Valentine’s day used to be so fun in elementary school!  I remember making large decorative envelopes or boxes for my classmates to put valentines into.  We would have wonderful parties and then come home with 30 valentines from our class!  As we grew older that became less fun and it turned into a holiday about whether or not you were dating someone.  What a stupid idea!  Valentine’s day should purely be about sugar, chocolate, and friends.

Of course here I am, a married lady, preaching about Valentine’s day.  Obviously I expect everyone to be coupled off, and now that I am married I naturally have tons of advice for you and assume that the only way to be happy is to be married as well.

Since I work late Tuesdays, Chris and I went out for dinner last night.  We went to Eleven Eleven Mississippi for dinner.  I had been teaching all afternoon, though many of my students had to cancel due to the snow—only a few came, those who live nearby (we got 2 to 4 inches of snow throughout the late afternoon/evening).  We didn’t have too far to travel for dinner, so that was good.  I had the spinach salad, the scallops, and we split the tiramisu cake and a bottle of red wine.  Chris had steak with crab, which was delicious.  The restaurant was busy enough for a Monday, and frankly I’m glad not to be dealing with all the crowds on the official day!

I participated in a couple of blog Valentine’s Day swap type things.  You can see them in my side bar. 

What do I have today?  A workout with Mike followed by 5 hours of teaching.  Woo hoo, lucky me!

The honeymoon continues….

So, we did get to board the ship.  After being sick all night, I woke up the next day feeling…well…okay.  Not great.  We managed to get a cab to the port though, and with minimal waiting in line (with sitting breaks for me) before long we were on the ship!  Right off the bat they offered us a glass of champagne, and we would have gone exploring, but I needed to sit down.  In fact, that was the name of the game for the first day of our cruise—I was trying not to be sick, and we missed out on some of the fun of exploring, but luckily we were onboard!  Like they say, the worse day cruising is still better than the best day on land 😉

After about 30 minutes we were able to go to our stateroom.  I’d booked us an "Aqua class" balcony room.  It looked GREAT!  I think it was the biggest stateroom we’d ever had with a nice, roomy enough shower, lovely bathroom products, a fairly deep balcony, and a nice enough bed.  We were also given two bathrobes and two pairs of slippers to wear.

The view from the balcony.

This was in our room in honor of our honeymoon.  The envelope contained an invitation for a get together the next morning with other honeymooners and couples celebrating their honeymoons.  Each day they brought fresh fruit for the room, though it never looked super appealing.

I asked Chris to take some pictures.  In retrospect, this may not have been the best idea.  After we did a little unpacking we went up to the Oceanview Cafe (buffet area) for Chris to get some lunch.  I was going to sit with him, but I suddenly felt really awful and had to go back to the room. 

We had our muster/lifeboat drill, and then the ship set sail!  There is just nothing like being on a cruise.  It is truly my favorite way of vacationing. 

After a few hours, we were definitely on the open sea.  We had about two days until we were going to see land again!  Time to eat, drink, and be merry. 

Chris and I chose to purchase the unlimited beverage package.  That meant we could get as many drinks, coffees, waters, and sodas as we wanted without any additional charges.  It wasn’t cheap, but it meant we didn’t have to worry about what our final bill would be and we would be free to enjoy our honeymoon without any worries about moderation.

I wasn’t feeling up to a frosty drink yet, but Chris was hard at work getting his money’s worth!  You can see the "Celebrity Today" paper on the bed there—the paper tells you everything happening on the ship.

A Carnival ship was traveling with us.  Evidently two ships are required to stay near one another for safety.

Since we were in Aqua class, that meant we ate in a specific restaurant called "Blu" rather than the main dining room.  We were allowed to go eat at whatever dinner time we wanted except the first night when we were asked to go at 8:30.  I still didn’t have too much of an appetite, but we went.

I don’t recall what this was called but it was chicken with pancakes…SO delicious!  Sadly I was only able to eat a few bites. I must have seemed like such a lady to the servers!  (Luckily that would change by day two.)

And a delicious "thin mint" cake!

We also got some after dinner coffee.  The restaurant was wonderful—unlike previous cruises we were sitting just the two of us at a table, which was very nice.  The food was very tasty and the service was impeccable.  After just being onboard a few hours we were already incredibly impressed with the service and amenities of the Celebrity cruise lines. 

For your reference:  previously Chris and I had been on two Carnival cruises and I’d been on one Royal Caribbean cruise.  Celebrity was a "step up" in terms of luxury, and so far we were impressed.

After dinner the first night I was exhausted and felt a bit nauseous, so we just went back to the stateroom.  I had wanted to see a show or do some exploring, but I just wasn’t up to it.  Luckily the next day was to be a day off so we could sleep in, relax, and do whatever we wanted.

