you can never have too many sunsets

Hellooooooo!  Long time no talk.

I am so very glad the wedding is over.  I think I spent the first three days of our honeymoon just smiling and repeating to myself, "It’s OVER! I’m so happy it’s finally over!  I can’t believe it’s over!"  It felt (and still feels) so good.

Not that we didn’t enjoy every stinking minute.  Because we definitely did.

It was the perfect weekend, everything we could have possibly asked for and more.  At least almost everything, things always go wrong.  But overall, it was absolutely fabulous and I feel so blessed to have had such an incredible wedding weekend.

And then the really good stuff started – Aruba!  What a beautiful island… the perfect place for a honeymoon.  Gorgeous beaches, stunning sunsets over the water every night, delicious food, dinners right on the beach with your toes in the sand, and casinos where we actually won money!  It doesn’t get much better than Aruba.

But back to the wedding.  Everything kicked off on Friday with my bridesmaids luncheon, thrown by my mom’s best friend and her mother.  Every bride should have one of these as it was such a great opportunity to spend time with all of the women in my life (we invited my bridesmaids, our mothers/grandmothers, and my aunts).  And it was an excellent way to start the wedding festivities.

When it ended, the bridesmaids and I headed to the nail salon for manicures/pedicures.  I rarely get mani/pedis, so it was a nice treat for all of us to relax and pamper ourselves.

From there, we went straight to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Nothing special or out of the ordinary there… it was just really nice to have all of our very favorite people in one place, celebrating our relationship and excited for the big day ahead.  

After dinner ended, all of my bridesmaids and my college friends went over to my hotel room.  This was probably my favorite part of Friday – hanging out with my best friends.  Victor and Claire came down from Boston, James and Jacob drove in from Williamsburg, Liz and Scott were there, along with all of the bridesmaids and dates, coming from Buffalo, Nashville, Memphis, and Pennsylvania… having all of these people who mean so much to me in the same place at the same time never happens.  And I loved every minute.

Everything on the day of the wedding went fabulously.  We spent the day in my hotel room getting ready, and no one was rushed at all.  I’d been a bit worried about that, but everything just flowed smoothly.  It was seriously the happiest day of my life, and I couldn’t stop reliving it for at least a week after it was over.  

The next day, we hosted a brunch for the bridal party and out of town guests.  I wasn’t sure at first if it’d be worth the money, but I’m so glad we did it.  We didn’t get to spend much quality time with our family at the wedding, so it was great to talk with the folks who traveled to Richmond for us and express how much it meant to us that they could make it.  

I’m working on an album of wedding pics to put on Facebook, but I’m having trouble cutting the images to less than 250… I’m sure not everyone wants to look at 250 pictures of our wedding! 

For now, I’ll leave you with a link to a short photo slideshow.  I’m hoping to write an entry with some of my favorite pictures outlining the full day’s events, but we’ll save that for another time.

[Charlotte]