**This Relaxation Thing Looks GOOD On Us!-Our July 2012 Honeymoon**NEW TR LINK!!!!!!!

[CAStevens218]

We are going to the world for our honeymoon too! Less than 2 months away for us, I can't wait!!!!!

Only 2 months away, so exciting!!!! It will go by sooo fast! Everyone says that, but it honestly, truly does!

Your “bachelorette party” looks like so much fun! That race must've been a something, too! Your JP story made me laugh. Mary Margaret?? Okay then.. Ours' made himself memorable by repeatedly getting lost on the way to us! I think I would've preferred he call me Mary. Fun/odd memory for you anyway! I hope he gets it right during the ceremony!!

Loving this! Mystic looks really pretty, btw. (Even with an itchy friend in your shot! ) I know I've heard John talk about it a time or two, but I can't remember why..

I can't wait to see the wedding!!

Oh man, at least my guy was on time! I think his wife is the one in charge of that marriage though…I don’t think he had anything to do with getting himself there! It must have been so frustrating waiting for your guy to get there! It will definitely be a story to tell for years to come!

Mystic is great, we love going down there just to walk around. There are some great restaurants too! I always forget that John is originally from CT! And my friend would kill for me that one! I thought I edited it before I uploaded to photobucket, but I guess I didn’t save it!

Joining in!

Yayy, thanks for reading!

I'm in and can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading along again!!

How is your half marathon training going?

OHHHH! Subbing! wedding and disney moon TRs get me. I'm so in!


I'm doing the Color Run 5K in December in Orlando!

Thanks for joining in!

You will have a GREAT time at the Color Run! We loved it!

 

[CAStevens218]

We woke up Sunday morning with intentions to hit the gym at the hotel, but we ended up laying in bed for a couple hours just chatting and relaxing! It was a really nice way to start out the day.

We finally dragged ourselves out of bed and packed up all of our stuff. We headed out to pamper ourselves in preparation for the wedding. It was manicure and pedicure time! We enjoyed relaxing and chatting some more while we got our nails done. It was great to just spend some relaxing time with my friends on my wedding day rather than being stressed out!!

After our pampering we grabbed lunch at one of our favorite places in Mystic. It is called the Pita Spot, and if you are ever in the area I highly recommend it! It is a Mediterranean restaurant and they have great kabobs and wraps. Yum!!

After lunch it was time to get to work! We checked into our next hotel right on the river in downtown Mystic. It is called the Whalers Inn, and people tend to have heard of it because the Kardashians stayed there and it was on their show! Such a sad reason to be known, but there you go.

The room was beautiful and HUGE, with plenty of room for everyone to get ready. We had two missions to start with…put the centerpieces together and get our hair done. A friend from high school who is now a hair dresser was nice enough to come to the hotel to do everyone’s hair!

Since the wedding was at the aquarium, our décor was inspired by sea glass. The centerpieces were cylinder vases with sea glass in the bottom covering up a submersible LED light. We then put baby’s breath in the vases and submerged them completely in water. It looked fabulous in the darkness inside the aquarium! You will see them in pictures later in the update!

While we put the centerpieces together, we took turns getting our hair done. I love getting my hair done but I hate going to the salon and having to chat with a hairdresser I don’t know, so it was great to have a friend do it!!

Before we knew it, it was time to put our dresses on!!

My dad and brother met us at the hotel and we all made the short drive to the Mystic Aquarium, where the ceremony and reception were being held. We parked in the back and brought in all the decorations. The coordinator met us and we explained how we wanted everything set up.

Then, they whisked us into one of the classrooms to wait so nobody would see us.
Here we are waiting!

My dad, my brother and I:

We got to walk past these guys on our way to the ceremony!

Almost time to walk down the aisle!

We spent the time goofing around, haha!

I don’t have my professional photos yet, so we will have to piece this together with the pictures that my family and friends took!

Here is my wedding party walking down the aisle:

My dad and I:

And now….the big reveal….how freaking awesome was my ceremony!?!??!

That whale hung out by the glass the ENTIRE time! He is very young and very curious, so he likes to check out what is going on!

