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30 September 2006

No Wedding Bell Blues: Part Two

For two nights, Steven and I stayed at this HERE AAA four Diamond hotel. Thanks for the hook-up, Mici. My best friend--and bridesmaid--Amy loaned us her PT Cruiser. When we drove up to the front of the hotel, a bunch of women were standing outside waiting for valet. When they saw the car all decorated and such, they started hooting, hollering and clapping. They got louder when I opened the door and stepped out (I was still wearing my wedding dress).

"Where's the groom?" one of them shouted.

I pointed at Steven. Guess they thought he was the chauffer or something because he didn't have his suit jacket on. LOL. We're told by one of the valet guys that we get a free night of valet parking (Newlywed Perk #1). We go to check in and the lady at the counter says,

"We have you in a room with two beds, but we can upgrade you to a casita."

"Uhhh...for how much?" I ask warily.

The room my sister had booked should've had one queen bed, not two beds, and we got it for half off. Keep in my mind, while reading further, that when my sister booked the room she didn't tell them we were newlyweds (special timeshare coupon deal so she had to secure the room under her name then add my name, couldn't use it on newlywed room packages, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's convoluted).

"Same price," the lady says.

SCORE! "Okay, that's fine," I say. (Newlywed Perk #2) Huge. Frickin'. Understatement. What I really wanted to say was "Are you shitting me? Hell yeah, we'll upgrade."

So, the casita is amazing. Gas fireplace, kitchen (full frig...where we put the top portion of our cake), bathroom with separate shower and bathtub. About 15 mins after we settled in, we heard a knock on the door. Steven goes to open it and is handed a bucket of champagne and glasses. (Newlywed Perk #3) SWEET! We pop it open, take a sip, and are reminded once again why we don't like to drink the stuff. *shrugs* Maybe if it had been Cristal? I hear that stuff is The Shit.

Sunday morning, we wake up to find an envelope that was slipped under the door: $100 credit to use towards the spa or dinner. (Newlywed Perk #4) WHOO-HOO! We chose dinner. While we're kickin' it before dinner, Newlywed Perk #5 arrives: gift box that includes body wash, body lotion and massage oil from their spa. WAY COOL! That night, we had dinner at the hotel's popular restaurant, Deseo. I don't remember what we had, but it was very, very good. Different, but good. And all the patrons got dessert for free because they were trying something out: dulce de leche fondue with assorted fruit and pound cake. Again, different but good. I still think that for fruit dipping, I'd go with the chocolate.

After having breakfast with my best friend, Ken, his girlfriend, and my parents, Steven and I checked out the Kierland Commons Mall that's spitting distance from the hotel. It's an outside mall and one we've never been to before. Very high-end. We checked out THIS STORE and found a lot of cool stuff. We ended up buying one of THESE, but mine says CREATE Appropriate, is it not? This mall also has a two-story Barnes and Noble. A book lovers delight, I'm tellin' you. And it would've been for me, too, if I had been able to find a book I wanted. *shrugs*. It's been known to happen. Me, not finding a book to read, that is.

We had a great time at a beautiful hotel. We just relaxed, opened gifts, counted our money from the Money Dance and watched the video of our wedding (I didn't get to hear what my Mom said due to too much background noise, but thanks to everyone for all their wonderful messages). It was very hard to get back into the swing of things at work. Knowing that I was going on my honeymoon two weeks later made the time go by quick.

The question I got a lot was "So, how's married life?" It's almost ridiculous how many times that was asked, but my response was always the same: "Settled. I feel more settled." One of my co-workers told me, "There's a glow about you now." The glow of happiness? Probably. Then he says, "I hope I make my wife feel like that." Yes, a man made that comment. You're shocked I can tell, but if you knew the personality of the guy who'd said it, it would make sense.

A friend of mine who came to my wedding with her daughter and boyfriend emailed me a couple of days after the wedding and asked me some questions about the planning. I'd mentioned a few things, but for those of you who are planning a wedding, I've got two suggestions for you:

1) Go all-inclusive. The first thing we did after getting engaged was find a venue. The Palms on Southern was the 5th place we checked out. (I did a lot of research online and narrowed it down to what I thought we could handle financially). By that time, I knew we were looking for a place that offered some sort of package. For $10,000, 100 people, we got: DJ, bar, officiant, cake, photographer, flowers, food...and a linen upgrade. They also supplied us with a guest book, champagne glasses, and a knife to cut the cake. There are no cons with an all-inclusive package. The venue takes care of everything.

2) Do the Money Dance. They no longer call it the Dollar Dance because everyone gives you more than a dollar. Whether you've registered somewhere or not (we didn't), honeymooning or not (we did), the money you get from doing this could help you a great deal.

Other Stuff:

Wedding Colors: lavender, pink, yellow, and white
My Hair: C.C.'s Hair Studio (Cathy's been my beautician for 10 yrs!)
Wedding Dress: A.C. Bridal (but should've gone to Azteca Plaza)
Groomsman and Bridesman Suits: Burlington Coat Factory
Floral Bouquets and Centerpieces: Gerber Daisy
Our Song: "I Only Have Eyes For You" - The Flamingos
The Tossing of the Bouquet Song: "Jumpin', Jumpin'" - Destiny's Child
The Throwing of the Garter Belt Song: "Baby Got Back" - Sir MixALot

To see some more pics, go HERE.

To see our story and details of the wedding go HERE

Stay tuned for The Honeymoon: Part One...
posted by GeminiWisdom @ 12:34 PM |

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