Hawaiian Honeymoon - Day 3 ....

Our 2nd full day, we ventured out from the resort to explore Kaua'i. There is one main highway in Kaua'i that runs up the coast. Our resort was located in Poipu, which is on the southern coast. So we headed Northeast up the coastline. The guide book I bought had a great tour of spots along the highway, so we followed that in our drive. It took us to some beautiful sites! (Get ready for picture overload).

Part of the highway, tall, beautiful trees!

The husband driving...

The first stop was a beautiful waterfall... I wish I could remember the name, but that's the problem with doing recaps 4 months later....

The second water fall of the day!

The Wailua River

Lunch in Hanalee Bay!

Patrick took this picture by standing on a guardrail on a cliff... I may or may not have yelled at him.

 After lunch, we drove down the highway to the very end of the road to find a beach. After almost getting our convertible stuck in a gravel parking lot, we ventured back towards Hanalee, and found a parking spot at this public beach. It was beautiful. We stayed here for a few hours, and enjoyed the water.

A man and the sea.

That's Patrick. The waves were legit. Too legit to quit (coudn't help myself).

I am pretty sure this was taken right before I got knocked down...

 

I apparently didn't take any more pictures that day, which is very uncharateristic of me! After the beach, we drove back to our resort with a pit stop at Macy's so Patrick could buy shorts since he left all of his (but one pair) in the dryer at home, oops.

 

That night, with the help of Yelp (which was utilized immensely on this trip), we headed to dinner at a local italian restaurant. Patrick's GPS on his phone led us to an apartment building 30 minutes from our hotel. Sara's GPS led us back to the right area, 5 minutes from our hotel. The italian restuarant was cozy, and the food was tasty. I enjoyed the sorbet the best!

 

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for a night cap at the library.

 

On to Day 4....

Honeymoon - Day 1 and 2 ... Travel + First Full day in Kaua'i

 

I realize this post is out of order, but I am seriously missing our care-free honeymoon days, so I skipped over the wedding weekend to deliver this recap (no worries, full wedding recap to come).

 

 

The sunday after our wedding, we drove back to Houston, and packed for our two week Hawaiian honeymoon! The following day, Monday, June 3rd, we headed to the airport to catch our noon flight to LAX, followed by our flight to Kaua'i, Hawaii.

 

 

Hanging out in the Chili's before boaring our flight, usual.

Not tired at all.

 



We had a bit of a layover in LA, but managed to buy a one day pass to the United lounge, where we saw the lead singer of Foo Fighters. Patrick knocked out some last minute work (yes, ugh!), and I knocked out some vodka/soda cocktails. Little bit of flying anxiety. The three hour layover seemed to drag on, but we finally boarded our flight to Hawaii, five more hours till paradise.

We arrived in Kaua'i around 8 pm (Hawaiian time, 1 am Texas time). We were exhausted, but excited to finally be in Hawaii! We rented a convertible for the week, and headed to our resort - the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. After driving to the wrong entrance initially, we finally manuevered our way to the hotel lobby. We were welcomed with lei's and hawaiian beads. Patrick checked us in, and then we headed to our room. We had a wonderful room, with an amazing view of the adult pool area (which we were right next to, thankfully), and the ocean. We were so tired, and ordered dinner in our room then hit the hay so we could wake up refreshed for our first full day.

The next morning we woke up and saw how great our view really was! We headed down to the hotel's breakfast buffet (I'm a fan of breakfast).

Our view at breakfast...not bad...

The Husband at Breakfast... Not pictured -- a very tired looking Sara.

View from the hotel lobby.

We rented a cabana for the day at the adult pool, and enjoyed cocktails, and rest. We also planned out our following days in Kaua'i. It was total relaxation, and I loved every minute.

The view.

Total relaxation.

 

The pools at the hotel were awesome. There was an adult pool, and then a lazy river connected that to a big slide to take you down to the lower pools (the Hotel is built into the side of a hill on the coast). Patrick and I enjoyed taking the lazy river to the slide, and taking that down to the lower pools. Least effort required.

