Antiguan Antics: The Honeymoon Begins!

Ok friends, it's time for some recaps. I don't have pro pics back, but I *do* have a ton of pics from our honeymoon in....

Antigua!!

If you'll remember way back in January I told you Josh planned our whole honeymoon and planned to keep it a secret from me until the day of the wedding. He ended up spilling the beans in the card he wrote me that I opened the morning of the wedding. Very sweet :)

Very early on the morning of May 23 (as in the ungodly hour known as 4:30am) we headed to the airport and began our journey! Exhausted but super excited, we recounted stories of the night before and updated our respective Facebook statuses (gotta love this technological age we live in). I also spotted a famous person waiting at our gate! I knew right away who he was.

The one on the left!

Darryl "DMC" McDaniels from the famous hip-hop group Run DMC!! No entourage, just chillin' by himself. I didn't go up to him because let's face it, it was 6am and no one wants to be talked to at that hour.  Josh was like, "How the heck did you know that was him?" Duh, babe, I'm a hip-hop aficionado!

This was our crazy flight schedule:

Cleveland to Newark, NJ

Newark, NJ to San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan to Antigua.

We left Cleveland around 6:30am and arrived in Antigua 8:30pm. You guys...that's a long ass day. But we didn't kill each other! We even managed to snag a fairly cute pic during our 4 hour layover in Newark.

We don't look THAT bad, right?

My curls were still intact from my wedding hair and it actually looked decent once I put on a headband. Score 1 point for vanity! But I have to be honest, my vanity was about to take a beating. Let me explain.

I did my own make up for my wedding. I brought my make up bag in the limo with me and to the venue so I could touch it up whenever I needed. I kept said make up and make up bag locked in our venue coordinator's office along with some other personal items (ie, my big dress that I changed out of after cocktail hour). Some one was to retrieve all items from the office and take them to their respective places (home, my hotel room, etc). Guess what one item was left in that office after the wedding was over and the venue closed for the night. If you guessed make up bag DING DING DING you're right.

Long story short, I was without my make up for my honeymoon. This may not seem like a big deal to some girls, but to me this was, to be blunt, a tragedy of epic proportions. I loooove make up. Wearing it, applying it, buying it...loooove.

I ended up buying some crappy, overpriced make up at the airport and made do for the rest of the trip. And by "made do" I mean complained and probably made my husband hate me just a little. Let's just say I'll be buying some reserve, travel-only make up REAL soon.

Have you ever forgotten anything critical on vacation?

Up next...our First Class experience!

A link you'll love

By now you've all heard me gush over our photographers, Ted and Rachel Linczak of Linczak Photography. I seriously LOVE them (in a very stalker-ish kind of way). Well, they've given me yet another reason to fawn all over them.

We've been blogged!!

And they didn't just post 4 or 5 pics. Oh no, they posted over 40 (FORTY). WHAT? That's unheard of. Not only that, but they wrote some of the kindest words about us and our wedding day. It made me cry because I'm a big baby and I love them so much.

So please, head on over to their blog and take a peek at the photos. You won't be disappointed. And then comment because I know they love comments. Then "Like" them on Facebook because they update with teasers all the time and we all love wedding pictures.

Ted and Rachel, if you're reading this, I know I've told you a million times already, but THANK YOU so much for everything. You're the best photographers a bride could ever ask for. I almost want to get pregnant now so you can do a maternity shoot and then a newborn shoot for me. Notice how I said *almost* :)

Oh and stay tuned because this week I'm going to start honeymoon recaps!! Trust me, you'll want to keep checking for the awkward massage story...oh yes, it's really is as awkward as that sounds.

Chop me up!

Everyone's doing it. It's the "cool" thing to do, post-wedding. And I'm the latest bride to hop on the PWC bandwagon.

PWC?

Post-Wedding Chop, of course! My long hair was getting out of control and it was definitely time to chop it off. Since I moved to the DC area I had to find a new person to do my hair. Luckily I had no problem choosing one because my SIL is an extremely talented stylist who works at a salon only 30 minutes away! I knew she would do a great job and wasn't nervous at all.

Here is a reminder of my crazy, curly hair. This was taken 2 days before the wedding so by the time I cut my hair it was even a bit longer.

And here I am with my beautiful and talented SIL right after the cut!

And a close up (sorry for the not-so-great cell quality):

And curly (this is at a pool party so it's not really "done" to my liking, but you get the idea):

She chopped off a LOT of hair. Probably a good 3-4 inches, I'd say. I'm super happy with it, although I do think I'm going to start growing it out so it's about an inch longer. Then it'll be just about perfect!!

Did you do a PWC? Did you go super short or just a trim?

Ps, narcissistic much, Em? 4 pics of my silly mug in one post...lordy.

An update

June 11 was the last time I posted. Life since then has been crazy. Let's take a look, shall we?