AMAZING!!

Although I hear he pooped right before we walked down the aisle. I’m just glad he got it out of the way before the ceremony!!

After the ceremony, the wedding party went to take pictures while everyone else enjoyed the cocktail hour! They brought us a plate and they were delicious!! We were able to take pictures all around the aquarium, including near the penguins and, of course, with my friend Juno the whale!!!

Then, it was time to start the fun! We did a receiving line and then headed in for dinner.

The DJ announced us (said Shrina’s name wrong, of course), and then we did our first dance.

Next, it was dinner time and oh boy, the food was GOOD! I was a little too excited to eat much, but what I had was great!!!

We spent the rest of the evening mingling and having fun with our family and friends.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the rest of the night.

We had a fabulous evening of good family and friends, good food and a fantastic venue!!!

Everyone tells you how fast it goes by but, seriously, it goes by SO SO SOOO fast!!!!!

Before we knew it, the lights were being turned on and we were saying bye to everyone!

We were exhausted and happy and relieved all at the same time!

We didn’t have any time to rest though…we were off to Disney World at 10:45AM the next day!!

 

[jedijill]

Love the whale in your pics! How special and unique...your dress is beautiful and love the decorations.

Jill in CO

 

[CAStevens218]

Love the whale in your pics! How special and unique...your dress is beautiful and love the decorations.

Jill in CO

Thanks! I was soo hoping the whale would do that, but there is no guarantee, so I was very happy that it worked out perfectly!

 

[jc040404]

Yay! You're working fast on this one!! I've been so excited to see these wedding pictures and it looks even better than I imagined!! Your dress is gorgeous, the cake is awesome, and those centerpieces are just nifty. Love em! The whale during the ceremony is incredible! He's so cute! I LOVE how he's watching everything. How perfect!! Glad he got his business taken care of early. Congrats again!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Yay! You're working fast on this one!! I've been so excited to see these wedding pictures and it looks even better than I imagined!! Your dress is gorgeous, the cake is awesome, and those centerpieces are just nifty. Love em! The whale during the ceremony is incredible! He's so cute! I LOVE how he's watching everything. How perfect!! Glad he got his business taken care of early. Congrats again!!

Yes, I had the weekend off before going back to work today, so I decided to get a couple of updates in while I had the time!

Thanks for the compliments on the wedding, it all worked out just as I imagined!

The whale was amazing! He just watched the whole thing like he knew what was going on!! It was exactly what I hoped for!!!!!!!!

 

[sweetcanadian]

CONGRATS! 15 days will go by like a flash! Have you had your wedding yet?


Yes, June 30th. It was amazing too.

I love your pics & your flowers look amazing. Getting married in an aquarium is nothing anyone will forget any time soon i am sure.

 

[CAStevens218]

CONGRATS! 15 days will go by like a flash! Have you had your wedding yet?


Yes, June 30th. It was amazing too.

I love your pics & your flowers look amazing. Getting married in an aquarium is nothing anyone will forget any time soon i am sure.

I'm glad you had an amazing wedding as well!

Thanks for the compliments! The aquarium was definitely a unique venue!!

 

[Bewitch324]

Oh my goodness, those pictures of your ceremony with the whale watching are so cool!!

I love your dress and your bridesmaid dresses!

I can't wait to read all about your honeymoon!

Congratulations!

Brooke

 

[CAStevens218]

Oh my goodness, those pictures of your ceremony with the whale watching are so cool!!

I love your dress and your bridesmaid dresses!

I can't wait to read all about your honeymoon!

Congratulations!

Brooke

Thanks for the compliments, the wedding went off just as I imagined! That whale certainly did his job, I should have tipped him!

Hopefully I will be able to get started on the honeymoon tonight!!

 

[729tink]

Love your wedding photos! Will you post your professional ones when you get the? I love Mystic Aquarium and really wanted to get married there but we ended up going somewhere else. It looks like you had a great time. You looked beautiful. Congratulations - can't wait to see more!

 

[PrincessFendi]

CONGRATS on your wedding!!! The venue looked gorgeous! I loved how the whale stayed around for the ceremony.

