Our Honeymoon!

kan niet wachten om naar st. maarten!

For you non-Dutch-speakers, that says "can't wait to go to St. Maarten!" Yes, we are SO very excited for our honeymoon in St. Maarten. We will be staying at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort on the Dutch side of the island. After planning this awesome wedding for nearly 2 years, we will definitely be ready for a week in paradise...where our phones don't work :-) Some things we are looking forward to include:

Horseback riding
Snorkeling near a shipwreck 
Drinking the drink of the island, the Guavacolada
Scope out some sea turtles on Tintamarre Island 
See the planes land over our heads on Maho Bay

Man! What kind of vacation is this going to be? Let's be honest, we'll probably get maybe 2 of these things done :-)

108 days to go till the main event. Hope to see you all there!

Live Web Stream!

Can I just say that I LOVE our DJ? DJRockhand and his amazing assistant Keyla are inching their way into "most accommodating vendor" category.

As we know that many of you will not be able to travel to our wedding in Puerto Rico, we are bringing the wedding to you!!!!!!!!

Save this link: http://www.ustream.tv/user/djrockhand as it will be the live stream link for our wedding reception, courtesy of DJRockhand and Keyla. Just click, log-in and watch. While we won't be able to hear/see you, we'll stop by and say hi and make sure you get to stop by whenever you want.

Hope you are as excited about this as we are!

So many things!

So many things have been happening, but I guess that's usually how it is with my posts on here.

But, let's see, let's see. Well, first, I ordered one of those personalized hangers for my dress that says "Mrs. Pickett, 10-13-12" on it and that came in the mail last week. It was the first time I've seen my "new" name in print and it was very exciting!

Then, we picked my wedding ring up from being sized and it is gorgeous. I can't wait to wear it all the time (instead of just when the house is empty, to avoid judgers!)

After that, we booked the hair and makeup lady, Caridad Vidro. Very excited to be working with her and I know she'll do a great job and make me look as gorgeous as I want!

Steve has been put in charge of the rehearsal dinner, and he's doing a great job! We are actually in the final contract phase of negotiations with Soleil Beach Club. The menu is going to be absolutely awesome and I'm glad it won't be repetitive of what we'll be serving on Saturday night for the wedding. Puerto Rico has so many wonderful dishes and I think showing our guests a variety while also having options that they are used to will be a real treat!

And today we booked our flights along with our awesome photographer and his wife's flights! SO. EXCITED!!!!!

The invites will be back from the calligrapher soon and then we will be finishing them up, stamping them and mailing them out--hopefully by the end of April or early May.

I'm sure there are other little things that I've forgotten to mention (like how I need to send these brooches to our awesome flower person ASAP; get the rest of the centerpieces ordered and shipped to my cousin in PR; finalize the timeline; lose 10 more lbs; etc.) but those are the highlights.

201 days and man are they FLYING by!

An updated to-do list:

Get parents gifts

Mail brooches for bouquet to Ohio (THANKS AGAIN ROBIN!!!)

Get in touch with after-party entertainment (need a Spanish speaker for this job)

Order pinwheels/sand/votives and votive holders

Get marriage license

Decide on programs
Do floor-plan

Get cake server/champagne flutes (if we're even having this?)

Get honeymoon clothes

Outline ceremony with Uncle Rocco

Finish marriage-prep classes/get Steve baptized (ugh, such a huge pain)

Finalize honeymoon details

Send song list to DJ

Do day-of timeline

Finalize rehearsal dinner

Cake n' other fun things

Happy Valentine's Day, lovebirds. And if you're single today, then Happy Tuesday---I baked you some cupcakes :-)

We've had a lot happen this week and still more to come:

1.) We sent in the contract for our cake--yay! So excited about it! Here is the design (although, I can't figure out why it's upside down, so...sorry):

Wait till you see the cake topper :-)_

2.) Steve bought his suit for the wedding--DOUBLE YAY! I'm excited to see all the guys so dressed up and lookin' awesome :-) Groomsmen will be in this (sans hideous pink shirt and bow tie) and Steve will be in the same thing only with this as well.

3.) Invites--we order them on Friday and then drop them off with the calligrapher to be addressed and will send them out April-ish. It's hard because we are holding off inviting a lot of our friends and plus 1's until we get a better idea of family who will be attending, but I'm pretty confident everyone will understand and be supportive of this decision.

So, here's a short list of everything that I still need to do in 240 some-odd days:

Find a hair, makeup, massage therapist and mani/pedi person

Get groomsgift

Get parents gifts

Postage for invites

Mail brooches for bouquet to Ohio (THANKS AGAIN ROBIN!!!)

Get in touch with after-party entertainment (need a Spanish speaker for this job)

Find 7-8 in. clear glass vases for centerpieces

Order pinwheels/sand/votives and votive holders

Get marriage license

Get passport

Decide on programs

Do tentative timeline

Do floor-plan

Decide on table assignments or free-seating

Get cake server/champagne flutes (if we're even having this?)

Get honeymoon clothes

Book flights for me, Steve, photographer and his wife

Outline ceremony with Uncle Rocco

Finish marriage-prep classes/get Steve baptized (ugh, such a huge pain)

Finalize honeymoon details

Figure out what to do with the doggies

Send song list to DJ

Do day-of timeline

Finalize rehearsal dinner

This list actually isn't that bad, I'd say. :-)

PRODUCTIVITY!!

Today has been exceptionally productive!

1.) Some amazing friends brought gorgeous brooches for me so that I can have a brooch bouquet for the wedding! What a rad idea for "something borrowed!" These are really spectacular pieces. A good friend also has a rhinestone donkey so I don't have to be without my ideals on my wedding day :-) Can't wait for Stephen Gosling to get some pics of that!

