Honeymoon Part 2: Day to Day

Monday was our first full day at the resort.  After breakfast we had an orientation meeting with our travel agency.  It was a quick session to explain some of the excursion options and special things available at the resort.    Then began our basic daily routine.  We would wake up mid morning and go to one of the 2 buffets on the resort for breakfast.  After breakfast we would usually head to the beach and spend the morning on the beach reading, napping and enjoying umbrella drinks.

Our first Umbrella Drinks!

Then whenever we got hungry we would either enjoy the lunch that was prepared on the beach or head to one of the buffets.

After lunch we usually headed to the pool and lounged around some more.  We also ended up socializing with other couples that were at the resort.

Then when the sun started to set and we were tired we would head back to our suite to get ready for dinner.  Most nights we enjoyed dinner at one of the sit down restaurants.  There was a decent variety of different types of food- Japanese, Italian, French, American, and a couple of seafood restaurants to choose from.

Desert at the Japanese Restaurant

I think this was the French Restaurant entree

 Every evening in the courtyard of our resort would have live music.  It was usually some sort of terrible combination of American Pop music with jazzy undertones (think Madonna meets Kenny G).  It really was awful but was nice to enjoy the nice night outside.  They also usually had a signature drink each night including one night drinks in pineapples!

Every night on the other resort there were also shows.  They were usually held in the courtyard and we would wander through and watch for a while mostly just for a break from the bad music.  The last night we were there, however, was what I think might have been the highlight of the week for Nick-  A Michael Jackson Show!  Let me tell you this was quite possibly the worst thing I have ever seen, but I have also probably not laughed so hard in a long time.  Here a glimpse into the experience:

I wish this gave you a true picture of what it was like, but I think it might just be one of those things you have to experience. 

That was how we spend most of the week we were there.  As I wrote this it sounded a bit boring and unexciting but having no real plans for the week and just relaxing was just what we needed and I would do it again in an instant.  

What's Happening at Casa McGeehon

I mentioned in the painting post that we have been motivated to "complete" a room specifically the living room which includes purchasing some things (new couch, chair, side table, rug, window treatments) and diy projects (refinishing coffee table and maybe some other art).  We still haven't made a ton of progress but some things have happened.  None of them really significant enough to warrant their own post but here are the little things we have been doing to make our little house a home in the last couple weeks:

Hanging things on the wall:


We started by messing around with different arrangements on the floor

The final arrangement we decided on.  Who knows if it will stay like that forever, we may change our minds, but this is what it looks like at the moment.

Buying a rug:

Returning said rug: While we love the colors and we were trying to be bold it was just too much for our small living room.

Buying lamps:  We saw these lamps when we were furniture shopping and they matched the plan in my head for the bedroom. We decided to buy them even though at that point we still had not found a bedspread or anything else for the bedroom.

there is also a matching one on Nick's side of the bed

Finally buying a bed spread:  We have been looking for a bed spread for a very long time and nothing was quite right.  We had been looking at this one at target for a while and finally decided it was the closest to the one in my brain so we bought it:

And then returning it:  Once we got it home we decided it wasn't really the color we wanted and it was going to be impossible to find matching sheets so we decided to take it back.

Buying another bed spread:  We found another one the same day we returned the one above to Target.  Turns out we think this one is finally the one!  Now we just need to paint and decorate the rest of the bedroom.

Installed Blinds: When we moved in the large front window just had sheer curtains.  It was nice that they were there so we didn't immediately have to decide on window treatments; however, I personally am not the biggest fan of sheer curtains to begin with and the dog could see right through them and had taken to sitting in front of the window and barking at everyone and everything that walked or drove in front of our house.

Window Before (sorry it is a Christmas pic- this was the
best pic I could find quickly of the window)

 You could find Wrigley in that chair 90% of the time and he found it quite necessary to let everyone outside our house know he was there.  Something that would block his view a bit but still let light in was long over due.

