Honeymoon in St. Lucia review

We had a great time on our honeymoon at the Sandals Grande in St. Lucia - We have quite a few friends who are getting married within the next year or so who have asked us to report back on what we thought because they are considering going to the same place/resort.  So here it is:

Resort:  Sandals Grande St. Lucian
Room type:  Honeymoon 1 BR luxury suite w/ Bulter service (pool view)
Stayed:  7 nights in mid September

Things I loved!

·         St. Lucia!  Is a GORGEOUS island – the mountains make for such amazing views, the water is clear, calm and a very pleasant temperature (this is coming from someone who does not enjoy the ocean….it takes everything in me to go swimming at the beach)

·         All-Inclusive for our honeymoon – it was so nice not to have to have to carry anything except our room key and my camera, we could eat/drink when we wanted to and didn’t have to worry about a bill, there was a “no tipping” policy on the resort so there were never any uncomfortable moments like “should we tip? How much?” etc… Bottled water, sodas, beer, wine and liquors were all provided for us in our room everyday also which was very convenient. 

·         The service was great!  Whether someone was making our bed, seating us for dinner or answering a question – everyone was very pleasant and spoke very good English – the native language is Creole which is a dialect of French, so their accents were very easy to understand.  

·         Dinners – we had some really good dinners – especially at Gordon’s on the Pier which is the 5-start restaurant included for guests with Butler service and is an additional charge if you do not have the Butler service – it was the most perfect atmosphere – only about 10-12 tables literally on the water, with an open kitchen and AMAZING food!

·         How close the beach/pool were – I am not a huge fan of sand and salt water although I love looking and listening to the ocean – the pool was practically right next to the beach so it was the best of both worlds for me!  I could be lounging by the pool but looking at the ocean! 

Things I didn’t love….

·         It was honeymooner central.  We expected that there were going to be a lot of honeymooners at the resort since sandals primarily markets to honeymooners/is an adult only resort but I didn’t expect that about 97% of the guests would have been honeymooners and all married on the same day as us.   Usually I am all about making new friends and can small talk with a wall, but after the wedding and coming down with bronchitis all I wanted to do was sit and relax with my husband – I didn’t really want to talk to anyone else or make friends and exchange wedding stories….call it selfish, but I was still basking in remembering my own wedding, I didn’t really want to talk about anyone else’s wedding.  Since you could tell that everyone was on their honeymoon when you were at the pool or at the bar naturally you would start small talking with other couples…which is fine, but then you would run into them over and over again and it felt like you had made friends with them so you were obligated to stop and chat for a little bit.  That got a little annoying to me because by the end of the week it felt like we were on vacation with ourselves and 6 other couple friends which wasn’t exactly what I wanted

o   We did figure out that there were some more private pools we could go to that were very peaceful and still had the great view – the only thing they didn’t have was a swim up bar, which was fine because our butler packed a cooler for us everyday anyways

o   The other place that is not as crowded is the beach – but that’s because there  is no such thing as a private beach in St. Lucia – so there would be a few natives on the beach trying to hustle you to buy necklaces or conch shells or what have you….so we would typically lay our stuff at the pool and if we wanted to go to the beach we would go right into the water to avoid being hustled to buy anything 

·         Some of the food – our dinners were great as I mentioned above, and breakfast was good – we ordered breakfast in our room the first two mornings which was nice to be able to eat on our balcony but we soon realized that the breakfast buffet was much better because it was much more fresh – but lunches got a little boring after a while – and a lot of the food that was offered for lunch felt mass produced – it reminded me of a cruise ship – the first day you get there the food is great, by the end of the week you body is screaming for grilled chicken and a salad.   I also have a mental thing about buffets, that no matter if I like the taste of the food or not, I just sort of get grossed out about the mass production (except breakfast buffets because you typically can get fresh made stuff at breakfast buffets).   There were a few other options for lunch – it was either on the beach which was nice, but sometimes it was just too hot to eat outside or pizza which just gets old after a few times, which is why we opted for the buffet most of the days. 

·         The wine L  The wine brand they serve on the resort is Beringer – after the first two days I was really sick of drinking just blah wine - the white wine started tasting like sugar water and the red wine was just gross….so I ended up buying bottles off the managers list and spent probably $150 on 2 bottles of wine….so, that was something we spent money on that we weren’t expecting but it was worth it to me because I love enjoying wine – especially with dinner.   All inclusive is great for some reasons and bad for reasons like this…your ability to have variety is little limited. 