I remember reading your TR when you went down with your hubby, dad and brother and am excited to read about your relaxing Disneymoon! Congratulations again!!!

 

[Lotjestar]

Congrats on your wedding!!
I totally teared up when I saw the picture of the ceremony with the whale in the background! (I love animals...) Oh, and I totally loved your wedding cake... And the flowers... And your dress!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Love your wedding photos! Will you post your professional ones when you get the? I love Mystic Aquarium and really wanted to get married there but we ended up going somewhere else. It looks like you had a great time. You looked beautiful. Congratulations - can't wait to see more!

I will definitely post our professional photos when we get them! It should be soon!

The aquarium was a GREAT wedding venue, we loved the uniqueness of it! We had looked at other places as well…specifically the Seaport, which we didn’t like, and Harkness Park in Waterford which we LOVE but couldn’t justify spending the $$$$. The aquarium ended up being perfect, anyway!

We definitely had a great time! I was hoping to get started on the trip last night but I ended up spending it writing thank you notes, so hopefully tonight or tomorrow I will get going!

CONGRATS on your wedding!!! The venue looked gorgeous! I loved how the whale stayed around for the ceremony.

I remember reading your TR when you went down with your hubby, dad and brother and am excited to read about your relaxing Disneymoon! Congratulations again!!!

Thank you! The venue was amazing and the whale certainly did his job!!! I hope they gave him some extra fish that night!

Thanks for reading along on the last TR and this one as well! I will (hopefully) get started very soon!!

Congrats on your wedding!!
I totally teared up when I saw the picture of the ceremony with the whale in the background! (I love animals...) Oh, and I totally loved your wedding cake... And the flowers... And your dress!!!

That whale was definitely the star of the show! The best part was that when he came up to breath, he would spray us with some “good luck” rain over the edge of the tank!

Thanks for the compliments, the wedding turned out perfectly!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Let’s get this trip report going, shall we?!!?!

As I mentioned before, we spent the night after the wedding at the Whaler’s Inn in Mystic, CT. We woke up around 6:30AM to make sure we had everything packed up and in the right bags.

Here we are in the room, almost ready to go!

Once we had the room cleared out, we headed down to the complimentary breakfast provided by the hotel. It was basically a continental breakfast, but everything was fresh and really great!

We had waffles with strawberries on top, some really great coffee cake, and fruit. We had a nice window table with a view of the main street of downtown Mystic. We enjoyed our food and the view and had a nice, relaxing breakfast.

When we finished eating, we checked out, returned our key, and, since we had about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport, we decided to take a morning stroll over the Mystic River Bridge.

Mystic has a gorgeous old drawbridge that goes up periodically throughout the day to let large boats pass. It really is beautiful and unique and impressive!

It was a very pretty morning on the Mystic River. Everything was quiet and calm.

We took a few pictures and tried to get a good self portrait.

Ehh, this one came out okay…we tried a lot of times, haha!

After we had our fill of the beautiful morning, we turned around and headed back to the hotel to get the car and start to make our way to the airport.

Here is the Whaler’s Inn:

Our room was the last two windows on the far right on the second floor. We had a fabulous view of the river and downtown.

Pretty…

We were soon back at the hotel and we jumped in the car to drive to the airport in Providence. One of the reasons we had decided to stay in Mystic is that is cut some time off of our drive to the airport as opposed to going hom. It was only going to take about 45 minutes!

Our first stop was Dunkin’ Donuts because I was craving an unsweetened iced tea with lemon! Man, do I love that stuff! Did anyone else get addicted when they had the any size for $.99 in May and June? I totally did and now they jacked the price back up but I still crave it! Tricky tricky!

Unfortunately, this iced tea was a disappointment. Ben had to repeat the order multiple times over the speaker and I should have confirmed it at the window but I didn’t. I took my first sip a few minutes down the highway and realized it was sweetened with some sort of artificial sweetener. Ick! I didn’t drink any more of it after that first sip.

Oh well, I didn’t have time to dwell on it…we were on our way to the airport to go to DISNEY WORLD!! Besides, I could get a new one at the airport!

