Our Wedding by the Sea

Today we got a big box in the mail.

Our invitation paper is officially here!!  I'm so excited to get started on my invites.  I know I've been saying this with basically every check, but this makes it feel so much more real.  Ahhh!!

I also got an email from Carnival.  I had emailed them last week because we booked Early Saver, which guarantees the lowest rate.  They had a lower rate published for our cruise/room type and so I sent in a form and got our rate lowered, too.  So yay- that's exciting!  I'll continue to stalk the website to make sure we don't miss out on any lower fares as well.

Sunday we registered at Target and it was actually a lot of fun.  I can't wait to register at Macy's on the 15th now.  We had a really good time and had a lot of fun imagining what our future home will look like and stuff.

Last but definitely not least, our flowers are ordered!!!  We're getting a 23-piece package from Etsy seller ShayesBridalBoutique and I love love LOVE our flowers.

My bouquet will be wrapped in teal and ivory (in the pic above, imagine the green ribbon as ivory) and topped with a starfish brooch.

All other bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages will have purple ribbon.  I know it's not one of my wedding colours, but it is my favorite colour.  And blue & purple is my favorite colour combo.  AND Chris liked it better than the brown, so whenever he has any kind of opinion about the wedding I take that as a good sign.

Things are coming along swimmingly!!

I am just now realizing that I never blogged when we booked half of our honeymoon!  I say half because we are taking a two-week honeymoon.  The first week we will be spending in Puerto Rico.  Then we'll board a cruise ship in San Juan and spend 7 days at sea and exploring the islands of St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, and Barbados.  We booked the cruise last month and it is SO NICE to know that this is actually going to happen!

I am super excited and can NOT wait.  I have been planning obsessively for the past two days and am having so much fun.

Obviously our cruise stops are set, but it's been interesting trying to figure out what part(s) of Puerto Rico we want to see/visit.  We're going to spend a day or 2 in San Juan before the cruise so we don't miss it (I'm paranoid about not boarding the boat haha), but the rest of the week is a big fat question mark.  We do want the cruise to be the more relaxing part of the trip since we've cruised before and know that we were very active the whole time.

Here's a list of some of the things I think we should see/do in PR:
-See the natural reefs and maybe do some snorkeling
-Spend lots of time on the beach!
-See the bioluminescent bays... or at least one of them!
-Go to El Yunque Rainforest (I mean really... it's a rainforest!  Yes please!)
-Possibly visit one of the uninhabited islands off the coast
-Drink pina coladas in their birthplace

It seems like the region of the country that fits those requirements best is the East... Luquillo has one of the best public beaches in PR as well as a reef with protected swimming AND views of the rainforest (sounds like absolute paradise!).  Rio Grande is on the East as well, which is where the entrance to El Yunque is.  Also, Fajardo has a bioluminescent bay, which we could visit with ease one of the nights of our stay.

So, now that I *think* I know I want to stay in the East, I need to do some serious research on hotels, transportation, etc.  Ahh!!  So much to plan- and that's only the beginning!