 

That night for dinner, we headed to a restaurant at the Hotel called Tidepools. It was located at the bottom the resort surroundined by tide pools, go figure. It was very tasty, and we enjoyed our first nice meal in Hawaii (and my first of many fish dishes).

 

Dinner after our first full day!



After dinner, we grabbed a cocktail in the hotel bar, Stevenson's Library. It looked like a library, and served very tasty cocktails with a nice view of the ocean. It was a very restful first day, which was perfect since the next day we had lots planned out of the resort!

Day 3 to come ....

D is for Day before Wedding

The Friday before the wedding was filled with lots of friend and family time! I was eager to get to these events, because we had been working on them for so long!

 

Well -- the fun really started on Thursday night - my college roomies, and BFF, Lauren, all came into town! Sarah, Heidi, Candice, and Lauren all stayed with me at my parent's house. It was a fun few nights of girl talk and laughs. I really miss these girls. That night we went to a bar in downtown Fort Worth, to kick off the party. Maggie and Alisa joined us for this, and it was a blast.

On Friday, my family and I hosted a Bridal Luncheon at the Fort Worth Club. It was lovely - we had a small room, and ate from the buffet. I also gave my bridal party their gifts - makeup bags with their names, and Kendra Scott necklaces. It was really fun to have Patrick's family there as well -- his mom, sister, nieces, and sister in law. A great event to kick off the wedding weekend!



Patrick's family, and my new in-laws!



Mom-in-law and mom



College Roommates

After the bridal luncheon, we went back to the house to relax a little while before the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner. Much needed relaxation - pretty sure I was running on adrenaline the whole weekend because I sure wasn't sleeping very much!

 

That night was the Rehearsal at the church, and the Rehearsal Dinner. The rehearsal was ran like a well oil machine, and I thought went very well, with only a few minor hiccups. It definitely made it more real for me that we were getting married!

After the rehearsal, we all enjoyed a lovely rehearsal dinner at Joe T Garcia's Mexican Restaurant. We lucked out, and had an entire building to ourselves. We ate from a tasty buffet of fajitas and enchiladas, and also had some yummy margaritas! It was a very fun night spent with close friends and family. Such a blessing to have all those people in our lives, and at our wedding to celebrate our marriage. I enjoyed getting to see my family from NC that I hadn't seen in probably 5 years, as well as all of my close friends from various stages of my life -- college, law school, and post law school. The night went by too quickly, as fun times always do. But I will carry memories from that night with me for forever.

Shannon and I (Junior League Friend)

Maggie and Alisa

Sisters!

Laura and I

Law Friends!

Baylor Girls

Typical :-)

Me and my bridal party!

My new sis-in-law !

Patrick and his boys.

Patrick's dad and Step-mom

Brothers and Best Buds.

The night was a success! Afterwards, Patrick and his buds went and did something or another, and my girls and I went back to the house, and immediately went to sleep to get beauty rest for the next day .. .Wedding Day!

M is for Married...

That's right my friends -- Patrick and I are now Husband and Wife!

June 1, 2013 was an amazing day -- the best. The following two weeks were equally as amazing as we honeymooned in Hawaii (Kauai and Maui).

Post to follow about both!

I am going to blog more now I hope in an effort to memorialize the first year of my marriage to the Mr.

You do realize June 1 is a popular date to get married?

Let's take it back a few months.....because I have actually done wedding activities since I've been engaged...

After we were engaged, I took a few weeks to really just enjoy the engagement, without thinking about wedding planning or anything associated with that.

I had a fun engagement dinner with my close girl friends at Tila's in Houston. We had the back private room, and it was really fun to celebrate with a fun mixture of new and old friends! (Thanks to Kayla for getting that organized!).

