You Make My Dreams Come True: Decorating on Friday

We were up bright and early on Friday morning and met my parents, MIL, David's brother (best man) J and his wife L, Jr BM K, and MOH A and her boyfriend at the church. J and L brought donuts, milk, and juice for everyone which was so smart. I hadn't even thought of it. Since we had already set up the stage and decorated for the rehearsal dinner when we did the walk through, we basically just needed to decorate the aisle and set everything out in the foyer.

I didn't want to lay the aisle runner down until after the rehearsal, so we worked on attaching the shepherd hooks to the chairs, hanging the pomanders, and swagging the tulle down the aisle. Before you go and buy $20 shepherd hooks with stands for an indoor ceremony, try our trick first - We had chairs, so we were able to use black zip ties to connect the hook to the chair in 2 different places. You couldn't see them against the black frame of the chair and the black hook and I was able to use my dollar tree shepherd hooks!

We set the bin (found on sale at Michaels months before the wedding - you might recognize it from the dancing shoes post!) with programs right by the door along with the tears of joy packets and set up the 'guestbook' nearby. We set a table out that guests would see right as they walked in the door with the memorial candles and card box and that I also put the bubbles on so our bridesmaids could grab them right after the ceremony and hand them out. It kind of turned into the gift table too since I had kind of forgotten to find a place for gifts.

The artificial flowers were switched out with leftover roses from the bouquets as seen below.

Credit: Lola Jo Photo Design

(More pictures coming in the detail post!)

I checked on the room for the rehearsal dinner to make sure everything was set up and then it was time to head to the reception hall which was much more detailed. David, J, L, and MOH A's boyfriend had gone over about 20 minutes before we were ready to leave which ended up being really smart - Of course none of the tables or chairs were set up even though they were originally supossed to be. This was the least of our worries with them, though (if you don't know why, you must have missed this post.)

I wish I had done a better job of labeling things with what they were and where they needed to go, but I didn't. So I tried to give a quick rundown of what I wanted the tables to look like and we all got to work. I knew we had a lot of details, but decorating took even longer than I thought I would. And in the middle of it someone had to go get fishing wire to hang the paper lanterns (because I forgot even though it had been on my list for months), my dad had to go pick up the sheet cakes and balloons (to tie to the sign in front of the banquet hall), I had to drive across town to get David's grooms cake and then pick up some last minute details (handkerchiefs for the moms, flower girl gifts, etc.) from a shop in town. Of course one of the picture frames for the flower girls had her name spelled wrong, but the owner was able to fix it and I was able to stop by, run in, and grab it on our way to the rehearsal. Long story short, it was an insane afternoon. 

But in the end, everything was perfect. Tablecloths were laid and centerpieces were set up:

The kids table was arranged:

The family wedding pictures were set up:

The bathroom baskets were placed:

A coaster and 'favor' were placed at each table setting:

The bar was filled:

And the paper lanterns were painstakingly hung (by MOH A's boyfriend - I know, she needs to marry that guy!). The room was ready to go.

*I apologize for the quality of the pictures - I took them quickly thinking I'd have pro pics of everything to show you guys, but we didn't get pictures of a lot of the details in this post. We haven't seen pictures from our friend who took pictures at the reception, so fingers crossed that she has some.*

By the time we were finished it was 4:20 and our rehearsal started at 5:30. David and I were able to run home and get changed (I didn't even get to shower) and were there on time, but poor J and L stayed until the last minute with us and then had to drive 20 minutes home to get ready before driving all the way across town to the church. Our rehearsal started a little late, but it was worth the peace of mind knowing that our reception was set up the way I wanted it.

Did you spend the day before your wedding decorating? How did everything turn out?

Tip #2: If at all possible, decorate the day before so you're able to see how things look. And try to have all of your decor as organized as possible so that people will know what it is/what it's for without having to ask you questions every few minutes. It'll make everything run much more smoothly! 

