Honeymoon in St. Lucia: Day 7

I've finally made it to the end of our honeymoon recaps! I know they probably aren't the most thrilling to read, but I know that I will love having them to look back on. So thanks for sticking with me. :)

We woke up for our last day in St. Lucia to the most incredible storm. Rain in the rainforest is no joke! We did our best to stay dry and headed down for our next to last breakfast at the Bayside Restaurant. It was actually kind of relaxing to watch the rain and listen to the ocean while we stayed dry under the pavilion.

By the time we finished breakfast, the rain had stopped. After our couple days of adventure, we wanted to spend the last full day of our honeymoon just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Jalousie Beach has these super comfortable lounge chairs under straw umbrellas, and we decided to camp out there for the day. We laughed, read, napped, ordered lunch to our chairs, and indulged in some (very strong) sangria. The sun eventually decided to come out, and it was a perfect last day on the beach!

I (obviously) have such fond memories of our honeymoon, but something that I really remember from those lazy days on the beach is our "life" conversations. What our life together will be like, where we'll go, what we'll do, what our family will be like...all of those conversations that we know can come to fruition now that we are married (if they haven't already!) We also read a couple of great books that put the focus on what is really important after the wedding; our marriage. So, between all of the adventure and relaxing on our honeymoon, we also started building dreams, plans, and wishes for our life together.

When the sky started looking threatening again, we decided to head back up to our villa and sit on the patio. After spending some time in the pool, we acted a little bit ridiculous and played with the self-timer on my camera. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.

From our villa, we watched our last beautiful sunset in St. Lucia...

...and then it was time to get dressed up for our last fancy four-course dinner at The Great Room. I miss that coffee and the incredible desserts. I would give anything for another Bailey's Chocolate Souffle.

The next morning, it was up bright and early for our last breakfast (amazing chocolate croissants...I don't know why we waited until the last day to try them!) and then to catch our ride to the airport. Before we left, Brian and I both had to say goodbye to our beautiful villa and the infinity pool. We were not happy to leave. :(

At the airport, we walked out onto the tarmac to catch our flight and said goodbye to the beautiful island of St. Lucia.

Our honeymoon was perfect in so many ways. It was just beyond blissful to enjoy being husband and wife; to take a week to recoup from the wedding, renew our love for one another, and to begin the next chapter in our life together. :)

Honeymoon in St. Lucia: Day 6

This week, I caught a feature about our honeymoon at the Jalousie Plantation on the Travel Channel's "Best of the Caribbean", and it reminded me to get a move on blogging about our trip! I mean, I do hope to share some of our wedding pictures eventually too. :)

When we first started planning and researching our honeymoon, I stumbled on some pictures of a couple covered in what looked like dark black mud. I had no idea what the story was, but I was definitely intrigued! After some research, we found out that St. Lucia is home to a dormant volcano, the "world's only drive-in volcano," which feeds the Sulphur Springs.

Locals say that slathering yourself in the mineral-rich mud from the volcano can make you look ten years younger. Brian and I don't necessarily need to look 15, but we jumped in anyway! Well, I guess jumped is kind of an exaggeration...considering the springs are SUPER hot. Like over 100 degrees! I was a little bit less skeptical than Brian and reached straight to the bottom of the spring and grabbed a handful of the clay-like mud. I was not about to miss out on discovering the fountain of youth! Brian took some convincing, but he eventually covered himself as well. We stood in the sun to dry and waited for the miraculous transformation to occur. :)

After donning a couple of "mudstaches," we rinsed off and assessed our new appearances. Besides softer skin (which I guess you'd expect after exfoliating with mud) and a slight greyish tint, we remained unchanged. :( So, we didn't discover the fountain of youth and we may have even been victims of the hugest tourist trap in history, but we had fun...and that's what matters! Afterwards, we got to check out the "drive-thru" volcano, where you can actually see still see smoke from its last eruption in the 1700s! During our honeymoon, I was also semi-obsessed with The Hunger Games, and appropriately kept referring to my hairstyle as a "Katniss braid."

After the volcano, we headed over to the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens. The biggest draw of these gardens is a huge waterfall! St. Lucia suffered a lot of damage from Hurricane Tomas in October 2010; we knew that much of the area around the waterfall had been destroyed, making it impossible to get to. We were so excited to find out that the paths had been restored and we could go see the Diamond Falls!

We also enjoyed wandering through the gardens and looking at all of the exotic plants. Brian's personal favorite was the Bird of Paradise; I loved seeing all of the cocoa growing! The sign even mentioned a certain factory in Pennsylvania where most of it would be sent. :)

Our next stop required a small hike from our villa. Even though it was a short distance away, we didn't expect to be walking down the side of a mountain! While getting there wasn't really an issue, walking back up was certainly not my favorite part of our honeymoon. :)

At the end of our "walk," we took a dip in the naturally occurring mineral baths at the base of the mountain. They were warm (much more comfortable to sit in than the Sulphur Springs) and fed by a small waterfall.