Windows with the blinds

I still think I want some sort of curtain to add some color and break up the long wall but I like the blinds much more than I thought I would.  They are also doing a good job at keeping Wrigley's barking to a minimum!

So those are all the random things we have been up to lately.  We will keep you posted as decorating continues!

Honeymoon Part 1: We arrive in Punta Cana

As most of you are aware we decided for lots of reasons to wait to go on our honeymoon.  Our initial conversations had been to wait and go the week between Christmas and New Years but the prices to go to a nice warm island that week are well RIDICULOUS!  So after some conversation we decided to go the week of Thanksgiving.  I did have to miss my favorite holiday, but I only had to take 2 days off work (all the vacation days I had) so it was really the only thing that was going to work.  It turned out the be great timing and an amazing week.

Saturday before we left we hosted Nick's family at our house for Thanksgiving dinner.  I should have taken pictures given that it was the first Thanksgiving meal I had ever prepared and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Then Sunday morning we were up very very early and off to the airport:

Nick and his coffee at the airport

On the airplane

The flight was about 5 hours and as much as I would have liked to I didn't sleep on it at all so it was pretty boring but before we knew it we were landing in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic:

No you aren't seeing things the airport is several buildings with thatched roofs.  It was quite an interesting thing to see from the air and then realize oh wait that is the actual airport.  It didn't take too long to get through customs and once we were through customs we were herded (and I mean that quite literally) to get our luggage and onto the bus to our resort.  I think the travel company wanted to make sure we didn't wander off. It was a bit overwhelming but in the end we were efficiently shown the way:

on the bus

Luckily the bus was a nice charter bus and had air conditioning cause it was already hot and humid!  After about a 30 minute bus ride we arrived at our resort:

When we got off the bus we were greeted with some champagne and quickly checked in.  We were then escorted to our beautiful room:

Isn't it so bright and cheery?  And yes that is a jacuzzi tub on our balcony!  Also notice in the second picture our complimentary bottle of rum and "fruit basket"  Sadly the "fruit basket" was a plate with 2 strawberries and 2 apples and Im pretty sure the strawberries had been sitting out for a few hours too long- but it was a nice gesture.  We also had a fully stocked mini bar in our room that was included in our all inclusive rate that came with snacks so it was ok if the "fruit basket" wasn't up to my standards the free diet coke (or coca-cola light) and banana chips made up for it!

Once we settled into our room we decided to go for a walk and acquaint ourselves with the resort.  We were staying at an adults only resort but it was attached to a family friendly resort.  This turned out to be an awesome unexpected bonus.  We were able to travel back and forth between the 2 while the guests of the other resort were not allowed on our side.  This meant we had access to twice as many restaurants including the kid friendly buffet which I greatly appreciated.  While I like to be adventurous, sometimes I just want a cheeseburger and fries like the average 8 year old.   Here is what the rest of the resort looked like:

The beach

The beach cabanas

The courtyard 

The pool and swim up bar

I think I took most of these pictures on the day we left which was a bit overcast but most of the time we were there it was sunny and gorgeous!

Stay tuned for some posts about how we spent our time and found a special way to celebrate Thanksgiving!

We Painted!

So we moved in almost 5 months ago and we finally decided to take the plunge and paint a room.  We decided when we first moved that we wanted to wait until we lived in the house for a little while before we began painting or decorating so we could get a real sense of lighting, functionality, etc.  Well a couple months ago we finally decided to paint the living room.

We decided on a khaki brown color that we could accent with pops of black, green and blue.  We already had several elements in the room that were those colors that we wanted to keep so we thought a nice neutral color was the way to go.

We also decided we needed to take off the baseboards and sand them down.  Before we moved in the house was completely repainted including the trim.  Which we really appreciated because it allowed for us to wait to jump into the projects.  However, if you recall our house was carpeted when we moved it, so when they painted the baseboards they obviously only painted to the carpet which left them in a less than beautiful state when we pulled up the carpet.  It took a little bit of work but in the end we ended up salvaging all the current baseboards so we didn't have to buy any new.  The work was definitely worth it.

removing baseboards

sanding them down

Repainting them

I actually did most of the baseboard sanding and painting while Nick did the trim upstairs but I was the only one taking pictures so it looks like Nick did all the work.  