The drive was quick, easy and traffic free. We were parking in the long term lot at the airport in Providence by 8:45AM, exactly 2 hours before our 10:45AM flight.

Almost as soon as we got our luggage to the shuttle stop, the shuttle arrived and we were in line to check in within 5 minutes! Super easy!!

The airport was almost empty, which was great for us! We LOVE flying out of Providence because it is almost never crowded, and this day was no different! We breezed through checking in, checking our luggage and going through security.

We had a little over an hour before our flight…just the way we like it, no stress!

First mission? Dunkin’ Donuts iced tea!! They got it right this time, and I was a happy camper! We also grabbed a big bottle of water for the plane.

We settled in at the gate and looked at pictures from the wedding that our friends had put on Facebook. We also spotted a man wearing a fabulous outfit of pastel striped shorts and a pastel plaid shirt. He had a pocket square and everything. His wife was even better in a bright purple sweatsuit. I spend some time take discreet photos of them and sending them to my friend Shrina! I'm sure they were a perfectly sweet couple...but their clothes sure were entertaining!!

At some point, we realized we didn’t have any gum, and we like to have it to chew during take-off and landing. We knew it would probably be SUPER expensive in the airport, so we each guessed how much it would be. I said $3 and it ended up being $2.59. Crazy for a pack of gum!

Before we knew it, it was time to board the plane. We were flying Southwest, so I had checked us in online the morning before. We were in the A group, #s 46 and 47, so we knew we would have no trouble getting seats together.

We got window seats toward the front of the plane and settled in for the flight. I took out my book, Ben took out his magazine, and we got comfortable.

The flight was quick, smooth and easy.

However, Ben is terrible to fly with! I always tell him he is like a baby because I think the engines and vibrations put him to sleep. He almost always falls asleep immediately after takeoff, and this flight was no different! He gets groggy and cranky and he never wakes up during our descent, so his ears don’t pop properly because he doesn’t pay attention. Ugh!

We did have a very cool descent, through some huge, fluffy clouds. It was so beautiful! I was sad that I couldn't photograph it, because it was during the time when electronic devices have to be turned off.

Thankfully, Ben bounced back quickly from his nap after we landed. We arrived at MCO at 1:15PM. Our first stop was the restroom, and then we took a ride on the “monorail” so we could head to the Magical Express.

MCO is such a pretty airport!

I was very impressed with myself because…we found the Magical Express on our first try!!!!! We usually end up on the wrong side (A instead of B I think?) and have to go back upstairs and cross over and go back downstairs. This time, we remembered to cross over before going downstairs so we were good to go!

Here we are, proud of ourselves, going down the CORRECT escalator!

There was no line to check in at the Magical Express, so we were talking to our first CM of the trip very quickly! I handed over our booklet as well as our luggage tickets because we only had the yellow tags on two of our four bags. The CM took down the information for our luggage and directed us to the line for the bus to Port Orleans Riverside!

We didn’t have to wait at all since they were loading a bus as we walked to the front of the line.

We were the last ones to get on, so, unfortunately, we didn’t get to sit together. I sat in the back of the bus and Ben sat in the front.

As we headed toward Disney World, we drove into a very rainy day!

Honestly, it didn’t even bother us at all. We had 11 days to enjoy ourselves, and some rain wasn’t going to dampen our spirits!!

We ended up being the very first stop, so we had a quick ride!! The downside to that was that we arrived just as the video was finishing, so we didn’t get to watch any of the cartoons. We love those! Our favorite is the one where Donald Duck says “This is exasperating!!” We say that line all the time!

I’m going to stop here and hit the hay…its midnight!

Up Next: Checking in at Port Orleans Riverside and a tour of our Royal Room!

 

[jc040404]

Is it silly that I'd really kinda like to ride that bus someday? MCO does look nice, too.

Nice start! Minus that tea anyway.. I hate when that happens, but it's usually the other way around for me. I get unsweetened when I want the sugar rush! I had this happen with root beer today actually. We ran through an A&W just to get a root beer. Nothing else. Pull away and have a sip.. Ummm.. No idea what it was, but it sure wasn't root beer! Glad your second tea was the way you like it!