After our (strenuous) walk back up to Jalousie and a quick dip in the infinity pool (Brian could not get enough of that pool on our porch!)...

 ...we got pretty and headed out to another yummy dinner at the Bayside Restaurant!

It's hard to believe that it's been over three months since we got married and took this dream vacation! I have already started trying to convince Brian that we need to return for an anniversary trip...

Our Sweet Beginning: Out of Town Boxes

This weekend, Brian and I traveled to New Jersey to attend the wedding of one of his groomsmen, Rocco. He and Katie had an absolutely beautiful wedding, and we had such a good time! Of course, since Brian was in the wedding, in uniform, and looking completely handsome, I completely neglected to take any pictures. :(

In the spirit of all-things-wedding, I thought I'd continue blogging about some of the details of our big day (which was over 3 months ago now!)

Out of Town (OOT) bags or boxes are small gifts that many brides put together to leave at the hotel for guests who are traveling to attend the wedding. I knew that I wanted to put together a token of appreciation for those people who went (literally) out of their way to attend our wedding on a holiday weekend.  I also wanted to include some information about the area and things to do just in case people had some extra time to kill. :)

I used gable boxes I bought in bulk to package up the gifts. I decorated them to reflect the colors and feel of our wedding.

To start my collection of items to fill the boxes, I made a trip to a rest stop along the highway and the visitor's center in the town where we were getting married. When I explained the boxes I was making, I was given many different brochures and maps to help our guests get to know the area. I was even able to get a brochure about the history of the Concord Point Lighthouse (which is where we got married!)

I also put together a small booklet with a note of thanks, a list of wedding weekend events with driving directions, things to do and restaurants we like in the area, and important phone numbers in case guests had any questions or needed help.

I knew I wanted to include a couple of miniature bottles of water in each box. So, while I was labeling over 200 water bottles with our monogram for our outdoor ceremony, I also did fifty smaller ones. It was incredibly time consuming, but one of my favorite details!

The last thing that needed to go in the boxes was, of course, food! I picked out several things that represented Baltimore and Havre de Grace: Utz Crab Chips, individual packages of Berger cookies, and Bomboy Havre de Mints. I also threw in some generic snack foods, like nuts, trail mix, and granola bars.

Because Brian was living in Savannah already, he was staying at one of the hotels with his groomsmen prior to the wedding. I knew I had to make an Out of Town box especially for the groom!

I added a couple of extra snacks that I know Brian likes, some travel books about St. Lucia, and a very important pair of socks.

Brian and his best man, Pat, came to pick up the boxes from me the week of the wedding and delivered them to the two hotels where guests were staying.

This was one of my favorite wedding projects and my first opportunity to let guests know how much we appreciated them sharing in the joy of our wedding day!

Honeymoon in St. Lucia: Day 5

On our fifth day of our honeymoon, we left our resort, The Jalousie Plantation, for something I was just a little bit nervous about...ziplining! We knew that if there was ever a good place for this kind of adventure, the rainforest of St. Lucia was probably it; however, that didn't make me any less nervous!

When we got to the Morne Coubaril Estate, they fit us with harnesses and helmets and gave us a (very) brief safety demonstration. Then, suddenly, it was time to go. If I look a tad terrified in this pre-zipping picture, it's probably because I was!

Our guides showed us how to slow ourselves down by squeezing our gloved hand around the cable if we were going too fast, and on my first run I definitely utilized my brakes! After a stern warning that I would have to drag myself back hand-over-hand if I stopped myself in the middle, I got a little braver and zipped more quickly!

Zipping through the trees was definitely exhilarating, and at each tower we took in some incredible views of the town of Soufriere and the Pitons. On one run, they made me sit on Brian's lap and zip together; apparently it was "required" for honeymooners. I was not a fan of going backwards!

Post-zipping, we took to the Pitons Bay in a kayak made for two. While Brian paddled us out to sea, I took approximately a thousand pictures, went on and on about how blue the water was, and pointed out all of the fish and birds I saw (read: I was generally unhelpful in paddling our kayak). Brian was already a great husband though and pulled both of us without complaint. :)

The rest of the afternoon we spent by the pool, enjoying a relaxing lunch.

The entire week, we were looking forward to our Saturday evening at the Dasheene Restaurant at Ladera. We loved staying at Jalousie because it was right on the beach; Ladera is another resort high up in the mountains and has an incredible view of the Pitons! We knew we had to make the trip up there for dinner while we were in St. Lucia.

We got to Ladera and enjoyed a couple of drinks at the T'cholit Bar (a Pina Colada for me, and a Piton beer for Brian) while watching an incredible sunset.