2.) In the final stages of booking our DJ. DJ Rockhand is gonna be in the house! He has fantastic reviews on Wedding Wire and he's been very responsive and accommodating to our budget. Can't wait to dance my face off.

3.) Our dear friend and very talented photographer has offered to set up a photobooth for guests. How. Freakin. Fun. Is. That?! I can't wait to find some cool props for people to use :-) I think it'll add just that little touch of awesomeness so that people are guaranteed to have a great time.

4.) My fiance is notorious for winning stuff (the lottery, tickets, free stuff in general) and did not let me down, as he just won a big cash prize from an area radio station! I love him and the crazy things that happen to us continue to amuse me :-)

Just thought I'd give a quick update, since so much happened!

Getting more and more excited with each day that goes by.

Transportation/Rehearsal Dinner

Man! They were not kidding when they said about this time the days start to fly by. Since November 3 people I know have gotten married and at least that many engaged, so CONGRATULATIONS to you newbies! I feel like a veteran engaged girl since I've been engaged for EVER, but it really is starting to not feel like it's been that long.

Anyway, work has been slow lately so I've had some time to do some much needed wedding planning. Since I returned from PR, I've contacted some DJ's, a band, the pinwheel lady...but most importantly, I'm working on solidifying the rehearsal dinner. The hotel is going to charge a lot more than we budgeted, so we are trying to organize a nice meal for 30 or so guests (12 in the wedding party including us, plus their spouses and kids and our immediate families...eesh!) and let me tell you: it is not easy.

The CMIV (courtyard by mariott isla verde) is located at the very end of a long strip of hotels and resorts, so transportation is not easy to find. The surrounding neighborhood isn't spectacular nor is it filled with a ton of nice restaurants (although, Steve did suggest having our rehearsal dinner at Denny's....nothing says "spend your life with me" like a nice Moons Over My Hammy). But, we also really wanted to make our rehearsal dinner a unique occasion. The toughest part is trying to find a way to get everyone over to San Juan. No, it isn't far, but it's far enough that we need some kind of transport.

Apparently, in the form of this:

Yes. That is the ONLY vehicular option to transporting people. -_-

Anyway, I'm waiting to hear back from a few services on how much it would be to rent a couple of 15 passenger vans for a few hours. So, will keep you posted.

As for rehearsal dinner, we've got some good options (assuming we can all get there).

Barrachina claims to be the birthplace of the original pina colada. Now, if that's true or not, I have no idea, but chances are it means the PC's are pretty good (the Yelp reviews seem to support that claim as well). Not to mention, on Friday nights they have flamenco dancers! How fun?!

I'm excited about this option and they have reasonable prices, so let's hope some sorry sucker has a caravan of pedi cabs they can send to pick all of us up after the ceremony rehearsal :-) Otherwise, we may get the walking tour of the shady side of Puerto Rico...and whoever lives to tell about it can come to the wedding the next day.

Bienvenidos a Puerto Rico!

My mom and I just returned from 5 days in Puerto Rico to visit the Courtyard by Mariott Isla Verde Beach Resort, taste the menu for the wedding, taste the cake and also to attend my cousin Diego's wedding in Vega Baja. As soon as I got off the plane, there was a sign that said "You are in Paradise." Boy was I ever! This island is the most spectacular place I've ever seen and I cannot wait to get married there! We did so much, but I'll try to keep this post mostly wedding-related :-)

The first thing we did was taste the menu:

Yep. See all that food? Just a sample of the wedding buffet! It's traditional Puerto Rican food, but there are plenty of items for people who are a little less adventurous (and especially kids) including 4 salads, plain and traditional rices, chicken, pork and vegetarian options. We also have hors d'oeuvres for cocktail hour, which are delicious! COME HUNGRY!

We also decided on our welcome drink, which I'll keep a surprise for now. I was so sad Steve couldn't come with us, but I was texting him the whole time and sending him tons of pictures so I hope he felt he was still a part of the decision-making process.

After we ate, it was time for a tour. We couldn't get into the room to take pics, but we did see it (there was a meeting going on). It was perfect! So pumped!

This is the view of the pool area where I will walk out.

This is our cocktail area that is currently under construction but will be finished in 2 months. Plenty of time! I can't wait to post the after-pics. They are also adding a deck and patio to this area so it will look really amazing.

One of 2 kiddie pools, since we are expecting at least 11 kids!

Between these palm trees on the grass will be our ceremony. I told them the people in the hammocks could stay, but the hotel assured me that the hammocks will be gone for the ceremony :-)

This is the lobby facing the door of the hotel. So lovely!

Ariel shot of our ceremony cite from one of the ocean view rooms.

See those little red things on the chairs? You don't even have to get up to go get another drink. You just raise the little flag and someone will come and wait on you. The ocean is behind you if you're facing the pool.

Then, we went to taste cake! It was so delicious!! It was also about double the price of the same cake my cousin had at his wedding on Sunday. So, we are going to go with the same flavor and save a few hundred dollars and get the same quality :-) Oh the joys of knowing people who actually live on the island!

I also got the name of the wonderful girl who does my cousin's hair and makeup as well as a few other surprises that we're going to have for our guests to really make the night memorable.

If you ever have the choice to do a destination wedding, DO IT. You will save yourself a ton of money, a lot of stress and grief too!

Everything is pretty much locked down and all I have to do is show up with my dress and my finance. It's really REAL now and we could not be more excited!

If you'd like more information on the wedding, please make sure to visit our wedding web site and make sure to book your hotel early!

There is a room block available at the Courtyard by Mariott Isla Verde Beach Resort under "RaeAnn Roca and Steve Pickett Wedding" for our date, so go ahead and book it now if you want :-)

Hope you're getting just as excited as I am!!!