June 11-13: Spend the weekend with my bff (and BM) Claire doing things for her upcoming wedding.
June 13: Fly out to Mountain View, CA for Google training.
June 14-18: Google training; did the best out of our 17 person training group (pretty proud of myself for that one); thought I would have a ton of time to catch up on blogging but met awesome people and hung out with them every night after training.
June 19: Fly back to DC
June 20: Catch up on sleep
June 21: Begin first week out in the field; photograph businesses; pitch other businesses this awesome service; deal with some of the rudest individuals I've ever encountered; sweat my mother-effing balls off in the DC heat; hardly have any time to spend with my husband let alone live a normal life.
June 24: Have a mild job-induced meltdown; unsure if I can keep this up for 6 months; have Josh take a pic of me all dressed up in my Google polo and gear:

Laugh it up

June 25: Survived my first week! (barely)
Weekend: Amazing and intoxicating! (literally)
June 28: Week two! I can do this!
June 30: Have a major job-induced meltdown; can't stop crying; work for 2 hours then take the rest of the day off; decide I definitely cannot do this for 6 months; send in my "I quit" email (resignation sounds too formal); feel immediate sense of relief coupled with intense sense of failure.
4 day holiday weekend: Much needed, much enjoyed.

So, I quit the job with Google. Believe me when I say I did NOT want to do that. I'm not a quitter. But at the same time, I was incredibly unhappy and it was starting to affect my marriage and my sanity. Every night I would come home exhausted, cranky, and a gross sweaty mess. Then I'd have to do more work to prepare for the next day. It would be one thing if I was making a ton of money or enjoyed what I did...but neither of those things were the case.

After this week (I agreed to work 3 days this week) I'll be back on the job hunt. I need a real job. I need a real job doing what I really want to do.

In between job hunting I'm hoping to catch up on blogging, start those damn recaps, figure out what direction to take this blog, enjoy my new city, enjoy my husband, put my apartment together (I've been here for over a month and it's still a mess), and basically start my life as a married woman in a new city.

Thanks for sticking around. I definitely miss my readers, writing, comments (they're like crack, ya know), reading other blogs, etc. I promise not to be so MIA from now on. And I promise my next post will channel Kelly Killoren Bensimon and be full of rainbows and unicorns :)

I'm not dead

And I haven't forgotten about all of you beautiful people out there :)

Things have been pretty crazy since the honeymoon. As most of you probably know, I moved to the DC area (Bethesda, MD to be exact) the Wednesday after the honeymoon. My mom stayed with us until Friday, then we finally had some time to experience our new city together. We had a fun weekend of exploring the city, enjoying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends, both new and old. Of course, I didn't take any pictures. Bad blogger (I promise to get better at that).

On Tuesday of this week I called the local office of the temp agency I've been working with for the past year. I figured I'd try to get a short-term temp assignment while I search for a permanent position. Well, I found a temp assignment! It's a bit longer than I originally wanted (6 months) but it's a pretty amazing opportunity. So who will I be working for?

Google. As in, THE Google.

Normally for the sake of privacy I wouldn't reveal this info, but it's just too good to keep to myself. I don't want to go into detail about my assignment, but it's very exciting and will allow me to flex my communication muscles while learning a new skill (photography) at the same time.

This Sunday (as in 2 days from now) I'll be on a plane to Mountain View, CA where I'll train at Google headquarters for the next week.

This has all happened incredibly fast, and while I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, I am very excited.

I promise to start honeymoon recaps soon, plus we're set to receive our pro pics in the next few weeks and you all know what that means...wedding recaps!! Just bear with me while I try to juggle all of this few stuff going on. And please, follow me on Twitter @Em219 if you want to read my random musings throughout the day.

Reception video goodness

The other night while stalking perusing Facebook my good friend and fiance of BM Claire posted a YouTube video on my wall. "Hmm, what's this?" I thought to myself.

So I clicked the link. And this is what showed up.



EEEEEE!!! That's my reception! And that's Tyrone and I doing our dance! And Josh and I singing GLEE! And I just died...again. Elliot, you are amazing.

Honestly, my friends are the best. So many have posted hundreds of pictures on Facebook. It's incredible to see the day from their eyes. I honestly appreciate it more than they'll ever know. Some brides (for whatever reason) don't like people posting pictures of their wedding for the Facebook world to see. I, clearly, am not one of those brides. Please feed my narcissism!

Anyway, enjoy the small glimpse into our dance-filled reception!

We're back!

Oh hey there! What's up? Nothing really happening over on this little corner of the internet. Nope, nothin' to see here, move along.

Wait...

Ok my short term memory isn't the best, but I think something pretty epic happened a little over a week ago. Hmm....oh riiiiiiight.

WE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!

Yes, it happened. Yes, it was awesome. Yes, there were a few hiccups. But all in all it was a truly spectacular day and I can't wait to share it with all of you. 

Because I love my readers so much I'm going to give you an *exclusive* sneak peek into our wedding day.  Our photographers, Linczak Photography, are effing ridiculously amazing and put up a few teasers on Facebook while we were honeymooning (in Antigua!!). Enjoy :)

Are you dying? Because I'm pretty sure I DIED when I saw these. The last one? I have no idea how those creative genius freaks made that happen, but I'm sure as hell glad they did.

Things are going to be a little haphazard around these parts for a few days (weeks?) I'm moving to DC on Wednesday and we all know how crazy moving can be. If you're so inclined, be sure to follow me on Twitter @Em219 for all of my post-wedding shenanigans!

*All photos courtesy of Linczak Photography. Oh, and be sure to "Like" them on Facebook if you enjoy their work and want to see more. Or you could just hire them and have pics like these for yourself!