Honeymoon - Part 2

Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

A honeymoon just isn't complete without time spent at the beach!  (In my opinion, anyway---I just love the ocean.)  We stayed in a nice condo right on the beach.  It had an amazing view!

I know, get a room!  Right?! ;-)  Two love bird, newlyweds...

We did a ton of fun stuff during our time spent in the Sunshine State as well!

Of course, we spent a lot of time at the beach.  We even built a couple sand castles (which never turned out too well--Ha!).

We found an awesome restaurant, so we ate their a couple times!

We enjoyed a sunset dinner cruise on the Naples Princess.

We spent a day in Naples, doing all sorts of tourist-y type things.  Even went on a murder mystery train ride!

Then there was the late night game of miniature golf...

...that I may or may not have totally beat Chad at. ;-)

We goofed off and acted like a couple of little kids at the pool late one night.  Now that was fun!

We rented mopeds one afternoon and drove to Sanibel Island.  It was terrifying at first because we were driving through a lot a traffic on these tiny things that barely went 40mph!  But once we got a little used to them, it was a ton of fun.

This picture of Chad on that tiny moped cracks me up.

We had such an amazing honeymoon.  I am so thankful that we were able to go on such a nice trip, especially since I got pregnant so soon into our marriage.  We won't have a chance to go on a trip like that ever again!  Not as a young couple, anyway. :-)  We were sad to leave the beautiful, relaxing beach.  But after 11 days, we were also ready to get back home.  And move into our apartment together!

Honeymoon - Part 1

We woke up bright and early the morning after our wedding to leave for our 11 day honeymoon!  The first 3 days were spent in San Antonio, TX, and the rest was in Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

We absolutely fell in love with San Antonio, and have wanted to live in Texas ever since.  We did all sorts of fun things during our short stay... saw the Alamo, spent lots of time on the riverwalk, shopped, ate at several yummy Texan restaurants, went to the Guinness Records and Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums, did an old time photo shoot, went through a haunted house, rode the Indiana Jones Tomb Raider ride...  We had a blast!

Our Wedding Day

We had an outdoor wedding at the end of July in 2008, and it was hot.  We had the ceremony at 7:30pm, in hopes that it would be a little cooler by then.  It was cooler, but it was still hot!  But we were all under a giant gazebo, so there was at least shade.

It was perfect.

I can't even tell you how emotional I was during the ceremony.  From the moment my dad walked me down the aisle... I could hardly hold myself together!  While reciting my vows to Chad, I was all but sobbing.  I felt so silly because I must have sounded like a stuttering idiot to some people.  But it was how I felt.  My heart was overflowing and I just couldn't help it!

We had a simple reception.  Not the kind most enjoy, but that didn't matter.  That day was about us and we wouldn't have changed a thing.  It was just what we wanted.  Well, minus the big guest list... we both really, truly wanted a small, intimate wedding.  That idea didn't go over so well... but that's a whole different story! ;-)

Chad and I shared a special first dance.  Then my dad and I danced as well and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house!  A father 'giving his (first) daughter away' is a very emotional thing.  We enjoyed some yummy food, smashed cake into our best man and maid of honor's faces, and then each others... :-)  And we got to talk with many of our guests, receiving lots of marriage advice and well wishes.  It was a wonderful time!
  

The Bachelorette 'Party'

I'm not much of a party-er (actually, I'm not one at all), so I wasn't into the idea of a typical bachelorette party.  So we did something a little different... spent the night at the Great Wolf Lodge and played at the indoor waterpark!  It was totally little kid-ish, but I loved it.  It was so me.

Unfortunately, my water camera got messed up somehow and they weren't able to recover any of the pictures.  But we also went to Dave and Busters for dinner and to play at their giant 'big kid' arcade!  So fun!

I learned that it's best to have your bachelorette party a little further in advance, rather than the weekend of your wedding.  We did this two nights before and I was so exhausted from wedding stuff.  But it was still a great time anyway!

Engagement Pictures

My sister, Amber, has always had a love for photography.  So she agreed to take our engagement pictures for us!  We had a lot of fun doing them and I love how they turned out.

November 2007

See?  I told you I love how they turned out. :-)