So I know I haven't written in awhile, but it's not for lack of things to say. I have been SO busy and haven't had much time for anything NWR. When I do have a few precious minutes of not wedding planning or working, I don't want to spend them writing about wedding planning. Haha- I am all planned out!! Now I feel like I can write some stuff, so I'm going to :) On August 5th I had my bridal shower. It was amazing- beyond my expectations. It was a Paris theme and I loved it. There was a great mix of friends and family and I was SO nervous but had no reason to be. My mum, FMIL, and bridesmaids did a great job. We got some great gifts and everyone had a lovely afternoon.   My bridesmaids and I. My MOH was unable to make it because she lives in Georgia and her first day of school (she's a teacher) was the following day.  My beautiful mum & I  My fabulous ribbon hat  Most of the lovely ladies who came out for my shower We've also checked A LOT off our lists. There is still quite a bit to go, but it's definitely do-able. We bought the lanterns for our cocktail hour centerpieces, confirmed the reception set-up with our DJ (and made most of our playlist, just need to confirm a few little details with Fi). We cancelled the Vieques leg of our stay in PR and extended the time in San Juan because of the hassle (ie- ferry times being unreliable, rental cars not being allowed to leave the main island, no full moon = no biobay, etc.). We also went to Lowe's and bought the wood, paint, and nails to make our table numbers, as well as dowels and wood to make the base for our stacked paper lanterns for beside the bar.
Our RSVP deadline was today as well. We are still waiting to hear back from 26 people, but we are officially below our max amount, so I am thrilled. We are giving the mail until the end of the week to come in (we figure there will be a few stragglers) and then we'll start calling around on Monday. If everyone else says yes (and there are a few we're expecting to say no), then we'll have 96 guests. The smaller, the better, I like to say :) We also made our final payment to the WCC today, which feels REALLY good. We are really coming along!! On Thursday we go to apply for our marriage license, which I am SUPER excited for. Mostly because it means we get to go to the beach! We haven't been AT ALL this summer because of work, and we're using all of our time off for the wedding and honeymoon :( Which will be awesome then... but sucks a lot right now. Finally, we took my engagement ring to be re-dipped. I want it to be nice and sparkly for pictures! They should all be back on the 28th, but I won't be wearing my e-ring again until the wedding weekend. We engraved our rings, too. His will say, "Big Spoon" and mine will say, "Little Spoon." I am in love :) 33 DAYS UNTIL I'M CHRIS' MRS.!!
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As of today, we are officially booked. We can rest easily knowing that everything that needs to be booked, is.
We have flights to and from San Juan and ended up finding a great deal just by leaving through Newark instead of Philly. We saved over $400 by doing that. We have a rental car for our week in Puerto Rico, with unlimited mileage which will support our two days in Vieques. We'll be driving to Fajardo and then taking the ferry to Vieques. We got a Jeep- necessary for the craptastic (and super exciting) roads in Vieques. We have our casita in Vieques, which I finally found pictures of and adore. It's right on the Malecon and about a half a block from the beach. Close to a lot of the places that have been recommended to us for eating. We have our condo in San Juan. We'll be staying in a privately owned condo right on the beach. The back wall is entirely floor-to-ceiling windows that slide open and face the beach. And finally, our cruise is booked. It was the first thing we booked, so I'm glad everything else is finally worked out. We got a discount because we booked Early Saver. There was a sale for the Leap Year and I got our price reduced to the sale price. I watch that site like a hawk. We'll be staying in an ocean view cabin on the aft in a corner room, which includes an extra closet and more wiggle room than standard cabins. It feels SO GOOD to know that everything is booked. Now we just need to worry about excursions: biobay tour in Vieques, swimming with the sea turtles in Barbados, etc. etc. etc. but that's not nearly as pressing as booking a flight. So yay, us! We're officially going on a honeymoon! 165 days till paradise <3 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!! Annnndd we've booked our condo in San Juan! It's gorgeous, affordable, in the Condado district, and right near everything. AND right on the beach! So excited about this check!
I also ordered my paper from C&P for invitations today finally. Can't wait to start making them!! I booked our accommodations in Vieques today! We'll be staying there for 2 nights and we can't wait :)
The condo we were thinking about had a 3 night minimum, which we were originally okay with, but then found a condo in San Juan that we love that has a 4-night minimum, and we'd rather stay there 4 nights than not at all. So we changed our itinerary a little bit, and are now staying in a casita at a guesthouse instead of a condo. The place has great reviews and is walking distance to the beach & the Malecon. So yay!! Now we only need to book the condo in San Juan (just waiting on the contract from the owners) and we'll be golden! And flights, of course, but we're still trying to find the best deals/times on those. Looks like it'll be around $1000 total for airfare (round-trip), so we should probably just book that too since it hasn't been changing. I have been researching accommodations for the honeymoon like crazy lately. And I think I'm getting closer!!
We've decided to spend the first three nights of the Puerto Rico leg of our trip in Vieques and the final four in San Juan. We'll take a day trip to El Yunque to see the rainforest, too. I've emailed a couple places today and hopefully we'll be putting down deposits soon! We've been keeping an eye on airfare too- hopefully it'll come down a little bit. But as of now, this leg of our trip will be very affordable and so worth all this research. Yay! This isn't a very good (or very interesting) blog post, but I need to put this information somewhere that I won't lose it. Since I use many different computers and always seem to lose my jump drive, this seems to be a good option.
I'm currently researching vaccinations for our honeymoon. Here's what's recommended: Visit doctor 4-8 weeks before departure Hepatitis A Measles, Mumps, Rubella (if haven't had them already) Tetanus I'm pretty sure I've had all of these, but it's good to know. I'll have to double-check my shot records & Fi's. I'll make our pre-honeymoon doctor's appointment while I'm ther. Yay for one more thing to check off the list! 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! Though my bank account is slowly draining, I love making wedding purchases. Nothing like going to the mailbox and finding a package- however small- with wedding goodies in it. The wedding stash I currently have in our bedroom keeps getting bigger. It's lovely. 
I'm pretty excited about this VS "newlywed" bikini bottom I purchased from another DW Knottie.
Just a close-up shot of the "newlywed" detail. I love that the crystals are in blue!
I plan to use this in my hair for the ceremony, and then hopefully on my bustle for the reception. It might become a bouquet charm, though. We'll see!
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