Honeymoon!!

We are going to Jamaica!!

We are staying at the all-inclusive Sandals Montego Bay for 8 days/7 nights in December (we wanted to wait to go on the honeymoon until I was out of school for the term) and we couldn't be happier! Plus we got a great deal, $3,865 total including all meals & drinks, lodging, OUR OWN PERSONAL BUTLER! (that basically waits on us hand and foot(don't worry we'll be nice to him lol) ), $100 of credit towards spa treatment (can you say couples massage??), a "stay at 1 play at 3" deal where we get to go to other sandals resorts nearby, also transportation to and from the airport and btwn resorts, plus jet skiing, kayaking, tennis and other fun activites they have at sandals..i seriously feel like we robbed them or something lol :)

This is what the resort looks like...

This is what our room looks like, its the Bay Roc Villa Honeymoon Beachfront Veranda Jr Suite..


Our gorgeous patio that walks right out onto the sand & has gorgeous ocean views :)..

This the location of our suite..right on the water..couldn't be more perfect!

There's also entertainment every night from beach parties to traditional jamaican dance performances..and also 7 restaurants at our resort to choose from with "english pub" food, italian, jamaica etc etc..and as a bonus with the stay at 1 play at 3 deal..we can go to any restaurant at the neighboring resorts so that gives us about 16 options to choose from for meals. They also have a great flexibility with meal times..breakfast by noon, lunch and dinner beween 12-8 pm and then they have drinks and bar snacks at night :).


One of the neighboring resorts is the Sandals Royal Carribbean Resort..here are some pictures!

At Sandals Royal Carribbean, they also have a private island that you can go to and enjoy..

When we were surfing the site, we also found a promotion for a free catamaran cruise, you just had to mention the promotional code when booking, so we get to go on a free catamaran cruise while we're in Jamaica!

We are also planning on doing some other fun activites while we're there that cost a little extra but are so worth it..here are a few we're thinking of..

Dune Buggy Tour: basically we get to get into this 2 person buggy/4-wheeler and go up into the mountains where we basically get completely muddy and then once at the top we get to take in the gorgeous views of Jamaica

Zipline Canopy Tour: ziplining through the jamaican forest

Swimming dolphins: where we actually get to get in the water and swim with them and have them pull us with their fins

While we're there we also plan on getting an hour long couples massage.

We are so excited to be going to Jamaica..both of us have been dreaming about being there since we booked it last week lol..

can December hurry up already?

Love, Alyssa & Mike

December 2010 Update!

-Save the Dates..sent.
-VIP seating signs..done.
-Mr. & Mrs. signs..done.
-Getting ready tanks..done.
-officiant..booked.
-Videographer..booked! (check them out at http://www.myersvideoproductions.com/)
-we really love how well they capture emotions of the day..anyone can pick up a camera and video a wedding..they really capture the emotions of the day
-rehersal dinner location..in the works, we have contacted our potential venue and are just figuring out numbers :)
-limo service for leaving our wedding and hotel accomodations for our wedding night..booked!
-a limo will be picking us up from the wedding and bringing us to Boston..we will be staying at the Hyatt Harborside. Mike and I have decided to wait and do our honeymoon in December when we are on winter break from graduate school..we don't want to be thinking about school work on our honeymoon lol.

Besides all of that, Mike and I have set up tons of appointments with vendors and our venues to discuss details of the wedding while we'll be in Massachusetts in March. We aren't in Mass very often so when we are we have to get as much done as we can while we're there. We have appointments with our florist, our wedding consultant, and our videographer. We also have our taste testing while we're home and our co-ed bridal shower known as a jack and jill while we're home in March. Did I also mention is my birthday while we're in Mass? lol. It is going to be one jam packed week! I can't wait :)

Next on the list to accomplish..
1.book rehersal dinner location
2. determine invite style
3. determine make-up artist for day of
4. book manis/pedis/hair/make-up trial runs while home in March

Hope you enjoyed my rambling lol. Until next time, have a wonderful day!

-A

Hair and Make-up ideas?

So I have been browsing wedding blogs looking for inspiration for my wedding day make-up and hair style. I really like a pulled back loose look. A low bun with some body to the look. I have also thought about wearing my hair down with some pull back like some pictures above, but my dress I think would look better with my hair up.

As far as make-up, i really love a soft feminine look. I love Carrie Underwood and Hayden Panetierre's make-up in the above pictures.

What do you all think? :)

DIY Projects

Over the past few weeks I have been attempting to get some DIY projects done for the wedding. I figured that when we start classes in January, I won't have much time to get things done so might as well accomplish as many as I can now. I went to Jo Ann Fabrics to pick up some supplies for my DIY projects.

The first project I worked on was VIP seating signs for the ceremony. I just wanted to do something simple so we'll have those for our family for the ceremony. All I did was buy card stock in both blue and orange and some ribbon. Then I typed out the "reserved for.." part glue them together and poked hole through the corners and strung the ribbon through. There's some pictures below.

I also wanted to have "Mr." and "Mrs." sign for our seats. I've seen them in a lot of weddings I found on wedding websites and they make for great picture opportunities. A picture is below.

I also designed some reading cards for those who will be doing the readings at our wedding. I may re-do these. I am not too sure about how they look. I want the to look a little more professionally done.
I also wanted to make some cute shirts for my bridesmaids to wear while we're getting ready the day of the wedding. I bought plain pink tanks from old navy and some fabric paint from JoAnn fabric. Each shirt says "bridesmaid" on it and for my sisters' shirts theirs says "bridesmaid..Matron of honor" and "bridesmaid..maid of honor". There is also a flower on each shirt in place of the dot on the letter "i" in bridesmaid. I pretty happy with how they turned out!
Some pictures are below.