If we did it again….

·         First of all, I probably wouldn’t go to a Sandals again when we weren’t on our honeymoon….it was great for our honeymoon and I would recommend it if you want a relaxing, tropical vacation where you don’t have to think about anything, but as I mentioned above it was about 97% honeymooners (which colud also have been a result of the time of year we got married….and that our wedding date was 9.10.11) 

·         I would have traded the Butler service for an ocean view room – the sunsets were beautiful, but they set so early that they happened while we were in our room getting ready for dinners – if we had an ocean view room it would have been so nice to sit on the balcony for cocktail hour.             

o   The Butler service was nice to have – but it didn’t make or break our vacation

o   If we didn’t have the Butler service I would however splurge and pay for dinner at Gordon’s…it was my favorite dinner/ atmosphere

·         I would have stayed a little longer – we stayed for 7 nights and I definitely could have done 10 days….It was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had!! 

·         Definitely would have gone on the same boat tour – we booked the tour through a guy on the beach (sketchy….we know but he spoke the truth!) – which goes to all the same places as the tour you can book through the resort (they call it the “Simone Says” tour), but you go with half the amount of people – we only had 6 couples on our boat vs. 15 couples on a boat that the resort takes you on and the guides are super nice/knowledgeable about the island AND they know how to work ANY camera….and will take pictures for you – which was especially helpful to capture the mud bath moments since I would not have brought my camera with me into the sulfur springs!

Overall review:

·         It is an amazing place to honeymoon if you want a no-brainer vacation…we literally booked the room and the flights – we didn’t have to plan anything else to do while we were there and still had an amazing time.  It was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had which is exactly what I needed after the excitement of the wedding and the go-go-go of a month we had before the wedding with buying our house, moving and getting ready for the wedding. 

His and Hers Wedding Day Stories

The Wedding day has come and gone - and what would my little attempt at keeping a blog to document the process be without a summary of our wedding day?!  It would be like a book with no ending.  So, while Jon and I were on our honeymoon we started asking each other questions about what the other person was doing at a certain point in time and I got the idea to do a "his and hers" blog post - if not for anything else it will help us remember our wedding day because there are already so many things that I am forgetting already!  So here it is....I will do two more postings - a review on our honeymoon and our wedding day in Pictures before I finish publishing on this blog and move on from being a bride-to-be to a wife. 

1.       What time did you wake up and what did you do?

Jamie:  I woke up at 6:15.  Surprisingly I was able to get a pretty good night sleep (I think having bronchitis and a few glasses of champagne at the rehearsal dinner helped that!)  When I woke up I could hear the rain outside my window which immediately depressed me – I knew that if I could hear the rain that meant it was raining pretty hard.  I went outside to check out the damage and the yard and tents were a mess.  In a couple areas of the tent, water had started gathering forming big dips in the tent structure which made them look like they were going to give way and fall down and it was causing little mini waterfalls in multiple areas which in turn made mud puddles all around the tent.  The ground was soaked –which was an issue since I had chosen chivari chairs which have 4 small posts as legs – they have a tendency to sink into the ground when the ground is wet.   It was pure misery outside, I started trying to push the water off of the top of the tent and I immediately got soaked by all the water on the top.  I decided to go back inside and get back in bed and I immediately started sobbing – I just couldn’t think about how unfair it was – how I knew so many people who got beautiful days and had seen so many pictures of beautiful weather and I remember just thinking “this sucks” there was pretty much no other way to describe it because I knew I couldn’t control it.   I thought the beautiful tented wedding on my parent’s lakefront was going to be ruined by muddy grounds and waterfalls running off the tops of the tents.  I thought for sure we were going to have to pull the ugly plastic walls of the tent and the scenery surrounding the tents (the biggest reason I wanted to have the wedding at my parents house) was going to be blocked and the only thing guests would be able to see around them would be plastic.  And yes, I kept trying to tell myself “the day is not about the wedding, it’s about getting married” but when you spend 15 months of your life planning 1 day, it’s really hard to see the big picture. 

When my alarm went off at 7:50 I went into my mom’s room and fell into her bed sobbing “there is water on the top of the tents and they are falling down”.  I could tell that panicked her but she was trying so hard to be strong for me – she comforted me and told me to get in the shower and not to come outside until they told me to and she and my dad, my two brothers, a bridesmaids brother and quite a few helping hands from great friends across the lake went to work.  I am pretty sure the mess was much bigger than I originally thought because at one point I looked out and my dad had recruited not only our contractor friend, but his dad as well who had been in the construction business for years – I knew there was some complicated issues that needed a professional opinion.  (Turns out it was electrical issues – we were blowing fuses with all the lights in the tent!!!).   