(I don’t know if I’ll keep doing one post per day, but that will be it for now.)

We fell asleep feeling the ocean waves…and I finally was starting to feel more like myself.  Like I said, the next day was going to be a day at sea, followed by San Juan. 

We didn’t go on our honeymoon the very next day—we did wait one day.  We had lots to do—pack, laundry, unwrap presents that my parents had awesomely taken to my house. 

First we said goodbye to a few people—by the time we got up many of the guests had already left, but my parents had waited to say goodbye, and then we went with my friend Emily and Leslie & Peter to eat breakfast at Rooster.

One of things I haven’t mentioned that was very delightful was the car that Leslie and Peter had rented.

It barely had a back seat at all.

Anyway, after breakfast pretty much everybody had to leave so Chris and I checked out of the hotel and went home. 

The next day we caught a flight to Miami! One of my favorite moments was when we realized we were actually, truly, really, married and going on our honeymoon and we didn’t have to talk to anyone except each other for the next ten days!  It had been such a stressful period, with so many people around to talk to or feel guilty for NOT talking to, that it was a tremendous relief not to have to do that anymore.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved our wedding and I wouldn’t change having had it, but WOW it was a stressful time.

Our honeymoon plan was to spend a few days in Miami Beach and then take a Celebrity Cruise to the Caribbean.  We wanted to stay on South Beach, and it ended up that prices were pretty expensive (naturally).  Since we were spending a lot of money on the cruise we tried to get a good deal, and ended up at the Ocean Reef Hotel on Collins Avenue.  When our cab pulled up we were a little surprised, and so was he, because the hotel wasn’t really visible from the street!

 

It was a very small hotel, and wasn’t great—it had been renovated recently, and in fact was still under construction.  On the surface the rooms were nice (we had a small suite, with a tiny kitchen and living area) but the bathrooms were very old, the a/c didn’t work well, and the windows didn’t shut all the way.  Miami was in a cold snap though, so luckily we didn’t need much air conditioning.  And we figured, whatever, it’s our honeymoon and we’re going to enjoy it no matter!

.

We were just a few blocks from the beach, and near all kinds of wonderful restaurants and stores.  We had a great few days, just walking around, eating, drinking, relaxing, and most of all, SLEEPING.  The first night we slept for about 12 hours—I didn’t realize how tired I was until I finally was able to relax!  The second night we slept almost the same, and in fact kept up a pattern of sleeping at least 9 to 11 hours a day throughout the honeymoon.

That is the Miami Beach portion of our honeymoon in a nutshell! Finally, the night before the cruise was set to sail…I came down with an awful case of food poisoning.  I was terribly sick all night, up with the shakes, the chills, vomiting, diarrhea, you name it.  I managed to clog the bathroom sink and was terrified I would clog the toilet as well (probably tmi, but still.)  At one point I was lying in bed crying because I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to board the ship, that I would be too sick to manage!  Chris was of course wonderful during that awful night and kept trying to make me feel better and get me water and stuff.  What an awful thing for the honeymoon though!  And yes, remember that he was sick approximately 6 days ago…but it seemed just too long beforehand to be related. 

Next step: the Celebrity Eclipse! 

After we ate dinner, it was cake time.  And dancing…or at least I tried to get people to dance.  I knew much of my family wouldn’t dance, which was fine, but I had high hopes for my friends.  Some failed me, others far surpassed my expectations…

I danced some, and kept trying to go around the room to make sure I talked to everybody.  If you haven’t been married, you may not realize how stressful it is to try to be a good hostess and talk to everybody.  I kept feeling like I was skipping people, and definitely talked less to my in town friends (arguably my better friends!) than my out of town guests and family.  I felt like I was in a race against the clock all night.  But it was a blast, and people were always happy to see me come over, which isn’t always the case in life 😉

Chris danced with his mom.

My dad got coffee. 

Me dancing but somehow looking like I’m doing a lat pull down…hardly any tan lines, and check out those muscles!

Chris and I dancing…

Mom and my brother Jesse.  I barely got to speak to him—I’m hoping he can attend Leslie’s wedding in October and then I’ll have more time!

Mike (my trainer) drinking coffee.  I told him if he didn’t cut his hair he would go on the "do not photograph list" but he convinced Sarah Crowder to take a series of pictures of him.  Later he seemed embarrassed that she left some of them in, but I find them telling.  No worries Mike, if you ever get married I will likely just wear my wedding dress to it.  That should get me in a few photographs 😉

Karen, Loren, Leslie, and Ginny.  This picture is probably an example of what Sarah Crowder meant when she commented that we had really good-looking friends and family!

John and his wife Karen.  We went to their wedding right after we moved to St Louis.

Carrie and Jeff dancing.

My aunt Connie and Chris’s father dancing.  Both are very good dancers!

