). 

See that umbrella by the pool that's on the far left of the picture but up on the higher level above the 3rd one in?  THAT was my spot - every day!  It was perfect.  It was right by this pretty tree on the edge of the cliff and it was the only lounge chair in the entire pool area that you could lay in and see the surfers down below over the cliff edge. 

Mr Fix It decided to get a picture of the girls all dressed up for the wedding reception entrance

Before we got to Blue Point (while we were sill at the Wina Villas), we went to a beach called Bingins that Mr Fix It likes to surf at.  He had told me about this place saying that you walk down these stairs on the cliffs in Bali and they have these hut type houses built into the side of the cliff.  People own them and use them to offer food, massages, shops, etc for the surfers who must walk through them on their way down to the beach.  While Mr Fix It surfed, I would lay on a little mat/lounge on a table watching/listening to my iPod. 

When we got there, we met this woman named Wyan.  She totally remembered Mr Fix It from 4 years earlier!  She made us lunch one day while we waited for the surf to pick up and I don't remember what it was called but it was DEE-LICIOUS!  I jokingly referred to it as a high end version of Top Ramen :)  But seriously, so good!  Noodles with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, fried egg and other sauce and such.

Here is a pic of the little 'hut' type things I was trying to explain.  Mr Fix It is sitting by himself at that little blue table in the middle.

And finally, here's me in the pool again - this time with my hat on.  Yeah, I spent a lot of time in there because man, it was so hot!  You needed to cool off...and that pool was scrumdiddlyumptious!

Here's what would have been my favorite picture of our entire honeymoon if Mr Fix It wouldn't have been making that stupid face wondering if the camera was going to go off...whatever!

H-moon Recap: We're seriously going to die...

...or at least vomit a few times!  No, really...our honeymoon plans took us from LA to Brisbane, Australia to Bali, Indonesia and back to LA by way of Hong Kong...it looked like this (except for I left out the layover in Hong Kong):

We started off leaving LAX right on time at 11:25 pm on Qantas airlines headed non-stop for Australia.  Because of the time/date line change, we would be traveling for 13 1/2 hours but arrive on Monday morning at 6 am.  I have to say, QANTAS was amazing!  I was pretty exhausted when we boarded...after all, I'd just gotten married the night before and then spent most of the day hanging out with family and friends and then packing and zipping off to the airport.  But just to be safe, I took half an Ambien sleeping pill so that I would conk out on this flight.

We were super excited about QANTAS...Mr Fix It had never flown with them before and he loved them.  They put us in 2 seats that were basically an aisle seat (which Mr Fix It insists on) and then a window seat (which I love).  But the window seat was actually pretty big because all the other rows had 3 seats in them except for ours...so we had a nice gap between me and the window to put my carry on bag down and stretch out my legs.

Anyway, I had asked Mr Fix It to buy neck pillows for us and eye masks.  He obliged and bought me a blow up one and him a stuffed pillow type one.  BEST investment we ever made!  Those things are amazing and a must for long flights!  We both slept great with no problems with kinked necks...and the eye masks were great too (even though it was already dark most of the night).  Here is a crappy pic of Mr Fix It with all his sleeping garb on:

So I slept really good for the first 6 hours or so.  When I woke up, Mr Fix It said they had served dinner on the flight while I was sleeping and he said it was good.  Qantas also offered free movies and tv in the sets in the back of each seat.  So each passenger could watch whatever they wanted.  I hadn't flown in a long time and I loved this new feature!  It made our flight go by fast...even though I fell back asleep again after breakfast.  :)  But when I woke up just about 2 hours before the end, we suddenly had some problems...lots of turbulence.  Mr Fix It is a tough guy, but he has a fear of heights...silly I know, but true.  He has an even bigger fear of flying and bad turbulence meant he now had white knuckles as well.  During our final descent into Australia the plane took a huge drop that sucked up our stomach.  It didn't really bother me, but even if it had, I couldn't be afraid because I was trying to calm Mr Fix It.  Poor guy. 