When all my bridesmaids arrived (right on schedule at 8:50) I was still not ready –  but I could hear them outside and they were SO excited.  Thank god, because hearing all their excitement started putting me in a better mood.   We went on to have the morning that I had planned –with breakfast, hair, makeup and chair massages. 

Jon:  I woke up around 9:45.  I tried to fall back asleep but I was pretty awake so I just decided to not fight it.  At this point I figured no one would be up but Justin was in fact awake (probably for awhile)  In the next hour slowly more people started emerging from their rooms into the living room.  College Gameday is on TV and we are just small talking while I keep looking outside at the rain.  (Oh Jamie didn’t mention that part?)  At this point I’m a little worried, more about what she is thinking because whether rain or shine I knew today would be perfect regardless.  As we get towards 11AM, us being guys, the first thing we try to organize is when we plan on eating.  I tell everyone that breakfast will be provided at some point and Justin reassures this statement simply by checking The Itinerary.

It is around 11:30 and we are pretty hungry at this point.  A few people decide to head to Sheetz so naturally, I tell them to get me food thinking that if the food doesn’t arrive that I’m covered, but if it does then it’s a bonus.  Turns out the food never arrived.  If Jamie was going to forget about anything all weekend, this was the least big of deal.  The moral of the story: Sheetz solves all problems.

*** side note – I did intend on having breakfast delivered to the groomsmen cottage….but when I got bronchitis the week of the wedding and I had to spend 3 hours at med-express the day before the wedding it took the time away from me going to the grocery store. 

2.       When did you start to get nervous?

Jamie: I wasn’t nervous until I sat down to get my hair done.  I was the last person to have my hair done and I was totally relaxed (or just bummed out about the weather and was trying not to show it which in turned appeared as relaxed) before that – just watching everyone else have their hair and make-up done.   I remember sitting down and I felt a pit in my stomach – it was the butterflies going to jump out of your throat nervous.   The nervousness didn’t  really end until I got to the end of the alter when Jon and I were holding hands in front of the priest and the priest looked at both of us and said “I want you to smile because if you smile you are going to remember this.  Everything is going to be fine, the weather is clearing up and you are going to have a beautiful day.”   This was the most perfect thing that the priest could have said to me at this point  - the radar was not showing that the weather was going to clear up – but for some reason I believed it would since the priest said it would  - he has an in with the big man, right?!

Jon:  I was pretty calm, cool, collected up until I started putting on my tux.  At this point the thought of: “yes, this day has finally come” popped into my head.  Wasn’t really nervous but it just started setting in.  Once I was dressed I was fine for the pictures, the ride over and arriving at the church.  As soon as I was in the back room with Chris, Father Steve and the alter boy, the music started playing.  THAT is when the nervousness kicked into high gear.  Luckily I did not start sweating like crazy like I thought I would.  It did not subside until we sat down for the first time leaving the altar.  Everything past that was just happiness.

3.       What did you think when you were walking down the aisle/saw Jamie walking down the aisle?

Jamie: I remember thinking about how I couldn’t believe that we filled the church up.  There were people in every single row of the church.  I saw a lot of familiar faces on the walk down that all were smiling at me and when I got about ¾ of the way down my dad turned to me and chuckled in his nervous chuckle “that’s a lot of people” and I remember thinking “I am thinking the SAME thing!”.  I don’t remember seeing Jon until I was about 4 pews away from him and when I looked at him he was crying.  I had been tearing up on the way down, but for some reason seeing Jon cry just made me smile – I sorta figured if he was crying that must mean he liked the way I looked.

Jon:   I was very nervous and emotional the whole time.  Every time one of her bridesmaids passed me they smiled at me, some with tears in their eyes knowing how great this was.  I finally saw her emerge in the back before she walked and it couldn’t have been a better sight.  I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire time she walked down.  The whole time I was up there I kept noticing how crowded the church was, yet I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.  I think she saw my crying and smiled. 

4.       What was your favorite part of the day?

Jamie: It’s so hard to pick a favorite moment of the day because I can honestly say it was the best day of my life - but I think that when I got down to the end of the aisle was when I started to relax, I knew at that point the wedding was going to go on no matter what. 