After sunset, we were seated in the restaurant at a table with that same gorgeous view! This was the first place we had eaten that had pasta on the menu (and I love my pasta), so we both had a yummy pasta primavera dish with lots of local veggies.

After dinner, we headed back to Jalousie. I had a brilliant revelation and realized that we could still grab some dessert, because it was included in our all inclusive meal plan. So before heading back to our villa, we stopped by The Great Room for some dessert and coffee to end another amazing day in St. Lucia!

Our Sweet Beginning: Wedding Trailer

By far, one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day was hiring a videographer. The day went by so fast, and I love that it will all be documented in a way that can almost bring us back to those special moments. I was set on a specific cinematic style for our wedding video and searched high and low for the perfect vendor. When I found GM Elliott Video, I knew that I had found the right people for the job. Glen and his wife Violet clearly love what they do and were amazing to work with.

When Glen e-mailed me this morning that our trailer was online, my heart started racing. The video loaded, and then I immediately started crying as the images that are starting to fade from my mind came to life again. I was able to take it all on on the subsequent (hundred) views. I could wax poetic about this little snippet for hours, but I'll let the clip do the talking.

Lauren + Brian Wedding Trailer; Bulle Rock- Havre de Grace, MD from Glen Elliott on Vimeo.

My sister Jennifer (who was my Maid of Honor) even gives my blog and Twitter a shout-out in her toast. :)

Glen is mailing out our entire wedding video tomorrow, and I know I will be anxiously waiting by the mailbox to see what other amazing memories he caught from our wedding day!

Our Sweet Beginning: Photo Booth Fun!

Early in wedding planning, I went to the Swan Harbor Bridal Expo with my mom and three of my fabulous bridesmaids. While we were there, we stepped into a photo booth with some ridiculous props and acted silly. While I hadn't considered having one prior to that moment, a photo booth was suddenly one of those things I had to have at our wedding. After some discussions with the powers-that-be (my parents), we booked that same vendor from the bridal show!

It was an awesome booth because it printed out two strips, one for the guests to take and one to leave for us! Even though some people took both strips, we got to see those too because the vendor later sent us a flash drive with all of the pictures that had been taken throughout the night.

One of my favorite parts of the day after our wedding was looking through all of the strips that people had left for us. So much hilariousness! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. The logo at the bottom was very cute, but has our last name (heart flutter...our last name!) so that part has been deleted. :)

First up, our families!

{Rachel and flower girl Zoë}  {Brian's cousins/ring bearers}  {my dad and cousin Jenna}

{My sister Jennifer and cousin Jenna}     {my parents}      {Rachel and cousin Jordan}

 Some cute couples...

{Joella and Bobby}     {Jennifer and Jon}     {Amber and Antonio}

The rest of our friends got in on the action too!

 {Me, Joella, and Amber}     {A group of crazy Phi Mus}     {Brian's groomsmen/WP friends}

{Me and Amber}   {Julianna, Megan, and Angela}   {Me and Shannon (cameo by Brian)}

  {Amber and Kristi}      {A group of Brian's friends}      {Brian and his best man Pat}

 And of course, the newlyweds had to make a couple of appearances!

I am pretty sure the photo booth was one of the most fun parts of our wedding! 

Honeymoon in St. Lucia: Day 4

The fourth day of our honeymoon in St. Lucia was probably the one we were looking forward to the most...the day of our treatments at the gorgeous Rainforest Spa!

We started the morning with breakfast at the Bayside Restaurant, and I decided to order two meals (it's no wonder I gained a couple of pounds on this trip!) Blueberry french toast, with a side of eggs and bacon. Yum! Brian enjoyed his favorite smoothie, the Wake Up, which was a delicious combination of Baileys, chocolate, and coffee.

 

After our yummy breakfast, we went down to the beach to do some snorkeling. 

 The water was so clear, and we were able to see a lot of coral and colorful fish. However, when I saw an eel swimming a handful of feet beneath me, I had seen enough! I immediately headed for the shore. :) 

Then, it was finally time to head to the spa!

The Romantic Renaissance package included our own private tree house treatment room with watsu pool and waterfall...

...hydrotoning facials, a 50 minute full-body massage, a light lunch of salads and smoothies, and relaxation time in the watsu pool with a bottle of champagne!

It was absolutely perfect, and definitely the perfect splurge for our honeymoon! Nothing compares to a massage laying in the middle of the rainforest listening to the chirping of the birds and the rushing water of the river. We left the Rainforest Spa completely relaxed and happy! :)

That night, a French couple was being married on the beach at Jalousie. We sat on the beach and watched all of the wedding guests arrive by boat into the harbor while the sun was setting. It was so neat!

Because their wedding reception was held on the beach at Bayside, we headed to the Great Room for another delicious dinner overlooking Pitons Bay.

I swear we ate more than just dessert on our honeymoon (in fact, this night Brian had the most amazing steak ever), but that's seemingly the only time we remembered to take pictures. :)