On Sunday, a week after landing in Brisbane, we headed back to the airport and got on a flight on Pacific Blue airlines to head to Bali.  It wasn't bad but Mr Fix It wasn't impressed with this airline.  The total trip was like 5 hours or so I think.  On this flight, you had to pay to watch the tvs and movies however, the entertainment system had some glitch so after about an hour they just gave us all free access to it.  That was cool because I watched a lot of Sex and the City.   

We have a portable DVD player that we had bought a few years ago and Mr Fix It was afraid that the battery wouldn't last long enough to keep us entertained on the flights...we had also brought a few DVD's of course.  He waited until just about 3 or 4 days before the wedding and dragged me around the county looking for a battery for our DVD player that would last a lot more hours.  Of course we couldn't find one so he eventually had one overnighted to his house on the day of the wedding and paid a ton of money for it!  Then we didn't even need it since the flights had tv's for each passenger :)  Though I did make good use of it watching movies by the pool and in our rooms during the trip.

On Saturday, May 1st, we headed back to the airport in Bali to go home to LAX.  Let me just say that the Bali airport is just silly...they did have food and shops and such, but nothing like the airports we visited in LAX, Brisbane, and Hong Kong.  (Which by the way, Hong Kong was so huge and really nice!)  In Bali, when we arrived the previous Sunday, we had to take a shuttle from the tarmac to the main terminal which gave us a great view of their scary airport digs.  Makeshift fences in the midst of rice paddy fields did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the safety regulations and condition of the landing strips and such.

The flight from Bali to Hong Kong was uneventful...I watched Twilight and had a good meal.  I was happy to be in the Hong Kong airport where things seemed more normal.  We were hungry so we ate these amazing nachos at a sports bar.  Mr Fix It slept on the floor waiting for our flight to board...but we didn't have to wait very long considering we had a 3 hour layover.  Again, we departed on time and I was so excited to be on the 13 1/2 hour flight back home.  But....

The ride home was horrible!  Once again, I did sleep for the first 4 or 5 hours.  But then we hit a ton of turbulence.  Mr Fix It said it lasted like 2 hours but it didn't seem that long to me.  However, when I woke up (after again having taken 1/2 an Ambien), I felt nauseous and kinda hungry, too.  So I asked the steward to bring me some fruit.  Almost immediately after eating an apple, I told Mr Fix It to let me up...we were sitting in the middle and aisle seats of the 68th row of the plane.  I ran into the bathroom and threw up due to all the turbulence.  BLECH!!!  Thank goodness I was at the back of the plane only 2 rows from a restroom.  I felt so much better but then only 30 minutes later, I got up and threw up again.  We were supposed to be in our seats, but the flight attendants knew better to leave me in the restroom.

Needless to say, I was so happy when we finally landed at LAX - and this time, because of the winds in the jet stream, we arrived like an hour and fifteen minutes early!  We had to be shuttled from the farthest tarmac I've ever seen at LAX and then ended up waiting for like 2 hours to get through customs, get our luggage and then find a taxi to take us home. 

We finally walked in the door to our home at about 11:45 pm.  It would be our first time sleeping there together as husband and wife.  But as soon as we walked in, Mr Fix It said it felt weird not having our dog, Kuta there waiting, jumping and wagging his tail around happy to see us.  I turned my head from him and said "Stop it!  Don't do this right now," and I was totally streaming tears down my face as I'm sure he was, too.  We decided we were hungry again and headed over to a local restaurant for a midnight meal.   I had the most amazing strawberry crepes...we drove home and climbed into bed and slept really good. 

As much as I loved the honeymoon and we had pretty smooth flights and traveling experiences, I was so happy to be done with airports!

Wedding pics - a sneak peek!

Well, our photographer, Robert Mullins has finally had a moment to post some sneak peek pics of us from the wedding day.  I have been stalking his web site like crazy and have to admit that I am super excited about the first photos I finally get to see.  How is it that pro-photogs always seem to make everything look so much better?  :)

So here they are...

My beautiful Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown hanging up from the patio rafters outside of our bridal cottage prep area.  Our photog refused to touch the dress himself so he asked my girls to take it out and hang it up for him. 

My super hot groom, Mr Fix It - no really...look how hot he looks!

A close up of me.  I have to admit, I loved my makeup for sure...the hair was another story for a future recap, but this photo made me realize how great pro-photogs can make you look.  And I absolutely LOVE my necklace in this shot...wish it was just a little more in focus but hoping he got some good shots of it!