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Thursday

I should have CDs from both of our photographers by the end of the week, so I figured it was safe to start the recaps of the events leading up to the wedding! I've already recapped my last minute DIY projects which pretty much consumed Monday through Wednesday of the week before the wedding, so we'll start with Thursday. It was crazy. I had all kinds of last minute errands to run. I woke up early for my appointment to get my eyebrows waxed and as soon as I got home got everything ready to take to the church. I had somewhat organized all of my projects/details into tubs (well, at least divided them according to where they needed to go) and I had all of the rehearsal dinner stuff together so we were able to drop everything off that we needed for the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner/ceremony on Thursday. 

My mom, David, and I met Kay our 'coordinator' at the church early in the afternoon. I'm not sure if I ever really blogged about Kay, but she was David's teacher 3 different years in elementary and middle school and was there for him multiple different times when his family was going through some rough stuff. She absolutely loves him and they would both consider the other family. She coordinates weddings for a few different churches around town and was thrilled when David asked if she'd be interested in coordinating ours. We met with her a couple times leading up to the wedding and basically went through what I'd decided on and she reminded me of all of the little details I wouldn't have remembered otherwise. She hadn't actually seen the sanctuary and facilities of the church we were getting married in, so we did a walk through with her on Thursday. It made our rehearsal run much smoother and we were able to set up the stage how I wanted it, which was nice. We also set up the room for the rehearsal dinner which cut down on our time decorating at the church on Friday morning. 

Unfortunately, we spent way too much time talking and were there way too long. I had hoped to start on the flowers before our nail appointment at 4:30, but by the time we left the church we barely had time to grab lunch/dinner on our way to the nail salon. I was getting a little frustrated (read: snippy) towards the end of our walk through and Kay made a comment about me being stressed. Honestly, I really wasn't. I was exhausted from staying up until 3 am every night the week before the wedding and I was a little nervous about how the flowers were going to turn out, but I was more just ready to quit talking about all of the little details and silly things no one was even going to notice. I was just ready to be married!

My mom and I grabbed Jimmy Johns and headed to get our nails done. I was a little annoyed when we got there and they weren't ready for us (even though I'd made an appointment for 6 people and we were only going to have 4 getting anything done) but as soon as I was in the massage chair getting my pedicure done I was happy and relaxed. My mom, MIL, MOH A, JrBM K, and BM M (for a bit) were all there which I loved!

I know it's cheaper to do your own nails, but if it's at all possible I would highly encourage you to pamper yourself and have them done. It was exactly what I needed - relaxing, fun, and quality time with some of my favorite ladies. 

After we were all finished my mom, MIL, JrBM K and I headed to my parents' house where my SIL L met us to help with the flowers. I've already pretty much recapped that part of the night, so I won't go into detail again, but we spent the next 5 hours or so working on that. After we were finally finished MOH A helped me transport all of the bouquets to our house so they'd be in the fridge for the boys to bring to pictures on Saturday. And then she and her boyfriend stayed until 4 AM helping David and I with last minute stuff. Have I mentioned how INSANELY blessed I am? She is the best best friend a girl could ask for. They worked on the awesome letters that were on the church door while David and I made our aisle runner. 

And after all that they loaded up their car with the tubs of decorations for the reception and headed to her parents' to get a few hours of sleep before we met at the church to decorate at 9 AM on Friday. Yea, we owe them big time. Friday was packed full of things to do and none of us were running on much sleep.

Did you have a crazy week leading up to your wedding? Did you do anything to pamper yourself?

Tip #1: Like I said before, take the time and money to pamper yourself the week of your wedding! It's stressful and busy and everyone feels better with pretty nails. :) 

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!**

We Have a Winner!

We have a winner from the Baubles by Kari giveaway! The lucky lady is...

 

Debbie!!

 Congratulations, Debbie! Contact me with your email address and I'll get you in touch with Kari. Thanks to everyone who entered!