I think my favorite part of the day was when Jon and I were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Roby at the church – we got outside to start the receiving line my wedding day-of- coordinator came over to me with her iPhone and said “this is what the radar is doing – do you want to go with plan A or plan B? while showing me a weather map(Plan A was to have the bridal party take a boat ride and arrive to the reception via boat).  I looked at the moving radar and the green clouds were moving in the exact OPPOSITE direction of Conneaut Lake – and then there was a teeny tiny burst that possibly was coming right for us but it was hard to tell.  Jon looked at her and said “Lets do it, you only live once” – so with that the one part of the day that was really reliant on the weather was going to work out in our favor – I was so excited!  If we could make it through pictures and cocktail hour without rain, the rest of the evening would not have been ruined if it did rain since we had tents.   It actually turned out to be perfect – the weather cleared up enough, but it was still a bit overcast – and the photographer told me it was the best lighting we could have asked for!  I hope he was right J

Jon:  It is EXTREMELY hard to just pick one moment, but I might have to say my favorite moment was after the First Dance when I finally was able to begin mingling and talking with all of the people that were gracious enough to make the trip to celebrate our day.  It was great seeing everyone in the church and in the receiving line, but that got to be a little overwhelming at times.  It was nice to visit with everyone at my own pace.  Some of these people I had not seen in a long time and ALL of them came all this way just for us.  It was pretty surreal when you thought about it.  That and just enjoying the entire night was everything I could have asked for and it was honestly the best night of my life.

5.       What was your least favorite part of the day?

Jamie: Well, if we don’t count waking up to a falling in tent, and pouring down rain, my least favorite part was our first dance.  I sorta knew that I was going to feel awkward – just because Jon and I aren’t big  on having intimate moments in public –especially with so many people watching – which is why I wanted to take dance lessons and have our first dance choreographed (I figured having dance moves to focus on would help take my mind off so many people looking at us) – but that had to be given up when I moved to Baltimore because it would have meant 4 other weekends we would have had to drive to Pittsburgh in addition to all the other traveling we were doing.   I remember looking around and just seeing SO many cameras and even a camcorder.  Jon and I were whispering to each other “how much longer do you think?”, “do you think its almost over?” haha – when the end of the song came and Jon twirled and dipped me I remember thinking “PHEW! Time to get the real party started”.  

Jon:  I would probably say being pulled aside numerous times during the reception for pictures.  When we had gotten there, all I wanted to do was eat, drink and interact with everyone but we were being beckoned for more and more pictures.  I feel that I will appreciate them when I see them because I’m sure that they turned out great, however at the time I was pretty pictured out.

6.       Would you have changed anything?

Jamie: I wish it could have been longer – or that there were 5 of me that day – I wish I could have been on the dance floor and talking to all our guests at the same time. 

Jon:  I would have made the party go longer.  I did not want any parts of leaving however if we did not leave, the party I don’t think would have ended.  Everyone was having the time of their life.

7.       Was it worth it?

Jamie:  Yes, absolutely.  There are different opinions and view points – some people say “just take the money and do something small”, others say they “wouldn’t trade it for the world”– and yes, it was stupidly expensive because add the word “wedding” to anything and you can expect the price to jump about 200%, but I am on the side of would not have traded it for the world.   I can honestly say that is was the best day of my life and probably will be until Jon and I decide to start a family.  It’s a pretty rare occasion when you get to look around and see everyone you love in one place, to have friends and family together all for a happy occasion.  I can say that mine and Jon’s families will probably never socialize like that ever again since our families are from different cities and we are all scattered across the states. It was so cool to see my family talking to my friends, my family talking to Jon’s family, Jon’s friends talking to my family, etc. everyone dancing together and acting like they had known each other for years.  I don’t think that will ever happen again and it was priceless to look around and see so many important people in mine and Jon’s lives in one place and having a great time.  It was worth every tear, every bridezilla outburst, every sleepless night I spent dreaming about half empty jars of candy and all sorts of crazy wedding mishaps and you will have to ask my dad to be sure– but I believe it was worth every pennyJ. 

Jon:  No doubt in my mind it was.  There were plenty of stressful and annoying parts to organizing and planning (of which I did very little compared to Jamie) but in the end it was worth it.  It really was the best day possible with the best people possible and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Anyone who stresses out during the process can be rest assured that it really is the best day ever.  All those people are all there to see you and your spouse on your special day and it really does feel like YOUR day.  Enjoy it while it lasts because the next morning you will wake up and want to do it all over again.

