okay. this is going to be big, and pictureless. if you're just looking to browse photos, i promise i'm trying to get them up soon. i uploaded my pictures to my computer today, and have over 500 to go thru, then there are the literal hundreds i'm waiting to see from other people's cameras.
overall, the trip was AMAZING! without a doubt one of the best weeks of my life. no question. the company was fantastic. even i was a little surprised at how well these people from different areas of my life got along. the weather was ideal: hot and sunny every day, breezy in the evening, rainy at night. the wedding was short and sweet and lovely. i felt beautiful, josh looked amazing, it was perfect.
okay, this is where you can stop reading if you just wanted the cliff's notes. you've been warned.
thursday: picked jeff up and drove to the other end of the city. met my family at the hotel. ate a delicous meal at jack astor's and started the vacation off right.
friday: woke up at 2:30 am to dress, pack up, get the shuttle. managed a stupid sleep-deprived fight with josh. made up quickly, you know, so as not to ruin our wedding vacation. our flight was wonderful in that it was uneventful, save the old bitchy crone sitting beside me. i just put up the armrest between myself and joshua and shuffled as close to him as possible. when we got to punta cana, there was a private shuttle waiting for our party, which was totally badass, and we were checked into our rooms before we even got to the hotel, which made life so awesome. straight to our rooms, lindsay found us, we all hit the pool.
drink, drank, drunk. all the girls were drunk, all the boys were drunker. to the point where - long story short - i came up to our room at dinnertime and joshua was throwing up, right in our bed. it was disgusting. kristen and i had dinner alone because all the boys were passed out/sick.
saturday: fresh start [housekeeping had changed our sheets before we slept - obviously]. meeting for wedding details. food, drink, good times. had dinner with joshua's family at the japanese restaurant.
sunday: wedding photographer meeting. the usual pool time with our favourite bar tenders and entertainment all afternoon.
monday: wedding day! early breakfast, then prep-time. josh got ready in jeff's room, the ladies all came to my room for hair and makeup and making me the centre of attention. everyone headed down to the beach around 12:45, lindsay and i waited for our ride with the judge at 1 [dominican time - so 1:10ish?]. the ceremony itself was short and sweet. including translations it took about 10 minutes. we brought 14 guests + 2 witnesses, but the wedding was watched [and photographed?!] by a ton of people on the beach. after the nuptuals, josh and i headed off with the photographer for a few shots down the beach, and in one of the gardens. while we were touring around the resort for photos, i felt like kate middleton. everyone was waving at us, shouting congratulations, clapping. loved it!
that was all over by 2:30 and we stripped off our wedding gear, hopped into bathing suits, and hit the pool with everyone else for our usual party time. we dressed back up for dinner and cake at the italian restaurant at 6:30. post-dinner we headed back to our room, and -- ready for it?! -- i felt crappy, threw up and was in bed by 10. josh went to the casino and won $50. haha. seriously. that is not the toned-down, pg-rated version of our wedding night; that is literally what happened. no worries tho, we have a lifetime for sexytime.
tuesday: lindsay, jesse, kristen and i had "ladies breakfast" early while the guys slept a little later and had "man breakfast" while us gals headed to the beach. i put my bikini on under my dress, and we did a super fun photo shoot of me playing in the ocean, then jumping in the pool, in my wedding dress. it was one of the most fun things i've ever done. just after lunch joshua and i went and chose our professional photos, i love them so much. the afternoon was "routine": floating in the pool with drinks and friends. jes was a little overserved and ended up cancelling dinner plans with us, but kristen and alex came instead, again to the japanese a la carte. the food was even tastier than the last time we'd been, so yay.
wednesday: lindsay and andrew's, and josh's family's last full day. we spent most of it at the beach, just lounging around, floating in the gorgeous salty ocean. pool time. mexican dinner.
thursday: our last full day. morning at the beach with josh's fam, and lindsay and andrew. i just sat back in a lounger and listened to drake with the ocean in the background for a while. it was perfection. ocean. lunch. pool. drinks. dinner that night was mediterranean/seafood restaurant with my parents, jim and barb, alex and kristen, jeff, and josh [obviously]. sadly, it was the worst meal of the trip. the appetizers were amazing [including the king crab legs we'd quickly snagged in the main buffet before we came to dinner] but the entrees were a disaster. my "seafood and fish lasagna" was renamed "cat food lasagana" and josh and alex's "lobster casserole" was certainly more accurately called "lobster guts stew". meh. good for a joke, i guess. we just filled up on more apps and laughed our way thru.
friday: got up early. it was grey and cloudy. checked out. ate breakfast. it started raining, which made it only slightly easier to leave. prior to that, every day had been bright and sunny. we took our private shuttle back to the airport and waited. i had probably the best wendy's spicy chicken of my life. flew home. had a stressful wait for our luggage, because of course it was the last stuff off the plane, and jeff had a bus to catch all the way across the city. finally got our stuff, got our shuttle to the hotel, yelled goodbye to my famjam and hit the road. we ended up getting jeff to the bus stop a good 10 minutes before his bus was scheduled, and of course it was 15 minutes late. got home and ordered a pizza because there's no food in the house. slept in my own bed and it was glorious.
now: as i said, i'm wading thru pictures, trying to decide what gets the facebook treatment, what will go in albums, etc. josh is at work. it's snowy and cold outside. i should be doing laundry but haven't. we'll grocery shop tomorrow.
i dreaded stepping on the scale this morning, as i'm pms-ing to begin with, but moreso because i ate and drank whatever i wanted for an entire week, with the justification that "vacation calories don't count". i weigh 1.4 lbs more than i did when we left, so i'm shocked, and quite pleased. i'm still going back on my diet this week, and hitting the treadmill, but i'd have done that anyway. operation gameface is a go. |
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