I also made a shirt for myself to wear when getting ready. It says "soon to be mrs. lindquist" on it. A picture is below.

It has been a lot of fun planning and doing this DIY's. I am no that artistically capable but I hope everything turns out the way I picture them in my head lol.

On a side note, Mike and I have decorated our apartment for the holidays. First christmas while living together! It has been so much fun decorating and listening to christmas music :). I really love this time of year! It just makes me think of what's most important and how lucky I am to have the life I have. Happy holidays everyone! :)

Wedding Songs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrl8weYTmGU

The link above is the song the bridal party will walk down the aisle to. The song will then replay and I will walk down the aisle. The song is Kiss the Rain by Yiruma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhy0iVWkyzc

The link above is what Mike and I will be walking back down the aisle to. Go to the 3 Minute mark, because we will be starting it from there. It's just more upbeat than the beginnning. It's I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1nIF_FWWOU

The link above is the Grand Entrance song. The parents & bridal party will start and then hopefully we can time so that Mike and I walk out at the 1 minute 54 second mark. I love that it builds up. It's True Love by Angels & Airwaves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoPQrB-ue8U

The link above is the song we'll have playing when we're cutting our cake. Skip to 25 second mark. It's Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcqaDNOqyI

The link above is the song my dad and I will dance to for the father/daughter dance. We've known this would be the song since my older sister got married. It's Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnkYatAT7NE

The link above is the song that will be playing during the bouquet toss. It's Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-qQcNT_fY&ob=av2e

The link above is the song we'll have playing with our video montage of us growing up and us together. It's 100 years by Five for Fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am7EI5tdaX4

For our first dance song we think this will be it. Not set in stone, but we really love it. Thr song is It Feels Like Home to Me by Chantal Kreviazuk

We also plan on having a lot of instrumental Yiruma playing for the prelude at the ceremony, during cocktail hour we'll have more Yiruma and some John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls and DMB instrumental. During dinner we plan on playing some instrumental Beatles, John Mayer and movie main title soundtracks from the Notebook and Forrest Gump as well as other well know songs played by guitar etc. We'll also have some typical Norah Jones, Michael Buble and Louis Armstrong. For dancing, we haven't really tackled that task yet. There is so much we want! All I know is that there will be some songs for Rak Dan dancing (all our camp friends you know what we mean) and there will be some fun line dancing type songs (ie. Cupid Shuffle, casper slide, macarana etc). It should be one great party from start to finish! :)

-A

Engagement Photos, Save the Dates & Officiant! :)

Mike and I created a save-the-date from our engagement photos (pictured below). We have officially ordered them & they will be out hopefully by end of this month (maybe a little later) so we can finish collecting addresses. We have almost everyone's addresses though! We like that this save the date ties in our Orange and Blue color scheme! I love wedding planning! It's so much fun!

Mike and I had our engagement pictures taken in August and they were ready as of about a week ago. Our photographer, Juliet Connolly took all of them. She is very talented. We definately got some good shots in there! :)

Mike and I also booked our officiant today. My parents went to a wedding where he was the officiant for some of their friends. They loved him. We decided to go with a Justice of the Peace. We felt that doing a non-denominational wedding was being most respectful to our guests. It's a decision we are happy with. We are very excited!

This Friday marks 1 year until our wedding! It's crazy how time flies! Now the real craziness of wedding planning begins!

-A

update!

Mike and I have been very busy since the last time I posted on here. Along with a lot of other things on our plate, we've been busy with wedding planning as well.

We have booked a florist! We're going with Durocher Florist. She is amazing! We went and sat down with her a few weeks ago and she was just so great at what she does and so organized! I think it's really important to keep that in mind when looking around. She also did a great job of listening to our ideas and making them even better without going away from what we want! We're going to do roses and gerber daises in the bridesmaids bouquets and all roses in mine; all in bright hues of orange. The boys will have a simply orange rose as boutenierres. The mother's will be wearing pinning corsages with a simply ivory rose.

We have also found my dress!! I can't believe it! We had planned a day for me to go with some of bridesmaids and my mom on day in August while I was home. The first day I tried on dresses at two different locations and it was a lot of "well I love this about the dress, but really don't like this" and "well this dress has what was missing in the other dress but now it doesn't have what I loved about the first". We decided that we would go back a second day to another boutique to look for a dress. I kid you not, it was the second dress I tried on that second day! It's funny because I walk out of my dressing room and I have this scowl on my face and my little sister had this look of "oh my gosh" but then sees my expression and goes "what?" and I go "I hate the bow!" and the bridal consultant goes "oh we can easily take that off!". I instantly say "oh well then this is the dress!". My mom cried and teared up and that was that. It is absolutely perfect! All the things I was looking for! :)

We also found the bridesmaid dresses! They are navy blue, sweetheart cut knee length strapless dresses. Definately something my bms can wear again! At the place where I got my dress they offered a 10% discount so we decided to go with her. They are awesome and will look great against a bouquet of bright orange roses/gerber daises!

We have also decided on our guest list! Save-the-dates will probably be sent out sometime in October or November.

Our Jack and Jill couples shower/party is just around the corner and my mom and sisters are busy preparing for that! From what I have seen everything looks great! We are both getting so excited!

We have also almost completely established our bridal party. We are both so happy and are excited to share our special day with these special people!

More of our wedding details are in works! It has been so fun planning everything! Maybe I have a future career? Who knows :)

-A