Please no more umbrella pics

So, I have been told that beyond 5 days out, the farmers almanac is actually more accurate than the 10 day weather forecast, but I just can't help myself from checking the weather everyday - multiple times a day.  Today the 10 - day forcast is calling for 60% chance of rain on Thursday-Sunday next week.  Ugh.  It rained for our engagement pictures and we got some cute photos with the umbrella, but almost every picture frame in my house right now is a picture of Jon and I under an umbrella - I would really like to fill some with sunshine pics.  Paleease change, weather forcast, palease!!! 

Final days

Its been a while since I have posted about wedding things and thats because Jon and I bought a house about 3 weeks ago.  The final few weeks leading up to actually closing were pretty stressful and it seemed like everyday there was a new issue that arrived.  We ended up closing on the day that we originally had planned on and then Jon and I left as soon as we were done signing the next 30 years of our life away for our bachelor/bachlorette weekends. 

Since closing on the house I literally feel like every second of everyday is planned out.  People keep asking me how I feel that the wedding is getting so close and to be honest - that changes by the hour.  One hour I am completely overwhelmed by vendors calling to check-in, a contractor calling to come finish work at our house and a furniture delivery guy calling to say hes running behind and the next minute I just feel excited and anxious. 

Truth is, buying the house was a great decision- we are very happy with it, but I just wish I had more patience for our life to be out of sorts for a little while- its killing me that there are still unpacked boxes, packing materials and rooms that need to be painted and I know I just need to tell myself to slow down.  After all, I will need some projects to work on when we get back from the honeymoon or else I might go into depression that the wedding is over and I don't have anything to plan anymore. 

After moving in a hurricane this weekend, I had goals to refinish two pieces of furniture this week and decided that I need to refocus on wedding things and start to get myself excited because last week I was so stressed I wasnt even excited, I was just overwhelmed.  Between coordinating 3 contractors, 2 pieces of furniture being delivered, scheduling a moving truck, a washer and dryer to be delivered, working our move around an imending hurricane, all while trying to keep my final dress fitting appointment and final stationary arppointment and working my 8-5 job - I didnt sleep for 3 days and I think I only ate 2 meals in that time span.  These are my final days as a bride-to-be and I really want to enjoy them. 

This week I feel better, the house has enough furniture for us to sleep and eat in for the few days that we will actually be here before the wedding and I have moved all the unpacked boxes into one location so we arent tripping on them. I have been able to switch my focus back to seating charts and floral arrangements, and packing for the honeymoon!! 

One of the Best Parts

I would be lying if I said getting shower and wedding gifts wasn't one of the best parts about getting married.  I can't ever remember a time that I ever recieved this many gifts - not one Christmas, Birthday or Graduation called for as many packages to be opened.  And thanks to modern technology and the genious who invented wedding registries - I like every.single.gift.  Even though I selected the things we wanted as shower and wedding gifts, it was still so much fun to open things becuase I had no idea who had purchased what and it was fun to sort of see people's own personalities and styles in their selections. I could tell that even though I had narrowed down the selection for people, that everyone really put some thought into what they chose to give us.  A lot of people would write little notes in my gifts and say something like "I have this and love it! you will too..."  Others would buy something that I had picked off my registry and then add a few of their own ideas too -- like a group of my lake friends picked crystal wine glasses off my registry and then added a whole basket of wine-themed accessories, complete with Jamie & Jon personalized wine bottle lables - how creative is that?!

Since Jon and I were living long distance until May and we are still not living together and I am in a small temporary apartment until we close on our new house and move in after the wedding - figuring out where to have gifts sent and where to store all of the gifts we recieved was a logistical challenge. Some needed to be sent to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh showers, some were sent to Jon's parents house and then transported for my Baltimore shower and some were just sent to my  parents house or Jon's parents house.  Thank goodness for Jon's parents enormous basement that I very quickly turned into my wedding gift storage unit. 

(before) 

Those gifts have been shipped from warehouses to homes, from stores to homes, from homes to parties, from parties, to home, from Pittsburgh down to Baltimore and from parties back to Jon's parents house.  And thanks to Jon and his Dad I haven't had to cart all those boxes up and down any stairs.  So to say thanks for carting all these gifts around I figured I would take some time to organize and try to make the most out of re-packing everything so that its fewer boxes to move when Jon and I move into our new house.  I think I was quite sucessful if I do say so myself.