Jeff and John playing around with the guest book.  Jeff wrote us a poem.

From earlier, on top of the building (Vin de Set)…I don’t think I shared this one.  I was so cold, I’d never been so cold!

Similar view later than night…without Chris and I, obviously.

After the reception was over we had another hour in the "Malt House Cellar" which was downstairs—it’s a small room with table shuffleboard, pool, foosball and such, and we thought some of our guests would enjoy hanging out there.  No pictures, unless somebody took some and didn’t share with me?  I had to say goodbye to tons of people and grab a bunch of stuff (my flowers, coats, etc) but finally made it downstairs.  I realized then that I was exhausted, so I basically lay down on the couch and talked with my friend Sarah and a couple other people who came over.  I couldn’t be on my feet anymore!

The hotel shuttle was taking people from the venue back to the hotel, and that was our escape plan as well.  We loaded up the shuttle and rode to the hotel…it was funny because Chris was having so much fun with his out of town friends, he wanted to hang out MORE, but I told him we still had to figure out how to remove my dress and take all the bobby pins out of my hair (100s, I imagined) so I convinced him to go up to the suite rather than keep socializing! 

So that’s pretty much it for the wedding—I’ll look back through all the posts and see if there are any pictures I wanted to share and didn’t.  It was a wonderful day, and we are so lucky to have been able to have exactly the wedding we wanted. 

Next:  saying goodbye to our guests and time to go on honeymoon!

After the first dance, we had some "milling about" time until dinner (we had asked for approximately 30 minutes.)  I think this worked out fairly well because people were able to work up a little bit of an appetite again.  The downside was that we didn’t really have enough dancing time (we probably could have used another 30 to 60 minutes of time…) but that’s okay.  I’m over it.

For the toasts, our fathers were giving toasts and also Leslie and Dave. 

My dad went first and set the bar.  It was hilarious.

Chris’s dad did a wonderful job and went for something a bit more sentimental. 

Leslie was funny as well, and very modern in her use of an iphone for her notes.

Dave went last.  Everybody did a wonderful job—they were all hilarious.  Our friends and family are a bunch of comedians!

After the toasts, dinner was served (well, continued to be.)

It was all delicious!  I had the salmon.

The bread was really good too.  One time Chris had gotten up and I reached across his drink to get a piece of bread.  Dave witnessed me dropping the bread into his drink and then quickly fishing it out, right before Chris sat back down.  Oops.

After dinner came dessert and more dancing…I will share a few more pictures with you in my next post, Reception, part 3.  After that it’ll be a quick wrap up and at some point in the near future I’ll be telling you about the honeymoon!  (By then it’ll be anniversary time, hahahahahahahahaha!)

If you’re absolutely sick of my wedding and can’t wait for me to get back to regular posts where I talk about…myself…well, that will be soon.  I promise!  (I plomise.)

 

 

Our place settings

The cake topper

The two different centerpieces

The place card table

My bouquet

The Centennial Ballroom at Moulin

The view from our seats.

One of the tables

The guest book

The BBQ Bacon wrapped Shrimp

After the ceremony, we took some family group pictures, and then Chris and I had a few moments alone upstairs in the Lafayette Room.  We sat down, had a drink and ate some snacks.  During that time our guests were enjoying the cocktail hour and hearing some jazz piano music.  After a bit we went to join them.  Shortly thereafter, we were taken back out in order to be brought back in for introductions, cake cutting, and our first dance. 

Introductions!  Mr. and Mrs. Chris Tantillo are in the house.  (Sorry.)

Leslie had given us some engraved forks to use for the cake cutting, so we did.  We hadn’t thought about the cake cutting in advance at all, and as a result we were a little taken aback realizing we didn’t actually have a good idea of how to cut a piece together!  Chris thought we just had to cut one cut, and I (knew, haha) that we needed to cut the whole piece.  It was awkward holding the knife together—note to future brides and grooms:  practice this!  Get lots of cake cutting practice. 

Next came our first dance.  We also don’t really dance—only at weddings.

We chose Frank Sinatra’s "Fly Me to the Moon" for our dance.

After we danced (which was not so bad after all—I was pretty terrified but it was just fine) we had the band invite people to join us on the dance floor.  Yes, we had a live 7 piece band called Galaxy.  They were great!

Chris’s parents danced, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen joined us.

After the dancing finished, I grabbed Leslie and we went to switch my veil for a hairpiece (that came with my dress) and to pin up the bustle of the dress.  I was a little disappointed to realize the bustle didn’t entirely take care of the train, but at this point, oh well, who cares!  One of the flowers was coming loose too, but I figured by now most of the pictures were done so it just didn’t matter any more…

The hairpiece

Our place cards

Next:  Dinner and Toasts!