Honeymoon in the Big Apple

We took the hour long train ride to Grand Central Station. What a beautiful evening. The sky had a mix of clouds with the sun setting and it looked "heavenly" outside. It was the kind of sky after it has rained all day, and everything looks brighter and more crisp. Beautiful.

We hopped off the train and walked back to our hotel. We were going to taxi it because we had luggage but after we began walking, we figured we might as well keep going as we were only a few blocks away. We checked into the hotel, the Algonquin. What a nice boutique hotel! It was much nicer than the one I had previously stayed in, and several square feet larger. I could actually raise my arms above my head in the shower to massage the shampoo into my hair. We changed clothes. I put on the dress (several posts below) with the champagne ruffles and my Wife put on her suit. We took a taxi ride to the restaurant (Quality Meats) as it was too far to walk in heels. The restaurant was super cool inside. Three levels, thousands of bottles of wine, and lovely romantic ambiance. I ordered wine and my Wife ordered a beer. We split the fillet as we didn't see any appetizers that grabbed our attention. We had read reviews about the cream corn brulee and Parmesan gnocchi. Both were to die for!! So delicious. The steak was "okay", but I have certainly had better. For dessert we split a chocolate banana bread pudding with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and a sauce that was oooey gooey goodness. We had stated in our online reservations we were celebrating our wedding night. What I assume was the manager, brought us a complimentary bottle of champagne! I do not care for champagne, but the gesture was appreciated.

We went back to the hotel and decided we wanted another drink. We went into the hotel bar (The Blue Bar) and were seated promptly by a scottish bartender. What a jovial fellow! After our first drink, we were warmed up to him and told him it was our wedding night. The evening manager brought us a bottle of red wine, on the house! Sweet!! He also told us we could have breakfast brought to our room the next morning...I think we were drinking a bit much to remember to order it. We made friends with another couple standing at the bar from Arkansas. We talked to them for a long time, then stumbled our way to our room.

I'll leave out the TMI details, but, there was nothing disappointing about our wedding night.

We set the alarm to go to the Today show, but when the buzzer sounded, we turned the tv on and realized all the Today show news crew were either in London for Will & Kate's wedding, or in Alabama, covering the tornado damage. We rolled back over and went to sleep for a couple of more hours...

Wedding Day is HERE! Part 2

Our wedding day is HERE! We set the alarm so we could meet my MIL at 9:15 am. We grabbed coffee and juice then headed to the town clerks office where we would swear in. Just the three of us went, it was a short walk. The clerk's office had the paperwork printed and ready for us to look over. We had faxed our application in earlier in the week to expedite the process. We both raised our right hand, signed the certificate, and paid our $30. Voila! We were married...ALMOST! The town clerk (super nice guy) gave us the certificate to give to our justice of the peace (JOP). We headed back to the hotel to get ready. We had a few minutes before we needed to start our showers so we sat in the lobby with my MIL and chatted a few minutes. While we were sitting there, our FLOWERS arrived. They were stunning!! My bouquet was an arrangement of mango colored mini calla lilies wrapped in burgundy silk and pins that matched. My MIL had a white calla lily nosegay wrapped in ivory silk and pins that matched, and then my girl had a mango

orange corsage with subtle greenery and a couple stephanotis flowers in front.

Around 10:30 we headed to our room. It was HOT in there, and the air conditioner did not seem to be working. My girl went to the hotel desk and asked if we could get ready in a room where the A/C worked. They kindly gave her a room key to a room across the hall, and beside my MIL and aunt/cousin. We grabbed our goods and commenced to getting ready. We initially wanted to get ready in separate rooms, but that didn't work out, which was fine. I played music while we got ready--Amy MacDonald, one of our

favorite artists.

First was makeup. A friend had bought me all the MAC makeup I would need, and gave me a full set of Trish McEvoy brushes. I may be tooting my my own but I thought my makeup looked damn good. Later in the day our photographer even asked if I had it professionally done. That made me feel SO good, as she sees brides on a weekly basis! It took awhile to get my hair extensions in. I called my MIL in to help me...she was supposed to have watched my stylist at the Aveda salon but I could tell she wasn't really paying attention. Next we called in my girl's aunt...she has an eleven year old girl so surely she can help do hair, right? Well, between the three of us, we got it in, and secured. I thought it looked great!

We took the hotel shuttle to the south train station where we met our photographer for pre-wedding photos. We had overcast skies, which our photographer said was synonymous with God smiling down on us, from her perspective. We stayed there for about an hour and a half shooting pictures. The forecast for the day was 80% chance of rain and storms. So far, not a drop all day...until we were wrapping up the photo shoot at the train station and the bottom fell out. It was okay because we went inside and took some photos next to a pedestal clock. I can't wait to see those photos!!

Kelly offered to let us ride in her car from the train station to the estate mansion. Our three guests caught a cab ride over. When we arrived it was raining. The AARP meeting was finishing up but the ladies were so enamoured with us they were chit chatting with each of us about our wedding. One lady offered to let us borrow some large umbrellas she had in her car. We took her up on that!! I went inside the mansion to see if I could see any covered areas in the back where we could get married. We had made a verbal agreement

with the parks and rec department to only be outside, and I wanted to keep my promise. I could see the tea room out the side window that I had been told about. It was PERFECT.