 

Um, hello?  Is that me?  LOVIN' IT!

 

This is one of my very faves because it is kind of artsy, it totally shows off that gorgeous train and made me fall in love with my gown all over again and it has that great shot of the venue's name in the background.  This is just at the end of the main entrance - what the guests see as they first drove into the estate.

Another great shot that I love because it shows off the amazing grounds of the estate. 

Up to the right of this picture (the little deck you can hardly see) is the cocktail area where guests can gather and look down.  I am standing at the very back of where our ceremony took place behind all of the chairs that were set up (not in the picture obviously).  The building in the background is called Rick's Cafe...it is a little multi-level restaurant type building with booths and chairs and tables throughout.  That is how the guests got down from the cocktail area to the ceremony area.  We also used that building to set up our kids' corner area where the babysitters hung out with a few kids playing games and watching movies and cartoons on portable DVD players.

And finally, a shot of Mr Fix It and I from inside of Rick's Cafe.  In this one, we are standing on the balcony that you see dead center and just to the right of the blue light post in the pic right above this one.  The second photographer was inside shooting this shot from the inside looking out and our main photog, Robert was down where I was standing in the pic above shooting us from below up on the balcony.  :) 

I love the silhouette.

So there you have it...our first sneak peek.  Unfortunately, I have to wait another month probably to get ALL of my pro pics back...and as soon as I do, the serious recaps will be in full swing.  For now, I have plenty with some other stories and shots from friends and family as well as honeymoon recaps to keep those of you who are interested busy - more to come!

H-moon Recap: Saving the best for last

So we were on our honeymoon from the day after our wedding (left Saturday night April 17th at 11 pm) until Saturday May 1st.  This was our schedule:

Saturday April 17th - Depart for Brisbane Australia 11 pm
Monday April 19th - Arrive Brisbane 6 am
Monday April 19th - Found our apartment in Burleigh Heads, Queensland
Thursday April 22nd - Stayed for one night at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat
Sunday April 25th - Depart for Bali, Indonesia arrived at about 2:30 pm
Sunday April 25th - Took a few hours to find a rental car in Bali, find a gas station after we left and realized the rental car 'guy' left us with an empty tank and we had not yet exchanged our US Dollars for Rhupia and then find the Wina Holiday Villas to stay at.

We stayed at the Wina for 3 nights and it was great...Mr Fix It stayed there several times and loved it.  But let me tell you, we were most excited about the last 3 nights of our honeymoon.  From Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon, we got to stay at the Blue Point Bay Villas in Uluwatu, Indonesia.  And let me say - THAT is what a honeymoon resort is all about!

We were a bit confused at first as we drove from Kuta to Uluwatu through the city and into a more remote location.  As we got close to the resort and eventually turned onto the street, we realized that we could be in for trouble since the 'road' was nothing but a horribly bumpy dirt gravel path.  We passed a cow and a bunch of workers apparently building something but who knows what?  However, from the moment we arrived we were totally in awe!

This was the view of the open area reception area where we checked in.

They told us they'd let us check in several hours early but needed about 20 - 30 minutes to get the room ready.  So we headed out to the pool to check out the view of the ocean and surfers below.  While we waited, a waiter suddenly walked up and gave us free citrusy drinks that were bright and fun and yummy!  We were already lovin' this place!

I scoped out what I determined to be the best spot at the pool and then a bellhop came and helped load our luggage onto a cart.  He headed us down the path to the rooms and stopped at #204.  We were a little confused when he had to unlock a padlock on a gate.  And this is what we saw:

You have your own private yard surrounding your room.  Complete with a plunge pool and a lounge/bed under a gazebo (right side of the pic):

We made good use of that little lounge bed outside...we watched movies on it one day on our portable DVD player and also took some good naps and other stuff.  We also ordered room service and ate at the little table on the patio.  It was a shrimp cocktail served with a citrusy sauce in a carved out pineapple..so yummy!

Here's another shot of the plunge pool in the yard:

And here's the view from off of the little cliff that the room sits on:

Mr Fix It in the plunge pool:

But of course to truly appreciate it, including seeing inside our AMAZING room,
you need to check out the video tour: 

More on this amazing resort and our adventures here coming up later this week - but tomorrow, a sneak peek at some pro pics of the wedding day - FINALLY!