Next up, I spent a few weeks scheduling appointments with various venues in Fort Worth, Texas. See, I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be married in Fort Worth. I grew up in Arlington, and my dad has worked in Downtown Fort Worth for much of my life. It just seemed natural. The only problem is, its hard to make appointments with vendors when you live four hours away. So, in order to select our venue, I scheduled a marathon venue shoppping day. That morning, Patrick and I met with the Priest at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Fort Worth -- this is where our ceremony will be held.

After that meeting, my mom, dad, sister Liz, and her bf Josh, joined Patrick and I to look at various reception venues around Fort Worth.

We started our day at the Fort Worth Museum of Nature and Science. I grew up going to this museum as a kid, and thought it might be fun and unique. The layout would have been nice for a small wedding, but it just didn't work for what my "vision" was (according to my Dad). (And, I was just there this past weekend, and there is a giant ship in the area where the reception woud have been (for the Titanic exhibit)...not sure how that would have worked with my "vision" either).

Next, we had lunch at Railhead BBQ. Nothing like some ribs and a giant pile of french fries to break up the day!

The Ashton Depot was our next stop. The moment I walked into this venue, I fell in love with it. The woman who showed up around was so knowledgeable, and really sold the place for me. She started us in the garden area, where the cockatil hour would be, and took us all through the reception area and different locations. This place appealed to me because it is "full service," kind of like an All inclusive resort. The only thing I would have to do would be to find a florist, DJ, and photographer. Which seemed ideal since I was realizing quickly that planning a wedding from afar would be time consuming. I knew that I loved this place, but we had three more spots to check out that day.



Interior of The Ashton Depot -- taken from the Mezzanine balcony.

We swung by the Petroleum Club, which had an amazing view! But again, it seemed to be more set up for smaller weddings (like 50 - 75 people). While the view was amazing, it was hard to get over how cramped everyone would be.

We next went to The Fort Worth Club. I actually really liked this place a lot as well. It had great spaces, and would offer bridal rooms to get ready in on the day of the wedding. The only problem was, the best reception room was already booked for the favorite day I was look at. The smaller room was just fine, but it did have a bit of a feeling of stuffiness. I know that with the windows open, and the lights set a certain way, it would have been fabulous. I just wish the bigger room had been available! The woman, Megan, who showed us around, was also very nice and knowedgeable!

After that, our last stop for the day was the Omni Hotel. Patrick and I had some friends get married there a few years ago, so I wanted to check it out. I'm all for hotel receptions since it's easy for guests to come and go if they are staying in the hotel. The reception space was really big! The only downside, was that it was a blank surface. I knew that it would take a lot of effort and meetings with vendors to get it to look the way I wanted to. And, once my sister said "Doesn't this remind you of band banquets in high school?" I knew that it was slowly sliding down the list of top choices.

Me and the Dad at the Omni.

The mom!

My MOH and Sister!

Patrick and I -- sidenote (he was running on about 1 hour of sleep, lovely big firm jobs)

Of course, once that tour was completed -- we ducked into the bar at the Omni for happy hour to end the day. I really enjoyed spending the day looking at venues with my family. It was the first time I had seen them since we got engaged, and so the day was very special to me!!

Venue shopping makes you hungry!

Once we arrived back in Houston, Patrick and I spent a lot of time discussing which venue we liked the best. He really liked the Petroleum Club, and I liked the Fort Worth Club. However, we both liked The Ashton Depot. So, after much though, that's what we decided on -- and I cannot wait for my reception to be there in the next 4 months. It really was the all inclusive nature of the venue -- they provide the bar service, waiters, linens, plates, planner for the evening, food, etc. I think that if we had been planning the wedding in the same city that we lived in, I would have chosen a venue like Omni. So, The Ashton Depot it is!

With the venue selected, the next decision to be made was the date. At every venue, we were greeted and told that if we chose to get married in June, we should knows its the most popular month to get married, so we needed to decide quickly. I knew I wanted to get married sometime between April and June. I love spring, and well, I still consider early June to be "spring." After looking at our schedules, it just looked like June would be best! After much thought, we decided on June 1, 2013. I love the way it sounds, and I cannot wait to celebrate that day for many years to come.

Next up ... dress shopping.