My girl and I began walking down the rock walkway towards the tea room and I heard footsteps behind us. I asked my girl if someone was following us and she turned around to see a strange man. My girl said "Are you the JOP?" He said he was and gave each of us a hug and kiss. We stood under the umbrella talking for a few minutes then we proceeded down to the tea room and stood under the covered porch. Our three guests were scrambling to get their purses and goods off the porch (pictures were going to be made) but they wanted to keep them dry. After a few minutes, and us ready to begin...the JOP asked the peanut gallery to join us. My girls cousin started playing the wedding march on her ipod (how cute!) and we began our ceremony. We had put our vows together by piecing several of JOP's suggestions together. Then we each had written our own vows to each other. This is where I began to cry...and had to fight back the tears. The

words she spoke to me touched my heart. I had not expected to cry, or be emotional, but making such a huge commitment to one another, and pouring our life and soul out in a few short moments, I couldn't hold back the water works just a bit.

We finished the ceremony and Kelly took more photos of us at the mansion. So many shots and poses!! After about another hour of pics, Kelly took us to the town hall (our guests called for the hotel shuttle to pick them up), where we picked up our marriage license and got a few more pictures. When we were walking outside the sun popped out and we saw a gorgeous row of cherry blossom trees where Kelly thought we could get some wonderful shots. There were also some magnolias in full bloom, and these turned out to be awesome pictures from what we have seen so far. I got my dress and shoes SO dirty here, but the pictures were worth it. From there we went downtown and had more shots in front of some of the cute shops and streets. I took my shoes off for all of these photos, I couldn't take it any longer!! We finished up around 5 pm and Kelly took us back to our hotel...but not before noticing she had a parking ticket!!

Oops!!

Once back at the hotel we packed our belongings and talked about having a drink in the hotel lobby but realized there was no time, as we had to catch the train back to the big city. My MIL had rented a car by this time and took us to the train station. We were starving (hadn't eaten ALL day) so we stopped at a drug store and got chips and drinks for the train ride. Our family took us to the east train station where we gave both of them thank-you cards. My MIL talked to my wife for awhile, in private, and said some meaningful words to her. We finally caught the train and enjoyed our hour long ride, in daylight hours, back to Grand Central...MARRIED.

So far...it's been a perfect day.

Wedding Part 1

We left for LGA 0600. There were heavy thunderstorms as we were driving to the airport. My girl was going to drop us four (mother in law, my girls aunt, and her daughter) off then go park in economy and take the shuttle. She started texting me a few minutes after I thought she should be parked "I missed the shuttle" and she chased him down through the parking lot. She beat the umbrella on the side of the bus, but he kept driving. She threw in a lot of expletives in her texts and said she was back in the 4Runner waiting for another shuttle to come by. She missed that one, too. Finally, thirty minutes later, my sweet fiance came thru the airport door, drenched and NOT happy. I was worried this might be a pre-cursor for the rest of the trip, but it wasn't...just a hiccup we will laugh about for years to come. The image of her beating on that shuttle bus in the severe thunderstorm still makes me giggle a bit.

We arrived in NYC just before lunch. We took a taxi to our hotel we'd be staying at for our wedding night. We had pre-arranged for them to hold our luggage while we did some touristy things in the city. We took the subway to Battery Park and then ferried over to the statue of Liberty. We spent a couple of hours walking around the museum, pedestal base, and outside around the water. We took the taxi back uptown where we walked to Otto Pizzeria (Mario Batali's restaurant) for our pre-wedding night dinner. The food and wine were great...I had the homemade pasta cheese gnocchi, which to me was the best thing I tried. The others had pizza and my MIL had pasta with spinach and italian sausage. The dessert menu was not appetizing to any of us so we walked around the corner to a Starbucks (I was hoping for a local choclatier but no such luck).

We discussed taking the family to Times Square so we hopped on the subway and headed that way...or so we thought. Turns out we were going Downtown and ended up crossing the river and into Brooklyn. We were just a few stops shy of Coney Island. Oops!! We had a good laugh and got back on the RIGHT subway and walked around Times Square. We sat on the bright red steps. Some kids behind us were smoking pot. Hundreds and hundreds of people were out and about. TLC had a huge screen set up in front of the red steps where they would air the royal wedding Friday morning.

After we walked around TS for a bit we headed to our hotel to pick up our luggage, then on to Grand Central Station. On our way to the hotel we were detained at a roadblock. I saw a news channel van and cameraman with an anchor playing with his ear piece so I asked the cameraman what was going on. He looked at me like I was a dumb girl from Tennessee and said "ummm, the PRESIDENT is in that building" and pointed up to the building we were standing beside. Sheesh...

We took a detour to GCS where we would catch the rail train to the South Norwalk train station. We just missed a train so we would have to wait 45 minutes for the next one. By this time I had blisters from my Sperry's and I was cranky. I sat on the floor in the middle of GCS and people watched. When we got on the train we thought we picked some seats that would remain empty around us. After we took off the next stop we made picked up a couple of drunk folks. Ugh, they sat right in front of us and were OBNOXIOUS the entire ride. Thankfully they got off a couple of stops before us, but it was still a long train ride having to listen to them.

We arrived at the South Norwalk train station and caught a taxi to the hotel. He couldn't shut the trunk because of our luggage so we rode through the town with the trunk lid flopping up and down. We arrived at the hotel shortly before 1 am EST. It took me a long while to go to sleep. I was worried...worried about our wedding day. The forecast was calling for 80% chance of rain at wedding start time. I wasn't sure if what they call thunderstorms were the same kind we have. I also worried that the city wouldn't allow us to stand under their covered area for the ceremony. Our JOP mentioned in an email earlier in the day that he didn't think they would let us. Our photographer also contacted us earlier in the day and asked if we could move our photo shoot time up because she was looking at the forecast and expected rain later in the afternoon, when we were scheduled to have pictures. We agreed to meet at the train station at 1 pm for photos. I think I got a bad piece of meat at Otto and my stomach was not feeling great...this added to my nauseous feelings about the wedding day. Finally, I drifted to sleep, and woke just before the alarm went off.