Here is what was happening upstairs: 

Living Room in Ciaos 

Again I promise I really did help paint; I was just the only one taking pictures as well.  

I also only have one decent after pictures on my camera for some reason, but I promise more of those soon.  

In the end it isn't a huge difference but the brown definitely warms the room up and our black furniture really pops on the wall.  It has also motivated to get some other things taken care of in that room like buy a new couch, chair, rug, side table, window treatments and refinish and upholster the coffee table.  We have been working hard on these the last couple weekends without much outcome but hopefully we will have some things to report soon.    

Valentine's Day- McGeehon style

So I haven't gotten around to wrapping my head around all our honeymoon pictures so those posts haven't even been started.  I also have a few house related posts that I need to write I just keep forgetting- sorry.

Anyway given that yesterday was Valentine's Day and the first Valentine's Day we have celebrated as a married couple I thought I would share how Nick and I celebrate the day.

Neither of us are really big fans of the day so it passes with not a lot of "celebration".  In fact last year I recall going to a class at the gym at 6pm or so.  I did come home to take-out but gross sweaty me and take out really isn't the epitome of romantic.

This year we decided again to celebrate in much the same way.  Nick asked if I wanted flowers to which I responded that I did not. I much prefer that if he is going to spend money on flowers for me it is a) a just because surprise not because a valentine's day tradition tells him to and b) buys them on a day when they haven't been marked up to ridiculous prices.  Call me a curmudgeon....I'm ok with it :)

So what did we do.  Nick surprised me with a very nice letter on my night stand to wake up to and then once we both got home from work we spent the night eating this:

Pizza from our favorite pizza place, beer and banana cream pie (my favorite!).  Nick did consider getting a heart shaped pizza from Pappa Murphy's but they only came in pepperoni and since I don't like pepperoni he didn't think that would be a good idea.  We ate our dinner and spent the entire night on the couch watching "Big Bang Theory."

I know it isn't for everyone- but that my friends is my idea of the best way to spend Valentine's Day!  The only thing that would have been better would have been had I gotten a snow day, but Mother Nature has not been cooperating so no such luck.

Wedding Wednesday: Inspiration Board Revisited

This will be the last Wedding Wednesday post (no worries up next are honeymoon posts) and I thought it would be fun to revisit the inspiration board I created at the very beginning of our planning process in this post. I actually refered back to this a lot and it was the cover of my wedding binder so that my favorite inspiration was always right there.  So lets see how the real thing compares to the inspiration.

Here is the before:

And the After:

Not exact replicas but I think we did a pretty good job sticking with our inspiration.

So that is the end of our wedding recaps but hopefully next week (or soon) I will start the honeymoon recaps.

Wedding Wednesday: It's All in the Details

Oh the details!  The things that excite you most about planning a wedding, frustrate you most while planning a wedding and finally end up making a wedding truly you.  There were a lot of details that we considered along the way and ended up chucking for one reason or another and in the end I am pretty happy with how all the details turned out.  Most of them Nick and I ended up doing ourselves or had help from friends and family to get them done.  These really were in the end some of my favorite pieces of the day.  So a post dedicated to all the little details: 

Nick's Attire:

Martha's Attire:

Ceremony and Floral Details:

Special Gifts:

For each my flower girl and my junior bridesmaid and junior usher I had special gifts made for them.  I found this beautiful poem (click on the photo to enlarge) and decided to give each of them a hankie.  I asked a family friend to do the embroidery and she took it one step farther and made boxes with the poem on them for each of them to store their hankies in until their special day.  It was one of those projects that turned out more amazing than I ever could have imagined!  

Reception Details:

Thank you:

And as many of you know we also decided to make personalized Thank You notes with a DIY banner.  Here are some of the pictures from that shoot that didn't make that cut for the actual card: