You Make My Dreams Come True: The End

After our last dance, it was time to leave.. To walk away from the celebration I’d been pouring myself into for the last 15 months. A year later, I can actually say I truly only remember the good moments. There was certainly drama that occurred right at the end of our reception, but now, looking back, I’m finally able to look past that and focus on the joy I felt as I left with my new husband.

We made our way out to the parking lot and found our *beautiful* car. :) I know a lot of you said you’d be upset if your car was decorated, but our bridal party helped us clean most everything off before we drove away, so it really wasn’t a big deal. I loved it!

Due to a miscommunication, one of my bridesmaids had left with my bag for the night in her car. So we waited around a bit for her to bring it back, and then we were off to the hotel as newlyweds!

When we got there, David carried me across the threshold into our suite!

And that’s where the story ends, for you guys at least. ;) The next morning we had a nice breakfast and then headed to our new home together to meet our family who was there to have lunch and watch us open gifts. You can read about that here and our incredible honeymoon here, here, and here.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through everything! I can’t even tell you how much it means that I had support and encouragement during our planning process, the sweetest comments on our wedding day, someone to vent to with everything that happened with our reception venue, and the nicest compliments on my recaps. I knew I’d be grateful to have a keepsake in this blog, but I never knew how grateful I’d be for all of my readers and followers!

My recaps are officially finished, but if you follow me on my newlywed blog you know I’m turning my etsy shop into something a bit bigger. It will now be Thoughtfully Designed: Custom Wedding Coordination & Keepsakes! I’m hiring someone to work on a blog/website for me, and I’m SO excited about what the future holds and that I’ll still be involved in the wedding world. I likely won’t be posting much here any more (after this week and our anniversary) but I’d love to leave my blog live so that other brides can draw inspiration from my projects and posts. I’d love for you all to keep in contact, so please follow The Luckiest in Love, and if you’re a bride, definitely keep a lookout there for my new business blog and website, which will be full of lovely pictures, wedding details, and inspiration!

Need to catch up?

 

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

I put on my dress. 

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show. 

We got some fun bridal party pictures. 

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional. 

I shared our ceremony details. 

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

I shared our reception details.

We had one special last dance.

You Make My Dreams Come True: One Last Dance

The night was coming to a close, and the DJ totally surprised us by having all of our remaining guests join us on the dance floor and surround us in a big circle. We weren’t exactly sure what he was doing until he started playing ‘Then’ by Brad Paisley and told us to soak in minutes of our reception surrounded by people who love us.

 

Both of our photographers had already left, but BM S was there to capture it. I’m SO thankful, because this was honestly one of my favorite parts of the day and these pictures (although we’re dripping with sweat and my hair is frizzy) are some of my most treasured.

 

{I love everyone’s expressions in this!}

 

 

I love that you can see David’s brother and our SIL L with their arms around each other – I made the slideshow for their wedding a year before, and used ‘Then’ as the song for the pictures of them together. :)

 

 

And then David’s cousin yelled his congratulations and best wishes to us:

 

 

 

 

David sang to me the entire time. His face in this picture just makes me smile:

 

 

 

And with that, the song, and our reception that we’d poured so much into, was over. This next series of pictures is my absolute favorite:

 

 

 

 

Guys, I’m down to my last recap, and it’s a short one at that. I can’t believe it. I hope you’ll stick with me for the last one!

 

Need to catch up?

 

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

I put on my dress. 

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show. 

We got some fun bridal party pictures. 

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional. 

I shared our ceremony details. 

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

I shared our reception details.

They’re Here!!

I FINALLY have the CD with the majority of our reception photos! Some are unedited, some have the photographer’s logo, and they’re not very organized yet, but I HAVE THEM. For awhile there I thought this day might never come. I’m so excited to finally finish my recaps! 

Here’s a sneak peek of our fabulous reception (no thanks to the awful venue) with MUCH more to come:

{These first five pictures are from Brandi of Lola Jo Photo Design}

{The remaining pictures are from Becky of Stamp of Life Photography}

Eeee, exciting, right?! Recaps will be finished up soon, although I can’t promise I’ll be able to post every day – Things are a bit crazy with the holidays and everything. I want to get them written as soon as possible, though, before I forget any more than I already have!

I’m officially BACK! :)

Relaxation at The Royal: Our Cancun Honeymoon Part 4

I can't say enough about how great The Royal was. We honestly had very few complaints (which I'll cover at the end) with the resort, the service, or the food. As you've seen the last few posts, our room and the resort in general are absolutely gorgeous. We only used the spa services once, but it was just as nice. 

We were a little disappointed that there were no services included with the honeymoon package or the all inclusive option. We had a couples massage the first full day we were there, which was expensive but totally worth it. I would highly recommend scheduling a massage for the first or second day of your honeymoon for a couple reasons. First, it totally helps get you relaxed and in vacation mode. Secondly, neither of you will be sunburned yet and it would be a lot more comfortable. I mentioned before David got really burnt (like blisters) the second day we were there, and the thought of a massage after that was not at all appealing. We likely would've used the spa a lot more had it not been so pricey.

Prior to our arrival I was a bit worried about the food. I wasn't at all worried about the quality. I was more worried about the fact that I'm not at all adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, I dislike all seafood, and I don't particularly like steak. That pretty much leaves chicken. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I liked all of the restaurants and how many new things I tried. 

One of our favorite restaurants was Pelicanos. They offered Carribean cuisine for breakfast (which we never tried), lunch, and dinner. It sits over the pool looking out onto the gorgeous ocean. 

source

Another one of our favorites was Asiana, which was a habachi grill with lots of Asian food options. The food was SO good, our cook was entertaining and funny, and it has an absolutely gorgeous view. 

They have a tapas bar called Tapas & Pintxos that has a variety of dishes from Northern Spain. You can choose as many of them as you want since they're small portions. David and I both left pretty hungry, but I think that's mainly because we're pretty plain midwestern people and were a little out of our comfort zone. Most of the dishes had some sort of seafood, but the ones I did have were all very good. And the view is breathtaking!

Probably the most fun meal of the week was our gormet dinner at Chef's Plate. This is one of the two restaurants that requires reservations and the menu changes daily and centers around a theme. We're totally not 'gormet' people, but everything was SO good. I tried everything and I'm so glad I did. It was an awesome experience!

We were seated at a long banquet table with 3 other couples - one was on their honeymoon, one was celebrating their 25th anniversary, and one was celebrating their 27th anniversary. Not only was the food and service wonderful, the conversation with these other couples was so much fun. The older couples gave us advice and talked about their weddings and honeymoons and we got to get to know another newlywed couple (who also happened to be from the midwest).

We didn't visit Maria Marie until the last night we were there or else we probably would've gone back. It was a mix of Mexican and French cuisine and was sooo good. I actually had steak and I liked it! 

Spice was another one of our favorites and the only restaurant we visited more than twice. It was a huge buffet that also had cooking stations (with delicious cheeseburgers!). And it didn't hurt that almost all of the tables have a great view of the ocean!

We also tried their room service a couple times (fast and good both times!) and we visited the 24 hour lounge quite frequently (probably too frequently). They always had chips and queso and fresh quacamole in there along with some American foods, like chicken nuggets! Ha, we're at a resort with all of these gormet restaurants and we still want chicken nuggets. It was great, though! It also had basically an open bar if you wanted to mix your own drinks, but we never really used it or the wet bar in our room (although we did take the bottles of tequila, whiskey, and champagne that were in our room home with us!) - There was a huge bar in the lobby so we usually stuck with that.. We're no bartenders.

Honestly there were maybe three small complaints we had the entire time we were there. I already mentioned the first one with the price of the spa services. Another would be the housekeeping - They did a great job, but you never knew when they would show up. They ask you when you check in when you'd like them to come clean and when you'd like them to provide the turndown services (unmaking the bed, lighting candles, dimming the lights, etc) but it didn't really seem to mean anything. They'd just show up whenever and if we were in the room it usually meant our room wouldn't be cleaned that day. Thirdly, we received SO many courtesey calls while we were there. I like that they want us to be happy and comfortable, but a couple of them were at 8:30 AM (we are NOT morning people) and there were just too many of them. If we had a problem we would've let them know, so I felt like it was a bit overkill.

Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries our first night

Our complaints were nothing big, and they definitely didn't in any way negatively effect our time there. Both of us would most definitely recommend The Royal Cancun! We're honestly thinking about going back even though we'd really like to see other places - Our experience was that good. If you're considering the resort and have any questions, contact me! I'd love to talk more about it and answer any questions you have! (That means you, Miss Puppy Love!) I'll leave you with more of my favorite pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

My family had kept an eye on our house while we were gone, so they had a key to get in. We arrived home from the airport to find this:

It was a fun little surprise and made our homecoming a little less sad. We got to share a little bit about our trip with my parents and then we pretty much headed straight to bed. David had to work the next morning which was no fun, but he had run out of vacation days. 

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our honeymoon! Like I said, if anyone is considering The Royal, I'd love to talk to you more about it! Have I convinced anyone to book their trip yet? :) 

**If you're using any of my pictures please give credit where credit is due - Thanks!**