Wedding Recap: Photobooth fun!

I don't care what you do, if it all possible, the one thing I highly encourage you to have at your wedding is a photobooth.  I know it's trendy and overdone nowadays but it is only because your guests absolutely LOVE it!  Whether you make your own 'faux-to-booth' or rent one like we did from a company like Cheesy Photobooths, it is the best investment you'll make for entertaining your guests.  And it also serves as a great favor for them to remember your special day by.  I personally loved it because it also served dual purpose as part of our guestbook so we'd have a pic of all of our guests from our special day. 

But seriously, the entertainment value alone is phenomenal and ours was packed all night long.  So without further ado, here are just some of the many, many different types and styles of people and photos we discovered after browsing through our photobooth photos:

You'll get people of all ages:

 20 Somethings:

 Teens:

 

Moms (mine and my sister's mother-in-law):

Parents (of the groom and their friend):

Families:

Even sleeping babies!

By the way, how freaking cute is our banner at the bottom of the pictures?

And of course, you'll get the silly photos and crazy shots:

Little Miss and her dad:

The kids were in that thing all night long - like 20 times each! 

(Our Junior Groomsmen, Mr Fix It's nephew)

My crazy cousin, the flower girl

My best friend from high school who I invited 5 days before the wedding!

I love this pic in the top left of my cousins with the afro - so genius!

And you'll get the pics to see how many people you can fit inside for one picture:

This one is me and my bible study girls I lead:

Me and all my bridesmaids (and my cousin jumped in at the very end)!

My team of coordinators even jumped in at the end of the night:

For some reason, everyone thinks it's necessary to kiss and/or stick your tongue out in photobooths:

Truly disgusting...I don't need to see that!

You'll get sweet shots:

Me and Little Miss

And of course there's "What the hell is going on in this photo" shots:

Mr Fix It thought we were gonna get busy in there...silly boy!

And then finally, the "They were obviously hammered by this point" shots:

And then there's the random "Why are there totally different people in each one of these?" shots

I felt horrible about this one.  These are Mr Fix It's friends.  I didn't see anyone in line and didn't know they were inside and I barged in on them to take the pic of me and my girls right when they were kissing.  What a horrible selfish bride!  I apologized profusely and they were totally cool about it :)

Mr Fix It likes to think that he can raise his 'pimp hand' to me.  He thinks it's hilarious...not really:

But my favorite of the entire night was my wedding coordinator's husband,

 who brilliantly came up with this little beauty:

Now granted, not every single guest got in the photobooth which was a bummer.  Some left early because of kids or early mornings the next day.  Some said they were in line or on their way to the booth and then got sidetracked or ended up having to come in for the grand entrance, dinner, cake cutting, etc.  To try to offset this, we had our company set up the booth and split our hours.  We had the booth open at 4:30 and the ceremony was at 5 or 5:30 pm.  They shut down for an hour during the ceremony and then reopened from 6:30 to 11:30 during cocktails, dinner and dancing.  We booked them for a total of 6 hours and it was packed the whole time! 

I only wish I would have taken more advantage of the booth myself :(  Like much that was going on that day, I just never found enough time to focus on what I wanted and do all I wanted to.  (sigh)

So, what are your thoughts?  Did/Are you having a photobooth?  When/How do you plan to incorporate it?

Today's Tip:   Be sure to have lots of props on hand for a photobooth and set them out clearly and obviously. (I bought most of mine the day after Halloween at a costume store for a huge discount.)  I also had a dry erase board (couldn't find a chalk board I liked) and markers for people to write messages on and somehow it did not get used in any photos!  I think it ended up in the kids' play area or someone used the wrong pen on it and ruined it.  Have a photobooth attendant there all night instructing guests on what to do, encouraging them to use props, etc.  And tell them in advance about things like a chalk board or whatever.  Be sure to have your DJ or emcee announce the booth is open as well and remind guests to go use it!

(We did have an attendant who came from the rental company but I don't think that I told him about the dry erase board and I was too caught up in everything else to realize it until later.)