Another year older

Been slacking on the updates ever since I got the complete series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for my birthday, thanks to Jonathan! Well that, and things have been pretty low-key lately.

Turning 28 on the 8th of this month was relatively painless (the pain part being two years shy of 30!). Jonathan took me to London Lennie's for dinner, a fantastic restaurant on Woodhaven Blvd. They were having a dinner special so I opted for the limited menu and, as I am notorious for doing, ended up wishing I had went with the salmon instead of the fried fish platter. The point of this story? I don't know, lol. Just acknowledging that bad habit of regretting my dinner choices!

Afterwards, Jonathan had invited a few of our friends out. It was a last minute thing that he decided to do the week before. But on a short notice, I enjoyed the company of those who came out!

Here are some wedding related things that have happened in the past few weeks:

Honeymoon - We started off with putting a deposit on NCL's 7-day Hawaiian cruise around the islands. We will be there November 1-8. (Starting the honeymoon one age and ending it a year older. Awesome! Or not.) As I had mentioned, my dad called for us since my parents have gone so often, they are phone buddies with one of the travel agents for NCL, lol. Both my dad and the agent urged us to upgrade to a balcony room. Their arguments were hard to ignore, like the free breakfast every morning that you can eat while taking in the view from your room. I figure, when the heck will we get a chance to go to Hawaii again in the near future? Might as well do this trip right!

After that, we waited a bit and started booking the hotels, since reservations have opened up for next fall. So the hotel we're staying at for 2 days in Anaheim is booked for our Disney adventure, as well as the hotel (Waikiki Beach Marriott) in Oahu for 4 days.

Save the Dates - We ordered 100 save the dates with MagnetStreet that was supposed to ship out today but not sure what happened there. We're hoping to mail it out before December arrives and the Christmas card frenzy begins. We bought the address labels for the envelopes but are slacking on the actual printing them out part. Our return address labels are fall themed and cute (from Zazzle). I'll post a picture once they've been received by everyone.

With Thanksgiving approaching and Christmas coming at lightning speed, the wedding planning can take a nice break (well, once the save the dates are out.)

This Saturday, I am a bridesmaid for Natali, a childhood friend of mine. The wedding party is absolutely huge and Jonathan is one of the groomsmen, actually. The bride and groom come from a big European family. I remember, I think it was 1996 or so, I attended a family party (wedding?) for someone Nat's family knew. We did some big dance with everyone's arms linked, forming a circle. It left quite an impression on my eleven year old self, lol. It's going to be one big party Saturday. Looking forward to it! Both church and reception are located in New Jersey - will be a long, but joyous, day for sure.

Honeymooners

This time next year, we will be on our honeymoon. That's kind of more exciting than the wedding itself, am I right? :-P So in honor of this other countdown, I thought I'd do a post about what we plan to do.

Photo hijacked off of Kim's own Hawaiian honeymoon album. 

I can't remember when but I think we had mutually agreed, even before becoming engaged, that we wanted to honeymoon in Hawaii. A small part of me wanted to go to Europe. Italy, mostly, but there are other parts I want to see, Germany and Croatia being at the top of the list. (Where my mom's mom and mom's step-dad are from, respectively.) But because there is family there, I rather save a European trip for when the entire family can go together. So, Hawaii won in the "where do we go on our honeymoon" category.  I mean, just look at that picture above!

The wedding is on a Saturday, so we will give ourselves Sunday to rest, recover, do whatever needs to be done, then Monday we'll fly out.

One of the things I read early on in this Hawaii research is, for first timers of the islands, travel advisors don't recommend taking a cruise. I get what they mean - but I felt a cruise would be the most convenient way to see more than just two islands. The cost of flights from island to island, car rental, hotels would be far higher than the convenience of your room, meals and transportation being taken care of by the cruise for one price!

We decided to go with Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America. They depart from Honolulu every Saturday. Since it leaves on October 25th, the day of the wedding, we have to wait until the following Saturday, November 1st. So what to do the first week? Explore Oahu by foot of course!

A lot of people had asked us if we were going to honeymoon in Disney World, which we answered with a big fat NO, lol. Disney World is our go-to vacation spot. We wanted the honeymoon to be different! However, since we are passing California to get to and from Hawaii, Jonathan really really liked the idea of stopping in Disneyland for a night. Initially I was trying to make it work so that we could do it on the way back from Hawaii. But, that would make the trip longer than two weeks, and we're trying to be realistic, what with work and everything. The other option would be to not do the cruise at all, but we really like that idea too. I kind of don't like the idea of starting the honeymoon in Disney but it would be really fun to walk around with the bride & groom Mickey and Minnie ears knowing we really did just get married! Maybe if we splurged for one night in the Disneyland Hotel and make it more honeymoon-y, it would help make it feel different than a regular Disney visit. If so, that means one day in California (Monday, the 27th), then the next afternoon fly out to Hawaii and land in Oahu. Spend the week there, at a hotel on Waikiki Beach, then that Saturday, we'd leave Honolulu and head to the other islands via cruise ship. We'd be back in Oahu the following Saturday, November 8th....aka my birthday! Not a bad way to turn 29!

Whatever we end up doing, I'm sure it will be memorable. Jonathan is pretty much leaving me in charge of planning! Can't decide if that's a great thing, or a dangerous thing, lol. In Kauai, there's a shore excursion called Kauai - The Director's Cut. It's a tour that takes you to spots where famous scenes were shot, and you can actually get off the vehicle used during the tour and walk around. The actual description is much more appealing than my own, lol, but that sounds right up our alley. Other things I want to do are the Road to Hana in Maui, which is about the journey, not the destination itself. I've heard mixed reviews about the tour so maybe we'll do that one on our own, if Jonathan is up for that kind of drive! Zip lining, kayaking, snorkeling....sooo many options over there.

My dad said when we're ready to book the cruise, to let him know and he'd call for us. My parents cruise every year (in fact, they're away on one as I type!) and they were bumped up to a suite for free. My dad was thinking he could get us the same deal. Uh, let me think about that one...