(After) 

Each one of those boxes is labled and categorized so that we know exactly what we are opening when we have to unpack.  And I think I reduced the number of boxes that we are going to need to transport yet again by at least 15 boxes - thats like 10 trips up and down the steps that we wont need to take.  Jon thinks I am crazy but I think he will thank me come moving day.

Bridal shower #3

This past weekend was my third and final bridal shower, followed by a bridesmaid luncheon on Sunday.  All three of my bridal showers were great - each of the hosts thought of my personality when planning and without me giving too much direction made each of the days exactly how I would have planned them for myself.  I am not going to play favorites, but I had SO much fun at my third bridal shower.  My third bridal shower was hosted by my MOH, her mom and my 8 bridesmaids.  The first thing that I loved was that my MOH ordered invitations and then took the invitations to the stationary store where I got our wedding invitations made and had the owner match the graphic on the invite to make a registry card - I loved it. The second thing that I loved was how they chose one of my favorite recipes to serve -- Grilled chicken sandwiches with mozzarella, pesto and sun dried tomatoes on cibatta bread -- my MOH's mom's specialty and I would always request it if we were ever having parties and our parents offered to send food.  I had totally forgotten about how much I loved it until I caught a glimpse of her mom in the kitchen putting the sandwiches together.  Check these out :)

So the food was great, there were yummy drinks - hand purred peach Bellinis - and then we moved onto opening gifts, which is always fun for the bride, but sometimes can be a little painful for the guests, to all my friends who get married after me, I promise I will ooo and ahh at all of your kitchen accessories because I know how excited I was myself to receive them. Something happened at this bridal shower that made me laugh so hard - I never thought it was possible to laugh this hard at a bridal shower.  I am going to try to tell this story, but it might be one of those things where 'you had to be there' - but I am going to try....

 While I was in the middle of opening up gifts, I was handed a card and a package in a white bag - the name on the card said "Pa P!" I thought this was weird - but I have a lot of nick names and I thought maybe this was just one that I had forgotten about, so I continued to open up the card.  When I opened the card the front of it said "Grandpa, on Father day...." so I started laughing, I thought, hmm this must be a joke and when I open the card I am going to 'get it'.  So, I continued to open the card and when I read the names on the bottom of the card I got even more confused it said Love,  Mya (I have a cousin named Mya), Michael (my brother's name) and Abby (My brother's dog). I kept repeating the names "Mya, Michael and Abby" thinking that someone in the crowd was going to speak up and say something....While I was repeating the names, one of our friends from our lake house was sitting in the back saying to the people around her "Why is she saying my grand kids names?" This went on for a good minute or two and finally after laughing so hard that I was almost crying she figured out that she brought in the wrong gift and wrong card and she jumped up and grabbed it from me.  Here is a picture of me opening up the father's day card. 

Definitely made watching me open my gifts a bit more entertaining :)

There were a lot of other things that I loved about the day but the last thing that was a surprise to me, but I loved it and I can't wait to make it an ongoing tradition as the rest of my friends start getting married is a charm cake!  I had never heard of a charm cake before but apparently it is a southern tradition.  The idea is that a baker will place a charm on a piece of ribbon  for the bride and her bridesmaids in the cake while it is being iced and then everyone pulls out the charm at the same time.  Each bridesmaid and the bride gets a different charm with a different meaning. 

I got a four-leaf clover which symbolizes good luck (how fitting for a bride-to-be?!) and the other ones were: 

A tree of life, symbolizing a life of stability
A wishing well, symbolizing that a wish will be granted
A Palm Tree, symbolizing a life of relaxation
An Anchor, symbolizing a life of stability
An Engagement Ring, symbolizing a happy marriage or to be the next in line to wed
A Fleur de Lis, symbolizing wealth and prosperity
A Flower, symbolizing a blossoming relationship
A Shell, symbolizing eternal beauty

It was such a fun idea and the cake was delicious....another one of my favorite things :)

The day after the bridal shower, my grandma hosted a bridesmaid luncheon for me and my bridesmaids which was so great because since we are scattered all over the place it was nice to be able to have some time to sit around a table and eat and talk, but once the luncheon was over and all the out of town guests left, let down was starting to sink in....the weekend went by so fast.  I guess I should start preparing myself for what the wedding weekend will feel like.  The only thing that is helping me be OK with thinking about the wedding being over is that Jon and I get to go on vacation.....well, and I guess I have being married to look forward to also :)

Praying for one of these

  Here are a few pics from this weekend....I can only hope for one like any of these on the night of our wedding :)