That rain looks rough. I hope it clears up for you. I can't wait to see what you thought of those royal rooms!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Is it silly that I'd really kinda like to ride that bus someday? MCO does look nice, too.

Nice start! Minus that tea anyway.. I hate when that happens, but it's usually the other way around for me. I get unsweetened when I want the sugar rush! I had this happen with root beer today actually. We ran through an A&W just to get a root beer. Nothing else. Pull away and have a sip.. Ummm.. No idea what it was, but it sure wasn't root beer! Glad your second tea was the way you like it!

That rain looks rough. I hope it clears up for you. I can't wait to see what you thought of those royal rooms!!

Riding the Magical Express bus is fun! Not so much this time because it was super crowded and we didn't get to sit together. You kind of want to sit with your travel party to share your excitement! But I made friends with the guy next to me because he was getting dripped on through the window somehow! Like I said, we especially like the cartoons they show after the welcome video, but we didn't get to see any this time! Can't complain about a short ride though!!!

Unsweetened when you are expecting sweet would be terrible as well!! Ugh, what a disappointment to go to A&W just for root beer and then get some mystery drink! We don't have A&Ws around here but I've been to one on Cape Cod once and it was fun!

It was actually raining pretty hard and at that point I was telling myself it was just a quick afternoon shower...

 

[lauran cameron]

LOVE this thread...count me in!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

LOVE this thread...count me in!!!

Thanks for joining in!!!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Port Orleans Riverside was the first stop on the Magical Express at about 2:30PM, so it felt like we had barely gotten settled into our seats when it was time to get off! Of course, we weren’t complaining!

We had done online check-in, so we joined the short line to get our paperwork. We waited less than 5 minutes for Nikkole, who was working at the desk, to call us over. She was very sweet and perky, which was the perfect welcome! She gave us our “Happily Ever After” buttons, which we proudly displayed throughout the trip! Next, she handed us a scroll and welcomed us to our Royal Room on behalf of Princess Tiana!

Nikkole also gave us the good news that our room was ready! We had a bit of an adventure through the rain trying to find it. The mansions section of POR is a bit difficult to navigate if you ask me, and we had a hard time distinguishing which building we belonged in. Not to mention that the buildings are HUGE!

We did eventually find out room, and it was totally worth the wait! We had a garden view room in Oak Manor.

The details in the Royal Rooms are AMAZING!

I spent the first few minutes snapping photos of all the gorgeous aspects of the room.

Here is your tour of the room!

When we walked in, the table and chairs were right in front of us.

On the table, was a picture of a letter from Princess Tiana to her visitors:

You can see the scroll we received on the table next to it. It contained the same letter.

These are the pictures that are above the table:

To the right of the table was the window.

And of course, the beautiful beds!

The fireworks in the headboard were really pretty, but we wished they lasted a bit longer!

Close up of the bedspread:

Magic carpet at the foot of the bed!

There were a lot of really cute pictures to check out on the walls:

The TV:

I LOVE the faucet!!!!

The bathroom was pretty, but VERY tiny!

Even the coat hooks were cute!

After I took these pictures and we settled in a bit, I called Alamo to schedule a pick up to go get our rental car. We had decided to rent a car to give ourselves flexibility to drive out the beach and to Sea World and Discovery Cove.

I made the call at 3:00 and they scheduled a pick up for us at 3:45.

We spent the time getting changed and freshened up for dinner. Ben used the iron for his shirt, and it leaked water all over it! So, there is a little public service announcement, beware of the irons in the rooms!

We used the blow drier to get rid of the wet spots on his shirt, so no harm done!

At about 3:30 we headed out to the main entrance of the hotel to meet our shuttle. It showed up right on time to take us to the Car Care Center. It was a quick ride and we went inside to do our paperwork. There was no line, so we were in and out within five minutes.

We had reserved an economy car, and we got a Toyota Yaris, which was perfect for us. Good on gas and small and easy to drive. We actually only ended up using ONE tank of gas the whole trip, which was great!!

With all of our errands done, it was time go to our first dinner of the trip! I’ll tell you all about it next time!